Aleph Mind Control: Circumcision

We Believe that circumcision is an important factor in the Genesis of man (or resurrection of Aleph). We therefore offer here a tentative introduction to the study of its physiological and psychological consequences.

The foreskin, in enveloping the gland, shelters it from all contact. Because of this protection the non-circumcised child lives until the age of puberty as if that organ, as a sexual organ, did not exist--except in those momentary states of excitation to which , as everyone knows, the child is subject. At such times the mucous lining, which is very sensitive, causes a strongly localized pleasure in the sexual organ. It is not until puberty that the gland undergoes exterior contacts sufficient to establish an active transmission throughout the whole sexual system. Until that time, the system can be compared to a dead-end street , without traffic, without exchange, inasmuch as the fixation of the center of interest is blocked at the entrance.

The practice of circumcision on the young child results in (1) a physiological shock, accompanied by (2) a partial desensitizing of the gland ( which makes, later on, for a lack of violently concentrated sensation) and followed by (3) an indefinite prolongation of the sexual shock in the whole organism because of the uncovering of the gland. From that time on, the gland will continually undergo contacts which will be transmitted to nerve centers, to an entire apparatus still in the original stage and incapable of any impulse towards sexual functioning. We know that the sexual instrument is not isolated. It is in contact with the sensorial functioning of all the senses. (This is evident when an erotic state transforms the five senses, conferring upon them an erotic character and focussing them for its own use.)

This awakening in the child obviously cannot bring forth in him capacities which he does not possess. However, with equal opportunity, his faculties will be better organized and exploited.

This is not the only aspect of the question, nor is it, perhaps, the most important. Circumcision in the extremely young child creates a shock around which the psyche builds itself. It is true that an important shock has already taken place: the birth trauma, recorded in the crystallization of a "snowball" of reactions which will become the self. But the trauma of circumcision immediately introduces within that psyche a mobile element; it is not buried as soon as it is produced, but is prolonged indefinitely and radiates within the vital centers during their formative periods.

Thus, in the non-circumcised, the psyche is crystallized around a birth trauma, which is slowly but surely interred by the child's interaction with the environment. The younger the child, the more malleable he is, so that these reactions act upon him like a mold.

This procedure is violently troubled by circumcision at eight days, because it introduces a purely individual shock, a moving traumatism that concerns the very fibers of his being. Instead of a slow condensation of fluctuating elements determined by the surroundings, we find an active, awakened, vital center in full process of organization, capable of transforming its reactions to the environment into purely individual elements. Not only does the individual consciousness--the "I" --construct itself more rapidly, but it's foundations are laid in a living, flexible element constantly related to the development of the individual.

But how is a woman affected by all this? And is the social attitude of the Jew influenced by circumcision? The Jewish woman is, indeed, transformed by the fact of the man's having been circumcised. This practice, having existed for many centuries, has brought about certain hereditary modifications in both the male and female: these include a great nervous sensibility due to an especially complex nervous system, always on the qui vive, always mobile and on the watch, ready to shift balance, even to lose balance; a precocious, sometimes excessive intellectuality; and a mind which, though strongly determined, is nevertheless mobile and pliable.

Besides the hereditary transmission of qualities such as these, there exists a Jewish mode of behavior, on the part of man which necessarily reacts upon woman, and also a particular state of consciousness that expresses itself socially. (It is dangerous to venture into generalizations. Besides, "the circumcision of the hearts" which was mentions some two thousand years ago, would be, if understood, the quickest and most revolutionary way towards human fulfillment.)

Sex is obviously a determining factor in every society. Being a projection of cosmic energies, it can well be translated in terms of Aleph versus Yod. At the bottom of the scale, in one of the most primitive manifestations, we see the male bee dying in the sexual act. In such societies, the female organizes an immutable functional order, in which the aleph is constantly murdered. On a higher animal level, the sexual activity is dependent on recurrent needs, and both males and females are conditioned by seasonal rhythms. The species cannot evolve; they remain within the framework of Tov, which is continuity in time.

The human condition is a state of conflict, a struggle, symbolically between YHWH, who aims at freeing the Aleph, and Eretz (the earth) who, as we have seen, "drinks the blood" of Hevel, his Adam bereaved of Aleph (dam meaning blood).

Let us now consider the three following cases: (a) non-circumcision; (b) circumcision at puberty: that of Ishmael, son of Hagar, the enslaved woman; (c) circumcision at eight days: that of Isaac, son of Sarah.

The uncircumcised. For the uncircumcised, the eruption at puberty of a centrifugal force generally leads to an upheaval. At that age, a deep sexual disturbance may be felt by an unprepared organism. New, unexpected sensations upset the static balance prevailing hitherto (or, alas, not upsetting it, leave it static). An outburst takes place, as after the bursting of a dam. Naturally, these cases are extreme; and once again, one cannot generalize, for one can easily find cases of sexual development which invalidate these remarks in one way or another. But one thing is certain: cases of sexual "revelation", of disturbance of masculine vitality, of interior realization, or of reorganization of spiritual life due to coitus, are not the case of Israel. It is equally certain that the search for union by identification of two beings in the sexual act and the desire to plunge into the sexual abyss in order to be identified with the great "vital currents" of nature (as sung or described by writers and vaunted as being the source of spiritual, artistic and passionate ideals) are an abomination in the eyes of Israel, circumcised at eight days and carrying in his flesh the pact with Elohim.

Circumcision at puberty. Quite different is the result of circumcision when it takes place at the age of thirteen (the boy's age at puberty), as is the case among followers of the Moslem faith. With the violent sexual shock, at the prodome of puberty, the sensorial perceptions suddenly become purely sexual. This drains the masculine energy towards sex, maintaining it there in a continually erotic state. As a consequence of this practice, a stoppage of the intellectual faculties and even a regression to sexual excess may be produced.

Circumcision at eight days. A manner of confronting the paradoxical double movement of which we are made is presented by circumcision at eight days (Aleph versus Yod). It not only polarizes the subconscious around an awakening vital energy and constructs within a mobile psyche, but the contributory elements are, themselves, mobile.

When, at the age of two or three months, the intelligent co-ordination of movement begins to occur, there is already, in the circumcised child, a subconscious "nucleus" around the sensorial activity which engendered it. The psychophysiological exchanges become intense. The young self, attached to its vital centers, gradually eliminates the elements imposed by its environment, and, because of this, finds itself carried away by a permanent contradictory movement within itself. The developing self is in a state similar to that of a chicken which, during its life in the egg, devours its own substance (the white of the egg). Later on, when the male centrifugal force assumes its sexual character, it finds that its "enemy" (the psyche), grown strong because of having fed upon its substance (sexual), has proclaimed itself master of the house. What takes place psychologically is clear enough. The sensibility of the sexual organ has been dulled--whereas eroticism is, on the contrary, highly branched and subtle. Thus sensuality becomes imaginative but does not disrupt the individual's consciousness. Erotically, the man is more like a valley watered by innumerable streams than like a deep gorge where an overwhelming torrent rushes along. Instead of the man being carried away, his mind rules. Sensuality and imagination are at work, but the individual remains "himself". He does not lose consciousness of himself. He cannot possibly lose this awareness during coitus.

Thus we see that man, endowed with his self (which, though static by nature, shelters living seed) must struggle against and overcome the centrifugal sexual movement which tends to lead him into the abyss of the female. Circumcision at eight days helps him powerfully. It gives him the additional dynamism necessary to ensure his escape from the "queen bee" aspect of woman.

Woman. Wheras through all the symbols, allegoories and legends concerning YHWH in the Book of Genesis, emphasis is laid on the sublimation of woman hood as a determining factor in human evolution, the covenant between YHWH and Abraham in view of this may well appear as contradiction; for it aims to dissociate man from the animal species by an operation upon man's flesh only.

It may, however, be noted that, the human psyche being of the same centripetal nature as the feminine sexual function, two contrasting energies to be readjusted do not exist, in womanhood. So woman's problems can and must, psychologically, be dealt with directly. In this field she cannot but respond to Abram's deep and constant wish: "Woman, thou art my sister, my companion." In the truest Hebrew tradition, where the male cannot possibly sink into the primordial female abyss, a psychological and physiological relationship comes into being, thanks to which the woman is given every chance to become supremely intelligent. This is far more real than the projection (in an imaginary heaven) of a mere symbol of the feminine archetype to be worshipped, such as, for instance, Mary, Mother of Jesus.

Social. Centrifugal boys and cetripetal girls have different centers of emotional and mental activity, and this well before puberty. Puberty is the result of a slow process of development which has, over a period, been leading the boy outwards and the girl inwards. In this sense it can be said that the emotional and the mental life of the child is of the same nature as his sex.

While the development of the self (which is cumulative) finds no opposition in the maturing sexual process of the girl, whose elements are primarily static, with the boy the case is different: there is conflict. As soon as a centrifugal vitality develops in him, it tends to carry the self along with it. Here we see the circumcised and the uncircumcised behaving in opposite ways(with innumerable exceptions). The former does not succeed in ridding himself of the subconsciousness which is well trained to gallop without faltering over moving elements; on the contrary, the latter(the circumcised) has the greatest difficulty in not letting himself be carried away by the collective torrent in which individuality is drowned. He is centrifugal at a moment when his individuation is not assured; and because of that he risks losing it. It is difficult for him to free himself from his environment and to acheive maturity, because his faculties are conditioned by collective automatisms. He may even go so far as to allow himself to be swept into some sort of a turbulent current.

We need seek no further for an explanation of the bands of turbulent youths which nowadays are to be found in all countries. Carried away by centrifugal, erotic passion that has drained their emotions as well as their reason, these young people, in love with those who impose themselves on them, carrying emblems, repeating slogans and waving flags, undergo a heroic exaltation which only tears them away from individual egocentricity to topple them into the collective self, which is as functional and "female" as any hive of bees. Their immature freedom breeds a conformity of a kind that tends to regress to a would-be sub-species, where the individual would be in danger of getting lost in a feeling of "belonging".

YHWH is absent from manifestations such as these.