Ego is the First Form of Synchronicity

"I was very interested in synchronicity in my youth.  That’s sort of what got me started reading Jung.  But the more time I spent reading philosophy and especially philosophy of science related to time, I came to realize that synchronicity as presented by Jung is not an explanation of anything.  It’s the name of a phenomenon, but it is no explanation. In fact, it tells you there is no explanation.  The explanation is there is no explanation, it’s simply synchronicity. 

You have to be able to perceive almost schizophrenically.  What happened to Phillip K. Dick was that the resonance became stronger than the reality, or, it became equal in strength to reality, so that by squinting he could see 2nd Century Rome.  Everybody changed into people wearing togas and people speaking Demotic Greek and everything.  That was the resonance of where he was at.

But when the resonance comes forward with such strength that the foreground is displaced, they have a name for that: buggo. 

You know, you gotta watch that. 

On the other hand, if you can control it, it’s a source of great richness and inner amusement."

Terence McKenna

In this particular scene I was playing the score for Joaquin in the room because, we had Hildur Guðnadóttir who is our composer.  I had her write music before we shot the movie, which isn’t done very often.  She wrote it based on the screenplay, and I wanted that because I wanted the music to really affect and infect this set in a way.  I wanted the camera operators, the set dressers, the wardrobe, everybody to feel this music. 

If I remember correctly, we were playing her score when we were shooting this, and all of a sudden as Joaquin is struggling with Arthur’s smile, and his frown, and figuring out again if his life is a comedy or a tragedy, this little tear appears.  And we just had the scene and we moved on.

Todd Phillips

Ego is the First Form of Synchronicity - Notes/Rough Draft

How does this work again?  Off the top of my head (no internet search)

Todd Phillips new film The Joker was released this week.  His first film was Hated in the Nation about GG Allin. 

From what I have seen in the previews, The Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as a traumatized and possibly mentally ill man who strives for acceptance through performing on stage.

Phoenix is famous for an elaborate joke, I’m Still Here, in which he “retired” from Hollywood, and pursued a dream of becoming a rapper on stage.

GG Allin and Phoenix ( or is it "the character" Phoenix plays in ISH) represent two individuals who achieved success in the polished game of fame, before turning on and dropping out, and then sharing their descent into madness. 

Again, I am only assuning from what I have seen in the previews, The Joker seems to be Phillips and Phoenix attempt to tell the story about the dark side of chasing fame, of the people who go into the pursuit with unavoidably tragic baggage.  People who have lost so much, and have somehow been led to believe that ascension into the world of fame is a form of salvation.

In trying to select an album to listen to when taking in this new movie, I look for puzzle pieces of fact that fit together.

I immediately seized upon The Glowing Man by Swans.

A.  They are both two hours long

B.  Robert DeNiro’s character is named Murray Franklin/The Glowing Man has a song called Frankie M.

C.  Robert DeNiro is starring in a new film called The Irishman/I am Irish

D.  The Clown makeup of The Joker represents a type of “glowing man”, a person whose face is lit up and amplified

E.  Michael Gira’s early performances in the 80’s remind me of a more stable GG Allin, in the sense that Gira laid waste to his ego in the most savage and vulnerable of ways. 

F.  The two opening songs “Cloud of Unknowing”/”Cloud of Forgetting” represent a striving to be released from the imprisonment of some type of trauma, or a dark and uneasy past.  This is something that can be achieved gracefully, or perversely.  I feel that this film will show the dark side, the perverse side of salvation that arises in hopeless situations.

G.  The final song on the album is called “Finally, Peace”, which is something that I believe the character of The Joker is ultimately searching for.

For me, these are enough puzzle pieces for my mind to twist and turn and piece together into what I can only describe as a metaphysical lens through which to see, hear.

iAhuasca: an arrangement of interdependent correspondences designed to transcend perspective so completely it triggers a niagra of coincidence that, once believed, projects pre-cognitive synchronicities into the foreground.

I have only seen previews of The Joker.  I have not read any movie reviews.  I have looked up character names and the time of the movie on Wikipedia.

I do not know the plot of this film, but I feel like I know what it is about,.  I feel like I have heard it already in the music of The Glowing Man;  this is simply a chance to see a film version of that music. 

Will the marriage of this album and this film be interesting? 

Of course.  Any chance to sit and listen to The Glowing Man from start to finish is going to be an interesting meditation.

Will there be synchronicity?

Of course.  Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. 

But what happens when a stopped clock is right three times a day? 

Or four, or five times a day?  These sparks are the kindling for the type of experience I am looking for. 

I am going to the theater in about an hour.  I plan to take a few notes, and then I hope to polish these notes into another final synthesis of what this blog is all about.