Human self-awareness is not a feature but a bug, according to a growing cross-disciplinary critique. On The Tucker Carlson Show, exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger described demonic possession as an obsessive, unchangeable pattern where a spirit is eternally fixed on a single sin. Separately, on the Modern Wisdom podcast, philosophers argued human consciousness is a similar trap: an evolutionary accident that forces us to attach meaning to a temporary self within a chaotic reality.
Both secular and theological models see the mind as locked in a loop. Fr. Ripperger asserts demons have infused knowledge - they know things instantly, without thought, and their wills became permanently fixed when they fell. Joey of Pursuit of Wonder argued consciousness creates a 'recursive loop' where the self tries to measure itself, leading to endless inquiry but never total satisfaction. The mechanics are eerily similar: a fixed pattern of thought repeating ad infinitum.
The resulting human experience is one of manufactured suffering. Regret, according to Joey, is a rational illusion that ignores the fixed constraints of our past brain states and information. Anxiety, host Chris Williamson added, is 'foresight without control.' The psychological solution mirrors the spiritual one: break the obsession through action. Williamson advises a 'bias for action' because 'anxiety hates a moving target.'
Ultimately, both perspectives converge on a grim but liberating diagnosis. The human condition is a kind of possession by consciousness itself. The proposed treatments are wonder - finding meaning in art and inquiry - or disciplined action to disrupt the mind's obsessive feedback loops. As Joey noted, once you unravel the absurdity of existence, you can't go back. You can only move forward.
Joey, Modern Wisdom:
- Self-apprehension is the most horrific, terrifying thing in the known universe.
- And yet it is the most beautiful thing because it’s the only thing that allows conceptual understanding of existence and reality.
