Nice post Alex! I too had only heard about the concept of egregores fairly recently - I guess the idea is spreading. Interestingly, there is only *one* book on Amazon with the word egregore in the title - https://www.amazon.com/Egregores-Occult-Entities-Watch-Destiny/dp/1620555778/ . I read it and it's well written and a good introduction to the topic, but quite incomplete imo - there's definitely a place for someone to write something more comprehensive...
Thank you! I looked up "egregore" in "The Golden Bough" and a couple of books on Gnostic theology, and it wasn't there. I think that it was always a pretty fringe concept. Perhaps, as the saying goes, it was born for such a time as this.
Coincidentally, I read your article just after I finished reading the first chapter of The Great Awakening by Alex Jones, entitled “The Threat of Artificial Intelligence.” While the tone of his chapter is of course far more alarmist than your post, I can’t help but draw parallels between the two, particularly with respect to creation and worship of godlike “things” (for lack of a better word) through collective belief. AI is the perfect means by which to direct and control populations, and eventually even overcome them. How do we combat it? Removing the belief, but enough people would have to see this and get on board.
tho' I too am for soundin' the alarm loud an' clear (I'd not only like ta shut it down, I'd like ta toss the remains in a wood chipper fer good measure)--I think the TIME article--think about it--it's "Time!" ferhecksakes--is workin' that fear angle in lockstep with "Leave the World Behind" an' decades of predictive programmin' to let us know just how EVIL they can be an' how their masterpiece is now complete... "Zey" want us sooooo scared of what ZEY can do! AI will take over all human thought--it vill deshtroy us! Time is good at this stuff-- not sayin' that Yudkowsky ain't sincere... but let's just say Time Inc. is not one waste any opportunity!
It's unfortunate that the concept of the egregore was used by Gaiman (who's a sexual predator and deviant, it now appears), for American Gods, which is a thoroughly degenerate work.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. Stavish's book looks quite interesting, and I'm glad I'm not the only person who watched "Branded." As for Gaiman, who knows? These days, it's just as easy for a false accusation to ruin a celebrity's reputation as it is for a celebrity to exploit a fan. As with much of our "news," it's almost impossible to know what's true.
Re: Gaiman, the evidence appears overwhelming for a lifelong pattern of behavior. Oh, well. His best stuff was the collaboration with Pratchett (who IMO was infinitely more talented).
I'm REALLY hopin' it's not true--repeat of the Assange "inventions?"--They smear all who don't tow the line... hopin' Neil doesn't deserve that undertow!--otherwise (given I'm a fan of Gaiman), it's "Gods & Monsters" yet again--as in a lotta my literary Gods (who kinda know they're "gods") are turnin' out ta be monsters! first Harold Bloom (shame shame on 'im), an' now Gaiman? (an' both chews--oy--an' always such things are pointed out... always always..)
Wow--terrific stack--egregores!--new ta me but whatta concept (dare I say "high concept") hidin' in plain sight, so obvious yet so apt a description for the insanity we're now "livin'" -- it's like a religion, as ya say--but also alchemical--tho' the result isn't gold nor even pyrite--it's a golem of bullsh*t!
Said golem is misdirected an' on autopilot--programmed to destroy "us" humans--thanks ta the The Useful Idiots of Chelm! (an' the rest of us that would prefer to duck when "Oy Robot" cuts thru town)-- An' mebbe it's not just one Golem but ruther a whole Terracotta Army of Powerful SJWs and armed an' spray-paint wieldin' "Free Palestidiots" (talk about an fictional nation) "awokened" ta soul-crushin' life with a little help from the collective incantations of TikTok, the Cathode-Ray Brain Implanted "Smart Phones," CBD edi-bulls an' George Tsuris!
But yes... it's QUITE the perfect description of "the now" -- the bizarre parin' of gnostic mysteries & high tech -- (they all seem high indeed!) -- deluded demigod clowns that have no clue the joke's on them...
An' speakin' of jokes--I couldn't resist re:
"egregores can emerge either bidden or unbidden"
Shall we say Bidened 'er Unbidened?! as by sheer collective will the mythic concept of the superhuman "JoeKing" took shape an' rose from a swirl of amorphous gray matter to form a flesh an' blood real live overgrown boy, a hair-sniffin' money-launderin' Petrified Pinnochio, able to affect a youthfully unwrinkled mien an' tell lies--giant whoppers all!--before the luminous teleprompter while da rubber schnoz stayed artifically small --perhaps growin' on the inside?--as if the popular AmeriConned imagination stunted its own growth to mask the obvious an' delusionally allow this 2fisted hairy legged chia-pet to puppet rule them as the Precedent--JoKing AssSide--of the United States) -- a national religion that breathed life inta a corpse an' unto it projected more hopes, dreams, an' malapropisms than Edgar Bergen ever managed with the far more amusin' (an' far brighter!) Charlie McCarthy! (let's hear it fer Egg Rigor!) (I'll also add that the new witchy-watchy Isis-like cult of the Cacklin' Kamalalalala--Deckin' the Halls with some Bows of Hooey --is also EggRigorious!)
Nice post Alex! I too had only heard about the concept of egregores fairly recently - I guess the idea is spreading. Interestingly, there is only *one* book on Amazon with the word egregore in the title - https://www.amazon.com/Egregores-Occult-Entities-Watch-Destiny/dp/1620555778/ . I read it and it's well written and a good introduction to the topic, but quite incomplete imo - there's definitely a place for someone to write something more comprehensive...
Thank you! I looked up "egregore" in "The Golden Bough" and a couple of books on Gnostic theology, and it wasn't there. I think that it was always a pretty fringe concept. Perhaps, as the saying goes, it was born for such a time as this.
Coincidentally, I read your article just after I finished reading the first chapter of The Great Awakening by Alex Jones, entitled “The Threat of Artificial Intelligence.” While the tone of his chapter is of course far more alarmist than your post, I can’t help but draw parallels between the two, particularly with respect to creation and worship of godlike “things” (for lack of a better word) through collective belief. AI is the perfect means by which to direct and control populations, and eventually even overcome them. How do we combat it? Removing the belief, but enough people would have to see this and get on board.
Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful article.
Thanks for the kind words. However alarmist Mr. Jones’s opinion of AI is, I doubt it’s more so than AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky’s.
https://time.com/6266923/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-open-letter-not-enough/
I don’t know if there is a way to stop it. I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
tho' I too am for soundin' the alarm loud an' clear (I'd not only like ta shut it down, I'd like ta toss the remains in a wood chipper fer good measure)--I think the TIME article--think about it--it's "Time!" ferhecksakes--is workin' that fear angle in lockstep with "Leave the World Behind" an' decades of predictive programmin' to let us know just how EVIL they can be an' how their masterpiece is now complete... "Zey" want us sooooo scared of what ZEY can do! AI will take over all human thought--it vill deshtroy us! Time is good at this stuff-- not sayin' that Yudkowsky ain't sincere... but let's just say Time Inc. is not one waste any opportunity!
I have for a few years been describing leftism as being, or as having created, an egregore.
Seems to be a concept whose time has come.
It's unfortunate that the concept of the egregore was used by Gaiman (who's a sexual predator and deviant, it now appears), for American Gods, which is a thoroughly degenerate work.
The concept of egregores was first introduced into the mainstream (as far as I can tell) by Mark Stavish of the Institute for Hermetic Studies http://www.hermeticinstitute.org/ he also wrote a book on them https://www.amazon.com/Egregores-Occult-Entities-Watch-Destiny/dp/1620555778
Thanks for referencing "Branded", it's a criminally underrated movie IMO.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. Stavish's book looks quite interesting, and I'm glad I'm not the only person who watched "Branded." As for Gaiman, who knows? These days, it's just as easy for a false accusation to ruin a celebrity's reputation as it is for a celebrity to exploit a fan. As with much of our "news," it's almost impossible to know what's true.
YW.
Re: Gaiman, the evidence appears overwhelming for a lifelong pattern of behavior. Oh, well. His best stuff was the collaboration with Pratchett (who IMO was infinitely more talented).
I'm REALLY hopin' it's not true--repeat of the Assange "inventions?"--They smear all who don't tow the line... hopin' Neil doesn't deserve that undertow!--otherwise (given I'm a fan of Gaiman), it's "Gods & Monsters" yet again--as in a lotta my literary Gods (who kinda know they're "gods") are turnin' out ta be monsters! first Harold Bloom (shame shame on 'im), an' now Gaiman? (an' both chews--oy--an' always such things are pointed out... always always..)
Great article. We just wrote on egregores too. https://bewaterltd.com/p/the-rise-of-meme-magic
Wow--terrific stack--egregores!--new ta me but whatta concept (dare I say "high concept") hidin' in plain sight, so obvious yet so apt a description for the insanity we're now "livin'" -- it's like a religion, as ya say--but also alchemical--tho' the result isn't gold nor even pyrite--it's a golem of bullsh*t!
Said golem is misdirected an' on autopilot--programmed to destroy "us" humans--thanks ta the The Useful Idiots of Chelm! (an' the rest of us that would prefer to duck when "Oy Robot" cuts thru town)-- An' mebbe it's not just one Golem but ruther a whole Terracotta Army of Powerful SJWs and armed an' spray-paint wieldin' "Free Palestidiots" (talk about an fictional nation) "awokened" ta soul-crushin' life with a little help from the collective incantations of TikTok, the Cathode-Ray Brain Implanted "Smart Phones," CBD edi-bulls an' George Tsuris!
But yes... it's QUITE the perfect description of "the now" -- the bizarre parin' of gnostic mysteries & high tech -- (they all seem high indeed!) -- deluded demigod clowns that have no clue the joke's on them...
An' speakin' of jokes--I couldn't resist re:
"egregores can emerge either bidden or unbidden"
Shall we say Bidened 'er Unbidened?! as by sheer collective will the mythic concept of the superhuman "JoeKing" took shape an' rose from a swirl of amorphous gray matter to form a flesh an' blood real live overgrown boy, a hair-sniffin' money-launderin' Petrified Pinnochio, able to affect a youthfully unwrinkled mien an' tell lies--giant whoppers all!--before the luminous teleprompter while da rubber schnoz stayed artifically small --perhaps growin' on the inside?--as if the popular AmeriConned imagination stunted its own growth to mask the obvious an' delusionally allow this 2fisted hairy legged chia-pet to puppet rule them as the Precedent--JoKing AssSide--of the United States) -- a national religion that breathed life inta a corpse an' unto it projected more hopes, dreams, an' malapropisms than Edgar Bergen ever managed with the far more amusin' (an' far brighter!) Charlie McCarthy! (let's hear it fer Egg Rigor!) (I'll also add that the new witchy-watchy Isis-like cult of the Cacklin' Kamalalalala--Deckin' the Halls with some Bows of Hooey --is also EggRigorious!)
Thanks! If you have a chance, check out "Branded." I think it's right up your alley.
thx! I will -- saw that dark lil' clip ya posted so I'm curious indeed!