religion – Page 6

10 Years Of VJM Publishing On Amazon – And The Plan For The Next 10 Years

It was ten years ago today that VJM Publishing launched our first book on Amazon. Titled Stop Smoking Cigarettes with the Token Economy Method, it is a short Kindle book describing how to use a clinical psychology technique known as the token economy method to overcome cravings for tobacco cigarettes. It hasn’t sold many copies, but it has two 5-star reviews, showing that it greatly helped at least two people.

Since then, we have published 15 other books on Amazon, all of which are available in paperback form as well as Kindle (see sidebar to right). In general, these books have received good reviews, especially the most recent one, Clown World Chronicles, which has a 4.5-star rating across GoodReads and Amazon.

All in all, the last ten years have been pretty good for VJM Publishing. We have produced a decent number of high-quality books, but have been hampered by a lack of the funds necessary to promote our work in today’s pay-for-play media landscape. The way forward from here will be about finding new ways to bring our work to a wider audience.

The plan for the next ten years is to keep producing quality books and to keep building our company reputation. We are already shadowbanned from both FaceBook and Google, banned outright from most Reddit subs and the mainstream media will never feature us, so we have two major strategies to stay relevant over the next decade.

The first strategy is to prioritise alt tech.

Getting shadowbanned from our erstwhile main sources of traffic has been difficult. Luckily, there are alternatives. The main alternative has been podcasting: VJM has already made multiple appearances on the Jackson Fowler podcast, the Chad Chaddington podcast, and the Bobbing Along podcast. Not only that, but we have also started our own VJM Publishing podcast!

Apart from the podcasts, we’ve been able to establish a decent presence on Gab, and have just expanded into Telegram. The Gab presence has been particularly fruitful, as our posts there regularly get more reactions, comments and shares than on FaceBook, despite that we only have one-eighth of the subscribers on Gab. Alt tech today is as reluctant to ban wrongthinkers as FaceBook and Google were ten years ago, so we will use them more in the future.

The second strategy is to expand in meatspace. This involves two sub-strategies.

The first sub-strategy is to buy land that can be used as a physical base for operations – a literal asylum in the mountains. This involves increasing VJM Publishing’s income over the next ten years to the point where we can afford the land and, once the land is purchased, to establish a temple and monastery dedicated to Elementalism.

Elementalism is the name given to the religion we launched with the publication of our book Elemental Elementalism. This was founded as a Dharmic religion for the Age of Aquarius, one which promulgated the perennial spiritual truths that have been mostly forgotten after the twin onslaughts of the Abrahamic death cults and nihilistic materialistic atheism.

Elementalism needs a physical space that can serve as a holy ground for followers of this religion, the religion of the new age of the world. It is to achieve that end that VJM Publishing intends to raise $2,000,000 over the next 10 years. The goal is to buy a secluded campground somewhere that can serve as a temple and monastery.

With a temple and monastery established, VJM Publishing will be in a position to take in spiritually-minded people who can’t find a place in Clown World. These people will be able to stay at this holy ground and help work towards providing spiritual truth and solace to the benighted masses of the world.

The second sub-strategy is to sell copies of Elemental Elementalism in the street.

This will involve a kind of spiritual evangelism, not like the Abrahamic crusaders and jihadists, but like Socrates’s effort to enlighten his fellow Athenians. Here we will strike up discussions with passing citizens, and debate them about philosophy, in an effort to shine a light upon the ignorance of the modern age.

With copies of Elemental Elementalism in hand, VJM Publishing will take to the streets to spread the truth about the nature of reality and the Good News of Elementalism to as wide an audience as possible. The Good News of Elementalism is the doctrine that Clown World so desperately needs. Although we expect to encounter massive opposition, as Socrates did, we know that the truth will win in the end, as it always does.

The next ten years will see the religion of Elementalism take root and expand all over the world. We will be pushing it as hard as possible from our offices here in New Zealand, working towards the goal of acquiring enough money to buy land for our temple and monastery. Herein we intend to follow in the footsteps of Pythagoras, who established a philosophical monastery ancient Greece.

This second sub-strategy supports the first. It will be through demonstrating the power and truth of Elementalism through street evangelism that we are most likely to encounter a generous donor with the wealth necessary to help us buy land. Promoting Elemental Elementalism is the most effective way to light a fire in the soul of such a person.

In summary, the next ten years of VJM Publishing operations will be similar to the first in the sense that we will focus on producing quality informational material and promoting this to the masses. But they will be different in the sense that we will explore alternative methods of promotion, as well as developing real estate in the physical world instead of just online.

If you enjoyed reading this essay/article, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2020 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019, the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.

If you would like to support our work in other ways, subscribe to our SubscribeStar fund. Even better, buy any one of our books!

The Elementalist Conception Of Death (redux)

1. Foreknowledge of one’s inevitable demise can seem to make all of our actions in this world meaningless.

2. The greatest test of merit of any spiritual tradition is that it assuages a person’s fear of death.

3. Death is naturally both terrifying and inevitable, and all the more terrifying because it is inevitable. The fact that we cannot escape it casts a shadow over every single action – and inaction – we take in this realm.

4. The inevitability of death means that nothing we achieve or acquire here can ever be permanent.

5. It means that no matter how many billions we collect, or how many children we produce, or how many awards and honours we attain, all is rendered null upon the expiration of our physical bodies. Death will separate us from all.

6. The Elementalist doesn’t take this fact as cause for despair, but rather as cause for quiet rejoicing.

7. Socrates said that the purpose of philosophy was to prepare oneself for death, and, to this end, Elementalism has specific, defined teachings about death and the nature of death.

8. Central to Elementalism is the knowledge that consciousness is the prima materia, and the physical world merely a set of sensory impressions within that consciousness, in the same way that dream worlds are.

9. The physical bodies of each of us are also merely sets of impressions within consciousness, and these perceptions will come and go like any other.

10. Consciousness is more fundamental than space and time, and therefore is not affected by whatever part of the Great Fractal it happens to be perceiving.

11. To the contrary – the Great Fractal comes alive when it is perceived by consciousness.

12. This means that our physical bodies can never really die, because consciousness will always dream them up again.

13. The Elementalist conception of death accords with the line in the Bhagavad Gita which states: “Never have you existed not.”

14. The true self is the consciousness that endures through all the changing perceptions; the false self is the physical body currently ensouled by that consciousness and the identity that goes with that body.

15. Understanding that consciousness is the prima materia, the Elementalist’s faith in reincarnation is absolute.

16. As such, the death of one’s current physical form is not to be feared.

17. It may even be something to look forward to – the death of one’s physical body in this realm might allow one to attain a higher form in another realm.

18. In any case, the Elementalist knows that they will get what they deserve, in accordance with the Law of Associative Reincarnation.

19. Elementalists know that all things existing in this realm are just shadows of eternal forms that exist elsewhere in the Great Fractal.

20. There are countless dimensions of existence both above and below the one in which we find ourselves now.

21. One’s physical death in this realm might cause one’s consciousness to ascend to a higher realm, in which case it will incarnate into a less flawed form of the same body.

22. Elementalists, therefore, have a different conception of grief.

23. Our friends and family members, when they die, are only gone from us in the most immediate and most physical sense. Their consciousness, their vibration and their frequency still exist in the Great Fractal – and always will.

24. All possible aspects of every possible life are being experienced in every moment by God. As such, all of the consciousnesses, vibrations and frequencies that we engaged with in this life will reunite with us after death, as we reunite with God.

25. In the same way that white light contains all other frequencies of light, God contains all frequencies of consciousness.

26. Even if a friend or family member should die young, their consciousness, their vibration and their frequency still exists within God – and even in forms which did not die young.

27. A person might lose their attachment to a particular physical form when that form dies, but then, being freed from that form and reunited with God, that person will also become reunited with all the other consciousnesses, vibrations and frequencies that were encountered during that person’s previous life – or lives.

28. The easiest way to conceptualise the Elementalist understanding of death is to imagine climbing an arduous mountain trail and, after several decades, coming to the top, whereupon one reunites with all the friends and family that one ever had, in every previous life.

29. Death is much like arriving at this rest space on top of this mountain. From this vantage point, it’s possible to see, stretching off into the distance, all of your previous lives, represented as other mountains and valleys.

30. Every time the trail descends and then rises again represents another life. With the right vision, it’s possible to see previous lives stretching off into infinity.

31. After an unknown length of time on this mountaintop (in reality a higher dimension serving as a rest space) another descent into a valley is made, and that will be experienced as another life, wherein the true nature of reality will again be forgotten – and then again be remembered.

32. The cycle of existence is to be one with God, and one with all the frequencies that resonate in harmony with your own, and then to separate from this state of congregated bliss and to enter into an illusionary world of suffering, only to awaken and return to God again.

33. Elementalists call this pattern the Cosmic Dance, and we all dance it, even if we’re not very good at it, and even if we’re unwilling.

34. The purpose of the Cosmic Dance is to entertain the gods.

35. The correct approach to death is to live with the highest possible frequency of consciousness: one that values life, but at the same time does not forego rectitude on account of the inevitability of physical death.

36. Such an approach will lead to reincarnation among the highest possible frequency of beings.

This chapter is an excerpt from Elemental Elementalism, the foundational scripture of the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

If you would like to support our work in other ways, subscribe to our SubscribeStar fund. Even better, buy any one of our books!

The Elementalist Conception Of Free Will (redux)

1. The free will argument contends that people can do whatever they want to. People have a choice between good and evil, between selfless acts and selfish ones, and if a person’s true will is good they will do good.

2. As such, people who do good can be treated as if their will is good, and people who do evil can be treated as if their will is evil.

3. The determinist argument contends that each person’s actions are restricted to a range determined by that person’s genes and their conditioning.

4. People don’t really have a choice about what they do, because they can only motivate themselves to act if the wiring of their brain creates an impulse to action.

5. The question of free will is an important philosophical question because the resolution of it determines how miscreants are to be treated.

6. If free will is true, then justice is to punish criminals harshly. If determinism is true, then justice is to guide criminals into making the right decisions through behaviour modification.

7. The Elementalist perspective on free will is that mainstream philosophy has missed the point entirely.

8. Elementalists believe that all of us are fundamentally, individuated fragments of the total consciousness that is God, and that these fragments of consciousness traverse the Great Fractal by way of matching frequencies.

9. To the Elementalist, there is no material world – every fragment of consciousness is aware of a set of perceptions, and every set of perceptions exists somewhere in the Great Fractal.

10. These sets of perceptions change as the frequency of one’s consciousness changes.

11. Therefore, to change the world, it’s only necessary to change the frequency of one’s consciousness. This can be done through repeated exertions of pure will.

12. Because the Elementalist does not believe in a hard material world, neither do they believe there is anything forcing a human being to behave in any pre-determined manner.

13. There aren’t really any neurotransmitters, or any limbic system, or any instinctually-responding brain circuitry involved in decision making.

14. There is only consciousness and the contents of consciousness.

15. The physical world is but a dream, through which consciousness passes, forever.

16. Elementalists believe that anyone can get anything they desire, whether in this life or in one to come, by matching the frequency of one’s consciousness with the frequency of the part of the Great Fractal in which the desired thing exists or is happening.

17. Elementalists believe that one inevitably lives a life that matches the frequency of one’s consciousness, whether this is desired or not.

18. Accordingly, a person has to be careful about what their true will is – because they will get it.

19. If a person’s true will is to assert themselves violently over others, they will gravitate to a part of the Great Fractal where the order of reality is the violent assertion of power over others.

20. If a person’s true will is to experience order, then they will get order. They will gravitate to a part of the Great Fractal where chaos is minimised.

21. A person who ends up in such a place might not like it on account of that they find the order suffocating. If so, this will be reflected by their true desires, which will change the frequency of that person’s consciousness, in turn leading them to another part of the Great Fractal.

22. If a person’s true will is to experience peace, the frequency of their consciousness will come to reflect this. If the sum total of that person’s actions in their life are peaceful, this will cause them to gravitate to a part of the Great Fractal populated by peaceful beings.

23. An individuated consciousness might experience this as bliss – or hellishly boring.

24. Following the logic of the Four Tenets, Elementalists believe implicitly in free will – so implicitly that they strive to perfect their mastery over it.

25. Mastery over one’s true will is mastery over how one navigates the Great Fractal – either one drifts ignorantly through existence or one dances skillfully through it.

26. The Elementalist conception of reality teaches that we are all individual fragments of consciousness experiencing the Great Fractal, which we are free to explore in perpetuity.

27. As such, there is no reason to assume any kind of determinism beyond the Seventh Hermetic Principle, otherwise known as the Law of Cause and Effect.

28. One can only move through the Great Fractal at a pace and manner determined by one’s frequency of consciousness, which is itself determined by one’s previous expressions of will. As such, free will is true in some sense, and determinism is true in some sense.

29. The lower one’s frequency of consciousness, the less nimbly one will be able to change the direction of one’s path through the Great Fractal.

This chapter is an excerpt from Elemental Elementalism, the foundational scripture of the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

If you would like to support our work in other ways, subscribe to our SubscribeStar fund. Even better, buy any one of our books!

The Elementalist Conception Of The Meaning Of Life (redux)

1. Elementalists believe that every person is entirely free to choose what the meaning of their life is.

2. Broadly speaking, the meaning of life that a person chooses will fall into one of four categories, each corresponding to one of the feminine elements.

3. Some people choose domination. This corresponds to fire. These people are the most masculine and have the most energy to expend.

4. People in this group are likely to become professional sportsmen, business tycoons, politicians or military/law enforcement/security.

5. If someone chooses domination as the meaning of life, they are likely to see other people as weak.

6. Some people choose exploration. This corresponds to air. These people are masculine, and like to go forward, but they are more subtle about it than the dominators.

7. People in this group are likely to become backpackers, scientists or psychonauts.

8. If someone chooses exploration as the meaning of life, they are likely to see other people as boring.

9. Some people choose pleasure. This corresponds to water. These people are feminine, because they will shy away from adversity, but they are also attracted to the possibility of pleasure.

10. People in this category are likely to become epicureans, hedonists and artists.

11. If someone chooses pleasure as the meaning of life, they are likely to see other people as masochistic.

12. Some choose survival. This corresponds to earth. These people are the most feminine, and are prone to retreating.

13. People in this category are likely to become hermits, homebodies or fitness and health enthusiasts.

14. If someone chooses survival as the meaning of life, they are likely to see other people as foolish.

15. In principle, every person could be assigned to one of these four groups based on how they choose or desire to live, even if they haven’t consciously chosen that group themselves.

16. This is because every person who chooses to go forwards – in other words, every person who chooses to live – must have a reason to do so, and the potential range of those reasons is finite.

17. However, all of these reasons can only ever provide a secondary meaning to a life.

18. The primary meaning of every life is to entertain the gods.

19. Elementalists believe in higher dimensions that are populated by beings of higher frequencies. These beings are capable of observing us without our being aware of it, much like we might observe a creature under a microscope.

20. To us, they are the gods: higher frequencies in higher realms of the Great Fractal. It is to entertain these gods that our lives have meaning.

21. If our futile struggles to dominate, or to explore, or to enjoy, or to survive the Great Fractal entertain the gods, then our lives have meaning despite being finite.

22. All of us are mortal, therefore every meaning that we could ourselves give to life is ultimately futile and pointless.

23. Most never overcome this dilemma, withdrawing from life and saying No to it. Such people appall, disgust and bore the gods.

24. Some others do overcome this dilemma, engaging with life and saying Yes to it. Such people delight and entertain the gods.

25. In the Elementalist conception, we live so that the gods might regard us as they once regarded Alexander.

26. Overcoming evil cannot possibly be the meaning of life, because evil will always be a part of the world as long as it’s possible for God to will it.

27. Neither can purifying one’s soul (understood by the Elementalist as raising the frequency of one’s consciousness) be the meaning of life. If it was, then life would be no longer possible once this had been achieved.

28. Nor can escaping the Great Fractal be the meaning of life. There’s ultimately nowhere for consciousness to escape to, other than reunion with God, and in such a case there’s no going forward without re-entering the world again.

29. Alexander understood the overwhelming importance of behaving heroically for the sake of the gods’ attention. He understood that the gods and goddesses watch over us from a higher place.

30. This knowledge has mostly been lost today, which is one reason why most people today live in such a pitiful manner, struggling for purpose and meaning.

This chapter is an excerpt from Elemental Elementalism, the foundational scripture of the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

If you would like to support our work in other ways, subscribe to our SubscribeStar fund. Even better, buy any one of our books!