[MD] understanding the levels

[gav]

the MOQ is an evolutionary hierarchy.

to understand it we need to tell the story of the evolution of its four levels.

the first - the inorganic - is the level of mineral matter. at this level entropy is rule. but even at this level there is the prototype of the next level's (i believe this must be a feature of all levels - reminds one of the tai chi symbol) characteristics. that prototype is the crystal. the crystal seems to reproduce itself - but without any modification. the crystal also seems to have other properties - electromagnetic, magical. some crystals seem to disobey the law of entropy - eg diamond. gold also seems to do this. they are intrusions of the eternal on the temporal plane. at the inorganic level intelligence is already manifest in the inorganic reactions that take place, in the properties of crystals and metals and also, most notably in the appearance of water.

water is the key to the next level - water is life, intelligent, multiform, capable of memory and response.

the second level - the biological - comes about proper when, in water, complex molecules are borne (lightning strike? - cosmogonical parallel - fire, air, earth, water) which can reproduce themselves - the forerunner of DNA and the cell. the key to the biological level is reproduction, reproduction with modification. evolution now speeds up. 

at the biological level extropy is the rule. organisms function synergistically, that is with a mechanical efficiency of more than 100%.

with the appearance of flowering plants things speed up again. sexual reproduction has hit the scene and again we get a foretaste of the social - this mating function being the platform upon which the society will eventually base itself.

also we see the social level foreshadowed in the plant and animal realm. most notably with bees and ants. these developments are accurate biological analogies for the coming age of man, and his social structures.

the social level does not arrive proper until we have developed language and art and technology. the primates may be argued to be very primitive forerunners here. but the show doesn't really hit the road til we get vertical, and develop opposable thumb action. it is these factors that require greater cerebral coordination, which produces a neural net sufficient to allow the evolution of language.

 the social level, by integrating individuals into larger and larger superorganisms, accelerates evolution once more. 

the social level is still the dominant level today. the ego is the social level in the individual. society provides meaning for the individual through conformity - the individual sacrifices his/her freedom in order to be looked after by the mother-state. the parallel twixt this and the ant/bee world is clear. this is the world of the greek gods - benign sometimes, manipulative at others. today moloch or mammon seems to capture the social spirit best.

as before the next level is foreshadowed. it is language and art here that start to question the divine right of the gods - for that is what society sees itself as, in relation to the individual. this is hubris on the part of society for the individual is as much 'god' as itself (perhaps more so). this hubris is the beginning of the end for any society, from rome to the 'new world order'.

in greece the rebellion of prometheus, bringing the fire of intellect to man from the gods is key.  eden too. the key is rebellion.

the next level is borne of the growing sophistication of language. the power of self-reflection comes with the abstract plane of consciousness. this more than any other single thing defines the intellectual level (not SOL). *it is an interior world, of imagination*. imagination now accelerates evolution exponentially.

this interior world is the barrier between the gods and the individual. and remember that society is a god - moloch, in this context. the imagination frees the individual from the social - but it is his choice. does he follow the old road of social conformity, or take the difficult high pass of his own conscience? this is the existential question.

the individual now divorced from gods (the fall) is reconnected to them at a higher level through the hero's journey. by undergoing trials by fire, whether through ritual or not, he is forged in the crucible of the world - gold sublimated from base metal. the mystery of the cross is understood with the whole being, the delphic mission complete - the logos inhabited and destroyed. man is now one with the godhead - the source of all gods. he has become morally superior to society and is no longer subject to its laws or commands. for he lives by a higher law, that is incorporated into his very being. he returns to society with the gift of life and society is transformed by his return - the balance of nature is restored when transformed, the hero returns, with love, to the fold of humanity. love is the knowledge of god, of self that reason can never achieve.

this is all made up