Thank for the new session - sure packs a wallop of data!! The NO baseline measurements were a fascianting touch, although I have no ability to dissect information from it.
The Dionysian information kind of takes me back also to a book I read by Friedrich Nietzsche called The Birth of Tragedy, which talks about the role of the Dionysian spirit in Greek culture and how it was counterbalanced by the essence of the Apollonian spirit in theatrical tragedy. From Wikipedia:
Funny about the genetic weapon backfiring... I mean you'd have to be a doofus not to have seen THAT one coming.
So I got to thinking about this, especially after reading this post. I wondered if the C's made the remark in relation to our interest of late in Peterson. Peterson was obviously (to me) greatly influenced by Nietzche. The foundation of his thesis in 'Maps of Meaning' is the idea of the constant interplay between the known; masculine, authoritative, cultural, structured reality, and the unknown; feminine, underworld, chaotic, foreboding, place of hidden knowledge etc. And the role of the hero to play his role when the known has become static and deteriorates due to rigidity as it always does after a time.
I kept hearing Dionysus in an old song I remembered vaguely coming to mind. Then it came to me while taking a shower. I decided to have another look:
It's a concept album from the band Rush called Hemispheres alluding to the hemispheres of the brain interestingly. (or at least I think so)
I. Prelude
When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients first began
The gods of Love and Reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of Man
They battled through the ages
But still neither force would yield
The people were divided,
Every soul a battlefield…
II. Apollo Bringer of Wisdom
‘I bring truth and understanding,
I bring wit and wisdom fair,
Precious gifts beyond compare.
We can build a world of wonder,
I can make you all aware’
‘I will find you food and shelter,
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storm.
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform’
The people were delighted
Coming forth to claim their prize
They ran to build their cities
And converse among the wise
But one day the streets fell silent
Yet they knew not what was wrong
The urge to build these fine things
Seemed not to be so strong
The wise men were consulted
And the Bridge of Death was crossed
In quest of Dionysus
To find out what they had lost…
III. Dionysus Bringer of Love
‘I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night
In the Heart’s eternal light
You need only trust your feelings
Only Love can steer you right’
‘I bring laughter, I bring Music,
I bring joy and I bring Tears
I will soothe your primal fears
Throw off those chains of Reason
And your prison disappears’
The cities were abandoned
And the forests echoed song
They danced and lived as brothers
They knew Love could not be wrong
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars
The people were contented
And the Gods watched from afar
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared
Bringing wolves and cold starvation
And the hearts of men despaired…
IV. Armageddon The Battle of Heart and Mind
The Universe divided
As the Heart and Mind collided
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years
In a cloud of doubts and fears
Their world was torn asunder into hollow hemispheres
Some fought themselves, some fought each other
Most just followed one another
Lost and aimless like their brothers
For their hearts were so unclear
And the truth could not appear
Their spirits were divided into blinded hemispheres
Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light
My Rocinante sailed by night
On her final flight
To the heart of Cygnus’ fearsome force
We set our course.
Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place
V. Cygnus Bringer of Balance
I have memory and awareness
But I have no shape or form
As a disembodied spirit
I am dead and yet unborn
I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old
To the City of Immortals
Marble white and purest gold
I see the Gods in battle rage on high
Thunderbolts across the sky
I cannot move, I cannot hide
I feel a silent scream begin inside
Then all at once the chaos ceased
A stillness fell, a sudden peace
The Warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified
Apollo was astonished
Dionysus thought me mad
But they heard my story further
And they wondered, and were sad
Looking down from Olympus
On a world of doubt and fear
Its surface splintered into
Sorry hemispheres.
They sat a while in silence
Then they turned at last to me
‘We will call you Cygnus
The God of Balance you shall be’
VI. The Sphere A Kind of Dream
We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim
Let the truth of Love be lighted
Let the love of truth shine clear
Sensibility
Armed with sense and liberty
With the Heart and Mind united
In a single perfect sphere
So you have an archetypal tale; the structured reality of the known based on reason becomes stale and fails to nourish the souls of the cities. Dionysus is consulted and the cities are abandoned for a more natural existence based on brotherly love. But winter comes and they're caught unaware and suffer the consequences. A hero emerges and flies into the unknown, into a black hole. He retrieves the necessary information to successfully to update the known.
According to this story, Dionysus syndrome would indicate an abandoning of reason. The C's mentioned the behavior of the liberal left, and one could say they've abandoned reason to place all the emphasis on feelings, albeit in a very STS way. On the other end of the spectrum you have the Pathocracy of the Western Rulers who have abandoned reason in the sense that they used to at least try to put on a show of following international law which they no longer bother with.
The spelling is interesting; Dionysius-- sius first person singular preterite of siethe - to follow FWIW