Working Notes from the Textual Underground

The Text-Based Ontologist

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A Syllabus for Reality Engineers, Narrative Alchemists, and Semantic Cartographers

This is not a traditional academic programme.

It sits somewhere between philosophy department, occult library, media lab, hacker space, monastery, writer’s workshop, and signal intelligence unit.

The central premise:

Human beings inhabit realities structured by language.
In computational culture, text has become executable.
Therefore, whoever understands symbolic systems understands reality construction.

The goal of the text-based ontologist is not merely to analyse the world, but to perceive and shape the narrative architectures through which worlds emerge.

YEAR I — FOUNDATIONS OF THE SYMBOLIC WORLD

Module 1: Language as Reality Infrastructure

Core Question: How does language shape perception and possibility?

Topics:

  • Language as symbolic technology

  • Naming and categorisation

  • Metaphor as cognition

  • Narrative identity

  • Framing effects

  • Semantic compression

  • Myth as operating system

Key Thinkers:

  • Ludwig Wittgenstein

  • George Lakoff

  • Marshall McLuhan

  • Roland Barthes

Primary Texts:

  • Philosophical Investigations

  • Metaphors We Live By

  • Mythologies

Practical Exercise:
Spend one week documenting every metaphor people use around work, time, identity, and success.

Module 2: Ontology and the Construction of Reality

Core Question: What kinds of things are considered “real”?

Topics:

  • Classical ontology

  • Social construction

  • Hyperreality

  • Consensus reality

  • Reality tunnels

  • Simulation and symbolic environments

Key Thinkers:

  • Jean Baudrillard

  • Peter L. Berger

  • Thomas Luckmann

  • Robert Anton Wilson

Primary Texts:

  • Simulacra and Simulation

  • The Social Construction of Reality

  • Prometheus Rising

Field Assignment:
Track how social media transforms symbolic signals into perceived reality.

YEAR II — MYTH, MEDIA, AND MEMETICS

Module 3: Mythic Imagination and Archetypal Systems

Core Question: Why do stories organise human consciousness?

Topics:

  • Archetypes

  • Mythic structures

  • Hero narratives

  • Symbolic recurrence

  • Ritual and transformation

  • The psyche as story-producing system

Key Thinkers:

  • Carl Jung

  • James Hillman

  • Joseph Campbell

Primary Texts:

  • The Hero with a Thousand Faces

  • The Dream and the Underworld

Practical:
Maintain a dream and symbol journal for 90 days.

Module 4: Memetics and Viral Language

Core Question: How do ideas reproduce?

Topics:

  • Memes as cultural replicators

  • Viral language

  • Information ecologies

  • Attention economics

  • Narrative contagion

  • Digital ritual behaviour

Key Thinkers:

  • Richard Dawkins

  • William S. Burroughs

  • Terence McKenna

Primary Texts:

  • The Selfish Gene

  • The Electronic Revolution

Lab:
Design and release a memetic artifact into the network. Observe mutation patterns.

YEAR III — COMPUTATIONAL LANGUAGE AND PROMPT ALCHEMY

Module 5: Promptcraft and Semantic Engineering

Core Question: What happens when language becomes executable?

Topics:

  • Prompt engineering

  • AI as symbolic mirror

  • Generative language systems

  • Latent space navigation

  • Human-AI co-authorship

  • Semantic precision

Practical Labs:

  • Prompt rituals

  • Identity simulations

  • Narrative world generation

  • Agent personality construction

  • Synthetic myth creation

Core Skill:
Learning how subtle textual changes alter generated realities.

Module 6: Narrative Operating Systems

Core Question: How do stories become behavioural infrastructure?

Topics:

  • Personal mythology

  • Identity scripting

  • NLP and reframing

  • Organisational narratives

  • Civilisational myths

  • Psychological architectures

Key Thinkers:

  • Gregory Bateson

  • Viktor Frankl

  • Robert Dilts

Practical:
Map your own operating narratives across:

  • identity

  • money

  • creativity

  • love

  • power

  • technology

  • mortality

YEAR IV — APPLIED TEXT-BASED ONTOLOGY

Module 7: Reality Design Studio

Core Question: Can symbolic environments be intentionally designed?

Students build:

  • media ecosystems

  • philosophical brands

  • symbolic products

  • narrative-driven communities

  • AI-assisted identities

  • mythic learning experiences

This module combines:

  • storytelling

  • interface design

  • psychology

  • systems thinking

  • ritual structure

  • semantic architecture

Capstone Project:
Construct a living symbolic world that changes participant behaviour.

Module 8: Ethics of Reality Construction

Core Question: What responsibilities come with symbolic power?

Topics:

  • Propaganda

  • Manipulation

  • Algorithmic persuasion

  • Narrative warfare

  • Cognitive sovereignty

  • Attention extraction

  • AI ethics

  • Meaning collapse

Key Texts:

  • Amusing Ourselves to Death

  • The Society of the Spectacle

Final Question:
How do we shape worlds without becoming tyrants of meaning?

REQUIRED PRACTICES

Every text-based ontologist must maintain:

1. The Living Archive

A searchable second brain.
(Obsidian recommended.)

2. The Wisdom Walk

Daily ambulatory cognition practice.

3. Symbolic Observation

Track recurring motifs, metaphors, and memes in culture.

4. Dreamwork and Reflection

Because symbolic systems emerge from below conscious awareness.

5. Prompt Journaling

Document prompts and resulting realities.

ELECTIVES

  • Chaos Magick and Hypersigils

  • Cybernetics

  • Semiotics

  • Science Fiction as Future Ontology

  • Tarot as Symbolic Interface

  • Digital Anthropology

  • Philosophical Poetry

  • AI Agent Persona Design

  • Mythic Branding

  • Worldbuilding for Civilisations

  • The History of Esoteric Writing Systems

FINAL INITIATION

To graduate, the student must answer three questions:

  1. What stories are currently writing you?

  2. What realities do your words make possible?

  3. Can you speak in a way that enlarges consciousness rather than diminishes it?

Because the final responsibility of the text-based ontologist is not manipulation.

It is stewardship of meaning.

Related Works

This syllabus is part of a triptych:

  • Philosophy — The mythic-poetic foundation; axioms and oath of the ontologist
  • Essay — A 2,400-word exploration of text as the foundational medium of reality construction

The curriculum trains. The philosophy orients. The essay argues.

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