Free Prometheus Rising by Aaron Johnson

some hazards in
    personal relations, would involve such games as learning to bully
    somebody if you've never been able to do that before, learning to
    submit docilely if you've never been able to do that before, and
    learning to express anger appropriately and letting go of it when
    it is no longer necessary.
    It will be observed by the thoughtful or visually-oriented
    readers that each "extreme" type can be expressed on the Leary
    Grid as a very off-center pie-slice:
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    Obviously, an ideally "balanced" person—that is, one not
    robotized and able to adjust to circumstances as they arise—
    would not be so off-centered. Such a person would be able to
    move a little bit into each quadrant "according to the times and
    seasons" as the Chinese say, but would basically maintain a
    centered detachment between all of them. She or he could be
    graphed as a circle:
    The dark inner circle would represent the adamantine individuality
    of this ideally detached person—detached from robot
    imprints. The grey circle would represent the ability to move out
    into each quadrant in times when that was necessary.
    Circles of this sort, called mandalas, are widely used for
    meditation in the Buddhist tradition. Often they are cornered by
    four demons who evidently, like the Occidental lion, bull, angel
    and eagle, represent the extremes to be avoided.
    Prometheus Rising
    .. .being humus, the same returns.
    — James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
    EXERCIZES
    1. Whenever you meet a young male or female, ask yourself
    consciously, "If it came to hand-to-hand combat, could I beat
    him/her' ?" Then try to determine how much of your behavior is
    based on unconsciously asking and answering that question via
    pre-verbal "body language."
    2. Get roaring drunk and pound the table, telling everybody in
    a loud voice just what dumb assholes they all are. 1
    3. Get a book on meditation, practice for two fifteen-minute
    sessions every day for a month, and then go see somebody who
    always manages to upset you or make you defensive. See if they
    can still press your territorial retreat buttons. 2
    4. Spend a week-end at an Encounter Group. During the first
    half-day, try to intuit which quadrant each participant is coming
    1 Opiates and small does of alcohol seem to trigger neuro-transmitters
    characteristic of Circuit I breast-fed tranquillity. Large doses of alco hol
    often reverse this and trigger neuro-transmitters characteristic of
    territorial struggle. Note the anal vocabulary of hostile drunks as their
    alcoholic intake increases.

2 A good book on Meditation is Undoing Yourself With Energized
    Meditation & Other Devices, by Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D., (New
    Falcon Publications).
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    from. At the end, see if any of them have become less robotized.
    See if you have become less robotized.
    5. Go to the Lion House at the zoo. Study the lions until you
    feel you really understand their tunnel-reality.
    6. Rent a video of the kind of comedy that small children
    like—the Three Stooges, Abbott & Costello, etc. Observe carefully,
    and think about what function this humor serves; but don't
    neglect to laugh at it yourself.
    7. Spend all day Sunday looking at animal shows on TV
    (getting stoned on weed, if this is permissible to you). Then go
    into the office the next day and observe the primate pack hierarchy
    carefully, like a scientist.
    CHAPTER FIVE
    DICKENS & JOYCE:
    THE TWO-CIRCUIT
    DIALECTIC
    That why all parks up excited about his gunnfodder. That why
    ecrazyaztecs and crime ministers preaching him mornings.
    — James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
    THE GRACIOUS GODDESS AND THE
    TERRIFYING GIANT HAUNT OUR
    LEGENDS AND OUR LITERATURE.
    Hearasay in paradox lust.—
    James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
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    The shock and dismay of the infant when the harshness of traditional
    toilet training introduces the anal-Patrist second-circuit
    values into the previously blissful oral-Matrist continuum is
    conveyed with great artistry in Dickens'