Heaven is pleasure, and nothing but
There are dreamscapes that I sometimes refer to as “Arcadian spaces” and other times as “Heaven,” even though I do not believe in a religious heaven. These experiences are nevertheless so powerful that I think about them obsessively and I write about them often. I think about predilections and interests that I have which could lead to a hell or which could lead to a heaven. There are ideas that I have which might be perfectly justified, but which do not service a heaven. This rubric — which direction am I facing — eliminates much distracting thought.
A heaven is a pole of attraction. There is something going on that attracts attention. Participants work together harmoniously to keep that thing going. Musicians try to give their audience something of value, and the audience applauds and pays money in order to encourage them to continue. Teachers try to provide their students something of value, and the students become parents who pay to send their children to the same school. This is a pole of attraction: there is some central activity that attracts attention and support, and there is some periphery which is nurtured in the model of the center.
A heaven is a next-level pole of attraction; it is fundamentally psychedelic, regardless of its appearance.
The most beautiful and most awesome kind of (mystical) heaven is a choir that sings a single note forever, a single note that resonates with every creative and symbiotic force in universe. It is thunderous, it vibrates, it shudders. It is the orgasm of a thousand angels. It is the most beautiful, awe-inspiring event you can imagine. But it is beautiful because it is that one thing — and nothing else.
This is the key insight: A heaven is not a place of freedom. It can’t be the case that everyone may do anything, because anything includes disharmonious things. The more beautiful a heaven is, the fewer things that can be done there. The most beautiful heaven is one that is a single event.
Lesser heavens have more things going on, but they are all harmonious. I don’t mean that there is a police force enforcing harmony. It’s simply the case that if you start doing something that is not part of a given heaven, you lose sight of it. By tuning into some incompatible thing, you tune out of that heaven.
We are in our region of reality because we find Heaven too monotonic. We are where there is diversity, intrigue, threats, and consequences. By way of illustration: we don’t watch movies about people eating ice cream or getting petted. That’s boring. We watch movies about people facing threats and peril. That is where our attention naturally gravitates. It is our nature.
No one is criticized for having too much pain. In our world, however, too much pleasure is considered a sign of moral weakness. Most people are here for the spanking. They prefer pain because they are the kind of people who manage pain more naturally than pleasure. People who have nightmares, who watch movies that are nightmares, are people here for the spanking.
It is possible for people like me to stumble into a heaven. But it is hard for them to stay.
Remember, Heaven is pleasure, and nothing but pleasure. Once you have experienced it, and you realise that you’ve stopped, you know what you are.
And now a word from our sponsor:
One of the diarists of The Salt Island Diaries (Clara) dreams of Heaven. At the same time, she observes that 19th century New England is anything but a heaven. Yet she sees a parallel between the women she observes in Heaven and the women in her home. One place has coherent goals and one place is an construct of the 19th century.
Heaven is coherent because all its denizens share the same goal: Heaven. One seeks harmony and beauty. One must make the most of what one has for the purpose of making heaven more heavenly. There are no side interests.
In 19th century New England, the goals are a Hodge-podge of traditions, economic incentives, pain avoidance, prejudices, habits, and so on. Some goals might well be contradictory. There is no way to come to terms with a system that was never meant to be coherent to begin with. One must create a bubble of coherent goals that interacts with civilisation as an external entity, much as Heaven itself must interact with non-heavens. Clara realises that Heaven is not a place, but holiness of attention — this may be practiced anywhere.