The Outsider Alone, Alone, all all alone Alone on a wide, wide sea.. In View of Bayesian Constructs One of the most enigmatic of H.P. Lovecraft’s literary creations is that to be found in The Outsider. Written in 1921 and published in Weird Tales in 1926, the story has intrigued many readers who have attempted to explain its subject matter as derived from the work of Oscar Wilde, John Keats, and Edgar Allan Poe, among others. One must not fail to mention the tale of Dostoevsky of the same name, The Outsider. The central problem in finding the answer to the question of meaning is that ultimate answer will not likely be found in Literature, but in the reductionism of Science. From the literary point of view the most one can say is that the narrator in Lovecraft’s tale finds himself in a disconnect between the world, and what is commonly called the Self. science considers an essential, yet undeniable Illusion. Two influential precedents of such ideas appear in the writings of Arthur L. Wigan (1785-1847), and Joseph E. Bogen (1921-2005); Wigan in his seminal volume, A New View of Insanity the Duality of the Mind, Bogen conducted research at renowned UCLA (and elsewhere) on the nature of consciousness. One of his contributions is the investigation of the Will as a directly sensed feeling as opposed to a cognitive construct. Wigan and Bogen were instrumental in the elucidation of the Bicameral Mind, housed in the two hemispheres of the cerebrum, each with its own capabilities. In everyday parlance the right hemisphere is said to be involved in intuition, imagination and nonverbal potentials. The left hemisphere specialized with capabilities of analytical, rational and verbal propensities. Most significantly in the following discussion is the idea first suggested by Wigan that damage to the connecting corpus callosum effectively isolates the hemispheres. Each now must function independently, and develop the capacities of its missing partner. Such a separation raises the prospect of a person with two different personalities (SELFS) housed in the separated hemispheres. Damage to the optical chiasma disrupts the processing of visual information since right eye stimuli are sent to the left hemisphere, and those of the left eye to the right. For a literary expression of two SELFs in the same brain, refer to Dostoevsky's highly expressive and analytical, The Double (1846) where Yakov Golyadkin is plagued by "double"of himself, he refers to as Golyadkin Junior. Is the double, "real" or another "illusion" in his brain only? Gogol's satirical, The Nose (1836), might have inspired Dostoevsky. Wigan and Bogen's ideas have made their way into significant fiction, including Phillip K. Dick's, A Scanner Darkly. Horselover Fat's creations most aptly, "Reality Fiction" (although not always fictions) ask Fred/Bob. Adopting the style of Williams and the Red Wagon, So much depends on the Encyclopedias Britannica and Philosophy, the Kipple, a reincarnated cat, an oven stuffed with clothes, impacted wisdom teeth in the 1st Century AD, and a subimagal sibling - all transduced by the catecholamines into visionary art. Jean-Paul Sartre expresses the concept quite succinctly in Nausea - When Antoine Roquenton contemplates himself he dissolves into an abstraction and on further thought fades out completely. An Outsider of first order according to the testimony of those who knew him well was the pulp writer, Robert E. Howard known as author of resplendent adventures in a Mythical Realm of the Hyborian Age, and possibly the originator of Swords and Sorcery. His life history is readily available in print of books by his associate Novalyne Price, notably One Who Walked Alone, and a film dramatization, The Whole Wide World. Both contain reliable accounts of their encounters. Price and Howard shared for a time a quasi-romantic relationship. She sought to alter Howard into a typical husband/father/worker. Howard refused to take up the life of a "clerk"- doing as he was told. Novalyne had aspirations to be a writer (or teacher). Howard made light of her methodology. In one encounter, Howard asked what she would write if an Indian brave should appear at the edge of a forest. She replied she would tell him to, "Wash off his war paint, get a proper suit of clothes and go with her to Sunday school." She then understood why he took her writing attempts so lightly. He would spend six hours at a sitting using his exclamatory style at the typewriter composing a record of what she should have suggested instead of having students repeat what they were told. The likely reaction to the suggestion that the Self is an illusion would be to cease reading and go back to the unfathomable contents of the literary interpretation. This short paper is dedicated to the scientific development of the illusion of the Self as just as intriguing if not more so, than the literary interpretation. The reader might be tempted to leave off reading the fiction of writers like Lovecraft, and devote one’s available time to the more illuminating work of the laboratory scientist. The most surprising of all the human illusions is the Self. Others include color and the sensation of beauty. No uninitiated person would call into question the reality of these matters. What are the particulars behind the illusion of the, Self? Among others, The Self is "unchanging and continuous; a unifier of all experiences; is that which thinks", etc. In short, the self is Me! All of these experiences are illusions as demonstrated by simple experimentation. However, they are cherished illusions, disturbances of such are by no means to be desired since normal functioning is not possible in their absence. Extreme disturbances might be considered a form of mental illness. Simple experimental demonstrations of an aspect of this most significant illusion includes the following: A person has his right hand hidden and that hand is stroked. Another visible rubber right hand is also stroked at the same time. The self will shift from the hidden hand to the visible rubber hand. However, the rubber hand shares nothing with the origin of the overall form and is not part of the unified self. Another illusion of this sort invalidates reports of near death experiences. In this case a person on a table is massaged by a roller beneath his back. Some subjects interpret the events as their floating above the table and seeing themselves face down on the table being massaged with a visible roller. If computer screens are suspended from the ceiling easily discernible by a "floating body," none are reported by the "witness." Lord Dunsany, (Edward J. M. Plunkett) investigates the establishment, and spread of Illusions in society in some of his fantasy tales, notably here, A Tale of London and Thirteen at Table. In a far land known in Baghdad, a hashish-eater is asked by the Sultan to tell a dream of London (England). So the dream begins - one familiar with London would wonder at the outset - "Where is this London? It has no resemblance to the one I know at all!" Still later, some of the fictions in the dream of the hashish-eater do not meet the Sultan's approval, and are immediately altered. Finally the description of "London" is found acceptable to both; if by some chance the dream is recorded or spread by word of mouth to those who in ignorance accept all the details, and add some of their own, the myth becomes all the more convincing. The London of the hashish-eater spreads as a true narrative; nonetheless it is an Illusion. So the more detailed and enjoyable the more resonant such a myth becomes. In Thirteen at Table, a hunter, Linton, weary from a prolonged fox hunt comes upon a dismal cottage in wilderness isolation. After seeking shelter from the owner, a Sir Richard the hunter is invited to dinner. The table is long and the owner and hunter are seated at opposite ends. Dinner guests are announced by the owner and are asked to be seated about the table, altogether thirteen of them. Unfortunately, for Linton he can see none of them, However, one, a certain Miss Rosalind Smith who he interprets as quite "pretty," not in flesh and blood, but derived from impressions of the chair on which she sat, and smoke about a nearby candle providing hints of her outline. He regales the ladies with incidents from his fox hunt (adding fictions when his memory fails) for a good long while. Then in his fatigue he offends the ladies, and in a rush of air they all rise to exit the dining room. Linton then grows very weary and falls to the floor, to awaken in bed the next morning. He apologizes to Sir Richard, but is reassured the apology is unnecessary since Sir Richard has been trying to get rid of the pests for some time. Seemingly, the women were all Illusions to an unaffected observer, but to the participants any hints of their existence were enough to give them substance leaving Linton assured that they existed in fact. James, Linton's attendant had no memory of these events at all. In subsequent years stories of gay parties at Sir Richard's home became well known. All that is needed to establish the existence of illusion of the delightful ladies is two "chosen ones," even though they were provided with limited evidence. However, one important fact remains - Linton and Richard would remain convinced in spite of all doubters - they had seen the miracle, and they among all were chosen to see it. In Poe's Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, August Barnard and Arthur Pym on a joy ride in their boat Ariel during a storm are overrun by the a whaler Penguin off the coast of Nantucket. They survive, but the incident is transformed by school boys and sailors into the deaths of thirty or forty victims, and the original Barnard and Pym and their vessel are completely forgotten - further evidence of the transformative power of the Self. Particularly instructive in analysis of the nature of the Self are experiences under the influence of psychedelic drugs. In a research situation a subject reported under the influence of an anesthetic derived from a psychedelic agent, a Self composed of three distinct parts - none identified as the personal self. The First was a participant in a dangerous activity. The second was a nonparticipant, non-verbally calling for assurance. The Third was a commentator providing explanation of the events taking place. The vision located the three, one below to the right, one below to the left, and the commentator somewhat above. An independent, disembodied brain appeared, the hemispheres separated; and a comment was heard that the situation was unrepairable. Similar reports have appeared elsewhere, notably in the volume, The Dragons of Eden, by the astronomer, Carl Sagan. Consider Dunsany's, The City on Mallington Moor, where the "city" both exists and does not exist depending on who you ask and both under what conditions you ask them, and where they think it is. Reality escapes the dreams of Fantasy and the Coercion of Scientific Procedures. As with memory, intermittently an idea winks in and out of existence. Illusions, a kind of idea have a similar fragility. The Conceptions of Cause and Effect are no more powerful than Preformed Order in accounting for this evanescence. The most inclusive, and effective ideas in science are M-Theory and Quantum Theory in achieving explanation of Natural Phenomena. They are in agreement to the level of a millionth, billionth, billionth, billionth of a centimeter, and then Chaos prevails. Quaintly put, "Sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't." According to some eminent scientists they do not know why the change occurs, because "We do not know what we are doing." Then, why not shift to questions which can be answered? One might ask what part environment and genetics play in the development of the illusion of the Self? In other words, to what extent do experiences in the world and the information in the inherited genome contribute to the phenomenon? In elementary biology all cells are derived from the fertilized egg. Modern investigators consider this conception as a disabling simplification in explaining cellular origins. There is the matter of microchimeric origins. Research reveals that a woman can pass her cells on to her children, including cells from her siblings and mother, also. These “alien cells” can become incorporated into the formation and function of organs throughout the body, including the brain. Theory suggests these cells play a role in development of the Self. Another ontogenetic influence on the development of the Self is the phenomenon of twining; in particular, mirror image twins derived from a single sperm and egg, a resulting four celled embryo dividing into two, two cell parts each giving rise to an embryo, one the mirror image of the other. There are other variations, but here the discussion will be limited to this case. With regard to the Self such twins reveal the mirror imagery in the placement of marks on opposite sides of the face (moles, etc.), "peach fuzz" on the back swirls in opposite directions, one twin is left handed the other right, and placement of facial features, such that when facing one another each sees a mirror image. Most significantly may be the right as opposed to left dominance of the cerebrum. If a twin is right brain dominant they will reveal emotional, artistic tendencies; whereas left brain dominance favors analytical, logical behaviors. One twin tends to carry items in the folded right arm, the other the left. Also, the symmetry expresses itself in how they cross their legs and stand relative to one another when together. As stated in the outset, such twins are not identical but mirror images contrary to the testimony of parents and other relatives. All of the traits mentioned here are not properly termed genetic, but more properly, acquired characteristics. A subject might be asked, “Describe yourself.” The subject’s answer would likely include a list of vague ideas about age, job, children, possessions, etc. All of these are oddities derived from the contemporaneous society and not much significance can be attached to them. Self 1: "See that big, white boat at the mooring? I know the guy that owns it. It sits there because he can't afford the gas. At least he can point to it and say, 'That's me.'" Self 2: "To me life has been a series of 'rescued' mutts shipped from Sheboygan. I like to walk this one on scenic locations carrying his warm, plastic bag in my hand. I guess that is who I am!" Self 3: "See that boy over there? The teachers say he is the smartest kid ever in this school. My mother says he takes after me." S.T. Joshi, biographic authority on Lovecraft, describes his subject's development in youth in terms of experiences at home, school, with friends, personal hobbies including his collected books, creative projects and interaction with noted persons of the time. According to this analysis, the origin of Lovecraft's Self is left unaccounted. The matter can be aptly put as follows - In early investigations of combustion the explanation was based on the existence of "phlogiston," escaping in the process. Of course, phlogiston is a nonexistent substance and accounts for nothing. Similarly, the factors relied on by Joshi may account for nothing in Lovecraft's Self. In fact, the Self might be another phlogiston. Charming, but no less misleading analyses of a Self can be found in James Joyce's. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Edna O'Brien's delightful analysis in her James Joyce of the Penguin Lives series. A particularly intransigent problem appears in biographies - namely, that the oldest child in a family feels guilty for somehow causing the tragic ends of parents and siblings; these feelings of guilt quite prominent in the Self as divergent as James Joyce, Victor Frankenstein and Phillip K. Dick. In the reductions of science, seeking causes and effects would require those factors influencing the chemistry of body functions. As in free will, another illusion, there are chemical and physical processes - so many they cannot be followed adequately to determine how a decision is made. Free will is assigned as an unsatisfactory replacement. Consequently, the many factors leading to personality traits cannot be followed either. One is reminded of the advice of F. Scott Fitzgerald to a budding writer, In your writing use nouns and verbs not adjectives. When you use adjectives be very specific, don't generalize. Needless to say, if carried to an extreme the specificity ends in metaphysics - a pitfall to be avoided. Europeans tend to develop a Self based on logical constructs; whereas those of Asia tend to have a Self based on preformed order. One suggestion is that the human body rather than a unity is better explained from the conception of a multifaceted “system,” some parts of quite divergent origins; yet all parts interacting to create an environment conductive to mutual survival. The Self creates the illusion of a unified whole - the Me. Perhaps, literature describes the world as it appears in the capacities of human language, and science describes its nature, but without objects within human experience. Here, consider the case of the nuances of the quantum wave/particle duality of subatomic particles. Succinctly put, consider a paraphrase of a thought from the writings of Werner Heisenberg derived from his considerable intellect and contributions in the sciences and mathematics regarding this matter.: In the case of science, often there are no words in world languages to express the particulars necessary to contemplate matters. Quite often words create images in the human mind which have no testable particulars and are, therefore, without content. In the following paragraphs are included sentences which might violate Heisenberg's admonition. How many readers will be able to identify those with content and those without although both light up images in the imagination? And the earlier paragraphs? A circumvention of Heisenberg's linguistic limitation appears in Arthur Machen's, The White People, and mentioned in Lovecraft's, the Haunter of the Dark. Here, the central character, Robert Blake decodes hieroglyphs written in an Aklo language on a "Shining Trapezohedron" after staring at the phosphorescent glow of stone pillar found in an "abandoned?" church of the College Hill district of Providence, Rhode Island. Such close study awakens a Haunter of the Dark; a being, "Holding all knowledge, and demanding monstrous sacrifices." In nearby Massachusetts, the world's premier wellspring of scientific insights and discoveries, scientists and their acolytes ensconced in university laboratories, stare (relentlessly) into the mysterious glows of laboratory devices and other equipment for much of their lives, a "sacrifice" they believe will yield original insights - later transcribed into mathematical and linguistic formulations. What the source of such insights might be is unknown to them for they will admit (as already mentioned), "We do not know what we are doing." What mysterious, "Haunter of the Laboratory" have they evoked with a language allowing expression of the most significant of all visionary experiences? Robert E. Howard described his source of inspiration as Conan himself standing behind, "Telling me the stories." Other writers (of an earlier era) felt they were inspired by their typewriters. And remember, these may have been written by the same grizzled old man who showed Gerald from Tong Tong Tarrup while at the Edge of the World an old woman singing; to him a moving experience. He may have been the same grizzled, old man who showed Winston through an open window above a curio shop in Oceania, an old woman singing at her laundry, another transfixing event from the year 1984. Here we are informed the grizzled, old man was a Liar. The reader must be reminded that investigations of the particle/wave character of quantum physics have continued since Heisenberg's day. Much more recently experiments have been performed that show that macroscopic particles (oil droplets) and associated pilot wave patterns developed when a millimeter sized oil particle struck a fluid oil surface; the particle would bounce on the surface. The first bounce created a wave that interacted with the particle...and induced it to wander under the influence of this wave. See the work of Couder and Fort at the Denis Diderot University in Paris. Such experiments (and others) call into question some of the standard interpretations of quantum experiments since macroscopic objects mimic the "unfathomable" behavior once thought limited to the exquisitely minute. This information is included here to illustrate the philological difficulties in reading the results of experiments into reliable explanations.. The reader is further admonished not to rely on "personal convictions" since although such convictions are often used in decision making they do not constitute "evidence" nor contain content nor consequences. What is called for now in the analysis of the Self is a continuation of change in thinking of humanity which led to the origin of Western science from 2721 to 2521 BCE. Here, the Ancient Greeks diverted away from the anthropomorphic gods to other archetypal basic principles. The most enduring of these revisions established forms of primordial matter as preeminent, including Water, Fire, Air, Atoms, et. al. The older gods including Zeus, Hera, etc. were declared to be illusions. Similarly, today the Self is no longer considered a "ghost like," spiritual component of a human, but an illusion intimately associated with and subsumed by the primordial forms of matter composing the structure and function of that human body - including inherited, archetypal thought patterns. Some of these particulars or creations of primordial matter that do have consequences and content might include, sequence coding (DNA, RNA, etc.), quasistatic chemical systems, information theory, entropy, order, free energy, quantum uncertainty, multidimensional cliques (algebraic topology), macromolecular structure, energy transformations, metabolism (material transformations), diffusion control, self regulation, organismal symbiosis, descent with modification and whole texts filled with the mathematical relations among these and others. Perhaps, the "Me" is a state comparable to that just "before" the Big Bang expressed as "(+) + (-) = (0)". The zero is not "nothing at all" but a state in which none of the separate factors calls attention to itself. Now, the state of all of the components is determined with a certain level of "uncertainty" which cannot be surpassed. Just "then" a (+) departs from its (-) and "something" calls attention to itself, and the whole system departs from (0) into the components, and the Big Bang occurs. The observer causing this change is of course, "chance." Henry Markham of the Blue Brain Project suggests that systems of particulars mentioned above in complex structures and functions within animal brains are neuronal arrangements described by algebraic topology and referred to as ”cliques.” In these “cliques” connected functional units (neurons} form into surfaces over simple or complex multidimensional cavities. Three functional units could form a two dimensional triangle; four a three dimensional tetrahedron; more functional units could form seven dimensional shapes difficult to represent visually. One value of such cliques in compartmentalized, complex systems could be transient or permanent information flow and storage by formation and collapse. Suppose the Self is such a state just before the Big Bang. The "consolidation" composed of potential factors and functions, but none calls attention to itself. In the laboratory, the technician observing such a Self, "a conscious observer," causes a departure from the consolidated state and it decomposes. The observer concludes that it did not exist when not observed and that the Self Is Only An Illusion, a limitation which cannot be circumvented; a limitation of scientific reductionism since this reductionism does not take into account the influence of "consciousness" existing outside the realm of Standard Scientific Formulations. Dostoevsky, Poe, Keats and Wilde wrote about individuals with varying degrees of dysfunction in the development of the illusion of the Self. Perhaps, such dysfunction plays a role in creating interesting characters for literary devices. What would be written of Raskolnikov and his exaggerated sense of identity if he were an "ordinary person?" Kafka created Gregor Samsa who is so extraordinary he adjusts to the problems of existence by transforming himself into the identity of an insect. Keats longs to enter the forest with, or as a Nightingale (after becoming "tipsy"). What influences motivated Oscar Wilde to allow Dorian Gray to transfer his aging identity to a painting, so that he is left with a timeless existence? Most delightful of of all, read Alice’s reaction to the Caterpillar asking, “Who are you?”; And Alice’s retort, "I - hardly know, sir, just at present - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then." Alice suggests the Caterpillar might feel the same way, "When you change into a chrysalis - you will someday, you know - and then after that into a butterfly. I should think you will feel it a little queer, won't you?" Unmoved the Caterpillar responds, "Not a bit." Does the Mad Hatter put the finishing touches on the solution to the riddle of the Self with a cherry like, "I haven't the slightest idea." And the March Hare chimes in, "Nor I." One should not fail to mention other literary classics investigating the matter of the Self. Notable for touching on the subject include, Netochka Nezvanova, by Fyodor Dostoevsky; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson; Great Expectations, Charles Dickens; Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, Robert M. Persig; Call of the Wild, Jack London; Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Jules Verne; Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley; Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte; The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe; To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf; The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin; Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre and the more modern works of Dunsany, Howard, Lovecraft, Smith; and many others. Books by professionals in the medical field are all omitted from this list in keeping with the point of view adopted here for the non-specialist (except on a restless night while stretched out in bed). An supreme example of the analysis of the Self taken as objective fact is to be found in the writings of Fyodor Dostoevsky, most notably among many others, his 1870 novel, The Eternal Husband, including the Freudian psychoanalytical concepts of subconscious fixations, defense mechanisms, dream analysis, childhood experiences, sexuality etc., gaining popularity in the 19th Century. Here in one of his best developed novels Dostoevsky traces the relationship between two "friends" from childhood. Summarized in Chapter 16, Analysis - these friends express their uneasy conflict culminating in an "attempted murder" by one of them. Pavel Pavlovich and Alexey Ivanovitch never resolve their difficulties, but circumstances depart one from the other as seeming the final resolution. The relationship comes to a head in the masterful Chapter 15, The Account Settled, where in a combined dream/actual experience, hidden, subconscious motivations crowd for dominance, foremost among them, the plaguing, mysterious conception of a child, and a mixture of petty jealousies, humiliations and envy. Notably, the decision to murder is made under influence of some common place objects rather than careful planning. One of these seeming trivial resentments is that one of the protagonists has more skill in putting on a pair of gloves, and is not bald. Any "planning" to be found is expressed by the author in a blizzard of conflicting influences none of which seems to come logically to the fore; some of these depicted cleverly by Dostoevsky at a garden party about the home of a wealthy family including charming, young women - who treat one of the men as a highly alluring masculine figure, the other a despicable buffoon suitable only for ridicule. Although Dostoevsky is not considered an original thinker, his masterful manipulation of the ideas seems at least of equivalent value. Needless to say, Constance Garnett's is the translation to read. Arguably, one the best film adaptation of the Self Concept is the 1983, Zelig, an enchanting record of the tumultuous experiences of one, Leonard Zelig as he molds his Self to fit comfortably in the social environment of the late 1920's and '30's. (Inspired by the Greek, Alcibiades with the same skills in his day?) Born into a dysfunctional family and neighborhood, he vainly attempts to erase all originality from himself and to adjust to each situation by becoming a perfect counterpart. If anything, the satiric nuances lead the viewer into a state of restless ambivalence. Details of his feelings of maladjustment extend to the fine point of inferiority resulting from never having read Melville's, Moby Dick. His blending is so well developed that he is able to mimic all languages, ethnic, occupational, political, religious, and other groups he encounters, including a meeting with the Pope, Adolph Hitler, and American political personalities and celebrities. After being identified as a maladjusted figure, the psychiatrist Eudora Fletcher is assigned the task of treating him. The film fleshes out their encounters with great humor and with insights abounding; developed by computer blending of characters into still and moving pictures of the era. Zelig becomes known as the Chameleon Man, an attendant sensation of the times, including a popular dance, songs, souvenirs, parades, with the population hanging on all details of his exploits. His association with lizards in the eyes of the public and medical community lead to the suggestion that while in the hospital he should be fed flies rather than the usual hospital food. Fletcher, finally rescues him from his lack of distinguishing features and helps him to develop into what is considered in the film a well adjusted man, a Healthy Self. As a parallel history of a somewhat different Self development several viewings and dissections of the 2014 American film The Nightcrawler delineating the history of one Louis Bloom beginning as a thief and transforming him into a successful photojournalist is suggested here. This Self, by a complex of autodidact education and analysis of interests, abilities and opportunities transforms Bloom into what form of Self will succeed in modern journalism. Super Heroes, Super Villains, and possibly Politicians have among the most nebulous Selfs in that they transform themselves completely depending on circumstances. Bat Man, Superman, Judge Dredd, Doc Savage, G-8, Shadow, The Joker, The Riddler, are well known in American culture, embodied in a Self(less) pursuit of the Good or evil for (in) humanity. Who were they? "Strange visitor from another planet!!," "Criminals are a superstitious lot. I will don the persona of a bat!!!" "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man?" "Wait until he gets a load of me!" "Riddle me this!" "The Doc Savage Creed." "I am the Law!!" How did they get that way? Costumes help, and dual identities to fit both with instantaneous transformations from one self to the other seeming on demand. A phone booth does help to conceal the details. A small box of makeup, and a few touches to the face rendered G-8's body indistinguishable from any mortal!! Only the Donald comes close to any of these miracles of blending. Similarly, Lovecraft’s Outsider has apparently grown up in a very unusual setting, but in this case including no companions or other creatures to interact except bats, rats and the like. He has no conception of his physical appearance beyond comparison with corpses in the basement of the old building and pictured books. He does not seem to consider the idea of parents or siblings, or what sort of creature he was. In short, he lacks nearly all thought of a Self in his dismal isolation. So he is as near as he can get to no identity at all. When he sees his reflection and the behavior of other humans encountering him at a celebration, on the sudden encounter with the Self experienced by others, his world collapses into oblivion rendering him mad. Although not psychologically fashionable in the modern era, one might point out that Lovecraft's mother found him as a young child so hideous she did not want to be seen with him in public.To what extent Lovecraft saw himself as an Outsider will not be determined here, but a reading of this story and Joshi's biography might help in gaining such an insight. Rather than resembling Zelig, certain similarities appearing on comparison with Raskolnikov's smug superiority - are unmistakable on reading reading Part 1 of Crime and Punishment. Lovecraft might have felt this superiority fading as his family fortunes were depleted and he might have begun to wonder who he was in his later years. As others have pointed out Lovecraft identified himself as a mimic. His "The Call of Cthulhu illustrates this mimicry with the obvious parallels to Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Of the many other similarities in their works is the appearance of the phrase, Tekeli-li seemingly derived from a south sea language as, "God angry!" As Poe admired Coleridge, Lovecraft admired Poe, this admiration revealed further in writing about men living in the extremes of existence and the effects this life has on their consciousness. All of them and many other works, including Melville's, Moby Dick, reveal characters as derived from Ishmael; the Biblical character whose father proclaimed, He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be raised against everyone and everyone's hand will be raised against him! Many Outsiders have a distant relationship with their father. At this juncture, where the suggestion of "admiration" transduced into mimicry requires further examination. Among many other variations consider a student who finds the teacher particularly appealing; and long after the course has ended the student maintains, "I learned so much from him. My point if view was completely changed by that man.." At the risk of introducing what might seem initially as "the Self as a mystical, immaterial component of humans," is it possible that the Self is transferable from one mind to another? If the Self can be transferred from a flesh and blood arm to a rubber replacement in experiments, why not from one person to another? At the risk of misinterpretation consider the exceptional story, A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe envisions two men (a possible third?), very similar in appearance who share the same memories. In the case investigated, Augustus Bedloe plagued by "neuralgic attacks," seeks the aid of a Doctor Templeton an acolyte of Franz Mesmer. Templeton succeeds in helping Bedloe to alleviate his symptoms using mesmerism. Following, Bedloe describes his excursion through a bizarre wilderness into a weird civilization; the experience having much the appearance of "falling asleep." Later the return to normalcy much like that of "waking up." He however, describes himself as "dead." These same experiences are then revealed by Templeton to be shared by one other strikingly similar man - one with the name, Oldeb. So, one interpretation here is Bedloe and Oldeb all share aspects of the same Self. Poe might have been suggesting reincarnation. A newsman farcically spells the name, Bedlo. The e a mere typographical error, he suggests smugly as a man's identity is erased. Poe's satire suggesting little confidence in the newsmen. Further, another satirical poke at the medical profession suggests when Beldoe died (again?) in the story it was because in the "proper application of blood letting" by leeches, a vile, black leech intruded and caused his demise. Very similar satire when compared to the Mad Hatter discussing with the March Hare the failure of butter to repair a watch. The suggestion - butter was the right corrective, and "It was the best butter!" quips the Hare but, "There must have been some 'crumbs' in it." adds the Hatter. Superb!! One might point out here that Poe is far superior to Lovecraft in his story telling - Lovecraft's stories are weird, no doubt, but Poe's have multifaceted "meanings." In this regard, consider the illusion of the Self in connection with the illusion of the Spirit, Poe develops in his, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Here a dying man, Ernest Valdemar seeks to be mesmerized near to the point of death for the purposes of determining the effects of "animal magnetism". Some background information includes a quotation from the Principia of Isaac Newton in 1713 - "A subtle Spirit which pervades and lies hid on all gross bodies; by the forces and action of which Spirit, the particles of of bodies mutually attract one another at near distances, and cohere (animal magnetism?)...and electric bodies operate at greater distances and the members of animal bodies move at the command of the will, namely, the vibration of this Spirit, mutually propagates along solid filaments of the nerves, from the outward organs of sense to the brain, and from the brain to the muscles..." Even as a narrow empirical generalization, "There are many crumbs in it!" especially for a man of Newton's stature in the sciences. The nod to the, On the Nature of Things and the "animal spirits" of Lucretius are quite obvious. If you believe in the Illusion of Gravity, why not that of Animal Spirits? Valdemar remains in a dead communicative state for some time; then he demands to be awakened. On being revived from the mesmerized state his body almost instantly decomposes. So, when the Spirit leaves the body the attractive forces (animal magnetism) do also. Whether this event is another case of Poe's ridicule of a ridiculous idea is difficult to determine. However, it is likely since Poe did dabble in science and wrote science fiction as indicated in his The Fall of the House of Usher, where the principal character, Roderick Usher, believed that the rocks, fungi, water of the tarn and atmosphere attendant to his mansion had somehow shaped the personalities of his family members over time. Here, the name of Spallanzani and his "spontaneous generation" experiments of 1773 are alluded to; which experiments seemed to indicate that "air" contained an "active principle" causing the dead, organic ingredients in his sealed flasks experiments to generate living things; the principal in the air destroyed by boiling. Pasteur eliminated the active principle in air by his famous "Swan Necked Flask Experiments" of 1861, these experiments were unknown to Poe since he died in 1849. Air could enter the flasks, but dust containing microbes were trapped in the swan like curvatures of the tubes supplied to the flasks. Quite neatly, the Self is apparently another active principle of illusion found in humans, whose origin can be explained by simple scientific analysis. But, here as noted earlier, the Self is a cherished, illusion like the Spirit, disturbances of such are by no means to be desired since normal functioning is not possible in its absence. Extreme disturbances might be considered a form of mental illness. Yet the reader will be grateful to Poe for his "food for thought." Certain other science fiction creations regarding the Self and the relation to the physical body are extant, notably, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick in which the central problem is a Self with attendant emotions is difficult to program into advanced Nexus 6 androids; this feature is the only character which allows them to be distinguished from true humans. Given enough time the Nexus 6 will store up enough experiences to develop a Self - a dangerous outcome. How to distinguish one's Self in this future society depends on owning large, exotic animals, including ostriches and other rarities. Lacking resources one must acquire mechanical replicants. As a biographical study, the l995 film, Crumb has achieved universal acclaim, and in one case rated among the ten greatest films ever made. Crumb, his family, admirers and detractors are the centerpieces for this biographic study of this most famous of all underground cartoonists. In effect, Crumb describes what he thinks were the seminal influences of family and society in the formation of his Self and those of his two brothers, Charles and Maxon. In doing so the film calls attention to their domineering father, emotionally unstable mother and the media misrepresentations of 1950's family life, with its distilled purity not even to be found in the real families included. The film surges in the diametrically opposite direction, including even the (what might be called in polite society) "sordid" details of Crumb's experiences, both real and imaginative. Crumb decries bitterly of his mistreatment by the merchandising system of Art in the United States. Well worth a study if the viewer is interested in the Self and its origins. Of all the film depictions of the nature of the Self, the surreal/existential 1920, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde featuring John Barrymore in the title role is the most exemplary. Here, a medical doctor devises a potion by which he can transform his benevolent Self into his alter Self, the heinous Mr. Hyde. Even with the period affectations, Barrymore's physical transformation (with minimal special effects) is almost miraculous, revealing him at the very summit of his artistry - the closeups of changes in body form, facial features and appendages were a sensation at the time and continuing into the present. In the end he fails to return to Dr. Jeckyll Self and meets his demise as Hyde. The film does perpetuate that Hyde with his criminal tendencies is necessarily "ugly;" that ugliness expressed in general body conformations and facial features. This silent film with the characteristic exaggeration of facial features for communication suggests the eyes and the face in general as the pathway to the nature of the Self. The creations of Lovecraft, Dick, and Crumb are singular enough to cause one to question the origin of their inspiration for the ideas in their writing and art. Editors and commentators suggest three possibilities - divine revelation, schizoid personality problems, visions derived from within the brain (not based on previous experience) - "archetypal subject matter" expressed in vivid "phosphene graphics" - seeing light where no light is entering the eye. The standard explanation is generally mechanical effects - "seeing stars" on mechanical impact. (Consider the film, Pickman's Muse, based on Lovecraft's, Pickman's Model for what appear to be some vivid examples of a church seen this way.) C.G. Jung and Wolfgang Pauli discussed the the last of these as archetypal influences the same the world around, some based on mathematical (Fibonacci, etc.) progressions, as related to synchronicity. Crumb, in particular states in an interview that he did not draw with any purpose beyond compulsion, since he became depressed if he did not draw for some time. He "worked out" his drawings to see them. His inspirations came from somewhere, but he could not pin point their origins. Lovecraft based his stories on waking experiences, but most notably on dreams. Dreams are composed of discordant subject matter until sense is made of them just on waking. Lovecraft though thoroughly scientific in his viewpoint, might have expressed his fear of the apparent "meaninglessness" of Reality with monsters creeping out in the non-sequential sleep state. Dick had "visions" which caused him to write a huge volume (summarized in the Exegesis) in an attempt to explain them. He might have combined schizoid tendencies with the effects of amphetamines taken to allow writing sixty pages of script in a day, often, a "night." Mark Twain quipped that, "Everybody is a little insane at night." Phillip Dick in a similar vein added more specifically, "Do not make important decisions at two o'clock in the morning." However, Nietzsche insists, "0f intoxicated midnight's dying happiness, which sings: The world is deep, deeper than day can comprehend." For a fairly comprehensive explanation for the "insanities of the night" read the enchanting and evocative, The Terrors of the Night (1594) by Thomas Nashe; where he promises, "A little to beguile time idly discontented, and satisfy some of my solitary friends herein the country, I have hastily undertook to write of the weary fancies of the night." He begins the discourse with s classification of "spirits" located in animate and inanimate forms, all in league with the Devil. Included in the classifications are spirits of the Raven and the Dove of Noah's Ark fame, as good and ominous omens. He then lists spirits of "light,", where in the day in disguise the Devil can haunt people though he abhors the brilliance; those of the "fire," the second of the spirits are lodged in "sparks". He mentions Socrates in particular reference here. He goes on to say that such spirits stimulate creativity, but as they do the victims become "haughty and proud." Oh! No! Not that! Next are the spirits of the water, earth, and air - he describes these as, "dull phlegmatic drones." Most subject to these spirits are "misers, drunkards and women." All sorts of odd diseases are brought on by these spirits notably, "rheum, sciatica, dropsy and and gout." Today a pharmacist could provide doses of "allopurinol" for the last on this list. The spirits of the "air" are some of the most despicable, being associated with various forms of troubling delusions and deceptions, including women wearing makeup to cover facial blemishes and uplifting undergarments. In these last cases the deceptions might be better described as "falsies". That's why young women become depressed on viewing the perfect visages of makeup models! In the following section of his discourse, Nashe declares dreams as having no prophetic powers at all - a dream merely being a thought of day that overshoots its natural habitat and penetrates into the dark with the cloak of nightmare. Nashe goes to some lengths to reveal soothsayers and augurers as charlatans, identifying specifically, Spurina who warned Caesar of the coming Ides of March. Among their deceits is mingling with conspirators to learn of their nefarious plans - then warning victims just before these actions are put into effect. Nashe also casts dismissive language on palm readers and other "bump interpreters" as taking advantage of their victim's gullibility. Of course, he makes one exception - certain cherished "Seers" have vivid experiences whose contents are not dreams, but direct communications from the Deity. Hey! Let's get serious here!! How else can we have a "delusion of the messiah"? Nashe suggests further that education and worldly experiences interfere profoundly with these direct, but inspiring communications. Do not send your kids to school! In a final section, Nashe describes an unnamed gentleman's "visions or dreams?" experienced several days before his death. These experiences are presented as genuine preparations for the Day of Judgement. For this reader the oddness of the language and the necessary sidelong inferences necessary require much more prolonged study. Some philosophers after years of writing begin to think the origin of their ideas in divine inspiration (a kind of Messianic Impulse). Whatever the cause, the basic explanation from the view of science, must reside in the physio/chemical nuances of brain function, either genetic, accidental, or induced by chemicals from outside, creating in each an unusual, creative Self. But I live in mine own light, I drink again into myself the flames that break forth from me. F. N. The regions of the brain involved in segments of the Self seem most notably the temporofrontal and the limbic regions. Objective chemical substances seem to be responsible for subjective experiences including excitement, calm, enthusiasm and all the rest as essential parts of the Self. When something new is seen, a release of a specific substance, "dopamine" from the visual centers is transmitted and a transient sense of excitement evolves in the pleasure center. Repeats of the same experiences lead to a reduction of dopamine secretion and a concomitant reduction in excitement, interpreted subjectively as, "boredom." Similarly, production of another substance, "oxytocin" is associated with feelings of calm and safety. Serotonin contributes to a sense of happiness, epinephrine the feelings of stress, the endorphins associated with pain relief - which suggests a similarity to over the counter acetaminophen which targets the pain center specifically. The male and female sex hormones play essential roles in the sense of Self. The list of substances and their specific chemical actions could be extended, but the question remains, "Where do the subjective feelings come from? One might say: They reside in the realm of illusion as do colors, beauty, cuteness, hot and cold, and all the other illusions of subjective experience." Specifically, photons have no color. They are subatomic particles (often described in elementary texts as sometimes acting as a particle and others as a wave) combined with a carrier wave of a certain frequency. The previous statement includes conceptions which are inadequate to the situation. Heisenberg declaims that photons do not fit the language conception of particle nor wave. There is another "state" which neither idea from common experience includes. There is no "word" for that state. Only the conceptions and procedures of mathematics allows the language limitation to be circumvented. Where do Einstein's Relativity, and Darwin's. Origin of Species fall in this consideration? Einstein did not receive the Nobel Prize (no testable consequences included?). Would Darwin have received the Prize for his "story telling" non-mathematical model? So, referring to the "Self" as an "Illusion" instead of a "Real" may include the same language limitation. Color is a elaboration by the eyes and the brain. Then, what is the origin of the seeming subjective state? Here is a suggestion. The chemical systems of the human body include information about a dynamic "steady state"; a system of "adjustable balance of no further change." Then a disruption (change) occurs. The interpretation is "something is different," and a departure from the steady state is at hand. The brain must "learn" (store information physically and chemically) to see (recognize) by manufacturing illusions of shapes and colors, pain, etc. later to be used to match to new encounters. Information about an injury, for one example, is carried to the brain by nerve impulses or glandular secretions, Upon reception in the centers of the brain (where there is a "map" of all body parts) the body is prepared to "move away or toward" the altered state - such preparations and the fictional illusions involved constitute the subjectivity. This feeling is the subjective sense that, "I am injured" in the absence of information of the exact nature of the injury. Missing limbs often feel "in pain" since a functional, organic memory of the injury remains as "information," perhaps in cliques surrounded by neurons discussed above. The energy equivalent of information (capacity to make choices) has been calculated. Physio/chemically, how might the unpleasant feelings such as ‘pain” and "reactions" be produced? Researchers including Marco Gallio, suggest a key actor in the process involves a protein located in the cell membrane – Transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily A, member 1 (mercifully known as, “TRPA1”); a substance implicated as a sensor of irritating environmental substances and mechanical injuries. This protein is also involved in responses including watering of the eyes, cough, and itch behavior and moving away or toward high and low temperatures. What are some of the physio/chemical interactions occurring involving this protein? Researchers suggest the processes evolved hundreds of millions of years ago; variations in activity occur, but the common features were probably evolved in the ancestors of diverse groups (flatworms, insects and chordates) in that distant past. The planaria worm normally avoids high temperatures and irritating substances, such as “wasabi.” However, in variants of this animal without the TRPA1, normal avoidance behaviors fail. What does the planaria normally detect? Experiments suggest that the detected substances in the danger situations are hydrogen peroxide and other reactive substances containing oxygen. In the familiar "itch syndrome" of humans and other animals such detection then influences nearby nerves linking the injury site to brain and initiating avoidance or attraction response, including gradient movements, scratching, coughing and watery eyes. From there, itch sensitive cells in the spinal cord are activated sending neural messages to the parabranchial nucleus of the brain stem. From this nucleus message are sent to other parts of the brain yielding the ultimate sensation of “itch.” Anesthetizing these pathways yields a reduction in the itch phenomenon. Further research has identified in the cortex of the cerebrum specialized neurons of unusual shape and size with few dendritic connections; POSTULATED among other functions is the production of the Self. Evidence of this connection is provided by a severe form of dementia resulting from a significant loss of these cells. Named VENs, after their original discoverer, von Economo in 1929, they are unusual in being elongate, with spindle shaped bodies, and located in the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontal insular cortex of the brain. These areas are thought to involved in the most inner thought patterns including love, anger, time, reaction timing, empathy and cooperation, taste (and related judgment of behaviors), assessment of personal standing and the interpretation of other environmental signals, and many others if not all of the other aspects assigned to the Self; all if these being synonymous with Consciousness. Ultimately, signals to these areas of the brain from the parabranchial nucleus regarding an itch, might mimic the effects of information from all parts of the body about the overall state of affairs in these regions and how to react to them. Especially relevant here to an interpretation of Lovecraft’s The Outsider is that these regions are particularly active when a subject sees himself in a mirror! The Self is therefore, the chemical consolidation of a harmonious union of all items contributing to the maintenance of the "steady state." Hunger, compulsion to breathe, and other subjective motivations are preparations innate in the systems maintaining the most nearly optimal steady state. These elaborate systems of fictions are a compromise when knowledge of chemical substances is lacking. Knowledge of the molecular formula of a dopamine molecule tells nothing to the uninitiated, but volumes to an organic chemist as cascades of interactions with these substances. Attaching a phosphate chemical group to a molecule is a far cry from "subjective experience" except when used in the cognitive sense. Therefore, chemical substances, including neurotransmitters work their effects though chemical reactions rather than subjective considerations. A hive of bees is in a hubbub. Time to swarm? Explorers go out to seek new hive sites, as in a hollow tree. An explorer finds such a site. Is it "too big or too small?" No need for contemplation. The bee enters the hollow and walks about. If the distance walked matches the bee's neural diagram, he returns to the hive with the good news. If not the bee searches again. No need for "good news." The bee does a "waggle dance" or some other signal is provided. The selected portion of the hive departs for a new location. The new site allows the bees to reach a "steady state" once again; and construction of the comb and the rearing of young begins anew. A wren selects a bird house in somewhat the same way, then a mate visits; a steady state is reached by the pair and nesting begins. Subjective thinking is so entrenched in humans that objective descriptions are very difficult to achieve. And lest we forget, "Will there be enough room when Aunt Maisie and her umpteen Kids come over on Sundays?" Explanations of the situations of the literary characters' "disequilibrium states" could be achieved in the manner just demonstrated. Perhaps as near an analogy as can he derived from this situation is that of Jonathan Miller (The Body in Question, 1982) put somewhat poetically: the "Self" is a kind of melody played by the orchestra of chemical processes of which the body is composed. Quite obviously, in such discussions the conceptions of “spirit, “soul," and “consciousness,” do come to “mind” in treatment of these matters. Generally, scientists do not include them in formal scientific presentations. Nonetheless, "consciousness experiments" are planned by Lucien Hardy at the Perimeter Institute in Canada. In brief, the Bell Test will be involved - a way of determining if atomic particles at a distance are, in fact, entangled (linked); (such tests suggest that they are). In this case, EEG brain activity of test subjects will be used from people 100 kilometers apart to switch settings on measuring devices at each location. If the readings differ from the results of previously done Bell Tests, such results would indicate a violation of Quantum Physics by a process outside established science namely, the "Consciousness." Such a result would mean that physics can be overcome by processes outside standard formulations. One investigator has set the goal of locating consciousness in the quantum states of calcium phosphate in the brain stem. As is their wont, Psychiatrists, School Programs, and the Medical Profession as a whole, treat being an Outsider as a kind of mild or severe mental illness. The closest categorical, diagnostic term is probably, Schizotypal Personality as opposed to a person with a Normal Personality. What would become of the productivity of art and science if all people had the empty headedness of normalcy? Why not ask the Sweet Little Ladies shown above in photographs just after graduating from high school or college? What would they say? Here is an example of the specifics of the scientific rather than philosophic approach to the matter of how memories (part of the Self) work. If one learns a key sequence (on a piano) the memory (playing over and over again) is stored in the cortex of the brain (as cliques?). Then, when the same subject falls into deep (REM) sleep, the memory fades from the cortex and reappears in a deeper region, the putamen also in the brain. These facts were substantiated using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance) and EEG apparatus to monitor electrical activity of different parts of the brain. They reveal that the cortex stores memories short term so that it can be freed up for new learning episodes. When you have exhausted resources for your study, then try to develop a personal synthesis (review of the literature) of your studies. What about Macbeth, and “A tale told by an idiot?” Does it mean anything in the terms of your synthesis? If not, the matters of the Self remain unresolved, its existence accepted only in an unexamined world. And, before you begin your synthesis, read Hermann Hesse's, The Glass Bead Game, wherein the society of Castalia prepares students to be the Master of the Game, the object of which is to begin with an central idea, and then link it seamlessly with as many other ideas as possible. Is there any value in such a project without identified particulars and physio/chemical interactions to produce reliable predictions? Sabina Spielrein, on a plaque attached to an oak tree fed with her remains wrote: "My name is Sabina Spielrein. I was a human being." What does that mean? If the Self is an Illusion, what are the particulars of the Best Self to play its role? Emmet Ray, "a truly great artist" second only to Django Reinhardt, at the end of the film, Sweet and Low Down after dismissing a show girl, takes his guitar, smashes it, weeping that he made "a mistake." What was the mistake? Did he discover that life really was a, "Tale told by an idiot?" How would his "expressing feelings" have made a marked difference? Would the average "Self" leaving a theater after viewing this film have been able to say anything beyond, "That was a good movie!"? A more bewildering example of the subjective/objective interpretation of the Self was attempted by Woody Allen (writer/director) in another of his films, The Purple Rose of Cairo, where such a person leaving a dark theater and entering a brilliant day, experiences a sudden transformation of the Self, from the movie of the Copacabana to the real life experience of blinding light, raucous noise and hot macadam. What physical/chemical changes in the brain adjust to this sudden change in perspective? Is it derived from such changes experienced by an aging person comparing his/her Self with a younger Self? A short story replicates this sudden, unfortunate realization, written by Weston H. Charlton, published in the romance pulp, Nonesset, (Oct. 1930); where a aging onetime starlet, "Powdered Pigeon" demands a role in a movie featuring a chorus line of beauties. She gains the role, but on seeing her fading physique demands that the film be destroyed, and she disappears into seclusion. Similarly, Sartre describes the experience of Antoine Roquentin in Nausea, while examining his own face in a mirror - "Perhaps it is impossible to understand one's own face...People who live in society have learned to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked?" A situation very similar to what Lovecraft's Outsider experienced. At this juncture inclusion of the phenomenon of institutionalization as experienced in hospitals, jails, laboratories and the confines of religious sects, etc. seems appropriate. Transformations of the Self 1 Roquentin enters a café and is overcome with a sense of Nausea brought on by the surroundings - coarse people speaking superficially, discordant colors and his own state of disorientation. Then the Ethyl Waters recording of Some of these Days, begins to play; and he suddenly recovers. The artistry of the performer provides the curative power – and he thinks, “It filled the room with its metallic transparency, crushing out miserable time against the walls. I am the music.” 10 Stephan Dedalus on returning from school and meeting chums swimming off a bridge - It was a pain to see them and a swordlike pain to see the signs of their adolescence that made repellent their pitiable nakedness. Perhaps they had taken refuge in number and noise from the secret dread in their souls. But he, apart from them and in silence, remembered in what dread he stood in the mystery of his own body. 15 Madame is at lunch with Millie. Drinks are served. Madam is reminded of her drinking at home – alone; purchasing bottles of gin from assorted stores to conceal the quantity drunk. She calls it "sustenance." Millie has been drinking before entering the restaurant. She continues. Suddenly, Millie faints face first in the mashed potatoes, and paramedics are called. Madam never took another drink. 20 My life here is good. I continue to maintain my health as best I can. Given the current atmosphere in today's society. I tend to not go out much except for supplies. I live an isolated existence but that is ok as I was always a outsider. I still go for my daily walk with Zelda rain shine or snow. To help with my medical conditions I now have a medical pot license and I grow my own. Nothing to fancy jsut enough to relax and that is also just an occasional thing. I can grow up to 24 plants . I will grow it in the garden as well as it is a great companion plant for pest control and it is an atractive plant. I make clones of the ones I have as opposed to seeds. The medicinal benefits are excellent I also like growing them I have grow lights for them. Wes is 18 now has his license A very good kid kind respectful. He graduates next year. His GF is a nice girl they are both kind geeks into computers and gaming. She is also had a positive effect on Wes. She is in ROTC and Wes says maybe he might go into the military or police or fire Portia is now working on a cardiac now very high tech stuff. My wife is very smart woman. She left the general unit to go this unit just before the shit hit the fan so she is in a good place with much less exposure to the current situation very busy unit but staffing is an issue as many are leaving in search of the big bucks related to the current situation but she is also making good money as well. Very tiring job. I am still doing photography but since I really don't go far many photo options have decreased and my walking spots are crowded related to current issues I tend more to play around in the basement with developing while listening to my record collection I guess that about covers it. I am waiting for the wife to come home she works nights 21 "Gatsby? What Gatsby?" 30 A young woman on a date enters a nostalgia café with memorabilia on the walls and period music playing. While waiting to be served she informs her date about each of the decorative items as learned from her father…After a short period the date proclaims, “I cannot date you anymore. You’re too smart for me!!” She later tells her father” “You ruined me! I cannot talk to people…” 46 A young fellow enters an avenue art shop. He peruses the holdings. “Two Girls at a Piano” by Monet appears on the wall as a large reproduction. For an interminable moment he is transfixed. He muses, “Did that girl's lips move as they discussed the music? Did I hear the music? One girl is pointing at the sheet music. Did I see her arm stretch out toward a note? I am there in the moment Monet captured." He could not buy the painting and is haunted for the rest of his life. 47 Bloom is in a barber seat. Subdued comments are exchanged with the barber. A pithy statement. Then Bloom and the barber suddenly stare into the wall mirror before them. A fellow is in another barber shop seat in another time. Subdued comments exchanged followed by a pithy statement. Suddenly both turn and stare into the wall mirror. To the barber: "We are in Joyce's, Ulysses. We are there! What is not in that book?" 52 On a Arbor day of April 30, 1948 a maple tree in planted in the corner of the playground of my one room school house. The school now a national monument, and me to be soon forgotten as were the ripples on the nearby Paradise Brook. The Tree remains as do the ancient Horse Chestnuts from which we gathered gem like chestnuts on those later fall days. 65 A. Gordon Pym trapped in the hole of the brig Grampus, as related Poe's effective novel reflects on his forlorn state - food and water exhausted, in complete darkness, his escape route sealed, apparently abandoned by his cohort, Augustus, his faithful dog companion slowly going mad; Arthur's appraisal of his prospects of escape become increasingly dire. From one to another worst case scenario his anxious thoughts plummet to the depths of despair. His original Self experiencing the excitement of a sea voyage dissolves into nothingness. A reader of the novel in his own private dilemma, finds his own appraisal plunging into a similar anxious hopelessness. ********** Movie critics attempt to list, "Ten best films of All Time" based on their emotional effects. How does the chemistry of emotion gain such preeminence? Was that the best criterion? Robert Crumb packed his cherished 78 RPM records as life in the U.S. became intolerable to him, sold his art and moved to a remote province in France - not a perfect place, but life would be better there. Phillip K. Dick once said he wrote his novels to "be in the story." He was displeased when a novel was finished - so he went on to another. In high school he secretly read a science fiction magazine while his teacher explained geometry. Dick could create the world he wanted to live in. The other students were "good dobe's" living in the world created by the teacher. He also asked, "What kind of a world is it if (a dear friend died meaninglessly)?" Just because we can say it, does not mean it is representative of external reality. Could the man on the street envision a perfect Self in a world he could successfully live in, or even consider the possibility? Among other sources consider the novel, Rosshalde, again by Hermann Hesse mentioned above; as the Atlantic - Journal Constitution describes, "Shimmers with the vitality of richly imagined existence." Or in all cases do we find that: "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles." Socrates, perhaps the greatest philosopher of all suggests this answer to Glaucon: "Socrates, how can I achieve immortality?" "First you can give birth to a child. Or, you can give birth to an idea. Or, you can give birth to yourself as The Embodiment of Knowledge." "Knowledge" taken here are the correspondences (intersections) of the caused order of the consciousness with the acausal, preformed order of the physical universe. The Outsider attempts to make such correspondences through reflection and creativity allowing opportunities for such intersections. Friedrich Nietzsche: Repeatedly, his works are described as, "The most beautiful and lucid prose in German literature. He had a poetic temperament and enforced his ideas with symbolic analogies. At eighteen he lost his religious faith and began his search for a new god." This was to be the Superman, so eloquently proclaimed in Thus Spake Zarathustra and Ecce Homo. Nietzsche taught the will to power for only by this will could the Superman be evolved (superior to man as man is superior to an ape). Just out of curiosity, what kind of Self did he have? As far as is known to this writer Nietzsche spells out the Outsider more eloquently than in any other attempt encountered thus far. Oddly, commentators suggest he was "joking or bordering on a mental breakdown." Nonsense. He asks the seminal question rather than "Who am I?" the far more penetrating, "What am I?" Read the beautifully drawn answer to this enigma, "How one becomes what one is." To answer these questions he relied on his "inner voice"; his reading was only for entertainment. Here, Nietzsche echos Plato's Theory of Forms, now gaining credence among neurobiologists, that we are born with innate knowledge of the world - Archetypes? How many of the men on the street read his words? To paraphrase Richard Feynman, "People need philosophy as much as birds need ornithology." With the advancement of Science some philosophers admitted they did not know enough. Conversely, Nietzsche doubted the average person would ever understand his works. Some philosophers limited themselves to not what we can do, but what we should do. For a further development of Nietzsche's behaviors for enhancing his creative capacities, including isolation from other people, long walks in mountainous terrain, and freeing oneself from the restrictive attitudes of "ordinary people" considerable benefit derives from reading Dostoyevsky's, The Landlady (1847) illustrating the behaviors of the highly developed Outsider, Vasily Ordynov, as he seeks out the means to live a solitary life in rundown neighborhoods of St Petersburg. The vacillations of psychological stability depicted in the study of Vasily and his eccentric lover, Katerina might carry the warning - "Read at your own risk!"; as they may be bewildering in the extreme for some sensitive readers. Here, the unpleasant effects are ameliorated by the use of the matter of fact, rather than emotions. A least reaction, when simply unpacking his books in a tenant room, Ordynov's vagus nerve induced a heart surge, his ventricles contracting rapidly, and his psyche lost in the vapors of atrial fibrillation. In a intimate moment Vasily felt Katerina's face, glowing with arterial dilation he bathed in the ninety percent saturated dampness of her breath blanketing his face, and saline solution of tears fell from her eyes as ellipsoidal droplets of fused tungsten (of the highest melting point). As a result he grew weaker and weaker until his skeletal muscles became unreactive. When she touched her head against him a groan of vocal chords pierced into his most archetypal Self. A Wagnerian chord pierced his heart. All this just after Katerina emotes of the poison of reading to destroy the personal Self. Meanwhile, her kiss as a glowing ember burned into his heart. Among the most fervid moments are found in the opening paragraphs of Part Two, Section I, left for the reader to discover where Katerina confesses (while needing valium?) the story of her childhood interactions with the Rasputin-like Murin, since the cumulative effects of Dostoyevsky's words cannot be captured by phrases of variant lexicons. The opening paragraphs of the novel describe Ordynov's withdrawal into a near catatonic state after wandering the streets of derelict sections of the city; a nightmare culminated by his further withdrawal into an absolute solitary existence; the most extreme Outsider imaginable. The seeds of Crime and Punishment had fallen on rich soil. Ordynov, the erudite Outsider cannot resolve the relationship of Murin and Katerina after moving in with them (he has been poisoned by reading?) after an evening of cataclysmic interaction among these two and himself, he leaves the apartment and takes another. He falls sick for six months and on recovering returns to his solitary walking in rundown neighborhoods, gives up his plans for writing a complex scheme based on his reading, finds a "stupid friend", Yaroslav Ilyich knows more of what was going on of which Ordynov had not the faintest idea. His funds dwindling, Ordynov fails once more into seclusion, and then ends up spending long hours in prayer on the floor of a local church waiting for redemption - An Outsider who thought his reading would teach him "everything"; in the end found he knew "nothing". Is reading (especially to Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche) comparable to eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge? Ordynov missed one rather significant encounter. Renting a cheap room in a rundown inn, trying to sleep in sweltering heat on a split blanket (purchased by his mother in an Army Navy Store years before) he listens to the incessantly dripping water leaking from the defunct shower room across the corridor. Then a gigantic cockroach drops from the ceiling into his mouth, and on escaping, scurries off into the darkness. Every species of mosquito had entered the room and sought out his sweating flesh. He rose and left the remnant of the month's rent under the manager's door. He slept the remainder of the night in his car, only to be awakened by a thief syphoning his gasoline. In his later years he found Dostoyevsky's novels irresistible. He discovered the fascination of extreme experience - as many Outsiders are bound to do. He slept with piles of books on the floor nearby. Did he ever lose his dignity or self respect? Ludwig van Beethoven, enhanced his compositional impulses, by taking long nature walks (alone) in the Kahlenberg mountainous regions and applying buckets of cold water to his head, in a slovenly, rundown apartment. In his profound deafness he could hear his inner Self speaking. Late in his career he favored "visceral" music over the "cerebral". His Grosse Fugue resembles "Boogie Woogie" (See Sample). Behaviors seemingly echoing sources including Nietzsche's, Ecce Homo. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** An aspect of the most Highly developed Outsiders is beyond "invisibility" the almost inexplicable desire to not exist at all! The existence of the physical body might be undeniable, but the Self, can so be concealed and manipulated as to have no definiteness, whatsoever. A young scholar about to leave secondary school for the university experience might express the "nonexistence" as follows. "I am glad I am leaving for college this year. Here everybody thinks they know me - who my parents and siblings are, the street I live on, the house I live in, and so on. At college I can be whoever I want to be." Sociologists judge the significant value of secondary schools is establishing personal identity within groups. A more extreme example is found in a college professor retiring after forty-nine years who proclaims quite seriously, "I was never here!" Further, such non-existent individuals prefer not to be known by a name, reveal place of birth, schools attended, age, residence etc. Confidently, such individuals expect colleagues to say,"I have worked with you for fifty years, and I know you no better now than the first day we met!" If certain past life experiences have been fortunate or unfortunate, here in effect, there is no one to experience failures, disappointments and successes. With colleagues, the professor speaks only in quotations and citations rather than original thoughts - in effect, he becomes made of "other peoples' ideas" derived from compulsive reading. The nonplussed consider him an original thinker. Friends are those who have written the read books and are experienced on a one to one basis (in thought, but not in fact). Further, such Outsiders cannot receive gifts nor receive personal recognition. Clothing is adorned with signs of wear so as not to suggest "pride in appearance". If asked about any of the above topics will respond, "I do not discuss such matters!" When asked by a visitor, "Who are you?" one such Selfless replied, "I am no one in particular." In conversational groups, such individuals will quietly comment on or satirize another person's comments, much to the delight of the other participants. Rather than concealment of a sense of inferiority, such behaviors avoid the confinements of "other people". In these behaviors the Selfless one succeeds in making others feel the emptiness of "Self Consciousness". If it existed, his tomb stone would be blank. Charles Darwin after his publishing of On the Origin of Species, reportedly went into seclusion since he wished to avoid the personal attention brought by its controversial contents. While he sprawled on a coach at his home smoking cigarettes while his daughter read him trite romance stories, he allowed Thomas Huxley to do all the talking. If the Self is an Illusion, what are the particulars of the Best Self to play its role? Is it possible to mold the Self? Hesse in his Siddhartha depicts a young man attempting to achieve this Selfless state of Nirvana, the perfect existent state achievable through the principles of Buddhism - one of no desire, suffering or sense of Self at all. One of his initial problems is that his teachers claim to have achieved that final goal, but cannot explain how they arrived there. Individuals having achieved Nirvana are depicted in trance-like states, perfectly unaware of their surroundings and staring into a remote distance. What role would such individuals play in a society? The asking of questions, and studying, wealth, physical stimulants, etc. such matters are treated as useless divergences from the path to the ultimate, sublime happiness. When not in the trances they obtain what they need by begging. Only the state of "OM!" (perfection) was the goal, and the communication with the Inner Self through contact with nature, the only source of reliable knowledge. In American culture three individuals (two factual and one fictional) attempted to reach an ideal of existence through physical and mental culture - they include Bernarr Macfadden, Charles Atlas and Clarke Savage. These choices provide undeniable examples of conscious attempts to mold the Self of the identified figure, and also that of the common man. Evangelicals, politicians, athletes, musicians and similar figures of prominence are all excluded until their motives and been clarified. Further, the choices included were reassuring that the sought for goal was attainable. Bernarr Macfadden developed an extensive culture of "Weakness a Crime! Don't be a Criminal! emblazoned on his famous publication, Physical Culture presented in techniques for reaching an Ideal Self both physical and psychological, through regimen of diet, mental health, physical culture routines, marital life advice, described in long lived publications, books, spa resorts, epitomized in the Bernarr Macfadden Healthatorium Training School. Macfadden was gifted with considerable physical beauty including an almost mythological face and physique of the perfect Adonis ideal. Copies of his publication were replete with photographs of him displaying his figure to good effect in closeups of his suggested routines. The truth of his methods displayed in the form of the man himself. Under the tutelage of Macfadden, Charles Atlas developed a set of bodybuilding and exercise programs aptly named, "Dynamic Tension," where no weights or other equipment were needed but the human body and the muscle groups working against one another. Virtually no one in the United States failed to see Atlas as a physical ideal taking care of a skinny weakling, when tough guys kicked sand in his face at a beach with his girl left insulted!!. Atlas responds: "ONE WEEK FROM TO-NiGHT I CAN MAKE YOU A NEW MAN! To achieve this transformation a skinny guy could subscribe to a set of programs where photographs and advice were presented in dynamic form for the fellow to read and practice as he removed the grit from his eyes!! Like Macfadden Atlas advocated only the most most strict adherence to clean, healthy living. Atlas was the perfect model of many young men seeking to achieve an Ideal Self! Lester Dent (the splendid "pulp writer") contributed to a solution to this problem of the Ideal Self in his novel, The Man of Bronze, and over one hundred others, where Clarke Savage senior cultures his son Clarke to become the astonishing mental and physical Icon, "Doc Savage" - a model of mental and physical perfection whose goal is summarized in the "Doc Savage Creed": "Let me strive every moment of my life, to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage." Savage developed his magnificent physical form using a daily, two hour exercise routine (without fail), and trained his senses and calculation abilities to a level of perfection beyond any other in the world. He adhered to a strict set of behavioral attitudes placing him far above the prejudices of ordinary men, especially criminals. Relying on an almost limitless wealth derived from a Central American gold mine he aided people throughout the world free of charge. Further he had a hidden system of laboratories (including the Fortress of Solitude and offices in the Empire State Building) in which he developed almost miraculous devices to enable him to overcome criminals essentially single handed. He did have a company of five assistants who traveled about with him, each one the foremost expert in some intellectual endeavor, except for Savage himself. In spite of all of these qualities he maintained a humble attitude, avoided entanglements with women, and avoided killing adversaries. Instead he would provide brain surgery to create "model citizens". His motives cannot be misinterpreted since he had nothing additional to gain since all other attainable human goals have been reached. For a summary of methods Savage might have used to culture his son in his Arctic laboratory replete with experts in all fields of endeavor see: https://archive.org/details/1_20210412_20210412_0345 Religious groups are founded on similar figures, but Savage is an undeniable human rather than a human/god hybrid. Needless to say all of these resplendent figures were Outsiders of the first rank. In the “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka invents a character, Gregor Samsa, who adjusts to the scenario of not being able to support his family, by erasing his physical identity and transforming himself into a huge insect, in the form of a bug or beetle without the capacities to support himself or family at his job, or of even being recognizable to them. Even as an insect he cannot give up his devotion to his sister and parents and his problems are not solved. Although Kafka does not mention the alternative of never having existed at all, how would that succeed? Gregor ultimately dies, but his problems do not. He would have needed to not exist at all. Yet, in this state he would not have been able to aid people who did exist. Effectively, Kafka does not provide the meaning of the parable. A quote from the Superman: "Will a Self". Active, successful natures act, not according to the dictum, 'Know thyself', but as if there hovered before them: will a self and thou shalt become a self..." Apparently, Nietzsche suggests a free will choice of a Self. As already obtained, science considers free will is a kind of "illusion." Nietzsche in Section #8 of Twilight of the Idols approaches the matter from the aspect of compulsion derived from a state of intoxication, a state of heightened excitability of the "entire creative mechanism" without which no art is possible. Crumb describes the heightened state succinctly as his "compulsion to draw" and to see the essences of facial expressions, and details in the structure of ordinary objects including utility poles, train tickets, etc. Section #10 further describes two major variations of this heightened state, namely the Apollinian and the Dionysian. The first of these characterized by a the effect of the eye's power to "see". The painter, sculptor and epic poet are best examples of this state. The Dionysian is exemplified by Dick and Zelig where the heightened state allows the facility of metamorphosis, the incapacity not to react and all its attendant functions of 'representation, imitation, transmutation" etc.; briefly put as the ability to "play any role at the slightest instigation." Examples of this phenomenon include, "the actor, the mimic, the dancer, the musician, the lyric poet." (See section #11 for further exposition not included here.) Zelig could transform ("play act") the role of anyone he meets - including becoming a "doctor" when being interviewed by a psychiatrist, or becoming (in manner and appearance) any ethnic group with whom he came into contact. Dick, in the writing of his Exegesis, exemplifies the epic poet with enhanced vision, and compelled to explain his visions by transforming himself into a visionary mystic who would reveal metaphysical truths hidden in his unique experiences. A careful reading of Nietzsche's Twilight expands matters far beyond what is possible here in brief summary, including the architect and his creations. Many of these creative types are classified by Anthony Gregorc (l978, etc.) as "Abstract Sequential"; they have feelings of superiority, enjoy charismatic attention, have fertile minds the products of which they formulate into systems. An exemplar of this type is Carl Gustav Jung of the Zurich Institute and one of his many acolytes, Marie-Louise von Franz, who created and developed the Archetype Concept. Here they detailed two major influences on the Conscious Mind, (the Psyche) as expressed in compulsions. Accordingly, two major influences are the Body Functions (eating, sexuality, etc.) and Thought (mathematical and literary ideas) exist. In one case a subject may be compelled by the desire to eat to the point of being physically immobilized. In the other a subject is compelled by an idea to the point of not being able to be counseled that they have gone "too far -" an idea such that a person has been selected as the "savior of the world." Of course, all humans are influenced by body functions and ideas, but here extreme cases were presented for the purposes of illustration. The origin of of the body functions are generally unknown to those who experience them. The desire to eat derived from subconscious, physiological processes causing the funnel of matter and energy into the thermodynamics of living system. The desire to create derived from certain "subconscious inherited influences" judged somewhere near twenty-five in number that express themselves in blends as expectations of what will be encountered in experience. August Kekule, the chemist for a long period in his studies was perplexed by the structure of the benzene molecule. Then, in a dream he saw serpents rolling about (in the manner of wheels) orally holding their tails. From this experience he fulfilled his need for the "benzene ring." Dostoevsky was perplexed by certain philosophical matters, and when he had written one thousand pages in The Brothers Karamazov he said he had written all he wanted to say on the matters. Psyches participating in such systems might ask, "Why am, or How am I doing this?" Jung provides a working model. At present, Jung's work on archetypes has been judged as having the merits for inclusion in the pattern of integrated human knowledge. Marie Louise von Franz's work on the meaning of Fairy Tales suggests in their limited number of variations the summary of literary structures appealing to the human mind. How do Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, published by Giambattista Basile (1634) and Charlotte Bronte's, Jane Eyre (1847) or Jane Austen's Persuasion (1817) resonate with this classic story's archetypal images? Ayn Rand defined art rather succinctly as, "Reality transformed by the imagination according to a personal metaphysics."Accordingly, Dostoevsky, Howard, Crumb, Allen and the other writers mentioned here, and the scientists including Darwin, Heisenberg, Newton and all the others not included here took the reality known to all (characters locations and incidents, etc.) , and using the imagination of the subconscious and the metaphysics of its archetypal components transformed that reality into another more entrancing than that experienced by the "ordinary person." So, as Gerald SeBoyar of the University of Chicago in his Outline of Literature suggests, an average person can meet in these "fictions" people and events far more interesting (genuine) than those met in "real life," visit places they will never in fact visit, and thus meet a beneficially transformed reality. In no way is this experience an "escape from reality into a dream world;" instead, using the transformations of events and personalities by a skilled "abstract self," a view based on the most complete assemblage of archetypal elements collected in the human genome over the millennia of human history to delineate reality is possible. If all experience is illusion the efficient mode is to develop a procedure to isolate the most reliable illusions allowing interplay with the unknowable reality. In effect, Science develops definable particulars and manipulations of these particulars to produce reliable facts and highly reliable predictions; arrangements become "coercive" rather than merely persuasive. Furthermore, some authors have suggested that the most basic of the archetypal explanatory particulars of science were known and originated by the Ancient Greek thinkers (Democritus, Leucippus, Heraclitus, et. al.). Few, if any of these particulars are sensible in the human mind. The manipulations are those of mathematics. Of course, Nietzsche declaims all of the business of the reductionism of rational thought, and its elemental particulars and procedures ultimately falsify the testimony of the senses, and creates a "real world" counter to that experienced. In particular, he denounces the "ugly" Socrates and his dialectics, in his Twilight of the Idols, to which the reader's attention is directed. Considered the greatest philosopher of the modern era his contentions should be considered.. When does nonsense seem sensible?; or are the reports of the sense organs to be the only reliable testimony? This reliability is doubted here. How much science did Edison know when he invested the "light bulb"? Resolution - Common features of the Outsider include living most successfully in isolation from other people. When not in utter isolation in a favored location thoughtful productivity falls away. Alone, they must complete themselves, the Self. Living in isolation they are free to "create." through art or science. Ludwig Wittgenstein is a particular example of this type. Outsiders cannot live harmoniously with other people, including if they marry, wives and children. Personal fulfillment is the goal. Lovecraft, Dick, Nietzsche, Hesse seem to fit this description quite well. They are unable to live life as others do. Virginia Woolf had a sense of superiority - no one else was capable of her insights - such insights obtained from her unique, "stream of consciousness." They isolate themselves in creative acts stemming from "compulsion" which associates observe and want to protect, but cannot participate in. They must hear the musings of an inner voice - the clatter of other peoples' meaningless chatter interferes. They will abandon everyone else to follow the creative compulsion. They wish to complete, describe and preserve the Self - something of them worth preserving. Biographers are not privy to the cause(s) of the compulsions, and can only describe the effects. The lives recorded (parents, siblings, etc.) by such biographers are what the artist seeks to escape from, and their efforts are very wide of identifying the causes. Colin Wilson traces the history of outsider individuals who expressed their world views in the formation of unique systems of philosophy - The Outsider and Beyond the Outsider; from this view far closer to the lives of such creative individuals. {An ancillary point to be considered is some of most well defined Outsiders continued to live with and helped to support parents or older adults (by birth or marriage) well after attaining majority.} Not always do they succeed in this self preservation; read Dostoevsky's, The Outsider, and his related, Apropos the Wet Snow, for a vivid, fictional depiction of this failure. Lovecraft's Outsider creates a quite distinct Self as he wanders and explores his surroundings alone; only are his efforts at creating his world thwarted when he meets other people at a celebration. On the penultimate page of Hesse's, Rosshalde, this author describes his own situation in this scenario: "Never had he lived out a love to its bottom most depths, never until these last days.....What remained to him was his art, of which he had never felt so sure as he did now. There remained the consolation of the outsider, to whom it is not given to seize the cup of life and drain it; there remained the strange, cool, and the irresistible passion to see, observe, and to participate with secret pride in the work of creation." Poetry, approaches particulars manipulated by mathematics: Read Poe's Alone, where explains he is not like other people, he does not see as they do, and his emotions are not derived from the same source. In fact he suggests all experience is illusion. If experiencing a sense of disillusionment on reading the ideas contained above, consider the words of the mystic, William Butler Yeats where he catches a small fish whose metamorphosis into a beautiful young woman, who calls his name and then disappears causes him to know "everything," and ultimately "nothing." Mors Ontologica Center Consider now Saints and their Shrines, Devouts, Tarot Card Readers, Soothsayers, Faith Healers and outright Charlatans have throughout history tried to modify the Self for Seekers. And, Medicine and its adherents (including psychiatrists and psychologists, etc.) have developed pharmaceuticals and counseling techniques to modify the Self - all with some success. Perhaps, all of the techniques of the groups outside standard Medical Practice should be combined into one Total Practice, since all have beneficial effects. Fortune tellers, for example achieve effects housed in a large bed, surrounded by lacy blankets, a large pillow, accompanied by a pekingese dog, and an assistant taking payments from patients. When asked for advice they suggest, "I see a bright future for you. When you least expect it!" "Oh!! A bright future!!" exclaim the visitors, much elated. Psychics reside in backwater neighborhoods in somewhat dingy, upstairs apartments identified by mystic symbols of eyes and arcane shapes on the door. A prominent religionist wearing suitable regalia might place a hand on the child's brow and say, "Bless you my son!" and quickly drive on by, blessing the gathered crowd. Medical doctors, surrounded by a wall of (yellowed) diplomas and ominous looking gadgets for insertion in small body openings, review results of complex tests which the patient is said to be incapable of understanding; and after a few short minutes on a computer schedules another appointment in three months paid by the health care system, a "co-payment" and a few "prescriptions" of unknown efficacy. All the necessary nurses call the patients, "Honey," and consider the MD a selfless figure devoting his life to doing "good at the hospital." Patients become institutionalized after a endless wait, and must accept any diagnosis since they have not spent sufficient years in Medical School. Now, based on a completely different set of criteria, Saints seem the most successful of all. Often, they are long dead, their existence proclaimed my visionaries who have seen them in smoke smudges on windows, mottled pancake surfaces and the like. The settings of such sightings are flocked to by huge crowds waiting for a viewing along a path strewn with artifacts (crutches, canes, casts, eye glasses, wallets, prostheses, etc.) no longer needed by the sufferers. Seemingly, the successful "cures" achieved by all of these practitioners involve an awakened "belief in absolute ignorance" on the part of the patients. Perhaps, such belief and its effects has evolved over the millennia and is an absolute necessity for any curative effects to be achieved. Alternatively, the complex collection of instruments in a hospital might be replaced in some cases by groups who limped or stumbled in the entrance, now prancing about joyfully; or, bottles along the walls filled with discarded prescription vials, hypodermic needles, wallets and carts bearing oxygen tanks. Blank walls might be decorated with one eyed faces of rapturous expressions. Doctors and nurses might adopt "gypsy clothing" instead of the monotonous whites provided by weekly visits from Metropolitan Medical Attire. One must not forget to include Local Drug Pushers whose supplies created by lax procedures might contain "miracle cures". These are but a few, obvious changes which might be made in treating the corrupted Self and its unfortunate effects on the physical body. Fewer patients might be heard to mutter, "I walked in this place "healthy" and I'm walking out "sick"!!" == == == == As Alice Hargreaves asked in a state of bewilderment on visiting New York to receive an award from Columbia University in the early 1930's, where she was mobbed by newsmen wanting to meet, "Alice" - "What is all the, FUSS?" An insightful study seems likely in the comparison of William Butler Yates and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Among other facets of the Self to be considered might be interactions in their childhood experiences in school, in classmate comparisons, parents, learning preferences; and as an adult, word choice, linguistic/mathematical preferences, religious/agnostic organizing principles and success with women and other associates. Similarities shared by them are striking with the exception of when success was achieved in their lifetimes. Notably, both were analytical and logical, but turned to the mystical in their creations by way of musical language and complex, mythical worldviews, some of which neither probably took seriously. Yeats dabbled in theosophy and other forms of mysticism as an escape from his father’s entrenched logical analyses. Further, he was perplexed by the idealized existence the mind could create, so untapped by the experienced reality. Lovecraft like Yeats became thoroughly materialistic, yet when his scientific aims were foreshortened, he turned his attention to the matters of the insignificance of human convictions in a meaningless Universe – or one so different to see it in reality was a call to insanity. Yeats continued to struggle with the variance between the preferred Universe of the human convictions and reality; especially disappointing was his failure to establish a rewarding relationship with a beautiful woman. He hoped, perhaps that he and Maud Gonne has inspired N. Rimsky Korsakov to compose, The Young Prince and Princess in Scheherazade. The interplay between artists and beautiful women is articulated with considerable psychological detail in literature. Here, several lesser known studies are included, namely, Life Lessons depicting the love/hate between Lionel Dobie and the Siren, Paulette; Copying Beethoven, where Anna Holtz seeks to have her music judged by her idol, the Maestro; and The Whole Wide World, where Novalyne Price employs her feminine charms to tame Robert E. Howard. Many other studies exist but these and Yeats/Gonne relationship are quite vivid. What would have satisfied Poe, Yeats and Lovecraft in their longings? Miss Cubbidge, after being carried by a Dragon from home to a blissful, foreign land with no faults to beleaguer the human spirit, where she lived in an eternal youth, in a dream state, without the passing of a single day, receives a letter from a childhood friend - where the friend states, "It is not proper that you should be there alone." In response, Miss Cubbidge might have invited Poe, Yeats and Lovecraft by way of the Dragon to enjoy the bliss as well. Mr. Plunkett, had he known might have made arrangements ahead of time. Alas, instead Lovecraft created considerable numbers of articles, letters and poems; most significantly a modest number of tales fused into the Cthulhu Mythos, (considered by some as so noteworthy as to be the basis of a "cosmic philosophy") now included in Penguin Classics editions, for which he has in all probability achieved immortality; if more recent writers continue to make additions. Yeats achieved the Nobel Prize for his artistic creations. Far more important, Yeats has achieved a lasting success with the casual reader and academics beyond his life time. Lovecraft's works were preserved by two fans in the Arkham House volumes. Poe died in a desperate state, not knowing he had created science fiction, horror, detective and many other story forms. Like Lovecraft he did not know of his future reputation. All three writers have touched on matters which will uniquely influence humanity in any and all times – one definition of genius. Yeats and Lovecraft may be representative of the Human Self in the guise of superior beings destined for exceptional achievements. As time passed their goals became more modest. Lovecraft dreamed of being an astronomer, a goal frustrated when he failed in studies of mathematics. So he returned to his fanciful childhood and wrote of celestial sightings, and created the Old Ones from another Universe hidden underground plotting to return to world domination. Yeats strove to understand the psychology of the human Self as it experienced the denial of life goals in a Universe of contrary design. He failed, but wrote fancifully, bemoaning his failure and that of characters in his emotive poetry. Are the necessary ideas to reach goals of understanding of the human predicament beyond reach except in the most localized, mechanical operations? Is an explorer searching for a beautiful bird to be named after himself forced to accept an Antarctic mite secured from a bag of Penguin dung? Yeats - "All of these things were wonderful and great, But now I have grown nothing, knowing all." Lovecraft - “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die." Poe - "Yes! I repeat it-as thou shouldst be!! What we have here is a simple response to other investigators attempting to decode Lovecraft’s The Outsider. If some over simplifications have crept in, or even some complex nonsense, at least there may appear a germ of thought for further investigation. Incidentally, how well did you distinguish statements with content from those without? Of necessity, the presentation is somewhat disjointed as the subject is developed, since no one coercive view is available. If you cannot think anything on reading this paper - that is the most likely outcome. So office workers are trained to say only a scripted dialog from which they cannot deviate. Knowledgeable people seal themselves away in institutions (whose motives or even locations are somewhat hidden) so that the workers can concentrate on a minute matter with some hope of reaching an understanding. Needless to say, they often do not succeed even under optimum circumstances. A noted authority involved in the Human Genome Project admitted he did not like to change workers, "We cannot train new people because even we do not know what we are doing." So, if the White Queen can think six impossible thoughts before breakfast, why not try the Illusion of the Self? The matter of the nature of the Self in common parlance remains, and as with matters of cherished importance to humans, belief in the Self will very likely persist into the future; its existence doubted by scientists in the security of their laboratories. Once they step out of their laboratories belief in the Self might return in force. Of necessity, a chemical understanding of the Self will result in pharmaceuticals to repair "faults" in this essential illusion. However, the workmen and their cement and tools who installed the new pool and yard amenities will be forgotten when neighbors and friends join in a beautiful sunny day for a cherished get together. "AAHHH! Smell the hot dogs!!! Please pass the relish!! Lovecraft's Outsider was just a 'nut case'"! "Smiling they live, and call life pleasure; To me that cup has been dealt in another measure." Shelley 1818 Question: "Why did Lovecraft write The Outsider? Hypothesis: The genetics, etc. of his conscious and subconscious formulating his Psyche (Self), was that of an Abstract Sequential - involving the following traits. Note: these traits are effects not causes. He preferred the world of the intellect. He had a fruitful mind which arranged ideas in complex patterns. His thoughts were centered on the present, but also the past and projected future. He was logical, analytic and correlative. He validated his own ideas and used accredited experts, also. His waking attention was focused on knowledge, facts and ideas. He created by joining ideas together in theories and models. He enjoyed knowledge, thoughtful communication as in an environment intellectually stimulating. He was highly verbal, using most appropriate words precisely (even at the risk of adjectival insistence bordering on bombast). Towards others he paid few compliments (and then overflowing in content), disliked close relationships, emotions, practicality, being questioned, opinions of others, "lesser minds" (a sense of superiority), competition and being disregarded (he liked his ideas paid attention to and being the center of attention. Therefore he might appear "arrogant.") When challenged he could be belittling and caustic, "cutting someone off the knees with three words." In groups he was charismatic. He preferred being alone or with those who were focused on the "what" rather than the "who". Therefore, he was an Outsider. His attention to the works of other writers, his choice of subject matter in reading and study were the effects of his psyche (Self) rather than causes. Only 2% of a human population are of this category, and being alone is a natural outcome in a world among strangers - so he spent time writing, walking, watching, reading among the books shelves of libraries and, night streets, alone. He had few close friends, those like minded. A specific friend, a cat seen though a window, sprawled on a roof, he named Aristotle. On a casual encounter a typical person would ask, "Are you a professor? You talk as though you are very educated." Lovecraft might have pondered - "I will write a story of someone who is as alone as I am; - Where are all the interesting people?" Lovecraft could depict the world not as it is, but as seen by the archetypal metarepresentations of his unique human Self. “Your Old Buddy, Whizbang!!”