Guilt is a primeval emotion.To have guilt as a primeval sensation is to be more well positioned to develop shamanic awareness. The consistency one finds in various shamanic writers is not in the use they put their knowledge to, but in the purity of their awareness that these expressions of the psyche are decisive.
Nietzsche says guilt is an idiocy. He also says that there is a dire need for someone, some kind of overman creature, to rescue humans from their proneness to guilt. Bataille says something of the opposite. Guilt is a primeval emotion that ought not to be wasted. It enhances subjectivity, giving us something else to focus on than the world of objects and actions driven by material need or by the mechanics of the system. Guilt returns the individual to himself in a doubling motion and makes him or her more self-aware.
There is always that doubling motion in shamanism. People that see reality as only having one side, or linear dimensions tend to misread the project. For instance, neither Nietzsche nor Bataille advocate a descent into primevality without reflection. The assumption is that there is a doubling back upon oneself, so that the higher reaches of the mind enter a knowledge of primevality. If you don't understand this already then a return to the primeval limits is not for you. A simple regression is a descent into madness that wastes everybody's time. The key to successfully completing shamanic projects is rather self-outwitting. Don't get pulled in by something you can't control, but do get close enough so that you can observe it.
In relation to this goal, guilt works wonders. It does indeed create an effective doubling. One has the original actor -- the "sinner" if you will -- and the accuser who stands apart and makes the condemnation. This shamanicically enhanced polarisation of experience enhances subjectivity. The psyche is widened and one takes in more information than before, when one's being had been rather flattened.
Self doubling also comes about automatically in the face of the fear of death. One attempts to stand apart from the inevitable, and thus is doubled. This expansion is more extreme than dreaming and being attentive to what one dreams.
To make one's project to reinhabit subjectivity rather than to allow one's psyche to be passively filled is the entire purpose of shamanic projects. There's always a risk of destruction -- always.
Academics who might be inclined to assert that Georges Bataille is just being silly by making guilt central to his project whilst claiming to be a careful reader of Nietzsche are clearly not sufficiently DEEP readers of Nietzsche, which is to say they do not read deeply enough into the meaning of his project. It's to enhance subjectivity through mastering the invisible forces. In making this his project, albeit in slightly different way from Nietzsche, Bataille is Nietzschean. He is just using methods available to him and to us today, as opposed to the aristocratic methodology of the past.
In terms of inner experience, it's not like you can eliminate guilt and still expect to develop a means of self-doubling. Some circumstances may allow a different method, but not all. In the 20th Century, form has held sway over content. People emptied of subjecthood may feel no guilt, but that is not to their advantage.
Automatons march robotically in their sleep, free from the nightmares that could have them leaping from their beds.
But looking deeper than how things appear to be on the surface requires an already well-developed base of subjective knowledge. Let us not assume we have this capability already, simply by existing.
Nietzsche says guilt is an idiocy. He also says that there is a dire need for someone, some kind of overman creature, to rescue humans from their proneness to guilt. Bataille says something of the opposite. Guilt is a primeval emotion that ought not to be wasted. It enhances subjectivity, giving us something else to focus on than the world of objects and actions driven by material need or by the mechanics of the system. Guilt returns the individual to himself in a doubling motion and makes him or her more self-aware.
There is always that doubling motion in shamanism. People that see reality as only having one side, or linear dimensions tend to misread the project. For instance, neither Nietzsche nor Bataille advocate a descent into primevality without reflection. The assumption is that there is a doubling back upon oneself, so that the higher reaches of the mind enter a knowledge of primevality. If you don't understand this already then a return to the primeval limits is not for you. A simple regression is a descent into madness that wastes everybody's time. The key to successfully completing shamanic projects is rather self-outwitting. Don't get pulled in by something you can't control, but do get close enough so that you can observe it.
In relation to this goal, guilt works wonders. It does indeed create an effective doubling. One has the original actor -- the "sinner" if you will -- and the accuser who stands apart and makes the condemnation. This shamanicically enhanced polarisation of experience enhances subjectivity. The psyche is widened and one takes in more information than before, when one's being had been rather flattened.
Self doubling also comes about automatically in the face of the fear of death. One attempts to stand apart from the inevitable, and thus is doubled. This expansion is more extreme than dreaming and being attentive to what one dreams.
To make one's project to reinhabit subjectivity rather than to allow one's psyche to be passively filled is the entire purpose of shamanic projects. There's always a risk of destruction -- always.
Academics who might be inclined to assert that Georges Bataille is just being silly by making guilt central to his project whilst claiming to be a careful reader of Nietzsche are clearly not sufficiently DEEP readers of Nietzsche, which is to say they do not read deeply enough into the meaning of his project. It's to enhance subjectivity through mastering the invisible forces. In making this his project, albeit in slightly different way from Nietzsche, Bataille is Nietzschean. He is just using methods available to him and to us today, as opposed to the aristocratic methodology of the past.
In terms of inner experience, it's not like you can eliminate guilt and still expect to develop a means of self-doubling. Some circumstances may allow a different method, but not all. In the 20th Century, form has held sway over content. People emptied of subjecthood may feel no guilt, but that is not to their advantage.
Automatons march robotically in their sleep, free from the nightmares that could have them leaping from their beds.
But looking deeper than how things appear to be on the surface requires an already well-developed base of subjective knowledge. Let us not assume we have this capability already, simply by existing.
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