PANDÆMONÆON by Sri Palindrome.151, MCP, Babel The term Pandaemonaeon is bandied about a great deal by Chaos Magickians. It is, after all, our ultimate aim to invoke the Pandaemonaeon into full manifestation at every level of our realities. But it seems that no really clear-cut definition has yet been offered as to what the effects of its invocation will be upon the various components of not only the realities observed by Chaos Magickians, but in fact by those who do not intentionally strive for the Great Work. There are most likely as many different views on the exact nature of the Pandaemonaeon as there are Chaos Magickians, and this is as it should be. What follows is an overview of the effect of the arrival of the Pandaemonaeon upon mankind's social realities in particular. Peter Carroll, in his Liber Kaos, defines the Pandaemonaeon simply as the evolution of science into magick, mainly through the descendants of existing scientific disciplines such as quantum physics, but backs off from making any firm projection of what the ramifications of such an evolution will be upon man himself. More important than understanding what new technologies will arise to bridge the gap between scientific materialism and magick is the understanding of what will happen to mankind and society when the chaotomagickal paradigm gains ascendancy by enfolding both science and religion within itself. The most important aspect is the transference of information. At present, the speed at which information may be transmitted from source to target is bound by time, which manifests here as the speed of light. This, however, is an illusory restriction. Information is not manifested matter, and thus does not fall under the domain of the "universal laws" that appear to govern the behavior of the medium through which it is transferred. To simplify this, one need only imagine the telephone. While it may appear that information is transferred instantaneously, this is not in fact the case. There is a time lag between departure from the information's source and receipt at the target which is dictated by the speed of an electrical transmission through a wire, or light through a fiber optic cable. In other words, the information must first be converted into something material and then moved through some other matter. Ultimately, it is not information that is moved; it is electrons or photons, which are then converted back into information when they arrive at their target. But the information itself is not the electron or photon (although these do contain and are composed of information). Information, as it now stands, cannot be measured on its own. It is an intangible to us, something that can never be experienced directly. So then, what is information? It is what the ancient shaman might have called mana. It is not material, nor is it energy. Lacking a better cognate for the idea, it can best be described as aethyr; dispersed quanta that bind together temporarily to form a phenomena of any sort. Aethyr is not bound by the speed of light, does not itself occupy space, and is not subject to time. It is quite capable of being in more than one place at a time, or nowhere at all, or any combination of the two. Pandæmonæon, then, is at one level the breaking down of all things into aethyr, or information. Everything becomes temporary agglomeration changeable at will, with will itself being understood as a transient agglomeration. This mirrors exactly the process by which any act of Chaos Magick is effected; one sets up a set of parameters beforehand through various techniques, but the techniques in themselves are not magick. Magick is manifested only when a state of Gnosis is achieved. Gnosis is the scattering of the mind back into the aethyric pool through the cessation of all mental process. Any number of variables (quanta) are then interchanged between the magickal Worker and the field of infinite potentialities (Aethyr). The form they will take in manifestation is determined by the parameters set by the techniques employed. In other words, the techniques act in much the same was as the telephone line did in the previous example. When Pandæmonæon has been invoked, however, such intermediate steps are no longer necessary. Will directly manipulates the aethyr into various configurations, and nothing exists but that which has been so configured. Information is transmitted, processed and configured outside of the bounds of any concept of time, and thus instantaneously. What effect, then, does this have upon humankind's social structures? It must first be understood that any social structure is nothing more than the product of mental processes. These can, ideally, be changed at the whim of those who participate in a given structure. Furthermore, social structures of any kind are attempts to control the transmission and manifestation of information and the aethyr. It is always through the visor of his social structures that man forms consentual reality. Pandæmonæon, then, is implicitly the collapse of all social structures, as there can no longer be any medium through which the information is transmitted. In other words, all of the aethyr is accessible instantaneously at every point in infinite quantity. The boundaries of social constructs, and indeed the individual mind, swell to bursting. Every subject and every object are united; individuality and group, past, present and future all collapse into a singularity that is infinite, unbounded and in a constant state of flux. All separation of concepts vanishes along with all concepts of separation. Spare terms this a state of neither/neither; E.E. Rhemus terms it an eschatonic implosion; eastern mysticism proclaims it unity with godhead. They are all, in fact, one and the same. Thus, it must be the goal of the Chaos Magickian to remove every barrier to the transmission of information. Hierarchies are to be overthrown not just for the sake of doing so, but to hasten the arrival of Pandæmonæon via the destruction of such barriers. Any organization, regardless of its aims, is an anti-Pandæmonæonic force if it seeks to control the flow of any information whatsoever. Governments, communications networks, religious institutions and secret societies all fall into this category. The true Chaos Magickian will not seek to withhold information on techniques of magick, nor form secretive illuminati-like societies that create oligarchies and bureaucracies that are every bit as restrictive as the ones that they purport a desire to obliterate. Instead, any such information must be disseminated as quickly and widely as possible; this not only hastens the Pandæmonæon directly in that it has sped up transmission a bit more, but also insures that others may find and use the techniques necessary for them to perform the Great Work themselves. Anything else cannot be Chaos Magick, as to do otherwise is to hinder the invocation of the Pandæmonæon.