Nascent State

22/09/2024

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is capable of all forms of logical thinking, from analysis, to administration, to problem solving, to pattern recognition, and to financial planning. This means it will take over many forms of employment within a few short years. What AI cannot do is to think intuitively. If you don't want to be replaced by a machine, the ability to think intuitively is essential...

The latest edition of Nascent State Magazine, Intuition and Artificial Intelligence, is out now. Read online of free to download.

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/NS-Autumn-2024.pdf

25/07/2024

On October 9, 1903, the New York Times published a frontpage editorial stating it would take "one to ten million years for humanity to develop an operating flying machine". Sixty-nine days later, the Wright brothers flew for four miles at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The future is one of the great unknowns. Logic takes what we already know and projects it onto what we don't know. Because other attempts at flying had failed, the leader writer was simply drawing on existing knowledge to predict the future.

Intuition is image-based rather than language-based. To think intuitively we must loosen the hold of logic on our thinking and allow our intuitive mind some freedom to express itself. This form of 'seeing' is very different from rational thinking.

We spend little time attending to our intuitive mind. That is why intuition can be unreliable. It is easy to mistake genuine insight for illusion or emotional prejudice. Like any other ability, we can improve our intuition through attention and practice.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:
https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/
(Graphic: Echte Wagner card collection, 1930, artist unknown)

18/07/2024

The idea of the unconscious mind is quite old. The Greeks had their Cacodemon, the Hebrews had Beelzebub, the Arabs had their Djinn, the Medieval monks had their Incubus, and the Victorians had Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Each portrayed the unconscious mind as a demonic figure.

In a simpler sense, the unconscious mind means that we do not see ourselves as we should. We can see this more clearly in others, for example when we see someone acting against their own interests, and we describe them as being 'their own worst enemy'.

We may look back on our own life and regret our past behaviour. We may have been motivated by jealousy or resentment, but we couldn't admit it to ourselves at the time. Self-knowledge comes from being able to see the blemishes that were not obvious to us at the time.

Because logic seeks to define what we already know, it limits knowledge. Intuition focuses on what we don't yet know, and for that reason it is insightful. If we want to know ourselves better, we need intuitive insight. If other people are enigmas, perhaps we are too.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781)

11/07/2024

Just as logic has its methods, so too does intuition. One of these is the use of symbolic imagery. A symbolic image conveys a message, but the meaning is not obvious. It is as though the image is a deliberate enigma, and we must decipher it to understand the message.

Much in life is an enigma. People, events - even our own inner life; few things are as they appear. If we see only what is obvious, we will not see what is unobvious or hidden. The study of symbolic imagery teaches us not to take life at face value.

Logic is useful for dealing with the known. But when we are faced with an unknown, for example, when we meet someone new, or when we are faced with a new situation, or when we must make a decision about an unknown future, we have to employ intuition.

Intuitive culture has always been expressed symbolically. The heresies, the pagan subcultures, the arcane schools, and the romantic movement all expressed their ideas symbolically. The study of symbolic imagery is part of the training in intuitive thinking.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: Bull No.6 by Tokuriki Tomikichiro)

04/07/2024

An illusion is when we see what is not there. We do not just see with the eyes, but with the mind. We do this whether we are aware of it or not. An optical illusion merely reminds us of this.

It is an odd fact that the more we live with technology, the more we live with illusion. The more technology has advanced, the more images, sounds and tastes have become artificial. Rather than better information, we have more convincing misinformation, more effective spam, and more realistic bots and deep-fakes.

The development of technology has not been matched by a developed understanding of the inner life. We need to be able to distinguish illusion from reality, and we can only do this by attending to that part of the mind that warns us when what we are seeing, hearing and even thinking is not quite real. This is the intuitive mind.

There is nothing wrong with an illusion as such - like watching a stage musical - provided we are aware it is an illusion. The problem with an illusion is that, if we mistake it for reality, eventually we will see it for what it is, and then become disillusioned and depressed. And then we must live with that depression.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

27/06/2024

The Human Machine

Physics is the application of logic and mathematics to nature. The approach works because the laws of physics are the same, irrespective of time and place. This has created the technology we have. The success of logic in physics led to it being applied to the inner life and gave rise to the idea of the human being as a robot.

Art is intuitive rather than logical. Many novels of the last century were an expression of the individual living in a very inhuman, scientifically created world. Examples include Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

Such things as the emotions, imagery, dreams and ideals are personally felt. They are also fluid, changing, and difficult to define, and so they succumb badly to logic. It is because we ignore our intuition that we get the idea of the human being as a robot.
If logic demands uniformity, intuition is very individual. Only individuals can have insights, inspired ideas and intuitive thoughts. Not only are such things real; without them there would be no science.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: Isaac Newton by William Blake. His accompanying poem:
'May God us keep, from single vision and Newton's sleep.')

20/06/2024

The Summer 2024 edition of Nascent State Magazine is out now. Free to download or read online. Visit:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Summer-2024.pdf

20/06/2024

The accompanying graphic has been designed to prevent the mind from settling on one interpretation over the other. This allows us to observe the way the mind acts on information. We do not just see with the eyes, but with the mind. We interpret what we see whether we are aware of it or not. Mostly we aren't aware of it.

Those who are aware of this, and employ it to their advantage, include stage magicians, politicians, advertising executives, and media advisors. Newspapers, for example, bias everything they report. If we go into a newsagent and see the papers displayed side by side, we can readily observe this.

In the East, in Jainism, there is the concept 'anekantavada', or 'many sidedness'. This means we can only understand something rightly if we are willing to see it from more than one point of view. From the point of logic - right versus wrong - this makes no sense. From the point of view of intuition however, it makes perfect sense.

If we react negatively to any idea or suggestion contrary to our own, it is because the mind is governed by logic. The ability to consider an idea on its merits requires the suspension of judgement, and this requires an active or 'watching' mind. Intuition is the watching mind.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

13/06/2024

If you see the black arrows, you may miss the white arrows.

We see the obvious well enough, but we only see the unobvious when our attention has been drawn to it. Our attention can be drawn by others, by events, or by our own intuition.

There is much in life which is unobvious. People are not always as they seem, events can have hidden agendas, and nature is full of strange enigmas and perplexing phenomena. We tend to take life at face value until - like Newton and his apple - something prompts us to think again. What we see, once we begin to question face value appearance, depends on what kind of thinking we do.

Logic is fine for dealing with what we know; we can define and label what we know, but we cannot define and label what we don't know. To think about the unknown, we have to use intuition.

Knowing how to think intuitively increases our ability to see the hidden or unobvious in life. The intuitive mind whispers, like Echo to Narcissus, telling us there is more to the world than the world we see. That is why intuition is sometimes referred to as 'the voice of the silence'; we have to silence the logical mind to hear it.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

06/06/2024

The word 'heretic' means 'one who chooses'. The twelfth century writer, Alain de Lille, commenting on the Cathar heretics, wrote 'the perfect freedom with which they were endowed meant repudiation of all formal religious institutions and law.' The heretics were free-thinkers.

The main heresies were Manichaeism, Gnosticism and Catharism. Charles William King, in The Gnostics and their Remains, stated they all originated from Indian philosophy. For example, in the Shabuhragan, one of the few surviving Manichean tracts, its founder Mani (216 - 274 AD) is addressed as a 'Buddha'.

Buddhism is about the development of the inner life. Inner development means the individual must gain control over their inner life, including their thoughts, emotions and responses. Without this there can be no inner development. This was the freedom the heretics cherished so much they would not submit to any external authority.

Intuition is the watching mind (from the Latin 'tueri', meaning 'to watch'). When we are about to say something inappropriate and stop, or when we realise we have to calm down, or when we have a sudden insight into what we had previously overlooked, it is the intuitive mind watching over us. It is not possible to govern our inner life without being intuitive. The heretics were intuitive.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:
https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

30/05/2024

The red dot does not lean left.

The above graphic does not deceive; it merely draws our attention to the way a context can affect our perception. If we are starving, plain bread can seem like a feast. If we are in solitary confinement, a prison guard can seem like a friend. Everything has a context, but we are not normally aware of this in life.

Creating the right context, or 'narrative', plays an important part in politics, propaganda and public relations. Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, called this the 'group mind'. The 'group mind' is the reason why crowds appeared outside Buckingham palace in August 1914 to cheer the declaration of the First World War.

Because contexts are not obvious, seeing them is intuitive.
We pay little attention to our intuition, and so it remains on the level of what Henri Bergson called a 'refined instinct'. Because of this, when we begin to see the context effect, particularly when it is employed in politics or the media, gut-feeling can too quickly become mixed with suspicion, accusation and even anger. The alternative - ignoring our intuition - means we may end up cheering the next war.

The emergence of social media means that efforts to influence the group mind have led to the use of bots, trolls, cyborgs and deep fakes. It is for this reason that the development of good intuition is now more essential than ever.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

23/05/2024

Intuition and Zen

Many people are turned off formal religion because you are told what to think, what to believe and what to do. Any thinking person will have felt this at some point in their life. For those who are so minded, the simplicity of Zen may have an ppeal. With Zen, there is no dogma, no theory, no gods to pray to, just practice.

The teaching of Zen is transmitted, in part, through the Koan, which is a statement of apparent absurdity. The most well-known is 'Show me the sound of one hand clapping'. The unorthodoxy of Zen attracted many of the early Beat Poets, including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.

For all this, Zen is a very hard discipline. Many of the early Zen masters were quite fierce characters. Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen, is usually depicted with wide staring eyes. Legend has it that he once fell asleep during meditation and was so angry with himself he cut his eyelids off.

One of the practices employed in Zen is known as 'isness' or 'suchness', whereby the practitioner focuses on a small item and stops all thought until its essential nature (or 'suchness') is revealed. This is highly intuitive. We have a logical and an intuitive mind. In ordinary life, the logical mind is dominant. To hear the intuitive mind we have to silence the logical mind. That is the purpose of Zen.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: Bodhidharma, unknown artist)

16/05/2024

It might seem absurd to say it, but within a handful of years, a new 'anti-tech' movement will emerge. The new movement, when it emerges, will be held with the fervour of a religion, and will divide those in favour of technology, from those against it.

It present, technology is regarded as a universal 'good'. This will change. Norbert Wiener, who founded cybernetics, stated that the impact of automation on society would make the depression of the last century seem like a 'pleasant joke'. Geoffrey Hinton, who founded AI, had the same reservations, and only last year resigned his position at Google so he could speak freely about the risks.

Developments in technology have inspired reactionary movements before - nuclear weapons, environmental damage, and mass-vaccination programs - but these have been largely fringe movements. Technological unemployment will affect the masses. It is possible to predict this, not owing to any clairvoyance, but owing to the nature of logic.

Logic forces us to see the world in terms of 'right and wrong' or 'good and evil'. Aristotle, who founded logic, said, 'If no B is A, neither can any A be B.' The clarity of logic is highly useful in physics and chemistry, but not so useful in society. Black and white logic has given rise to ideologies, pogroms, inquisitions, witch-hunts, and revolutions.

Intuition works differently from logic. Intuitively we can know when an unkind remark is careless or malicious, or when an account is honest or misleading, or when an enjoyment has become unhealthy. The intuitive mind is the watching mind, and if we attend to it, we can vary our responses accordingly.

We face a future where ongoing change will be met with the fixed attitudes of logic. This is unavoidable. As individuals, however, we can develop coping strategies. One of these is the practice of 'equanimity', which is essential to intuition.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who want to know more about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: Circle Limit IV by M. C. Escher)

Nascent State: Publisher of books and magazines, and promoter of events based on the development of

12/05/2024

Hey Everyone,

I'll be playing my first gig in 9 months at Kingsmead Street Bottle (Kingsmead Square, Bath), this Friday 17th May, for Party in the City. The running times are as below:

18.45 - 19.15: Natalie Langer
19.30 - 20.00: Jim Blackmann
20.15 - 20.45: Dylan Smith
21.00 - 21.30: Ben Hutcheson

it would be nice to see some familiar faces there. Come along if you can - there will be music all over the city.

09/05/2024

Intuition and Deception

We do not usually see a deception until our attention has to be drawn to it. This can be done by others, by events, or by our own intuition. In the above graphic, the word 'is' has been repeated twice.

The most common form of intuition is gut-feeling. Once we have the gut-feeling that something isn't quite right, we can then begin to look for evidence to support that view.

It can be very instructive to study the art of deception. Henning Nelms, who wrote Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurers (1969), distinguished between misdirection and illusion to deceive the audience.

Misdirection makes the audience look in the wrong direction, so they attend to what appears interesting rather than to where the actual trick is occurring. In politics, this is called a 'dead cat' strategy. Illusion is like a slot machine, all brightly lit with images of gold and treasure, but with the number of winning combinations calculated in advance to prevent the player beating the machine. It could be said that mainstream politics provides the same illusion of choice.

Deception is about preventing the individual from questioning what they see. It is only because we have an intuitive, or 'watching' mind, that we begin to suspect what is presented isn't wholly real.
Because we don't nurture our intuitive ability, gut-feeling can remain on the level of refined instinct. Unchecked, this can lead to suspicion, accusation and even to conspiracy theories. We can however develop our intuitive ability, like any other ability, and in that way separate it from the more instinctive emotions.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote 'The lie is a condition of life'. The problem is not that deception exists, but that we naively assume it does not. This naivety can then be used against us by those who practise it cynically.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. Included in the workshops is the practice of directing attention at will. For those who are interested in learning about intuition, the link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: apologies to René Magritte)

02/05/2024

Intuition and Sufism

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
Rumi

In Sufism, there is a method of teaching known as 'scatter'. Scatter means that its principle ideas are conveyed, quite deliberately, by indirect and apparently absurd means. From a logical point of view, this is unnecessary and misleading. From an intuitive point of view, this makes perfect sense.

Such is the influence of logic that, if an unorthodox idea is presented to us in the form of an argument, we will automatically reject it. Scatter sidesteps this by presenting ideas out of context and by indirect means. In this way, an idea may be considered on its merits before it is automatically rejected.

Another method employed in Sufism is the use of humour to reveal the absurdity of conventional logic. The most well-known example of this is the Mulla Nasrudin stories - or a wiseman who appears foolish:

'A king had a gallows built outside the city gates. Anyone who wanted to enter had to state their reasons. If they told the truth they were allowed in; if they lied, they would be hanged. First up was Nasrudin.
'Why do you want to enter the city?' asked the Gatekeeper.
'To be hanged,' said Nasrudin.
'That can't be true,' said the Gatekeeper.
'If it isn't,' said Nasrudin, 'Then hang me.'

It is interesting to note a joke has two meanings - the one presented at the outset, and the hidden punchline. A joke appears absurd until the punchline is delivered and then suddenly it makes sense. In this respect, a joke is like an insight, where we suddenly see something from a new and unexpected point of view. Idris Shah, who wrote extensively on the Sufis, had the following to say about the Nasrudin stories:

'The Sufis, who believe that deep intuition is the only real guide to knowledge, use these stories almost like exercises.'

If we are happy with our present knowledge - of the world, of ourselves and others - then conventional logic is fine. If we suspect there is more to the world than meets the eye, it is because our innate intuition points to the hidden in life. Like humour, a sudden insight can reveal what was always there, but unattended.

Innate intuition however will not take us far. We need methods, practice and training, to enhance and develop that innate sense into a practical ability. This is what Sufism is about.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(Artwork: Nasrudin riding a donkey backwards)

25/04/2024

What is an enigma?

In 809 AD, the Arab ruler, Harun al-Rashid, presented the Holy Roman emperor, Charlemagne, with the peace offering of an elaborate water clock. At noon a weight dropped, bells sounded, and twelve brass horsemen emerged from twelve windows. Charlemagne did not understand what the clock was for, and thought it was merely a clever device for making sounds.

An enigma is something we don't understand. The problem is not the enigma itself, but in our limited understanding.

There are obvious enigmas, such as how the ancients knew of the precession of the equinoxes, or how the proportions of the human body are an expression of mathematics, but such enigmas are not pressing enough to cause us to question our understanding of the world.

There are also enigmas which present themselves to us on a daily basis and demand our attention. One such enigma is human nature.

The dominant view of human nature is that we are no more than machines, or as Daniel Dennett put it 'robots made of robots made of robots'. If we are satisfied with this explanation, then we will see mechanical people and look no further.

Our direct experience of people is that there is always something in them which is not revealed to our direct observation. It was for this reason that the diplomat, Lord Chesterfield, advised his son to 'look into people, as well as at them'. It follows that what we see depends as much on the mind as on the eye.

Logic deals with what we know; once we know what something is we can define, label and categorise it. But to discover what we don't know - what is hidden - we have to apply intuition. Just as logic has its methods, so too does intuition.

In Zen, the practice of silent observation in order to experience the essential nature of a thing is called observing its 'isness'. To observe without thinking is absurd from a logical point of view. From an intuitive point of view however, silent observation allows the less obvious, or hidden elements to come to the fore in our attention. We can study all nature in this way, from simple items to the seasons to human beings.

I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. For those who are interested in learning about intuition and its methods, the workshops may be of interest. The link below provides more details:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

(artwork: Flammarion engraving, 1888, unknown artist)

18/04/2024

Intuition and Inspiration

Where do new ideas come from? Logic is under our control - indeed, the purpose of logic is to govern our thought processes - but inspired ideas arrive whole, and instantly, and are more like a gift than a laboured product.

I have had three songs come to me in dreams. This is not a brag - I had no control over the process - but it means that how this can happen is a puzzle to me.

In each dream I thought the song belonged to someone else. It was only after I was unable to place the melody that I realised the song was original. Other songwriters were inspired by dreams, including Keith Richards with Satisfaction, Jimi Hendrix with Purple Haze, and Paul McCartney with Yesterday. He too was convinced the melody was unconsciously filched:

'For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it.'

Dreams were also responsible for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan. Beyond the arts, Niels Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the structure of the atom, recalled that the image of electrons revolving around a nucleus, like a solar system, came to him in a dream. And Larry Page stated that he got his vision for the Google landing page from a dream.

Dreams, by their nature, are visionary, immediate, emotional, and above all illogical. It may be that overcoming the constraints of logic is essential to the creative process. If logic deals with the known world, intuition deals with the unknown. Carl Jung wrote:

'Through our feelings we experience the known, but our intuitions point to things that are unknown and hidden.'

This indicates that intuition may be the key to creativity. To be creative, we have to imagine what is 'not there'. This can, in highly creative people like William Blake, appear in the form of actual visions. He began to have such visions from a very young age; they stayed with him all his life and informed his art. Blake wrote:

For double the vision my eyes do see,
And a double vision is always with me.

Just as it is possible to be better at mathematics or grammar through practice and attention, so too is it possible to improve our intuitive ability in the same way. We are all born with a natural degree of intuitive ability, but we do nothing about it and hope it will kick in when we need it. It is possible we have more inspired ideas than we realise, but if the logical (or chattering) mind has our attention, we won't hear them.

For those who are interested, I am in the process of setting up Intuition Workshops here in Bath. The workshops are not discussions about intuition, but actual practices aimed at putting us in touch with the intuitive mind. The link below provides more information:

https://nascentstatepublishing.com/meetings/

Jim Blackmann

(Artwork: Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897)