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What are zones? The concept is extensively explored here but can more succinctly explained as commonly being a modern region of some industrial/office nature that has been abandoned and that now presents an uncanny appearance. Brief more detail would be to say that the withdrawl of the concepts imprinted upon the region (e.g. previously multi-storey carpark) leave a kind of vacuum into which rushes the otherworldly manifestation.

With this in mind I want to consider an experience I have had in experimenting with a kind of phenomenological play. In reading about the Buddhist concept of sunyata I may well have misunderstood it, nevertheless what I took from the concept at the time was the notion of emptiness and how this emptiness seemed to tally well with the notion of removing the pneuminous accretions from the vector field. So observing the world with a certain kind of passivity towards the conceptual overlays, I found that things looked exactly the same and yet different. There is no other way to describe it as such, precisely because it was an experience that does not easily fit into the regular currency of linguistic conveyance (though it is recognisable in the buddhist literature). To not see things under the auspice of concepts (insofar as this was possible, it can argued it was only a layer or so) did not alter the spatial arrangement or appearance of things and yet they did look different. There were things there, the world was there and yet they were in a sense not comprehended, or least not in the same way*.

This emptiness is slightly beside the point, but only slightly. The experiment in stripping concepts away created this unusual effect with urban areas, but it was not uncanny, it was more just empty. However when the same concept stripping effect was applied to more natural areas I found that they flickered in and out of a much more otherworldly fairyland (not in twee sense) like appearance of nature, not unlike the kinds of descriptions found of nature in the works of Arthur Machen or Algernon Blackwood.

We can speculatively attribute this to the conceptual removal of more recent not so consciously experienced perceptions of natural scenes (woodland in this case largely) that render the natural safe and rationally comprehended. In the UK there are no dangerous wild animals as such, so even this level of threat is not there to perturb consciousness. It does not seem unreasonable from here to think that if my phenomenological epoche (of a sort) were removing some levels others might be disclosed. In the case of nature, unlike the modern houses and roads, because the perception runs deeper in the organism in a mytho-poetic way, the removal of a certain pneuminous level disclosed nature in this way I have described as being similar to the that disclosed by the blackwood/machen machine. To be clear, I do not mean I saw any entities whatsoever, only that the trees etc acquired a sort of unearthly eerie nature, or at least had this nature more readily disclosed.

The zonetology theory says that the removal of a conceptual layer facilitates the uncanny appearance of the zone. This is what happens in the dereliction of places. This is faciliated not simply by conceptual removal on its own but rather alteration in the vector region that intimates to the observer that the region is derelict. This may be perpetual emptiness, dark windows, rubbish accruing, being partially broken, boarded up, fenced off etc. The feedback from these signs transforms the region into a zonal phenomenon.

What is the connection of all this to Tolkein’s dark wasteland? Well,it is reasonably hypothesised that Tolkein derived Mordor from the coal mine and steel work riddled east midlands region of the England. The region was even named the black country owing to the layer of soot which covered the towns and landscape. It was a morass of black belching chimneys and burning furnaces. Thus the theory goes that Tolkein transposed this industrial landscape into the Lord of the Rings as Mordor.

If this is correct then it seems to me albeit through a natural power of imagination, that Tolkein performed an act not dissimilar to my own Sunyata like play. In my case, the natural world became like something that reminded me of a notion of a kind of primeval fairy land. In Tolkein’s case it seems possible that the industrial alteration of the landscape disturbed his perception of the regular world sufficiently, so that he was able to perceive it as wrought by some dark power.

This is clearly not exactly the same, and I write this only because these various things tied themselves together in my thoughts in some way that may be hard to recover. My act is of phenomenological play, whereas his (putative) act is one that has been imposed upon him. This being said, the feeling that united in me the two notions is their relation to fairy land like phenomena. Mordor is of course the home of goblins, dark wicked goblins, other frightful things and a dark lord. It is not dark and twisted trees (though there are some of these there I recall) but it is still a manifestation of dark fairyland, almost a hell related type place.

The point seems to suggest less that I successfully perceived concept free being, but rather than in doing so, like with the zonal phenomenon, I allowed other powers to rush in to fill the pneuminous layer I had removed. If the logic follows to Mordor, then in the perceptual alteration that steel works etc brought about upon the landscape, opened a space into which the archetype of this dark realm could step. That is, the disturbance which I effected deliberately was brought about via different means in the inception of Mordor.

Hence Mordor does have a kind of zonal genesis. The landscape was not abandoned directly but the particular combination of deathly/dark otherworldly indices served to facilitate a zone like transformation to the region. This idea in turn can be reflected back into zonetology in general, to question the notion of the removal of the accretions (in the instance of abandonment). This suggests the possibility that the transformation of these regions is more about vector alteration that brings about sudden conceptual (accretive) restructuring, and less about an absence that is filled. The zonal powers do rush to fill, but not from absence, rather from the disturbance that has been effected, either from the subject-Narp (what I did) or the vector (what Tolkein may have done.)

*Phenomenology epoche

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  1. The mystic/scholar Peter Kingsley suggests the pre-socratics were more akin to shaman-priests than proto-philosophers. With Parmenides as a paradigmatic example he suggests, the information received is from revelation through incubation (journeying) rather than rational contemplation. Plato is thus a misunderstanding of the situation, believing that Parmenides is engaged in anabasis, when in fact it is a catabasis. 
  1. We can consider (without ascribing superiority to one over the other) that there are (heuristically) vertical and horizontal dimensions to the esoteric realms. Horizontally the interaction is something more akin to magick, whereas vertically it can be considered more like mysticism. That is, the horizontal of these (to use my terminology) works in the pneuminous accretive structures/conceptual overlays themselves and the horizontal seeks to free ourselves from them. 
  1. Even though containing many practical aspects on how to live, Buddhism is concerned almost exclusively with vertical ascent. It eschews all the horizontal manifestations (visions, spirits, powers) as they appear, and insists one simply keep ascending.  
  1. Shamanism can be considered as a partial vertical ascent which then occupies sideshoots. In local situations, it may be that out of regional structures (trees, mountains, animals, lakes etc.), a pneuminous world is formed which then can be accessed as an autonomous ‘other world’ by the shaman. This in no way denigrates this world; it contains the potential to impart powerful magickal effects in the ‘real’ world: healing, injury, information. 
  1. Castaneda’s later suggestions would be that such worlds are real but endless in quantity and that there is a kind of structure/map to them which is accessible by the movement of the assemblage point. CC ultimately supplies a model that suggests high vertical ascent that liberates the organism in a similar way to Buddhism but retains conscious ability to move horizontally. 
  1. All religions, polytheistic or monotheistic, ultimately are still operating in the side shoots. The side shoots can be thought of pneuminous accretions or autonomous spiritual entities –no ontological differentiation between these is currently possible, though it is worth adding that even if they are autonomous beings, they will still end up with concepts projected upon them and thus still have a pneuminous accretive aspect. 
  1. Buddhism and other positions that similarly eschew the horizontal can appear to have a superiority to systems that work from the side shoots. However, this purity of ascent can only really be considered as different. Buddhist enlightenment is definitely something, and a particular thing too. The progression endlessly into the silence may be creating a superior interaction with the ineffable and it may be a superior way of exiting a putative karmic wheel. However, it is also possible (as stated above) that this activity is only moving in a different direction and not a functionally superior one. 
  1. The vertical ascent of Buddhism involves removing the conceptual/accretive as much as is possible with the notion of ‘seeing things as they are’. This is the notion of attempting to stop the world from speaking back to you the concepts that we have given it. Sunyata is one expression of this at a high level. Heidegger clearly is thinking of this when he links phenomenology to eastern practices. 
  1. All the systems practice silencing the mind chatter. As the mind is silenced, so various phenomena manifest. To engage with the other phenomena brings different practical results (horizontal engagement). The horizontal engagement systems can offer the frowned-upon material benefits but also communications with the Gods as to what should be done. 
  1. The issue of communication is difficult. Peter Kingsley intimates that we need to re-establish communication with the other world in order to receive how to move forward/re-establish society. The problem here is that one cannot necessarily trust the instructions that emit from this realm. If the denizens of these realms are simply a mish-mash of mytho-poetic accretive forces, then we cannot particularly trust that they will do more the mete out harsh rules and human sacrifice. On the other hand, if they are autonomous beings then equally, we have no guarantee they will guide us with wisdom (or that they will all guide us with wisdom). 
  1. Furthermore, since the communication with these realms can lead to regional cults, it is problematic as it reinforces human tendencies towards tribalism, which are not to be encouraged. 
  1. Consequently, the realm needs acknowledging but not necessarily utilising as a founding force for society. 
  1. Vertical ascent as a societal driver though, is also questionable insofar as it does seem to entail a certain annulment of humanity. This is reasonable in some sense and insofar as sufficient progress towards mass enlightenment is not possible, such a society might work towards vertical aims. However, if mass enlightenment is not possible then it seems likely that the temptations of the horizontal would re-emerge. If mass enlightenment were possible, this would certainly annul society in a regular sense, as it is not clear how such a set of beings would continue to procreate and would instead simply disappear into liberation.  
  1. Fairy land type phenomena are assuredly horizontal but equally related to a certain conceptual removal. Machen/Blackwood like disclosures of nature become much more apparent when one attempts to remove everyday interpretive layers imposed upon nature. One can easily imagine how deepened silent engagement with these landscapes would reveal occult manifestations. These may only be deep accretive layers, yet they would only be disclosed by certain layers being stripped away. 
  1. This issue bears on the concept of zones. Zones are somehow the Machen/Blackwood perception machine projected onto industrial dereliction. This is only achieved because (as the zonal theory suggests) the regular interpretation of them has been dislodged. The interesting feature of them is that they seem to be able to facilitate this shift almost by themselves. 
  2. The vector field (as described in the CEO) research is what facilitates these systems. Buddhism attempts to see the pure vector field, the side shoots use the silence of the vector field to facilate entry into pneuminous realms.
  3. Possibly Zones appear due to the fact that before they become Zones, they indicate industrial noise/the restless life of capital. When empty, the silence is more profound; this triggers (hypothetically) an automatic mini-silence in the processing of the region. This mini-silence allows the weird-perception (Machen-Machine) to plug in, rendering the perception of it akin to the perception of the twisted hawthorn, not as an example of the rosaceae but rather as a fairy abode.