Michelle Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 Does anyone know anything about this writer? Or more importantly, know anything about him and the number 23? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 Try this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted September 28, 2005 Author Share Posted September 28, 2005 What I'm looking for is why 23 was important to him, and what he thought it meant. Is it the theory that 23 can be found in lots of important places and dates, or is there more to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FattyRoberts Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 fnord. Ok this gets complicated. Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea wrote a very odd series of books called "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" which were inspired by an earlier work by Greg Hill (aka Malaclypse The Younger) and Kerry Thornley (aka Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) called the "Principia Discordia". All these authors and many of their works are based on the principles of Discordianism which has been described as both an elaborate joke disguised as a religion, and as a religion disguised as an elaborate joke. I think that the idea that Robert Anton Wilson was interested in 23 stems from the Principia...fnord The Law of Fives The Law of Fives is one of the oldest Erisian Mysterees. It was first revealed to Good Lord Omar and is one of the great contributions to come from The Hidden Temple of The Happy Jesus. POEE subscribes to the Law of Fives of Omar's sect. And POEE also recognizes the holy 23 (2+3=5) that is incorporated by Episkopos Dr. Mordecai Malignatus, KNS, into his Discordian sect, The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria. The Law of Fives states simply that: ALL THINGS HAPPEN IN FIVES, OR ARE DIVISIBLE BY OR ARE MULTIPLES OF FIVE, OR ARE SOMEHOW DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY APPROPRIATE TO 5. The Law of Fives is never wrong. In the Erisian Archives is an old memo from Omar to Mal-2: "I find the Law of Fives to be more and more manifest the harder I look." N.B. Do not ask me what fnord means. fnord Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FattyRoberts Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 Oh... and I just checked my copy... There are appendicies in The Illuminatus! Trilogy and one of them tells us more about the Law of Fives and considers some of the numerology of Discordianism, and even raises the question of what would happen to the Law of Fives if everyone had six fingers on each hand. And in a really wierd coincidence that will freak Michelle out... the Appendicies in this book are not numbered or lettered but given names. The discussion about the Law of Fives is in Appendix Beth And, I have no idea how to spell Appendicies... am I getting it right? Oh, and I must stop starting paragraphs with "oh" and "and" :shock: and this is paragraph number 5 in this reply! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andibody Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 This Law of Five is new to me. I've have read plenty of things using the number seven(Seven Pillars of Wisdom; Seven Planes of Exixstence; Seven Chakras). 8) Suppose there are lots of different "laws" using numerals. When did "Discordianism" first come into prominence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FattyRoberts Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 Discordianism is a modern, Chaos-based religion founded in either 1958 or 1959.The foundational document of Discordianism is the Principia Discordia written by Malaclypse The Younger (an alias of Greg Hill). This book contains many references to an earlier source, The Honest Book of Truth (HBT). From the quotations, the HBT seems to be arranged like the Bible, consisting of verses grouped into chapters grouped into books grouped into the HBT itself. The Principia includes (on page 00041) a large portion of (or possibly all of) a chapter of "The Book of Explanations" which recounts how the HBT was revealed to Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (believed by many to be Kerry Thornley). It may be worth noting that the tale of the discovery of the HBT contains many similarities to the tale of the discovery of the Book of Mormon, and that Thornley had been a Mormon. It also includes (on page 00030) part of the next chapter, telling how the HBT was taken by a garbage collector, who refused to return it. Although most religions revere the principles of harmony and order in the Universe, Discordianism can be interpreted as a recognition that disharmony and chaos are equally valid aspects of reality. The Principia Discordia often hints that Discordianism was founded as a dialectic antithesis to more popular religions based on order, although the rhetoric throughout the book describes chaos as a much more underlying impulse of the universe. This may have been done with the intention of merely "balancing out" the creative forces of order and disorder, but the focus is certainly on the more disorderly aspects of the world Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted September 29, 2005 Author Share Posted September 29, 2005 Jon.. I assume you get why I'm researching this one?! What are the books like? Their reviews on Amazon are great, but I wonder if I would find them good crazy books, or just crazy! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrathofkublakhan Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Robert Anton Wilson was a trip. He was a writer for Playboy magazine for a while and a long time friend of Dr. Tim Leary. He loved secret cults and conspiracies, math, the three stooges and sex, drugs and rock and roll. I am soooo glad I read Illuminatus! way before I read the Di Vinci Code. Illuminatus! is really a trilogy and is a spoof on conspiracy theories. The entire book is a lie. fnord. And a lot of fun too. In it we see ideas of quantum mechanics applied to the characters along with multiple universes and john dillinger on the grassy knoll. In it he also states that the number 23 keeps popping up everywhere he looks and soon you'll start seeing it too. It could have been 17 or 53 but it's 23. Click http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/principia/ for the prinicipa discordia. All hail, Eris! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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