There is a book that helped me a lot in understanding things from a truly spiritual perspective.

I know nothing about metaphyisics - yet this book has made me understand some important stuff, among them the dangers of the New Age.

The book is The System of Antichrist - Truth and Falsehood in Post-Modernism and the New Age by Charles Upton, and it provides a critique of perverting of what he calls traditional metaphysics by the new age and other movements.

It also warns us abou the danger of communication with UFOs and so called aliens. The book provides a summary of what is the traditionalist movement exposed mainly by rene guénon (I know nothing about the subject - only what's in the book), explains many principles of traditional metaphyisics while comparing them in different religions, and has a huge part of the book dedicated at criticizing the following materials: The seth books, celestine prophecy, castaneda, a course in miracles, and perhaps others I forgot. There is a section dedicated to exposing the evils of our post modern thinking. There is a very interesting part about the ufos and much more.

I can not stress enough how this book is important because it opened my eyes to a lot of subjects, and also has an interesting analysis of "reincarnation".

I recommend this book to everyone, specially those who are fond of the new age.

I don't know why the book is so expensive on amazon - it says less than $27 something in the back cover of the book!
If it is wanted, I would write here some quotes from the book.

Here is a review: http://www.johnreilly.info/tsoa.htm

http://www.amazon.com/System-Antichrist ... 839&sr=1-1

"[A]s this cycle of manifestation draws to a close, the cosmic environment first solidifies – this being the result and the cause of modern materialism – after which it simply fractures, because a materialist reality absolutely cut off from the subtle planes is metaphysically impossible. These cracks in the 'great wall' separating the physical universe from the subtle or etheric plane initially open in a 'downward' direction, toward the 'infra-psychic' or demonic realm (cf. Rev. 9:1-3); 'magical realism' replaces 'ordinary life.' It is only at the final moment that a great crack appears in the 'upward' direction..."

You sound like my mother. Anything that contradicts scripture is merely "illusions of demons". Whatever.

yogiwhatever,

This is not a place involved in New Age concepts. Tom Campbell's work and writings do not fit at all into New Age concepts other than if you do not really know what you are talking about nor really into 'spirituality'. Nor does he get into demonology, concepts of the end of times or end of our reality. Tom's model of reality is nothing at all like this. Nor is it based upon PMR religions. It has parallels to some Buddhist thinking and things encountered by mystics of all ages such as the Buddha's concept of Illusion, the Indian metaphysics which included the concept of Indra's Net (compare to IUOCs interconnected over the RWW) and the Void. But Tom's understanding of these concepts and description comes from science and personal exploration, not from traditional mysticism. Do not expect much interest in the concepts or the book you are describing here.

Ted

Sorry Yog, but that just sounds whip-ding schitzoid to me. Even the sentence structure is off the wall.

[A]s this cycle of manifestation draws to a close, the cosmic environment first solidifies – this being the result and the cause of modern materialism – after which it simply fractures, because a materialist reality absolutely cut off from the subtle planes is metaphysically impossible.

...what the heck is THAT supposed to mean ...???

... cosmic environment solidifies ...???

..."this being the result and cause of modern materialism ..." ???

"It is only at the final moment that a great crack appears in the 'upward' direction..." ... the only image that comes to mind is a severely overweight woman in tight shorts bending over to retrieve some large soap package on the bottom shelf of a grocery store isle. Very 'Gah!~'

-Montana

I never claimed it was involved in new age concepts, altough from what I've gathered it has some influence, for example, I read thomas campbell was influenced in part by the seth material, correct me if I'm wrong. I also saw praise of that barabara something. Anyway, I know there are people here who read this stuff and the book provides an important analysis in my opinion. As for TC model of reality being nothing "like this", first you'll have to define what "this" is, but it will be difficult since you never read the book. You may think I'm mistaken, but if you read it, you will enjoy it and learn a lot.



I hope you don't think the book is based on religions in mumbo jumbo as it is metaphyisical and logically based, with sound thinking and arguments that even an atheist could agree. It also speaks of how it is innapropriate to make a "mish mash" of different religious doctrines.

Also keep in my there is much more to religions than we may think, we can not analyse them by their supposed followers or by what they appear like today, but only by studying and studying a lot. Experts say that to truly understand a religion you must also study the original language on which it was written. Religion is not just mystical mumbo jumbo.

I recommend the book to you, and I will post some quotes soon.

Montana: I'm not the most apt person to try and explain that to you, as I myself know nothing. I tried to write a huge response but it was so bad I gave up. The best I can do for you my friend is to post quotes of the book.

update - Turns out there is a large quantity of pages available on google books

http://books.google.com/books?id=QGMFts ... &q&f=false

I advise you both to read it.

yogsototh,

This is strictly a book based upon religion. Tom Campbell's metaphysics is a better model of reality than what is referred to in this book. It explains how Consciousness arose and how we all came into existence. It has nothing to do with religious doctrine while your favored book links metaphysics absolutely with religion. I would not disagree with all that is written in the book but we can do without the demonology for the reasons already stated. We can also do without the worship of the one true God and the revelation of absolute truth. The author also misses the mark in some other specific cases. While My Big TOE is not anti religious, it is not a religious work. Religions are something developed here in PMR society and have nothing to do with the metaphysics of MBT and the information about the nature of NPMR also provided by Tom Campbell.

Ted

I read the chapter of UFO's.

His beliefs are based on less than solid assumptions, which again he reference to some other books. He is very fond of taking the word of those who view UFO's as sign of demonology and mass deception, and base his views on only that.

He thinks UFO's are demonic, that's his 'explanation'. He also see it as a sign for the end times, as in Armageddon and the battle of good and evil. In my opinion, that belief in end times is very outdated..

Also read some of his chapter on reincarnation, that one has more value than his UFO chapter.

Can't speak on the rest of the book, but I would take it with a grain of salt yogsototh.

You have not read the book, I have not read thomas campbell. The difference is I will be silent, while you seem to be acting out of prejudice. But, of course, I know have you read some parts of the book in order to make your judgement.



The intent of this topic is to provide valuable information.



The part about reincarnation is really extremely valuable. About the end of times, he does not speak about it literally. Read this by the same author, available on google books also, about it, if you want to know what he means by apocalypse (at least that's what I understood):

http://books.google.com/books?id=MSxMHX ... se&f=false

yogsototh,

I wish you had picked a shorter, recognizable and pronounceable avatar name!

The psychic plane and spirit plane nomenclature is obsolete and has no meaning here. I cannot translate to any of our understandings. This is going to be a problem in gaining any traction with your favorite authors works.

Ted

Those are merely models. If you want, I can point the pages on which the distinction between psychic and spiritual are explained.

Yogsototh is a creature of lovecraft. You can call me yog, or goy!

I was thinking of Toth. Was that not an Egyptian god?

What I was referring to is that we don't discuss 'planes' here. Tom's model is based upon mathematics and science, not on spiritualism which is where I understand the concept of 'planes' of existence originates. What we discuss is this as a Virtual Reality that is of the Physical Matter Reality type. There is also a VR of the Non Physical MR type or NPMR. There are actually many of each but we typically as IUOCs or Individuated Units of Consciousness are associated intermittently with a particular PMR where existence and training are more high intensity as a PMR. Then we experience a simultaneous and continuous life experience within the NPMR that is associated with this PMR. NPMR is what would be commonly referred to as the 'after life' except that this is not the true situation as we experience that life continuously. Coming here to PMR is like time sharing on a computer and our consciousnesses are considered to be digital. Not like in a computer here in PMR, but of the same nature as digital. The VRs are experienced by data streams that are sent to us representing everything which occurs within our PMR experience and NPMR experience. As I think I mentioned to you, Tom's model begins with the Void of ancient mysticism and includes something which is just like the ancient Hindu metaphysical concept of Indra's Net which we refer to as the Reality Wide Web, a pun on the World Wide Web of the Internet. We as IUOCs are interconnected with each other and everything else over this data buss of the RWW over which a digital data stream comes to us and represents everything experienced within our PMR experience. This is all described many times here on the BB and on the Wiki. Here is the short form on the Wiki: http://wiki.my-big-toe.com/index.php/In ... _MBT_Model

Ted

Here's, I believe, where it gets tricky.

I was familiar with that basic explanation you gave, altough you explained it in a more detailed way. Very interesting.

The thing is, that does not make the planes any less real, as they themselves aren't "real" (keep in mind I know little to nothing of the subject and have only read some books) but as I said, merely models to explain ideas. I agree that they should not be thought of as "places".

But I can say no more as I'm no learned man on the subject. The only thing I can say is you may not be interpreting it in the way the author intended, that is, you may think he as a vision which he does not. Again, this is only speculation by me. In pages 332/333 he outlines some levels (but not the erroneous interpretation of planes as you pointed out, which I agree is erroneous). Now in a gross comparative, let's think about the human body. Can we not say there are molecules, then cells, then tissues, then organs, etc...? But ultimately, isn't it all just one? But don't we still need to talk about cells, tissues, etc. in order to express some ideas and some proprerties of reality?
Toth is an egyptian god, yog-sototh is a fantastic creature by lovecraft.