Dear Visitor
Alpheus is a Web site dedicated to a critical, skeptical and evolutionary point of view. The intention is to create an independent place where different streams of intellectual and spiritual traditions can co-mingle to explore and nurture new understandings of the past and to build thereupon new visions and possibilities for the future of civilization.
Alpheus is the name of a river flowing through the Peloponnesus in Greece with its source in Arcadia and partly flowing through subterranean channels. In Greek mythology the river made an appearance in the 5th work of Hercules as he diverted the river to clean the Augean stables. Unfortunately Hercules’ ingenious feat was considered a cheating by the gods. In Renaissance symbology the river meant often an underground stream of esoteric traditions or hidden knowledge. I will keep the name, but will interpret it now as representing the ups and downs of my own metaphysical adventures.
No rules have been formulated to encourage and guide the growth of this Web site, except that formerly the accentuation was on traditions belonging to the western esoteric tradition, and that from now on the accentuation will be more on philosophy and science.
I do not expect uncritical acceptance, nor its opposite. I welcome any reaction founded on reason and fact and any help in tracing and finding source material relevant to these investigations.
Little History
The starting point in 1997 was the academic and metaphysical research done on Krishnamurti and the Theosophical movement as available on and through this site, especially the paper, Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project: Some Theosophical Perceptions, which I wrote for Theosophical History Journal, and my personal views in two pamphlets titled: The Masters and Their Emissaries: From H.P.B. to Guru Ma and Beyond and Krishnamurti: An Esoteric View of his Teachings. The last two pieces are now overridden by the blog-article titled The Jaynesian Paradigm and Beyond, in which I present a naturalistic understanding of Krishnamurti’s teachings in the light of the research on consciousness by the Princeton psychologist Julian Jaynes.
Since the start of Alpheus several areas of special interest came to the fore and all links to material relevant to each area are gathered on a special page with some more introductory and editorial comments. The subjects are: Theosophy, Krishnamurti, Cyril Scott and David Anrias, Ascended Masters, Philosophy and Parapolitics. This material is all on the ‘older’ Alpheus site. Most of these subjects are now ‘categories’ on the Alpheus blog.
A bibliography of used works was added with some description of content and editorial remarks, and a page with links to many interesting Web sites.
As important the Krishnamurti story is for understanding 20th century history, it was only a starting point. A next step was the exploration of the last thousand years of western history with an intellectual compass provided by the Theosophical pioneer Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The compass is her statement that in the last quarter of every century the Adepts,or Masters of Wisdom, send one or more of their representatives to enlighten humanity. Preliminary results can be found on Centennial Efforts and Counter-Efforts of the Millennium, which is a collection of articles, diagrams, timelines and biographies.
How the above project and other historical investigations led to a more critical assessment of Blavatsky and Theosophy–up to the point of suspending all Theosophical assumptions on which this web site are based– will be the subject of upcoming reports.
Alpheus Updated
In 2014 it was time for this web site to get upgraded, both in form and in content, because the above projects and other historical investigations led to a more critical assessment of Blavatsky and Theosophy up to the point of suspending all Theosophical assumptions on which this web site was based. The form of the new site is based on the WordPress blog template and content-wise the shift is from an esoteric-occult Theosophical view towards a more philosophical, skeptical and scientific view.
The opening blogs were the article titled “The Jaynesian Paradigm and Beyond“, which presents the very fruitful definition of consciousness by psychologist Julian Jaynes, and the review of a little anti-conspiracy video, “The Perks of Paranoia“, in which critical review the evolutionary logic of conspiracy theorizing is laid out. For the rationale of these changes, please read further below.
Theosophy
In 2012 I did announce the suspension of all the esoteric Theosophical assumptions on which the web site was based, because I found them wanting. This was the conclusion of a long-drawn process of research and reflection. This does not mean I went from an axiomatic esoteric view to an axiomatic materialist view. Many subtle versions in between are possible with room for paranormal phenomena, intelligent design, Sheldrake’s hypothesis of morphogenesis or the refutation of any of these as pseudo-scientific. What will come to the fore is a thinking more along the lines of the evolutionary paradigm and its applications in psychology and sociology.
Phenomenology
At the same time a few elements seem to stay constant. First, because of its metaphysical neutrality, the fruitfulness of phenomenological philosophy has in my eyes not diminished. The structures and dynamics of consciousness, in their careful analysis by phenomenology, can be interpreted both as belonging to an eternalistic spirit or as belonging to an evolved organic structure, which has acquired such characteristics in the evolutionary process. In the first case one could name it a spiritualized phenomenology, and in the second, a naturalized phenomenology. Phenomenology could in principle not object to that, though is still in a good position to refute simplistic or dogmatic interpretations of its findings. Initially I used phenomenology to defend religious and mystical experiences from materialist-reductionist interpretations and tried to point out its relevance for esotericism, but now I am more interested in a carefully naturalized version of phenomenology in which the value and function of such experiences are understood within the evolutionary paradigm.
Krishnamurti
A second theme that keeps running through my considerations is the still very interesting phenomenon of the life and teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. I am still contemplating the why and how of my shifts in evaluating him, going from a Krishnamurti purist, to severely criticizing his metaphysical status on Theosophical grounds, to now inching my way to a position which I first thought was incongruous, which is the idea that the Theosophical world teacher project with Krishnamurti was not genuine, but in a counter-intuitive manner still quite successful. It can be argued, and I will do so, that the atheist, anti-esotericist, iconoclast Krishnamurti did attain a secular form of enlightenment comparable to other world teachers–after proper de-mythologization–like Siddhartha Gautama and Jesus of Nazareth.
History and Civilization
A third theme is the nature of history and the logic of the rise and fall of civilizations. Within the framework of the philosopher of history Arnold Toynbee I did for a while, and reluctantly, see the possibility of a future civilization based on the Krishnamurti phenomenon and thought that academia should have a look at the Krishnamurti movement as a new civilization in its very early stage of formation. I did not explicitly made the case because I did not think I had done enough spade work in the subject matter and because I felt that such attention from academia might distort the phenomenon investigated. Not that I thought I would be instrumental in triggering such interest, but because of the methodological problematic in the social sciences that investigated subjects might start behaving differently when they are aware that they are the focus of a study and that social scientists themselves, for different reasons, might be influenced by their subjects. At this moment I am a little more enthusiastic about the value and prospects of what I sometimes, and by absence of a better term, teasingly call Krishnamurtianity and think it will be overall intellectually robust enough not to be swayed too much by academic attention.
Conspiratology
Lastly, the whole problematic covered by the terms of geopolitics, parapolitics, conspiracy theory and conspiricism will get ample and ongoing attention, but now from the evolutionary understanding of the tactical and strategic functions of deception and deception detection, instead of the transcendental view of politics as the chess board on which unwitting, semi-conscious or fully participative, worldly subjects play out a grand struggle between good and evil, which had its origins in a meta-empirical realm where its angelic and demonic denizens made epic life choices. As is the case with most myths and religions, they are a mixed bag of beneficial and destructive aspects which have been selected for their relative functionality, but are intrinsically not true. I think mankind is better served with a mature conspiratology, not based on myths, but on a sophisticated, empirical understanding of the functions of deception and deception detection within the framework of the evolutionary struggle over scarce resources between and within species. Likewise with our understanding of the genesis of morality and politics in general. Morality and politics are much more likely the contingent product of evolutionary pressures to deal with conflicts of interests in order to promote mutually beneficial ways of living together, than they are the more or less distorted refractions of transcendental and eternalistic standards of good and evil. The origin of morality can maybe be better understood as the further evolutionary development (and later deliberative extension) of the proto-moral systems observed in non-human primates like the great apes who display behaviors which can only be termed–without anthropomorphizing too much–like conflict management through intervention, punishment, mediation and reconciliation; resource redistribution through food sharing and food for sex exchanges; and even behavior indicating empathy and sympathy.
In Short
My worldview transited from a transcendentalist one to a more scientific one, especially the evolutionary paradigm, though my preference for phenomenological methodology has not changed, nor my interest in Krishnamurti, history and politics.
Caveat
This web site is the product of an individual initiative and is run independently, content-wise and financially, from any spiritual or political organization. All views found on this web site are those of individual writers, contributors or the editor himself.
Fair Use Notice
The Web site at the URL http://www.alpheus.org uses certain text materials under fair-use provisions. These have been adapted to purposes of education and criticism. The use of such material has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The original creators are gratefully acknowledged. If I have failed to credit your work properly, please contact me at schuller@alpheus.org.
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