-------------------------------
How To Lose Your Head
-------------------------------
There lies in the Ocean an island which is called The Lost.
In Charm and all kinds of fertility it far surpasses every other land,
but it is unknown to men.
Now and again it may be found by chance;
but if one seeks it, it cannot be found,
and therefore it is called The Lost.
- Honorius of Autun
De Imagine Mundi
You don't reach Serendip by plotting a course for it.
You have to set out in good faith for elsewhere
and lose your bearing serendipitously.
- John Barth
The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor
Navigation delivers man to the uncertainty of fate,
each of us is in the hands of his own destiny;
every embarkation is, potentially, the last.
It is for the other world that the madman sets sail in his fool's boat;
it is from the other world that he comes when he disembarks
- Michel Foucault
Madness and Civilisation
As Wallis Budge observed in his important study,
Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection,
‘the Egyptians believed that this land could only be reached
by means of a boat, or by the personal help of the gods
who were thought to transport their favourites thither.…'
Those lucky enough to gain entry would find themselves in a magical
- Graham Hancock
Fingerprint of the Gods
garden’s vast collection of books.
- http://www.messagetoeagle.com/heroofalexandriamachines.php#.VJW8X7AAJQ
"But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice.
"Oh you can't help that," said the cat.
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" asked Alice.
"You must be," said the cat, "or you wouldn't have come."
- Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
I know why – I know why
Crazy on a ship of fools
Crazy on a ship of fools
- Robert Plant
Ship of Fools, Now and Zen
And the shadow ship started to emerge from its shadow.
And there was ever so tiny time distortion
- A.E. Von Vogt
Earth Factor X
-------------------------------
The hideous metal bust was perched amongst the books on the shelf like the disembodied head of a gargoyle leering ominously from the shadows of some Gothic citadel ledge, evoking in Louis de Lyon's feverish imagination nightmarish images of ancient blasphemous sciences. Flickering reflections of candlelight danced across its grotesque mask’s golden countenance like prostitute-priestesses performing perverse services for their pagan gods.
Intertwining rubber tubing formed a squid-like beard; a few tentacles terminated in crystal vials filled with swirling multi-colored gases, some snaked and coiled into bulbous canisters manufactured of unknown metallic alloys, others ended in small balloon-sacks that expanded and contracted with mechanical regularity.
The resultant rhythmic hissing, the hypnotic tocking of hidden clockwork, and the moaning of The Brew D'Agon's timbers were the only sounds audible to the human ears in The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor's cabin. A raven ruffled his feathers silently, preening on his perch in the dimly lit far corner.
Louis de Lyon heard nothing. He stood transfixed, intensely focused on The Head's amber-tinted glass eyes. Was there movement behind the glass? It must have been a trick of shadows and light, he thought to himself.
It must have been. What else could it be?
It could be anything, Louis decided; it seemed nothing was unbelievable to him, not anymore. Louis certainly didn’t believe it could get any worse. This last month had been hellish. After what he thought was the greatest night of his life, drinking and talking with his hero, he awoke the next morning to find his life completely unchanged. He was absolutely certain something was going to happen, and then nothing out of the ordinary occurred — just another normal day. And then another normal day. And then another.
He began dreading each morning and the beginning of the day's work in the quarry. When the woman he found dangerously attractive mysteriously disappeared and his beloved VodouBrew™ suddenly no longer had the same effect on him, Louis sunk into a period of emotional doldrums.
He had to admit that signing on with the Brew D'Agon Traiding Compagnie had saved him from a brutal fate at the hands of that merciless cutthroat captain, but Louis bemoaned being saved only to then be caged in this treacherously dull existence. Later, he would see this monotony as merely the calm before the storm, a storm which began deceptively like the refreshing breezes that precede so many hurricanes.
Just as Louis was giving up hope, he received word The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor Heronimus Jones had reassigned him back to the Compagnie flagship, The Brew D'Agon herself, where Louis would be trained to be a helmsman. Louis had jumped at the life-changing opportunity as soon as it was offered but, so far, his so-called "training" consisted of little more than testing his basic salt (i.e. his seamanship), and having him perform the lowliest chores about the ship.
He had "paid the Devil". He had been "caught between the Devil and the Deep". And he had spent hours on his knees at the "holystone" The “Devil” was the longest seam in the ship’s hull. To "pay the Devil", or caulk the inside of the seam, a crew member crawled the length of the ship through the bilge. Drinking bilge water was practically unavoidable during this ordeal. Getting "caught between the Devil and the Deep" was necessary to caulk the Devil from the outside. This unpleasant task required the unfortunate crew member to hang over the side of the ship in the boson's seat – less disgusting, but potentially more deadly, than simply paying the Devil. Fortunately, the sea was calm, The Brew D'Agon steady, and Louis was not crushed or drowned. Finally, his knees were rubbed raw from scraping the deck clean with a holey sandstone rock. Louis was exhausted and yet he still had not touched the helm.
Worse still, the nightmares from his deepest dreams, they had begun invaded his waking reality… The Voices, voices that he swore were not his own, strange babbling voices that changed in intensity and frequency for reasons still unknown to Louis. It had taken him a week to realize that he was likely the only one who could hear the voices, a week that nearly drove Louis mad.
Maybe it did?
It had taken another week to locate what he felt was their source, this mechanical monstrosity… The Head. The Voices were usually dizzyingly cacophonous when Louis was this close to the accursed artifact, but right now they were eerily silent, a fact he found disconcerting.
Maybe you're just tuning them out?
Louis sighed deeply, pensively, and answered the voice in his head.
"Oui. C’est possible. Maybe I am becoming unhinged."
"Aye, bred'ren, unhinged like a door."
Startled by the undeniably real voice behind him, Louis nearly jumped out of his skin. He quickly calmed his nerves enough to turn and face The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor Heronimus Jones, who had returned, unseen and unheard, and now sat at the oaken table in the center of the cabin. Heronimus' laugh was reassuringly good-natured even as he teased Louis.
"Yo ho ho! Thou didst imagine thee hadst been all alone?!?"
The Reverend Doctor beckoned for Louis to take a seat at the table.
"Come, Louis. Sit down. Bred'ren Aquino hath informed me thou hath adequately performed all tasks assigned to thee thus far. Verily, Louis, I be greatly pleased by this fine start but, be aware, thy labours doth be only just begun. Thou hath volumes to be learnin' regardin' such diverse topics as Siderealean Magneticks, Quantum Navigational Geometry, Meta-Aquatick Theory, Practical Pseudo-Historical Analysis, Paleo-Ontology, Etymological Archaeology, et al – ad infinitum, ad nauseum - afore I willst be allowin' thee to layeth thy hands upon this ship's helm. I doth reckon 'tis past time fer thee to begin yer educational journey but, again, beware, there willst be many moments in time when yer head willst be achin’ such that ye shallst be wishin’ ‘twere not attached to yer body.”
Louis’ eyes darted back to the metal head. The Voices had returned as Heronimus spoke, and Louis became so intent in trying to understand what they were saying, he barely heard The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor’s invitation.
“Iffen thou doth be prepared to learn, aye, iffen thou doth dare, come & join I. D'Agon fhtagn."
The Voices didn’t wait for Louis to answer, perhaps because they already knew. Their hissed whispers began to grow louder, more distinct, almost melodic. Their song sounded hauntingly familiar, like something out of a dream or another lifetime in a parallel universe. The sudden shuddering of Louis’ shoulders was synchronized to the shuttering of his awareness. His world went all black, then back to vibrant colors, again and again. And then, he awoke in his dream-mind.
-------------------------------
Why doesn't he turn back?
Hayes: There's a part of him that wants to, Jimmy.
A part deep inside himself that sounds a warning.
But there's another part, that needs to know.
- King Kong (2005)
Logic will get you from A to B.
Imagination will take you everywhere.
- Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
- Albert Einstein
My brain is only a receiver; in the Universe there is a core
from which we obtain knowledge, strength, inspiration.
I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know it exists.
- Nikola Tesla
“It occurred to me that I knew everything.
I remembered letting my mind range rapidly
over all its familiar subjects of knowledge,
only to find this was no foolish fancy. I did know everything.
To be plain, though conscious of having come less than a third of the way
along the path of formal education, and being weak in mathematics,
shaky in Greek grammar, and hazy about English history,
- Colin Wilson
Atlantis and the Kingdom of the Neanderthals
at least as amateurish as his anthropology, biology, and astronomy.
- Roger W. Prescott
reviewing Zecharia Sitchin’s The Twelfth Planet
I nevertheless held the key of truth in my hand,
and could use it to open the lock of any door.
Mine was no religious or philosophical theory,
but a simple method of looking sideways
at disorderly facts so as to make sense of them.”
Graves explained that he tried out his insight on “various obstinate locks:
they all clicked and opened smoothly.”
The insight was still intact when he woke up the next day.
But after morning lessons, when he tried to record the insight
in the back of an exercise book,
“My mind went too fast for my pen, and I began to cross out
– a fatal mistake – and presently crumpled up the page.”
Later, when he tried to write it down under the bedclothes,
“The magic had evaporated and the insight vanished.”
Writhing about his experience, he said that what struck him at the time
was “a sudden infantile awareness of the power of intuition,
the supra logic that cuts out all routine processes of thought
and leaps straight from problem to answer.”
Before the end of this book I shall make an attempt
to reconstruct what Graves meant.
- Colin Wilson
Atlantis and the Kingdom of the Neanderthals
If you are ready for the truth,
if you can honestly say you have an open mind
and are prepared to let go of misconceptions, then read on.
Forget the false interpretations of myth and religion
you have heard so many times,
and know them for what they really are:
the secret language of the shining
- Philip Gardiner
Secret Societies
“…needless to say you will forget everything you heard here.”
- R.A. Wilson
The Widow’s Son
Magellan was telling the truth, though not the whole truth.
- Gavin Menzies
1421
people thought he was mad,
and in those days it was a very controversial view to hold.
But he felt it was a logical possibility
- Jan-Andrew Henderson
The Emperor’s Kilt
If they were not actually mad,
No alternative but to make themselves
or pretend to be mad –
- Nietzsche
Daybreak
According to Dali by simulating paranoia
one can systematically undermine one’s rational view of the world,
which becomes continually subjected to associative transformations,
- David Lomas
The Haunted Self
David Bryson: “Could you define the word ‘paranoiac’?
Could you define it in more detail?”
Salvador Dali: “Aaaahhh… is one… uuuhh… the name is… eehhh…
‘paranoiac-critical method’
because is one spontaneous method of knowledge,
based in the instantaneous association of delirious material.
Everything appear in my life – delirious, antagonistic,
impossible – put together.
My method instantaneously creates miracle…”
- BBC Interview January 7, 1962
The goal of guerilla ontology
is to expose an individual to radically unique ideas,
thoughts, and words, in order to provoke cognitive dissonance,
which can cause a degree of discomfort in some individuals
as they find their belief systems challenged
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerilla_ontology
hypothesizing that such a technique could be used
to discover the true meaning of a given text.
Burroughs also suggested cut-ups may be effective
as a form of divination saying,
“When you cut into the present the future leaks out.”
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique
Georges Melies: [voice over]
I fell in love with their invention.
How could I not be a part of it?
It was like a… it was like a new kind of magic.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_(film)
Georges Melies: [voice over]
Magic tricks and illusion became my specialty;
the world of imagination.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_(film)
magic
late 14c., “art of influencing events and producing marvels
using hidden natural forces,” from O.Fr. magique “magic, magical,”
from L.L. magice “sorcery, magic,” from Gk. magike
(presumably with tekhne “art”), fem. of magikos “magical,”
from magos “one of the members of the learned and priestly class,”
from O.Pers. magush, possibly from PIE *magh- (1)
“to be able, to have power” (see machine).
Transferred sense of “legerdemain, optical illusion, etc.” is from 1811.
Displaced O.E. wiccecræft (see witch); also drycræft, from dry “magician,”
from Ir. drui “priest, magician” (see druid).
- www.etymonline.com/?search=magic
machine
1540s, “structure of any kind,” from Middle French machine “device, contrivance,”
from Latin machina “engine, military machine; device, trick; instrument”
(source also Spanish maquina, Italian macchina), from Greek makhana,
Doric variant of mekhane “device, means,” related to mekhos “means,
expedient, contrivance,” from PIE *magh-ana- “that which enables,”
from root *magh- (1) “to be able, have power”
- www.etymonline.com/?search=machine
Mike had extended his time sense a little
and was playing around inside the machine,
trying to discover what it did.
- Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land
To live in the world without becoming aware
of the meaning of the world
is like wandering about in a great library
without touching the books
- Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol
of hidden things, of the real Magic.
Long ago, when magic was the only written knowledge,
our business was simply called Knowing.
But there is far too much to know in your day, on all subjects under the sun.
So we use a half-forgotten word,as we old ones ourselves are half-forgotten.
- Susan Cooper
The Dark is Rising
Give me a word, give me a sign.
Show me where to look, tell me what will I find?
What will I find?
- Collective Soul
Shine
The novelist Arthur Koestler, who had a great interest in synchronicity,
coined the term ‘library angel’ to describe the unknown agency
responsible for the lucky breaks researchers sometimes get
which lead to exactly the right information
being placed in their hands at the right moment.
- Graham Hancock
Fingerprints of the Gods
book (n.)
Old English boc "book, writing, written document,"
generally referred (despite phonetic difficulties)
to Proto-Germanic *bokiz "beech"
(source also of German Buch "book" Buche "beech;" see beech),
the notion being of beechwood tablets on which runes were inscribed;
but it may be from the tree itself (people still carve initials in them).
Latin and Sanskrit also have words for "writing"
that are based on tree names ("birch" and "ash," respectively).
And compare French livre "book," from Latin librum,
originally "the inner bark of trees" (see library).
- www.etymonline.com/?search=book
Bokors are similar to the “root workers”
of Vodou and New Orleans voodoo.
Some may be priests of a Vodou house.
Bokor are usually chosen from birth,
those who are believed to bear a great ashe (power).
Bokor can be, by worldly terms, good or evil,
though some sources (Judeo-Christian) consider him
an evil version of a houngan.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokor
Old English bucca "male goat," from Proto-Germanic *bukkon
(source also of Old Saxon buck, Middle Dutch boc, Dutch bok,
Old High German boc, German Bock, Old Norse bokkr),
perhaps from a PIE root *bhugo
(source also of Avestan buza "buck, goat," Armenian buc "lamb"),
but some speculate that it is from a lost pre-Germanic language.
Barnhart says Old English buc "male deer," listed in some sources,
is a "ghost word or scribal error." The Germanic word (in the sense
"he-goat") was borrowed in French as bouc.
- www.etymonline.com/?search=buck
witch (n.)
Old English wicce "female magician, sorceress," in later use especially
"a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits
and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts,"
fem. Of Old English wicca "sorcerer, wizard,
man who practices witchcraft or magic,"
from verb wiccian "to practice witchcraft"
(cf. Low German wikken, wicken "to use witchcraft,"
wikker, wicker "soothsayer").
OED says of uncertain origin; Liberman says
"None of the proposed etymologies of witch
is free from phonetic or semantic difficulties."
Klein suggests connection with Old English
wigle "divination," and wig, wih "idol."
Watkins says the nouns represent a Proto-Germanic
*wikkjaz "necromancer" (one who wakes the dead),
from PIE *weg-yo-, from PIE root *weg- "to be strong, be lively." .
- www.etymonline.com/?search=witch
Words were ghosts, things that would haunt him.
- Frank Herbert
The Lazarus Effect
As the mythological glossary developed
our first primitive understanding of Psi,
a transformation occurred. Out of the grimoire
came curiosity and the translation of fear into experiment.
Men dared explore this terrifying frontier
with the analytical tools of the mind.
From these largely unsophisticated gropings arose
the first pragmatic handbooks
out of which we developed Religious Psi.
- Frank Herbert
The Godmakers
“It’s part travelogue, part true-adventure, part mystery thriller.
But mostly it’s a whacking big dose of amateur scholar-ship
alloyed with a fervid imagi-nation
and the kind of narrative that comes in handy
when telling ghost stories around a campfire.”
- Jonathan Kirsch
reviewing Graham Hancock’s The Sign and the Seal for the Los Angeles Times
Pseudohistory is a pejorative term
applied to a type of historical revisionism.
It purports to be history,
and uses ostensibly-scholarly methods and techniques
(which in fact depart from standard historiographical conventions),
but is inconsistent with established facts or with common sense
and often involves sensational claims whose acceptance would
significantly require rewriting accepted history.
The term may apply to a theory or works based on that theory.
Cryptohistory is a related term,
sometimes applied to pseudo-historical publications
based on occult notions.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudohistory
Highly recommended for conspiracy fans;
unsuitable for historians
- Richard Furlong
reviewing Graham Hancock’s The Sign and the Seal
-------------------------------