The term Pandæmonæon is bandied about a great deal by Chaos Magicians. The word itself seems to have been coined by Peter Carroll but, like the concept of gnosis, it is not a new idea. The same idea runs through ancient Indian thought as pralaya, for example. Pandæmonæon is, in fact, the "end of the world" -- at least in terms of anything recognizable to us as a society or civilization. Speculations on particulars of how it might manifest abound, but such exercises are a bit silly, since there are no particulars possible within Pandæmonæon itself!
The most important aspect regards the nature of information and its transference. At present, the speed at which information may be transmitted from source to target is bound by time, which manifests here as the speed of light. This, however, is an illusory restriction. Information is not manifested matter, and thus does not fall under the domain of the "universal laws of physics" that appear to govern the behavior of the medium through which it is transferred. To simplify this, one need only imagine the telephone. While it may appear that information is transferred instantaneously, this is not in fact the case. There is a time lag between departure from the information's source and receipt by the target which is dictated by the speed of an electrical transmission through a wire, or light through a fiber optic cable. In other words, the information must first be converted into something material and then moved through some other matter. Ultimately, it is not information that is moved; it is electrons or photons, which are then converted back into information when they arrive at their target. But the information itself is not the electron or photon (although these do contain and are composed of information). Information, as it now stands, cannot be measured on its own. It is an intangible to us, something that can never be experienced directly.
So then, what is information? It is what the ancient shaman might have called mana. It is not material, nor is it energy. Lacking a better cognate for the idea, it can best be described as æthyr; dispersed quanta that bind together temporarily to form a phenomena of any sort. Æthyr is not bound by the speed of light, does not itself occupy space, and is not subject to time. It is quite capable of being in more than one place at a time, or nowhere at all, or any combination of the two.
Pandæmonæon, then, is at one level the breaking down of all things into æthyr, or information. Everything becomes temporary agglomeration changeable at will, with will itself being understood as a transient agglomeration. This mirrors exactly the process by which any act of Chaos Magick is effected; one sets up a set of parameters beforehand through various techniques, but the techniques in themselves are not magick. Intentional magick can be manifested only when a state of Gnosis is achieved. Gnosis is the scattering of the mind back into the æthyric pool through the cessation of all mental process. Any number of variables (quanta) are then interchanged between the magickal Worker and the infinite field of infinitesimal potentialities (Æthyr). The form they will take in manifestation is determined by the parameters set to a great extent by the techniques employed. In other words, the techniques act in much the same was as the telephone line did in the previous example. When Pandæmonæon has been invoked, however, such intermediate steps are no longer necessary. Will directly manipulates the æthyr into various configurations, and nothing exists but that which has been so configured. Information is transmitted, processed and configured outside of the bounds of any concept of time, and thus instantaneously.
What effect, then, does this have upon humanity's social structures? It must first be understood that any social structure is nothing more than the product of mental processes. These can be changed at the whim of those who participate in a given structure. Furthermore, social structures of any kind are attempts to control the transmission and manifestation of information and the æthyr. It is always through the visor of his social structures that man forms consensual reality. Pandæmonæon, then, is implicitly the collapse of all social structures, as there can no longer be any medium through which the information is transmitted. In other words, all of the æthyr is accessible instantaneously at every point in infinite quantity. The boundaries of social constructs, and indeed the individual mind, swell to bursting. Every subject and every object are united; individuality and group, past, present and future all collapse into a singularity that is infinite, unbounded and in a constant state of flux. All separation of concepts vanish along with all concept of separation. Spare terms this a state of neither/neither; E.E. Rehmus terms it an eschatonic implosion; eastern mysticism proclaims it unity with godhead. They are all, in fact, one and the same.
Thus, it must be the goal of the Chaos Magician to remove every barrier to the transmission of information. Hierarchies are to be overthrown not just for the sake of doing so, but to hasten the arrival of Pandæmonæon via the destruction of such barriers. Any organization, regardless of its aims, is an anti-Pandæmonæonic force if it seeks to control the flow of any information whatsoever. Governments, communications networks, religious institutions and secret societies all fall into this category. The true Chaos Magician will not seek to withhold information on techniques of magick, nor form secretive Illuminati-like societies that create oligarchies and bureaucracies that are every bit as restrictive as the ones that they purport a desire to obliterate. Instead, any such information must be disseminated as quickly and as widely as possible; this not only hastens the Pandæmonæon directly in that it has sped up transmission a bit more, but also insures that others may find and use the techniques necessary to perform the Great Work themselves. Anything else cannot be Chaos Magick as to do otherwise is to hinder the invocation of the Pandæmonæon.