VYS0036 | Infinite Game - Vayse to Face with Joseph Matheny

VYS0036 | Infinite Game - Vayse to Face with Joseph Matheny - Show Notes

Some rare art transcends reality, some even rarer art seems to create a new reality altogether - the work of Joseph Matheny does both of these things while embracing the trickster spirit inherent in the magickal traditions in which his work has its roots.

Joseph talks to Hine and Buckley about Ong's Hat, his "living book" project, widely recognised as the first Alternate Reality Game, and how it took on a life of it's own, not only for the people who were playing it but also for the people who created it. The conversation also turns to synchronicity and how his recent work, the Liminal Cycle, seems to generate synchronicity in the lives of those who engage with it, how his work connects so closely to magick, nature and theatre, his experiences in the North Pole and how they affected his writing, the use of magic in political systems and how the internet we know and love (to hate) today retains the legacy of the ritual magicians and DnD enthusiasts who created it... (recorded 7 February 2024)

Thanks to Joseph for his time and thanks, as always, to Keith for the excellent show notes, you can hit him up on on bluesky: @peakflow.bsky.social

Joseph Matheny online

Website
Official Archive of the Ong’s Hat Project
Ong’s Hat website
YouTube channel
Twitter/X
Instagram
Substack
Facebook
Goodreads page
IMDb page

Hine and Buckley’s Intro

Neuralink - Wikipedia
Elon Musk says Neuralink has implanted its first brain chip in human - The Guardian
True Detective (Season 1) - Wikipedia
Ong’s Hat - Wikipedia
Ong's Hat: The Beginning (Authorized Version) by Joseph Matheny (Audiobook) - Soundcloud
Ong's Hat: The Beginning (Authorized Version) by Joseph Matheny - Goodreads
Alternate reality game (ARG) - Wikipedia
QAnon - Wikipedia
January 6 United States Capitol attack - Wikipedia
Pizzagate conspiracy theory - Wikipedia
Gamification in Politics: how does it influence Political Participation? by Elena Giordano - Medium
Liminal (The Liminal Cycle) by Cameron Whiteside (Joseph Matheny) - Goodreads
Xen: The Zen of the Other (The Liminal Cycle) by Ezra Buckley (Joseph Matheny) - Goodreads
Statio Numero (The Liminal Cycle) by Joseph Matheny, Jason Nunes (Illustrator) - Goodreads

Joseph’s early background in tech

Early Personal Computers, 1970s-1980s - Museums Victoria
Technology that changed us: The 1980s, from MS-DOS to the first GPS satellite - ZDNET
Berkeley Macintosh User Group - Wikipedia
Steve Wozniak - Wikipedia
ARPANET - Wikipedia
Dial-up Internet access - Wikipedia
Bulletin board system - Wikipedia
Email - Wikipedia
The History of Email: Digging Into the Past, Present, and Future - Email On Acid
Pony Express - Wikipedia

Joseph’s epiphany

High Frontiers magazine - Anarchivism
High Frontiers Issue #1 - Archive.org
Modem - Wikipedia
The WELL - Wikipedia
Dialer - Wikipedia
Apple Inc. - Wikipedia
Silicon Valley: How a Bunch of Hippies Changed the World - Techovedas

Joseph’s ‘living book’ art project

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Wikipedia
Ceremonial magic - Wikipedia
Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) - Wikipedia
The worlds of technology and magic are closer than you think - Dazed
Swiss Army knife - Wikipedia
This is Not the End of the Book by Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière - Goodreads
Nick Herbert (physicist) - Wikipedia
Bulletin board system (BBS) - Wikipedia
How Psychedelics Helped Shape Modern Technology - Psychedelic Spotlight
Mycelium - Wikipedia

Magic is theatre; theatre is magic

Live action role-playing gamer (LARP) - Wikipedia
Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) - Wikipedia
Rimbaud's Systematic Derangement of the Senses - Language is a Virus
Arthur Rimbaud - Wikipedia
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - Wikipedia
John Dee - Wikipedia
Enochian magic - Wikipedia
Enochian (language) - Wikipedia
Watchtower (magic) - Wikipedia
Scrying - Wikipedia
"Spirit mirror" used by 16th-century occultist John Dee came from the Aztec Empire - Live Science
What Do The Angels From The Bible Actually Look Like? - All That’s Interesting
Ezekiel - Wikipedia
Yahweh - Wikipedia
J. Z. Knight / Ramtha - Wikipedia

Would there be magic without humans?

Jacques Vallée - Wikipedia
Daemon (computing) - Wikipedia
Httpd - Wikipedia
Unix - Wikipedia
Linux - Wikipedia
Invocation - Wikipedia
Evocation - Wikipedia
Function (computer programming) - Wikipedia
Magical Code and Coded Magic: The Persistence of Occult Ideas in Modern Gaming and Computing
Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers by Jacques F. Vallée - Goodreads
Martin Shaw website: books
Wolf Milk: Chthonic Memory in the Deep Wild by Martin Shaw - Goodreads
Devon - Wikipedia
William S. Burroughs - Wikipedia
Brion Gysin - Wikipedia
Cut-up technique - Wikipedia
Cut ups - BrionGysin.com
The Third Mind - Wikipedia
The Third Mind by William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin - Goodreads
Simonton's Famous Flying Flapjacks, Just Another Tin Foil Hat - YouTube
The Eagle River Incident - UFO Insight
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati - Wikipedia
Buckwheat - Wikipedia
The Trickster and the Paranormal by George P. Hansen - Goodreads
Peripheral vision - Wikipedia

Joseph’s thoughts on, and experiences of, synchronicity

Synchronicity - Wikipedia
Collective unconscious - Wikipedia
Psychic staring effect - Wikipedia
Grimoire - Wikipedia
Six Ways: Approaches & Entries for Practical Magic by Aidan Wachter - Goodreads
Everything You Need to Know about Salmon Fishing in Alaska - Katmai Fishing Guides
Sockeye salmon - Wikipedia
Naknek, Alaska - Wikipedia
Contiguous United States (‘The lower 48’) - Wikipedia
Jack London - Wikipedia
Arctic circle - Wikipedia
Arctic methane emissions - Wikipedia
‘Squirt the bird’ - Wordspy
True Detective: Night Country (Season 4) - Wikipedia
True Detective (Season 2) - Wikipedia
Watchmen (TV series) - Wikipedia
Rust Cohle - Wikipedia
Thomas Ligotti - Wikipedia
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race - Wikipedia
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror by Thomas Ligotti - Goodreads
The magnetic field near the Arctic is acting weird - The Verge
Climate change is rapidly transforming the Arctic: Why everybody should care - The Hill
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles - Wikipedia

We are nature

Big Sur - Wikipedia
Santa Cruz, California - Wikipedia
Central Coast (California) - Wikipedia
Sequoioideae (Redwood) - Wikipedia
Jack Kerouac - Wikipedia
Big Sur (novel) - Wikipedia
Henry Miller - Wikipedia
Esalen Institute - Wikipedia
Robert Anton Wilson - Wikipedia
'Dark Watchers' have been spooking California hikers for centuries. What are they? - Live Science
Brocken spectre - Wikipedia
Shamanism and trees - Shamanic Practice
Peter Levenda - Wikipedia
Joseph Campbell - Wikipedia
Cardinal Directions Spiritual Meaning - Spiritual Desk
Firmament - Wikipedia
The Matrix - Wikipedia

Is the Internet a failed experiment in freedom of expression?

How the Internet Has Changed Everyday Life - Open Mind BBVA
Early websites 1991 - 1995 - Web Design Museum
The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension - Deoxy.org website
Gopher (protocol) - Wikipedia
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - Wikipedia
Incunabula Research Centre - Deoxy.org
Timothy Leary - Wikipedia
Robert Anton Wilson - Wikipedia
John C. Lilly - Wikipedia
E- commerce - Wikipedia
Art Bell - Wikipedia
HTML - Wikipedia
Adobe Photoshop - Wikipedia
How The Internet Transformed The American Rave Scene - NPR
Disinformation (company) - Wikipedia
Penny Royal podcast website
Push technology - Wikipedia
Algorithm - Wikipedia
MySpace - Wikipedia
Spotify - Wikipedia
Neurodiversity - Wikipedia
Artificial Intelligence - Wikipedia
Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences by D.W. Pasulka - Goodreads
Chatbot - Wikipedia
Cut-up technique - Wikipedia
Large language model - Wikipedia
Enochian (language) - Wikipedia
Jacques Vallée - Wikipedia
Scrying - Wikipedia
Creepy Microsoft Bing Chatbot Urges Tech Columnist To Leave His Wife - Huffington Post
Dave Metcalfe’s blog
Source code - Wikipedia
Ezekiel - Wikipedia
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - Wikipedia
Special Collections & Archives - UC Santa Cruz
Alchemy - Wikipedia
Hermeticism - Wikipedia
Schizophrenia - Wikipedia
Santa Barbara, California

Art becoming someone else’s reality

Rorschach test - Wikipedia
Waking Life - Wikipedia
Waking Life (2001) Official Trailer - YouTube
Rotoscoping - Wikipedia
Richard Linklater - Wikipedia
Philip K. Dick - Wikipedia
A Scanner Darkly (film) - Wikipedia
A Scanner Darkly (2006) Official Trailer - YouTube
A Scanner Darkly (novel) - Wikipedia
Allen Greenfield on Twitter/X
Santa Cruz , California - Wikipedia
Valis (novel series) - Wikipedia
Gnosis (magazine) - Wikipedia
Gnosis magazine website
High Frontiers magazine - Anarchivism
Robert Anton Wilson - Wikipedia
Berkeley, California - Wikipedia
Big Sur - Wikipedia
Route 66 - Wikipedia
Los Angeles - Wikipedia
Jim Morrison - Wikipedia
J.R. “Bob” Dobbs - Wikipedia
Church of the Sub Genius - Wikipedia
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake - Wikipedia
Tai chi - Wikipedia
Timothy Leary - Wikipedia
Nina Graboi - Wikipedia
Albert Hofmann (chemist) - Wikipedia
R. Gordon Wasson - Wikipedia
Terence McKenna - Wikipedia
Dennis McKenna - Wikipedia
St Louis Obispo, California - Wikipedia
Robertson Jeffers - Wikipedia
Peter Levenda - Wikipedia
Sinister Forces Series by Peter Levenda - Goodreads
Project Artichoke (formerly Project Bluebird) - Wikipedia
Edward Kelley - Wikipedia
John Dee - Wikipedia
Edward Kelley and Paul Waring Raising the Dead - The Occult and Magick blog
Cosmic Trigger I (audiobook) - Audible
Light pollution - Wikipedia
Noise pollution - Wikipedia
Electromagnetic radiation and health - Wikipedia
Nonsense Bizarre podcast

Psychoactive texts

Paul Weston’s website
VYS0023 | Mercurial, Mutable, Mysterious Something - Vayse to Face with Paul Weston
Synchromysticism, Wikipedia
Valis (novel) - Wikipedia
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati - Wikipedia
Robert Anton Wilson - Wikipedia
Syd Barrett - Wikipedia
Psychedelic drug - Wikipedia
The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Wikipedia
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson - Goodreads
The Raw Shark Texts - Wikipedia
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall - Goodreads

Are ideas living things?

Animism - Wikipedia
VYS0010 | Amazing Stories - Vayse to Face with Dr Allen H Greenfield Pt.1
VYS0011 | Weird Tales - Vayse to Face with Dr Allen H Greenfield Pt.2
Muscle memory - Wikipedia
Genesis P-Orridge - Wikipedia ( )
Psychic TV - Wikipedia
William S. Burroughs - Wikipedia
Cut-up technique - Wikipedia
Cartesianism - Wikipedia
Capitalism - Wikipedia
The Trickster and the Paranormal by George P. Hansen - Goodreads

Are there magicians in politics?

Group Magickal Workings in Politics - Reddit
What is Meme Magick? - YouTube
Pepe the Frog (and Kek) - Wikipedia
Cambridge Analytica - Wikipedia
Steve Bannon - Wikipedia
Chaos magic - Wikipedia
A video making the rounds online depicts Trump as a Messiah-like figure - NPR
Hacker - Wikipedia
Caller ID Spoofing - Wikipedia
Sophomore - Wikipedia
Memetics - Wikipedia
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections - Wikipedia
Punk'd (TV series) - Wikipedia
Playing the Infinite Game - World Quant
Zero-sum game - Wikipedia
Gamification - Wikipedia
Bitcoin - Wikipedia
Live action role-playing game(LARP) - Wikipedia
Reality tunnel - Wikipedia
A framework for using magic to study the mind - Frontiers in Psychology
Ritual In Game Design - Lumpley Games
Ritual, reality and representation: From ancient theatre to postmodern performance - Interartive
Charles Bukowski, “Find what you love and let it kill you” quote - Goodreads
Charles Bukowski - Wikipedia

Joseph’s recommendations (with suggestions from Buckley and Hine)

Under the Silver Lake - Wikipedia
Under The Silver Lake (2019) Official Trailer - YouTube
Everything Everywhere All At Once - Wikipedia
Everything Everywhere All At Once | Official Trailer - YouTube
Michelle Yeoh - Wikipedia
Jackie Chan - Wikipedia
Wolf Milk: Chthonic Memory in the Deep Wild by Martin Shaw - Goodreads
Martin Shaw author page - Goodreads
High Fidelity (film) - Wikipedia
High Fidelity (2000) Theatrical Trailer - YouTube
John Cusack - Wikipedia
Evanston, Illinois - Wikipedia
High Fidelity (novel) - Wikipedia

Vayse online

Vayse website
Vayse on X/Twitter
Vayse on Instagram
Music From Vayse - Volume 1 by Polypores
Vayse on Ko-Fi
Vayse email: vayseinfo@gmail.com

Buckley’s Closing Question(s)

Central Intelligence Agency - Wikipedia
Dealey Plaza - Wikipedia
The motives of Terry Wriste - Reddit
Georgia Guidestones - Wikipedia
Waste Container (Wheelie bin) - Wikipedia
Voynich manuscript - Wikipedia
Ashtar (extraterrestrial being) - Wikipedia
D. B. Cooper - Wikipedia
The Narrator (Fight Club) (Tyler Durden) - Wikipedia
Fight Club trailer - YouTube

Special Guest: Joseph Matheny.