p.28 "Historically, most Muslims were actually more tolerant of other religions than were Christians... The Crusades, being both territorial and religious military campaigns, created a tension and distrust between Muslims and Christians the repercussions of which are still with us today."
p.29 "In the Middle Ages Sufis and Cabbalists exchanged knowledge freely. The Knights Templar had links with Sufis, and it can be argued that Sufi symbolism influenced early Freemasonry."
p.47 "Clement of Alexandria (late second
century AD) believed that although Jesus ate and drank like a man, he
didn't actually need to for bodily sustenance." like vampires!?
"[Origen believed] the basic message of
salvations through faith was fine for the uneducated, but for the more
intellectual and spiritual, salvation came through contemplation."
p.50 [The beliefs of the Cathars] came from Manicheans Gnosticism, and sprang up in southern France - the Languedoc
- in the late eleventh century. They believed that spirit is good and
matter is evil... [They had] their own distinctive theology and their
lack of respect for priestly authority, were a threat to the Church."
p.87 "For the origins of prophecy, [Charles
Taze] Russell [(1852-1916)] looked not just to the Bible but also to the
measurements of the Great Pyramid at Giza, although these were altered
in different editions of Studios in the Scriptures to reflect the
changes in emphasis from 1874 to 1914 [of the return of Christ]. In the
1901 edition of Volume 3, the length of the entrance passage is given as
3,416 inches, 'symbolising 3,416 years from the above date, BC 1542.
This calculation shows 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of
trouble.' In the 1923 edition of the same volume the length of the
passage is given as 3,457 inches, and 1874 is changed to 1915."
Back in 2003 I read the 1977 edition of
The Great
Pyramid Decoded by Peter Lemesurier, and in 2005 I bought the 1999
edition. In them Lemesuier, from what I can make of the lists of
measurements, came to the year 1914.
p.106-7 I found it interesting to learn
about "Unifocationist couples" who are, in
The Unification Church (Moonies) are matched by the founder Sun Myung Moon
and that
"It seems to work... the divorce rate among members of the Church is
only 3-5 per
cent, way below that of the rest of Western society, where marriages are
usually
based on the often ephemeral emotion of falling in love."
p.118 "One of the reasons that Christianity took root throughout Europe
during the
Dark Ages was its habit of taking over local Pagan festivals and sacred
sites,
adapting the customs of the winter solstice into Christmas, and of the
spring
festival into Easter, and building churches over ancient wells and
springs."
p.133 "The reason mankind is in such a mess is that 'each one of us
trying to be a
Lord of the Material World, breeds conflict and hypocrisy..."
p.135 On Elan Vital (Devine Light Mission) "That which we seek is
already within
us. The process of reaching it is one of learning to experience what is
already
there. It is one the individual has to perform for him- or herself..."
p.152 Regarding the School of Economic Science "Vegetarianism is
encouraged on
health grounds: a healthy body, a healthy mind and a healthy spirit. The
Shankaracharya's teaching is, 'They should eat that which does not
produce clouds
of heaviness in the mind or body, and they should only eat as much as
the body
requires' This is part of the teaching known in the School as Measure.
The same
applies to sleep: students are encouraged to get up when they first
naturally wake
up, rather than drowsing in bed, which is not considered to be healthy.
'Measure
simply means knowing when to stop. The idea is that you stop eating
before your
stomach fills up; that you stop working before the body is exhausted...
The idea
of measure is to learn to take on some degree of self-discipline so that
the body
and mind do not get over-used, and so that you can come to rest in the
innermost
part of your being, which is known as the Self or Absolute."
p.158 "Buddhism teaches that if you want to change your life, it is no
use blaming
your circumstances. On the contrary, you must change that aspect of
yourself which
has given rise to the circumstances in which you find yourself. When you
change,
your environment will automatically change with you."
p.163 "Perhaps Esoteric magic tends to be more cerebral and Neo-Pagan
magic more
emotional... [both] more a reworking of the inner person than the outer
world."
p.168 "Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of
love wasted
on ingrates!"
p.172 "Krishnamurti... insisted that Truth could not be apprehended
through any
religion or organisation; it must always be an individual, personal
discovery
through complete self-knowledge."
p.177 On the topic of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky "The two main states of
consciousness are to be either awale or asleep, though most people,
Gurdjieff
said, more or less sleepwalk their way through their waking life. He put
forward
two other states of being: self-consciousness and objective
consciousness... [he]
points out that most of us are not really in touch with ourselves, with
the
entirety of our inner being... life passes us by, and we are mere
observers of
it... [some] are confined to a script, having grown into roles imposed
on [them]
by upbringing and strengthened by unthinking habit."
p.179 On the topic of Subud "You must become your own self and you must
develop
your inner self if you want to find the way to God. You must not follow
or imitate
anyone else..."
p.181 "Gnosticism generally teaches the contrast between the spiritual
world
(good) and the material world (evil)."
I found it intriguing (from a conspiracy theorist's point of view!) that
the only
mention on the Illuminati was in the brief section on the Rosicrucians
(p.181),
stating there are "clear links" between them - and yet "Illuminati" is
not in the
index.
p.185 "The practical work of Builders of the Adytum, which includes
study,
meditation, imagery and ritual, initiates a series of subtle but
important changes
in your inner world, not the least of which is an expansion of your
conscious
awareness. Even a slight increase in this area has a remarkable effect
on your
mental/emotional capacities. Your intelligence increases and you become
more aware
of your motivations. You become more observant, which improves your
memory. Your
ability to anticipate future effects of present causes is enhanced,
improving your
discrimination in making choices. Objectivity is increased, aiding the
ability to
think more logically and clearly, which increases control over your
environment and helps you define your goals..."
p.189 I found it interesting that the Servants of the Light encourage
its members
to become familiar with "any mythical knowledge [because] it will not be
wasted.
The ability to cross-index the legends and god forms can be of immense
value in
understanding of the ancient past... [they] believe sincerely, that the
ancient
traditions hold a timeless key which may be applied to modern life and
its
problems."
p.205 "In Genesis the word Elohim is translated as 'God', but in Hebrew
it is
actually a plural noun; according to Rael (a French journalist who used
to go by
the name Claude Vorilhon) it means 'those who come from the sky'."
Last year I read The Only Planet of Choice Compiled by
Phyllis V. Schlemmer & Palden Jenkins
- Essential Briefings from Deep Space, and in hindsight it seems
clear to me that the authors are/were part of what the author of this
book terms as a 'flying saucer cults'.
p.209 "The word 'Pagan' originally meant 'country dweller'. The
sophisticated
cosmopolitan, educated Romans applied the term to anyone (usually on the
fringes
of the Empire) who held to strange, primitive beliefs - the uneducated
barbarians.
Stripping off the pejorative overtones, 'Pagan' simply means someone who
follows
the old native religion of their land, rather than imported religion."
p.212 On the topic of Wicca "Dr Margaret Murray argued persuasively in
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) and The God of the Witches (1931) that the
medieval
witches didn't worship the Devil, but were followers of an old,
pre-Christian Pagan religion... Murray has been criticized on many
academic grounds." I read
The Splendour that was Egypt by Margaret A. Murray in 2006.
p.235 "'The shortest way to do many things
is to do only one thing at once' - Samuel Smiles
The power of positive thinking by Norman
Vincent Peale 1952.
p.236 "A man can make millions by telling
other people how they might make millions."
p.237 On the topic of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming "It is about creativity, learning and change, and how you
construct your reality. Put simply, the world we each live in is not the
real world. It is a model of the world. A model that we each create
unconsciously and live in as though it were the real world. Most human
problems derive from the models in our heads rather than from the world
as it really is. As you develop your practical understanding of how
these inner models work, so you can learn to change unhelpful habits,
thoughts, feelings and beliefs for more useful ones."
p.239 On the topic of Insight "...we have
experiences that cause us to limit our expression in the world and to
close down on our natural loving, spontaneity and creativity. These
experiences can begin at birth and usually take place in childhood,
where the patterns are laid down for later behaviour. And example of the
kind of experience would be a small child being scolded for being noisy
when it was simply expressing joy... So, rather than just being our
natural unique selves, we develop fears and anxieties about life."
p.240 "We are all a mixture of the person we
really are, the person we fear we are and the person we pretend to be,
say Insight"
p.244 The Emin believe "That there is life
after death and that this must be planned for and worked for
individually... To be resistant to the lowering of standards... To be
constructive in the keeping of good order and stability..."
p.255 "A fundamental precept of Scientology
is: 'Be very, very certain you never go past a word you do not fully
understand.'"
lol @ p.256 on the topic of Scientology "The
knowledge revealed at that level is so explosive, it must be kept
secret. Anyone coming across it without the years of careful (and very
expensive) training through all the preceding levels would be seriously
damaged, and might even die from the knowledge - it is apparently
'rigged to kill' them. Even Hubbard himself nearly died learning of it."
p.285 On the topic of Fundamentailsts "Sex
on television is a clear sign of the evil days in which we live and must
be fought against."
p.286 "...priestly celibacy has no biblical
basis." |