Tuscan,
Thanks so much.
What's your take on the validity of the opening chapters and the book in
general?
Norlan
Tuscan,
Thanks so much.
What's your take on the validity of the opening chapters and the
book in
···
--- In [email protected], Norlan2000@a... wrote:
general?
Norlan
__________________________________________________________________
It came as a great surprise to me to learn that the book
was 'considered' fiction. But where does fiction really come from?
I've given considerable thought to this over an extended period of
time. I find that there is really no difference. It's more a matter
of what 'we accept' as a planetary consciousness. If something is
labeled Scientific we tend to accept it as 'fact'. If it's Religious
it came from God- so it too is unquestioned. Where do ideas come
from? How is it that two people on opposite sides of the world can up
with the same idea/invention at the same time, with no connection or
exposure to each other.
The answer that works for me, based on what I've learned, is that ALL
thought relative to this reality already exists in the Mind
of 'Supreme Intelligence' (as differentiated from God). SI is
imageless (not created in the image of man). SI just IS. In SI there
is no right or wrong, good or bad, no judgement, etc.
The human mind is an energy field that surrounds the body, the human
brain is a processor. The brain is also like a sieve. For most people
thoughts pass right through. For a receptive person the
information/thought sticks and is 'received'. Subsequently, human,
tinkers with the thought. He/she 'thinks'. Thinking is the
interaction with thought. But we, as a species, do not have original
thoughts.
Afterward, we, as a planetary consciousness label everything. Some
things are scientific, some fiction, some non-fiction, some history
(based on his-story), some science fiction, some occult. But it's
society that labels things based on it's receptivity.
Let me also share some information from the book 'John Uri Lloyd- The
Great American Eclectic', a biography of the author of Etidorhpa.
The 'New York World' (date not given) called "....in all respects the
worthiest presentation of occult teachings under the attractive guise
of fiction that has yet been written." Another reviewer called it "a
deeply spiritual book", and while historian-critic John Clark Ridpath
concurred, he admitted that "'Etidorhpa' is a puzzle- a literary
mystery."
Moreover in defining the "author's purpose....... it is best to let
the author begin by indicating what his book is not about. First of
all, Lloyd's only revelation to the mystic is that this is fiction
not fact. The material for the mysterious alchemistic letter was
taken from 'Lives of Alchemistic Philosphers' by Arthur Edward Waite,
published in 1888."
So, Norlan, to answer your question, I see the relative usefullness
of the Etidorhpa information. It's going to be up to each of us to
decide the validity and truthfulness of Etidorhpa. It matters not to
me that society labels it fiction. In my reality, in my world, it is
real. And I intend to pursue it.
Tuscan
List Members,
In this part of Etidorhpa, The Guide makes the point that breathing and
eating are traumatic activities for the body on the surface of the Earth
such that only a short duration of life is enjoyed. In a low gravity
environment, a human being would breath less, eat less, expend only a
fraction of the energy which we do on the surface and, consequently, live
much longer.
In the hollow portion the influence of gravity would be less than on the
outer surface. Maybe this is why Olaf characterised those people as being so
strong and long lived.
Anyway, here it is:
CHAPTER XXXV.
A CERTAIN POINT WITHIN A SPHERE: MEN ARE AS PARA-
SITES ON THE ROOF OF EARTH.
I realized again, as I had so many times before, that it was useless for me
to rebel. " The self-imposed mystery of a sacrificed life lies before me," I
murmured, " and there is no chance to retrace my footsteps. The `Beyond' of
the course that I have voluntarily selected, and sworn to follow, is hidden;
I must nerve myself to pursue it to the bitter end, and so help me God, and
keep me steadfast."
"Well said," he replied; " and since you have so wisely determined, I am
free to inform you that these new obligations, like those you have
heretofore taken, contain nothing which can conflict with your duty to God,
your country, your neighbor, or yourself. In considering the phenomena
presented by the suspension of the act of breathing, it should occur to you
that where little labor is to be performed, little consumption of energy is
required. Where there is such a trifling destruction of the vital force (not
mind force) as at present is the case with us, it requires but slight
respiration to retain the normal condition of the body. On earth's surface
the act of respiration alone consumes by far the larger proportion of vital
energy, and the muscular exertion involved thereby necessitates a
roportionate amount of breathing in order that breath itself may continue.
This act of respiration is the result of one of the conditions of surface
earth life, and consumes most of the vital force. If men would think of
this, they would understand how paradoxical it is for them to breathe in
order to live, when the very act of respiration wears away their bodies and
shortens their lives more than all else they have to do, and without adding
to their mental or physical constitution in the least. Men are conversant
with physical death as a constant result of suspended respiration, and with
respiration as
an accompaniment of life, which ever constant and connected conditions lead
them to accept that the act of breathing is a necessity of mortal life. In
reality, man occupies an unfortunate position among other undeveloped
creatures of external earth; he is an animal, and is constitutionally framed
like the other animals about him. He is exposed to the warring elements, to
the vicious attacks of savage beasts and insidious parasites, and to the
inroads of disease. He is a prey to the elementary vicissitudes of the
undesirable exposure in which he exists upon the outer surface of our globe,
where all is war, even among the forces of nature about him. These
conditions render his lot an unhappy one indeed, and in ignorance he
overlooks the torments of the weary, rasping, endless slavery of respiration
in the personal struggle he has to undergo in order to retain a brief
existence as an organized being. Have you never thought of the connected
tribulations that the wear and tear of respiration alone inflict upon the
human family? The heaving of the chest, the circulation of the blood, the
throbbing of the heart, continue from mortal birth until death. The heart of
man forces about two and one-half ounces of blood with each pulsation. At
seventy beats per minute this amounts to six hundred and fifty-six pounds
per hour, or nearly eight tons per day. The lungs respire over one thousand
times an hour, and move over three thousand gallons of air a day. Multiply
these amounts by three hundred and sixty-five, and then by seventy, and you
have partly computed the enormous life-work of the lungs and heart of an
adult. Over two hundred thousand tons of blood, and seventy-five million
gallons of air have been moved by the vital force. The energy thus consumed
is dissipated. No return is made for the expenditure of this life force.
During the natural life of man, more energy is consequently wasted in
material trans-formation resulting from the motion of heart and lungs, than
would be necessary to sustain the purely vital forces alone for a thousand
years. Besides, the act of respiration which man is compelled to perform in
his exposed position, necessitates the consumption of large amounts of food,
in order to preserve the animal heat, and replace the waste of a material
body that in turn is worn out by these very movements. Add this waste of
energy to the foregoing, and then you will surely perceive that
the possible life of man is also curtailed to another and greater degree in
the support of the digestive part of his organism. His spirit is a slave to
his body; his hangs and heart, on which he imagines life depends, are
unceasing antagonists of life. That his act of breathing is now a necessity
upon the surface of the earth, where the force of gravity presses so
heavily, and where the elements have men at their command, and show him no
mercy, I will not deny; but it is exasperating to contemplate such a waste
of energy, and corresponding loss of human life."
"You must admit, however, that it is necessary?" I queried.
" No ; only to an extent. The natural life of man should, and yet will be,
doubled, trebled, multiplied a dozen, yes a thousand fold."
" Be of good cheer," he said, " and in the proper time you may return to the
surface of this rind of earth, a carrier of great and good news to men."
" Shall I teach them of what you have shown me?" I asked.
"Yes; in part you will be a forerunner, but before you obtain the
information that is necessary to the comfort of mankind
Here, the Guide in the book Etidorhpa describes the origin and nature of at
least some types of volcanoes:
" Know then, that the theories of man concerning volcanic eruptions, in
connection with a molten interior of the Earth, are such as are evolved in
ignorance of even the subsurface of the globe. The earth's interior is to
mankind a sealed chamber, and the wise men who elucidate the curious
theories concerning natural phenomena occurring therein are forced to draw
entirely upon their imagination. Few persons realize the paucity of data at
the command of workers in science. Theories concerning the earth are
formulated from so little real knowledge of that body, that our science may
be said to be all theory, with scarcely a trace of actual evidence to
support it. If a globe ten inches in diameter be covered with a sheet of
paper, such as I hold in my hand, the thickness of that sheet will be
greater in proportion to that of such a globe than the depth lnen have
explored within the earth is compared with the thickness of the crust of the
earth. The outer surface of a pencil line represents the surface of the
earth; the inner surface of the line represents the depth of man's
explorations; the highest mountain would be represented by a comma resting
on the line. The geologist studies the substances that are thrust from the
crater of an active volcano, aiid from this makes conjectures regarding the
strata beneath, and the force that casts the excretions out. The results
must with men, therefore, furnish evidence from which to explain the cause.
It is as though an anatomist would form his idea of the anatomy of the liver
by the secretion thrown out of that organ, or of the lung texture by the
breath and sputum. In fact, volcanoes are of several descriptions, arid
usually are extremely- superficial. This lake, the surface of which is but
one hundred and fifty miles underground, is the mother of an exceptionally
deep one. When the water pours over this ledge it strikes alt element below
us, the metallic base of salt, which lies in great masses in some portions
of the earth's crust. * Then alt immediate chemical reaction ensues, the
water is dissociated, intense heat results, part of the water combines with
the metal, part is vaporized as steam, while part escapes as an inflammable
gas. The sudden liberation of these gases causes an irregular pressure of
vapor on the surface of the lake, the result being a throbbing and
rebounding of the attenuated atmosphere above, which, in gigantic waves,
like swelling tides, dashes great volumes of water over the ledge beside us,
and into the depth below. This water in turn reacts on fresh portions of the
metallic base, and the reflex action increases the vapor discharges, and as
a consequence the chamber we are in becomes a gasholder, containing vapors
of unequal gas pressures, and the resultant agitation of the lake from the
turmoil continues, and the pulsations are repeated until the surface of the
lake is lowered to such a degree as at last to prevent the water from
overflowing the barrier. Finally the lake quiets itself, the gases slowly
disappear by earth absorption, and by escape from the volcanic exit, and for
an unrecorded period of time thereafter the surface of the lake continues to
rise slowly as it is doing now."
" But what has this phenomenon to do with the volcano?"
" It produces the eruption; the water that rushes down into the chasm,
partly as steam, partly as gas, is forced onward and upward through a
crevice that leads to the old crater of the presumed extinct but
periodically active Mount Epomeo. These gases are intensely heated, and they
move with fearful velocity. They tear off great masses of stone, which the
resultant energy disturbances, pressure, gas, and friction, redden with
heat. The mixture of gases from the decomposed water is in large amount, is
burning and exploding, and in this fiery furnace amid such convulsions as
have been described, the adjacent earth substance is fused, and even clay is
melted, and carried on with the fiery blast. Finally the current reaches the
earth's surface through the funnel passage, the apex of which is a
volcano-the blast described a volcanic eruption.""
···
To: Members
From: Dean
From pages 138 - 140 of Nansen's book Farthest North: [ At 79 degrees North,
bears and foxes sighted. ]
" Friday, December 22d. A bear was shot last night. Jacobsen saw it first,
during his watch. He shot at it. It made off, and he then went down and told
about it in the cabin. Mogstad and Peter came on deck; Sverdrup was called,
too, and came up a little later. They saw the bear on his way towards the
ship again; but he suddenly caught sight of the gallows with the trap on the
ice to the west, and went off there. He looked well at the apparatus, then
raised himself cautiously on hishind-legs, and laid his right paw on the
cross-beam just beside the trap, stared for a little, hesitating, at the
delicious morsel, but did not at all like the ugly jaws round it. Sverdrup
was by this time out at the deckhouse, watching in the sparkling moonshine.
His heart was jumpinghe expected every moment to hear the snap of his trap.
But the bear shook his head suspiciously, lowered himself cautiously on to
allfours again, and sniffed carefully at the wire that the trap was fastened
by, following it along to where it was made fast to a great block of ice. He
went round this, and saw how cleverly it was all arranged, then slowly
followed the wire back, raised himself up as before, with his paw on the
beam of the gallows, had a long look at the trap, and shook his head again,
probably saying to himself, `These wily fellows have planned this very
cleverly for me.' Now he resumed his march to the ship. When he was 60 paces
of the bow Peter fired. The bear fell, but jumped up and again made off.
Jacobson, Sverdrup and Mogstad all fired now, and he fell among some
hummocks."
What were warm-booded mamals doing a couple hundred miles from land? By that
I am referring to the New Siberian Islands, which aren't exactly teeming
with bears anyway- they are desolate and windswept from what I understand.
Where did these bears come from? At 79* North, Nansen was at the threshold
of the opening.
Dharma/Dean