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Ethical Philosophy Ethical Philosophy Ethical Philosophy Ethical Philosophy

Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense

Topic for February 22, 2015

(last revised February 6, 2015)

Self-Indulgence vs. Self-Transcendence

a life choice explored by Aldous Huxley

in

The Devils of Loudun The Devils of Loudun The Devils of Loudun The Devils of Loudun

Which Are You Into? Which Would You Like To Be Into? Where Are You On The Scale?

Summary As modern as this minute and as human as us, these 17th Century events in remote

Loudun, France invite us to examine ourselves.

Why do some of us indulgence in every human pleasure/drive while

others seek to transcend/deny them? Is one path better or is it

about finding a happy medium? Or, are only certain pleasures to be

transcended? Is discernment between them the real goal?

Huxley uses the actual lives of these actual people as specimens for us to dissect.

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The Event, the Book and the Movie

In 1634 a French priest named Urbain Grandier was burned at the stake

for the crime of seducing (with demonic aid) every single woman in the

House of Ursuline Nuns. Although they were all locked in their cells behind stone walls and he had never been near the place, 17 nuns sworn to it. The

exorcisms and miracles that followed became a famous tourist attraction

and finally a traveling road show. All of the principles involved (and many

others including King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu) wrote about it.

Balanced at the hinge between medievalism and the Age of Enlightenment, everyone

took sides and had an opinion. Catholics marveled and Protestants laughed. It was

something like Dreyfus Affair. Was he evil or simply framed?

In 1952 Aldous Huxley retold the story in The Devils of Loudun as an example of how and why, some people choose a life of

A. sensualism, self-indulgence, assertion, etc. ; while others go for

B. complete self-transcendence.

It was made into a major motion picture in 1970 staring Vanessa Redgrave

and Oliver Reed. Although wildly criticized by religious folk as lewd and

anti-Catholic, it is considered a cinematic masterpiece. It in now unavailable, but an amateur review can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf1KHXDkKyw . If you watch it, the

destruction of the castle was Richelieu’s strategy throughout France to strengthen the king, but Grandier

was not involved in that. All the sexual bizarreness was actually part of exorcisms, so showing it is hardly

anti-Catholic. Organized religion in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular, is anti-Christian.

From his comments, the film reviewer had obviously not read the book itself. So take his comments about

the real behaviors of real people in history…as his own demonic possession.

The Principals According to Huxley

Father Grandier was a pure sensualist. He was clever, educated, handsome, charming

and deliciously cruel. Everyone loved him except those who knew him well.

While taking their confessions, he seduced his wealthy parishioner’s

virginal daughters. He made fun of closest friends behind their backs, while preening in Christian piety. He savored every grievance and actively

sought new ones. He loved a fight in any arena; legal, political or social.

He was a sadistic, mean spirited, contentious, two faced hypocrite1 and loved every minute of it.

1 He excused his promiscuity on the ground that the law does not hold a promise binding if it is (A) impossible to fulfill, and chastity

was an impossible goal for Grandier, and (B) if it were made under duress. In order to be ordained, he had to take an oath of

chastity. That was duress.

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The problem was that the crowd of his enemies just kept growing. Finally they formed a

club, the Get Grandier Club (my term.) It met regularly to devise ways to bring him down. Even the all powerful Cardinal Richelieu in distant Paris wanted him dead.

Father Surin (Jeanne’s later confessor) was Granier’s opposite, to a fault. He disdained

and repressed every human thought, feeling and pleasure. He was so into

Christian perfection that the other Jesuits thought him unhinged. He never

doubted her possession and finally became possessed himself. At one point, he

felt that his greatest sin was not being more sinful. God had damned him and God was always right. It was a sin for Surin to fail to be sinful enough to

justify God’s poor opinion of him. He spend the rest of his long life disabled and

tormented by physical and psychological horrors.

The Prioress Jeanne was a 25 year old clever, ambitious, bitter, shallow, neurotic

deformed nun. Like most nuns, she had been placed in the convent

by her noble family which didn’t want to spend the money for a

dowry. She loved attention and claimed to be graced by God.

Huxley called her a “religious comedian.” He defines such comedians

as people who pretend to value some religious virtue, but only for the obvious worldly benefits.

Does that sound familiar?

Their Actions According to Huxley

Stung by Grandier’s refusal to be her confessor, Jean revealed that he came to her cell

at night and seduced her. The Get Grandier Club (either devised or adopted the idea) and promoted it to other nuns. Seventeen ultimately testified to being demonically

possessed through Grandier’s efforts.

Regular public exorcisms drew crowds of tourists, even

pilgrimages from all over Europe. As with today’s mass

entertainment, they included sexual titillation. The

nuns would howl profanities, make sexual invitations,

pull their habits over their heads and wreath in apparent ecstasy. They usually included

bondage, spankings, whippings and every possible kind of “miraculous enemas.”

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The nuns performed (on command) the usual demonic acrobatics

that were later illustrated in the movie The Exorcist. One English

tourist recorded watching a nun walk upside down, on only her heels

and the top of her shaved head.

Very quickly the throngs of tourists made the convent (and the town) rich.

In 1634, Grandier was tried. Richelieu’s Royal Commission railroaded a conviction through clear violations of civil and

Church procedures2. Witnesses for the defense were

ignored, threatened, bribed or chased out of France.

Despite all assurances, Grandier was burned to death rather

than granted the usual merciful strangulation.

The public exorcism shows continued for several years until the lead exorcist went

utterly insane and died. The salaries of the other exorcists were suspended and all the

nuns were suddenly cured. Then Jeanne organized a “miracle” tour and gave private

interviews to many Catholic monarchs. They marveled at (A) the “holy names” (stigmata)

written on the skin of her left hand3, (B) her excrement-soiled chemise which smelled

like perfume and (C) her miraculous recovery. Later, many of the possessed nuns

confessed to feeling guilty about their testimonies against “an innocent man.”

After writing an autobiography, Jeanne died in 1665. Her holy chemise and head were

on display in the convent until they became an embarrassment to the order. They were

then moved to other convents and finally disappeared. The order of Ursuline Nuns is

active in America today.

Similarities to Modern Trials

The whole thing smells a lot like the day-care-providers-are-Satan-worshiper trials

inspired by repressed memory therapists. It also hints at our handling of “Al Qaeda

suspects” imported from the Mid-east; our constitution and all laws are abandoned

because they are “the worst of the worst.”

2 Court procedures specifically designed for possession trials show a clear effort at finding truth, given medieval beliefs. In this case, they were all ignored. The assumption that Satan is a liar was translated into everything a demon says is true. Any testimony in Grandier’s defense was interpreted as a lie devised by the devil. Tests on the demons like asking the nuns questions in foreign languages all failed to show their validity, but the results were ignored. Protestant observers (from England, Germany etc.) were

unimpressed and reported that it looked like fraud and/or hysteria. 3 Some observers noted that all such writings were always on the left hand of right handed nuns.

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Everything Looks Different But the Difference is Only Visual

“The charm of history…consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and

yet everything is completely different. In the personages of other

times and alien cultures, we recognize our all to human selves and

yet are aware…that the frame of reference within which we do our

living has changed…out of all recognition, propositions that seemed

axiomatic then are now untenable…the difference between then and

now is always peripheral…” (p. 259)

We focus on the different frames of reference in order (technology, beliefs, languages, etc.) to excuse the same behaviors in ourselves. At EP a newcomer recently asserted

that the Allies ethically superior to the Axis because they didn’t use gas-chambers. Atomic bombs are totally different and completely justified. Blowing up the Twin Towers was inexcusable, but bombing cities and droning people is fine. Invading and

corrupting other cultures is only sharing the blessings of globalization and free trade.

Perhaps maturity is about seeing ourselves in others,

under different circumstances.

Those different circumstances are accidents of history. Unless we

have earned the difference through our own work, in which case,

the drive to work was an accident of history.

Self Transcendence According to Huxley

The Motivation

“’The world’ is man’s experience as it appears to, and is molded by, his ego…apprehended

as one damned thing after another.” (P. 65)

“The urge for self-transcendence is almost as common as the urge for self assertion.” (p. 67)

Self-transcendence is an escape from the “loneliness of the isolated self.” “they long to

get out of themselves, to pass beyond the limits of their tiny island universe, within

which every individual finds himself confined.” (p. 66)

If we long to transcend above the self, it is because “In some obscure way, we know who

we are.” (P. 69) People “long to get out of themselves” because of a “deep seated horror

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of their own selfhood.” (p. 68) “When the phenomenal ego transcends itself”…”the

essential self is free…”

How People Did It Then and Do It Today

In Grandier’s day, as well as the usual techniques listed below, they used (A) prayer, (B) fasting,

(C) flagellation, (D) miracles, (E) visions, (F) voices, (G) magic, (H) ancient religions which were integrated

into Roman Catholicism, through which then came into modern Christianity, etc.

Today we use booze, drugs, sex, music, religious ceremonies and other herd intoxic-

ations4, political hysteria (The Tea Party), sports-fan frenzies (tailgate parties, the

Superbowl, etc.) patriotic war frenzies (911 hysteria), Quietism (Quaker silent worship,

monastic contemplation, etc.), careers, hobbies, lots of marijuana, etc. (p. 321)

Are these not all ways to take a break from one’s self for a while?

Self-transcendence is not always good or bad. Huxely says that it can be:

A. downward

B. horizontal, or

C. upward

ˇ Downward Transcendence ˇ

Common downward includes (A.) bodily degradation by alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.

(B.) psychological degradation into insanity, the occult, space aliens, conspiracy theories,

the paranormal, etc. (C.) degradation into the animalistic self such as cruelty,

debauchery, gluttony, etc.

Cruelty Enjoyed by Individuals

“To allay their sense of guilt, the bullies and the sadists provide themselves with

credible excuses for their favorite sport. Thus brutality towards children is

rationalized as discipline…” “Brutality towards criminals is a Categorical Imperative.

Brutality towards religious or political heretics is a blow for the True Faith. Brutality

towards an alien race is justified by arguments from once may have passed for science.”

In this case, people who do this do so “first because the enjoyed being brutal and

second, because they were convinced that they do well to be brutal. (p. 294)

4 (crowds become more than ordinarily suggestible, as in riots)

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Cruelty ranges from the casual cruelties of everyday life (ridicule, ignoring the distress of others to horrific slaughter. Those who engage in severe cruelty always see them-selves as protecting the highest and most noble values. What appeals is an excuse.

But they’re not fooling anyone but themselves and people like them.

As Individuals, they ENJOY BEING CRUEL.

Cruelty Enjoyed by Large Groups

“Evil has ceased to be metaphysical and has become political and economic. Radical evil now incorporates itself in the representation of some hated class or nation.” “…the

rationalizations have under gone certain changes but the hatred and ferocities justified

are all too familiar. (p. 128)

“For more dangerous are the crimes of idealism. The crimes which are instigated,

fostered and moralized by hallowed words…planned when the pulse is normal and

committed in cold blood.” …”crimes of idealism were predominately religious, now are

predominately political.”

“The only things that remain unchanged are the idolatrous superstitions of those who

swallow the dogma, the systematic madness…with which they act upon their beliefs.”

We have

“chronic compulsions to wholesale murder and mass suicide”

such as human suicide through ecological destruction. (p. 302)

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------ Horizontal Transcendence ------ Horizontal transcendence is common, even beneficial in many ways. Such things as

getting lost in careers, hobbies, goals, causes etc. can have good results.

^^^^^^^ Upward Transcendence ^^^^^^^^

“When the phenomenal ego transcends itself”…”the essential self is free to realize”…

the fact of its own eternity”…”getting out of the way so that the Ground can come to the surface.” “that the ground of our individual knowing is identical with the Ground of

all knowing and being…” p. 69

“The purpose of our existence is to make room in the “thou”

for the That”…so the Ground can come up to the surface.”

Self transcendence can be a way for those who are aware of their sadistic urges to go beyond mere justifications and avoid the troubling acts.

“Over against ‘the World’ stands ‘the other world’, the Kingdom of God within.” (P. 65)

“Praying one day…he became award of the supernatural light.” (P. 66)

I give Self-Indulgence vs Self-Transcendence a grade of _?_

What do you think?

Sebastian Z. Twit February 20, 2015

Later Reflections