226 Nietzsche
researchers and join their endless debates about the authenticity of real-
ity, hoping that somewhat tenable compromises and consensus might
ensue? No, said Nietzsche; recognizing "egoism as an error" does not
mean opting for epistemologica! "altruism." There must be an alterna-
tive. Two emphatically underlined sentences follow: "Go beyond 'me'
and 'you'! Experience on a cosmic level!" (9,443).
Now, we might expect that Nietzsche would seek a fusion of the
microcosmic individual with the macrocosmic organism, as well as a
communion with the universal soul in the manner of Giordano Bruno.
But this is exacdy what he did not want Although experience on a cos-
mic level does mean establishing contact with the colossal vastness of
which we are a part, it does not mean turning this vastness into a living
organism, which would render it too pleasant, anthropomorphic, and
reverent. A few weeks later, Nietzsche noted down: "The modern sci-
entific counterpart to belief in God is belief in the universe as an organ-
ism: I find that revolting" (9,522). He wanted nothing to do with this
sticky, mushy, proliferating whole. He ruled out any desire to return to
the womb. Nietzsche had not gone to all the effort of liberating himself
from a sheltering God just to crawl back into the godlike womb of the
universe. "We must picture it [the All] as a whole as far removed from
the organic as possible!" (9,522).
The truth of the organic is the inorganic The stone is the ultimate
end of wisdom. When Nietzsche wrote that we should "let ourselves be
possessed by things (not by people)" (9,451), he really meant things, as
cold and dead as possible. He attempted to empathize with the inani-
mate realm. His longing for the wodd of minerals began to take prece-
dence over his former attraction to oceans. Sentient life is an enormous
error, an excrescence, a huge detour. Back to the peace and silence of
stones. "Absolutely false assessment of the sentient wodd versus the
dead world," he wrote, and went on to say: "The 'dead' wodd! Always in
motion and without error, power versus power! And in the sentient
world everything false, vainglorious I It is a festivity to pass from this
world into the 'dead world.'" (9,468).