Thread by @thetrollbar

This thread will be long -- I'm going to go over each of the 6 stages of temptation (except the first, provocation) which we've done, with reference backwards in time to Stoicism and forwards to Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis.

Our primary references:

iep.utm.edu/stoicmind/ - for Stoics

For Greek terminology the standard appendix of the Philokalia (free at archive.org and linked at the thread below):

translatum.gr/forum/index.ph… (Scroll down or search for 'Temptation')

Because we are discussing 'The Narrative' in the frame of Intelligence analysis and also Addiction, we really do have to pay attention to the terminology around Phantasia...

Phantasiai are the 'presentations' of the senses -- sense data if you will. English reflexes are...

Phantasy, Fantasy (pretend, but also a genre of literature pioneered by the Inklings), Fantasia, an animated musical by Disney etc.

<< The Stoic theory is flexible enough to account for real and fictional (intentional) objects, thereby establishing a plausible ..

theory of imagination. The Stoics distinguished between phantasia, phantaston, phantastikon, and phantasma. >>

Phantaston is the (real) object of the Phantasia. If the Narrative were true and not Fake News, it would have this.

A Phantastikon is imaginary object -- Fantastic!

So, Fake News (Disinformation, Deza to Schindler) is largely a Narrative that isn't true, because it is grounded not on objective reality, but a fake reality we only IMAGINE.

Disney Imagineering in action!

Finally, there is the phantasma, which are the supposed objective correlates of the Fake News. Phantasms.

This is why I called the Narrative a Phantasm -- it is a story, an imagined representation, of a Phantasm.

Other names for such delusions in Greek are plani (related to..

the word planet, because they 'wander' in the sky but also because in Pagan cosmology they are guided by 'gods' and even worshiped -- which is delusional at best and demonic at worst.

plani (seek the Philokia vocabulary) is close to the term hamartia, Greek for 'sin'.

so...

sin = delusion = the Narrative

Listening to the Fake Narrative (or worse, constructing your own counter-delusions, equally delusional!) is bad for you, spiritually, like Astrology is bad as a guide for action -- Prudence demands you ground Action in Truth, not Delusion.

As is evident from reading the article, the Stoics are also a source for our notion of Spirit vs Soul (a distinction found in the Epistles of St Paul). pneuma -- wind or spirit -- was for the Stoics, who were corporealists, what the Kosmos was made of. Soul is an advanced form

of Pneuma (Spirit). This is Stoic Physics -- a word we will get to in a minute.

As spirit 'condenses', becomes more organised and 'rational', it goes through several stages. Mineral, Vegetable, Animal, finally Rational (Spirit).

The kosmos itself is the World-Soul.

First, before we get to life, we have minerals, which are aggregations of 'pneuma' in a state -- a phase like vapour, liquid, or solid (hexis in Greek). The more refined of these states are air, fire, and aether -- and pneuma in its higher form is identified with these.

(Why am I going over all this? It will have several applications to Christianity we will get to in a bit -- why are Spirit and Soul both concepts, why is 'breathing' so important to the body, and how does it relate to the Heart?)

The next step is of course vegetable life, which exhibits growth (increase and decrease). This is called physis -- which in Latin is Natura, hence our words Physics and Nature, broadly, the study of living things starting with plant life.

It might be controversial whether...

plants have souls. The Stoics would say no. Christians including Aquinas would say the Human soul has three faculties (vegetable, animal, and rational). That is, the Body is capable of growth, but also locomotion, and intelligent thought.

However, these are minor points...

... we also see that the Stoic answer to whether COVID is alive would have to be -- at best it has a physis and is a sort of vegetable, because it is able to 'grow' (but not on its own like a true plant). Probably, it is a mineral.

But whether it has a Nature (physis) or not...

COVID is quite certainly a Spirit, pneuma.

A lot of alchemy (see Newton who was deep into this) elaborates theories of mineral, vegetable, and animal spirits.

You might also remember your animal spirits from Keynes, and any herbalist knows plant spirits.

Next up come animals who (the Stoics say) are the first level of organisation that exhibits Soul -- yes, your dog has a soul. In fact, the Latin word for Soul is 'anima' and so animals are 'things with souls' in that view.

Finally, there is Logos, which is the Rational form...

of Pneuma, of Spirit. Name us, Angels, and of course God (the World-Soul to the Stoics -- who like the Mormons hold that God is corporeal, being just an advanced form of Pneuma, a Spirit).

This Fire-Wind religion has been thought by some to have come from India by way of Iran.

In any event, it is well entrenched in pre-Common Era Judaism of the Hellenistic sort -- see Philo of Alexandria.

This talk of fire, wind, and Spirit should remind of an event in the life of the Church, Pentecost.

So, with all this background in place, we can get on with our subject... the next stage of Temptation and Sin *after* provocation, which is 'Momentary Disturbance'

This is a translation of a somewhat difficult to translate Greek term that means, basically 'fanning the flame'.

Anyone who has built a fire knows this stage -- fuel has found heat and oxygen, and the tinder is ignited, but to get things going you need a bit of breath...

in the context of Temptation, this means the Evil Spirit has not just created provocation -- the proper response to that, as we said before to repel it with the Sign of the Cross or the Jesus Prayer -- but is starting to 'take form' that can be conceived of -- pregnant word that.

... that is, the Sin is no longer *entirely* image free -- the imagination is starting to get involved and your nice calm little world has been DISTURBED by something that if you aren't quick will be hard to shake.

It's not quite *conceptualised* yet, but it is starting to be

an image, and on its way to being conceptualised.

At this point, it is a noima (a Thought -- and and Evil Thought at that). Your body is not yet 'engaged' in the Suggestion, but at the same time, it is taking form. It is a 'conceptual image'.

Delusion needs some abstraction.

The perfume smell was an objective phantasia, but now you are started to be deluded and perhaps it has been *suggested* to you that you might engage in Adultery.

The Thought has occurred. You can still reject it -- it is not too late to do what you should --

give rebuttal (antilogon, antirrhisis in Greek). This brings us to the next stage -- Coupling, or Communion. Coupling or having Communion with a Devil is just as dangerous as it sounds when you put it that way. It's having Intercourse -- or, if you prefer, Dialectic.

The word for 'communion' is not the same one we use for Holy Communion, but rather homilia -- like a Homily. It's an extended discourse -- partly with yourself, but also with your 'interlocutor' -- the Demon, the Evil Thought is being discussed.

At this point of course our hapless victim is quite guilty -- if not precisely of the Sin (yet), definitely of 'parleying with the Enemy'. This is dangerous, illegal, against all the rules, likely to end in your ruin -- AND YOU KNOW IT. But you do it anyway.

If you still have

a SHRED of common sense at this point -- you will run like HELL, from Hell itself.

What does this have to do with the Narrative? With Intelligence agencies?

This is the recruiting phase -- you talk things out. Your would be spy has know sense (that's why you picked him, you

Devil you. But there's a part of him that wants something, and you 'dialogue' about it.

In the Narrative, you set up a 'dialectic' with Evil, and taint, and ultimately seduce

Of all the small fleshy body parts that get stuck in assorted places (if you are a man) the worst is

the tongue. It is what comes out of Man that defiles him.

Let me put this bluntly: if you listen to John Oliver, you are engaging in a Homily with the Devil himself.

A key component of this Sin, succumbing, or beginning to, to Temptation -- is the fact that you are now IMAGINING THINGS.

The provocation was image free. The 'momentary disturbance' also

Now that you are having intercourse with the Devil, or Dialectic with Alinsky, DELUSIONS

You are starting to act on Fake News as if it were real, and we all know this will end badly.

The (semi)final stage, where you become actually guilty of the Sin whether you commit it or not, because the intention is there is -- ASSENT. You decide to do something wrong knowingly

Let's take a breather and...

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