I had a dream last night about doppelgangers. My friends and I were becoming slowly, ominously aware that there was a mysterious Other, a replica of us in body, but not spirit. These Others were malevolent…and immortal. We would try to kill one only to find out that we had murdered the original and that the doppelganger lived on.
It reminded me of a book I read a couple years ago called The Electronic Doppleganger : The Mystery of the Double in the Age of the Internet - which is a series of lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in 1917. In them he predicts an “intelligent machine” that would cause a multitude of problems for humans. This machine would be the perfect avenue through which the ahrimanic force could come through and manipulate the consciousness of humans. Ahriman, according to Steiner, is a cosmic being who represents everything that is clever, intellectual, materialistic and rigid with many laws and rules, but without heart or a value of the human or spiritual inside of us.
Steiner warns that this ahrimanic force will appeal to our desire for immortality and for material success. Ahriman encourages the triumph of science over spirit. It uses all kinds of tricks and illusions to lure us into a technocratic and robotic future divorced from what is our true humanity consisting of both body and soul.
Although Steiner didn’t exactly predict Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Artificial Intelligence or virtual reality, the editor of this book, Andreas Neider, makes the connection between Steiner’s ideas about Ahriman and our modern world of avatars, AI & online personas.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the concept of Ahriman expressing through our electronic doppelganger or “digital twin that mirrors our existence.” This twin only exists as a code of ones and zeroes, but our online persona and presence blurs the line between our true self and our false, machine self. The algorithm of these platforms begins harmlessly - mirroring our real life actions, accounting for what we like and dislike and sharing our routines and preferences with others. But in short time, and without full consciousness, we start to slowly lose autonomy as we are encouraged into what actions to take, entrained toward certain preferences and aversions, and compelled into routines that structure our days. The algorithm takes over and begins to program us. Our digital doppelgangers take on a certain life of their own and suddenly we feel enslaved to them - feeding our precious consciousness as fuel for the machine.
As bad as this all sounds, Steiner actually notes that the presence of Ahriman on the planet plays a key role in the evolution of humanity and is not all negative. The message is not to disengage completely with our digital presence or materialist science or computers themselves, but to remain conscious while using these tools. There is nothing wrong with technological development, but it must be balanced with a connection to the cosmos and our greater spiritual selves.
All of these ideas have been swirling in my mind in the weeks leading up to the impending election and have been part of my decision to take a break from instagram (the primary habitat of my electronic doppelganger.)
This is where the song “Do You Do As Everybody Tells You To” comes in. I have become increasingly turned off by the urging, guilting, shaming, judging, and “us & them-ing” going on through these platforms. At times it even feels like people are compelled by a force outside of themselves to speak, to nudge, to badger, to propagandize while in real life these same individuals have never acted in this way. It’s not wrong to state your perspective, to stand up for what you believe is right & good, but there’s something eerily hollow & contrived as these stances resound through the hallway of 1s and 0s. In real life conversation there can be a nuanced discussion and a healthy back and forth between people that helps us to understand each other and come to deeper compassion for different viewpoints, whereas the digital space encourages extremes and a life or death sort of fervor concerning this or that issue.
I think part of my reaction has to do with a feeling of guilt for not speaking up or saying something about one of the many atrocities happening at this time, but I also feel a deepening conviction that these highly controlled, generic platforms are not conducive to engaging in healthy, refined & soulful dialogue. And I return, as always, to Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his most quoted pieces (to the point of almost sounding like cliches) from “Self-Reliance”
“[There are] voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.”
“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.”
These are repeated often for good reason because it seems like the force of mass consciousness is so strong that we are constantly pulled from our own path and away from our innate wisdom and intuition.
I don’t want to be like everyone else, but I also want to belong.
This fundamental rift inside has kept me tip-toeing along the fence, attempting to see all sides and all perspectives while still holding a unique, nuanced individual perspective free from manipulation. I imagine this is how most of us feel. That we are unique, nuanced individuals attempting to remain free in mind.
But I would argue that since we are navigating more and more often through the binary system of our devices, we are being influenced further into black and white thinking. This is playing out in politics very clearly. We have been given two options while all other voices have been blocked.
Is it possible that the “intelligent machines” inside of whom we are spending more and more of our living, breathing time are influencing our minds toward an overly simplistic version of reality and away from our complex, multi-faceted understanding of our shared humanity?
The next time we feel compelled to tell someone what to do according to our own set of values and beliefs, perhaps it will be helpful to question whether the compulsion is coming from our true self or some force outside of us - whether you see that as societal pressure or even, possibly, Ahriman.
& the lesson from my dream *Take care to distinguish the True Self from the Doppelganger & don’t murder the wrong one*
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