Temple of Set Reading List: Category 20
The Four (?) Dimensions
Reprinted from: "The Crystal Tablet of Set" (c) Temple of Set 1989 CE Weirdbase file version
by TS permission by Michael A. Aquino, Ipsissimus VI* Temple of Set
The philosophy of measurement is a fascinating field. How can and should we estimate, assign, and evaluate boundaries, categories, and phenomena both within and without? "Freedom," said Winston Smith in "1984", "is the freedom to say that 2+2=4 ~ whereupon the magician O'Brien convinced him that 2+2=5. The point is that only one who can define measurement is truly free; the Masons illustrate this by defining "God" as the "great architect" or "Geometer" of the Universe. 20A. "The World of Measurements" by H. Arthur Klein. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1974. (TS-3)
MA: "A 735-page 'encyclopaedia of measurements', so beautifully written that it is as intriguing and entertaining as a good novel. But there is technical material here too, so expect to do some hard thinking as you read. Major sections on measurement philosophy, time, mass, light, thermodynamics, radiation, electronics, pressures, densities, waves, fields, and nuclear disintegrations - to name but a few. As Mr. Spock would say: 'Fascinating!'" 20B. "The Nature of Time" by G.J. Whitrow. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. (TS-3)
MA: "This magnificent little book covers almost every possible aspect of time - relative, absolute, linear, circular, and otherwise. Again it is highly readable; one need not have a Ph.D. in Physics to understand its arguments and explanations. 189 pages." 20C. "The Timetables of History" by Bernard Grun. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1979 [periodically updated; look for most recent edition]. (TS-3)
MA: "This giant book consists of a single, continuous chart [by page] correlating mankind's achievements in history/politics, literature/ theater, religion, philosophy & learning, visual arts, music, science/technology/growth, and daily life from 5000 BCE to the present. Superbly comprehensive and an invaluable aid in understanding the conditions of civilization surrounding key stages in human historical development. [For a fascinating tour of some key interrelationships in human progress, you might enjoy James Burke's "Connections" (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1978), the book version of the BBC television series of the same name.
The title refers to the often obscure and intricate processes by which some important modern technology began several centuries ago as a number of scattered, seemingly unimportant discoveries.]" 20D. "Man and Time" by J.B. Priestley. NY: Crescent Books, 1964. (CS-3) AL: "A beautifully done book which explains many sound theories of space and time. Very usable information." 20E. "Body Time" by Gay Gaer Luce. NY: Bantam Books #553-07455-150, 1971. (TS-3)
MA: "A most thorough and readable book explaining the time-cycles of various features and functions of the human body. Virtually indispensable for advanced operations of Lesser and Greater Black Magic, whose effectiveness often hinges on the physical state of being of both the magician and the subject. This book also contains an exhaustive bibliography on each major topic treated." 20F. "Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite" by Rudy Rucker. NY: Bantam New Age Books #0-553-23433-1, 1982. (TS-4)
MA: "From the author's preface: 'This book discusses every kind of infinity: potential and actual, mathematical & physical, theological & mundane.' It does exactly that. Rucker is a Professor of Mathematics, so can deal with the very heavyweight mathematical concepts and formulae involved in this subject. Fortunately for the non-mathemagician, he also has the gift of explaining [most] things in non-math-jargon. Even so, you're in for some very heavy thinking if you tackle this book. It starts out fairly conversationally, but before you know it you're floundering around in: temporal & spatial infinities, Pythagoreanism, Cantorism, transfinite numbers (from Omega to Epsilon-Zero & Alephs), infinitesimals & surreal numbers, G~del's Incompleteness Theorem, robot consciousness, set theory, transfinite cardinals, etc.
Just to irritate you, each chapter concludes with a selection of problems and paradoxes illustrating the aspects of infinity covered therein. For example: 'If infinitely many planets exist, then every possible planet would have to exist, including a planet exactly like Earth except with unicorns. Is this necessarily true?' See what I mean?" 20G. "Other Worlds: Space, Superspace, and the Quantum Universe" by Paul Davies. NY: Simon & Schuster #0-671-42232-4, 1980. (TS-4)
MA: "One of the most lucid and [comparatively] non- technical explanations of quantum mechanics. Davies discusses subatomic & superspace, mind/ matter, the nature of reality, waves & particles, holes & tunnels in space, M~bius strip phenomena, etc. Davies is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Newcastle. The book makes two assumptions that I personally find questionable: the 'Big Bang' and Einstein's theories of relativity. Nevertheless there is a lot of analysis here that does not hinge on these two sacred cows, and in any case it is virtually impossible to find an otherwise-first-rate physics text that doesn't bow and scrape before them. [Word has it that scientists of 1522, who knew the Earth is flat, assumed that Magellan made it all the way around by crawling across the bottom.]" 20H. "The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility" by William L. Moore & Charles Berlitz. NY: Fawcett Crest Books, 1980. (TS-3) (OT-3)
MA: "One day in October 1943, so the story goes, the destroyer U.S.S. Eldridge vanished into a green fog, appeared for a few seconds at Norfolk, Virginia, and then reappeared at Philadelphia - the result of an 'experiment gone wrong' in ship-invisibility by the U.S. Navy. The poor old Navy has spent forty years denying that anything like the so-called 'Philadelphia Experiment' ever happened, but unfortunately there is a growing accumulation of evidence that something took place - perhaps not visual invisibility or dimensional transportation, but something more along the line of an effort to mask the radar/electronic 'footprint' of the vessel through the generation of powerful magnetic fields. If, as #17F and #19I/J maintain, the human body and mind are seriously affected by electromagnetic fields, intense damage could have been done to those on board the Eldridge and indeed to anyone in its vicinity.
One would prefer to think that the Navy wouldn't cover up such a mishap, but the monkey-business presently going on with Project Sanguine [see Runes #III-3, review of #17F] makes one wonder. #20H is definitely not a 'nut book', but rather a careful, logical recounting of the author's long and often frustrating efforts to uncover the truth [or lack thereof] behind what has become one of the more famous legends of "Outer Limits"-type research. #20H is reviewed in "Runes" #IV-2. [See also the fictionalized but very well done film "The Philadelphia Experiment" (Thorn EMI VHS cassette #TVA-2547, 1984).]" T.E.
Bearden [in #20K]: "Reversing or lowering the electrogravitational charge is controlled by biasing the ground potential on the ensemble pattern transmitters, which can even be on-board the vehicle itself ~ You can float metal ~ You can even 'dematerialize' or 'teleport' it. The Philadelphia Experiment may have ben real after all. If so, the test ship and its personnel were 'blasted' into this strange realm ~" 20I. "Tesla: Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1981. (TS-3) (OT-3)
MA: "Few turn-of-the-century scientists are more colorful, accomplished, and controversial than Nikola Tesla, the inventor of radio, pioneer of alternating current, namesake of the Tesla Coil, colleague of Einstein, and all-around "mad scientist" par excellence. This lively biography, basis for a Tesla profile in "Runes" #I- 2, not only tells his tale but also raises many questions [and proposes some answers] about the nature of electromagnetic energy. Extensive notes and recommendations for further reading & correspondence are included." 20J. "The Command to Look: A Formula for Picture Success" by William Mortensen. San Francisco: Camera Craft Publishing Co., 1945 [originally published 1937]. (TS-3) (OT-3)
MA: "Although ostensibly a manual for the most enticing layout of photographic work, this small book was held by Anton LaVey to be among the most crucial for an appreciation of the artistic and audio/visual principles employed in the early Church of Satan and Order of the Trapezoid. It prescribes three elements for the CTL: impact, subject interest, and participation. It further suggests four types of visual patterns which contribute to the CTL: the diagonal, the S-curve, triangular combinations, and the dominant mass. In "Runes" #IV-3/May XXI Magister Stephen Flowers reviews CTL in detail. Its principles were invariably utilized in Anton LaVey's own artwork [examples in #6M, #6N and "Satanis: The Devil's Mass"]."" 20K. "Fer-de-Lance: A Briefing on Soviet Scalar Electromagnetic Weapons" by Thomas E. Bearden. Ventura: Tesla Book Company, 1986. (TS-4) (OT-4)
Bearden: "Scalar electromagnetics is an extension of present electromagnetics (EM) to include gravitation. That is, it is a unified electrogravitation, and, what is more important, it is a unified engineering theory. Its basis was initially discovered by Nikola Tesla. Western scientists are familiar only with directed-energy weapons where fragments, masses, photons, or particles travel through space and contact the target to deliver their effects. However it is possible to focus the potential for the effects of a weapon through spacetime itself, in a manner so that mass and energy do not 'travel through space' from the transmitter to the target at all. Instead ripples and patterns in the fabric of spacetime itself are manipulated to meet and interfere in and at the local spacetime of some distant target."
MA: "This spiral-bound book can be ordered directly from the TBC. Write to them at P.O. Box 1685, Ventura, CA 93002 for a current price list. Bearden is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel with 29 years' experience in air- defense systems. He holds a Master's degree in nuclear engineering, and is presently a senior scientist with a major aerospace company."