Mystery Street (1950)

NAM (21)

You know if you ever come out of there alive, you won't recognize yourself. And then one day you catch yourself in a mirror and see it's already happened. By that time you don't give a shit.

NAM (19)

Day one, they shave you. It's weird, you look like an alien. They do it quick. I get off the bus, sign my name, twenty minutes later I go into this room with a couple dozen other guys, all of us shaved, identical, red as babies. All of us wondering what the hell happened.

It's supposed to acclimate you. They line you all up and just fuck with you. Chew you out, make you do squats. It goes on for days. Your skin is so raw you don't want to touch anything. It hurts to move. You can't stand still. Your legs are shaking. No one's eaten in a day or two. Nothing stays down. Finally you just sleep. All around you guys start dropping. They're out cold before they hit the floor.

By the time you get out in the field, it's amazing the kind of conditions you can sleep in. You could sleep right through a fire fight, if you wanted to. That's one thing they teach you real good.

NAM (Mark Baker, 1981)

In June 2008, Wrnlrd was interviewed by the Washington DC City Paper. The questions focused on the document Oneiromantical War (6), which was nearing its release date of June 24.

The interviewer asked about "influences". We found ourselves talking about the Hemi-Sync method for brainwave synchronization, Be My Baby by the Ronettes, and Mark Baker's NAM.

*

I first read NAM some time around 1984. The book enjoyed a wide readership at that time. When the first Fugazi EP came out in 1987, I recognized the band's name from Mark Baker's glossary. Everyone seemed to be reading it.

By late 2007, when recording for Oneiromantical War began, the book was long out of print. Initially all that remained in my memory of NAM was a hazy scene of a few soldiers... a dirt road... a fallen bicycle... someone removing a woman's breasts with a knife.

*

During our work on Oneiromantical War, we would dig out the old copy of NAM and read passages at random to help guide our improvisations. It seemed to be an entirely different book from the one we read in '84. In the 20+ years since then, it had grown in our mind to something like a religious vision or prophecy. Soon we abandoned the book and relied on our own recollections.

Over the course of several weeks "in the studio", our memory of the text served as an emotional framework or guidepost. During this time we made a habit of going to sleep listening to Hemi-Sync tapes on headphones. Synchronizing the hemispheres of the brain. The next day, memories of NAM would stir, entwined with memories of the night's dreams.

Mldthr (2, 5, and 7)

Mldthr is the first component of the powerful Ternary complex 2, 5, and 7. The first document consisted of 9 sub-compartments: 7 primary spaces with 2 enclosed chambers for entrance and exit. This structure was dictated by our incomplete understanding of the Hypercube at that time, which seemed to suggest that the second compartment held either 7 or 9 rooms. After some deliberation we decided to add the 7 and 2, resulting in the total 9.

Years later, during our work on Pentagon (5), it became clear that Mldthr's original structure amounted to a premature reach toward 9. We saw that the true root of Mldthr was the addition of 5 and 2, not 7 and 2. The second document of Mldthr corrected this by omitting the chambers of entrance and exit.

While the original equation is technically correct,

2 + 7 + 9 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

it is merely a reflection of our arrogance in suggesting that one may access the pyramid's capstone through compartment 2. This is false. The revised structure of Mldthr

2 + 5 + 7 = 14 = 1 + 4 = 5

correctly suggests the actual, direct relationships between Mldthr, Pentagon, and Myrmidon, which form the Ternary complex 2, 5, and 7: an invaluable tool in divining the interior of the capstone.

Hypercube 5p

A side effect of joining 4 and 5 is to wedge compartment 9 directly against their connecting corner. We have seen how this makes it possible to infer the contents of 9 from the contents of 4 and 5. It is also possible to infer this information from other sources.

At any spot on the Hypercube, we may look to the compartment directly opposite our position to find the necessary connecting point leading to 9.



In addition to 4 + 5, the union of 1 + 8, 2 + 7, and 3 + 6 will also position each pair of joined compartments directly against a different wall of the ninth compartment, the contents of which can then be inferred from sounds, temperature, and vibrations through the wall. Combining the information gained by a study of all four walls at junctions 1 and 8, 2 and 7, 3 and 6, and 4 and 5 will produce the most complete possible picture of the capstone's interior.

Hypercube 4p

Although by superimposing two reference points we have seen that compartments 5 and 9 occupy the same vertical path, the user will find it impossible to enter compartment 9 directly from compartment 5.

Stepping back now from the joining of these two compartments, we will see that a remainder of the cube has been blocked off by the maneuver required to link 5 and 4.



This now isolated compartment (9) can be expressed as the sum of the two surrounding it.

4 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

As seen above, from within compartments 5 and 4 there is no entrance to compartment 9. But its contents may be inferred from what is present in 5 and 4, and from what can be felt and heard through the walls.

Hypercube 3p

The center of the cube changes relative to the user's point of reference, and defining each new center will alter the arrangement of its surrounding compartments. This shifting locus of control is the key to a total activation of the cube.

The model displayed here represents an aerial view of the cube, with the outlying compartments set at ground level, rising as we move inward to converge at number 9.

When viewed from its base, the Hypercube takes the shape of a pyramid with the ninth compartment as its capstone.

This capstone has its mirror in Pentagon, as 5 is the sequential center of the nine phases.

(1, 2, 3, 4) 5 (6, 7, 8, 9)

When the two reference frames are superimposed, the sequential center (5) and the pyramid's point of convergence (9) are stacked into the same vertical axis.

9
8
7
6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4
3
2
1

Here we have defined a connective point between two particular dimensions of the cube, and may begin to ascend through this vertical alignment of 5 and 9.

Hypercube 2p

The Hypercube generates 362,880 possible permutations.

362,880 = 3 + 6 + 2 + 8 + 8 + 0 = 27

2 + 7 = 9

The user may choose any of these, but may find Ternary complexes to be the most immediately rewarding.

Ex: The user chooses to divide the 9 components into the following 3 Ternary complexes:

Complex A (1, 3, 6)
Complex B (2, 4, 9)
Complex C (5, 7, 8)

A = 1 + 3 + 6 = 10 = 1 + 0 = 1

B = 2 + 4 + 9 = 15 = 1 + 5 = 6

C = 5 + 7 + 8 = 20 = 2 + 0 = 2

1 + 6 + 2 = 9

Hypercube 1p

The Hypercube is a system of nine primary compartments, each corresponding to one of the nine phases. Each compartment connects directly to certain others depending on their unique properties.

The ninth compartment is the primary (default) center of the cube. In this position, all other compartments lead to the ninth. This may be illustrated in a number of ways, such as by traveling sequentially through the entire series. We may also examine the series more thoroughly by navigating all the possible permutations of the nine, or more selectively by simply adding together the sum of each vertical column one at a time.

AIR 8 + 5 + 3 = 16 = 1 + 6 = 7

WATER 7 + 9 + 2 = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9

FIRE 6 + 4 + 1 = 11 = 1 + 1 = 2

7 + 9 + 2 = 18

1 + 8 = 9

NOTE: The same result will be achieved by adding horizontal rows and, as suggested above, more complex avenues are possible.

Ignition

Cloven Eye will document our sources in the development of numbers 7, 8, and 9 in the Hypercube. We hope this will also be a place to collect your comments and questions about Wrnlrd, The Order Of The Cloven Eye label, and other related projects. This forum will be monitored regularly by various members of the Order.