For those philosophical, metaphysical and religious types: what do you think of the Kybalion?

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Heard plenty of this elsewhere, but...

(1) MENTALISM
"THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is MENTAL."

(2) CORRESPONDENCE
"As above, so below; as below, so above."

(3) VIBRATION
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”

(4) POLARITY
"Everything is DUAL; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."

(6) CAUSE and EFFECT
"Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law unrecognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law."

(7) GENDER
"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.

― Scaredy Cat, Friday, 25 April 2003 03:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I feel like adding this just because I like Jim Carroll:

(8) Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

― Scaredy Cat, Friday, 25 April 2003 03:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Aren't all 7 of those nonsense?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 25 April 2003 11:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yep.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 25 April 2003 11:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Nonsense? Okaaay.

Fr'instance...

1. "THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is MENTAL."

All that we as humans experience is actually our brain's translation of a small portion of incoming sensory signals. In respect to the fact that each human's personal reality is relative to their own interpretations of what portion of raw physical-world data that their brain manages to comprehend, translate, and store, certainly the individual human Universe is 100% mental. "Blue" isn't a certain pattern of light vibrations; it's the name humans attribute to their interpretation of a certain pattern of light vibrations.

Sure, some of them are worded pretty retarded/hippie-y, but "nonsense" I would HARDLY call these observations.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

(by the way, I've never heard of "the Kybalion"...what are it's origins?)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”

Considering that matter consists of interweaving patterns of atoms, and those atoms consist of interweaving patterns of particles, and those particles consist of interweaving pattarns etc etc, is it so far fetched to assert that all of living eternally-regenerating Universe is never at rest, and that all of Universe is complex vibration patterns?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

(#4 and #7 say pretty much the exact same thing)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The one that gives me most issue is the "cause and effect" one, mainly in that each so-called "effect" cannot always (or usually can't EVER) be attributed to one singular so-called "cause".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:49 (twenty-two years ago)

1) This might be fair enough if you are a mentalist
2) This means nothing
3) This kindasorta true, as in nothing is at absolute zero
4) I thought we were past all this binary bollocks. Multivalued fields are where it's at nowadays, baby
5) Same as 3
6) Erm, probabilistic determinism anyone?
7) This really is bollocks

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:50 (twenty-two years ago)

nickalicious, if I've got the story straight, apparantly these people called the Three Initiates got together and wrote about based on the super secret ancient teachings of Hermes Trismesgistus (or however the fuck you spell that). And then there's people who say it's just a cobbled together book that takes liberally from various sources.

― Scaredy Cat, Friday, 25 April 2003 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

7. Gender - I can shed some light on this one. I believe it refers to the "tetrapolar magnet" and refers to negative and positive charges, not just the sexuality of things.

― Scaredy Cat, Friday, 25 April 2003 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

So seven is just more binary stuff then?

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

1) MENTALISM
"THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is MENTAL."
Like stoners, this is interesting only if you're stoned. It's not even solipsism, which can be fun.

(2) CORRESPONDENCE
"As above, so below; as below, so above."
??? This is just nonsense. It's like situationism for remedial kids.

(3) VIBRATION
"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”
Yeah, I can see this. But why reduce it to such lame hippie terms? Particles and atoms and electrons and vibrational electronic feields and my mind-reading thing.

(4) POLARITY
"Everything is DUAL; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."
Ha, yeah, BOLLOCKS. Again, duality is dead! Fluctuations of mono-ality is where it's at, not even multivalued fields, but singlevalue fields with fluctuating values!

(5) RHYTHM
"Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."
This is the vibrate thing but in even more hippie terms, yeah? Either that or it's just about balance.

(7) GENDER
"Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.
Even tables? No, not tables.

(8) Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
Um, realisation of the subjective existential self?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 25 April 2003 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I really hate that "only interesting if you're stoned" bullshit, sorry, it really irks me. I've heard that "argument" applied to everything from fishing to Tom Robbins novels to Donny Darko to the ocean to stargazing and so much in between. < /rant>

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 25 April 2003 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

So we're not fans, then?

― scaredy cat, Friday, 25 April 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

The vibration thing goes lower than that - absolute zero is only at the atomic level, and who knows much below that? Even if it is true, it's a statement without value that wants to sound profound.

At a quantum level, cause and effect rather seems to break down.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's a lot more info on it for anyone with massive time to kill. nickalicious seemed slightly interested, which is the only reason I'm posting it: http://bobert1.home.mindspring.com/kybalion.html

I just stumbled on it while reading Masonic books and had never heard of it before. It sounds sort of like "Kabbalah", don'tcha think?

― Scaredy Cat, Friday, 25 April 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"as above...etc" isnt "nonsense" (or "situationism" (?)), it just means microcosm reflects macrocosm. which is generally the case. but sometimes not.

― duane, Saturday, 26 April 2003 01:58 (twenty-two years ago)

& MENTALISM is KEY obv

― duane, Saturday, 26 April 2003 02:09 (twenty-two years ago)

as i believe you young people say these days

― duane, Saturday, 26 April 2003 02:15 (twenty-two years ago)

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