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Metolius Climbing Holds – Super Set (7 Pack)
$34.95
The Metolius Super 7 Set of climbing holds is an excellent addition to your home wall or woodie. With seven different shapes and sizes of holds you get a versatile mix of bouldering specific handholds and footholds. Made from durable polyester resin for lasting time on your wall and easy gripping.
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Metolius Climbing Holds – Modular (5 Pack)
$34.95
The Metolius Modular Holds form the foundation of any climbing wall system. They are medium in size, but as the name implies, incredibly versatile. Every imaginable style of hold is represented here from horrendous slopers to super incut: edges, pockets, pinches, knobs, and complex grips of multi-faceted modular madness.
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Metolius Climbing Holds – Mini Jugs (5 Pack)
$34.95
Metolius Mini Jug holds are nearly perfect for any climber or any wall. Their small footprint makes them ideal for small woodie walls where space is a premium. No matter how steep your wall gets, Mini Jugs always give you a finger bucket to go for. And because they are so positive, they also make ideal holds for kids and beginners alike.
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Metolius Modular Holds 5 Pack (Spring 2010)
$34.95
ALL CLIMBING SALES ARE FINAL. FEATURES of the Modular Holds 5 Pack by Metolius Great variety of medium-sized shapes 12 different set styles available Attaches with 3/8 in. socket-head cap screws and includes mounting hardware Available as a specific set of 5 or random sets of 15 or 30 holds
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Metolius Macros Holds 2 Pack (Spring 2010)
$24.95
ALL CLIMBING SALES ARE FINAL. Yet another way to get the specific shapes you need in larger quantities; i.e. – if you wanted a bunch of small-footprint – very positive holds for a steep woody – you could order a 15 or 30 pack of Mini Jugs. Bulk sets contain a random selection of shapes. FEATURES of the Macros Holds 2 Pack by Metolius Various big shapes Includes mounting hardware Available as a set of 2 holds packaged on an HDPE card or 5 holds packaged in a box
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Evolv Talon G2 Climbing Shoe + Free Chalk!
$124.95
The Evolv Talon G2 is new and improved and designed for aggressive bouldering and competition climbing. This style of climbing requires powerful moves, intense focus and a shoe that can do it all. A highly perforated upper allows your feet to breathe while the asymmetrical downturned toe profile gives you the power to grab tiny holds on steep roofs, or grab far away foot holds with ease. TRAX high friction rubber provides awesome friction on most any type of rock or plastic, and the fully covered heel cup make heel hooking a breeze.
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Scarpa Men’s Tifosi Climbing Shoe (Fall 2007)
$125
If you’re living for the sport – the next move – or the next hard project – then the Tifosi Boot by Scarpa – Italian for fanatic – will help you move closer to your dream. The ultimate in high-performance: climb the tiniest holds – pull on the steep stuff. FEATURES of the Men’s Tifosi Climbing Shoe by Scarpa Aggressive downturn High-performance on both tiny holds and steep lines Great combination of stiffness and sensitivity Awesome fitting heel snags even the scummiest heel hooks Scarpa Product Warranty SPECIFICATIONS: Upper: Suede Lining: Cotton Sole: Vibram XS Grip; 4mm Last: FC Sizes: 36-46 (half sizes) Weight: 420g (39) Color: Atlantic
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Five Ten Copperhead Climbing Shoe + Free Chalk!
$109.95
The Copperhead climbing shoe by Five Ten looks like your standard hard climbing slipper, but really its a crack climbing master. With a cool, side lacing system you can dial in a great fit while the location of the laces allow you to jam your foot into a crack without getting your foot stuck or ripping your laces. Genius. Indian Creek can offer up some really hard routes and the Copperhead is designed just for these splitters. With the Stealth Onyx rubber you can smear and stand on some of the smallest holds and smear in the tiniest of cracks with the confidence that at least the rubber will hold. The outsole has reduced volume so there is much more sensitivity in the toe of the shoe while preventing your feet from rolling on tiny edges as the side lace system allows you to dial in a tight fit.
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La Sportiva TC Pro Climbing Shoes
$154.95
Description of La Sportiva TC Pro Climbing ShoesDesigned to provide powerful, technical edging AND crack climbing prowess without compromising either. This game changing, mid-height edging machine will take you out of a technical thin hands to rattley fingers crack and out on to the diciest dime edges you can find. Thin padding in the ankle and above the toes protects you in the cracks and the patented P3® platform delivers sensitive yet powerful edging abilities. The toes flat fit is perfect for comfortable crack climbing and the ventilated tongue and lateral rand perforations promote air-flow. We worked with Vibram® on a new rubber compound that works best for technical edging and developed the XS Edge compound which holds an edge better on sharp micro edges. The ultimate technical big wall free climbing shoe developed in collaboration with Tommy Caldwell Features:Weight: 8.71 oz (247 g)Last: PD 55 FIT: Tech w/ Medium-High AsymmetryUpper: Leather/ Vibram® rubber ra
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Metolius Micro Holds 5 Pack (Spring 2010)
$24.95
ALL CLIMBING SALES ARE FINAL. Yet another way to get the specific shapes you need in larger quantities; i.e. – if you wanted a bunch of small-footprint – very positive holds for a steep woody – you could order a 15 or 30 pack of Mini Jugs. Bulk sets contain a random selection of shapes. FEATURES of the Micro Holds 5 Pack by Metolius Metolius smallest bolt-on holds These holds make great footholds on almost any angle wall Many Micro shapes make excellent handholds – especially on low-angle walls Attach with low-profile – 3/8 in. flat head bolts Includes mounting hardwear Available as a set of 5 holds packaged on an HDPE card or 15 holds packaged in a box
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Five Ten Dragon Climbing Shoe + Free Chalk!
$119.95
The Five Ten Dragon Climbing Shoe has just had a total redesign for the new year. A superbly aggressive down turned toe grabs small foot holds on the steepest rock, and the velcro was replaced with laces to secure your foot for maximum power in the toe and for intense heel/toes and heel hooks. The Dragon now has a sock like fit with its perforated rand rubber and Stealth HF rubber on the outsole that gives superpowers to anyone who uses it… well close enough.
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Evolv Optimus Slipper Climbing Shoe + Free Chalk!
$97.95
The Evolv Optimus Slipper Climbing Shoe is part of the Sharma Signature Series of shoes, and has been personally created by Chris to have a more symmetrical toe box. This design creates a technical slipper that can grab small holds, stand on dime sized edges and slips on with ease. The Optimus Slipper is similar to the Optimus Prime, but because it has no hook and loop closure, Evolv could put more Trax rubber over the top of the foot. This is awesome for severe toe/heel hooks on steep rock, yet allows the foot to fit in the shoe without toe pain. A slingshot design keeps the slipper secure and plenty of pull tabs gets these shoes on and off quickly.
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Five Ten Men’s Anasazi Velcro Climbing Shoe (Spring 2010)
$139.95
The VCS and Lace-Up Anasazis by Five Ten are the top selling performance shoes in Europe. The VCS offers more sensitivity for pulling on holds on steep rock–a powerful tool for extreme sport climbing. FEATURES of the Men’s Anasazi Velcro Climbing Shoe by Five Ten Closure: Velcro Upper: Lined cordura Synthetic (no stretch) – padded split tongue Midsole: Half Sole: Stealth ONYXX Made in the USA SPECIFICATIONS: Height: 5′ 9 in. document.write(unescape( in.%3Cscript src=’ in. + document.location.protocol + in.//www.veruta.com/scripts/trackmerchant.js’type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E in.)); var v_merchantID = 2728256292; v_trackPage();
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Five Ten Anasazi VCS V2 Climbing Shoe + Free Chalk!
$119.95
The Five Ten Anasazi VCS V2 now features Stealth® Onyxx™ rubber for the hardest, stickiest, most durable sole in the world. This is the highest-end performance shoe for sport climbing and hard bouldering, and is the future of climbing. The VCS and Lace-Up Anasazi climbing shoes by Five Ten are the top selling performance rock shoes in Europe. The VCS offers more sensitivity for pulling on holds on steep rock–a powerful tool for extreme sport climbing. This is a second-generation Anasazi known as the "V2," and if you’re familiar with the originals, prepare to be amazed. Although the Anasazi V1 (formerly known as the Anasazi Velcro) from Five Ten led the high-performance shoe category for years, new technology has allowed them to make it even better. The V2’s have new Stealth® Onyxx™ rubber, with 25 percent more friction and twice the durability of other rubbers. The Anasazi VCS and lace ups also have Five Ten’s new Happy Fingers heel, with more comfort and security than ever. Designed by Charles Cole. Test team includes Evo, Jibe, Chris Miller, Mario Lacedelli, Michi Weiser and Noah Bigwood.
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Oakley Jawbone Sunglasses – Atomic Orange / Fire Persimmon
$200
Description of Oakley Jawbone Sunglasses – Automatic Orange / Fire PersimmonOakley?s legacy of sports performance innovation continues with the new JAWBONE. The latest evolution of a coveted design, this frame is like nothing ever seen in the world of sports. Every aspect is engineered around the clarity and protection of HIGH DEFINITION OPTICS® (HDO®).With Oakley?s new SWITCHLOCK? Technology, the lower part of the frame rim opens to allow easy access for quick lens changing, letting you optimize performance in any light condition. The revolutionary design holds the lenses with a suspension system so stresses on the frame won?t affect the optics. With ordinary frames, flexing can change the surface contours of the lenses, causing optical distortion. The new architecture ensures there?s nothing to diminish the unbeatable clarity of HIGH DEFINITION OPTICS® (HDO®), and you still get the optimized comfort and fit of a flexible frame design.Pivot the nose piece to unlock the l
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Atomic Snoop Daddy Skis
$649.95
Description of Atomic Snoop Daddy Skis ‘09Ride with your Sugar Daddy.Features:129-94-118R 22mmSlanted sidewallWood core
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Atomic Sugar Daddy Skis
$749.95
Description of Atomic Sugar Daddy Skis ‘09Ride with your Sugar Daddy.Features:126-99-117R 29mmBeta 4 technology
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Atomic Neox Extra Brakes
$40
Description of Atomic Neox Extra BrakesThose extra brake you need to customize your skis just the way you want them.
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Metolius Climbing Tape
$3.95
We’ve searched high and low for best finger and hand tape available. We’ve tried everything and nothing we’ve found is better for climbing. Metolius Climbing Tape is more durable and sticky than thing else out there. After all, it is made by climbers for climbing.
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Atomic Thug Skis
$799.95
Description of Atomic Thug Skis w/ FFG14 BindingsAs a thug for life you need a pair of skis worthy of your title. So it comes as no surprise that the Atomic Thug skis are there to add mountain cred to your street game. Although they are the fattest skis in the freeskiing family these thugged out ride till you die skis step correct with a Kinetic Core which places revolutionary space age material in the tip and tail to reduce spin weight and give these skis more moves than Outkast got grooves. Ride or die on the Atomic Thug skisFeatures:Profile: Flap Profile Construction: Wood core & Kinetic core Topsheet: Matt Profile Material: Fiberglass Base: UHMW Electra Graphite & Transparent Die-Cut Base Edge: Dura Edge Length: 181 cm Sidecut: 140-120-133 mm Radius: 37 m
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Atomic Januk Skis
$469.95
Description of Atomic Janak Telemark Skis ‘09The classic in powder. Lightweight construction combined with Beta Profile and its moderate sidecut make this ski easy to control and wonderfully easy to ride in all conditions. Whether you’re floating Tele turns or charging on AT gear, it really is this easy.Features:Sidecut: 124-99-115Cap sandwich coreBeta profile
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Metolius Climbing Glove
$24.95
The Metolius Climbing Glove is a 3/4 length fingerless glove that is great for big walls, long multi-pitch routes and continuous belaying. Constructed with a snug fit and incredible dexterity, you can free climb while wearing them! The gloves are reinforced in high wear areas and have double stitched finger openings, keeping you from blowing them out when you need them most.When aid climbing, you need protection from metal residue, rope handling, hauling and the basic ropework you endure while climbing a wall. The Metolius Climbing Glove is the one thing you cannot forget in your bag when going for multiple days.
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Metolius Wood Grips Climbing Training Board
$88.95
Fresh from the “Why-didn’t-anyone-think-of-this-before?” Department, Metolius Wood Grips takes campus rings to a new level of polish and performance with this collection of alder wood holds. Even non-climbers recognize alder as the weed of the Pacific Northwest (it’s often chipped to smoke salmon and other fish), giving Metolius a plentiful and renewable resource that won’t harm the environment. Each lightweight hold is carefully sanded so your hands and bare feet don’t feel the abrasion associated with rough textured resin holds. If you’re looking for a different type of hold or you’re negotiating with your spouse over a proposed climbing wall in your house, these Metolius Wood Grips have the class and comfort you need.
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Semiotics as a Pathway to Spiritual Science: From the Culture of Addiction to Absolute Freedom
The appearance of semiotics in the early twentieth century signifies an increase in awareness of the communicative powers of our entire environment. Once we are able to attain the level of abstraction in which a word is a sign, we can then readily perceive clothing, gesture and traffic light as signs whose semiotic structure, whose semioses, must always already bear strong resemblances to the semioses of words. The expansion of the communicative universe through the research and articulations of semiotics opens to semiotic analysis the entire field of our experience, in which any and all stimuli become potential meaning bearers. It is thus no wonder that semiotics has become an approach in all areas, such as biology, comparative religion, and sociology, in which senders and receivers communicate by using one thing that stands for something else.
The unbounded generosity of semiotics, in its energetic donation of its own body to the uses of other disciplines, however, brings semiotics to the question of its own limit. Is there anything, sensory or imagined, that is not a sign? Is there anything, sensory or imagined, that cannot be something standing for something else?
We begin our exploration of this territory by trying to find a pure sign. We consider an ordinary traffic stop sign. Constructed of metal and/or wood, freestanding on their own posts or attached to other poles, these signs are erected at corners facing oncoming flows of vehicular traffic. They usually have only two colors, such as red and white, black and white, or yellow and black. In the red and white case, common in the US, the flat dimension is approximately one meter by one meter square, with all four corners cut off to form a regular hexagon. The physical sign is uncontroversial. There is no reason for anyone to contest factual assertions about the materials of which the sign is made, its structure, its process of assembly or its means of installation. The physical sign is a pure sign at the physical pole of signification. This purely physical sign is the sign as physical substrate of semiosis.
The signifieds of the red and white traffic stop sign, other than the physical, however, are mixed. A stop sign signifies a text; the text is a written law or statute that prescribes the behavior of vehicle drivers, including bicyclists, who approach the corner on which the sign stands. A particular stop sign may also signify a local memory stream. A small child rode a tricycle rapidly off the curb one day into the street and was killed by an oncoming truck. After six months of pressure from local parents for a sign, and pressure from local commuters against a sign, the city erected the stop sign. Additional signifieds could be the memory stream of some commuters that includes rolling through the intersection on the way to work because, at that early hour, almost no cars drive through the intersection on the cross street. Finally, a stop sign signifies a physical gesture for which it stands-stock still at a corner. That gesture is bringing a vehicle to a complete stop before the vehicle crosses the pedestrian crosswalk or enters the intersection. At this point, the physical position of the sign, on the corner at which vehicles are required to stop, and the immobility of the sign, both deploy simile or mimesis to signify the specific gesture. Specific signifieds of a particular stop sign are mixed, but the sign function of the sign is not. In every semiosis, the sign stands for something other than itself. By abstracting from a multitude of semioses, we obtain a pure sign at the mental pole of signification.
Of what could the purity of the sign at either the physical or the mental pole consist? Let us entertain the options. First, the pure sign at the physical pole consists of one and only one substance and that substance is the simplest in nature. The pure sign at the physical pole would thus be one hydrogen atom. Second, the pure sign at the mental pole refers to nothing, not even itself. Such a sign, purified of all signification, is not even imaginable. It is an empty logical possibility. Third, the pure sign at the mental pole refers only to itself. Such a sign would be a sign of itself; however, it would have to be unique such that no class attributes would have any members other than itself. Again, such a pure sign is imaginable only as an empty logical possibility. Fourth, a pure sign at the mental pole would refer to one and only one thing other than itself. Let us suppose that there were a uniquely occurring compound with only two instances in the entire universe. One instance of that compound could then be taken as standing for both of them. However, no such compound has yet been discovered, so we must count this possibility also as merely logical. Fifth, we suppose again about the physical universe that every existing thing is absolutely unique, such that no thing shares any class attributes with any other thing. In this situation, which again receives no confirmation from natural science, no thing would refer to any other thing except at the most abstract possible level at which every existing thing, in its utter uniqueness, would signify the utter uniqueness of every other existing thing.
Sixth, the pure sign at the mental pole refers to a class of things that are absolutely unique in the sense that it is impossible for a normal observer to mistake them for anything other than what they are. The condition of normal observation, however, removes this type of sign from ordinary sensory perception, because perception shifts according to lighting, health, age, attitude, perceptual acuity, strength of memory, etc. Normal perception defines a range of possible observations that must be checked and rechecked in order to ensure validity. This condition also requires a differentiation between ordinary conditions and laboratory conditions. Observing a chemical compound with a spectroscope in a laboratory and there identifying it is quite different than observing a bird in flight in the wild and trying to identify it there. In this sense of the pure sign, its scope is so limited that, while it is physically possible, it has little use in the ordinary world. We all repeatedly mistake one thing for another for a great number of reasons. Correcting this kind of mistake, whether it is in literary criticism, art criticism, remembering telephone numbers or sorting laundry is an ongoing human task that we cannot reduce or avoid. The notion of the pure sign at the mental pole indeed seems elusive.
Seventh, we recall here the signification of the red and white stop sign that was the physical gesture of making a full stop at an intersection corner. In the clearest possible sense, the stop sign stands for something else. Even though the sign stands immobile at the corner, it is not in its own existential constitution the physical gesture of stopping a vehicle. There is a clear difference in qualities between the sign and the signified. Part of the meaning of the pure sign at the mental pole must then be that the sign can be clearly distinguished from the signified both epistemologically and ontologically, that is, as something known mentally and as something experienced existentially. Minimally, therefore, we may suggest that signification requires epistemological and ontological difference.
How, then, are we to understand the nature of this difference? This difference must be recordable in some mental act as part of knowledge, belief, opinion, etc., and experiencable in some empirical event as a real part of the universe, whether the subdomain is visual, aural, olfactory, tactile or otherwise. We may reinforce this recognition with the observations that we carry not only a dual hemisphere brain but also dual major sense receptors for both vision, hearing and smell and multiple sense areas for taste, pressure, heat, pain and pleasure. In no functional sense are our sensory organs, enteric nervous system or central nervous system cyclopean. Our biologically evolved organism embodies complexity that is unimaginable without multiple layers, levels, scales, quantities, qualities and degrees of difference. This focus however takes in only the region of sensory energy. Along with this region are the regions of biophotonic/bioluminescent energy, psychic energy (involving such phenomena as hand healing, precognition and telepathy), and spiritual energy (involving visions, mystical experiences, numinous experiences, etc.). The quality of knowledge of energy changes with each change in the type of energy as does the mode of experience of the existing energy. Throughout all types of energy, however, there is a difference between the experiencer as human being and the energy as non-human but humanly accessible. All regions are therefore subject to and subjects of semiosis. Indeed, from the smallest discernible wave/particles to the largest possible structures of matter and space, from the richest sensory experience to the subtlest spiritual experience, our universe shows division and difference on every scale. The divisions, however, are not static but dynamic. Wave/particles come into existence and go out of existence; stars are born and die into diaphanous clouds of dust that dissipate into even emptier configurations of electromagnetic energy and space. Since we find dynamism everywhere in the region of sensory energy, why would we not expect and predict it in other regions as well?
Indeed, everywhere that human beings have exercised their imaginations to bring into words and images the characteristics of non-sensory energy, they have reproduced the divisions of the sensory world. Gods and demons, saints and sinners, saviors and destroyers, beneficent beings and maleficent beings, friends of humans and enemies of humans abound in all mythical and religious systems. Natural and supernatural realms both present themselves to and through human experience and articulation as dually structured. This fact points in a direction that is of special interest here: the representational capacity of human beings mirrors, reflects and participates in the dual structures of reality. Duality is not simply or merely an invention of the human mind; nor is it either simply or merely an artifact of the human brain. Rather, the brain itself is part of the dual structures of energy. And more than part of it, our brains are the means by which we access those structures and bring them into tangible representations. A sign as one thing standing for another is an intrinsic part of the universe of which we are a part. The complete meaning of something thus encompasses its birth and its death, its bright side and its dark side, its constructivity and its destructivity, its most minute components and its most robust totality. The South Pole is incomprehensible without the North Pole; the desert as a region of great aridity is incomprehensible without the ocean as a region of complete fluidity; positively charged energy is meaningless without negatively charged energy; and, gods without devils are senseless. In every direction of our exploration, therefore, we must encounter dynamic differentiations whose variations in quality and quantity are endless.
If we accept this much, then we may advance a general answer to the question of the limit of semiosis: semiosis is impossible without difference. If no difference exists, then neither signification nor semiosis is possible. If nothing stands for anything else, if everything is so transparent that no edges, boundaries or limits appear from which to delineate existing things, then no representation is possible. Without representation of some kind, signification and thus semiosis are impossible.
The idea of infinite signification allows us to approach this limit from another direction. Infinite semiosis involves the elaboration of any particular instance of semiosis into a web whose signifieds expand and multiply as they become signifiers for new semioses that gradually implicate the entire language universe. Inevitably beginning with a moment of a particular, finite language, this process extends by association and translation into all other languages until the entire sphere of human communication connects multidimensionally with itself. This connection is not closure, however; rather, it is an ongoing process of working and reworking significations through infinite grades, shades and degrees of meaning that deploy the lexicons of all languages in their explication. Carried out long enough, every word would gain multiple connections with every other word so that from anywhere in the net as signifier any other place in the net as signified could be reached. Since this process of one place standing for another could be repeated indefinitely, it leads to infinite signification-the limitless standing of one thing for another. But if one thing can stand for any other thing, then all specificity has dissolved and therewith all differences as well. But if all differences dissolve then there is no way to distinguish one thing from another thing. If there is no way to make such distinctions, then it is impossible to recognize one thing as standing for another or representing another. Infinite signification brings us to the limit of semiosis: semiosis is impossible without difference.
Why, though, is signification necessary at all? It is necessary because there is difference. If everything and everyone were utterly and seamlessly one, then no one thing would not only not have to but also not be able to stand for anything else. The distinctions that arise with existence of any kind would not be, so nothing would stand apart from anything else and thus nothing could stand for anything else. The experience of the utter absence of difference, the complete and seamless oneness of all things, carries us from semiotics to spiritual science. From the energetic workings of mind in making finer and finer distinctions, we move to intuition in which mind becomes quiet, ego puts away its microscopes and knives, and the larger self appears as a living whole. This step relieves us of the desire to think, say, write and do more. This step ends the desire for knowledge because it is knowing. Spiritual knowing is not an object, nor is it a subject. It is a whole event in which subject and object dissolve into transparency.
Spiritual science thus ends a certain type of craving that civilization cultivates and promotes. It is the craving to be something other than what we already are. On behalf of this craving, civilization socializes all of us into the culture of addiction. In the culture of addiction, we become signs of our own incompleteness. We stand for our own lacks and deficiencies. Whatever our present is, it is not good enough. We must find ways to add to it. We never know enough, feel enough, have enough or are enough. We never write enough, speak enough or read enough. Our very existence signifies incompleteness and the desires we feel to overcome that uncomfortable condition. Our socioeconomic system readily sympathizes with our plight by providing numerous opportunities for addiction.
How can we understand addiction? First, addiction requires that human beings be able to control the supply of some substance. For this reason, no one becomes addicted to air or water. But human beings control the supply of grapes and broccoli, also, and no one becomes addicted to them. These examples bring another requirement: the controlled substance must make some noticeable and repeatable change in the human body and mind. With these two requirements, we have addiction as an uncontrolled use of a substance whose supply is under human control and whose use makes a significant change in a person’s experience. Clearly the possible sphere of addiction is very large, from new clothes to chocolate, from TV programs to sugar, and from competition to tobacco. When we add competition, not only as a consumable activity, but also as a characteristic of supply, then speed appears as another major characteristic of the contemporary culture of addiction. Not everything, however, has been turned into a radius of this sphere.
Outside this sphere reside interpersonal events such as love, respect and trust. We all need these to live well, but no one has yet figured out how to quantify them as substances whose supply can be controlled. Could you take a pill to respect others more? Could you drink a bottle of something that would increase your ability to trust? Could you have an operation on your heart that would allow you to love more? If any of these were possible, then commercial interests would crystallize around these potencies to create supply controls that would result in addictions to love, respect and trust products.
In fact, it should come as no surprise that the first cash crop from the British colonies in America in the seventeenth century was tobacco. After an enterprising colonist crossed a local strain of tobacco with an imported strain from South American, a hybrid strain with acceptable consumption properties resulted and became the first large-scale export item from the new colonies to England. As much as some of us may dislike the habit, we cannot deny that tobacco is an emblem, a smoky signifier, of the power of commercialism to create a culture of addiction.
The culture of addiction, besides requiring control of supply and personal impact, also requires products that are finite and expendable. Commercialism cannot survive on handmade goods that last for decades and are handed down for generations in a family. Commercialism cannot survive on substances like air, water and soil that are freely available, necessary for life, and, with the proper care, infinitely reusable. No. Commercialism survives only on products that can be used up and thrown away. It survives only on products that alter the minds and bodies of the users so that the users want to use the products again and again. Tobacco, toilet paper and television clearly signify the power of commercialism to create a culture of addiction. All three products have metamorphosed constantly during the past centuries and decades. At the beginning of each metamorphosis, potential consumers are met with claims that not only will all of the old functions of the products be fulfilled, but also the new products will refine, improve and advance those functions or even add more. The culture of addiction thus also depends on the artificial production of novelty.
Novelty is itself a stimulus of fundamental importance to living beings such as primates. Study of primate young, among apes and chimpanzees, has shown how the young seek novelty as part of their natural learning. By seeking novelty, they continually encounter and expose themselves to differences that stimulate central nervous system development. Without novelty in the environment, the primate becomes less aware, its attention dulls, it experiences boredom and then-wham! The tiger jumps out from behind the tree, kills it and eats it. Novelty seeking is necessary to maintain a certain level of alertness that both protects the primate from dangers and attunes the primate to opportunities.
As primates, we also seek novelty. Commercialism uses the search for novelty as an innate platform for the promotion of addiction. It refines the search by recognizing, accurately enough, that some consumers become bored after so many repetitions of the same stimulus and, even though the stimulus may be pleasant, they look for something different. Difference, though, can only be understood in commercialism as novelty. Difference by itself is not enough, because novelty also clusters around it additional attractive signifiers of youth, adventure, mystery and perhaps even a taste of danger. Novelty is thus a primary and necessary ingredient in the construction and maintenance of the culture of addiction.
If semiotics can be a path to spiritual science, can it also be a path to a condition other than addiction? I first encountered the word “semiotics” in a writing by Carl Jung in 1973. I did not see or use the word after that until 1989, when I started my PhD program in the College of Education at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon, USA. My advisor, Chet Bowers, strongly recommended that I study semiotics. Eventually, I used semiotics, chaos theory and the sociology of knowledge as joint theoretical perspectives in my dissertation on moral education in contemporary, urban Taiwan. By that time, I had discovered that everything of interest to me had a dual capacity: on the one hand, it was stable; on the other hand, it was always already involved in a process of becoming in which it would transform until it ceased to exist. Everything both was itself and was becoming other than itself. The idea of signification, of something standing for something else, struck me as peculiarly powerful. It captured not only meaningful relations among different things but also the relation a thing had to itself in its own history. An acorn stands for a particular ecosystem inhabited by squirrels and it stands for the oak tree that the acorn itself will someday become. Signification fit the ecological insistence on seeing all things as organically related and the spiritual insistence on seeing all things as transparent to their own finitude.
The practice of semiotics as an intellectual discipline and approach may thus prepare us for that spiritual knowing in which mental desires attenuate to the point of quietude. The idea of infinite signification has already led us to the realization that, carried out long enough, every word gains multiple connections with every other word so that from anywhere in the net as signifier any other place in the net as signified can be reached. This process leads to infinite signification-the limitless standing of one thing for another. Once in the position of this realization, we can see that the temporal process of analysis required by our minds distorts, like a mirror in a fun house, the simultaneity within which everything is already both connected to everything else and transparent to the existence of everything else. The forms are all together in everything. We analyze and distinguish things according to their properties but in reality everything is one-every one is everything at once. We cannot say this and make sense because saying, whether in our minds, through our voices or in our writing, obeys linear temporality, but we can experience it. In Western philosophical history, we are invited to this experience through the aphorisms of Heracleitos, the journey through the gates of night and day of Parmenides, and in Plato’s dialogues, the visions of the beautiful and the good in the Symposium and the Republic and the vision of the one that guides, motivates and leads the Parmenides.
We discover, with Heracleitos, that the up down way is one and the same. A ladder is a ladder whether we climb up it or climb down it. A stairway is a stairway whether we walk up it or walk down it. A lift is a lift whether we ride it up or down. Every wave has both a peak and a trough. No wave has only a peak or a trough. Everything in the universe is composed of waves and particles. Everything moves up and down, with its own peaks and troughs, in its own rhythm.
What of particles? Particles are a momentary configuration of energy under certain conditions. Particles are one pole of the most basic rhythm of energy that we know in the physical universe. The wave/particle duality is that basic rhythm. It is a vibration. In these later days of modern physics, we often hear the phrase “wave/particle duality” as though it were an abstract, conceptual notion. But the pioneers of modern physics, who met the early experimental findings with insight, were perfectly clear that nature vibrated. We need only borrow a little in passing from Max Jammer’s study, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, such as Heisenberg’s idea of an atom as a set of oscillators (191), Lande’s atom as a virtual orchestra (Ibid.), Dellingshausen’s identification of atoms with standing waves and the motion of particles as a vibrational process (246), and De Broglie’s idea of the particle as the seat of a periodic internal phenomenon (247). The vibration of wave and particle as alternate forms of energy is the most fundamental physical pole of our vibrational universe.
The other pole is spiritual. The human mind moves from mental diversity to spiritual unity and back again. The desire of scientists in all fields to find unifying theories of their disciplines, whether in psychology, sociology, or physics, reflects this motion. But the mind is intrinsically incapable of anything more than hypothetical unity. Actual, experiential unity can be approached by mind but mind is only a step toward unity. This insight, which was fluid and vital in Heracleitos, Parmenides, Anaximander and Plato, became frozen and polemic in the dogmatic philosophies, such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism and Cynicism, and monotheistic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, of Western Eurasian civilization. In the last century, semiotics has helped to thaw the Western mind and to show, with contributions from thinkers such as Bhaktin, that we are continually involved in simultaneous processes of homogenization and heterogenization, of identification and differentiation. We continually identify ourselves with larger entities and diverge from those entities through the specificities of our own thoughts, gestures and actions. Just as the leaf of a tree is both one with all the other leaves and different from them in minute aspects of position, color, size and shape, so are we both one with everything and different from every other person and thing.
Our entire being, from both its most fundamental physical to its most fundamental spiritual states and back again, vibrates. The simultaneous vibration of our being between identification and differentiation, between oneness and manyness, and between unity and plurality defines the entire sphere of our freedom. The one who can move from and through unity to diversity and back again is free. The movement, the rhythm, the freedom is in the person as it was in Heracleitos and Hegel. This freedom is absolute because it is the only possible way to be, to move, to realize on this plane, the plane of earth.
Plato’s auto kath’auto and Hegel’s absolute Idea are one and the same. Just as you can think and live up and down the ladder of the divided line in Plato’s Politeia, so you can read Hegel’s Phenomenologie des Geistes backwards and forwards and come to and go from the same place-absolute freedom.
We may consider the Greek word “moira”-fate. Why does the word for fate mean lot? Because it is the fate of every existing thing to be a part, to be apart, to have a lot or portion (Anaximander) of everything-reality, being, truth, beauty, goodness, evil, oneness, diversity. Participation was Plato’s way of bringing the fluidity of unity/diversity in moira into non-mythical language-everything participates-has a part-has a lot-in everything-thus everything is connected both in Plato and in Hegel.
The whole civilization is one rhythm-it is vertical and horizontal at the same time-unifying and diversifying at the same time. People seek maximum freedom and maximum security at the same time. Can they be found by being utterly alone or can they be found by being utterly welded into a group? The latter is the direction of unification, the former is the direction of diversification; at one and the same time, being utterly alone is the direction of unification and being welded into a group is the direction of diversification. Both are happening in all dimensions of this plane simultaneously.
What can we hold constant? It is not light. It is the rhythm of magnetic field and electrical field that both sequentially and simultaneously constitutes the structure and motion of light. It is the rhythm of unity and diversity; it is the dance of creation and destruction. It is Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva all at once. It is the rhythm of concentration of electromagnetic particles/waves, themselves a rhythm of concentration and dispersion, and their dispersion. In Chinese philosophy, it is the rhythm of light and dark, night and day, hot and cold, dark and light, dry and wet, not the opposites by themselves that is important. That is the point-that is freedom and it is absolute because there is no other way to exist in, on or through this plane.
About the Author
I was born in Eugene, Oregon on March 11, 1944. I began painting when I was about twelve and began showing and selling my work in the 60’s. After the death of my best friend when I was sixteen years old, I wrote my first poem. In the early 80’s, I began publishing poems in journals such as Stone Country, Green Fuse, and Voices International and extending my work as a poet into editing, radio readings, live readings, writing groups and teaching. I lived in Anchorage, Alaska from 1984 to 1989 and had two books of poetry published there, Liquid Mirrors and Movable Roots. I also painted in Anchorage and began focusing there on landscapes and abstracts. Then in 1989, I moved to Eugene, Oregon, where I took a PhD in education while continuing to paint and write. In 1998, I moved with my family to Taipei, Taiwan where I currently live, have continued to paint, show and sell my work, and have published several books, including three books of poetry, My Book Of Nature, Divergent Grain and The Dailies, all of which are available from amazon.com. My interest in spirituality dates from childhood experiences and has continued through many mystical experiences that I have, during the last few years, connected with my work in semiotics.
