The Many Faces of Terrorism. Excerpt 1: The AQAL Code

The Many Faces of Terrorism is a nonfiction novel (actually, a trilogy of novels), a follow-up to Boomeritis. It is set three years after Boomeritis, and involves the continuing exploits of the staff of Integral Center, in Cambridge, Mass. (Of course, this is all loosely based on Integral Institute/Integral Life, but only loosely.) Rumors have been circulating for months that IC has discovered "the Code," although exactly what the Code is remains unclear—it is rumored to be everything from further DNA programs to the secret of absolutely everything.

What you and I might expect, of course, is that "the Code" is really the AQAL code, and we would be right. But one of the brilliant things about The Many Faces of Terrorism is that it is written on two levels with two plot lines: one plot for those who know absolutely nothing about Integral Theory or about AQAL, and one for those who do (with the two plots coming together as the book educates the former group). For the former, the plot line involves the discovery of AQAL and what AQAL means; but for the latter, the plot line involves, as one character puts it, "It's not about AQAL. AQAL has been around for several years. It's about what the computer future scenarios using AQAL are showing." Because what those future scenarios show is that, at a date 30 years from now, an unimaginably world‑altering event occurs. It is the nature of that "something unheard of" that is the focus of the plot.

The Many Faces of Terrorism is actually a trilogy of books, as indicated, with each book, to be published separately, being around 450 pages long. Book I is the introductory material. Book II lays out a theory of Integral Politics. Book III is an extensive discussion of the role of religion in themodern and postmodern world, with an emphasis on the conveyor belt. More importantly, none of these are merely theoretical; they contain extensive discussions of real-world politics and events, at home and abroad (including terrorism—its nature, cause, and "cure"; presidential politics; the key to a second-tier political campaign strategy; the role of a future World Federation, etc.). This is the first in-depth discussion and commentary on the world by the world's foremost integral thinker.

As Book I begins, and readers are introduced to the main characters, the dual-plot structure begins to unfold. But what both plots have in common are the computer future scenarios that Integral Center has been running for several years. It is well-known that the computer programs that attempt to predict future scenarios are today a mess; they can't even predict the present accurately. That is, if you take data from a year or two ago and feed it to these programs, they can't even predict the present. The book suggests that the main reason for this is not the programs themselves but the human psychology models that these programs use, all of which are thoroughly flat-land psychological models. They assume that human beings are all driven by a single human motivation—perhaps rational self-interest, or survival drives, or pleasure-seeking, and so on. None of those models have any vertical depth (or altitude)—not to mention that none of them are anywhere integral—and thus it is no surprise that they can't even predict the present.

What Integral Center did was plug AQAL into the most sophisticated computer future scenarios available, and the shocking results are the core of the plot.

The following chapters are from Book II, Integral Politics. Not all of this material will make complete sense, of course, without reading the rest of the trilogy, particularly the chapters that come before these. Further, this is the first rough draft, as will become obvious from various items, such as charts and figures that are not yet included. But Ken's first drafts are notoriously close to complete as they are written, so a good deal of this should be very clear.

Oh, by the way. The following chapter (Chap. 11), the first of three to be posted, does not actually deal with Integral Politics itself, but is simply the first chapter that very briefly outlines the AQAL Code. This is included for those who will be coming to this site hungry for Integral Politics but unfamiliar with AQAL. Those of you who know AQAL will find nothing new in this chapter, except the humor and the fun and some of the important plot lines. But the next two chapters to be posted give a very succinct summary and overview of the theory of Integral Politics itself, chapters that are beautiful and profound in their delivery.

The Many Faces of Terrorism

Chapter 11—The AQAL Code: A Guided Tour of You

Better to sink in boundless deeps, than float in vulgar shoals.
Herman Melville

“Derrida died.  You’re up.”
David Deida to Charles Morin

Something unheard of is heading this way.  An endless territory of my own soul, reawakened after all these centuries of slumbering ignorance—have I been dozing since the Big Bang, or before?—a territory that makes room for all, starting with me, then you, then him and her and them, and really all of them, and now become I, a family of the familiar, all come home to rest, in a journey without goal and a trek without distance to an infinity that stirs and ripples within, residing nowhere but apparently set to go off like so many alarm clocks in the hearts and minds of millions: was it true?

Something unheard of, this way comes.  A tidal wave of infinite embrace, unfathomable depth, a tsunami of cascading care slipping us into an ocean of ease, soaking the self in an awakened radiance glowing from within, squeezing out the callisthenic shadows of callous disregard, hunting down the parched and cracked-dry stretches of our souls and drenching them in a luminescent elixir of all-pervading compassion.

Something unheard of, this way comes.

That’s why I had come back.  

  #          #           #

Harvard Crimson, March 15, P+0
Reported by James Eldridge
Cambridge, MA.

“Would you like to know the AQAL Code?” began the laid-back presentation.  With no fanfare, the researchers at Integral Center, Cambridge, Mass., began their two-day presentation of what has become known as “the Code.”

Code Project AQAL began as the join effort of literally hundreds of social scientists and researchers from around the world.  They also called it “The Human Consciousness Project” (HCP).  Much like the Human Genome Project, which had mapped all the genes of human DNA, the HCP was a complete mapping of human consciousness—any and all of its levels, lines, states, and types, as reported over the last several millennia.  This involved hundreds of cultural experts, spiritual teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and sociologists—and a dozen Cray supercomputers parallel processing this information from all over the world, with enough meta-analyses to attempt to spot any recurring patterns.  The result is said to be the entire spectrum of consciousness fully mapped for the first time in history.

But what began as a mapping of consciousness soon became much more than that, according to sources within IC.  What distinguished this effort was finding a Code—a translation Code—that allowed IC researchers to see various correlates of these phenomena in other dimensions of reality.  This cracked the basic perspectives available to the overall universe—“the Kosmos,” as IC called it—and let researchers not only explain dozens of previously opaque puzzles, but run computer scenarios of startling accuracy. 

“The Code appears to be the Code to the entire Kosmos,” as a senior researcher, who asked to be anonymous, said.  “It makes sense if you think about it,” the source continued.  “If humans are part of the universe, then when the Code to the former was discovered, it would be the Code to the latter as well—the Code for one is the Code for the other.  What the AQAL Code gives us seems to be the basic structure or pattern of the known universe, as least as we understand it so far.”

Rumor has been wild that when the IC researchers “cracked the Code,” as students here put it, they also began running future computer scenarios that had discovered something so revolutionary—and so deeply destabilizing to most societies—that the government had literally moved in and taken over.

The Crimson has confirmed that on March 4, government agents, operating under warrant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), had entered the IC building on Lennox Ave. and confiscated at least four computers and hundreds of files.  The press secretaries for the White House and the Pentagon had no comment.   

  #          #           #

Carla asked her question, and a half-dozen students raced to the back of the room and out the door, and the rest of the students, or so it seemed, jumped on their cells.  “Integral Center had cracked the Code,” is the message they were all yelling, one way or another, to one party or another.  The news papers would be here soon, and cable.

I was fascinated by the sheer guts of Integral Center to present what appeared to be this rather monumental discovery in the low-key way that they did.  They basically just let Carla slip it into a lecture she was doing with one of her real classes, and let reporters sit in.  This is… way cool. 

“Integral, of course, means AQAL, which is the only truly integral approach in existence at this time.  AQAL is pronounced Ah-qwal, and it is short for ‘All quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types,’ which are simply five of its most important elements.  The Code has these 5 basic elements, and so does the structure of any other aspect of the universe, as far as we can tell. 

“Well, that’s a bit much, perhaps?  Then just start with the quadrants.  This part is easy!  This part is fun!  Even those of you who can’t read without moving your glossed lips will understand this!  Am I talking fun, or what?”

Carla was back at it.  I still couldn’t believe this whole thing was about to happen, out of the mouth of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Still, why not?  The whole low-key humor in this smacked of Mark’s idea.  But I was warming to it quickly.  I just wished more people were in on the delivery joke, if that’s what it is.

“Okay, I’m going to back up and make this even easier for you hockey pucks.  I realize that, as children of Boomers, your parents were on three times their body weight in illegal substances when you were conceived, and consequently your brains probably bear a frightening resemblance to walnuts.  I can work with that.  I own three cats.

“So let me put it this way.  Those 5 elements?  The quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types?  They are nothing but some aspect of your own experience right now.  They are not ideas, they are not concepts, they are not academic dribble and drool.  They are literally components of your own experience, your own awareness, right now.  So guess what?  In the next few minutes we are going to take a tour of you.  I am literally going to point out parts of you that you might not even know you possessed, but parts that are said to hold the secrets of the universe. 

“What’s that, Kevin?   No, Kevin, not those parts.

“Okay, kids, ready?  You might want to time your drugs for about 15 minutes from now, when we reach something of a climax in the presentation.  We’re going to do an experiential tour of AQAL.  Yee-haw!” 

Carla hesitated.  “Oh, I almost forgot.  For you new to this—and especially for you in the media and press—there are some future scenarios using AQAL that we want to show you.”  She glanced at Charles.  The look on her face was…?  excitement?  anxiety?  something sharper, darker?  “Um, I don’t think you’ll want to miss this,” she finally said, heading back to the podium, then turning and looking out at all of us.

“Okay, AQAL.  Now, as luck would have it, we have already introduced the quadrants, so I will just briefly repeat our conclusions…..   What’s that, Shirley?  When did we do that?  When did we introduce the quadrants?  About ten minutes ago, dear….  Right here….  Yes, right here in this auditorium….   You were sitting right there….   I’m sure, dear, I saw you….  Right there in that chair…..  Yes.  Yes, dear….   Okay?  Terrific.

“Let’s see, the quadrants.  So we are going to take a direct approach to each of these 5 elements.  I will continue to give their abstract definitions, and show some of the ways that they can be applied theoretically.  But at the same time we will be looking directly at our own experience to see if we can find these elements in our own awareness.  Once we do this—and believe me, it’s as obvious as Donna’s new implants—by the way, love them, dear, love them, just don’t fly higher than 30,000 feet—once we do this, the entire AQAL Code will be anchored in your own experiential understanding.  You won’t need a textbook, you can just check your own consciousness. 

“Okay, my little teeny friends, here we go.” 

“Ken!, Ken!, Ken!,” Ronnie breathlessly whispered.  “You were at IC for two years, dude, you gotta know about the Code—ain’t it so, your Duderometer?  And this would tell us about the singularity!  Ken!, Ken!, Ken!, you been holding out on me!”

“I know a little about it, Ronnie, but I haven’t been around here for the last few years….”

“You been ’round enuf to know whether the Code goes all the way down, ain’t it so, ain’t it so?  Come on, your Dudeness, please spill.”     

“As far as I know, the Code goes all the way down.  We know it works for humans, mammals, and down to all living forms, even bacteria.  And if you allow Whiteheadian perspectives, it goes all the way down to quarks and atoms, because in addition to an outer form, which scientists see, atoms have an interior prehension.  So they have an inside and outside.  And Charles pointed out that because there is more than one atom, they have singular and plural forms as well.  Voila, the four quadrants.  And in a recent paper, Margaret pointed out they go all the way down to 10th-dimensional strings and branes of superstring theory.  So it looks like the AQAL Code goes all the way down.”

“Zip and zap, I knew it!  But your Dudeness, are you sure about something as far down as quarks and strings and branes?”

“Look, Ronnie, this is what I do know.  AQAL is a framework of the way ANYTHING can be looked at—1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-person—and then what level is the looker?—the Rainbow—hence, all quadrants, all levels.  Since you can’t get on the other side of what you can’t get on the other side of, it’s the structure of the Kosmos as well, as far as we know, and as far as we can’t know.  The Code goes all the way up, all the way down.  Anyway, right now, it’s the supercomputer future scenarios…, that’s what’s got everybody going like crazy.  We’ll see soon enough….” 

Ronnie disappeared back into his internal movie, strapped into the Matrix barber-chair of his own thoughts.  Apparently he was enjoying it, as a faint smile stayed etched on his face while his body jerked and contorted to the slings and arrows of outrageous imagination.

“Ok, let me give you a quick run through of the quadrants as experienced.  Let the fun begin!

“As we saw earlier, the four quadrants are simply the inside and outside of the individual and collective.  In a sense, they are just a variation on the ‘Big Three’—or the three dimensions of reality registered by virtually all known cultures: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.  Or morals, science, and art.  Virtually all mature societies have some variation on that incredibly important group, all the way over to the Far East with Buddhism and its notion of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

“The Good, the True, and the Beautiful.  Still sound a little abstract?  Well, take a look at your own awareness right now.  I want you to start by getting a sense of the pronouns that you use when you describe yourself and your world.  All mature languages the world over have 1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person pronouns.  1st-person means the person who is speaking—I, me, mine (and its plural forms, such as we, us, ours).  2nd-person means the person being spoken to—you, yours, youse (which is plural, as in, you guys or you all).  3rd-person means the person or thing being spoken about—he, she, they, them, it, its, and so on.

“So I am talking to Shirley about Donna.  I am first person, Shirley is second person, and Donna is third person.  So I might say, ‘Wow, pretty cool new implants that Donna has, huh Shirley?’  And if Shirley speaks, then from her point of view—and that is very important, I will explain why soon, but notice when I say, from her point of view—then Shirley would be first person, or the person speaking, and I am second person, or the one being spoken to.  So Shirley might say, ‘I don’t know, I think her new breast implants look like the headlights of a Rolls Royce.’   And I might say, ‘Gosh, you are right, I hadn’t noticed it before.  I think we can definitely agree on that.  Poor Donna.’

“Okay, is that clear?...  Yes, Kevin?...  No, Kevin, you can’t….  I’m sorry, no, not without her permission.

“Yes?  Donna?...   No, dear, this was just a hypothetical example.  They look lovely, dear, just lovely.  Seriously, my dear, yes.

“Okay, all right.  So let’s look at that example, and let’s feel into it, let’s really feel into it.   Let’s….  Kevin…  Kevin!....  Kevin!   I said let’s feel the example, not the implants.  That’s right, sit back down.  Okay, the example: notice in that exchange, Shirley and I used several pronouns.  In particular, we used I, you, we, and it/its.  Kevin?....  No, I said “it/its,” not “tits.”  But good noticing, Kev.

“So what I would like each of you to do is to actually feel—FEEL—with your awareness, right now, what it is like to say and feel the pronoun ‘I.’  Go ahead, do it now.  Simply think of a few sentences with ‘I’ in them, and then see how it feels, concentrate on how the I-thought feels.  It might be, ‘I really think Mrs. Feuentes is the best, most smartest teacher ever.’  Or it could be, ‘I think Mrs. Fuentes is so beautiful she makes all other teachers look like toadies.’  Or possibly, ‘I feel that Mrs. Feuentes is the most super teacher in the whole wide world and deserves a pay raise right now.’  The point is:  feel the I-space in your awareness.

“Now that’s a good example of a 1st-person pronoun, isn’t it?  So keep that feeling in mind; we will come back to it.  But notice that it is indeed a feeling in your experience, in the territory of you.  It is not abstract or intellectual.    

“Now feel an ‘it.’  Any ‘it.’  That wall, this chair, a book, this… No Kevin!  No!  Sit back down.  Sit down, Kevin, fer chrissakes.  Shirley, I’m sure Kevin is sorry.  Okay, as I was saying, feel the book, the chair, the snow outside the window.  Simply say a few sentences with ‘it’ in them, and notice the it-feeling.  ‘I love the snow when it is falling like that.’  ‘This chair is really uncomfortable and I would like to get rid of it.’  ‘I lost my week’s supply of Ecstasy and I hope my friends can replace it.’  So can we all do that, please?  And while you’re doing that, simply notice that you can see and feel ‘it’ and ‘its’ in the world, because this is a capacity you easily have.”

Carla looked around the room.  “Yes, yes, that’s right….  What’s that?  No, Kevin, I don’t have your Ecstasy….  I don’t know if he has it, you’ll have to ask him….   No, you’ll have to ask him.   But when you’re doing so, notice that ‘it’ and ‘him’ are 3rd-person pronouns, yes?  Good, Kev, that’s good, very good indeed.”

Kevin, the perennial bad boy, was in fourth row center.  It was hard to tell if he was joking with Carla, or if he really was that dense.  For the future of the country, one prayed it was the former, but suspiciously, depressingly, it seemed the latter.  Whatever it was Kevin was doing, it was acing Ronnie out of the picture, because he seemed to want nothing to do with whatever Kevin was about.  Ronnie would surface from underwater at Ronnie World, and if Kevin’s voice were anywhere to be heard, Ronnie submerged again into his private interiors, jacked and wired into his own neurons—which worked just fine for me: one Looney Tune at a time.