Against Curtis Yarvin, a.k.a. Mencius Moldbug

 

Okay, just like I did after we watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, I'm going to try to research and summarize the lore of Xenosaga.

 

In the following, I'll put contextual information from real life in brackets [ ], and bold, and the rest will be in-game narrative.

 

[In 1930, the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli, one of the founders of quantum physics, who made many important discoveries, including the concept of "spin" and the Pauli Exclusion Principle, had a personal crisis and sank into deep depression. He sought therapy in 1932, and it just so happened that his analyst was none other than the famous psychoanalyst, Carl Jung. The therapy was successful, Pauli felt much better, and the two men hit it off. Not only did they respect each other, but they started bouncing ideas off of each other, mostly through letters, and eventually developed a whole new theory of the universe together, which was eventually published as a book, "Atom and Archetype". Although both men are deeply respected in their fields, this book is generally dismissed as fringe ideas at best by both physicists and psychoanalysts. 

 

In this book, Jung and Pauli together present their concept of the "Unus Mundus" - literally "one world". According to this theory, we ordinarily look at objects in the world as being separate from us, but there is some kind of primordial world, the Unus Mundus, in which subject and object are not separate, but rather, profoundly one.  

 

This ties in, of course, to Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, but now as a kind of proto-physical explanation for all matter, and also the perennial concept of the Anima Mundi - the soul of the world. Anima is also an important concept for Jung: in his system, all men have an inner, repressed "anima" (more or less, feminine spirit, or consciousness) and all women have an inner "animus" (male spirit, or consciousness). It also ties in to Jung's deep interest in gnosticism and alchemy. In fact, the phrase "Unus Mundus" was not Jung's invention - it was coined by the 16th century philosopher Gerhard Dorn, who was interpreting the work of his famous alchemist teacher, Paracelsus.] 

[Gnosticism, itself, is a vast, complex, and also controversial topic - way too complicated for me to adequately summarize here. I'll say this much: gnosis literally means "knowledge" in Greek. From around the first century (or maybe earlier) and for several centuries after that, there were a wide variety of religious groups that, many centuries after that, Catholic theologians would lump together under this umbrella term "gnosticism". These groups were all very different from each other, (and some of them didn't even exist!) and their ideas were confused, distorted, and slandered by their Catholic detractors. But according to this sloppy distortion of gnosticism, Catholics came to believe that gnostics believed in a dualistic world: a false, material world created by an evil god (Yaldabaoth) and then the true, spiritual world governed by a good God - and usually, Jesus is trying to lead us out of the false, evil, material world, into the true, spiritual world. Again, I think this is a distortion, or at best an oversimplification, of what gnostics really believed but that's a topic for another time.]

 

THE UNIVERSE OF XENOSAGA 

 

In the narrative of Xenosaga, there are perhaps several universes - one universe can bud off from another one (perhaps Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade all exist in separate, yet related universes within this multiverse?).

 

Let's talk about this universe, the universe of Xenosaga specifically. We hear of two "domains": the Upper Domain, and the Lower Domain. This Lower Domain is, in turn, divided into two parts: the Imaginary Number Domain (also known as Imaginary Space), and the Real Number Domain (also known as Real Space). This lower part of the Lower Domain is what we know as the physical, material universe: the universe of stars, planets, etc., also known as the "dimensional universe".  But every entity in Real Space also has at least some small extension into Imaginary Space. When a person dies (usually), they cease to exist in Real Space, but they continue to exist in Imaginary Space. But their individual existence is unstable in Imaginary Space and they typically spread out and merge into unity with all other beings in Imaginary Space. But there are exceptions to this, as we will see.

 

Beyond this, it's ambiguous whether the mysterious "Upper Domain" is a part of this universe, or whether the Upper Domain is outside of the universe - it seems to have pre-existed the universe. 

 

In any case, in the Real Space of the Lower Domain, there is a mysterious object known as the Zohar, which has existed from the creation of the universe, and which serves as a connection to the Upper Domain.

 

U-DO, THE ZOHAR, AND THE PEOPLE OF ZOHAR

 

Out in this Upper Domain is U-Do. Clearly the term "U-Do" evokes "Upper Domain," but canonically it stands for "Unus Mundus Drive Operation".  Sometimes U-Do is referred to as the "control system" of the Zohar.

 

Despite U-Do's vast power, for some reason, U-Do does not interact directly with Real Space (the universe as we know it). Instead, U-Do has two forms of contact with our world: first, the "Eyes of God," namely Abel's Ark and Abel himself. (Abel's Ark is Abel's extension in Imaginary Space, and Abel is the Ark's extension in Real Space.)  These are purely "inputs" so to speak - through them, U-Do observes the universe, but does not actually change the course of events, or at least not in any way that we can tell.  Also, for... thousands? billions? of years, Abel and his Ark are "asleep".

 

The second form of contact between U-Do and the visible world is that there are certain people throughout history who seem to have a mental connection to U-Do. This sometimes (though not always) happens as a result of contact with the Zohar, which absorbs the waves of U-Do, but also seems to be a somewhat genetic condition that can be passed down through families. Sometimes people with this condition are called "People of Zohar". 

 

However, contact with U-Do typically results in what humans somewhat euphemistically call "acute neurosis," accompanied by dizziness, fainting spells, prolonged unconsciousness, coma, and finally, almost always, death. Along the way, People of Zohar often undergo severe emotional distress - feelings of intense alienation, isolation, anxiety, and depression. Typically, they feel that they are alone in the universe. They feel detachment from the people around them, a profound loss of community, a sense that no one cares about them or will help them, alienation from oneself and a feeling not knowing who one is, and ultimately, at least in some cases, hostility and aggression towards other people, sometimes of an extreme form, before dying.

 

Why does this happen? There is speculation that U-Do tells the People of Zohar some kind of information that causes them to be this way - perhaps that U-Do reveals to them the future of the universe, and this is somehow emotionally devastating - though we never actually see that in the series.

 

[In real life, the Zohar is a book, the Sefer ha-Zohar, usually translated as "book of splendor" (Zohar literally means something like "shimmering," "gleaming," or "sparkling" - the kind of light that might shine off of a jewel).  Considered a foundational work of the Jewish mystical tradition known as Kabbalah, it's a vast book, often published in 12 volumes, or something like 8000 pages.  For centuries, it played an important part of Jewish theology and even some liturgy - and even today, some Orthodox groups, such as Chabad, continue to revere it, and to believe that it was written by the (real, historical) Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the 2nd century CE and "hidden in a cave for a thousand years".  But in the 18th and 19th century, some people in the Jewish Enlightenment began to question its authenticity, and in the 20th century, most mainstream scholars, including the famous scholar Gershom Scholem, concluded that it had been written in the 13th century, possibly by the famous forger Moses de Leon, or perhaps compiled from several different sources.  (Some true believers even adopt a compromise position - that yes, Moses de Leon wrote it, but he received it telepathically from a genuinely ancient spiritual source.)

 

The Zohar is notoriously difficult to translate or understand.  Some passages are so confusing that skeptics simply dismiss them as meaningless gibberish, an imitation of Aramaic (the language of Jesus) written by someone who did not speak Aramaic.  But others are convinced that every passage in the Zohar is meaningful - indeed, some go so far as to say that a person who truly understood the Zohar would achieve total communion with the mind of God.

 

As you can imagine of a book of this length, it covers a wide range of topics.  One of the most famous passages is the "Book of Concealment," a brief, mysterious section, only 6 pages long, very difficult to understand, which seems to have something to do with the creation of the universe, followed by several lengthy passages of various rabbis attempting to interpret the 6-page passage.  As they do, they become more and more ecstatic in their conception of God, until 3 of the rabbis die.]

 

THE GNOSIS

Related to the mysterious "acute neurosis" of the "People of Zohar" is the gnosis phenomenon.  As already discussed, when a person dies, they lose their anchor in the material world (Real Space) and become purely Imaginary.  But as an Imaginary being, one is exposed to all of Imaginary Space, including all of its negative aspects, and usually becomes diffuse, eventually dissolving into the Collective Unconscious.  But sometimes, in this process, the soul of a person can become afraid, and reject the Collective Unconscious which is trying to absorb them.  This will accelerate and intensify into absolute terror [shades of Evangelion and the AT field?] at which point the person becomes a "consciousness of rejection", utterly alienated from the rest of consciousness and even from itself - in other words, it becomes a gnosis.  In Real Space, gnosis may seem to travel in groups and even to be organized into fleets (indeed, they are collectively known as the Pilgrimage Fleet) but from their perspective, as Imaginary beings, they are unaware of each others' existence.  They become brutish, hostile, destructive beings, entirely alone in the universe.

 

In addition to U-Do and the Zohar there seem to have been other entities present at the creation of this universe.  One of them is a being known by many names, but we know him best as Wilhelm, or Cardinal Wilhelm Heinlein.  His true role is the Guardian of the Lower Domain.  Apparently, in many universes, the Lower Domain is destroyed, and Wilhelm's purpose is to maintain the Lower Domain, by any means necessary.  The Guardian has a device known as the Compass of Order, with which he can monitor the progress of all consciousness throughout the universe.  What Wilhelm was like, what he thought and believed at the time of the beginning of the universe is unknown to us, but by the end of the three games, Wilhelm is convinced that the dimensional universe is doomed to destruction, and that the only way to save the Lower Domain to cause Eternal Recurrence - the universe will be "reset" back to its initial conditions, and will play itself out again, exactly as it did before.  Indeed, Wilhelm seems to be convinced that this has occurred before, perhaps infinitely many times, and each time his own memories are reset so that he does not remember the previous version of the universe.  Notice that Wilhelm is not purely evil - his goal is to save the world, literally, and he has done so many times, even within the history of this particular universe, as we will see.  He is simply dedicated to maintaining the dimensional universe, and is ruthlessly devoted to this goal, no matter the cost.

 

[I suspect that the name "Wilhelm" is a reference to Goethe's novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship".  The name "Heinlein" is almost certainly a reference to Robert Heinlein, science fiction author of "Stranger in a Strange Land," among other books.  Eternal recurrence is a reference to Nietzsche - again, this is a big, complex topic, and I don't feel like explaining it here.]

 

If the consciousnesses of people are becoming gnosis, this means that the division between Real Space and Imaginary Space is breaking down.  If too many people become gnosis, if the number goes beyond a certain threshold, the division will collapse entirely and the resulting confusion might be enough to actually damage or destroy the Upper Domain.  So to prevent this from happening, whoever created the universe (be it U-Do or someone else) also included a "failsafe."  The real name of this "failsafe" is Yeshua - but we know him best as Chaos.  Yeshua's role, as a store of anima, is to destroy the dimensional universe if it is becoming so unbalanced as to threaten the existence of the Upper Domain.  But Yeshua will do anything to avoid this most drastic final solution.  Yeshua and Wilhelm are thus antagonists, perpetually in a dance of paradoxical struggle.

 

[The name "Yeshua" is an attempt to reconstruct the true name of Jesus, in his own language, i.e. Aramaic.  "Yeshua" would be the Aramaic pronunciation of the Hebrew name that we also know as "Joshua".  "Jesus" is what you get when this name goes from Hebrew to Aramaic to Greek to Latin to French to English.]

 

EARLY EARTH HISTORY AND JESUS

Eventually, in this universe, there came to be the planet we know as Earth, and the Zohar came to exist upon it.  (The order of events gets a little confusing here, but I'm going to do my best to get this straight.)  On this planet, at some early stage, Yeshua knew a girl named Mary Magdalene, also known as "Saint" or "Maria".  Yeshua was the embodiment, in the Real Number Domain, of Anima (female spirit) in the Imaginary Domain, whereas Mary Magdalene's body was the Animus (male).  

 

In addition to this, Mary Magdalene had a special relationship with her maiden - the maiden of Mary.  This relationship was perhaps even more tender and loving than her relationship with Yeshua.

 

But the humans who lived on ancient Earth sought to rise up and defy God [Is this a reference to the Tower of Babel?] and tried to use the power of the Anima to do so - and this threatened to destroy the dimensional universe right away.   

 

Then, in the year "000X," a Messiah was born.  [Every indication is that this was Jesus Christ.]  The Messiah had 12 followers, or Apostles.  Also listening to his teachings were Yeshua (i.e. Chaos), Mary Magdalene, and, at first, Wilhelm.  But during Jesus's ministry, as Mary Magdalene and Yeshua became more spiritual through his teachings, Yeshua's Anima became much stronger.  Wilhelm became concerned that if the Anima built up too much, this might activate Yeshua's failsafe and destroy the Lower Domain, and so he began to persecute Jesus's ministry and suppress his teachings.

 

At this point, Yeshua entrusted the Lemegeton to Jesus.  In Real Space, Lemegeton sounds like words, but in Imaginary Space, Lemegeton is a program, consisting of pure waves.  In theory, with this program, one can control the Zohar, and make contact with U-Do.  At the very least, Lemegeton will awaken Abel, opening the "eyes of God".  

 

The Messiah died [presumably, crucified].   At this point, an organization known as Ormus was founded, very much like a church - apparently, from the beginning, under the control of Wilhelm.

 

To help the Apostles, who were now being persecuted by Ormus, Mary Magdalene, working with Yeshua, used the power of Animus to control Yeshua's Anima, and created a device known as Zarathustra, at the core of which was the Zohar.  Zarathustra is like an immense version of the Compass of Order - a giant, luminous cube surrounded by metallic/holographic rings.  It has immense powers, impossible to comprehend.  Mary Magdalene intended to use the Zarathustra to access the Upper Domain, presumably to ask U-Do for help.

 

But Zarathustra, being so powerful, activated Yeshua's failsafe program in his Anima, almost causing the universe to self-destruct.  To prevent this from occurring, Mary Magdalene divided Yeshua's Anima into 12 Vessels of Anima.  She also apparently removed the Zohar from Zarathustra.  She gave these "relics of God" or "artefacts of God" to them, one vessel to each of the 12 Apostles, for safekeeping, to prevent them from getting into the hands of Wilhelm and Ormus.

THE END(-ish) OF EARTH

 

In the year 

 

THE GALAXY FEDERATION 

 

MICHTAM

 

OLD MILTIA