Paracelsus [Translated by Franz Hartmann]

There is a great difference between the power which removes the invisible causes of disease, and which is Magic, and that which causes merely external effects [to] disappear, and which is Physic, Sorcery, and Quackery.

Paracelsus [Translated by Franz Hartmann]

Quotes by William James Durant

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

The family is the nucleus of civilization.

It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.

Moral codes adjust themselves to environmental conditions.

-- Quotes by William James Durant

Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them...

Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, p. 39 [Free Press, 1979];

Manly P. Hall

Every form existing in the diversified sphere of being is symbolic of the divine activity by which it is produced.

Manly P. Hall

Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Darwinism is the doctrine of natural selection and physical evolution. It has been said of Charles Robert Darwin that he determined to banish spirit altogether from the universe and make the infinite and omnipresent Mind itself synonymous with the all-pervading powers of an impersonal Nature.

Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Sir Francis Bacon, Atheism

A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

Sir Francis Bacon, Atheism

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

I think only in movies is horror vocal.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

High calls low and low calls high .... The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar. It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering, I should turn to God.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Freeman, TheFreemanPerspective.Blogspot.com

There is no corporatism without Freemasonry, and they are the head of the fascist state.

Freeman, TheFreemanPerspective.Blogspot.com

Dr. Walter J. Kilner, The Human Atmosphere

HARDLY one person in ten thousand is aware that he or she is enveloped by a haze intimately connected with the body, whether asleep or awake, whether hot or cold, which, although invisible under ordinary circumstances, can be seen when conditions are favourable. This mist, the prototype of the nimbus or halo constantly depicted around saints, has been manifest to certain individuals possessing a specially gifted sight, who in consequence have received the title of "Clairvoyants," and until quite recently to no one else. This cloud or atmosphere, generally termed the AURA, is the subject of this treatise, in so far as it can be perceived by the employment of screens containing a peculiar chemical substance in solution. It may be stated at once that the writer does not make the slightest claim to clairvoyancy; nor is he an occultist; and he specially desires to impress upon his readers that his researches have been entirely physical, and can be repeated by any one who takes sufficient interest in the subject.

Dr. Walter J. Kilner, The Human Atmosphere

Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

Pythagorus taught that the dot symbolized the power of the number 1, the line the power of the number 2, the surface, the power of the number 3, and the solid the power of the number 4.

Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

The first step in obtaining the numerical value of a word is to resolve it back into its original tongue. Only words of Greek or Hebrew derivation can be successfully analyzed by this method, and all words must be spelled in their most ancient and complete forms. Old Testament words and names, therefore, must be translated back into the early Hebrew characters and New Testament words into the Greek.

Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis

The first striking circumstance in which the history of Pythagoras agrees with the history of Jesus is, that they were natives of nearly the same county; the former being born at Sidon, the latter at Bethlehem, both in Sytria. The father of Pythgoras, as well as the father of Jesus, was prophetically informed that his wife should bring forth a son, who should be a benefactor to mankind. They were both born when their mothers were from home on journeys, Joseph and his wife having gone up to Bethlehem to be taxed, and the father of Pythagoras having travelled from Samos, his residence, to Sidon, about his mercantile concerns. Pythais [Pythasis], the mother of Pythagorus, had a connexion with an Apolloniacal spectre, or ghost, of the God Apollo, or God Sol (of course this must have been a holy ghost, and here we have the Holy Ghost) which, afterward appeared to her husband, and told him that he must have no connexion with his wife during her pregancy -- a story evidently the same as that relating to Joseph and Mary. From theses peculiar circumstances, Pythagorus was known by the same title as Jesus, namely, the son of God; and was supposed by the multitutde to be under the influence of Divine inspiration.

Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis

William F. Hixson, It's Your Money

Paper money makes possible a money supply that can be made to increase at substantally the same rate as the supply of goods and services in the economy increases. Paper money makes possible a money supply that can be made to increase substantially as the Monetary Authority of a country wants it to increase. Paper money (in contrast to gold or silver money) makes "monetary stability" an achievable goal. Paper money is one of the great inventions of all time.

William F. Hixson, It's Your Money

William F. Hixson, It's Your Money

It is no more necessary that money have intrinsic alue than it is for a postage stamp, a bus token, or an airplane ticket.

William F. Hixson, It's Your Money

Michael Tsarion

The stronger a light shines, the more darkness and dirt it will reveal.

Michael Tsarion

Hugh McCulloch, 1868

I look upon an irredeemable paper currency as an evil .... Gold and silver are the only true money. I have no doubt that these metals were prepared by the Almighty for this very purpose.

Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. 1868

Preable to Bank of Canada Act

The preamble of the Bank of Canada Act establishes its goal:

... to control and protect the external value of the national monetary unit and to mitigate by its influence fluctuations in the general level of production, trade, prices and employment, so far as may be possible within the scope of monetary action.

William Krehm, The Bank of Canada -- A Misused Tool

Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

As institutions for the dissemination of ethical culture, the pagan Mysteries were the architects of civilization. Their power and dignity were personified in CHiram Abiff -- the Master builder -- but they eventually fell a victim to the onslaughts of that recurrent trio of state, church, and mob ....

When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear ....

The perfect government of the earth must be patterned eventually after that divine government by which the un iverse is ordered. In that day when perfect order is reestablished,
with peace universal and good triumphant, men will no longer seek for happiness, for they shall find it welling up within themselves.

Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Any zookeeper will tell you that a tiger, indeed any cat, will not attack in the face of a direct stare but will wait until the deer or antelope or wild ox has turned its eyes.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

You can get used to anything -- haven't I already said that? Isn't that what all survivors say?

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Century of the Self

Just beyond the icy gates of winter, lies the open hearth of Christmas cheer ...

Freud and the Subconscious Mind

In the 1920s, Sigmund Freud discovered the subconscious mind. According to Freud it was the seat of man's drives -- essentially, his animal instincts. If men and women were to live together in collective peace, these drives had to be kept heartily in check. The intellectual elite, such as himself, I suppose, would have to devise ways to suppress these dangerous and anti-social drives. A rival of Freud, who died in a jail at the age of 60, Wilhelm Reich, believed in the subconscious; but, unlike Freud, believed that it was the seat of positive emotions, i.e. the essence of what makes us human (love, peace, forgiveness, generousity, etc.). Reich believed that the good instincts of humankind were supressed because the system, the social infrastructure, if you will, itself was very oppresive. Freud and Reich diverged to such an extent that, though Reich was originally a student of Freud's in university (in Austria) they eventually parted ways because of their differences in philosophy.

Bernays and Propaganda

Enter Edward Bernays. Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud who often visited him at his university in Austria. Bernays was keen to understand the psyche of man because he was involved in the propaganda industry. The term propaganda had such a bad name, even in the 1920s that Bernays, in attempting to give the field some legitimacy, renamed it "public relations." Nowadays most governments, including our own, have public relations offices. This is the legacy of Edward Bernays, who, it is said, is "the father of public relations".

Bernays is one of the unsung heroes, or villains, depending on your perspective, of the last century. Not only did Bernays found the public relations office for governments -- used by both good and bad governments -- but he helped the advertising industry gain the stronghold that it has today over our young generations minds. It was he who borrowed his uncle's knowledge of the human psyche -- its subconscious desires -- and used them to manipulate, not individuals, but large groups of people, i.e. the masses.

His most famous coup was the breaking of the taboo of women smoking cigarettes. In the early 20th century many tobacco companies were happy that World War I brought them at least one thing: men returned home from the frontlines addicted to cigarettes -- as these were doled out freely to them in the frontlines. The problem for the tobacco industry was that only half the population was now hooked; what about the women? It was one of Bernays first assignments to get women smoking just like the men. Bernays knew just what to do, he consulted his uncle. But, when Freud was unavailable, he went to several of the most famous psycho-analysts in New York, where he lived. He asked them: "Why don't women smoke cigarettes?" Bernays was told that women don't smoke because it was a social taboo; attack the taboo, and you can get them smoking.

Bernays went to work. He wielded seemingly incredible power, or perhaps he just had unlimited funding from his tobacco employers, that he hired the most famous 'debutants' in New York, and gathered all the major media outlets for publicity stunt at a special parade that was being held in New York. It was important that the parade be about freedom and Bernays called cigarettes, "torches of freedom". Here, he was tapping into the subconscious desire for women to have freedom. It does not need to be stated that women, especially in the early 20th century were and incredibly suppressed demographic. The propaganda stunt worked, and women have been paying for with their lungs ever since; especially teenage women, and especially in countries like Canada.

Convincing, or persuading people, to buy things they don't need was at the heart of Bernays work. It is the hallmark of the consumer society we live in. The consumerist crescendo reaches its peak, appropriately at the end of the year. There is more to learn about the legacy of Bernays in his manipulation of the masses. Check out google video: “The Century of the Self”, but Adam Curtis of BBC Television.