Stirring of the Nod Gods

Hello again, twatty reader. Now... we have seen how Nod Gods (strange disembodied faces) were doodled, developed, nurtured and given mobility in those early days. Attempts were also made to breathe life into these two-dimensional creations, and by 'life' I don't mean mere 'presence', but an actual independent consciousness. Here, mention must be made of the influence of 1990s computer gaming culture, especially that surrounding the popular Amiga home computer, upon the development of the Nod Gods. The Nod Gods were treated as if they were potential characters for a new Amiga game. In 1992 it was unusual but not impossible to meet a fellow ten-year-old semi-fluent in a programming language such as AMOS (Easy AMOS), Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit or 3D Construction Kit (all available on the Amiga), and I was one of them (in fact, a few other people were too, but I digress). A definitive Nod God game was never realised due to shoddy programming, but this didn't stifle the drawing up of ideas, plans and blueprints. In the book 'Trigger Happy', Steven Poole illustrates how computer game characters demand dimensionality (and I will quote him even though I believe quoting other people denotes low self-esteem):

"The star of a videogame (...) is invented: built completely from the ground up. A false idol indeed. Yet in another way a hyperreal one: for whereas a novelist, who also invents characters, will normally only need (or desire) to provide a few salient features of a person's appearance and let the reader's imagination do the rest, a videogame character must be determinedly individuated" (Poole, 2004: p.139)

Therefore the Nod God was looked upon as a potentially real being. It was desired that the Nod God character should be interactive, thus it slowly assumed a life of its own. In order to impart a sense of immersion in computer games, the impression must be given of independent intelligences. As I sought desperately to transcend the pen and paper amateurishness of the early Nod God designs and focussed avidly on the creature as a real being, I was unwittingly bringing the Nod God into the real world - literally. In stark contrast to my old naive enthusiasm, I now find my adult self glimpsing a Nod God sitting on a bus, and once collapsing at the Job Centre under the burden of these visions: two Nod Gods perched on the careers advisor's bookshelf as bookends. These real visions I now try to ignore. Such incidents make me wonder whether the Nod Gods were given too much mobility that allowed them to access higher dimensionality.

In the previous posting an explanation for such visions was alluded to. The explanation lies in a book written by French explorer Alexandra David-Néel called 'With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet' (1931). In this account of her travels, she talks of a species of thought-forms called 'tulpas'. Tulpas are sentient forms borne of the imagination that become endowed with an apparent physicality through intense visualisation and willpower. To create a tulpa, one simply has to concentrate avidly on an imaginary character, and it will eventually cross into reality, but she warns that "the practice is considered as fraught with danger for everyone who has not reached a high mental and spiritual degree of enlightenment". Beyond a certain point a tulpa can "free itself from its maker's control". Alexandra David-Néel tried to create her own tulpa by imagining the figure of a comical short, fat, jolly monk. Harmless. She succeeded in creating this tulpa. "The illusion persisted. I saw the fat tulpa; now and then it was not necessary for me to think of him to make him appear" (p.314). However, the tulpa became too independent and uncontrollable, even becoming visible to other people(!). It had developed a lust for life.

"He became more troublesome and bold. In brief, he escaped my control. Once, a herdsman who brought me a present of butter saw the tulpa in my tent and took it for a living lama. I ought to have let the phenomenon follow its course, but the presence of that unwanted companion began to prove trying to my nerves; it turned into a 'day-nightmare'. Moreover, I was beginning to plan my journey to Lhasa and needed a quiet brain devoid of other preoccupations, so I decided to dissolve the phantom. I succeeded, but only after six months of hard struggle. My mind-creature was tenacious of life" (David-Néel, 1931: p.315)

The 16th Century alchemist and physician Paracelsus is also alleged to have known of the thought-form ability. Franz Hartmann provides this description of what Paracelsus called an Aquastor (elsewhere referred to as the Aquaster):

"Aquastor: A being created by the power of the imagination (...). Such imaginary but nevertheless real forms may obtain life from the person by whose imagination they are created and under certain circumstances they may even become visible and tangible" (Hartmann, 1896: p.32)

Let us now compare these descriptions of thought-forms with a modern description of psychotic symptoms taken from the accompanying leaflet for Zyprexa's olanzapine antipsychotics (which treats thought-forms as symptoms of a "disease" as opposed to a natural result of "racing thoughts"). Click to enlarge the original text.

"Zyprexa is used to treat a disease with symptoms such as hearing, seeing or sensing things which are not there" (Zyprexa Package Leaflet, 2007: p.1)

It is ironic and coincidental that doctors are also sometimes referred to as 'nod Gods' when they blindly prescribe powerful antipsychotic medicine such as Zyprexa to people who are already burdened enough as it is, with an escaped thought (say, a f*cking Nod God)!

When primary school finished in 1993, everyone made a 'beautiful book' that was supposed to document our finest work during primary education. I peppered mine with images of Nod Gods, and wrote the invocation "may the spirit of the Gods live on" on the last page, and more prophetically "the God has escaped" (showing a Nod God smashing out of its framing enclosure), which was a bit unwise with hindsight, as we shall see...

Bibliography
Hartmann, F. 1896 The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim
Poole, S. 2004 Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution
David-Néel, A. 1931 With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet (Magic and Mystery in Tibet)
Zyprexa 2007 Zyprexa Package Leaflet