BEHAVIOURAL CUT-UPS AND MAGICK by Genisis P-Orridge T.O.P.Y. I. THEE KEY My primary concerns in space and time: That situation which society informs us is named "being alive", or on more intellectual days, "reality"; are Control, Human Behaviour, and an inkling that underlying everything is a web of parallel causes and parallel effects upon which we can exert more manipulative pressure than we are led to believe by the aforementioned Society. Whilst is is true that we did not ask to be here, it is also true that we did not ask to not be here either. Birth and Death at this stage of evolution appear to our everyday senses to be thee only certain points in this maelstrom of "being alive". Thee word being is such a nice word, to be, to be in, being, a state of mind and/or body, it is a rather coumforting and seductive word. Yet like all words it has reverberations. Languages interfacing, wars and migrations cross fertilising, needs to do more that grunt, urges to express more than biological functins and pre-requisites. History, that which travels thee macrocosm of space and time, lives inside words like an ectoplasmic hermit crab in a stolen shell. Words in turn live inside us too, like more hermit crabs, protecting themselves from discovery of their secret, and words live outside us freeranging in our culture like viruses waiting for an appropriate host. This function has be deeply investigated by W.S. Burroughs in literature, and to a lesser extent through tape and film, and collage works earlier in his career. However, looking back with an overview in 1987, this first layer and its direct symbiotic relationship with all interpretations of control and all thee interactions and permutations it exposes satisfied him and occupied him enough. Brion Gysin, "Thee Master", who largely introduced W.S.B. to this whole scenario, saw further, saw thee other layers, was not satisfied. He studied languages, western and eastern Etymology, had devastating knowledge of European migrations and interactions going back as far as records allowed. He was aware of thee process touched upon earlier. He observed first hand for 23 years thee threads of pulse and frequency generated through Moroccan music. Where thee master musician has certain phrases and sequences of sound that are thee equivalent of a spoken language and guide and instruct thee players as thee music is performed. Music that therefore literally "speaks" of primal roots and impulses of behaviour. That triggers endorphine assisted alpha-wave neurological states that inspire and reveal thee fluidity of occult physics. That all is light, which is nothing more than an idea, and that light is, within that, infinite particles exploding and racing in every direction simultaneously. A quaquaversatility. And that is thee nearest to a key we might get. And from this Brion gave us paintings and drawings which began with thee desert, with desert light. And then seemed at first glance to becoum more abstract, myriad scratchings and markings swirling until he showed you they were thee desert still, thee light itself, thee very particles of sight. And they were thee desert dwellers, thee keepers of thee music, thee speakers of frequency. Thee expressors of magick lore. Thee inhabitants of Pan, drowning in unspoken rituals. II. THEE DOOR In relation to this event and its primary concerns, "Thee Door" is thee cut-up. There is now a clear representation of thee system that concerns us. Contrary to thee image we are presented with by those Feudal Overlords that administer Control, our society is not yet part of thee 20th century in terms of its comman structure and behavioural inhibitors. Thee great majority of people are to all intents and puposes "serfs" and they exist on thee minimum level of potentiality expansion at which they can function to perpetuate thee status quo. No one conglomerate of businessmen, or politicians, or masonic manipulators control Control. They do however administer its needs. It's an obvious truism that most injustices in our Society are protections of thee vested interests of a minority over thee majority. For hundreds of years thee majority of thee population have been bullied, conditioned, trained, suppressed and censored into subservience. Into an unconscious yet massibely potent acceptance of thee impossibility of an evolutionary change in human behaviour patterns, in thee impossibility of aspiring to thee maximum growth and repossession of their own innate potential. Control is thee web that traps us and injures our intuitive belief in our selves. Thee word, literature, parallel this process. With a cut-up you can break down thee expected, inherited values and assumptions and retrain yourself to look at revealing possibilities. Describing "reality" more accurately than any linear system. Our languages are linear. Life is not. At any given moment we are recieving input to thee exteroceptors both in obvious ways and less obvious ways. (i.e. Sound enters our body through all its surfaces, via vibration and frequency, not just via thee ears). These inputs contribute to motivation in thee cerebral cortex. Simultaneously to this process memories are being compared to thee new information and thee cerebral cortex then modifies it and adds it to a command for thee sub- cortical regions. In those sub-cortical regions effectors carry out the command response to thee stimuli. While these neurological functions are taking place, thee body coumtinues its metabolic functions and actions semi- automatically. Random events outside thee Individual's body are also being registered and/or affecting thee Individual. Emotions are triggering and interplaying in thee subconscious. Thee entire nature and state of that Individual is in a state of flux. There is no fixed point, no definition, no finite answer of specific formula. Thee closest to a possibility of describing thee reality of things as opposed to the inherited linear materialistic model of thee state of being alive has to be a kaleidoscopic, integrated, non-linear method. It has to contain, at least implicitly, every possibility, every impossibility, every conscious and unconscious thought, word and deed, simultaneously. Thee Cut-up is a practical way-in to this. Life is quite simply a stream of cut-ups on every level. Given thee discovery of a means to describe and reveal reality, we can also identify Control. Control denies intuition and instinct particularly, and dreams of all forms, randomness, thought. All these and other behavioural and psychological perceptions generate impulses in Individuals to say "Why?", "No" and refuse acceptance. To believe more is possible than they have been (literally) LED to believe. That they need accept nothing until they have analysed and evaluated its value and applicableness to them. III. THEE ROOM A room means to have space to grow and develop. It is also a physical place, and like all words it is a metaphor too. Thee room is where you are, and where you want to be. To go into thee room is to choose to reclaim yourself. Until people learn to respect themselves again, to care for themselves, to treasure emotions and feelings. To have self-esteem and accept no one else's suggestion of what it is possible for them to be, what skills they might have and how far those skills can be pushed, to always make up your own mind about what is right for you, what has value to you in every aspect of Life. To re-learn as a new second-nature to make up your own mind and not be directed, intimidated or accepting of any established system of values and behaviour. Until all these processes are returned to an Individual's own control and constantly reanalysed to check against laziness and habit for its own sake there can be no possibility of evolution and expansio n for thee Individual and, through them, society. What is needed therefore, is a practical, functional method that effectively deconditions, disinhibits, short- circuits a society's behavioral taboos and control. A physical back-up to thee process of always asking why. Accepting nothing as true. It was this quest for a method that led me first towards performance art, within which context E attempted to set myself tasks that forced me to locate barriers and inhibitions related to pain and sexual thresholds, for example. Once identified and measured, E was able to think about whether they were actually useful to me, or were merely inherited. This regimen in turn introduced me to new mental states akin to trance and yoga, and unexpected blocks or embarassments that were illogical to me. Ritualisation fused with impulse and instinct integrated with intuition, an open-minded examination of my most deeply buried and normally inarticulated drives and desires and an approach devoid of preconceptions that re-educated my idea of what E was as an Individual, what my real boundaries were, and what it was possible for me to become. What E had been bombarded with as my self- image by Education, Religion, Society, thee Family and thee Media in their various colluding forms, subtle and blatant, bore no relation to what E experienced and perceived. There are always levels beneath thee level of what we identify as a problem. Suddenly E realised that ritual, and various, previously named, "occult" practices were in fact methods of short-circuiting Control of thee Individual, destroying their coumpliance with what they are trained to expect, want, or aspire to. They were a parallel method in thee medium of Behaviour and self-reclamation to thee Cut-up in Writing, Film and Video and Music. So cultural methods of de-control COULD just as effectively be applied to ourselves. To more accurately describe both how we are at one point in Time, and how we can re-define ourselves from that point on. To be aware of all thee simultaneous factors that must be clearly and honestly allowed free-play for us to work in a focussed accurate manner towards a fully integrated character. That recognises and embraces every aspect of its complex self, free of any self-delusion. That finds its own rations with a complete re-integration of thee conscious and subconscious mind of sexuality, emotion, intelligence, knowledge, relationships, dreams and so on. Not just a developing of so-called logical perceptions, butter a genuinely realistic blending of thee illogical also. And recognises that nothing is fixed, that these ratios are forever changing and should be seen as directions. IV. THEE PERSON Thee person therefore could fight back. And a long-standing tradition of Magick appeared thee most relevant area and structure within which to research and express thee possibilities open to Individual and Collective re- definition and evolution. As Burroughs said about Cut-ups, "How Random Is Random?". Thee picture we get from cut-ups is more accurate than any traditional description. What has always been presented as thee Irrational becoums far more accurate and plausible than thee Rational explanation we are endlessly urged and bullied to accept. Thee psychology of thee unconscious explores thee background of thee so-called rational mind both by disciplined investigation and hysterical dissociation of thought habits. There is a strong implication that thee essence of Magick is psycho- integrative. It re-invests thee Individual with an awareness of psycho- genetic history, lets them face and re-evaluate their own responses and perception of themselves. It allows them to be awake and fight subservience and adherence to any and all preconceptions. Thee myths and symbols of thee past were attempts to articulate intimations of what is possible. Thee themes of mythology are not just archaic knowledge- they are living actualities of human beings. They exist as signposts and facets of interlaced themes that together make up human behaviousr, character, aspiration and potential. To touch ourselves and respect ourselves against all thee odds is crucial to survival and to appreciation and effective use of thee state of being alive. Thee need is to find a way into thee deepest areas of thee psyche and how it affects and triggers behaviour and response. To redevelop an integrated relationship with our so-called primitive perceptions from which we have been alienated by Society. Western Society has built a norm where unthinkingly thee majority of people deny, ridicule, attack, abuse, trivialise, experience fear of, suppress or consign to novelty any experiences that provide evidence or intimations of their inherited system of explanations being inadequate. Fact, whatever that is, is given credence over dreams; acceptance by a group is paramount, deviation and rebellion generate fear. Those with thee courage to openly declare independence and hope are isolated and scorned. Fame is constantly projected as thee primary motivation for ambition. Every level of our Society is riddled with thee concept of competition, beating thee other person or side, this is reinforced by Capitalism, by Sport, Success in Entertainment and all fields, by Religion and by Politics. Compete, compete. Competition is a variant of aggression. By using ritual, gradually getting a clearer map of every inter-connection of one's conscious and unconscious mind and couming to terms with thee revelation that flux and constant change with no anchors or reassuring formulae and no guaranteed rewards or salvation one can liberate oneself from all thee inherited constraints that nine times out of ten directly or indirectly bolster thee status quo. It literally allows us to face ourselves and face facts. It supplies recognition that within each Individual there are many types and shades of consciousness with diverse intentions and values. By investigating our blocks, inhibitions, real desires and motivations in preconceived moments of Time set aside to explore thresholds of perception and response to check exactly what one's limits are and decide if they are one's REAL limits, or merely convenient or coumplacent, we can re-assemble and discard as we wish. V. THEE IDEA To heal and re-integrate thee human character. To set off psychic detonations that negate control. To re-evaluate and value phenomena that appear to defy reason. To retrieve choice in all things. To avoid separation and coumpartmentalism in every aspect and level of Life, internal and external. To always attempt to express as truly as you can what you really feel and think. To locate and identify one's skills and develop them. To be aware of human frailties and futility whilst caring intensely. To push to thee edge and struggle to always feel and express more. To despise all forms of coumplacency. To carry through one's ideas 24 hours a day for a lifetime. To accept nothing. To assume nothing. To encourage others to repossess themselves and maximise their potential. To exchange and liberate information. To understand and treasure thee preciousness of feelings, emotions and sentiment. To rebuild thee parameters and possibilities of relationships. To locate and choose without guilt or fear one's individual and natural balance of sexuality. To change and not see change as contradiction or inconsistency, butter actually how things are and should be. To see Time as an unfixed and irreplaceable resource that one receives only a limited and unpredictable amount of. That that Time must never be wasted or squandered. To try to work towards knowing that you used every second constructively. To seek self-improvement not self-gratification. Control. Control needs Time (like a junkie needs junk). Time appears linear. Cut-ups make time arbitrary, non-linear. They reveal, locate and negate Control. Control hides in social structures like Politics, Religion, Education, Mass Media. Control exists like a virus for its own sake. Cut-ups loosen rational order, break preconceptions and expected response. They retrain our perception and acceptance of what we are told is thee nature of reality. They confound and short-circuit Control. All Control ultimately relies upon manipulation of behaviour. In culture thee Cut-up is still a modification of, or alternate, language. It can reveal, describe and measure Control. It can do damage butter that is not enough. Magick as a method is a Cut-up Process that goes further than description. It is infused with emotion, intuition, instinct and impulse, and includes emotions and feelings. It operates actually within thee same medium, "Behavior", as Control. It is therefore essential as a system to challenge, emasculate and render impotent thee source of Control itself. Control Disintegrates. Magick integrates. Thee idea is to apply thee cut-up principle of behavior. Thee method is a contemporary, non-mystical interpretation of "Magick". Thee aim is reclamation of self-determination, conscious and unconscious, to the Individual. Thee result is to neutralise and challenge thee essence of social control. Genesis P-Orridge London 1987