"Temple of Set Reading List:
Category 20 - The Four (?) Dimensions" (7/1/87CE)
Reprinted from: _The Crystal Tablet of Set_
(c) Temple of Set 1989 CE
Weirdbase file version by TS permission

by Michael A. Aquino, Ipsissimus VI* Temple of Set
Electronic mail: MCI-Mail 278-4041
 
The philosophy of measurement is a fascinating field. How can and should we 
estimate, assign, and evaluate boundaries, categories, and phenomena both 
within and without? "Freedom," said Winston Smith in _1984_, "is the freedom 
to say that 2+2=4 ~ whereupon the magician O'Brien convinced him that 2+2=5. 
The point is that only one who can define measurement is truly free; the 
Masons illustrate this by defining "God" as the "great architect" or 
"Geometer" of the Universe.

20A. _The World of Measurements_ by H. Arthur Klein. NY: Simon & Schuster, 
1974. (TS-3) MA: "A 735-page 'encyclopaedia of measurements', so beautifully 
written that it is as intriguing and entertaining as a good novel. But there 
is technical material here too, so expect to do some hard thinking as you 
read. Major sections on measurement philosophy, time, mass, light, 
thermodynamics, radiation, electronics, pressures, densities, waves, fields, 
and nuclear disintegrations - to name but a few. As Mr. Spock would say: 
'Fascinating!'"

20B. _The Nature of Time_ by G.J. Whitrow. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 
1972. (TS-3) MA: "This magnificent little book covers almost every possible 
aspect of time - relative, absolute, linear, circular, and otherwise. Again 
it is highly readable; one need not have a Ph.D. in Physics to understand 
its arguments and explanations. 189 pages."

20C. _The Timetables of History_ by Bernard Grun. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1979 
[periodically updated; look for most recent edition]. (TS-3) MA: "This giant 
book consists of a single, continuous chart [by page] correlating mankind's 
achievements in history/politics, literature/ theater, religion, philosophy 
& learning, visual arts, music, science/technology/growth, and daily life 
from 5000 BCE to the present. Superbly comprehensive and an invaluable aid 
in understanding the conditions of civilization surrounding key stages in 
human historical development. [For a fascinating tour of some key 
interrelationships in human progress, you might enjoy James Burke's 
_Connections_ (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1978), the book version of the 
BBC television series of the same name. The title refers to the often 
obscure and intricate processes by which some important modern technology 
began several centuries ago as a number of scattered, seemingly unimportant 
discoveries.]"

20D. _Man and Time_ by J.B. Priestley. NY: Crescent Books, 1964. (CS-3) AL: 
"A beautifully done book which explains many sound theories of space and 
time. Very usable information."

20E. _Body Time_ by Gay Gaer Luce. NY: Bantam Books #553-07455-150, 1971. 
(TS-3) MA: "A most thorough and readable book explaining the time-cycles of 
various features and functions of the human body. Virtually indispensable 
for advanced operations of Lesser and Greater Black Magic, whose 
effectiveness often hinges on the physical state of being of both the 
magician and the subject. This book also contains an exhaustive bibliography 
on each major topic treated."

20F. _Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite_ by 
Rudy Rucker. NY: Bantam New Age Books #0-553-23433-1, 1982. (TS-4) MA: "From 
the author's preface: 'This book discusses every kind of infinity: potential 
and actual, mathematical & physical, theological & mundane.' It does exactly 
that. Rucker is a Professor of Mathematics, so can deal with the very 
heavyweight mathematical concepts and formulae involved in this subject. 
Fortunately for the non-mathemagician, he also has the gift of explaining 
[most] things in non-math-jargon. Even so, you're in for some very heavy 
thinking if you tackle this book. It starts out fairly conversationally, but 
before you know it you're floundering around in: temporal & spatial 
infinities, Pythagoreanism, Cantorism, transfinite numbers (from Omega to 
Epsilon-Zero & Alephs), infinitesimals & surreal numbers, G~del's 
Incompleteness Theorem, robot consciousness, set theory, transfinite 
cardinals, etc. Just to irritate you, each chapter concludes with a 
selection of problems and paradoxes illustrating the aspects of infinity 
covered therein. For example: 'If infinitely many planets exist, then every 
possible planet would have to exist, including a planet exactly like Earth 
except with unicorns. Is this necessarily true?' See what I mean?"

20G. _Other Worlds: Space, Superspace, and the Quantum Universe_ by Paul 
Davies. NY: Simon & Schuster #0-671-42232-4, 1980. (TS-4) MA: "One of the 
most lucid and [comparatively] non- technical explanations of quantum 
mechanics. Davies discusses subatomic & superspace, mind/ matter, the nature 
of reality, waves & particles, holes & tunnels in space, M~bius strip 
phenomena, etc. Davies is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University 
of Newcastle. The book makes two assumptions that I personally find 
questionable: the 'Big Bang' and Einstein's theories of relativity. 
Nevertheless there is a lot of analysis here that does not hinge on these 
two sacred cows, and in any case it is virtually impossible to find an 
otherwise-first-rate physics text that doesn't bow and scrape before them. 
[Word has it that scientists of 1522, who knew the Earth is flat, assumed 
that Magellan made it all the way around by crawling across the bottom.]"

20H. _The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility_ by William L. Moore 
& Charles Berlitz. NY: Fawcett Crest Books, 1980. (TS-3) (OT-3) MA: "One day 
in October 1943, so the story goes, the destroyer U.S.S. Eldridge vanished 
into a green fog, appeared for a few seconds at Norfolk, Virginia, and then 
reappeared at Philadelphia - the result of an 'experiment gone wrong' in 
ship-invisibility by the U.S. Navy. The poor old Navy has spent forty years 
denying that anything like the so-called 'Philadelphia Experiment' ever 
happened, but unfortunately there is a growing accumulation of evidence that 
something took place - perhaps not visual invisibility or dimensional 
transportation, but something more along the line of an effort to mask the 
radar/electronic 'footprint' of the vessel through the generation of 
powerful magnetic fields. If, as #17F and #19I/J maintain, the human body 
and mind are seriously affected by electromagnetic fields, intense damage 
could have been done to those on board the Eldridge and indeed to anyone in 
its vicinity. One would prefer to think that the Navy wouldn't cover up such 
a mishap, but the monkey-business presently going on with Project Sanguine 
[see Runes #III-3, review of #17F] makes one wonder. #20H is definitely not 
a 'nut book', but rather a careful, logical recounting of the author's long 
and often frustrating efforts to uncover the truth [or lack thereof] behind 
what has become one of the more famous legends of _Outer Limits_-type 
research. #20H is reviewed in _Runes_ #IV-2. [See also the fictionalized but 
very well done film _The Philadelphia Experiment_  (Thorn EMI VHS cassette 
#TVA-2547, 1984).]" T.E. Bearden [in #20K]: "Reversing or lowering the 
electrogravitational charge is controlled by biasing the ground potential on 
the ensemble pattern transmitters, which can even be on-board the vehicle 
itself ~ You can float metal ~ You can even 'dematerialize' or 'teleport' 
it. The Philadelphia Experiment may have ben real after all. If so, the test 
ship and its personnel were 'blasted' into this strange realm ~"

20I. _Tesla: Man Out of Time_ by Margaret Cheney. Englewood Cliffs, New 
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1981. (TS-3) (OT-3) MA: "Few turn-of-the-century 
scientists are more colorful, accomplished, and controversial than Nikola 
Tesla, the inventor of radio, pioneer of alternating current, namesake of 
the Tesla Coil, colleague of Einstein, and all-around "mad scientist" par 
excellence. This lively biography, basis for a Tesla profile in _Runes_ #I-
2, not only tells his tale but also raises many questions [and proposes some 
answers] about the nature of electromagnetic energy. Extensive notes and 
recommendations for further reading & correspondence are included."

20J. _The Command to Look: A Formula for Picture Success_ by William 
Mortensen. San Francisco: Camera Craft Publishing Co., 1945 [originally 
published 1937]. (TS-3) (OT-3) MA: "Although ostensibly a manual for the 
most enticing layout of photographic work, this small book was held by Anton 
LaVey to be among the most crucial for an appreciation of the artistic and 
audio/visual principles employed in the early Church of Satan and Order of 
the Trapezoid. It prescribes three elements for the CTL: impact, subject 
interest, and participation. It further suggests four types of visual 
patterns which contribute to the CTL: the diagonal, the S-curve, triangular 
combinations, and the dominant mass. In _Runes_ #IV-3/May XXI Magister 
Stephen Flowers reviews CTL in detail. Its principles were invariably 
utilized in Anton LaVey's own artwork [examples in #6M, #6N and _Satanis: 
The Devil's Mass_].""

20K. _Fer-de-Lance: A Briefing on Soviet Scalar Electromagnetic Weapons_ by 
Thomas E. Bearden. Ventura: Tesla Book Company, 1986. (TS-4) (OT-4) Bearden: 
"Scalar electromagnetics is an extension of present electromagnetics (EM) to 
include gravitation. That is, it is a unified electrogravitation, and, what 
is more important, it is a unified engineering theory. Its basis was 
initially discovered by Nikola Tesla. Western scientists are familiar only 
with directed-energy weapons where fragments, masses, photons, or particles 
travel through space and contact the target to deliver their effects. 
However it is possible to focus the potential for the effects of a weapon 
through spacetime itself, in a manner so that mass and energy do not 'travel 
through space' from the transmitter to the target at all. Instead ripples 
and patterns in the fabric of spacetime itself are manipulated to meet and 
interfere in and at the local spacetime of some distant target." MA: "This 
spiral-bound book can be ordered directly from the TBC. Write to them at 
P.O. Box 1685, Ventura, CA 93002 for a current price list. Bearden is a 
retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel with 29 years' experience in air-
defense systems. He holds a Master's degree in nuclear engineering, and is 
presently a senior scientist with a major aerospace company."