I’ve got a new book out, which you can order by clicking here or here, or download a cheap PDF by clicking here.
It’s called Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, and like the ongoing series of essays I’ve been putting out of the same name it’s mostly comprised of short, pithy quotes about what’s wrong with our world and what we can do to fix it.
This book is my best attempt at articulating what I see as our dilemma as a species and what we can do to address it, both outwardly in the world and within ourselves. It sums up the perspective upon which all my work is based, and can serve as a kind of primer for all the rest of my writings.
Here’s the description I put on the back of the book:
We each inhabit two very different worlds simultaneously: the real world, and the narrative world.
The real physical world of matter, of atoms and molecules and stars and planets and animals wandering around trying to bite and copulate with each other often has very little to do with the narrative world, which is made of stories and mental chatter.
Powerful people have long understood that if you control the stories people tell about themselves, then you can control their resources and their reality. From priests to politicians, CEOs to the architects of war, all have deeply understood the importance of maintaining control of the narrative.
We have reached a crisis point where the disconnect between narrative and reality is threatening all life on earth. The narrative world is getting more and more chimerical while the real world is headed toward disaster due to the military and ecological pressures created by our status quo. There are only a few ways this can possibly break, with the most obvious being mass scale ecological disaster or nuclear war.
There is also the possibility that the human species goes the other way and adapts, and wakes up to the way narrative has been used to manipulate us into consenting to our own extinction. Throughout recorded history, all around the globe, wise humans have been attesting that it is possible to transcend our delusion-rooted conditioning and come to a lucid perception of the narrative world and reality. There are many names for this lucid perception, but the one that caught on most widely is enlightenment.
We all have this potential within us. It has been gestating in us for many millennia. As we approach our adaptation-or-extinction juncture, we are very close indeed to learning if that potential will awaken in us or not.
This book rests on the meniscus of that possibility.
Again, if you’re interested you can order Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix here or here, or you can download a cheap PDF for five bucks by clicking here.
Enjoy!
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20 responses to “New Book: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2021/03/31/the-zionist-protection-racket/?mc_cid=950eb3cde4&mc_eid=7ffdc3ce6d
Hi Caitlin,
Do you have a preferred seller in Canada?
Amazon.ca sells it but I try to avoid giving them business.
The big Canadian book chain, Chapter/Indigo do not list it.
Cheers, an thanks for your wonderful work – I read your stuff pretty well every day.
Robert Thorpe
Toronto
Any of the ones in the second link should work; they go through Ingramspark so they’re unaffiliated with Amazon. You can also order it through your local bookstore.
https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=PmZMzeutGU3eeK5jm6IPO,tjR7o_1497963026_1:3:3&bq=author%3Djohnstone%252C%2520caitlin%252C%2520and%2520foley%252C%2520timothy%2520p%26title%3Dnotes%2520from%2520the%2520edge%2520of%2520the%2520narrative%2520matrix&ps=bp
LOL, the billionaire narrative philanthropist
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-04-newspapers-abyss-war.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
The most obvious and likely end of it all is a slow motion societal collapse with lots of chaos, starvation and death. Happens all the timd throughout history. The larger the empire, the slower the collapse of society.
Until it collapses into a smaller empire, at which point it accelerates rapidly.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/04/02/air-force-general-says-of-armys-long-range-precision-fires-goal-its-stupid/
It’s Stupid, not your book but the U.S military, but what a U.S. Army General had to say about the U.S. army.
When you’re finished reading Caitlin’s book, here’s the conceptual framework titled: “The Reality Creators,” a first gear, blade-down bulldozing critique of the existing political economy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0855TRGBS (Also at Powells’ and AbeBooks, etc.) Or request a free pdf copy from chris.dancefarm@gmail.com
“The Reality Creators” tells a real story that will resemble fiction because we live in a fairytale world. The modern world is upside down, and too many people can’t distinguish between subjective and objective realities. What’s actually real is not readily apparent and can seem unreal. The reason for this confusing irony is that we live each day in a virtual, dramatic reality we do not ourselves create; the Reality Creators create it. As a result, we lack the agency to control our lives.
The book questions whether populism is anti-intellectual, why discontent is the ironic trade-off for the comfort of civilization, and what, if anything, can be done to afford the citizenry more agency in their lives. It’s not that we lack moral character to be our own agents; it’s that the Reality Creators strategically block us the same way farmers have always fenced in their livestock.
The book is about populism and the struggle to make it work for the populace. The author compares the ruling elite to farmers who run livestock operations and calls on the goats to live like deer.
The argument for populism isn’t “The People vs. The Government”; rather, it’s the people versus the corporate sector for control of our government. The book calls for reappropriating the term populism from those who misrepresent it as despotism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and fascism, and the author rejects conflating a malefactor’s popularity with the term populism, no matter if the political leader is a corporate-backed neoliberal or narcissistic carnival barker.
I just bought Ms. Johnstone’s e-book from Gumroad.
Thank you. This work deserves physical copy, and what an attractive cover!
Thank You, Ms Johnstone! I have friends that shun the Internet and therefor miss out on your great articles. Your book would make a great gift to send to them. Thanks again!
Cosmic vis-à-vis Inner space
Who is the author of ones internal narrative?
How are the two different worlds created if it is not ‘human nature’ wanting/needing to be deceived.
Opinion: A neonate is conscious awareness incarnate – 100% wholly receptive, sensately, to all stimuli. Although mind may be regarded as a blank slate, the entire body organism is endowed with primordial memory and is constantly expanding – grows exponentially therefrom.
At what point does the growing infant first realize it is a separate self – an ‘other’? Is this the birth moment of critical thinking? Is this the moment at which s/he first consciously encounters resistance?
“We each inhabit two very different worlds simultaneously.”
At what point then does the evolving person first realize that s/he is no longer able to differentiate and maintain the conscious critical thinking aspect of self, from the inculcated narrative of ‘education’ – indoctrination, propaganda, call it whatever; if ever?
EM, you note that at some point the growing infant first realizes it is a separate self — an ‘other?’ That is, at some point the infant becomes “worldly self-conscious?” That is, at some point the infant acquires the mindset of existing in the real world – of being a real world entity (and therefore becoming worldly-self-conscious, as was reported of Adam in the creation myth at Gen 3:10-11) It is made fairly clear in early Genesis, and is corroborated by the experience of quite a few (in my opinion) contributors to this website, that this is the beginning of the human problem.
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We are all searching for a solution to the problem, which has become an existential problem for humankind. In my opinion we are greatly aided in this search by an understanding that the notion of being a real world entity is a logical absurdity. (When we can understand clearly that the real world (whether it is expressed within the conceptual framework of “human society” or that of any “hard science”) is a conceptual product of the human intellect, we can understand that it is logically and psychologically impossible to exist as an element of what is our own conceptual creation. (It would be silly, for example, for a geometry instructor to think that he/she is one of the points or lines being used in some geometric representation which he/she is using to solve some practical problem.))
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(The notion of being, rather than simply being represented as, a real world entity is a logical error of a kind which symbolic logicians and mathematicians who specialize in the fundamentals of their discipline call a “categorical error.” A categorical error is made when a thing of a particular logical category is treated or interpreted as a think of a different logical category. (For example, it is far better for a math instructor who is showing a student how to set up the solution to a simple algebra problem to begin by saying “Let x represent the unknown quantity” rather than to say “Let x be the unknown quantity.” Otherwise the student, who already knows that “x” is a letter of the Roman alphabet, may acquire the impression that the unknown quantity is somehow a letter of the Roman alphabet. This would be a categorical error.) There are many ways by which one may be represented within the conceptual model of creation which is comprehensible to the human intellect – for example as a physical body, or as a consumer with particular demographic characteristics, or as a convicted felon, and so forth – but one is, strictly speaking, none of these things.
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The notion that the real world is a conceptual product of the human intellect is not a popular notion, as of this writing, among practicing hard scientists. As a matter of fact it is pretty much non-existent. And yet it should be quite plausible to neuroscientists, who simply assume that everything which you consider to exist within the real world is somehow physically represented (by neural activity of some kind) within or in conjunction with your central nervous system. Another advantage which neuroscientists have in this regard is their awareness that while we can experience creation (through our sensory organs) and we can model it (with our cerebral cortexes) there is no other way for us to “know” it.
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(Those readers who are familiar with quantum physics will be pleased I think to understand that the notion of the physical world being a conceptual model, rather than something which is too “objective” to be so considered, eliminates much of the mystery of this branch of physics. As an example it is quite natural in quantum mechanics when an “observation” (that is, a measurement which results in a particular quantum state of, let us say, a particular elementary particle, becoming observable) occurs, to think of the “collapse of the probability wave function” (of the Copenhagen interpretation) simply as a discrete updating of the model to include the newly observable quantum state. As another example, the primary conceptual difficulty of the Many Worlds approach is that to interpret its mathematics we are required to posit the existence of “many worlds.” But this is also not particularly troubling when we understand that we are simply positing the existence of many conceptual representations of creation.)
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The insights expressed above are the product of my own effort to understand the Gospel of Thomas. There is a lot there to understand. (I have been at it for 20 years.) Those who find what is written above interesting will (I think) find my book interesting – particularly Part 3. The book is called “The Tomb in the Garden: the First Easter and a Gospel of Jesus.” It is available as an ebook at the Amazon online bookstore. From now through April 6 it can be obtained at no charge.
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There are some other interesting things in the book as well, in my opinion. For example the reader will learn in Part 2 that there is good reason to conclude that the first Easter sunrise (specifically, Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus reported in John 20:11-18) actually occurred on the morning of Good Friday rather than that of the succeeding Sunday. And the reader will learn (from Parts 2 and 3) that there is good reason to conclude that what we call the Gospel of Thomas was actually written by the historical Jesus.
Jim Andrew’s, your logic is very intriguing, however, it appears to be based upon the assumption that nothing is knowable outside of the human mind (natural law?) but that has not been my experience, and apparently not the experience of many others; we come here as fully formed selves even before the inception that creates us. That some should chose to forget their beginnings is a peculiarity of themselves and their new environment. Rather nice that you should mention Thomas, perhaps the most important of the gospels and most likely the very reason why it was left out.
As for quantum systems, yes there are those who propose that all is an illusion, the workings as described would suggest that the universe is nothing more a blackmore that mirrors all that once was, but since time itself isn’t unidirectional it could also, if true, mirror that which has not yet occured, and, if true, why some people are so hell bent on changing the future before the event horizon collapses and the image becomes real.
But, I digress, there’s a very famous Muslim poet that has put it very well, too bad that I didn’t bother to remember his name. I will download your pdf file and let you know what I think, if you ever mention it again.
Also, as to the matter of astroprojection, yes, well I’ve even seen a dog be able to project itself through space and time (Einstein not withstanding) as well as more than one projection simultaneously, even as the creator of the image remained conscious and physically active. So, very interesting, I look forward to reading your thoughts on the subject.
From my experience; very young. I remember knowing what I wanted to do, but learning how to operate the body that I was in was another matter. Obviously, I eventually learned how to operate it.
Dear Caitlin,
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Congrats and good luck on your new book with its nifty cover! I’ve got one coming out early next year, so can relate to your excitement/satisfaction in getting it out there.
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Best,
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Horror/thriller author S.A. Hogan
Signed copy
Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.
–Debord
https://i.redd.it/7975emzhbza41.jpg
But you do not have to go along with the “narrative”. For the following author, it seems most people are willingly following the “narrative” which make them complicit in the crimes of the State:
https://www.garydbarnett.com/the-covid-vaccine-is-a-weapon-of-mass-destruction/
The fact that so much people go along with the “narrative” is a sign that we are living the return of the days of Noah and that the return of Jesus and the end of the world is near.
Keeping my Rosary on hand!
I shall certainly order and read your book, Caitlin. And hope all those interested in ‘fixing’ the world will, after reading your book, also read mine: “Dear Ahed, The Game of War and a Path to Peace”, published as a result of being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and “$$$$$ In Their Hearts”.