Dark Doctrines, Left Hand Path and Satanism, a Hr. Vad site

This is the ability to feel and know that you feel. One must be able to feel one's emotional states directly, which in turn will allow one to act upon those feelings. E.g. one must be able to react to body language or one's sense of occasion will suffer, resulting in disastrous human relations. Animals, e.g., are guided very well by those signals, and it is certainly the key to being a succesful lesser magician.

"...my research has persuaded me that emotion is integral to the process of reasoning. I even suspect that humanity is not suffering from a defect in logical competence but rather from a defect in the emotions that inform the deployment of logic."

This is probably true, but with a qualification, because once the emotional guidance is removed the brain damaged individual's actions become IRRATIONAL in the usual sense of the word: rationality is more than a analytical faculty, it is also compared against the individuals ability to choose wisely. I personally suspect that the logical faculties suffer a lot in most situations outside formal, simple tests.

" What evidence can I produce to back these seemingly counterintuitive statements? The evidence comes from the study of previously rational individuals who, as a result of neurological damage in specific brain systems, lose their ability to make rational decisions along with their ability to process emotion normally."

Note the general conclusion: the individuals lose their ability to process emotion normally. How, specifically, does such a person behave? Presumably there's not a clear-cut, simple answer to this, but one can probably point to a lot of indicators which -- when A LOT of these attributes are present -- it justifies labelling that person a "dualist" (as per Damasio's reference to the Cartesian split). Cf. Tani's article on Cruxtoids (see also end of this post).

"Their instruments of rationality can still be recruited; the knowledge og the world in which they must operate remains available; and their ability to tackle the logic of a problem remains intact. Yet many of their personal and social decisions are irrational, more often than not disadvantageous to the individual and others."

It's easy to see when the reasoning skills of a brain damaged individual reaches a problem: whenever HUMANS (living creatures) are involved. Otherwise, in simple situations, "pure" logic works.

"The patients so affected usually have damage to selected areas of the frontal, temporals and right parietal regions, but there are other conditions for which a neurological cause has not yet been identified, whose characteristics are similar in many respects."

In relation to Tani Jantsang this is very interesting. Not only do the physically damaged patients from Damasio's studies qualify, but he observes that these "dualists" can be found outside they group which have the "usual" damages. I.e. they must in some way correspond (behaviorally) to the provably brain damaged group. Damasio's subjects are the hard core examples, but he most certainly allows for other cases such as borderline cases (which incidentally is what Tani has said all along).

" Thus, absence of emotion appears to be at least as pernicious for rationality as excessive emotion."

"...emotion probably assists reasoning, especially when it comes to personal and social matters, and eventually points us to the sector of the decision-making space that is most advantageous for us."

Try to remember this whenever someone begins an unending praise of the "psyche/mind" and spurns the carnal, the feelings, and the animalistic. So it's not the false "academic vs. unthinking-animal" dichotomy which is at work here, rather it seems that a healthy animal (if we accept man is just another animal....) have fused its logical and emotional aspects, thus achieving harmony.

"When reasons is conceptualized as free of biological antecedents, it is easier to overlook the role emotions play in its operation, easier not to notice that our purported rational decisions can be subtly manipulated byt the emotions we want to keep at bay....."

This is one of Tani's major points: that everything usually has some biological antecedent, e.g. real, physical brain damage or some sort of developmental miswiring of the brain (cf. also articles on entropy).

Note also Damasio's observation that emotions may control the individual who is unaware of their importance -- or should we say: unaware of the feelings altogether. A completely (emotionally) self-aware animal have an extreme edge over the animal that "cannot make up its mind about what it feels". Socially the damaged animal may antagonize and irritate other people because it is always getting in the way.

" It is not likely that reason begins with thought and language, in a rarefied cognitive domain, but rather that it originates from the biological regulation of a living organism bent on surviving. The brain core of the complec organisms, such as ours contains, in effect, a sophisticated apparatus for decisions that concern the maintenance of life processes......I suspect that rationality depends on the spirited passion for reason that animates such an apparatus."

If this is even remotely true, we should consider the effects of the kind of Xtian upbringing we see today. Children are not fully mentally and neurologically developed before puberty and repressive upbringing may perhaps cause physical damage or stifle in some other way, yet unspecified, the spirited passions of the child, creating something which -- if it isn't -- as well could have been physical brain damaged.

"If the human species is to prevail, physical resources and social affairs must be wisely managed, and such wisdom will come most easily from the knowledgable and thoughtful planning that characterizes the rational, self-knowing mind."

If we allow ourselves a little demonic license, could those very words not be a warning against Xtianity and its damaging influences. Damasio seems, no matter how you put it, to advocate a way of life which closely resembles Satanism a la Anton LaVey and Tani Jantsang.

"The following is a list of the behaviors (short, since some are too complex to describe) of people with physical, visible brain damage. Note how these describe the cruxtoid! This list is based on the symptoms described by Antonio Damasio in DESCARTES' ERROR. What is marked in parentheses are my notes, not from the book." --Tani Jantsang

Furthermore this IS what Dangleclack has wanted all along: a definition of the hard-core klippoth. This -- complex as it is -- is the best, clear-cut definition we get on an INTERNET FORUM (fer Satan's sake). If this isn't good enough for you READ the damn book.

" 1. Lack emotions or feelings which direct logical or reasoning part of mind into correct DECISION MAKING SPACE where advantageous solutions to problems lie."

Remember Damasio's words on favourable decision space above (and Tani's too incidentally, as she speaks of his book). FLAT decision making landscape.

" 2. Lack awareness of feelings and emotions as DIRECT PERCEPTIONS of bodily states. Feelings and emotions are NOT associated with bodily organs, but exclusively with external objects, words, faces, etc. which evoke them. Feelings and emotions are mere qualifiers in life for them, not REAL THINGS. (Hence when the feelings rule them (as they rule others) they are UNAWARE of it: unconscious mind.)"

Well, if you can't FEEL those emotions directly, isn't it fairly accurate to say that you're NUMB then? I think so.

These brain damaged people obviously speak of feelings too, but they mean something quite different; just as when Satanists and Setians speak of "gods" -- they hear the same words, but meanings are worlds apart.

" 3. Feelings are intangible, elusive, even mysterious; they are never cognitive or related to the intellectual verbal realm. (Poor vocabulary regarding feelings.)"

Doesn't really come as a surprise as they're unable to FEEL the emotions in the first place. It's all second hand.

" 4. Their bodies are their brain's CAPTIVE AUDIENCE which is the reverse of how it is in animals, and normal people! (The UNRULY body must be controlled, prime dictate of xianity.)"

" 5. The body is never used as a yardstick or guage for knowing and measuring the world. This frame of reference is MISSING in them. Some external reality or idea is used as a ground reference for constructions of the world and reality. (their knowledge is OUTER, never INNER or CARNAL.)"

" 6. Bodily states are not a basic topic, they provide only support and modulation."

Why do you think Xtians, Setians, mystics -- XTOIDS -- are always chasing that "something". That "something" which is always just, barely, almost within reach. They always strive towards all of these undefined, future, after-life, paradises or salvations. They always insists there "must be something out there", "something MORE". ALWAYS they are disappointed with the CARNAL, and ALWAYS it is something SPIRITUAL which must save them.

The body is all we have, but those brain damaged people does not have it, so is it any wonder they have this nagging feelings of emptyness or that "there's somethings wrong?"

" 7. Out of the ordinary attachment to objects, collectables, collector's behavior, including the collection sometimes of animals. (Compulsive, retentive, control-maniacs.)"

" 8. Planning for future activity is ALWAYS a disaster. (Ecology, economy, ad nauseum.)"

" 9. Sense of responsibility to the self and others is impaired. (The Devil made me do it; it's the fault of some imaginary conspiracy of people who are NOT IMPAIRED and make well.)"

That's why they are always IN somebody's face. That's why they always end up bothering other people. Normal, healthy animals (people) avoid them as the plague.

" 10. Inability to orchestrate one's survival at the command of one's own free will. (Hence they seek the HEAD to guide them: fascism, religion, etc. practical Jesus e.g. Hitler, Stalin.)"

Many politicians even try to capitalize on this by insinuating to the voters that "they are not able to fend for themselves." They play upon that fear.

Those people often commit their lives to some other entity that is able to TELL them how to live. Unable to do it themselves -- lacking vitality as Nietzsche would have said -- they turn to someone else to guide them, something EXTERNAL. Healthy animals are much more INTERNAL, CARNAL.

" 11. Inventive of tales with no foundation except one's own FANCY in regard to the self (fantasy, LIES; their selective amnesia as to the deeds they've really done.)"

A few Setters come to mind. Just count the times Aquino makes reference to (brags about) one of his numerous goodguy badges, merit badges, boy- scout badges, education, military training, family's merits, stupid spockian eyebrows, his wishful thinking re. his place in pre-1975 Church of Satan, etc. etc. Or e.g. Mr. Bullsetters most recent fantasy about him kicking and violating his enemies (Tani, I, and Karl for instance). Pure fancy.

" 12. Lack of concern about one's future. (God will FIX it.)"

" 13. No forethought, especially for social planning."

" 14. Decisions are ACTIVELY disadvantageous, they set up their own downfall. (THANATOS.)"

What Damasio is saying is, however, strangely familiar to many of Anton LaVey's ideas on "Masochistic America" (see e.g. Secret Life of a Satanist and various points in The Satanic Withch).

According to LaVey people are often hypocritical of their own sexual preferences, e.g. their masochistic needs, which they sublimate in various ways. It is a compelling thought that brain damaged people are the most hard-core CLOSET masochists ever alive: they aren't even AWARE of their urges. Would such persons work towards embarrasing, self- destructive sitations? I consider it highly likely. Freud would have demanded it. This state of being may well be caused by a combination of physical and cultural elements (or perhaps it really IS all brain damage; when we consider a grown person)

" 15. A value system exists and can be utilized in abstract terms, but it is unconnected to REAL LIFE situations. Decisions are minimally influenced by past experience (they never learn) and old knowledge. CAPRICE REIGNS. (Civilized "values" - wear clothes, cut down trees, act polite and stuffy.)"

" 16. Mental functions are intact: attention, perceptions, working and long term memory, language, intelligence: their appearance is STEREOTYPICALLY NORMAL (for the western world)!! (Good parrots who KNOW nothing, and often learn poorly and parrot it all wrong except on paper tests.) And yet these descriptions are defining physically BRAIN DAMAGED people, people with literal HOLES in their heads and SEVERE damage! That's the DANGER here."

" 17. Self description or memory narration takes the form of dispassionate, uninvolved specator of one's own life! One never gets a sense that the person has suffered, even though he is the protagonist eg, in a narrative about a tragedy. (split apart from themselves, head VERSUS body). (cf. False memory syndrome.)"

" 18. Defects in reasoning intelligence is only glaringly apparent in the late stages of reasoning close to the points at which their choices and selections are made, responses that affect one's personal and social survival. (Sounds logical, but is illogical as hell; looks like a house, but it is a house turned upside-down with no foundation)."

I bet we've all seen this type. They parrot a lot of premises and utilizes fine words and so on, yet when PRESSED on the matter, ie. forced to draw it all together and form some sort of synthesis it all falls flat, and they're exposed as absolute know-nothings. They often score relatively good grades, though, because they're so stereotypically normal and it is difficult to believe that they're actually brain damaged. So they are often passed off as having a "bad day" or somesuch.

" 19. Reduction in emotional reactivity and feeling. They SEEM cold-blooded or icey. Telling a story that is PACKED with emotional feelings that you KNOW affected their lives, they can cooly say that "well, it was as if the person was a stranger" but what did they FEEL? No response, as if the feeling-state is not there. No words to define it."

" 20. In reasoning, all options are equal, none are value-highlighted over others. Decision making landscape for them is FLAT."

No wonder, considering they have no FEELINGS regarding the subject. It also illustrates that type's NEED FOR RULES: all types of behaviour, when thought about, seem to be equally valid and the dualist faced with a host of hypothetical choices will probably come to the conclusion that there's NOTHING which prevents him from raping, killing, stealing, torturing and mutilating other humans, animals and objects. That's why they must always obey the rules FAITHFULLY, because no real REASON can be given. Like when Satanists try to convince other people that it is primarily their own self-interest (secondarily natural empathy or even sympathy) that prevents them from committing crimes: the Xtoid simply CAN NOT believe this or UNDERSTAND it. There's no way you can explain this to them.

" 21. They all have courteous "English valet politeness" and are docile. (Note, description does not say FRENCH valet or GERMAN valet. English valet politeness is VICTORIAN. Note that Germans and French never even went thru an historical stage like this. Must mean such people are RARE or at least not dominant in Germany or France. This describes WASPs' NORMAL social behavior! To us, this is NOT NORMAL to be this way. In fact: IT IS NOT NORMAL to be this way, it's the "dead thing" trying to ACT like a civilized human.)"

" 22. Constant "light humor" and witticism of a mildly SARDONIC type, sometimes hinting that the subject "feels superior" to what he is talking about."

" 23. Deviations from ROUTINE cause bad tempers and frustration. (So they'd be likely to DESPISE more random cultures who are easy-going and care-free.)"

Tani has mentioned the major hang-up among whites regarding blacks who are not a particularly repressed "race".

" 24. Sexual interests are dim, emotional involvement with partners is lacking."

Ever heard about people -- or seen some you suspected -- who got married just-in-case or because that's the thing to do? People who didn't care one way or another for each other, had no love or light in their souls? Clump of matter generating more clumps of matter. Alive, but doesn't live.

" 25. Behavior is stereotypical, unimaginative, lacking in initiative. (Tend to want clones of themselves, all equally nothing.)"

" 26. Using reward and punishment on them does NOT change their behavior, as if they are unable to learn as any animal WOULD learn using this method. (Either a massacre or the U.N. makes them go away after you've told them to get lost 100 times. Then they wonder why.)"

And people wonder why we Satanists tend to spurn the talk of "ethics and morality" and opt for more heavy handed measures along the lines of Redbeard's Might is Right or the saying that "the just argument against a stupid head is a clenched fist." Getting through is difficult if not impossible. That's also why some of us RANT, SHOUT and FROTH.

" 27. Memory is capricious: it fails where you would expect learning to have occurred, but it succeeds suddenly on a peripheral subject and often in great detail. (Repeat the same errors.)"

" 28. Neither happy nor sad. They are as if numb. Pleasures and pains both are short-lived. They are less able to experience pleasure and REACT to pain."

Perhaps one might suspect this type of person to gravitate to increasingly extreme types of external stimulation, be it sex, drugs, music, sports or movies?

" 29. They are rigid and perseverent in their approach to life. (Controllers, can't let go.)"

" 30. They lack motor skills, sensory skills, and communication skills. (Seem stupid, motor retarded.)"

" 31. They lack and cannot construct appropriate theories of other people's minds, or even their own minds. (They never know the EFFECT they have on other people and how people SEE THEM)"

Think of this along with their handicap regarding the interpretation of body language e.g. It seems inevitable that they WILL piss off people eventually. Of course they cannot form correct theories of other people's minds, because they are very different beings themselves. It also means that they will tend to do a lot of WRONG things. If they were able to understand and be moved by their emotions they would probably have an easier time modelling other people.

" 32. They are completely unaware of any handicap. They'll deny it but tests show they are not LYING! (they "believe their own lies wherein they REFUTE "WHAT IS" therefore they are not lying as the word "lie" is used since they believe it) They have in fact LOST the cognitive function needed to KNOW they are handicapped. They may THEORIZE about it if it is "proven" but they are still unaware of its inadequacy (in the way you'd be AWARE of a stomach ache)."

" 33. They may have a deceptive cheerful appearance; they often have an indifferent appearance which is also deceptive. None of these are voluntary or based on knowledge of the real situation they are in."

Boy, are this kind of people OUT-OF-CONTEXT. They laugh at the wrong places, get serious at the wrong time and generally make fools of themselves.

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