Inner Experience (SUNY series, Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory)

Although it not often is discussed, I would argue that "Inner Experience" is, amongst many other things, the most devastating response to the early work of Martin Heidegger in the realm of Continental Philosophy. There are many thinkers who have either attempted to do away with Heidegger, dismiss him, or continue his work in an unorthodox manner, but none, other than Bataille, has both adequately grasped the core of his (early) thought and dealt a devastating blow to it.Essentially, as I've understood him, Heidegger interprets Dasein (Being-there) as "Project". Dasein can only be understood in the context of the meaningful activity that it involves itself with/finds itself absorbed in ="Project", as in a project that one/an individual "works on". Bataille, through a sustained exploration of "Project", shows how "Project" itself can be understood to be a kind of negation of the intensity of being. As I've read Bataille, the crucial thing is to find a way to approach intolerability. To "be" (for Bataille) means to "be intense", and to "be intense" means to "approach intolerabiliy". Instead of looking for an "Equipmental Totality" (Heidegger) to plug intolerable experiences into, we instead let them overpower us.I'd also like to emphasize that engagement with Heidegger is just a small part of Bataille's thought, and that there is nowhere better to become acquainted with Bataille than "Inner Experience".

Bataille challenges us to free ourselves from as many mental categories as possible and to experience the raw, naked moment just as it is, even if it is intolerable. He challenges us to throw away all of our pre-concieved notions about... everything, and to enter into the endless unknown. In this way his viewpoint reminds me a lot of someone like Jiddu Krishnamurti and/or other great sages. What makes Bataille different from someone like Krishnmurti, Alan Watt, or related people is that his communicative style is much more along the lines of a continental philosopher than a "sage" or "guru". His teachings are not all that radical for people familiar with the aforementioned "guru's" but his method and communicative style are different enough to make this a worthwhile read even for those of us who practice this sort of spiritual path.

I read Bataille's book called Inner Experience wherein he speaks of "the hatred of salvation" as as state of not wanting to be everything. "NO LONGER TO WANT TO BE EVERYTHING. this is the hatred for salvation".So, it seems to me that he is saying that to accept one's insufficiency without trying to change it, without working to improve oneself, or to raise oneself, and so on, is the hatred of salvation. As such, he is implying that salvation is something that we are all inclined to seek, in a sense which is not really differentiated from the religious sense of salvation.Bataille saw it as positive to become satiated and thereby gain the means from the idea of salvation to save oneself, since investing in transcendence alone robs us of our sovereignty as individuals: he preferred the formula: "The fall from grace is everlasting". This is the position of those who do not have contempt for the reality of the here and now, but one has to attempt the summit in order to appreciate the satiety of the decline.

Bataille has a way of terrorizing us with the sublime--with ecstatic movements that leave us dazzled and anxious. Sublime or totally destructive? One could answer "Yes". Not for the faint of heart. But I challenge anyone that believes themselves to be an "rational" atheist to approach this work with an empty mind and let Bataille's black sea of mysticism wash over them. You will beg for liberation after most pages, and you will see the end of an active atheism, void of all humanism and scientific faith. No free will, no gods, only the night terrors of one who has given himself over completely to Chance. Mediocre religious people should be required to read this in Sunday school so that they might be stripped of their bourgeois, dead god and have the opportunity to return again to the spirit of ancient religion.