The short book called The Kybalion, published in 1908, is probably the most popular and, probably, most important occult work of the twentieth century. The book is rivaled in significance only by a much longer and very different work, Manly P. Hall’s magisterial encyclopedia arcana, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, which appeared twenty years later. The landscape of mythical and esoteric philosophies that the scholar Hall curated, illustrated, and documented in his volume are, in a sense, distilled...
In the kaleidoscope of human understanding, Mary Midgley’s seminal work, “Are You an Illusion?” beckons us to embark on a profound exploration of the interplay between common sense and scientific orthodoxy. Embarking on a journey through the realms of thought, Midgley skillfully unravels a compelling narrative. This narrative challenges the prevalent belief that science, especially physics, reduces our inner selves to mere illusions. In this expansive journey, the labyrinth of history and the intricacies of...
Stars
Otto Maier and his theory about waves, reality and time curves are rooted in the works of the men he looked up to, Leibniz and Descartes. In his “First Meditation” (1641), French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes decided he could not be absolutely sure he wasn’t dreaming. Most people would probably disagree with Descartes. You’re not dreaming right now, and you know it because experiences in dreams are different from those in waking life. A...
Niels bohr
Understanding entails being able to detect an internal contradiction: a paradox. Are paradoxes “all in our heads” or are they built into the universal structure of logic? At first sight the idea of knowing what the universe is like, is absurd. American-Canadian neurosurgeon Penfield expanded brain surgery’s methods and techniques, including mapping the functions of various regions of the brain. Penfield’s experiments demonstrated that memories occupy engrams, specific physical sites in the brain. To know about...
Sleeping Beauty
Meister Eckhart (the thirtheenth-century German mystic) once said, “if you fight your death, you’ll feel the demons tearing away your life, but, if you have the right attitude to death, you will be able to see that the devils are really angels setting your spirit free. In the ancient belief systems, the being who guides the human spirit through the underworld and helps negotiate the way past the guardian demons is the god of planet...
Maier files books