Special Assignment: Analysis of Symbiotic Hermeneutics

In this section, I have employed the bricolage to analyze the excerpt of text Kincheloe had personally assigned me during one of our online conversations about the bricolage (see Appendix). The text is in a chapter he wrote in Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research (Kincheloe, 2004d, pp. 62–67). Because the excerpt is long, I have not analyzed it in its entirety or to the depth possible. Passages have been selected as the research and interpretation naturally unfolded. I sensed when Joe gave me this there was something very important about it. I truly felt there was a special message for me from him, a rather strange emotional reaction I experience when reading his work, in general—that there is a specific message for me, personally. There are many ways this text can be interpreted and applied, but I maintain the themes I have established throughout this dissertation: consciousness evolution, twin flame “radical love,” and the bricolage.

This analysis is presented a little differently than what one ordinarily might expect. It is often synthesized within narrative text, highlighting my phenomenological experiences, thus, it is not presented in a linear or sequential order. Taking this nonlinear, multidimensional approach to analysis can yield new contexts and relationships that provide for some new insights. Each time I wove through this analysis, I made new discoveries. I do not consider this analysis complete, but it demonstrates a process for pedagogical purposes, highlighting the importance of symbiotic hermeneutics in the bricolage.

Background: Devastated Over Losing Joe

            The loss of Joe felt like the loss of hope and the loss of any possibility of the kind of world I dreamed of, one of love, joy, justice, abundance, and freedom. He held the key and the understanding. I felt alone and lost. In my journal, in the first letter I wrote to him after he passed over, I wrote:

I don’t like the thought of going on in the world without you. But because I love you, I know I must get past this and continue with the work you want me to do. And that is the question, Joe. There is so much work to do that I feel totally overwhelmed. I don’t know where to begin. What was that you said in your book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction? The end is just the beginning, right? (Journal, December, 22, 2008)

Before he passed over I had felt his consciousness and his spirit no matter where he was, even while he was vacationing in Jamaica. I cannot explain the feeling, just the sensation of his existence, a knowing he was present, feeling his love, his essence, and a connection. Then suddenly, on December 19, 2008, I couldn’t feel his presence. There had been Facebook messages about him being in the hospital. I became terrified and obsessed with finding out if he was ok. I sent out multiple emails to people who knew him and received back the devastating report. He had passed away from a heart attack at 11:05 Jamaican time, just a short time before I had sent out the emails. After learning the confirmation of what I was already feeling, I was devastated. Based on my FIDURODian understanding about death, he was gone.

Three days later my beliefs changed instantaneously and radically and my life inalterably changed forever. A surge of energy swooped inside me and swirled around me, surrounding me, hugging me, and loving me; it was the same energy that I recognized and loved, but magnified in power many times over. I had immediately interpreted this as Joe’s return to me, although it did not in any way diminish the grief of “losing” him because the outside world of thanatos still had me in its grips. I knew I had not, in one sense “lost” him yet felt the enormous loss. While I have since learned some people who have had this experience interpret it as the Holy Spirit, I did not have the knowledge at the time and I instantly had interpreted it as Joe’s spirit returning to me. I knew how he felt; it felt like him. And as the earlier quotations I’ve provided indicated, the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as both God and man. Thus, living in a new world of Eros Love that counterpoises the old world of thanatos, just as Joe has asked of us in his work, had begun.

            So much magic transpired after this. Remembering a comment in one of his works: “Some folks see dead people; I write to them” (Kincheloe, 2007b, p. 11), I began writing to him. My first journal entry is December 22, 2008 and begins, “Dear Joe: You have been gone now for two days, three days at 11:05 PM Jamaican time. I miss you. I will miss you until I can see you again someday.”  It was soothing to me and cathartic to try and keep lines of communication open. This is something I had never done before. When people die, they’re gone is what I believed. The idea of Heaven, while I believed it to a degree, just seemed far away.

Dream Walking In Two Worlds

On Christmas Day, 2009, just six days after Joe’s passing, I had to take a trip to California for a university colloquium. My heart was not in it, but I had to go. It was part of the mission to take Joe’s work forward, is how I saw it. A strange thing happened on the way to California that was totally outside my range of “normal” experiences, and now I view it as my first experience of bringing a bit of Heaven to Earth. Upon receiving the gift of the “Holy Spirit,” it was my very first sample of the magic that happens when living in two worlds. I attributed it to Joe during the time due to the unwavering connection I felt with him. The experience was so out of the ordinary, I wrote in my journal about it in detail. It had felt as if I had stepped outside the ordinary earth realm for a few minutes, a phenomenological experience that now is repeated with such frequency it is my new “normal.” But that particular day, I was in awe over what had happened.  Was I seeing a world that few other people could see?

            It was the first day of the trip, December 25, 2008, Christmas day, and it had started to snow as I was reaching Interstate 5 Siskiyou Pass. A warning sign stretched across the freeway with yellow flashing lights advising, “Chains Required.” But, being who I am, I have learned to “Question Everything.”  It is almost my motto. The snow was not sticking to the road and I knew the distance over the pass was not that great. I could not imagine it being impassable judging by what I was seeing. Further, I absolutely detest putting tire chains on and had not needed to do so in many years, and even when I did need to in the past, I always had help. I had no desire to learn how to put chains on my car on Christmas Day. Besides, my model of car required a strange set of chains that I had never used and never wanted to. The auto service attendant had patiently shown me how to put them on when I had bought them, but I knew I would not remember and would struggle with them. I am not mechanically inclined when it comes to that sort of “Do It Yourself.”

And so here I was, traveling up the mountain just about to traverse the highest pass, and more and more snow was falling, although most of it seemed to be blowing off the highway. There was an exit so I decided to pull off and fill the car with gas before confronting what I feared was up ahead, thinking in my mind the whole time: there could not possibly be a reason for chains. When I got out of the car at the service station the sun was peeking at me from between clouds, and it was warm, 40 degrees according to an electronic flashing sign on the nearby bank. As I had written in my journal, the warm sunshine literally reminded me of the warm hugs I received from Joe when I had met him in Canada the past July. I felt his energy. I felt like the sun was my indication, a special sign: “Surely, Joe and God had a hand in this sunshine and I would not have to try and put chains on the tires” I had written in my journal (December 25, 2008). After filling the car, I went back to continue the journey, hoping for the best. All along the highway, literally for miles were what appeared to be hundreds of cars, trucks, huge tractor semis, and campers lined up with their drivers all struggling with putting chains on their tires. But the road was still relatively clear! Why were hundreds of people chaining up their vehicles? At one point, I stopped, pulling over to the side of the road and conversed with a woman who told me that four wheel drives were getting through. I curiously observed her husband for a moment putting chains on the tires of their camper and pondered the inconvenience of chaining up, driving with chains on a clear road, and then stopping on the other side to take the chains off. It was simply not to be a part of my agenda.

I got back in my car and continued down the highway, seeing more vehicles lined up along the shoulder, with people out putting chains on, and I’m praying, “Please, God, don’t make me stop and put on chains.” I knew it was not like the good old days when there was always a nice gentleman who came along to assist a young, attractive “damsel in distress.” At my age, I was no longer a young, attractive female; I was totally on my own. The snow got a little deeper, but much of it was still blowing off the road, and there was almost no one driving on the road, except for a stray vehicle with a daring driver like myself. Up ahead, loomed another big, ominous yellow flashing warning sign that stretched across the freeway stating “Chains Required Beyond this Point.” But still, I wondered if it could truly be much worse going over the rest of the pass than what I was observing, scarcely an inch of snow. I noticed that a highway service truck had pulled over to the side of the road immediately in front the flashing sign and I figured that would be my chance. Maybe he would help me with the chains if they were really needed. When he saw me starting to pull over, he waved me on. I guess he didn’t care to help me, but it was a relief nevertheless.

I continued over the pass with the highway nearly to myself, never needing chains at all. When I had gotten over the pass, I observed once again, what seemed like hundreds of vehicles pulled off to the shoulder, this time everyone was removing their chains. What was so strange is that none of those kinds of vehicles had traveled with me over the pass. I had had the highway almost completely to myself, aside one or two other vehicles, and yet here were what seemed again like hundreds of assorted vehicles alongside the road, this time taking off chains. Had I driven through a vortex? I wonder now. As I drove past all of the vehicles with their owners removing tire chains, I pondered the rationality of it all. I felt that the experience was some kind of special and divine message reassuring me that I would never be alone and no matter how high or treacherous the mountain a way would be made for me. There would divine intervention. Mountains can be moved. And that’s exactly how my life has been since. Given all of the mountains I’ve had to climb since that day, always having Joe’s love and support by my side, along with a powerful Almighty God—even being “rescued” on occasion at the drop of a dime—it is an interpretation that works for me. What a beautiful gift.

The “walking in two worlds” or as Summer Rain (1988) describes it, “dreamwalking,” experience of that day is one that I now experience so regularly it has become normal. I reject the Christian and other religious fundamentalist beliefs that there is only one true way to worship God or Great Spirit. I have learned to have great gratitude and joy for the gifts that come my way and I have found that because I get such pleasure from them they seem to increase in number, magnitude and profundity. As Winona LaDuke (2005) expresses, “the notion that non-Christian spiritual practices could have validity was entirely ignored or actively suppressed for centuries” (p. 12). The deficient Christian and other fundamentalist views are exactly what Joe has us, as Westerners with our incomplete understanding of the world challenging with his multidimensional critical complex bricolage and why a bricolage study would be considered incomplete if it does not incorporate indigenous perspectives as a way to seek greater insight. It is why in this particular excerpt he had assigned me he has included on page 67 a discussion of indigenous knowledges. I wonder whether I had been experiencing the amazing two worlds as on that Christmas Day crossing the mountain pass all along but my consciousness was merely asleep. My awe and gratitude were immeasurable and continue to be today as I continue to receive magical gifts and blessings that are indescribable. Winona LaDuke (2005) expands on the notion of expressing gratitude:

Our gratitude for our part in Creation and for the gifts given to us by the Creator is continuously reinforced in Midewiwin lodges, Sundance ceremonies, world renewal ceremonies, and many others. Understanding the complexity of these belief systems is central to understanding the societies built on those spiritual foundations—the relationship of peoples to their sacred lands, to relatives with fins and hooves, to the plant and animal foods that anchor a way of life. (p. 12)

The gratitude for my experiences is something I work to keep alive every day. Sometimes I slip back into my old ways, but keeping thankfulness in the forefront and staying open to the spiritual world, no matter what’s going on in my life, has multiplied the sacred experiences I’ve been gifted with. I have only recently learned that the word powwow, celebrations which I have enjoyed attending on occasion, means “let us dream together.” When I’ve attended them, the ambience has always felt so loving and magical or dreamlike. The Algonquins and Powhatans lived spirit-centered lives and took pride in being able to go about their daily tasks while staying connected with the spirit world. Powhatan means “People of the Dream” in English (Allen, 2004). It is amazing to me how much I identify with these perspectives in relation to the experiences I’ve had since Joe passed away and while I’ve been working on this research. There really is something very special going on and it’s like the most loving and beautiful kind of magic. It saddens me when during my research I encounter Christian fundamentalists who preach that these things are the work of satan and demons, and that there is only one true connection to God through Jesus Christ. This seems to me to be a gross misrepresentation even of what Jesus was all about, at least according to his words in the Bible. With both Christian fundamentalists and satanic worshippers twisting divinity into something evil, it can be very confusing at times and challenging to sort what I know is my own truth from the lies and deception. The irony of having this experience on Christmas Day has not escaped my notice. It makes the message all that more powerful, in my interpretation. Great Spirit is talking. I’m listening. Joe’s use of “ecumenical” a total of three times on pages 63-67, my special assigned reading, is relevant in relation to our being open to multiple ways of viewing, practicing and celebrating spirituality. Repetition emphasizes his point.

I had stopped driving early that Christmas day and took a nap during which I had a lucid dream about Joe. We were at a theater to watch a play. There were three plays and they were taking place on three different levels of the theater. We sat down on the second level but an announcement informed us we were on the wrong level because the play we wanted to watch was on the third level. So, we got up and walked up the broad, red-carpeted steps together, holding hands. There was this intense feeling of humiliation for having sat down on the wrong level and at the same time a feeling of love and security having his hand to hold as we walked up the stairs together. I had interpreted it to mean taking Joe’s theory to the next level but it could also represent the two of us experiencing the process referred to as “ascension” or spiritual advancement, having first mistakenly sat down at the lower level, which was humiliating, again an interpretation relating to having “fallen,” as conveyed on the Kings Valley/The Queen/Falls City Treasure Hunt described earlier. Another interpretation could be that we had momentarily sat down in the “Second Heaven” by mistake and walked together to the “Third Heaven.” There was a sense of being in the wrong place and we needed to move up to the next level. Related to that, in our personal conversations before he passed over, we had actually discussed taking his work “to the next level,” which in my mind meant to apply his theoretical work in ways that more people would come to understand it since he had expressed he wanted the book I was writing for him to be “introductory.” There is much more to this. Returning to his use of “ecumenical,” it is clear that his work is to open doors for everyone, something he has voiced literally throughout. Ever since that dream, he has been holding my hand and actively guiding me up the ascension ladder to greater spirituality, greater consciousness and in very fast motion. My spiritual advisor described it as his having to take me from kindergarten to graduate school and he only had two years to do it; that was the message that came down to her and it has been very accurate. I also had this feeling of being the cause of our being at the wrong level because I was so far behind him in the process. Often since his passing, I have felt that he has had to literally pull me up the “ladder.” I was so “asleep” when I encountered him in life. Even after seven months of working with him, I was barely beginning to stir. And then he passed over. Was it my fault? Did I do something wrong? I have often felt guilty and sad about it, although I have had many, many transmitted messages that it was in no way my fault. I had written in my journal the next day after this dream of walking up the stairs together: “And so I will begin the work, Joe, knowing that I am not really doing this totally alone. You are beside me, inside me, guiding me . . . through your spiritual presence” (Journal, December 26, 2008). Relevant to this strong feeling of being so responsible to take his work forward was an email he had sent me just a few days before he passed away and my response to him that I never wanted to disappoint him.

As mentioned, the dream also could be interpreted in terms of Heavens. We first sat down in the second Heaven and then walked upstairs to the Third Heaven, which is the eternal Heaven of “no time.” Christian Apologetics (2012) defines these Heavens:

At the time of ancient Israel they did not have as complete an understanding of the universe as we do today. So they wrote in terms with which they were familiar. The Jews spoke of three heavens. The first heaven consisted of the earth atmosphere where the clouds and birds were. The second heaven was where the sun, stars, and moon was. The third heaven was the dwelling place of God. When Paul said he was caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2), he was referring to the very dwelling place of God.

As a note, the Mormons erringly teach that the three heavens consist of telestial, terrestrial, and celestial. They divide them into compartments dwelt by people after they die. (para. 1–2)

There are many interpretations of these Heavens. I like interpreting it as Joe being my Twin Flame and Master Teacher and we are holding hands as we walk together up the spiral stairs of consciousness evolution and soul development, perhaps eventually to the celestial Third Heavens. He had to drop down to level two to pick me up because, just like Psyche in the story of Eros and Psyche, I was fast asleep. However the dream is interpreted, it’s interesting that it reaffirms my experience earlier that day of feeling that he is with me, guiding me and that he has great spiritual power. It was a powerful lucid dream.

Symbiotic Hermeneutics

            The previous narrative of my sense of being outside the observed reality of people who were parked alongside the road putting on snow chains and, instead, being enmeshed in a more holistic, interacting, and spiritual reality touches on the experience of symbiosis, although I realize I am barely grasping the concept due to my still-operating Western blinders. I feel an intense desire to understand it better so that I can experience it more wholly, but I know raising one’s consciousness takes time, work, and patience. Helpful for starting this process and to gain a better understanding of the assigned text I’m analyzing, might be a better understanding of the definition of symbiosis. I often research definitions and etymology to get started, even for very simple words. I’ve found that what we are taught words mean is very constraining. Often we are taught there is just one “right” meaning to a word. This is so limiting and it keeps us in mind prisons. I’ve learned investigating even what seems like one word with an “obvious” meaning opens up whole new worlds. Thus, phenomenologically bracketing what we think we know and staying open for multiple interpretations is both a hermeneutical and a phenomenological act.

            With a background in environmental and natural sciences, I have a basic understanding of symbiosis from a science perspective as taught in textbooks. Intuitively, I know the meaning of symbiosis is complex, given the infinite numbers of relationships that can take place. The Wikipedia entry for symbiosis alone gives much material for discussion and debate. There are various types of symbiosis in the sciences such as mutualism and endosymbiosis, commensalism, parasitism, amensalism, and co-evolution. Scientists, as so often is the case with Western science, have broken these complex relationships down into their parts, fragmenting understanding. The term, symbiosis itself, derives from Greek and according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, symbiosis is represented by “symbios "(one) living together (with another), partner.”  This is interesting because it certainly applies to the concept of Twin Flames, the topic that’s been threading through my dissertation. The word symbiosis did not become associated with biology until 1877, according to this source, at which time it came to be defined as a "mutually beneficial association of two different organisms.” Further, the dictionary states, it was “given a wider (non-biological) sense by 1921. An earlier sense of "communal or social life" is found in 1620s.” Thus, it appears the word symbiosis has been transformed from meaning living with another that seems to highlight a sense of “unity” to being primarily considered a relationship between organisms that emphasizes benefits. This represents an important philosophical shift in meaning.

            From this brief examination it can be readily seen that symbiosis is a complex topic with many interpretations. It will need to be reinterpreted by bricoleurs for their specific application. For example, it could easily be applied to relationships between places, “things” and ideas as well as people, animals, and processes; there should be no limitations since everything is connected. My goal here is to include it in this current text in a coherent way that helps maintain my focus on bricolage as love and loving relationships. I am satisfied that my interpretation of Twin Flames and, of course, other love relationships, for this assigned text is a valid interpretation of the overall text. Symbiosis as “one living together with another partner” clearly fits this metaphor. It’s also clear that symbiosis as a construct for unity versus viewing relationships for what we can gain from them is important for co-evolution. This aligns with the “third power” co-creation energy experienced between twin flames as discussed in depth earlier in this dissertation for their primary mission of working together to serve humanity. It also applies in the broadest of sense. Whenever people work together symbiotically, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts as they “co-create.” Kincheloe confirms these ideas on page 64 of this text: “Such relationality forces the emergence of a new paradigm, a new focus for research. Indeed, the relationships are symbiotic, as they mutually enhance their parts. To use the cliché, the relationship is greater than the sum of the parts.” However, as my research has uncovered, it has been often interpreted that the most powerful of these relationships are those of twin flames and their ability to co-create.

            Given Kincheloe has specified a fourth dimension to research and multidimensionality, the meaning of symbiosis expands greatly. As I have already discussed, experience can take place in any number of different dimensions, comprised of the past, present, future and even parallel realities. The reunion of twin flames creates this new paradigmatic focus for it is their increased awareness, first, that brings them together, and their continued work toward greater consciousness that continues to open up interdimensional experiences. As above, so below and as below so above constitutes their work in these multiple dimensions, thus we have symbiosis occurring between dimensions that may lie below the perceptual awareness of most people. My choice to interpret this text using the framework of the Twin Flame/Divine Love phenomenon is further supported within this text. Kincheloe reiterates that bricoleurs “seek a more rigorous path” (p. 66). Thus, they “develop principles of selection not only of research-orientations but also of what interconnections they attend” (p. 66). As a result, even though my research was extensive, covering a wide range of topics and often covering them in depth, I ultimately became selective for the purpose of gaining an understanding of the phenomena I was personally experiencing as I’ve engaged in this research. During the research process itself, this focus may not be maintained and inquiry can head in many directions at once. What happened in my case, the process converged to seeking explanations for my experiences. The task became to understand the phenomena of this powerful connection with Kincheloe from multiple perspectives. Hence, as Kincheloe maintains, “the central task of bricoleurs is to search for new relationships that provide new insights into new dimensions of the lived world” (p. 66). While this can be interpreted in a literal sense, of course, my tendency is to also interpret it in terms of expanding relationships through fourth dimension research as well, through soul family/group members, and through exploring other cultural perspectives. The process of research, however, also highlights an important point made by Mohanty (2006) when she observed that cultural pluralism—for example, presenting perspectives for the sake of presenting multiple views or for exposure to multiple cultures—is not enough whether for daily living or in the academy. Thus, simply providing students multicultural reading material or activities is not adequate nor is simply presenting multiple views enough in the bricolage. This underlines the importance of cultural immersion for deeper understandings, which Kincheloe and I had both engaged with during our early years, and which, as discussed earlier appeared to be a part of our “soul plans” by one interpretation. And again, it is important to remember these are only interpretations and each interpretation provides just one view of the phenomenon. The purpose is never the cooption or appropriation of culture, but rather one of greater understanding of reality, and this can result in symbiotic understanding when it occurs “in relationship.” 

As Mohanty (2006) states, “Creating counterhegemonic pedagogies and combating attitudinal, pluralistic appropriations of race and difference thus involves a delicate ever-shifting balance between the analysis of experience as lived culture and as textual and historical representations of experience” (p. 204). Important to this process is critically analyzing, understanding, and transformation. Due to symbiosis, interactions cannot help but be transformative. This process also requires understanding the power relations and that academic culture often represents a space that requires struggle. In alignment with Kincheloe’s critical complex epistemology, Mohanty points out that it is necessary to “develop a critical analysis of how experience itself is named, constructed, and legitimated in the academy. . . . After all, critical education concerns the production of subjectivities in relation to discourses of knowledge and power” (p. 204). Perhaps an example is warranted.

“Getting Beyond the Facts” of Page 666: Is it Love?

Before I continue the interpretation of the special text Kincheloe had assigned me, it was brought to my attention that the analysis of page 666 in his social studies book, Getting Beyond the Facts, some of which I have presented elsewhere, is important in terms of intertextual analysis. When I had first noted that Kincheloe (2001b) had incorporated a complex encoded message on page 666, I found it pretty funny. He had made up a story about people in a bookstore buying books for his critical review of Milton Friedman’s free market economics and it appeared that he had purposely devised it to land on page 666. Popular culture has perpetuated the idea that 666 is “the mark of the beast” and represents satan or the antichrist and some claim that the number supposedly summons Lucifer. Aleister Crowley (“Secret Agent 666”), who has influenced popular culture with his black magic, went by the name, “Great Beast 666.” Many of us have been well-indoctrinated to view 666 in a negative light. As I analyzed the text, I discovered that embedded within, in addition to a commentary on economics, was a commentary on the Twin Tower 9/11 tragedy. How did Kincheloe manage to get this text to appear on page 666? The book was published October 1, 2001, which means he would have had to have slipped this text in at the very last minute in order to get it published right after the Twin Tower disaster of September 11, 2001. How did he do it? As Revelations 13:18 puts it, “This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.” I don’t think this has been solved yet.

I had planned on leaving this discussion of 666 out of my dissertation, and in fact I had deleted it to reduce the number of pages, thinking I would expand on my original analysis of this page another time. But at the last moment, I felt compelled to bring it back. It is apparently critical to the analysis because when I went back to an older version of my dissertation that had included the discussion, I found this note I had written to myself:

Interestingly, today (November 17, 2011) I was handed a reminder of the fact that for some reason page 666 of Joe’s book, Getting Beyond the Facts is critically important for intertextual analysis of the piece of text he had given me to analyze. In fact, I also believe that page 67 of Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, which I have extensively analyzed previously is also important to this specific analysis. Thus, I have saved a document relating to 666 and Sophia. I will save this analysis for later since it is my intuitional understanding that it goes with the textual analysis of the special excerpt he asked me to read.

I have discussed how 11 and 911 are spiritually significant numbers for me as well as other twin flame couples because they represent the twin flame reunion. These numbers have come up frequently upon analyzing conversations with Joe and in relationship to many events and synchronicities since he passed away. Part of the reason they repeatedly come up in our conversations was because I was still asleep and it was an emergency; it really was critical that I wake up quickly, in my interpretation. I also sensed he was in an emergency situation with his work. Because of the symbolism of the Trinity, the Twin Flame Union, and the Universal Spiritual Number Seven, encapsulated in the Trade Tower attacks and the fact that there are many questions about who was really responsible, along with Joe’s emphasis on Eros Love, in my interpretation the 9/11 Twin Tower attack had Joe very angry. Thus, one interpretation might be that he added this contrived discussion about buying books and encoded a message relating to 9/11 at the last minute and purposely had it land on page 666. Given that his works were developed primarily as textbooks, then one of our purposes as bricoleurs-as-learners is to perform deep analyses on his text to uncover various interpretations. This is yet another dimension to the gift of his work he has left behind for us. He was making many points on that page, being the multidimensional person and writer that he was; our job is to decode them.

Additionally, the analysis of page 666 blends into another analysis I had initiated previously of page 97 of Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction. I had actually been confused by the note to myself, thinking I was referring to page 97, but after looking at page 67 there are critical interrelationships between both of these pages, 67 and 97 in relation to page 666. For example, page 97 discusses the concept of how power is enhanced when power blocs can define what’s “universally valid.” Kincheloe (2008c) adopts John Fiske’s idea that “power blocs are more like a constantly changing series of both strategic and tactical partnerships” (p. 97) serving to maintain social order. Kincheloe has discussed the unusual power blocs between politics, science and religion, even though they may be in opposition with each other on certain issues. This strange alliance is relevant to this discussion and “the politics of knowledge.”

Returning to page 67, the topic covered is “the politics of knowledge.” Kincheloe advises understanding these alignments requires “Praxis, Praxis, Praxis” or in other words, iterations of theory, practice, and actions, but of course that means critical bricolage. I have always been intrigued by how he began this section with a reformulated common idiom, “If wishes were pigs, it would be harder to keep kosher” (p. 67). It relates to this discussion in some deep, but esoteric way that I have not deciphered. However, in relation to the number 666, “In Kabalistic Judaism, 666 is the number that represents the creation and perfection of the world,” according to the Wikipedia entry on 666. This is important in relation to food (e.g., “kosher”) as well as to the analysis of the Trade Tower incident in a twisted diabolical way. For example, we might ask if 666 represents creation and world perfection, then why have the masses been taught the exact opposite? And why is 666 on the bar codes of the food we buy? Kincheloe is making a compelling point by placing the discussion of the Twin Towers on this page and we are not to take the first interpretation that rises. Kincheloe (2008c) continues, “Such a phrase [as the politics of knowledge] helps us realize that what might seem to some arcane philosophical issues are far more relevant to everyday life” (p. 67). He is advocating more actions, “a hyper-praxis” based on what we learn, not less. “Our critical complex epistemology maintains the diametric opposite reading of this situation,” he maintains (p. 67). As indicated, arcane knowledge provides the diametric opposite reading of 666 and there is much more to explore here. Our research becomes more rigorous and this process moves us into new dimensions. We become aware of suffering in both the “micro-dimensions of everyday life” as well as the “larger social realms” and by using a critical complex epistemology we can better address this issue. A sample is provided by these opposing definitions of 666, but it is not even the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Kincheloe’s contention is that “Validity in this context comes to involve the effectiveness of the knowledge we produce in addressing diverse issues and solving different problems” (p. 67). How does this play out in the analysis of page 666 of Kincheloe’s (2001) social studies book?

The Mark of the Beast? When I first discovered that Kincheloe (2001b) had discussed Milton Friedman, the mastermind behind the destructive “free market” economy and the economics of book buying on page 666, I found it funny but I was not aware of the deeper context of this excerpt. I just “knew” Joe, being the mathematician he was (which many people did not realize), had constructed this very funny story describing shopping for a book about economics and had planned for it to fall on page 666. Either when he proofed the work, he had inserted the story or he calculated it mathematically. Having had a background in graphic design, myself, I am knowledgeable in performing these calculations. We had to learn it back when everything was typeset from typed script. In those days, Joe had been editor of a high school newspaper. He undoubtedly had some typesetting experience.  Graphic designers during those years had to know exactly what page text landed on and where to insert photographs and images as well as be able to determine the number of pages the copy would take.

The other scenario, which I mentioned earlier, is that he had to have slipped it in at the last minute since the book was published in October, 2001. Due to the content, it had to have been published after the Twin Tower Disaster of 9/11/2001 but since it is such a long book, Kincheloe had been clearly working on it for quite some time prior, so the book had probably already been typeset and it was just a matter of slipping this in at the last minute for publishing during the year 2001. Thus, he had multiple reasons for planning the discussion of economics on page 666, far beyond the simple explanation that the number 666 supposedly represents “the mark of the beast.” What are some alternative interpretations?  He had interwoven his entire body of works with Divine Love (“radical love”) and one interpretation might be that he was probably infuriated over the Twin Tower disaster and the power the universal symbolism had over global collective consciousness.

I have already discussed the Twin Tower disaster in relation to the Tarot cards and how the towers represented Twin Flame Love, and here on page 666, we have more interpretations that can be yielded. First, note the numerical symbolism of the date, itself, 9-11-2001. As indicated previously 911 represents completion of the twin flame reunion, with the 11 representing the twin flames. Using numerology, 2001 becomes 3, symbolizing the holy trinity, a sacred and universal aspect of the twin flame reunion representing their spiritual power. The buildings themselves represent the twin flames and their reunion (11 and 11-11 as shown previously), thus their destruction represents more than the destruction of the “ego self” as Semetsky (2011) interpreted for Tarot card readings; it also represents the destruction of these divine and powerful relationships. Again, this form of mind control is exceptionally powerful. Terror becomes attached to the symbolism embedded in the tragedy connected to the positive emotion, love. If one is not aware of what this symbolism means, it enters the subconscious mind by which we can be manipulated (Saraydarian, 1993). This is no small matter. As already shown the concept twin souls and the divine alchemical twin flame union spans across cultures, so here we have the universal symbolism that Kincheloe has mentioned that provides the power bloc (science/political/religious) enormous opportunity for global manipulation of people. I have already covered the many ways these divine relationships have been symbolized in this tragic event. The destruction suddenly becomes an act that affects every man, woman, and child on the planet beyond what the media constructs about terrorists from Afghanistan. It becomes important to take back our power through a thorough analysis of this event using a multidimensional analysis and critical complex epistemology.

How is it that I interpret that Kincheloe is surreptitiously speaking about the 9/11 event? First, since the event had just happened and he had quickly slipped this into his text, he may have felt he needed to encode his discussion to a degree and/or he may have simply created it for a learning opportunity for new bricoleurs. What exactly is on this page? First of all, at the end of the discussion of the bookstore scene, he admits he has made it up to make a point: “This facetious example illustrated the larger point: Critical democratic social studies educators [bricoleurs] cannot ignore the social and moral context of economic affairs” (p.666.) His choice of the word “affairs” is no accident as he is implying throughout this text which continues on to page 667 that marriages and relationships are too often based on economics. “The folly of reductionistic economic explanations of daily affairs is obvious,” he states (p. 666). And “What matters about human beings in the free market is not their sacred spirit, but their capacity to do work” (p. 667). Thus, he has made a commentary about how economics in relation to power alignments often defines relationships and choices we make, and he is stating his positioning as viewing this state of affairs as “folly.” To facilitate this discussion, he made up a story about a man going into a bookstore to buy a book about economics and education. The man picked up Richard Brosio’s book, The Radical Democratic Critique of Capitalist Education for $39.95. The salesman suggested he buy a less expensive book by Milton Friedman, Free to Choose, for only $9.99 stating that it was their “Red, White, and Blue Light special” and that he would save $30. Another customer comes into the store and wants a book “on postmodern architecture in the $11 range” (Kincheloe, 2001, p. 666).

There is much going on in Kincheloe’s (2001) “facetious example” and I will not cover it all here. But notice the focus on numbers 9 and 11. One book was $9.99, “a hot value,” and the book on “postmodern architecture,” a reference to buildings built during the era of the Twin Towers construction as well as to nihilistic, anything goes postmodernism in this context was $11. The 11 provides another reference to the Twin Towers and Twin Flames. In between $9.99 and $11 is a representation of trinity embedded in the $30 savings (and note how “save” and “trinity” are juxtaposed with the words, “save $30”). The number 999 serves to remind us of 911 (as combined with the $11 and it’s an emphatic reminder). But because 999 is inverse to 666, it also cues us to invert the meaning of the page number 666, or in other words to do what he had expressed on page 67 of Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy, to take a “diametric reading.” Thus, 666 might be interpreted as stated previously, as representing the creation and perfection of the world. 999 also adds up to 27 and then to 9, the spiritual completion number, which supports the positive interpretation of “creation” for 666. The 6s in the number 666 add to 18 (another sacred number) and then to 9, and in some religions 666 symbolizes the goddess.

The word “range” in relation to buying a book “on postmodern architecture in the $11 range” serendipitously links to New York. I discovered that by typing the word into google “New York Rangers” appears in the drop down menu. His use of the word “range” is interesting because it has so many different definitions leaving the interpretation wide open. It even relates to music which may have cued me to look for music in this excerpt. The number 999, can also represent the gateway to the divine (remembering that Kincheloe had included “divine knowledge” as one of type of knowledges we are interested in) in our diametrical reading. There are multiple components to the Twin/Trade Tower disaster that relate to economics (e.g., oil, stocks, war, the controversy of Building 7 collapse). Kincheloe emphasizes that bricoleurs need to also pay attention to the social and moral issues given that “neoclassicists view labor markets just like any other commodity market. The fact that the labor market is occupied by living beings with feelings and emotional concerns is irrelevant” (pp. 666–667). This opens the interpretation and potential avenues to research into many dimensions.

The phrase “Red White and Blue Light Special,” alludes to Kmart’s bizarre way they have used in the past for getting rid of junk they knew no one would buy otherwise, thus they concocted their “Blue Light Specials.” These specials could happen at any moment for shoppers at Kmart. It created a false sense that they were getting a great deal, but in reality, the items were usually overstocks that were not selling. Kincheloe, being a master of hermeneutics, had transformed and expanded on the Blue Light Special by juxtaposing “Red” and “White” in front of it. Were the Trade Towers considered patriotic junk to get rid of in the same vein Kmart got rid of their junk? The phrase can also be split into two pieces: “Red White and Blue” and “Blue Light Special.” Right after the Twin Tower disaster, the American public was manipulated by the Bush Administration pulling out the patriotism card, which this phrase, in my view alludes to. Here, we have had a disaster, which with each passing day began to look more and more like the Machiavellian principal of creating chaos and then providing solutions that are not in our best interest, and out comes the U.S. flag. Juxtaposing the “red, white, and blue” with the K-Mart Blue Light special reveals the cheap trick it was. Looking back on it, it was a despicable act that had culminated in stealing pennies from school children, needless wars and killing, and the Patriot Act that stripped Americans not only of constitutional rights, but the right to seek compensation from pharmaceutical companies for injuring children with mercury-containing vaccinations (I was involved in a class action law suit in behalf of my daughter that had the rug pulled out from under it and still today there is no recourse and no help). Because I have discovered the multiple ways Kincheloe has embedded music in his work (and he uses all genres of music, not just rock and roll), I searched YouTube for what song “Red White and Blue” might pull up. It brought up the song with that title by Lynyrd Skynard about ordinary everyday people with soul and “If you got Soul, we hang out with people just like you.” This, I believe was intentional as it aligns with what I refer to as “Level 2” music encodings I’ve discovered in his work previously and it provides that “diametric opposite reading” he asks bricoleurs to seek (Kincheloe, 2008c, p. 67). It’s ok to love your country, but don’t sacrifice your soul.

Kincheloe (2001) was alluding to Twin Flame Soul Love—and I am sure, as important as love was to him, he had to have been very upset about what the destruction the trade tower really represented (by this interpretation) just as he was finishing up this very ambitious book (it is more than 800 pages). Thus, he could see “the folly of” of the Twin Tower disaster in light of the “sacred spirit” (p. 667). A diametric reading of his reference to the $9.99 book as being “a hot value” in context with 999 representing the gateway to divine, higher consciousness alludes to “higher order thinking” often abbreviated as “HOT.” He has used this reference in other books in relation to postformal thinking/critical psychology of complexity (e.g., Kincheloe, 2006a).

It is probable that Kincheloe suspected immediately that 9/11 was a contrived event, thus he may have quickly contrived the bookstore example on page 666 to express this. He does not typically make up “facetious examples”; in fact, I don’t recall any other such examples in his work. He draws on his personal experiences but he did not want this book to be published without commenting on this dastardly deed, is what I am assuming here. Thus, 666 as an act of “the Beast” is appropriate by many interpretations, and very curiously, there are photographs and videos on the Internet of the black smoke emanating from the towers that have been interpreted to look like the devil. But also appropriate is the diametric opposite interpretation I’ve provided here so that we can clear subconscious programming, whether that programming was intentional or not and view this event in perhaps a new light, thus offsetting thanatos with Eros Love and maybe even creating something new out of how we perceive the event.

Genesis: “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” in another Dimension. An earlier analysis I had performed on this text on page 666 that had taken me into those “implicate orders” or deeper structures of reality (Kincheloe, 2004c, p. 45) was recorded in a blog dated October 5, 2011. I had received a message telepathically that there were messages for “S & H” on page 666 which took me on a path marked by multiple signposts. What was highlighted in my searches were S & H Green Shield Stamps which I remember using back when I was a child and into my early adulthood. They were given away in stores and at service stations with purchases and then they could be exchanged for products or money. In my research, I found that Stephen King, an author Kincheloe happens to mention in his last book, had written his first story about S & H Green Stamps, naming it Happy Stamps. They were “happy stamps” in the sense that the perception was that we got more for our money and stores and gas stations often competed with each other by offering “double” and occasionally “triple” Green Stamps. My epistemological trail ended with a meaningful song by Genesis, “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight,” because there is a reference to “Green Shield Stamps” in the lyrics. The song is interesting and gives added depth to the interpretation just made of page 666. I was fortunate to find that it has already undergone a fairly good analysis by George Starostin (d.u.), but the analysis could go much deeper by using the hermeneutic circle. The following presents a decoding of portions of the song. This first part is significant because it portrays a similar “lament” as Kincheloe was making about our country with his “facetious example” of Milton Friedman economics, the Twin Tower disaster, and Divine Love:

“Said the unifaun to his true love's eyes...” Here Peter gets especially sad and tragic (and it's only the beginning of the song!). 'Unifaun' is supposed to be a pun, a cross between 'uniform' and 'faun' - the 'faun' brings in the mythological element, while the 'uniform' brings in certain military associations. Patriotic lament over the fate of one's country? Whatever it might be, the subject of the song is evident from the beginning line: a tragic statement of Britain's current state, a lamentation over the enormous, unbridgeable gap between the romantic past and the corrupt present.

“It lies with me, cried the Queen of Maybe...” Peter changes to near-falsetto (right, to impersonate the Queen), while Mike (or Steve?) enters with gentle folksy guitar chords. Of course! The "country" is now with the 'Queen of Maybe' - the 'Queen of Possibilities', an allegory for commercial success; note that this is, of course, a pun on 'Queen of May', another mythological figure that is vastly commercialized at the present time. (Starostin, d.u., para. 3–4)

Perhaps the message from this deeper structure is that the United States will suffer a similar fate as Great Britain. The United States, by many accounts is still owned by the Queen (of Maybe?) and managed by a small but powerful group of transnational capitalists. The masses continue to be controlled and manipulated by “possibilities” (that “American Dream”) and mass consumption. The falsetto voice in the song represents the facetiousness of the bookstore example, in turn representing how we are given so many empty promises.

“Join the dance! Follow on! Till the Grail sun sets in the mould...” The Grail reference by no means hints at our being transferred into a Christian-dominated world - remember, if it's Arthurian times we're speaking about, pagan practices and Christianity elements were joined in an odd synthesis back then. On the other hand, the Grail certainly is a direct Arthurian reference, as if we yet had any doubts about the particular epoch Gabriel was drawing comparisons with. Another important thing happens here - after Gabriel shouts 'follow on!', Tony joins in with a few major key cheerful synth notes, which somehow change the atmosphere from 'pure mystics' to 'ritual joy'. You're really supposed to enjoy your spiritual wholeness and nature's wonders in the dance. (Starostin, d.u., para. 20)

In this verse, the reference to the Grail is interesting in context with the metaphor I’ve been threading through this dissertation about Eros, Hermes Trismegistus, and the Quest for the Golden Chalice, which is the quest for Wisdom and Divine Love. There is a sort of “trickery” going on as previously described in Kincheloe’s definition of bricolage as we analyze his page 666 text, but it relates to the “chicanery” of Hermes, the bringing forth of something new and better. Thus, in spite of the tragedy, we celebrate in love and joy as we dance our way with music down the Great Path. And as analyzed, Kincheloe did include celebratory music in the excerpt with “Red, White and Blue” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and its reference to ordinary people with soul. The song is controversial among some folks and YouTube has posted the message, “The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised.” I do not find anything offensive about it; it depicts “rednecks” as coming to terms with the label forced on them by virtue of their skin color and where and how they live—and I know the feeling being a country hick. At least some of us have soul and we will celebrate that fact, transcending the label. Kincheloe often cites the “Blues Aesthetic” in which we talk about how bad things are, but we celebrate life with love, dancing, and music. I have discussed his reference to dancing and music as we dance down the Great Path previously, and he also states, “Hell, ‘when the music’s over, turn out the lights.’ There’s no reason to go on without that pounding aesthetic to push us on down the road” (Kincheloe, 2008c, p. 20). Thus, Kincheloe wants us to identify the reality of the corruption such as the Twin Tower disaster and expose it for what it is through the multidimensional critical complex bricolage, not allow it to divide us as is the intention behind manipulating our emotions with the event, but rather celebrate in Joy over our understandings of Soul and Divine Love as depicted in the song. In the archetypal story of Psyche (Soul) and Eros (Divine Love), the strand carried through this discourse, Eros turned Psyche into a Goddess, they married, and had a child they named Joy. Thus, again, Kincheloe is clearly presenting that archetypal love story to us as Eros would do.

“Follow on till the gold is cold...” Not quite clear. Is the 'gold' another sun reference here? In this case, 'the gold is cold' means 'till sunset'; consequently, this would mean that our ritual dance lasts all through the day and into the night... on the other hand, it was clearly said that 'the Captain leads his dance through the night', not 'towards the night'. Maybe Pete got a little messed up with his times of day here, or maybe I'm just wrong in my analysis.

“Dancing out with the Moonlit Knight, Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout...” Again, the exact decyphering of 'Moonlit Knight' escapes me, but surely we must be speaking of an obscure, or invented, pagan deity, a symbolic one, of course. The last line is very confusing; on one hand, 'Knights of the Green Shield' again evoke Arthurian connotations, on the other hand, Genesis discography mentions 'Green Shield Stamps' - some kind of modern-day trickstery related to commercial prize winning. This could be a coincidence, but you can never tell with Peter; on the other hand, here we should suppose that even if it is not a coincidence, it is just a funny pun that Peter couldn't resist, because otherwise the connection isn't clear. A nicely placed red herring, that is. (Starostin, d.u., para. 21–22) (http://starling.rinet.ru/music/song1.htm).

The correlations in the above interpretations should be fairly clear. Gold, in the context of Kincheloe’s text on page 666 could represent the economics (“cold gold”) discussion and the Divine Love interpretation, the “Golden Age,” the Golden Chalice on the Great Path. For me, the “Moonlit Knight” could represent Kincheloe, himself, a “symbolic deity” (as Eros) and his hermeneutic “trickery” (as influenced by teachings from his father, Hermes) dancing out with a “shout,” and having the last laugh.  I am not sure what his “last laugh” might be, but his bricolage is extremely powerful and during my research I’ve learned that it truly does expose the deepest, darkest secrets when employed to its full extent. Also, he has referenced in his bricolage discourse that it’s not a knight on a white horse and my being contrary, would interpret that to mean that he is the knight on the white horse or he would not have even mentioned it (Kincheloe, 2005a). Thus, his bricolage can “save the day,” and indeed, he does admit that it can contribute to saving the world from the Apocalypse, making the world a better place, and alleviate suffering (the white horse is also an important symbol in Revelations with multiple interpretations) (Kincheloe, 2005a, 2008c). With the power of Divine Love produced as represented by the story of Eros and Psyche, how would it not save the day? Divine Love, Sacred Love, Sacred Sexuality truly is the missing ingredient on this planet. Dancing out with the S & H Green Shield stamp could represent the end of a monetary system in relation to the “cold gold” and Kincheloe’s discussion of economics on pages 666–667. There is nowhere for our monetary system to go, but to become “cold” if it keeps on the same path as it’s been. The Green Shield stamps remind us that we don’t need money to make exchanges and in a society based on Divine Love, there is no need for a monetary system at all.

Starostin (d.u.) concludes that the song presents, “two juxtaposed pictures, one of the depressing and decaying life of today, and the other of the joyful and spiritual pagan ritual of days long gone by” (para. 23) which correlates with the diametrically opposed analysis of page 666 and Kincheloe’s often expressed “blues aesthetic” philosophy of life. There is much more to this analysis but I primarily wanted to show how following the “fourth dimension” clues handed down (in this case a simple clue, “S & H”) can lead to great insight. I have not figured out why this happens. Is it that the gods have access to all knowledge or is it that if one looks hard enough, connections can be found between everything? The latter would not explain why such great correspondences are found or the synchronicities by which they’re provided.

This Just In. Kincheloe uses that expression often in his work and I know what it means for me. It means that I have just received an important and very synchronistic message from the cosmos that relates to what I’ve just written. I love it when that happens, which is often when I just allow things to flow. It was probably similar for him. Here is that message, which came right after I wrote the above analysis. This message corresponds with Detweiler’s (2011a) contention that most twin flame relationships are multidimensional and based in the high spiritual realms:

Most of you innately knew from the beginning that you would not be finding that Other down on Earth. This is the more common dynamic of the two-for one Twin to stay behind while the other goes. It’s an efficient, albeit uncomfortable, arrangement. However, the type of connection enjoyed by Twin Flames is so profound and unbreakable that it defies the undermining of the ego and resists the effects of the veil of separation, in matters of communication and subtle guidance. The two of you still operate as one, defying the vibrational differences, and resistant to the many interferences from the toxic Earth environment which the incarnated Twin is subjected to. Whatever the arrangement, Twins of all types share an invisible etheric cord which binds them together. It runs from high-heart to high-heart, and is eternal and thereby cannot be severed.

Many of your sudden flashes of inspiration come from us, your Twins, cheering you on from afar. How often have you thought to yourself, “Wait a minute-how did I ever think of that?” You’re stymied, and then aha- a lightbulb moment! Or, what of the warmth and ecstasy that overtakes you unawares, for no reason that’s logically apparent to you? Credit us with that, if you would. A cosmic hug, of sorts. You labor hard and need to feel loved. Set your expectations for experiences like this higher and higher, as the days wear on. The coming-together of the Twin Flames is not a fairy story but a bona-fide upcoming encounter based in truth. Blessed indeed are the folks who came into human incarnation together, and have subsequently found each other. Despite the inevitable rocky beginnings most of these couples have had to work through, it’s been a blissful time for them. Post-disclosure, the same reward awaits those now in Human/Galactic Twin Flame unions, also. (Declan of the Pleiades, 2012, paras. 4–5)

The above description corresponds to my experiences. I was so blessed to get to meet Joe, but it was just not in the plans for us to be together on this Earth planet for many very complex reasons. The main message I received from that excerpt is that I am to give credit where credit is due. He was the one who sent me the messages to add this analysis about Page 666 back into the dissertation as well as add the clues that led to the S & H Green Stamps. He has been a great Master Teacher/Guide all the way through this project both when he was here when we worked together and now from the other side as we still work together. (This is “mystory” and I’ll tell it how I want to). It is also what I have come to believe after “fighting with myself” and spinning in hermeneutic circles until I had cast out the FIDURODian demons. The “cosmic hugs” are far superior (Declan, 2012).

Flipping Tables. Returning to some of the more positive meanings of the number 666, again, in Kabalistic Judaism it represents the creation and perfection of the world, exactly what the Twin Flame reunion empowers divine couples for doing, as described previously in relation to the Hieros Gamos and other interpretations. The number 6 is also represented by the Sign of Solomon or the Star of David, and 666 is said to represent Solomon’s gold. The two triangles of the Sign of Solomon and the Star of David with one inverted represent the divine couple reunited and their divine sexual power for creation. Trinity is also represented by the triangles, which shows up in Kincheloe’s text on page 666 as “You’ll save $30” thus, you’ll save [prevent] trinity union or Divine Twin Flame Love if you buy Friedman’s cheaper economics book. Solomon is known for his famous “Song of Solomon,” believed by many to be the divine sacred vow between him and the Queen of Sheba. The deeper one goes with interpretations, the more it can be seen that the Twin Towers going up in smoke and flames and then collapsing is linked with the sacred Twin Flame relationship. Thus, using a critical complex epistemology, it is possible to redefine what we have been instructed is universally valid. This opens up new interpretations of events such as the Twin Tower disaster and we can revise the “fiction formula.”

Exposing the Eros Love side of this symbolism releases the initial power it may have had in programming us for terror because it’s no longer stored in our subconscious minds. I found it empowering to study Eros Love and the way things “should be” based on my glimpses of a future more heavenly life and then analyze in order to discover ways to work between the cracks in the thanatos-dominated systems (Kincheloe, 2008c, p. 57).  As Cronshaw (2012b) states in relation to the act of bringing any paradoxes or “differences” together: “The secret, therefore, is never in the two, but in the magical third force that merges the two into One. It is here—in the very center of where the two meet, that you will find the answers which will guide you in your quest for knowledge and understanding” (para. 18).  And this is exactly what bricolage research accomplishes when one engages in gaining many views on the topic and it does so in multidimensional ways. It forces the mind to work to assimilate the information, releasing a creative power to ask the right questions and devise solutions. Working with one’s Twin Flame magnifies that power many times over; I have seen it in action.

Another interpretation as to the reasons this text appeared as it did on page 666 might be that it was simply synchronistic. This can happen if we are unconscious of certain information—our knowledge becomes incorporated into our writing or other creations without our conscious awareness, as I discovered when working with Kincheloe on his website. It can be embarrassing when you inadvertently disclose other people’s secrets and then get “called on the carpet” for it. All the more reason to clear our subconscious minds (read Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction for that). However, given Kincheloe had to have been experiencing a much higher level of consciousness (he wrote the books about consciousness evolution!) then it’s highly unlikely that page 666 was an unconscious act, and especially so given he admitted the story was contrived.

One last possibility is that he was able to visit nonlocal space, the future, and picked up information of the 9/11 event before it actually happened (I have decoded some predictions in his work). But I think he managed to slip this into his book at the very last moment for the reasons discussed. Only his book publisher knows for sure. Regardless, Kincheloe always has multiple reasons for hermeneutically encoding his work. Page 666 has many more interpretations, including some personal messages, which gives new bricoleurs ample opportunity to practice decoding and using hermeneutics, semiotics, and his fourth dimension research. Much of his work provides similar opportunities. We need to become adept as critical complex epistemologists to stay a step ahead of the encoders of “universal” meanings and those who don’t incorporate Kincheloe’s Eros Love, but rather have ulterior purposes to manipulate and control people. By taking an analytic approach that incorporates love to counter thanatos, new learning takes place; we can see into those other spaces. We can construct our own consciousness and at the same time become aware of possible “hyper-actions” that Kincheloe has advised we need to take (2008c, p. 67). We can love, sing, dance, and use Green Shield stamps instead of money.

What’s on Your Bar Codes? 666, 11-11, and 911. During my studies of the number 666, I discovered from watching a YouTube video that the number 666 is encoded on product bar codes and that it also represents 11-11-11 the twin flame reunion number. This means we look at the number 666, which many of us have been molded to believing represents “the beast,” with every product we buy, including all of our food. The numbers themselves are not printed on the bar code but our subconscious minds can read them. The number 6 is represented by two long thin lines, forming the very first number of the barcode, the middle number, and the last number, thus, appearing as 11-11-11 (binary for the number 6 is 0110, translated to 11 because zeroes are omitted). There is frequently a 9 printed before the first two lines, again representing 911 and the completion of the twin flame spiritual reunion but of course, our conscious minds typically associate 911 with terror and emergency. Thus, subliminally we are given the message there is something to fear when we see this configuration. This is an interpretation based on the video I watched and related information; the truth or reality of it will vary according to the perspective one maintains. (“11-11-11 means 666,” http://youtu.be/hp6a3F7IOP4).

Thus, taking this approach to interpretation of seeing both sides of the picture represents the yin and yang as symbolized in the talisman I found as my initiation gift. In my interpretation it forces an alchemizing process in the mind to take place as one works to overcome the confusion and conflicts between the different meanings. Using an iterative process by going back and forth to study one meaning and then the other, results in a feedback loop of each interpretation informing the other. We are forced, by this form of analysis to think in two ways, both axiomatically and relationally. Both are valuable and together establish validity in the sciences according to Williams (2003). This provides more power to Kincheloe’s “science of complexity” using the multidimensional critical complex bricolage. With enough iterations we gain new understandings and we can create something new out of the exchange.

New Paradigms. This takes the discussion back to symbiotic hermeneutics in which Kincheloe is asking bricoleurs to pay attention to relationships. “Such relationality forces the emergence of a new paradigm, a new focus for research. Indeed, the relationships are symbiotic, as they mutually enhance their parts. To use the cliché, the relationship is greater than the sum of the parts” (p. 67). This process applies in the detailed example of the analysis of page 666 and its opposing interpretations, but it also clearly describes the alchemizing process that occurs as a result of the Twin Flame reunion, the melding of their opposite energies and the paradoxical nature of these relationships as has been discussed previously. What is the “new paradigm” and “a new focus for research”? Kincheloe may be referring to the fourth dimension of research, a direct outcome of the multidimensionality that develops out of taking the path, the quest for Twin Flame reunion. As a result, consciousness evolves; higher states are reached. The sentence also speaks of the complementary aspects of Twin Flames and how they balance each other; one’s strengths are the other’s weaknesses and vice versa as depicted in the yin yang symbolism. And it speaks to the third power they create together out of their radical love. His statement, that bricoleurs “develop principles of selection not only of research-orientations but also of what interconnections they attend” (p. 66) applies in the most literal sense, but again, as applied to Twin Flames, it implies that if we want to maintain the rigor of the bricolage, we are mindful of which connections we attend (e.g., which love relationships we pursue). We avoid those relationships based on economics that he has deemed “folly” and pursue the spiritually sublime. This aligns with Weiss’s observation in his psychoanalytic work that while there may indeed be infinite possibilities for directions we take along our path, in reality and in practical terms, we are afforded limited but divine opportunities. We need to be selective and this form of rigor ultimately prevents future suffering as we choose the best path—the “Great Path.” Unfortunately, of course, FIDUROD intervenes in every conceivable way to prevent this, to prevent even our knowing about this opportunity we all have, and many of us travel off our paths and end up in relationships that are destined not to work and become ruled by economics (even if they did not start out that way). In fact, education is devised to take us off our paths and it is not by accident.

Kincheloe (2004d) contends that bricoleurs also “choose particular interconnections because of their relevance to the alleviation of human suffering and the cultivation of the intellect. Thus, they seek both social and personal change” (p. 66). Again, this has been demonstrated throughout the dissertation in that I have selected love as my focus because it is love that must form the foundation of the actions we take. It’s difficult to conceive of alleviating suffering or cultivating intellect in socially just ways unless love, along with compassion, form the very foundation of everything we do. The concept of Twin Flames as the epitome of Spiritual Love, as has been shown, provides a “model” or as Brand (2011) refers to it, a “template” to serve humanity from that strong foundation of love. And while the construct of Twin Flames can contribute to the sense of “unity” among humanity, it avoids “the comfort of unexamined warm and interconnected mystical feelings about their oneness with the world” that Kincheloe (2004d) warns us against (p. 66). The Twin Flame relationship is a symbiotic one, both in the sense of a couple and in the sense of their relationship with others with a focus on service. As Kincheloe describes, “In no way are bricoleurs looking for ‘a correct relationship’. There are always multiple relationships, and as time passes new relationships will be discerned that were occluded in a different episteme or Zeitgeist” (p. 62). Again, many interpretations can be applied to this statement, but what immediately comes to mind is the way Twin Flames come to realize they have shared many previous and future lifetimes together, thus there is no ‘correct relationship.’ Their relationship is expressed as multidimensional, flowing, and changing in a timeless manner. They are all that they have been, are, and will be. From an eternal perspective, they are one with all that is, and yet they never truly reach that point due to eternal creation and evolution. Likewise, interrelationships to other people, systems, and objects as studied by the bricolage experience the same tendency toward change and appearing differently in different historical times and places. This is just as true for power and how it manifests and shifts. The goal of the multidimensional critical complex bricolage in this flexible perspective is of course to reveal different interpretations that emerge from the interactions of relationships, times, and the changes that take place, remembering that “knowledge is contingent, always in process, and not universally true for all time. It must always be updated and re-energized in light of new times” (p. 62). Thus, it becomes important to realize as we create a bricolage that what we discover during the process, any new understandings we may garner, present but a snapshot. The purpose is not to identify what it is, but rather to reveal what it is “becoming.” Kincheloe’s framing of this “in light of new times,” also implies what so many prophecies and predictions have highlighted—that we are truly entering a new age in which all knowledge will rapidly undergo reconstruction and reconceptualization due to rapidly changing paradigms. Many refer to it as a Golden Age. There are multiple events, however, happening at once in the literature and experientially: A Golden Age, A New Age, and A New World Order. And more of us are seeing that the past, present and future are paradoxically simultaneous. We cannot escape the need for multidimensional critical complex analyses.

New Age perspectives often put out the notion the Twin Flame relationship is all about romantic love. It suddenly becomes a quest in itself, the parts separated from the whole, as Westerners tend to do. However, as Brand and Hibbs (2012) consistently emphasize, and as I have come to learn in my own experience of this phenomenon, the Twin Flame union is about mission first and foremost, at least in this place and time. In the previous section of this dissertation, the trials and tribulations of that mission which involved making “right” choices that are pleasing to God/Great Spirit/the Cosmos (in lieu of pleasing society or the status quo) illustrate the true commitment and sacrifice required before a divine relationship is typically revealed. The ultimate goal is the creation of a world in which there is no pain and suffering, thus no need to transmute it. We should not have to suffer to experience the ultimate relationship and we will not suffer if we can experience it as it was omnisciently designed. God did not create suffering; we as “humanity” created it, in my interpretation as based on my experiences in higher realms of existence.

I agree with Brand and Hibbs (2011) that the focus for Twin Flames is the mission but the relationship can be about romantic love just as much as it is about mission. Everything about Twin Flames, as I’ve conveyed, is a paradox, and the most divine love and the most difficult and painful missions imaginable seem to go hand-in-hand at times. There are philosophical and spiritual dimensions that explain this paradox—and science explanations that can be better understood with more research. It is as Kincheloe expresses, bricoleurs always seek deeper dimensions and interpretations because “there is too much injustice, too many people in pain, and much cultural work needed to address these dark realities” [e.g., caused by FIDUROD, nebulous intuitionism, and corrupt relativism] (p. 66). And in relation to this, my question is, did I have to experience so much pain on the path? Did my children? Did Joe have to suffer in the ways he did? Do any of us? Is it really necessary to experience the “dark night of the soul” and the destruction of the “ego” that so many “spiritual” people insist is part of the process of becoming enlightened? Or are these human and social constructs that can be changed? This reveals another important paradox, but one Twin Flame Spiritual Love, once it spreads according to Kincheloe’s “perpetual revolution,” can eliminate, in my view. A friend who understands these concepts stated to me, “Earthly economic marriages won't work in the coming times and on New Earth. The time has arrived for spiritual marriages with a common mission. And yes, totally agree there actually is no need for a dark night of the soul, if we realign ourselves to the higher good” (personal conversation, July 20, 2012). Thus, it can be done with work and Kincheloe’s bricolage process can serve as a guiding light for those who are willing to do that work. It helps us sort through the underbrush of “majority rules” beliefs that perpetuate thanatos tendencies. This is the purpose of his work—to alleviate suffering using a critical complex epistemology to rename things, redefine things, and take actions for recreating our world.

            Kincheloe explains how we can work toward changing socially-constructed systems that perpetuate suffering: “As bricoleurs explore these dynamics they connect the ecological and the ecumenical to the critical” (p. 64). This is an important concept and describes the actions I have attempted in this dissertation by revealing my phenomenological experiences, as idiosyncratic as they may be, by critically pulling in perspectives from the ecological and the ecumenical. He is describing here how we are all part of “greater unities” and we “become fully human by revealing these processes in our own lives” (p. 64). This relates back to the discussion about sharing ourselves in relationship being an act of radical love. The narrative of my experience traveling through the mountains on Christmas day in which I described my sense of “oneness” or unity with the cosmos and the oneness I experience with Joe is expressed in his assertion, “Relationships by their nature position objects in the same space. We are together in this relationship – we occupy it together” (p. 64). While this can be considered in a more abstract sense which is the way most people would interpret it, with the Twin Flame paradigm, it is experienced in a more literal sense on multiple levels and in multiple dimensions. And it is the experience of the Twin Flame relationship that provides understanding of the greater unity between all relationships as well as understanding of the paradox between individuality and unity. While I can describe the Twin Flame experience to the best of my ability and explain how the experience of the paradoxes involved change everything in order to help people understand and come to realize the profound significance these relationships hold for the future of the world and people may relate on an intellectual level, a more complete understanding will only be achieved through the experience for oneself. The experience also brought me closer to a God, an omniscient source of knowledge and power, I had not known before, a form of “religion” which Einstein has referred to as “cosmic religion” that does not adhere to dogma or fundamentalism. The best I can do is provide enough information to create within readers of this text the phenomenon of “undeniability” that rises in qualitative research if one takes it far enough and deep enough.

Kincheloe (2004d) uses this word “ecumenical” or “ecumenicalism” three times in the text undergoing analysis. Why he includes this is complicated and a complete analysis would take many pages because as is always the case with his work, he advocates pulling in as many perspectives as possible. In fact, I believe one thing he’s calling for, since he has used the word three times, is a multidimensional critical complex analysis of the concept of the Triune God, a heated controversy that has extended  centuries and may exert great influence in world views (refer to previous discussion, “”No Ordinary Treasure Hunt”). The fact that he mentioned it three times links it to trinity and provides a spiritual dimension to his text. Ecumenical has a religious connotation as well as a nonreligious connotation. It can represent the whole of Christianity, the idea of being open to all religions, or in other words a sense of universality. In a nonreligious sense it can mean being open to all ideas, similar to maintaining eclectic paradigms. Ecumenicalism is primarily concerned with promoting unity. During my phenomenological experiences in noting patterns, if something is repeated three times, it is an indication to pay special attention. The mind programmers use this technique to install beliefs below our conscious awareness; President George Bush used repetition to convince the population of his version of truth that garnered him support for a war in Iraq. Kincheloe’s prompt is to get us to think and do more research. Thus, I interpret that the number three as tied to the religious/spiritual connotations of ecumenicalism is important, particularly as ecumenicalism seeks unity, and is a reference to the universally used trinity symbol. As I have covered earlier, trinity is a universal symbol for twin soul union with God, again giving credence to the Twin Flame interpretation I’ve been using throughout this study. This spiritual interpretation is supported by his statement on the next page, “In the spirit of criticality they [he is referring to physical scientists who work as “critical cultural workers”] view them [their disciplines] in their immanence [a term from liberation theology meaning what ‘could be’ in relation to Heaven]: they construct the world [create] and their disciplines in the dialectic relationship between being [Earth] and becoming [Heaven]. The critical vision of the bricolage moves them to make themselves, their disciplines, and the world anew” (p. 65). Is he referring to the creation of Heaven on Earth?

The terminology used here, such as “spirit,” “immanence” and “being” and “becoming” are associated with liberation theology and it is no accident that Kincheloe has selected them. The idea is to be able to envision the future (ideally, visit those nonlocal places so we can see and experience what’s possible for ourselves) for knowledge and help in order to apply what we learn in the present for change. These are “co-creative” processes that must be accomplished “in relationship” and again, it is unity that helps people achieve access to ever higher planes of consciousness and to the greater knowledge needed to make the “world anew” (or for creating Heaven on Earth). Many traditions present this as a sort of overlapping, entwining, yet three-step (trinity) process. This has already been described earlier in numerous contexts. As an example, I was provided excursions to the Heavens to experience my home there and meet my Spirit Guide who resides in an even higher dimension. These experiences serve as a form of “immanence,” or a “critical vision” that guides creation. I not only know what is possible, I have fully experienced what is possible. This provides an amazing source of knowledge, strength, and passion to actively create what’s possible, to make everything “anew.” Thus, in this particular statement, Kincheloe is applying these ideas from liberation theology to the physical sciences. It is essentially what many of these scientists are already doing, particularly in theoretical physics, which may be why they are ahead of other sciences in many ways. The scientists are simply not conveying their process; they may be afraid of losing credibility. From what is conveyed about Einstein in this excerpt, he may have been too open about his processes, which may have contributed to some of the media ploys against him and his work. Perhaps Kincheloe is asking that physical scientists open up more about how they research and derive their theoretical ideas. It would exert great influence to wider acceptance of fourth dimension research and move society past attaching “stigma” to “genius” (Kincheloe, et al., 1999).

Kincheloe goes on to explain in this excerpt, since he is speaking of the physical sciences here, that Albert Einstein offered an “initiation of a paradigmatic explosion in physics” (p. 65). What a play on words, given so many people mistakenly believe that Einstein was responsible for developing the nuclear bomb, but it implies that there is more to Einstein’s work than popular culture or education has presented and it is so explosive as to initiate the development of the nuclear test weapon named “Trinity.” Do we believe Einstein was not aware? It was actually another scientist, Leó Szilárd, a Hungarian physicist and friend of Einstein’s who had realized that the fission process using uranium could result in an explosive chain reaction. Einstein had attempted to get politicians and scientists together to discuss this issue sensibly and at the same time had expressed the possibility of such bomb being developed by Germany. The U.S. proceeded forward with the Manhattan Project and development of the nuclear bomb. However, Einstein learned that Germany was not making a bomb and wrote a letter in attempt to get U.S. policymakers to see that there was no need to push forward with it. President Roosevelt died before reading the letter which was then passed on to Truman (where “the buck stops”). The concerns were ignored and the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, to Einstein’s utter dismay. (Isaacson, 2007).

Einstein’s Paradigmatic Explosion: Did He Solve the Theory of Unity?

            Kincheloe continues with his discussion of Einstein and his Theory of Relativity on pages 65–66. “The general theory of relativity is all about the power of relationship” he states (p. 66). From a phenomenological perspective, based on my personal interrelationships into unseen dimensions, I have continuously been given the message (from the gods?) that Einstein had, in fact, solved the theory of unity. It is contained within an article under everyone’s noses and it has not been properly interpreted, so the message goes. The way this came about is that one of the first people I was introduced to after Joe passed over was Albert Einstein. He is purportedly my uncle from a future time and place. And even though I have never researched or read much about Einstein until this current research, when I learned of this, I realized that from somewhere I have a great love for him and even a sort of uncanny understanding about his personality. He is definitely much more than the persona the media has often caricaturized him with. It seems that the cabal or the “powers-that-be” became irate with Einstein because he was a peacemaker and was vocal against nuclear war. He was even considered a security risk by the government (Isaacson, 2007). As discussed previously, his name was purposely connected to the nuclear bomb by the media. The first test bomb was named “Trinity,” thus the powerful universal symbolism of destroying the sacred bond between Twin Flames and God that hit hard across cultures. Even though Einstein has received wide acclaim his name has been drug through the mud and this continues even today. There is much misinformation published on the Internet about him and his theory, and a search on his name seems to have been manipulated so that it brings a disinformation campaign to the top of the hit list. There is a reason for this. Does the theory of unity connect to the Twin Flame paradigm—the power of love—in some way? The theory of relativity, as Kincheloe proclaims here is about the power of relationship. Did Einstein discover something so powerful about love that it would have threatened the goal of establishing the Illuminati’s New World Order? Is that why they went on to name the first test weapon the Trinity—to give a deep psychological blow to all of humanity? These are just speculations, of course, but there is much data that when pulled together create an eerie picture. And today, as the new Illuminati super rock star, Doda, sings, we “ain’t talking about love.” And her “Bad Girl” music video featuring “The Blood Runs Hot Restaurant” complete with blood, of course, and the best body parts for your next meal—and even sex with corpses—reeks of blatant demonic ritualistic acts. The video is loaded with sick thanatos depictions and dehumanizing portrayals of women hanging like meat in cloning tanks in the background as Doda sings, “I know my way of my Babylon all demons know. . .” Only satanic illuminates of a dark thanateros might offer up something better than Doda.

            Kincheloe continues his discussion about Einstein, presenting that he had initiated a “revolution” in 1905 that “takes researchers into new domains” (p. 65). And then he describes these domains: “Indeed, symbiotic hermeneutics unabashedly focuses on relationships that typically cannot be heard, smelled, viewed, felt, or tasted. Einstein employed what we are calling symbiotic hermeneutics in his work in physics, often focusing on the ‘no-thing’ of physical reality rather than things-in-themselves” (p. 64). In other words, he focused on relationships, but the additional implication here is that he focused on the intuitive dimensions of experience. This is “fourth dimension research.” Those intuitive dimensions are greatly enhanced when people form a union with their Twin Flames and it is this union that is the forerunner of the unity of all of humankind (Saraydarian, 1992). As shown in the Wisdom knowledges, once Twin Flames unite, they also unite with members of their soul family, then their soul groups, all working together for a mission which might involve earth, but very well can involve work throughout the cosmos. Dimensions do not separate these relationships that “typically cannot be heard, smelled, viewed, felt, or tasted.” Note that he qualifies this with “typically,” because as was discussed previously, when people become more adept at interdimensional relationships or the “Hermesian” state of mind, the senses can be experienced in those other dimensions (Lachman, 2011). Is this a natural, ecological process that occurs—IF it is not hampered with through education, indoctrination and social control? Or IF we can learn to transcend these forced constraints? And IF we can connect to our Twin Flame and soul families to combine forces? This could be a tremendous threat to power, the status quo, and the wishes to build an all-powerful one world fascist government, the New World Order.

Kincheloe actually spells this out on page 64 of the text with his statement, “Emphasizing the numerous common bonds connecting human beings, bricoleurs work toward egalitarianism and justice.” When these bonds are forged on powerful spiritual bonds that transcend space and time, a “New World” Government would have something to reckon with. I have seen this in action simply based on my own experiences during this research. It is a process, however, and one for which backsliding can occur, which is why continuous rigorous bricolage work is required. Complacency is not welcome in this picture. Thus, what did Einstein know? That he had solved the theory of unity, even though it’s not a part of the historical record is hinted at by Kincheloe’s statement, “The general theory of relativity is all about the power of relationship. . . . Still, in the first decade of the twenty-first century the epistemological and ontological dimensions and implications of Einstein’s work are not generally understood, even in academia” (p. 66). Is there something right under our noses in Einstein’s work that has been misinterpreted or hidden? And the date again signifies 11-2-11, which Kincheloe has used multiple times, representing the increased numbers of twin flame reunions that were predicted beginning the year 2000. Most people don’t know this. Why?

Using an intertextual approach and referring to Kincheloe’s book about Einstein, there are clues there as well. While I have not identified all of them, I was drawn to one clue in particular; in fact, it was one of those instances of opening right to the page and having my eyes drawn to this particular statement (this phenomenon happens to me frequently).  In this book, he states in relation to Einstein’s search for the theory of unity: “Throughout his life he had faith that even if he did not make it (which he didn’t) that someday it would be done” (Kincheloe, et al. 1999, p. 260). The very first time I had read that statement, which I had been serendipitously led to (I have not read this entire book by any means) my intuition led me to believe that it does not mean what most people would interpret it to mean. That is, most people would interpret the phrase “(which he didn’t)” literally and as meaning he really had not solved the theory of unity. I see the phrase entirely differently. Based on the concept of phenomenological bracketing, the parentheses tell me to set aside my immediate thoughts, which would typically lead to interpreting the statement literally. Thus, it is calling for a hermeneutic approach. What else could it mean if not interpreted literally? It means it is simply stating what most people believe to be true, but as I learned very well when George Bush was in office “saying it is so does not make it so.” Thus, it is implying the possibility of the alternative view that Einstein did, in fact, solve the theory when taking the diametric reading Kincheloe advises. Taken along with my fourth dimension research which includes multiple instances of reaffirming this and even instructions for how to go about showing that Einstein had solved this theory, I tend to believe that Einstein did solve it and there has been a cover-up or people just have not figured it out. This also makes sense because if his theory relates to the “changing world” that Kincheloe is speaking of in his bricolage book, then Einstein could very well have discovered some powerful truths about Twin Flame relationships and spiritual love (p. 62). It’s all about relationship. It is also about “energy” which, as known, Einstein made the profound discovery with his E = MC² equation. But there is more here than meets the eye.

Am I crazy because I “listen” to the voices from the “other side?” Is this totally “off the wall”? I don’t think so: “An ‘inner voice’ told him [Einstein] that it [quantum mechanics] was ‘not the real thing.’ The theory of quantum mechanics says a lot, he admitted, but it ‘does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old one’” (Kincheloe, et. al. 1999 , p. 146). Einstein’s motivation was to discover how God thinks and the only way we can even get close to that is through the experience of love, as Kincheloe expresses over and again in his work. And it cannot be just “any” love; it must be a continuous flow of Eros Love and life force energy flowing through us naturally as we let go and live our lives spiritually guided. Perhaps it means as Osohon (2009) contends—we must learn to work with the highest level gods, the celestial gods, those gods who reside with or have closest contact to God.

I had wished to take up an analysis of Einstein’s work but there is no way to cover all that I have learned in one dissertation. Perhaps this will open the door for other “believers” to do so. I am sure Einstein will just be happy when the lies about him are corrected and truths revealed no matter who takes on these tasks. I have noticed there is a deep connection between Kincheloe’s theoretical work and Einstein’s work. Kincheloe’s theory directly pulls from the work Einstein was doing. Therefore, by using the multidimensional critical complex bricolage one should be able to show that Einstein had the theory solved. For example, Kincheloe cites Clark who quotes Einstein as saying: “I want to know how God created this world,” he exclaimed. “I want to know his thoughts” (Kincheloe, et. al. 1999, p. 143). How do we get closest to God? Universally it is believed that we are made in God’s image, but what does that mean? In the book, Science of Soulmates, Henderson (2002) shows us that God must be a Spiritually United Divine Couple—the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine—and it is the energy they create together that provides the life force of the universe. Due to the fractal nature of creation we can be none other than the same in our “completeness.” He concluded that there indeed must be a divine “energy match,” one special soul mate, for every one of us. As he has discussed, in support of this contention, scientists have discovered and photographed two forms of energy which they distinguish as being the “feminine” energy and the “masculine” energy.  Thus, Einstein was searching for a “unified basis for all science” (p. 144) and it seems he may have had all of the pieces. Einstein’s theory of relativity provided a new metaphor that launched the revolution Kincheloe speaks of on page 65 of the text which shifted worldviews. But for Einstein this world view was one focused on unity and his belief that these laws would apply anywhere in the universe (p. 143).

Squelching Knowledge about Love

One other topic Kincheloe touches on in this special excerpt is his often mentioned anti-colonial rebellions of the 1940s–1960s and the backlash against them as the New Right Wing emerged in the United States. He covers this topic in many of this works and there is more analysis needed than a surface analysis that most people have taken in citing him. Of course, again, we can interpret these literally for what they were and focus on the complex interacting factors that led to these revolutions, but there are other reasons Kincheloe has highlighted them so often. These “global liberation movements” as he states, had originally “emerged in Africa, Latin America and many parts of Asia in the 1940s and 1950s” (p. 63). In the United States these manifested as the civil rights, women’s, indigenous, and anti-Vietnam movements during the 1960s and 1970s. These movements became squelched by a tremendous backlash, with the Church and the cabal, even science, forming very unusual alliances (Kincheloe, 2008c).

Examining the music of that era and how it has transmogrified to that of some of the artists today who focus on the dark arts, satanic ritualistic acts, and death, provides much insight. The music transformed from being about highly spiritual concepts and love (“The Age of Aquarius,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” the “Mersey Beat,” “Cupid”) to today’s focus on thanatos. Since this dissertation is framed nearly entirely within the context of Kincheloe’s “Eros Love,” what picture does this paint in relation to these movements? It seems that the biggest threat to domination over the people is a growing spiritual love and Einstein’s concept of unity, both of which bring people back to a relationship or understanding of an omniscient God and working toward peace and harmony. This would restore power back to the people with little need to be dependent on government in hegemonic ways that make a few people rich and powerful. Education, religion, politics, and the media, controlled by a few at the top, became tools to constrain our knowledge as well as to keep us divided. People have been shaped to focus on money, greed, competition, and materialism. Even U.S. currency and the Pledge of Allegiance have had the word “God” added during this backlash so that our consciousnesses could be reconstructed as to where we focus in relation to God. The various “movements,” including New Age spirituality and music were also appropriated to present us misinformation and have become framed in ways to make us more narcissistic as a means to divide us and to keep people from being of service to each other. We have also been bombarded from every direction with symbols that have had their divine meanings reversed. I spent a great amount of time during my research studying these symbols, how they have been reversed in meaning, and incorporated into almost everything we look at from Disney programming and other media to advertising, logos, and signs.

We are being programmed to move away from Divine Love and a relationship with God/Great Spirit/Higher Power toward one that is dominated by thanatos, serving self, and selling our souls to the “money god.” This is not new, but it has become implemented in unprecedented global forms. Answering basic epistemological questions about these movements using Kincheloe’s critical complex epistemology quickly reveals how this has been accomplished. More often divine symbols have been reversed to their satanic meanings, as previously discussed. The cabal was actively working to construct our consciousnesses to turn away from sacred love and instill within us fear, competition, greed, lust, violence, and narcissism through any and every means at hand and primarily by constructing our consciousnesses to be consumers through the media and education. Of course, we as a collective sat back and allowed it, and we still do today, which exemplifies Kincheloe’s contention that power is often “unseen” and hard to pinpoint; it is us. Hegemony is an apt word to describe how we all are part of the problem. It can be hard to lift up those rugs and see what’s under them and so the beat goes on. But it’s not the Mersey Beat.

What were the movements about, essentially? They were about the “Dawning of the Age of Aquarius,” peace, and they were about love. They were about exposing truth as to what colonialism was stripping away and why. There is much one can learn about the knowledge people had acquired, their consciousness, by listening to the music of that era. Of course, the Beatles music is well-known, but according to Barry Hill (2012), writer of the original “Mersey Beat” newspaper, their worldwide promotion had actually served as a tool to squelch the amazing music movement that was taking place on the Merseyside of Liverpool. A very interesting history, the music had taken on a magical quality. People were figuring things out. They were getting too close to truth about love. And brilliant U.S. entrepreneurs and musicians like Sam Cooke who established his own record label were dangerous (his death occurred under highly suspicious circumstances) (Greene, 2005). The recording moguls began taking over to stifle many artists. The music was revealing spirituality and consciousness; the industry in the U.S. adopted the Christian fundamentalists’ view that rock music was satanic, began pushing “sanitized” music (Hill, 2012), and now they have actually flipped it and have made it satanic. Today, you must be a “chosen one” to play in their game and some artists speak of actually having to sign their contracts in blood. Some may choose to believe this is all conspiracy, but today the music moguls throw satanism right in our faces. Unless one is totally blind, it’s undeniable although consumers are conditioned to find it humorous in many cases. I could present many artists from hip hop to metal but I have covered these topics elsewhere. Anyone can do their own research. Jamaican citizens are actively calling for serious change in their country due to the negative influence of certain hip hop artists and how their young people have been led astray and away from spirituality and God. The 2012 Summer Olympics also has exceeded everything that’s been done before it in terms of satanic symbols and representations of rituals. Can people not see what’s wrong with this picture? As Vigilant Citizen (2012) reveals in an article on their website: 

The Illuminati Agenda in popular culture has become a worldwide phenomenon and it hasn’t spared Eastern Europe. Doda’s “Bad Girls” and Vintage’s “Trees” are two examples of very symbolic music videos that are extremely popular in Russia and Poland. . . .Some might say: “The Illuminati Agenda exists in the U.S., but not in Poland” and so forth. Well, Doda is signed with Universal Music, one of the five media conglomerates that distribute mass media across the world. It owns labels like Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Defjam, Island and Motown. She is therefore part of the elite’s system and was apparently chosen to be the Illuminati’s representative in Poland. (para. 1, 7)

The multidimensional critical complex bricolage changes the equation and the dirt begins to be swept out from under the rugs to reveal power alignments and their “symbiotic” purposes. For example, it has us asking questions related to historicity such as: When were the Twin Towers built in relation to the backlash against the movements of the 1960s? When did the design of U.S. currency change to depict the Twin Towers and the Pentagon disasters when folded in particular and exact geometric configurations? What is the significance of the geometry in the folded bills representing the towers going up in smoke? Why would this change in the design of the currency have occurred before the Twin Tower disaster? Was it coincidence? When was the statement “In God We Trust” added to U.S. currency? When was “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance? What is the significance of Building Seven collapsing (Sides, 2012a, 2012, b; Tower Web Productions, 2003)? What effects might these have on consciousness? What god is being served here? There are many more questions that can be asked. But the point is that there’s always so much more than meets the eye, and these are still only the surface level questions for new bricoleurs. The multidimensional critical complex bricolage would have us asking deeper questions that would take us into the fourth dimensional realms of research. As Vigilant Citizen concluded (and as my research revealed), “Popular culture promotes corrupt and debasing values, degrades human life and pushes transhumanism because this is where the elite want to take the world. Will you be swallowing the pill?”

Imagine the powerful possibilities when consciously accessing and acting in multiple dimensions of reality. What we see through our FIDURODian-constructed blinders is a mere small fraction of the reality that is happening all around us. And correspondingly, Kincheloe explains in this text undergoing analysis that knowledge must continuously be updated: “Again, knowledge work and research are seen as more complex than scholars originally posited” (p. 62). He is hinting in this text that perhaps we are approaching a new era, perhaps one that affords us a special opportunity as predicted in indigenous prophecies, a potential for consciousness evolution beyond anything we can even imagine—and this corresponds intertextually with his other work (e.g., Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction). But we must work for it.

First Impressions of the Text

It was during my trip to California in 2009 when I was in my motel room at the Colloquium that I had gone through the first very inept analysis of this special passage Joe had assigned me from his and Berry’s book, Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing the Bricolage (2004).  I knew these pages were extremely important, but I did not comprehend why at the time. I had read the text before, of course, back in October 2008 right after he assigned it to me, and it was interesting that I found the first part of this excerpt extremely personal; when I read it I nearly felt like it should be a special message for me somehow. Maybe it was because he had given the assignment especially for me. Maybe it was on account of the title, “Expanding the Concept of Relationship in the Bricolage: Symbiotic Hermeneutics in the Disciplines.” It just seemed so intimate somehow. I did not understand the feelings I had or why the intensity. When I read the second and third paragraphs I felt what I might refer to as a “pregnant pause” in one of the sentences. Something went “click” in my mind and I did not initially understand why. The second paragraph begins with, “In symbiotic hermeneutics the process of interpretation and meaning-making is directly tied to exposure of relationships.” This sentence is so highly loaded right off the bat. While most people would be thinking in terms of education and the relationships between variables, people, and processes, what my mind immediately focused on was personal, intimate relationships. The rest of the paragraph continues in the same vein as referring to personal relationships but then switches later to being more specific to research and disciplinary knowledge. The first sentence of the third paragraph, in relation to my first impression of the sentence above is where I felt a “pregnant pause.” He states, “In the first decade of the twenty-first century the capacity to establish relationships with difference is enhanced by a couple [the pause—the sentence was complete] of factors.” The pause was reinforced by the fact that the rest of the dialogue does not clearly distinguish the first and second factors. Normally for clarity, a writer would delineate the first and second factors, while, instead, he discusses many factors and was not clear to me exactly which are the “couple of factors” he was referring to. Thus, this was the first impression and interpretation that I was confronted with in reading this excerpt Kincheloe had assigned me early in my research. It had a major impact, I believe, in framing my research, acting almost as a POET.

My interpretation leads me back to what I’ve been discussing all along and it seems that I had picked up on it intuitively before this research. By incorporating that “pregnant pause,” the sentence becomes: “During the first decade of the twenty-first century the capacity to establish relationships with difference is enhanced by a couple.” I had no idea what it meant, but I wanted it to mean me and Joe, as romantic and ridiculous as it sounds, especially given he had passed over. And before that we were platonic friends. It just did not work. If he had used the phrase “is enhanced by two factors” it would not have struck me as being personal. I would not have made the association between relationship and couple. Call me weird, but that’s was the interpretation that struck me during this first analysis. Joe was an expert writer and a master of hermeneutics, a word magician, and so I always assume he pretty much knew what he was doing with his writing. His later writing is very creative and he is obviously trying new strategies to get people to pay attention, think, backtrack and reinterpret in order to help us develop the “epistemic consciousness” that he felt was critical to take us to new levels of cognition. In light of that, there are always multiple interpretations when text stands out as this particular sentence does. And in terms of multiple interpretations, returning again to the first sentence in that paragraph, “the exposure of relationships” becomes especially significant. During these past few years of research, it has been exposure of past and future relationships that provided interpretations, meaning, and context for who I am today. When Twin Flames unite, it sets up a process of remembering the past and the future. That there is a “quest” for establishing these divine relationships (thus, another allusion to the quest for the Golden Chalice) is hinted at in his statement, “bricoleurs maintain that the quest for relationships results in the revelation of new contexts in which to view a phenomenon” (p. 62). When we begin to remember these other lifetimes, we come to understand our current experiences within new contexts, and importantly, we come to understand relationships at deeper, multidimensional levels. This is helpful from a psychological standpoint and aids in transmuting emotions that have become magnified due to layers of experiences. As discussed earlier in this dissertation, Dr. Weiss had confirmed the value of using past and future life regression therapy in his practice. When Twin Flames unite, part of their reunification process is helping each other work through memories and emotions. Thus, viewing current emotions (phenomena) in new contexts, helps release those emotions.

After all of the phenomenological experiences I’ve had in relation to Joe and after all of the research I’ve done, the sentence, “During the first decade of the twenty-first century the capacity to establish relationships with difference is enhanced by a couple” thus takes on a different meaning than most people would get out of it. The date in the sentence translates to 11-2-11, signifying the union of twin flames. [first=1; decade=10=1; 21=2, 1; and century = 100 = 1]. What could he be referring to by “relationships with difference”? In this interpretation difference would be masculine and feminine energies, but also all differences—the yin and the yang. Why else was I gifted with the yin yang talisman as my initiation into the Higher Wisdom Knowledges? Twin flames are representative of difference in that their energy signatures are opposite from each other which acts as a powerful magnet of sorts that brings them together and is represented by the yin yang symbol. Some people may get upset over the twin flame metaphor due to the focus that’s often placed on gender. Gender is and is not important. It’s not important because what is relevant is the energy signature; it is important because the majority of us are traditional in our biological makeup and relationship preferences. It should be common sense that energy signatures exist in an infinite array—everyone has a different energy signature, thus conveying another interpretation of “relationships with difference.” Thus, it is one more reason for people to open their minds about different forms of relationships. Twin flames in their “oneness” become gender neutral—in a sense. Yet, paradoxically they are more individualized and are freer to be themselves and express their individuality. This is a great gift from the Creator from my perspective. I don’t know very much about liberation theology, which Joe was influenced by, but what could be more liberating than to be free to fully express who we are?

There is far more analysis that can be done in relation to the philosophy and science that’s symbolized in the yin yang symbol, a most profound symbol of “difference.” Thus all relationships are enhanced by a couple, at least by couples united in this very special spiritual trinity bond. The power of the third power had been discussed already in multiple contexts. 1+1=3 and as a result, dualistic concepts are powerfully and alchemically brought together through love and something new and greater is created. Twin Flames are to set the precedent for making divine relationships more possible, by many accounts. This is enhanced by Kincheloe’s (2004d) statement that “a brief hermeneutic detour is in order in this discussion of disciplinarity in a changing world” in the first paragraph (p. 42). Here, he is highlighting his focus in this section on the “changing world,” which by many accounts relates to increasing consciousness, union of Twin Flames and the move toward a more loving and peaceful planet. The union of Twin flames and changing consciousness are inextricably linked in ways that facilitate a radically new paradigm or worldview. The paradigmatic shift results in the bringing together of all disciplines, and again, creating something much bigger and more powerful than any of the separate disciplines can provide in isolation. As has been repeatedly shown, bricolage as Kincheloe has envisioned it helps us develop higher order thinking. It is when we transcend the FIDURODian mindset that we can form powerful love-based relationships. How does this relate to the various disciplines? He tells us on page 65: “The bricolage pressures the guardians of the disciplines to join a cognitive and intellectual revolution taking place in the detritus of disciplinarity.” This inevitably leads to transcendence and abilities of fourth dimension research as he conveys:

Drawing upon symbiotic hermeneutics, this revolution confronts some of the basic assumptions of the physical sciences. The meaning of empiricism, with its concept of sensory knowledge forming the epistemological basis of science, for example, is brought into question. Indeed, symbiotic hermeneutics unabashedly focuses on relationships that typically cannot be heard, smelled, viewed, felt, or tasted. (p. 65)

These, of course, involve intuitive abilities which are correlated with the higher consciousness experienced and shared by Twin Flames. In my own experiences as documented during my research, there is a wide range of these abilities. They seem to manifest in almost infinite varieties. Hamilton (2012) has delineated three “intuitive pathways” which help to reduce chaos and a sense of overwhelm when trying to relate them all: (1) visual and auditory cues (such as signs, symbols, images, telepathic communications, visions, sounds, music; (2) mirror neurons by which our bodies physically mimic someone we are observing, which helps us read between the lines, often ascertaining whether someone is being truthful, for example. It also gives us the ability to pick up on their emotions; and (3) entangled minds, which I’ve already covered previously. For more information, I will defer readers to his article, “The 3 Paths of Intuition,” and perhaps some of his other writings. It should be understood, however, they can and do overlap and there may be additional paths, but this model is useful for gaining a beginning understanding as to how these abilities interrelate. We also pick up much more data with our senses than we can consciously register, thus there is an enormous amount of unconsciously acquired data that feeds into our intuitive abilities. The amount of research needed into intuition is simply incalculable. Much time has been wasted in misdirected attempts to understand intuition from positivistic perspectives. Even mixed methodologies have proven ineffective for gaining significant knowledge about intuition. Again, this illustrates the need for the multidimensional, multiperspectival approach offered by Kincheloe’s critical complex bricolage.

A New Heiros Gamos for a “Changing World”

From the very beginning, the focus of my research has invariably returned to the topic of soul mates and “Twin Flames,” that “golden strand of love” I promised at the beginning. I could not understand how it always wound its way back to this topic even when I worked to avoid it. And when I first began this research, due to outside pressure and the personal nature of my experiences, I was trying every which way to stay away from this topic. In fact, at the beginning, I would never have dreamed I would reveal this much about my experiences, but at the same time I feel it’s exactly what Kincheloe (2004d) wants—for us to “expose” these relationships. For, again, in his very first statement, he states that symbiotic hermeneutics is “directly tied to exposure of relationships.” While one would normally interpret that to mean in an educational context and I did, indeed, expose many relationships relating to politics, money, elitism, and many other relationships relating to education in my research, I kept being drawn to divine relationships. Was this the message he wanted me to get from this passage? I am to “expose” multidimensional, past, present, and future relationships?  I am forced to interpret his text two ways—one for the research that needs to be done to provide multiple perspectives as I attempt to analyze this text—and the other one in relation to the strand about love that I’ve carried throughout. As already conveyed, when Twin Flames unite a part of that process involves learning about past and future lifetimes together and to transmute any emotions that are impacting the present. They transmute not only for themselves, but for society as a whole, even as children, as was detailed earlier. But it also is true that they use this historical and prescient knowledge they recover in their journeys to other dimensions to create positive changes: to correct historical accounts, to make changes in the present, to change the outcome in the future, to look to the future to improve the present. It’s very complex and what Kincheloe is stressing in this text is the complexity, the symbiotic nature. How do we put that complexity in writing when the easiest way to get a handle on understanding it is to experience it? This explains why it must be in context, in relationship. Like Einstein’s theory of relativity, it “is all about the power of [and exposure to] relationship” (p. 66). And as he makes clear, there are “multiple relationships. There is no “correct relationship” because they all exist simultaneously and they all have an impact in some way. The past, present, future, people, cannot be separated; everything is connected, everything is in relationship and our work as bricoleurs is to attend to understanding those relationships pertinent to our topic at hand and which will reveal the “large-scale interconnections in the political, aesthetic, social, cultural, economic, moral, psychological, philosophical, cognitive, and educational domains” (pp. 66-67). Thus, to describe something or someone in relation to something or someone else does not negate the other relationships, it’s just a different context. Similarly, to express particular perspectives does not negate other perspectives. These are concepts that I’ve discovered during various interactions that are very difficult for people to transcend and can cause a lot of disagreement and discord. Changing times require new ways of looking at things and hopefully with time, more people will transcend these issues. One last thing to point out relative to his “exposure of relationships,” is that it is often the duty of Twin Flame couples to educate the public about these relationships as part of their service to humanity. This could be another interpretation and perhaps explain why it has become the topic of this research.

In the article, “The Hieros Gamos” Lisa Renee (2012), who is well known in New Age spiritual circles, describes an updated model for Twin Flame relationships. Brand (2011), as we can recall, also mentioned the need to update both how these relationships form and what the signs may be for them. Renee defines “Ascension” as being a reuniting of multidimensional starseeds and their families through a new paradigm for Higher Consciousness. According to her account, she receives communications interdimensionally. Her article revises The Hieros Gamos to encompass multiple forms of new types of relationships that are expected to emerge as people move forward in consciousness evolution. The model is an elastic one, much as Kincheloe recommends, thus it is not written in stone, but rather, like this entire dissertation, it is a presentation of a perspective. I will just note here that this, again, is evidence for updating Tarot Cards, which seem to be based on old models, as I had discussed earlier in this dissertation, if Renee’s account should prove true.

According to Renee (2012), “the term heiros gamos refers to the sacred marriage between two divinities, or between a human being and Mother/Father God, or between two human beings (under certain conditions); the ultimate alchemy of forces which harmonize polar opposites” (“The New Relationship Paradigm,” para 1). The heiros gamos was first described 5,000 years ago in Sumerian text. These divine relationships will be increasing, according to her report, and more “sacred marriages” will occur. Renee asserts that “it is also possible that ‘non-physical Spiritual Spouses will also be involved in some of the Hieros Gamos templating for those who choose to stay on within physical incarnation to accomplish biological ascension” (“Clarification of Union,” para 1). She discusses the idea of the “Chemical Wedding” and how “this union creates something bigger and more powerful than the individual parts—the perfect integration of male and female energies—the entire creation of a new intelligent force” (“Alchemy of Transformation,” para 1). She differentiates between the Alchemical Union and the Hieros Gamos. The Alchemical Union is a “test run” for the Hieros Gamos, which is a “monadic twin merging and then ‘Avatar Christ’ embodiment into the monad” (“Clarification of Union,” para 2). She contends that the alchemical union partner will be assigned and the purpose of the relationship is for mutual benefit in evolution and to learn to be loving and forgiving. In my own life, this would have been represented by my marriage to the prisoner I discussed earlier. Interestingly, I had actually perceived it as an assignment from some Divine Higher Source, a sort of “calling” based on the Biblical passages I had been led to at the time about remembering those in prison, as I have detailed earlier in this study.

According to Renee, casual relationships will end and “all relationships will be first and foremost about personal transformation and spiritual development” (“Breaking Away from Destructive Archetypes,” para 1). If this proves true, then this is a very good thing for human evolution. She explains what I had already determined in my research—we have been lied to about these sacred marriages. They have been kept hidden from us and our consciousnesses constructed in ways that prevent us from knowing “our sovereign right to experience a balanced, loving and glorious sacred marriage.” According to Renee, “We will have access to create the most loving spiritual marriage you could ever imagine” (“Breaking Away from Destructive Archetypes,” para 2). These models will continue to be updated and refined as more information is obtained, based on the actual experiences of couples and as these relationships continue to evolve, pointing to the need for more research.

The Biggest Secret

And so I wonder . . . is this the real secret that’s been hidden from us, perhaps one of the greatest secrets of all? Is this why the elite in power go to such extremes to keep love and sex debased and connected to fear? This knowledge about Divine Love would fall under Kincheloe’s (2001b) category of “Divine Knowledge.” It is certainly a divine secret and it’s very sad how successful the cabal has been at creating thanatos on Earth in ways that keep the majority of us diverted from truth. My sense is that the elite class has been privileged to know this secret, although if that’s true, most of them have not succeeded in establishing these relationships for themselves. Are these new relationships the Eros Love, the “radical love” Kincheloe suggests as a counterpoise to thanatos? Of course, they are not going to just be handed to us.

Returning back to the statement in the excerpt under analysis, “In the first decade of the twenty-first century the capacity to establish relationships is enhanced by a couple. . .” These relationships have already been happening, so this satisfies as an interpretation of his statement. According to Brand and Hibbs (2010) Twin Flames are “graduates” who have come back to Earth, but that the newly evolving Twin Flames began activation in 2000. This corresponds with his date, the “first decade of the twenty-first century.” Further, on page 64, his words mirror what Renee (2012) states about “The New Relationship Paradigm.” His words are “Such relationality forces the emergence of a new paradigm, a new focus for research. Indeed, the relationships are symbiotic, as they mutually enhance their parts. To use the cliché, the relationship is greater than the sum of the parts.” Here, he is calling for more research into these relationships. They will be evolving; this is something new for the human species.

Renee (2012) provides another confirmation of his use of “ecumenical” three times as representing the Holy Trinity Union. She explains, “What we have come to learn through the Guardian principle of Hieros Gamos is that the Christos Intelligence is the child/offspring of the Holy Mother (Arc) and Holy Father (Arc) and cannot be birthed into the physical world without both principle polarities equally unified to zero point. . . . As the twin monads unite, the Christed Avatar Intelligence acts as the Higher self which then can inhabit the Monad directly” (“The Christos is the Offspring of Hieros Gamos,” paras 1, 2). These relationships in all three of their manifestations involve trinity unions. Will there be resurrections? According to this account, couples who have been working with this unity template will transition “to experience the ultimate sacred marriage and return to the earth plane as Risen Christos, birthed through the Spiritual marriage of The Hieros Gamos. Hieros Gamos is a part of the destined sequence of which is to return the Glory of God’s image to the human form in Christdom” (“Vesica Pisces Override,” para 2). According to Renee (2012), what the “Ascension” is really about is science of the spirit.

Skipping forward a bit in the excerpt of the assigned text, Kincheloe (2004d) explains,

This relational ontology causes us to focus not on things-in-themselves or simply on abstract individuals. In such a contest symbiotic hermeneutics helps bricoleurs understand that the way human beings develop their identity is not by isolating themselves, but through their relationships with others. The ontological principle at work here involves not only the cultivation of human subjectivity but also the production of all living beings and inanimate objects.” (p. 63)

 This seems like a powerful statement, but perhaps it could be interpreted as another representation of the union for the purpose of reconstructing the world, co-creation. He continues, “The internal features of all patterns in both the physical and the social worlds are not simply intrinsic but emerge in relationship to other patterns and processes” and he discusses this in relation to historical research, an important dimension of his bricolage process. This statement is fascinating because it’s as if the patterns don’t exist until interrelationships form. As an example, I cannot claim just anyone as my Twin Flame just because I want to even if they are someone I might be interacting with. The specific patterns relating to a twin flame connection only appear when there is a symbiotic interrelationship formed between a couple, is how I interpret this. The two create these patterns together and the patterns emerge out of that third creation power from their union. The treasure hunts, various magical gifts, and other examples in this dissertation, and even this dissertation itself, in my view, illustrate this clearly. He goes on to explain that unless researchers study the interrelationships of social, cultural, economic and political processes, the findings will be trivial. In other words, they will not be able to identify the emerging patterns unless they study the connections between the relationships which is when patterns emerge, and it is the patterns that give us depth of understanding of the interrelationships and the processes that take place. “The historian,” he states, “finds deeper and more revealing meanings for an event, as she uncovers more and more previously unexplored relationships” (pp. 63–64). I had made notes on this entry in the book: “past lives.” This process, as I learned during my four year journey applied to understanding unexplored relationships of past lives, an observation which might shed light on an analysis and particularistic application of his bricolage. It could be quite revealing to understand how our current relationships with people are affected by our relationships with them in past lifetimes. I still have many unexplored past life relationships that I am looking forward to learning more about and finding connections between my present and future. There are also ramifications for revising historical accounts.

In relation to this, a particular statement he had made in Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction comes to mind. My recollection was an interpretation I had made that implied “past lives.” He was discussing reciprocity and holism as contrasted to FIDURODian linearity which “crumbles” in quantum reality, a concept that directly ties into the discussion in this chapter about symbiotic relationships. He writes:

Reciprocity refers to the reciprocal (give-and-take) relationship between the knower and known. The known is always shaped by the knower; the knower always shapes the known. Holism, of course, alerts us to the notion that a dynamic cannot be understood by simply reducing it to smaller units. A phenomenon, a thing-in-relationship can only be appreciated by understanding it as a connected and integrated whole. Such an epistemological insight strikes at the heart of FIDURODian reductionism—it cannot survive in such a textured zone of complexity. Thus, we make one small epistemological step that can turn into a giant leap for humanity. In this domain rests a profundity that stretches back into the far distant past and forward into the infinity of the future. Indeed, both domains may be less far-off than Western ways of knowing ever imagined. (p. 211)

The statements in both texts are extremely complex. It seems he is saying it takes the interaction of the consciousness of two entities to create each other, the idea that consciousness is co-created. First they have to be aware of each other, and once aware, there is perhaps a quantum entanglement that occurs in which there is no way for one not to affect the other. I am also reminded of several additional statements in other works he has written. For example, also in Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, in relation to critical complex epistemology, critical ontology, and critical pedagogy being “pattern-constructing dynamics that ultimately change who we are,” he writes, “Unless you are committed to resisting any authentic connection with the new experiences such criticality produces, you will return from the encounter with new patterns, processes and contexts as a different being. Engagement with subjugated knowledge and its production, and the notion that we are things-in-relationship not simply things-in-themselves jettisons us into new domains, new mindspaces, new modes of seeing, being, and acting” (p. 252). Thus, what he may be conveying in all of this is that linear time as we typically conceive it is a Western construction that will be transcended by critically studying these relationships. In doing so, by my interpretation as well as my phenomenological experiences during the course of this study is that we can come to see the ideas of past, present, and future in a totally different light. And the more we interface with what we interpret as our past lives and future lives, the more it changes who we are as a person. Ultimately, we become the multidimensional beings we really are, versus a narrowly defined individual living in a “one true reality” and at the same time, we are changing and evolving. He mentions patterns again, which are important in coming to recognize connections across time and space. Indeed, my documentation has shown over and over again that paying attention to repeating “signs, signals, and images” are important for revealing those patterns, as is hermeneutical analysis for clarifying the connections and meanings. Thus, we come out of this process as a new being, perhaps even an “alien.” We also come out of the process understanding that we are eternal beings who have existed in many different contexts, eras, manifestations and these are all more accessible to us than we realize.

He continues on this same page:

Our historical research in this epistemological space becomes more important than ever before, as we discover a past that lives in multidimensional ways in the present. Concurrently, we understand that our imaginations operating in what we perceive as the present hold dramatic implications for the future. Here past present and future collide in an epistemological and ontological space that sabotages our limited FIDURODian notion of selfhood and reality. In such a context we might turn to aesthetic domains of cognition that help us conceptually develop and articulate/communicate the ideas that begin to churn in our expanding mind. (p. 211)

Again, the effect is the development of an epistemic mind, taking our cognitive abilities to higher levels, thus transcending Western ways of thinking about how we view time, space, and even the way we define ourselves as human beings. In fact, he’s indicating here that we may be able to alter the past, present or future because they’re interrelated, even if we cannot perceive those interrelationships. As we come to deeper, more expansive ways of knowing and being, it may be difficult to communicate them in writing, for example, thus this knowledge provides a passionate source that fuels inspiration and creativity. We become impassioned and thus, creative arts and other aesthetic means of communication are critical. I have learned that this, in turn, expands my consciousness even further and helps keep me connect in to those perceptions that cannot be described by FIDURODian sciences—those experiences that “typically cannot be heard, smelled, viewed, felt, or tasted” (2004d, p. 65). In other words, our levels of perception move beyond the five senses and we develop other abilities such as a shared consciousness enabling us to communicate telepathically, engage in remote viewing, remember experiences from past lives, and the many other forms of “special abilities.” In fact, we may develop entirely new senses, such as smelling colors and tasting music. This winds me right back around to the contention that the reunion of Twin Flames and the work they do in relationship catapults them to ever higher levels of cognition and consciousness.

Fourth Dimension Research

That engaging in the fourth dimension multidimensional critical complex bricolage opened my own consciousness to these experiences is heavily documented at this point and they combine to constitute that “undeniability.” However, the point is not to prove one true reality because as I well know now, there are multiple dimensions and multiple realities. Which reality are we in? Just like the trek across the snowy mountain on my way to California described earlier, nearly everyone traveling the pass was in a totally different reality than I was experiencing. Everyone’s experiences are different and this must be taken into consideration, as hard as that can be sometimes. I struggle with remembering this on a daily basis and at the same time I sometimes suffer due to the insensitivity and closed-mindedness of those who are not able to see my reality. As Kincheloe (2008c) states, bringing in his conceptualization of critical constructivism:

In a more constructivist epistemological orientation knowledge is not a substance that can be transferred from locale to locale but is constructed in a complex process in a larger socio-cultural context inseparable from the minds of individuals operating therein. Thus, in a critical complex epistemology—or as I have referred to this epistemological phenomenon elsewhere as critical constructivism (Kincheloe, 2005)—the individual as part of a larger social context constructs the reality she encounters. Unlike in an epistemology of FIDUROD, her cognitive processes are not simply efforts to properly reflect ‘true reality.’ (p. 213)

Returning to the snowy pass example, the narrative clearly explicates how this was true for me. I had literally constructed my reality beyond the socially constructed “true reality” that had been dictated by the flashing signs advising snow chains were required and all of the people on the side of the road putting on chains, but I did not attempt to force my reality on them. I was puzzled, but at the same time, respected that perhaps they were truly experiencing a different reality than I was. This is also an important observation in relation to my unusual experiences during the process of this entire research project. The phenomena have been so out-of-the-ordinary, I have literally been compelled to construct the reality I encountered. This led me to seeking social settings where I could freely discuss the experiences with people who shared similar experiences. This does not mean I accepted their versions of reality, but at the same time, as we meet “like-minded” people we do begin that social construction process. This is important in this era of rapid transformation because as the theory indicates, we cannot create our own reality in a vacuum. It requires relationships, and this was one of the major points in the excerpt Kincheloe had assigned me.

Thus, while the New Age Movement has been appropriated by dominant power, more spiritually minded people hold some of the concepts that began to explain my new experiences. Kincheloe (2008c) refers to these forms of activities as “metaphorical spaces,” and that “to gain entry into these metaphorical but undoubtedly real spaces we must do the best we can to develop a socio-historical perspective on what we’re doing—that is, how our social historical situatedness, our placement in larger cultural patterns helps construct everything we are and all that we do” (p. 212). This is wonderful advice and it is the application of Kincheloe’s critical complex epistemology that aids me while participating in these complex social spaces. Without them, it would be so easy to be pulled into the chaos and complexity and become psychologically lost or pulled along with groupthink, either of which can happen when one attempts to gain understanding of the new paradigm they’re experiencing. It is not possible to understand all of the dynamics operating in these spaces or within any complex of social environments, but one must understand and stay as proactive as possible so that the landmines can be navigated, entry in such communities comes to be accepted, and thus, progress can be made in gaining a better understanding on how we might define ourselves collectively as “new beings.” So far, I have not been successful with this. Kincheloe (2008c) admits:

“We’ll never appreciate all of these dynamics, there’s just too many of them to comprehend – but the more we know, the better start we can make as knowledge workers in changing the pollen to honey and the barley to scotch. This is why it’s so important to view the social, psychological, and pedagogical worlds from different scales – both the phenomenology of everyday life and a macro-historical understanding are central to our efforts to produce a more compelling understanding of the way the world operates, its significance for its inhabitants, and its implications for crafting more workable strategies for changing the world in the critical ways described in this book. (p. 212)

            During one of my initial readings of the above passage, I again related it to past lives, which is why it’s important to this current interpretation. I had written in the margin of the book, “Important concept. He is saying change the world to one of love by understanding our past lives (history) together. We are all tied together.” As he has conveyed elsewhere in this book, we are all connected in the Great Cosmic Spider Web. He reminds us that we are all influenced by our social environments and that our consciousnesses have been socially constructed, “colored by diverse assumptions and worldviews” and he cautions us against reductionism in qualitative research (p. 212).

Joe Kincheloe’s “Perpetual Revolution”

I had intuited before beginning this project it would mean freedom, even stating as such to Joe when we were discussing bricolage in the early stages of my research. I have come to the realization that I do not want to participate in the educational system if it means contributing to maintaining the current deficient processes that have deteriorated even more since I first began this journey. As an example, I am now supporting the military and unjustifiable wars in a hegemonic manner by paying tuition which has recently nearly quadrupled in order to finance the university-military alliance. I find it grotesque and unfair. Can I say this here? is the question that pops into my mind. If I cannot, then universities, as centers of research and knowledge production are in very deep trouble they will have a difficult time remedying.

As a note on Kincheloe’s often cited “revolution” that emanated from the 1940s and had spread to the United States during the 1960s, often people interpret it as meaning some sort of violent revolution is necessary or impending or that it applies in some way to anarchy, which he did not support in any of his writings. But in my analysis, he is speaking of an entirely different revolution (see Appendix). He has described the revolution he was hoping for: “Yes, I admit it—I want to see not only a social and pedagogical revolution, but an epistemological and ontological revolution as well (2008c, p. 252). And in a personal conversation he had informed me it would be a “perpetual revolution.” Perhaps it’s a “radical love” revolution he was speaking of which I have redefined in this dissertation, with his assistance. I will leave it to readers to research “perpetual” and “revolution” to determine the possibilities and probability as to what Kincheloe, the promoter of Eros Love, may have been envisioning with this global perpetual revolution.

This dissertation has been, for me, a breaking free from some of the hegemonic processes I have engaged in throughout my life, as well as, I hope being an example for other people so that they might also break free. How else are we going to make the changes needed for the future? We must clearly and critically identify “what is” and “what could and should be,” never forgetting that, as Foucault (1980) has shown, constructions of knowledge are shaped by power (p. 214). This is why a critical complex epistemology is such an important component of the research. As Kincheloe (2008c) describes:

A critical complex epistemology understands the diverse and ambiguous nature of these colonizing dimensions and works to cut a swath throughout the Everglades of the power/knowledge swamp. The decolonizing practices of the critical complex epistemology involve exposing the dominant cultural and ideological assumptions that tacitly shape knowledge. (p. 214)

Returning to the assigned text, “Bricoleurs emphasize the human responsibility to work toward egalitarianism and justice” Kincheloe (2004d) continues, and in the process, the disciplines become “liberated from their cloisters” (p. 64). Here, cloister has two meanings and both are relevant. It refers to a covered walkway alongside of a building in a quad and pictured in my mind are walkways on campuses that maintain division between, the chemistry building, for example, and the biology building, art building, and English building, and at the same time, connections. Thus, the idea of the unity of all things, the walkways and the buildings, thus the disciplines, are all viewed as a whole. The other definition of cloister is a place that’s secluded and devoted to religion. This, of course relates to ecumenicalism again, which was used in the same paragraph. Everything is related to everything and this example shows Kincheloe was consciously illustrating how ecumenicalism applies not only to religion and spiritual concepts, but also to the disciplines, which in a sense have their own brand of religion, dogmatism, and exclusivity. These concepts have been synthesized through his use of Varela’s theory of enactivism in which “human consciousness emerges from the social and biological interactions of its various parts. This understanding,” Kincheloe posits, “may over the next couple of decades revolutionize the fields of cognitive science, psychology, and even pedagogy. When scholars grasp the multilogical, interrelated nature of the bricolage, possibilities emerge for dramatic changes in the ways disciplines operate” (pp. 67–68). This is yet another perspective on Kincheloe’s “perpetual revolution.” I can see his vision. The disciplines cannot possibly remain the same as this revolution gains impetus.

What Kincheloe has humbly left out is that he has already revolutionized cognitive science, psychology, and pedagogy. His work simply needs to be applied and taken forward. His pedagogy has already influenced many students over his 40 years of teaching. He has now provided us with the processes that help us discover our own pathways during this perpetual revolution. We can all contribute according to our passionate interests and in our own idiosyncratic ways to restructure education, the disciplines, our historical accounts, religion, psychology, the sciences, the cognitive sciences, our relationships—everything will be changing from now on into the future—and most notably it will be changing radically and quickly. Can you keep up?

Conclusion of the Analysis

There is one last important issue to address which relates to how Kincheloe has clearly differentiated his work from New Age spirituality and pseudo sciences. Many of the concepts he covers are similar to concepts among the New Agers and I noticed that throughout his work he has very carefully has made a distinction so that his work would not become subsumed under New Age popular culture ideas or misappropriated. This is important since I have cited some perspectives from the New Age Spirituality literature. In spite of what one might think, even among spiritual literature and groups, FIDUROD raises its head. “The reality that Westerners have depicted via their knowledge production over the last 350 years is a certified reflection of the way the world really is. Anyone that would suggest differently has been labeled as crazy, deranged, anti-American, and enemy of Western civilization, or at least a bad scholar” he states (Kincheloe 2008c, p. 23). This is as observable and damaging in the spiritual communities where people are convinced that they are “ascending” as it is anywhere else. One of my biggest objections over some of the spiritual groups are the very issues Kincheloe describes in an excerpt from this assigned text relating to “oneness,” along with the groupthink tendency to accept all perspectives without a critical analysis. There is the notion in many of the groups that the “warm interconnections” are more important than dealing with the reality of the suffering in the world, just another example of Aleister Crowley’s “do what thou wilt” philosophy that has filtered down through popular culture and has become acceptable via complacency. Within this text Kincheloe had assigned for me to read, he again makes a very clear distinction, stating:

In their aversion to the unconnected disinterestedness of forms of positivistic and rationalistic modes of analysis, bricoleurs are careful not to turn to a nebulous intuitionism or a corrupt relativism. Neither do they seek the comfort of unexamined warm and interconnected mystical feelings about their oneness with the world. There is too much injustice, too many people in pain, and much cultural work needed to address these dark realities. (p. 66)

Thus, I have chosen some of the New Age perspectives simply because they provide additional insight, another perspective. As Kincheloe (2004d) explains in this excerpt, “As alternatives to the shortcomings of Cartesianism, bricoleurs seek a more rigorous path. In this context bricoleurs develop principles of selection not only of research-orientations but also of what interconnections they attend” (p. 66).  He explains that bricoleurs seek to alleviate human suffering, cultivate the intellect, and create personal and social change, and that these actions are synergistic. Again, the Quest for the Golden Chalice can serve as a metaphor here, with the “more rigorous path” he refers to representing the Great Path.

This analysis can be taken much further given the assigned text was six pages. I have not covered everything, and there are additional interpretations possible. In addition, I have much to learn yet about hermeneutical analysis and as I have indicated, Kincheloe has used some very advanced and creative techniques. For some reason I feel there is much more in that excerpt he gave me that relates to me personally (that strange phenomenon I have when reading his work). I have also learned through this amazing research process that when “the time is right” I will be guided toward greater understanding. As Kincheloe (2008c) has explained, every context merely “is one of the multiple pathways to restructuring the world.” Language has a critical role in that restructuring process because it alchemically (or “magically,” according to Kincheloe) “brings forth the world” and our power lies in the recognition that as “knowledge workers . . . [we] are creators of the universe” (p. 216). We do have the power and it’s time to claim that power. I have found my own power in relationship.