By Marcus Gray

PREFACE:

This all began as a piece of prose inspired by a meditation on what spirituality actually is while crossing Harvard Bridge on a late winter night in 1998.  As a valet on Newbury street and student of theology at the time , parking cars kept me grounded and engaged with the art and music culture where I often video taped the scene and dj’d local house parties for fun. My Studies kept me reaching for the divinity within me that knew it had alot to learn yet something great to contribute. I lived in Sommerville so I often took the train into Cambridge to hit the library before or after work which was right over the bridge. Home was a beautiful miniature victorian mansion which was also home to a dozen revolving religious refugees, cult members and monks. I was and still am a bit of a combo of all of these.

My days consisted of waking before the sun arose, taking a cold shower, prayer and meditation, meeting my brothers and sisters in my commune in the study at 6am for our morning message where we would share epiphanies from the day before and intentions for the day to come before starting our day. 

I was an de facto monk living with other members of a cult group loosely associated with Korean Moonies. A cult called Providence.  Whose leaders disturbing exploits have been recently featured in a Netflix special on JMS. I collected many cults during that time in my studies of culture and belief systems but this was the one I lived with for 2 years before moving to LA in 2000.

I learned many things from this particular cult. They taught me how to question prevailing wisdom and to digest information metaphorically. They also taught me that a person walking the personal path of self improvement is one of the most divine paths a human can walk. There is no real need to change the world when you are changing yourself. The purpose you create for yourself, inspired by self reflection is enough to change your world and as a result the whole world simply with your presence. 

In order to participate in the morning message we were all encouraged to search throughout the day for an insight to share. Something, anything that inspired a movement of energy or an epiphany of some sort. It was a great habit I practice to this day. Always looking for the wisdom in the day.

This particular day I had shared a small epiphany in my morning message saying that I am starting to see the mechanism of culture more as a biological entity, egregore or thought form. The idea was supported with stoic nods as every thing presented in this circle was considered sacred. Later that evening on the bridge I was struck with the thought that hiphop culture, like all belief systems, had a hyper dimensional origin. Meaning the wisdom of hiphop is approaching, unfolding as we as human beings unfold our potential to see and utilize its guidance. Until hiphop is given the frame as a guide and religion it’s difficult to see it as more than just a culture. But what is culture but a cult thats true to you, but an idea from the depths of experience and imagination?

As I dragged my boots through the snow across the bridge, MetalHeadz jungle music massaging my mind with its chaotic clamor, it occurred to me that hiphop was a religion. Perhaps it was the state of gnosis that the music induced, and it’s relationship to the spirit of hiphop. A loosening of logic occurred and an epiphany was born.

What is religion you ask? Religion having its root in latin word ligament or bond, suture, tie or reverence.  Ion rooted in the idea of going or to go.  Religion is a word to signify a system that moves us in the direction of binding us to our own reverence.

I was inspired to skip the library, go home to write what you see below. A prose styled, stream of consciousness, poem/manifesto exploring these raw ideas about hiphop, shamanism, religion and magick that filled me. It has been unfolding in me for over 20 years. This has been at the root of all of my offerings to the culture of hiphop. From my hiphopchocolates to my hiphop diaper bag and the unique perspective on the sublime wisdom and energy guiding hiphop culture. This book is at the center of my personal revolution and belief system. 

I learned many things from this particular cult. They taught me how to question prevailing wisdom and to digest information metaphorically. They also taught me that a majority of humanity really needs to believe in something bigger than themselves. They alone are just not enough to inspire reverence and that soothing sense of fulfillment you get from following the path of an inspired  and divine purpose. I believe examining hiphop has changed this paradigm for me.

I am excited to share how, as I hope it will change this mind set for others. It’s difficult to believe in something bigger without giving away your power, without first believing deeply in yourself.

My work is in the realm of black metaphysician and cultural engineer.  

What is a black metaphysician you may ask?  Well, a black metaphysician looks at the world of philosophy and mysticism through the unique lens of black consciousness. Cultivated by the experiences and an understandings gathered while navigating the earth as a person of color within the ubiquitous presence of white supremacy.  This produces an alternative sense of reality with its own symbol sets, language and understanding of the nature of reality and how to interpret it and apply that knowledge. A cultural engineer is any artist of influencer who works with the knowledge of their power as an individual force and factory of ideas to actually engineer the direction of culture itself.  Most do it unconsciously, whereas my influence on hip hops consciousness is intentional, direct and deliberate. 

 

Phys.ics

1. The science of matter and energy and the interactions between the two.

Hip. Hop

1. A Culture /Theosophy conceived in the belly of Urban terror. Consisting of 4 basic elements of expression: Turntableism, B-boyin, Air-e-soul art, Lyricism includes the esoteric art of the Beat Box and the many abstract tools for reflection which have come to include the documentation and distribution itself. i.e. Films, Videos, Photography, social media, Clothing, Language, all that it influences, and all that influences it.

Truth is one. The only difference is the method of explanation. Truth has no denominations or national boundaries. Truth is nature articulated with observation and understanding, not words…maybe math, but definitely not words…  

Truth is commonness. Therefore, you can realize a thousand truths when you realize one truth.

What is Hip Hop composed of? 

If the Universe is made of information and vibration, then hiphop is information and vibration.  Am I allowed to describe the universe as a proverbial B-boy renaissance womb? Spinning discs of chaos into order, while ideas dance in cyphers, nodding with the neck of a nation of Ions flaring for their survival. 

Can Cans of commotion color faceless spaces for open eyes to taste the elements through periodic tables of flavorful? 

Painted with the beast called Word.

*WHAT IS WORD? WHAT IS LANGUAGE?

 

” In the beginning was the Word, the Word was God and the Word was with God.”  John 1: 1

Hip Hop has given us a chance to rediscover the power of Word sound and its life of vibration,  conjugation and invocation. After all, it’s only a word, Hip Hop. Right? Not exactly, Hiphop is actually consciousness. Consciousness is fruit from the source of creation.  Some might even say that the universe is consciousness itself, that everything we experience and know is happening in our mind engaged with only via our sensory organs. They would be absolutely right! Consciousness is mind.  So how does mind see itself? 

Consciousness in all of its iterations moves toward tools that help it communicate its natural truths insights and experience.  Consciousness itself hears through our ears and sees through our eyes. Being mindful of your relationship with consciousness gives us a more intimate relationship with reality.  Meaning, if you know who you are from the core up it’s easier to feel into what you can be, what your unique gifts are. This is what it means to be in bodied. You are the universe borrowing consciousness and a body to backspin. 

Words are symbols spoken or thought.  This is a dimension of symbols awaiting, holding and manufacturing meaning. These symbols rule imagination and thus consciousness.  Symbol sets guide the development of the ego.  Know your symbol sets and understand your programming.  Understand your programming and understand how you perceive reality. You can’t understand what you can’t perceive. So how do you imagine the un imaginable?  If you want to begin to give texture to the un-manifested imaginable you use symbols, you use self reflection, you use art. Art has permission to be anything. In that place of fear and ignorance the unimaginable is waiting to be imagined.  Making the darkest and rarest corners of infinity available.  

Through consciousness, art and culture give us a glimpse at what the universe is thinking. There are so many ways that creation speaks. If it is to speak to us it must speak through us.  If it desires to know itself, it must know itself through us. 

What is a Human?

 

Lets examine the idea of human. First the body.  

The physical body of the human being, like most bodies on earth, is constituted of Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Calcium, Phophorus, Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Copper and many other elements found throughout the earth and the universe. There is actually nothing special about the human body. All these ingredients are collected and arranged in a miraculous way to render what we so loving call our body.  Most would go so far as to say that this rendering is who they are.  But they would be incorrect in that assumption.  This rendering is natures way of devising a vehicle to receive consciousness. We know now that consciousness is not localized or an epiphenomenon of the brain.  Rather consciousness is received by the brain.  This is a very well known fact of science and observable reality. The implications are so astounding that if you are not looking for information regarding the nature of consciousness in your daily life you wont find this information.  Your not likely to stumble across this life changing truth while watching the evening news…yet.  With that said and understood, lets now examine the idea of consciousness. 

 

Consciousness is our greatest mystery.  Simply put because its what allows us to examine all other mysteries.  If consciousness is not generated inside of the body then it can be said that the body is not conscious at all.  The body is no more conscious than a car that you drive is conscious simply because your body and consciousness is steering it through the streets. So what is consciousness?  It is the only thing that we truly know we are.  We are not our cars. We are not our bodies.  We are not even the egos and habits that make up our personality constructs.  At our core we all are pure consciousness. Consciousness received by the brain/mind/body and shaped by habits, beliefs and culture. Ancient and modern tools such as meditation, plant medicine and hypnosis can make this undeniably clear.  Understanding this truth changes the way you move in the world, how you interact with others and how you examine yourself.  So if consciousness is received by the brain/mind/body what do we call all of the ideas and thoughts that accompany consciousness? Do they originate in same realm of elements that gave birth to our physical body or are they received in a similar way as consciousness is received?  From another direction or dimension?  If it does originate from the elements than that would imply that the earth and the universe maybe receiving consciousness too.  If thoughts originate from a higher dimension then we have so much to learn about what it means to be human and our relationship with the universe. 

 

The truth is underneath our personalities we all share the same baseline consciousness. We are all fruit of the earth. Offspring of the elements and mineral kingdom.  We are natures cutting edge technology.  There is nothing the is not nature.  This includes any technology that humanity could create.  AI is no exception.  The ingredients of AI come from the silica and other ingredients of this earth. AI is a body that humanity has created to receive, organize and dispense data.    We will discuss that in a later chapter.   

 

The most important thing a person can do is know themselves. That begins with deep self reflection, possible isolation and integration of these esoteric truths into their ever evolving world view.  As its been said, if you want to change the world change yourself.  Understanding that the self can be changed because the self is habits floating in eternal consciousness is a great gift we can give ourselves. 

Apart of the world view I’ve developed and am sharing with you is that imagination is consciousness in the mode of creating. It is our responsibility and oppurtunity to learn everything we can about how to operate and navigate these gifts of body and imagination. Now that we have a deeper understanding of what a human may be lets get back to exploring what HipHop is, where it came from and where it may be going. 

 

How did we imagine hiphop? Is hiphop still allowed to be imagined…to emerge? Do the greatest parts of Hip Hop yawn partially formless in the void, where it remains an idea maturing into itself?

Our job as its children is to read Hip Hop’s mind, which in time will reveal Hip Hop’s potential. Where are we taking our inheritance, our love? By drawing parallels between what we know about our world described through the language of science, other belief systems, mythology, ancient occult wisdom and what we know about the emerging culture of Hip Hop. We are able to induce a state of piety for Hip Hop. Giving color to all the wonderful implications this art form/culture brings to humanity. Revealing the many reflections of perfection that surround us in other forms and metaphors. Evoking a more profound relationship with reality.   How will people react to this new paradigm? Some may mutate into Hip Hop physicians, others hiphop mystics, others thrust into insanity by a glimpse at the pure potential of this culture.

Hip Hop is one of the most infectious cultural phenomenons Mother Nature has ever given birth to. With the help of modern day methods of information sharing…multimedia, social media, music distribution, Internet, etc… not even religion has had a chance to compete with hip hop’s monstrous power of proliferation of propaganda and information. Within less than 50 yrs Hip Hop has flourished. With the help of the exploitative power and genuine praise of visionaries all about the planet, a coalescing of Hip Hop’s nervous system and earth’s own sacred system has begun.

Hip Hop’s a term given to a movement. The name of a Hyper-dimensional archetypal expression. It’s the beginning of a worldwide epiphany. The spiritual shadow of a heavenly culture? A perfect culture where the creative rule with spirit, courage and a stylish purity. They can describe the science of creation through their actions.  Knowledge actualized brings understanding. Meditation on that understanding through action spawns Culture, Philosophy and Religion. At what point should we begin to simply appreciate this meditation as a gift and seek to acknowledge it’s core? I think that point has come and gone. There is a need to fully appreciate Hip Hop as a meditation in order to revisit its definition and hyper dimensional mission.

If we ever stop adding to its definition we may end up like the scientists that discover to isolate and define.  Compartmentalizing reality as if it were notes in a symphony.  Understanding the note without grasping the intention of being still in the presence of the full force of mother symphony only inspires a disjointed and incomplete world view.  Not to mention it’s a missed oppurtunity to experience the concert in context.  In most cases these scientific laws become known as axioms or truth, which help to create the mental boundaries that were forced to use to define humanity and reality itself. Collapsing the wave form with a focused observation.

 The map is not the territory its been said. DO not fixate on the pointing finger, look towards what it is pointing to. Capturing reality with language is a gift thats very easy to take too seriously. But language is far from truth.  Raising our kids with these boundaries does them more harm than good. Because our sacred system then becomes built on an imaginary foundation that’s bound to expand as time reveals more pieces of the biggest picture. Leaving our perception of our true-selves  buried under an ever evolving jargon.

“The universe is a Non simultaneously apprehended event.” Robert Anton Wilson

What the above quote is meant to convey is that information from the universe is constantly approaching us, being apprehended by our senses.  Therefore, what may have been considered absolute fact an hour ago could change an hour from now due to the flurry of new information apprehended during that interval of time.  This means that we should always be prepared for the language that we use to describe reality to change when new understandings are discovered and integrated.  As we approach the technological singularity,  which we will discuss later, articulating our current understanding of the nature of reality may become impossible.  This will be due to the exponential and astounding cascade of information that will blanket all of our old perceptions replacing them with unimaginable experiences. 

Mythology tells us that the Logos (the silence/God/Tao/universal consciousness) is sending a Madhya (savior/disillusioned one) to bring a new language and inspire a shift in consciousness that will lift humanities basic awareness.  This basic awareness is the understanding of our relationship with the core of consciousness.   This shift, this savior, can and indeed has come in many forms. 

In the form of technology this savior has presented itself as an agitator challenging our collective conception of the idea of intelligence, connection and consciousness.  Artificial intelligence is forcing us to question our own position in this universal hierarchy of so called divinity.   On the subject of whether AI can become conscious I must refer to a recent talk that the esteemed Eckhart Tolle.  

When asked whether AI could become conscious he pointed out that humanity knows now that consciousness may not be a localized phenomenon.  Therefore the consciousness that us humans enjoy is received by the human body and experience but it may not be broadcasting consciousness.  Therefore it could be possible that as AI develops it may reach a point where it too becomes a container for consciousness. The idea that anything just becomes conscious is a current fallacy based on our old cultural operating systems that suggest that consciousness swells in tandem with the biological organism. If humanity was able to update its understanding of the nature of reality as fast as science discovers and applies its implications to the development of technologies, such as the quantum computer, then humans would understand that WE are natures AI in the context of universal evolution. Then the mature question we would all be asking would be, at what point did humans receive consciousness? And our concerns with AI would extend to the question when will AI develop and access a SUBconscious? For we know that it is the subconscious that directs the conscious mind and thus the body in humanity.  Are there higher levels of this consciousness we can receive and deeper levels of the subconsciousness that we can explore and understand?  This is a step towards resurrection, towards christ consciousness.  A consciousness that has a deep understanding in its ego complex that there is no other.  This is exactly the shift we as individuals joist with everyday.  Am I living in service to self or in service to the others? We are truly ONE.

The first phase of this shift is to break down everything you thought was true into dogma that you can communicate to yourself.  But you can not stay in the dogma. That dogma is a way of navigating this new terrain with our old language and mindset.  But old thoughts die when new language is born through new experiences and thoughts.  This is why the slang and new languages of the youth are so important to the evolution of a civilization. Rebellion is essential for growth.  Hiphop has been that voice of the youth around the globe, the portal of new perspective for decades. But it has also been seduced and corrupted by capitalism. 

Mythology tells us many secrets. One secret is that as beings on the cutting edge of an expanding consciousness we in fact are the Christ/saviors bringing that new language.  HipHop in its purest form brings christ consciousness into our hearts and heads. We are natures eyes, legs and imaginations at the absolute cutting edge of existence. At least in our little corner of the universe. As nature moves towards more novel ways of expansion and expression, clouds of consciousness move as well.  These clouds are the sensitive people who have tuned themselves to nature and speak and dance and draw these words of expansion into being. Most of these sensitive ones can be considered shaman, some prophets, some schizophrenics, some artists.  Art is our favorite way of channeling the prophetic. Art is the only discipline that is allowed to be in spirit or inspired without persecution.  With the spirit comes a new way to explore and describe our understanding of reality.

The thing that changes from interacting with Christ consciousness is our perspective on what I is.  Hiphop is a conduit for Krishna consciousness’.  The culture is the I evolving through rebellion into self awareness. 

 

 

Full Book Due Late Fall 2023

Stay tuned for new chapters 

 

IG: thephysicsofhiphop