We are entering a phase which may become as oppressive to the spirit as medieval monotheism

'Liber Null & Psychonaut' de Peter J. Carroll foi publicado em 1987 como um manual de aprendizagem para o estudante de magia caótica (chaos magick).
Fundou a Ordem dos Illuminates of Thanateros algures na década de 70 e, actualmente, Peter Carroll dedica-se a tentar unificar a teoria da da relatividade com a mecanica quântica através de uma «teoria das cordas», é apenas mais um dos cientistas ou estudiosos que trabalham nesta área de física.

Transcrevo algumas folhas deste livro e pergunto-me o quão profético ele pode ser ao verificar o que já se cumpriu na evolução da sociedade e da mentalidade:

'
The millenium

Humanity has evolved through four major states of consciousness, or aeons, and a fifth is on the horizon. The first aeon comes out of the mists of time. It was an age of Shamanism and Magic when the rulers of men had a firm grasp of the psychic forces. Such forces conferred a high survival values on puny naked men living in intimate communion with the dangers of a hostile environment. This form of consciousness has left its mark in the various underground traditions of witchcraft and sorcery. It has also survived in the hands of several aboriginal cultures in which the powers were used to enforce social conformity.
The second Pagan aeon arose with a more settled way of life as agriculture and city dwelling began. As more complex forms of thought arose and men moved further away from nature, the knowledge of psychic forces became confused. Gods, spirits, and superstition uneasily filled the gaps created by loss of natural knowledge and man's expanding awareness of his own mind.
The third, or Monotheistic, aeon arose inside of the pagan civilizations  and swept their old form of consciousness away. The experiment was begun once in Egypt [blogger's note: with Akhenaton] but failed It really came into its own with Judaism and later with Christianity and Islam, which were offshoots of this. In the East, Buddhism was the form it took. In the monotheistic aeon men worshipped a singular, idealized form of themselves.
The Atheistic aeon arose within Western monotheistic culture and began to spread throughout the world, although the process is far from complete. It is far from being a mere negation of monotheistic ideas. It contains the radical and positive notions that the universe can be understood and manipulated by careful observation of the behavior of material things. The existence of spiritual beings is considered to be a question without any real meaning. Men look toward their emotional experience as the only ground of meaning.
Now some cultures have remained in one aeon while others have swept forward, but most have never completely freed themselves of the residues of the past. Thus sorcery tainted pagan civilizations and even our own. Paganism taints Catholicism and Protestantism. The time required for a leading culture to break through into a new aeon shortens as history progresses. The Atheistic aeon began several hundred years ago. The Monotheistic aeon began two and a half to three thousand years ago. The Pagan aeon began about six thousand years ago with the beginning of civilization, while the first Shamanistic aeon goes back to the dawn of humanity.
There are signs that the fifth aeon is developing exactly where it might be expected -- within leading sections of the foremost atheistic cultures.
The evolution of consciousness is cyclic in the form of an upward spiral. The fifth aeon represents a return to the consciousness of the first aeon but in a higher form.
Chaoist philosophy will again become a dominant intellectual and moral force. Psychic powers will increasingly be looked to for solution's to man's problems. A series of general and specific prophecies may be extrapolated from current trends to show how this will come about, and what role the Illuminati will play in it.
Decades, possibly centuries, of warfare lie ahead. The remnants of monotheism are collapsing fast, despite the odd revival, before secular humanism and consumerism. The technological, atheist super-states are trying for a stranglehold on human consciousness. We are entering a phase which may become as oppressive to the spirit as medieval monotheism. The production/consumption equation is becoming increasingly difficult to grasp or balance as the consumer religion of the masses begin to dictate politics.
More and more mechanisms for the forceful regulation of behavior have to be introduced as population density pushes individuals to seek ever more bizarre forms of satisfaction in material sensationalism. The problem with any belief system is its tenacity and inertia once it is established and dominant. The medieval religions murdered millions to protect their own hegemony. Innumerable crusades, jihads, burnings, and massacres were committed. In the end no level of persecution could stave off the inevitable ascendency of Atheism.
Now it is the atheist super-states which are supplying the arms and dropping the bombs in support of the hegemony of consumer capitalism or consumer communism. and this is only the beginning. The blind logic of technology and consumerism will cause alienation, disaffection, greed, and identity crisis to rise to such catastrophic levels that the situation may explode into a very destructive war. There may be a breakdown of society which may take the form of an anti-technological jihad. These will not resolve the contradictions of the system but merely introduce a new dark age and slow the changes down. However momentous these events may seem, if they happen, they will not affect the movement of consciousness in the long run. They will only affect its timing. But the Illuminati must be ready to exploit the changes which will definitely occur. Among these are:

The death of Spirituality: Fixed ideas about the essential spirit or nature of man will be completely abandoned as an Emotional Technology becomes more refined. Drugs, obscure sexualities, faddism, strange entertainments, and material sensationalism are a preliminary groping towards this end. Chemicals, electronics, and surgery will only tend to enslave. Gnosis, the Alphabet of Desire, and other magical methods tend to liberate.

The death of Superstition: Prejudice against the possibility of the occult or supernatural will give away in the face of a developing Magical Technology. Telepathy, telekinesis, mind influence, hypnosis, fascination, and charisma will be systematically examined, refined, and exploited as methods of control. We may see magicians working behind barbed wire and in underground cells also.

The death of Identity: Ideas about a person's place in society, his role, lifestyle, and ego qualities will lose their hold as the cohesive forces in society disintegrate. Subcultural values will proliferate to such a bewildering extent that a whole new class of professional will arise to control them. Such a Transmutation Technology will deal in fashions, in ways of being. Lifestyle consultants will become the new priests of our civilizations. They will be the new magicians.

The death of Belief: We will abandon all fixed ideas about what is absolute or valuable and what constitutes morality as a Psychological Technology develops. Techniques of belief and behavior modification in the military, in psychiatry, in places of detention, in propaganda, in the schools and in the media will become so sophisticated that truth will become a matter of who creates it. Reality will become magical.

The death of ideology: Ideas about what form human aspiration should take will give away to a science of the preservation of the control mechanism -- government and its agencies. These may become global or semi-global, but their primary concern will become preservation of the government, for or against, the people. Primitive cybernetics will mushroom into a Political Technology. Governments will be provided with the choice of either accommodating themselves to co-ordinating proliferating human variety or seeking to reduce that variety by repressive measures.
'

page 88-91
"Liber Null & Psychonaut"

Peter J. Carroll
edição Weiser Books 1987