Author's Note: This in-progress glossary lists specialist terms that are cited within our dossiers and articles. The terms were drawn from General Semantics, Neuro-linguistic Programming, Spiral Dynamics® and other 21st century perceptual tools. They enable Disinformation authors to analyze alt.culture phenomena with greater precision and clarity (reflecting their theoretical knowledge, subjective application and personal ethics). Author credit and document citation has been made where possible, however, the glossary definitions reflect our applied understanding, and may not be authorized by the original authors. This Web page will self-destruct in five seconds.

Memetics Terms

Meme. 1. Definition: A unit of cultural information, analogous to a gene (Richard Dawkins).

Memetic Engineering Terms

Environmental Scanning: 1. Definition: Tracking changes in Life Conditions by changes in the Cultural Memepool. 2. Application: Environmental Scanning works by:

1. Content analysis of aesthetics, imagery, memes, and media semiotics.
2. Comparing this analysis with the Cultural Memepool.
3. Generating scenarios of possible outcomes, with reference to Weltanschauung fluctuations and sociopolitical outcomes.

3. Examples: 1. The documentary film Predictions of Fire (1995) reveals how the Slovenian industrial band Laibach applied inductive thinking, a decade in advance, and foresaw the collapse of Yugoslavia. 2. The Apocalypse Culture anthologies compiled by Adam Parfrey, which anticipated late-1990s X-Files conspiriology chic and the Y2K rumor panic. 3. The complex roots of National Socialist philosophy described in Peter Viereck's Metapolitics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind (New York: Capricorn Books, 1965) and Lawrence Birken's Hitler as Philosophe: Remnants of the Enlightenment in National Socialism (Westport, CN: Praeger, 1995). The NSDAP's Environmental Scans reached their pinnacle under Heinrich Himmler's Ancestral Heritage Organization (Deutsches Ahnenerbe), founded in July 1936. The Ahnenerbe sought to revive German folkdom and culture, and was opposed to liberal-humanist beliefs. Archaelogical, anthropological, magical, philosophical and psychological research by the Ahnenerbe is detailed in Michael H. Kater's Das 'Ahnenerbe' der SS 1935-1945: ein Beitrag zur Kulturpolitik des Dritten Reiches (Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1974) and Walter Bruno Gratzer's The Undergrowth of Science: Delusion, Self-deception and Human Frailty (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). Serious researchers may consult the Ahnenerbe's complete administrative records and research data, contained on the microfilm rolls #120-211, Microcopy T-580 (10-135-4) at the US National Archives Building (Washington DC). The Ahnenerbe's research, especially the Abteilung zur Überprüfung der sogenannten Geheimwissenschaften ("Department for the Examination of the So-called Secret Sciences"), has luckily remained taboo in the post-Nuremberg era. I don't want to get into trouble by even appearing to endorse the military/scienctific research institute formed under Ahnenerbe's auspices that conducted notorious experiments on concentration camp inmates/prisoners of war. There's a valuable lesson here about the dangers of pseudo-scientific/sociopolitical applications and failure to perceive the Agathon. The Ahnenerbe's specter resurfaced as shadowy Blowback during the Nazi Esoteric-Occult speculative literature of the 1970s, alongside material on Karl Maria Von Wiligut, Otto Rahn, Herman Wirth and Savitri Devi; Tibetan Bon and Vril mysticism; purported UFO prototypes and Antarctic bases; and the hunt for the Holy Grail, Martin Bormann and ODESSA. 4. The ZooTV tour (1992-93) by U2, featuring a multimedia stage/satellite uplink/television station, in collaboration with Emergency Broadcast Network. Zoo TV: Live From Sydney (1992) captures the concert. Bill Flanagan's book U2: At the End of the World (New York: Delta: 1996) reveals how the band studied post-Cold War Life Conditions and culture-jammed the Cultural Memepool.

Operant Mythology. 1. Definition: I. "An artificially engineered symbolic construct (containing an embedded Deep Values Systems profile) used by the practitioner as a meta-communications tool to bypass cross-cultural limits and space-time matrix barriers." (Alex Burns). II. "The thinking or values system that you 'operationalize' from will partly determine your mythology." (Christopher C. Cowan). III. "A 'designer' religious virus." (Richard Brodie). 2. Description: The effectiveness of an Operant Mythology depends on the practitioners' understanding of humanity's religious and psychological impulses (Deep Values), the linguistic factors and cultural semiotics (Hidden Values) and the aesthetic skill and timing (Surface Values). 3. Application: Unawareness of these factors and their inter-relationship leaves the practitioner open to potential manipulation by others. An Operant Mythology can be developed by:

1. Discern the prevailing Life Conditions and Critical Stress Points within the target milieu.
2. Using Environmental Scanning techniques to decode and then track the appropriate Surface Level aesthetics and Hidden Level ideologies within the Cultural Memepool.
3. Anchor the appropriate Deep Values and variance for Change (Conditions, Steps and Variations) within the milieu and target audience.
4. Perform Ecology Check, select Vectors, and propagate.

4. Examples: 1. Anton LaVey's Magic Circle and the early Gothic period (1966-72) of the Church of Satan. 2. H.R. Giger's biomechanoid art and Dr. Michael A. Aquino's Lovecraft rituals/Yuggothic language. 3. L. Ron Hubbard's adaptation of Freudian, Korzybskian and Thelemic research when creating Dianetics and the Church of Scientology. 4. Civilization and cultural-change projects by the Bektashi and Naqshbandi Sufi Orders. 5. The 'Garbage and the Goddess' period of Adi Da Samraj. 6. The magic techne of the Monarch Project, Montauk Project, Ong's Hat and Philadelphia Experiment conspiriology subcultures. The Dark Side of the Military-Entertainment Complex. 7. The strategic deployment of Space Migration imagery (Poul Anderson and Star Trek) by Marshall Savage and others to found the Living Universe Foundation. 8. The Surface Values (keyed to a specific Proxemic region and Life Conditions) of Aum Shinrikyo (anime, Japanese Shinto and Tesla weapons experimentation), the Order of the Solar Temple (Christian solar-chivalric mysticism, French romantic literature and Illuminati/Knights-Templar legends) and Heaven's Gate (Christian Gnosticism, Star Trek imagery and Star-Child variants of UFOlogy). These CLOSED-GAMMA 'killer cults' strain reflected the 'flawed subjectivity' and stage-specific developmental pathologies of their elite groups. Their leaders generated a Command to Look within 1-2% of the general population due to 'accidental' discovery of Deep Values and ethical abuse of Environmental Scanning techniques. The anti-cult model that is prevalent in the US over-generalizes (via inductive/retro-active thinking) the differences in group dynamics and leader motivations. 9. Fictive Arcanum incarnations that evolved from fandom to literary-inspired Techgnosis (hermeneutics and phenomenology): Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series), J.G. Ballard (Hello America), Robert Chambers (The King in Yellow), Philip K. Dick (the VALIS trilogy ), Philip Jose Farmer (the Riverworld saga), Frank Herbert (the Dune series), H.P. Lovecraft (the Cthulhu Mythos), Thomas Pynchon (V and Gravity’s Rainbow), John Shirley (A Song Called Youth trilogy), Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings).

Spiral Dynamics® Terms: General Definitions

Life Conditions. 1. Definition: An interface of existence conditions-within (from the natural environment and human activity) and latent capacities-within (neurological systems, mind-sets and worldviews). 2. Description: "The interaction of conditions-without and capacities-within creates what Clare W. Graves calls the 'double-helix' aspect of his biopsychosocial systems model." [1] Life Conditions shape the dynamic interaction between our Subjective Universe (internal states) and the Objective Universe (external worlds). 3. Application: The interaction of emergent Life Conditions creates the event-space to assess/track the unfolding dynamics of cultural (memetic) evolution within people, groups, institutions, countries and planetary systems.

Spiral Dynamics® Terms: Geopolitical Analysis

Flash-Points: 1. Definition: Geopolitical crises caused by: (a) collisions between differing Deep Values Systems contending for new resources, overlapping niches and strategic spaces (b) similar Deep Values Systems with mutually exclusive content (belief systems, cultural symbols, ideologies, -isms). [4]

Hot-Spots: 1. Definition: The potential crises that bubble beneath the surfaces of geographic areas, geo-strategic regions and Deep Values Systems niches that could detonate in the near future. [5]

Diasporas: 1. Definition: The dispersal and migratory patterns of groups and people with: (a) a shared cultural history, ethnic lineage, language, political/religious affiliation (b) shared Deep Values Systems over continents, micro-nations and nation-states. [6]

Regressions: 1. Definition: "An entity in a down-shift phase as it spirals down in response to worsening Life Conditions because of ineffectual systems-within." [7]

Harmonics: 1. Definition: The simultaneous shift in geo-strategic space of two or more Deep Values Systems, which liberates "hearts and minds", due to changing Life Conditions. [8]

Cutting-Edges: The emergence of new Deep Values Systems in people, groups, organizations, nation-states and planets. [9]

Grid-Lock: 1. Definition: "A stalemate, hold-up or blockage where systems are forced to be static while Life Conditions change." [10]

Arlington Institute Scenario Planning Terms

Crosscuts. 1. Definition: "Areas where combinations of trends might interact together in a significant way." 2. Description. Crosscuts describe the complex combinations of and dynamic interaction between individual trends (economic, social, technological), which produces multiplistic scenarios. [2]

Wild Cards. 1. Definition: Wild Cards are revolutionary events such as breakthrough technologies or meta-system transitions (environmental catastrophes, first contact with aliens) that would radically challenge our civilization, Mind-sets and Worldviews. 2. Description: "Wild cards have a low probability of occurrence but a very high impact." [3] 3. Application: Scenario-based planners and strategists may predict some Wild Cards but not others. When assessing current events, they consider the possibility that Wild Cards may occur, and make realistic plans in advance to neutralise any threats.

Endnotes:

[1] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 52.

[2] John L. Petersen. The Road to 2015: Profiles of the Future (Corte Madera, CA: Waite Group Press, 1994). p. 287.

[3] John L. Petersen. ibid. p. 288.

[4] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 298.

[5] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 298.

[6] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 298.

[7] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 298.

[8] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 298.

[9] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 299.

[10] Don Edward Beck, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Business Publishers, 1996). p. 299.

The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.