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Another excellent video! In the last few weeks, I have been kind of obsessed with exploring the "Occult" or "Magical" side of Islamic philosophy and mysticism. It has sadly been very neglected by scholarship, as you pointed out regarding the translation of al-Kindi's work. Also, I need to start reading some primary sources again, it's been too long!
Yeah, it's a whole branch of esotericism that doesn't get much study. That's part of why I really appreciate your channel. Even someone like Suhrawardi doesn't get enough play - it's a real pity. Worse - I think it also causes us to misunderstand a lot of 'western' esotericism as well.
Thanks so much for saying so - I'm really trying to make solid content in this field. Your support really matters a ton to me and your kind comments mean a lot.
Wonderful!!! I remember Chomsky commenting in a lecture once that Newton’s rejection of Descarte’s physics and inclusion of occult forces in his grand system (most obviously gravity, which he assumed to be directly caused by God) caused pushback against Newton’s theory back in the day. Thinking of science as the victory of a certain school of magical thought is such a refreshing perspective. Thank you professor!
As the outside world gets crazier and more frenetic, I foresee a new interest in the exploration of Inner Space, including alternate concepts about the universe that we once abandoned. Magic and the occult are major access points to that more subjective world, and so the work you're doing here is possibly more important than you realize.
Shut down the social media for a month and everything will become calmer. The social media has unique ability to generate noisy discourse around any topic and magnify the outrageous, crazier, the radical and the fringe.
I have to applaud your ability to not judge the people of the past with the standards of today. Something modern culture has forgotten. I just don't understand why it's so controversial to look at the bigger picture and respect the perspective, when not the actual opinions, of the past. This whole channel is a trove of wonderful knowledge on a subject that people tend to either call sacrilegious or ridiculous.
".....something modern culture has forgotten." I don't know about that, seems to me back in the day it was WORSE. I've never witnessed a witch burning in my lifetime. Can my ancestors say that?
Minor correction: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" is a quote from Arthur C. Clarke, not Isaac Asimov as you stated.
I have a vague memory that Asimov used this line at some point, though it was certainly Clarke's originally. Maybe in one of his later stories where he started riffing on his earlier colleagues...?
Aw, I wonder if that undergrad ever got the chance to hear your praises of her work. It would be such an honor to receive such a compliment from someone as educated and as passionate as you are. Please keep providing this price list source of wisdom and information. This is an area of study I had no idea I wanted to know about as badly as I do.
I SUBMIT: magic is all around us, agreements, contracts, propaganda, associations this is spell work at its finest, the ability to convey ideas and create images in the minds of others though language, the ability to command or beseech another and have it done.. with mouth noises... "Alchemy is not only the origin of systematic experimentation and chemistry but also the first attempt to create a cohesive science of consciousness. Those early philosophers of nature treated mental contents as objective phenomena, and they believed the universal operations used in their laboratories could transform a dark leaden mind into a shining golden one. The Hermetic philosophy behind alchemy taught that our thoughts and feelings are the thoughts and feelings of the whole universe, and that intrinsic perspective generated deep insight into the structure of mind. Alchemists viewed consciousness as a natural force that could be harnessed through a marriage of logic and intuition - a union of objective and subjective realities" -Dennis Hauk
Really enjoying this channel. Stumbled upon it while researching hermeticism, I think I saw your video posted on reddit. Thanks for the content/reading suggestions!
WOW do you have an extensive reference base! And so gifted with the effective ability to present it in a clear manner easily understood. Thrilled to have found your channel, I'm subbed : )
My new fav channel. Especially how after 6 minutes in there's been a reference to both HOPWAG *and* Juggalos. I came here for the quality but got much more. I'm heading over to patreon RN.😀
I'm amazed I found this video. I had a dream last night that I was running down a dark path at night and could see so many stars. I felt someone following me and after leaving the path it was a dark mage trying to kill me. Suddenly I remembered that magic comes from the light of distant stars and was able to cast a powerful spell to blast him away. Anyway, as a physicist, I know how important stars are for giving the energy to sustain (or kill) life, depending on the star. It's fascinating to see how medieval ideas would overlap the dream of magic with ideas that are now part of modern science.
I discovered your channel recently through Angela's Symposium and really love it (hers as well). It's giving me so much to think about, not only as someone interested in history and religious studies, but also as a polytheist and a witch. I especially appreciate that you're bringing to us more Jewish ideas and perspective than I typically get to hear, as someone raised Protestant in the US. I agree that "magic" and "science" can be very hard to define and separate--it really depends on what one's framework is, for me. Also, I think I'll adopt "illicit religious activity" as my new joking definition for what I do, when asked by Christian family members. :)
@@TheEsotericaChannel always glad to learn more about the history of ideas, and an attempt to naturalize magic makes so much sense especially coming from someone like al-Kindi. In trying to understand how we got where we are now I've looked into New Thought a bit, and considering the Stellar Ray as a forerunner to Mesmerism (Mesmer having heavily influenced New Thought's founders) is pretty interesting.
Roger Penrose in 'The Emperor's New Mind' gives a novel and intresting solution to spooky action using phase space
2 года назад
Every time I see Dr. Sledge explain like this in my head I hear 🎶"I wanna be your sledgehammer Why don't you call my name?"🎶 and then I imagine Dr dropping a real sledgehammer like a mic. Bravo
Very interesting material. I'd be lying if I said I have both feet fully in the occult(still somewhat clinging to materialism, scepticism, rationalism, whatever you wanna call it) but even from a historical point of view this is great stuff.
I agree - in general I want to make content that should be a good resource for both practitioners but also just anyone curious about the more arcane side of history, philosophy and religion.
Great video doc! These ideas of Al-Kindi remind me a lot about the ray of creation that was popularized by GI Gurdjieff: A fascinating existential food chain for conscience and being. I don’t know if you are familiar with Gurdjieff and his teachings but I’d absolutely love a video on some of his esoteric concepts and philosophies! Thanks once again for a great video!
12:42 this description seems to be related this experience i had... I believe I stumbled into a feedback loop of thinking I was understanding what i was doing, on one side of the coin I was in control, and the other side i was completely out of control. The coin was spinning so fast, it almost felt like it was paused. The paradox of me thinking it was paused only put it back into a spin. My inner eye felt like it was scanning through a broken hard drive with what i believed to be memories of artifacts of a future past. Disconnecting from your central nervous system through mind altering substances is not a good idea when exploring the Stellar Rays.
@@TheEsotericaChannel you’re very welcome! I’m now a Patreon subscriber and shared your channel with friends and family. Thank you for doing what you do! ☺️
@@MalloryWelch Oh wow - thanks so much. I checked out your channel as well. Such a talent and such nice music. It's so amazing to meet such cool people on these parts!
@@TheEsotericaChannel youre welcome and thank you as well! I’m glad to have found your channel. I was looking for an in depth discussion on the book of Thoth after not being able to find much about it and the rest was just as great if not even better. 😄 I’m a novice sci fi writer and history buff too so it’s helped my research immensely 🙏
I’m in Cyber Security - in computer science cosmic rays are actually a factor! It can cause a malfunction at the binary level called a bit flip. Literally random cosmic rays can hit a computer in a certain way and cause a number at 4098 to flip to 0. This can cause huge malfunctions. It was found because it was affecting I wana say MRI machines? It caused radiation damage and death of a few people because it messed up the frequency of the radiation shot at the patient and caused radiation damage. Anyone working with computers in space has to take extreme care of this fact. It’s something you have to do a little digging on to research but it’s definitely a thing. So this really fits in with a sort of self gnosis I already followed with my own belief of magic; not if, but how - the macrocosm affects the microcosm.
I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy, pulp and high end, and there is something very very familiar about "stellar rays". I have always thought that our science-fantasy stories is more about remembering than projecting into the future.
If one considers that both the objective & subjective realms are both subsets of subjectivity, then magick can certainly work on the subjective subjectivity realm, it can also work on the objective subjectivity realm of the intersubjective, whether it works on the "objective" realm & even whether this realm exists as such is conjecture. The release of "Rays" at death, is similar to the spontaneous release of Biophotons roughly 8 hours after death, know as the "Deathflash" of Janusz Slawinski.
This had me wondering: has anyone tried to apply the scientific method to ritual magic? Like following a specific manual, and recording any outcome. As a Catholic, I hope I will never fall into magic practice, but the question "does magic work?" had me always intrigued. i LOVE your channel, your academic perspective has me devouring all your videos!
Everything in the universe is magic. Creation is by its nature magical. It is all a matter of perspective. Religious fear of magic is nothing else than a fear of knowledge and a means of control and limitation imposed on people who believe something without knowing it. To answer your question, among modern occultists, the first prominent person who did just that was Aleyster Crowley. But the whole 19th century of occultism was about that (theosophy, antroposophy). I do not agree with the method and conclusions of these systems and I also think that applying modern scientist religion to explain magical phenomena is a deviative materialism that will not elevate your consciousness to realise your true nature. Materialism was in every religion especially Christianity the worst kind of heresy. Too bad that the majority of Christians are practical materialists despite the beliefs they claim, since materialism is a way of seeing and expediencing things and not just a belief.
When I was earning my degree in physics, the parallels between nuclear theory and wave dynamics, with some of the more rational theories of magic always gave me a laugh. Especially since my professors did not see, nor were they interested to see, the sublime symmetry between the world views. No one likes to talk about Sir Isaac Newton, greatest of alchemists and sorcerers. Dr. Sledge, is there a chance you can do the Alchemy of Isaac Newton? I would love to hear your point of view. www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/texts/newtons-works/alchemical
I would never in a million years think I'd see an image an ICP member on here, which may have been unintentional but that still was funny and curious to see.
Is it possible to know if the Rosacrusian manifestos are referring to Al-Kindi in particular? Do we know from which groups the literary figure Christian Rosencreutz got his Arabic initiations from?
Interesting question I'll have to go back over the manifestos and think about it. Al-Kindi was widely known and have only really become 'obscure' in the past few hundred years.
You are so lucky to have visited cern. What did you think of the art work? I noticed you have a hamsa on your table. I also liked your Thoth at the beginning. I enjoy your work. I’ve learnt heaps. Al Kindi’s theory is very similar to the electric universe theory.
What if magic happens for you without specific rituals or sometimes even true intent. My first year after college, I was bitching about not having a summer vacation for the first time. I ended up getting diagnosed with hydrocephalus right at the beginning of summer and got a paid 6 week vacation in order to get the two required surgeries. This is definitely not the only time something this dramatic has happened, I've learned to be very, very content with my current circumstances and do my best not to ask for things, which is easier said then done..,lol..
@@lukedavis6711 Yeah, that's where I've gotten too. Somebody has a plan in my life and it sure isn't me. I was just using the language of the video. But interestingly, my family line is the McClean's and goes back to the head of the Church of Ireland which is called the Armagh... I do not think it is a coincidence that this weird shit happens around me and my family is affiliated with the Armagh (Are-Mage). Sort of wonder if there is some wand waving going around somewhere over there...and not just in Holly wood.
This was an excellent episode, thank you very much for it. I will offer one correction, however. The quote about advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic is not from Isaac Asimov. It's from Arthur C. Clarke, and forms Clarke's third law, which states, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Yes yes 'the sage is able...' Yes. (lol - do something on camera for us, Dr Strange; I believe you can. I do. ...I'm trying for the Pygmalion Effect here). Brilliant brilliant, absolutely brilliant lectures. The kids NEED to know about these figures of the past. And don't forget, even the Arabic Islamic world DETESTED such people, and Al-Kindi himself probably died from injuries from being beaten severely as an old man by Muslims in power at the time, even though he had enjoyed the patronage of Mutazilite Caliphs earlier on. He died a lonely man and his works almost fell into complete obscurity. Without him, though, where would Roger Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton be?
I know the argument at 5:03 from a rendering of the Rambam's "guide to the perplexed" from the original hebrew lettering to perso-arabic script. Who else uses it?
If you stretch things a bit, he wasn't actually that far off. Everything does come from stars. Not as light, but the elements they forge. And objects do sorta radiate out influence on things around them.
14:35 Sufficiently *ADVANCED* technology. That's fundamentally different from "sufficiently developed technology". Also, Asimov uses "technology as magic" in the Foundation Series.
It is the two-syllable version for pronouncing "Saif"...perhaps there should be an umlaut over the "i" to indicate the hiatus! I met her at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo a few years ago, when she did a few presentations for the Societas Magica. She is awesome! Are you a part of the Societas Magica? If not, you certainly should be!
Because even an utterly pedantic comment will boost the video in the youtube algorithm, I'd like to point out that the line about sufficiently advanced technology and magic comes from Arthur C Clarke, not Asimov
@@TheEsotericaChannel Thank you. I just finished reading it. Excellent book for newbies. Makes me wonder that how can someone like Al-Kindi can know so much at such a time. And than I think it must be knowledge from Jinn. Thank you for your RU-vid post
