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Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE (Read 50921 times)
PauliEffectt
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Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Apr 10th, 2012 at 6:09pm
 
I use a grade from 0 - 10 (10 is the best/highest) on books and documents.


My Big TOE, three Volumes (+800 pages), 1 ed, 2003, Thomas Campbell

GRADE: (see individual Volumes below)


In the text below I use the word "Volume" to distinguish between the three
parts of the book. Campbell uses the word "Book" to describe one of the
three parts, but this is confusing as the book also can be found in an
on-line version of only one piece (one book).

My review is based on the version of the book presented in three separate parts
(three Volumes).

Campbell has further divided his book into a total of 6 Sections, each Section
consists of several chapters.

---


In the text below I sometimes use the word 'astral' to keep my text shorter,
where I in fact mean the 'non-physical reality', be it an OBE or a visit
to some world outside our physical universe.

Let me start with saying that I'm a little disappointed with the book.

One property of Campbell's book My Big TOE is that it is almost without
specific content most of the time.

It's amazing that Campbell manages to write a three Volumes book about the astral,
without providing the reader with any information or specific details about the
astral world.

One reason may be that Campbell doesn't want to pollute the reader's mind,
so when the reader one day manages to go OBE, that reader is not coloured
by Campbell's view of the astral. But still, the lack of specifics and
details are a big let-down of Campbell's three Volumes book.

Authors like Monroe, Moen, Muldoon, Leland and RB have lots of specific
details, their own experiences and plenty of information about the astral
in their books.

Campbell has almost nothing.

The upside of the book is that it is freely available at Goggle Books. Anyone
can read it on their own at no cost at all.

When visiting forums on astral matters, Campbell's book is often highly praised,
which I really can't understand having read it and found it to be of poor value.
To summarize things, Campbell's three Volumes book My Big TOE has the
following main characteristics:

1. The book is boring.
2. The book takes ages to come to the point.
3. The book repeats the same statements, in various forms, 20 or sometimes
   even 30-40 times. Reading seemingly endless variations on the same subjects
   such as "entropy", "evolution", "consciousness", "science", "reality" and
   similar, adds very little new understanding to the reader.

4. The book's many claims are either obvious, fuzzy or too general in content.
5. The book lacks content to back up the not-so-obvious claims of Campbell.
6. The book is both forward and backward referencing to the absurd, sometimes
   to chapters not really related to the subject currently read, in a way
   which adds nothing new or very little to the context.

7. The book at times contains lengthy enumerations of various objects, which
   doesn't add anything to the content, and makes the book even more boring.
8. The book lacks detailed descriptions and experiences of the non-physical.
9. The book deteriorates during the later half of each Volume, being particular
   boring and repetitious during the second half of Volume II.

10. The book at times, at least to me, radiates an aura of artificiality and
    not being too honest.
11. Most of Campbell's jokes (many in his asides) are boring. When Campbell tries to
    use sarcasm to be funny, even that fails to be fun, it's only becomes sarcasm.


From start to finish, it took me almost a year to read My Big Toe. During
that time I finished several other books.

I would have expected something more from a professor in physics.

---



My Big TOE: Awakening, Volume I, 1 ed, 2003, Thomas Campbell

GRADE: 5.5


At the beginning of Section 1, there is a handy list of abbreviations, which
Campbell uses through-out his book. I think he has listed almost all abbreviations
with a few exceptions (see for example page 193).

TOE stands for Theory Of Everything.

Before the actual text of the book start, there are several brief recommendations
from six persons with various academic backgrounds. They all highly praise
My Big TOE (TOE) in big words.

The brief recommendations are repeated in all 3 Volumes of TOE.

I also note that TOE gets high grades at amazon.com, which is a mystery to me.
But a few of the amazon reviewers has noticed that Campbell repeats a lot of text.

Campbell has a very bothersome style of writing. He seldom goes directly on the
subject. Instead Campbell starts any area with a long blurb of text, which
is very wordy and often contains little substance. Campbell's consistent use
of these blurbs of texts, both obfuscates the content and sags the reading
of his book. The book becomes a very slow read.

It's unclear to me why Campbell goes around beating the bush with his blurbs
of texts, as the reader certainly will try to figure out if there is anything
of value inside those blurbs, often becoming disappointed. I've seldom found
anything of value in those introductory blurbs. Campbell's extensive use of
blurbs of text, lowers the grade for his book.

In the preface, I'm also having a hard time with Campbell's use of the expression:
"profound mysteries and ancient secrets", as it is undefined.

Campbell further gives a lot of promises in the preface to his book, which I
later can't really say that he has fulfilled.

The preface contains one important piece of info, on some subjects there will
be "asides", text areas which stray from the main topic. These asides are
marked with a special dingbat symbol.

Campbell does a lot of repetition in his book, which also contribute to slowing
down the book in an odd and convoluted way. The problem starts already at the
Synopsis, before the table of content, where Campbell gives an outline of the
chapters. He then repeats his outline of chapters a second time in his preface.
One time would have been enough.

Repeating some parts, for example because they are important, could be a good
thing to do. But Campbell is repeating too many different matters too many times,
which have a negative effect on the book.

The initial part of the book also has too many wrappings; the brief recommendations,
the synopsis, the preface, the foreword and the introduction.

I would have expected a well educated person to be more direct, more clear and
to avoid repeating textual content by no good reason.


In the forewords, Campbell states that consciousness is the computer (page 34),
to me the "computer" is the same as the hardware. I think this statement is
important:

Consciousness = The Hardware

(Later I found out that Campbell thinks that consciousness also is the software)

In the forewords, Campbell also states:
"...you must grow your own Big TOE." (page 36)

Hmm..?

Will this book tell me anything about TOE, or is TOE a virtual concept, which can
change into anything? Most of Volume I goes on with quite vague formulations and
too little actual substance.


But Volume I has one good part.

Section 1 is very good and is about Campbell's background and childhood
experiences. Campbell mentions several details about his research at The
Monroe Institute (TMI), which at that time had a slightly longer name.

Section 1 is worth reading.

If Campbell had held the same high standard through out his book, as he does
in the Section 1, I would have given the book a much higher grade.


Section 2 is more convoluted and Campbell falls into a mode of repeating the
same things over and over again. He also seems to postpone the content of his
book, by pointing to Section 6 at the end of volume 3, not revealing in what
direction the book's content will go.

On occasions, Campbell seems so content with his own words and likes repetition
of his text too such a degree, that it eventually becomes silly as he urges
the reader to re-read the same sentences. His repetition strategy become a little
too much, for example Campbell's re-reading instructions on pages 136, 176 and 240,
of Volume I.

At times Campbell's style of writing turns into a dance with words, more than
containing anything of value. Perhaps I'm too old, I've seen too much, read too
much, which makes Campbell's book contain very little new info. Maybe a child
from 8th grade will get more value out of Campbell's book?

Campbell's AUO stands for Absolute Unbound Oneness, and is his hypothetical first
consciousness that everyone started from. AUO is kind of godlike and resembles
Monroe's Creator or Whole, or even RB's Source.

Later on Campbell uses the abbreviation AUM instead of AUO, to symbolize that
The One has evolved over time.


Section 2 contains a lot of talk with not too much of value about people's belief
systems trapping them and that science and astral phenomena are difficult matters
to join. It's a boring part of the book.


At times reading Campbell's book feels like reciting a slightly boring, slightly
repeating mantra:

Big TOE. Big TOE. Big TOE.
Entropy. Entropy. Entropy.
AUO. Big TOE. AOU. AOU.
Evolution. Big TOE. Big TOE.
Survival. Entropy. Big TOE.
AUM. Big TOE. Big TOE. AUM. AUM.



In Volume I, Campbell indicates that there might not exist a general TOE:

"...a comprehensive and complete Big TOE is relative to your perspective,
knowledge and limitations."
(page 118)

Campbell makes me sigh. If I read the full book and finally get the answer,
that I have to create my own Big TOE, he certainly has written a huge bunch
of words, which could have been cut down into much fewer pages.

Campbell urges the reader to distinguish between beliefs and knowledges. He
also touches the subject of disbelief and sceptics. He fails to produce
anything new under the sun.

Sometimes Campbell uses very long sentences, which makes the reading harder
as the text content often is vague, and further lowers the grade of the book.


What's interesting is that Campbell is very positive to the concept of mysticism,
and the concept of Love.

Campbell praises mysticism alongside science. He also introduces the postulate
that any non-physical reality, outside the physical, will affect the physical
but not so much the other way around. And there may be layers of non-physical
realities which affect the innermost realities.

But he provides almost no experiences of his own to strengthen his claims.


Campbell also urges the reader to read a book called Flatland from the
year 1884, to understand higher "astral" dimensions. The book Flatland was a
political statement in a time when political criticism was disallowed and books
like Gulliver's Travels had a high time.

In one aside, Campbell gives some advice how to go about doing meditation and
how to construct your own mantra, around pages 175 - 178. May possible be
worth reading, unless you have more thorough meditation sources.

At times reading Volume I is a little disturbing, because I as a reader am
very uncertain where the book is heading, if it is heading anywhere at all.
It's so unclear at what goal Campbell is heading during most of Volume I.

According to Campbell, Big TOE must stand on at least one mystical leg.
Mathematics alone can not produce a Big TOE.

A Big TOE without any mystical connotation, must with necessary be incorrect,
(pages 185 - 186).

One half in making a Big TOE, is the need for the existence of a consciousness
that apparently is an infinite Absolute Unbound Oneness (AUO), page 191 Volume I,
from which we all have emerged as tiny parts.

The other half needed for making a TOE is something called the Fundamental
Process of Evolution
.

I would have hope that a physicist wouldn't have made such vague and unclear
statements. Campbell then has great problems construction anything meaningful
out of those two "halves", which makes his TOE drift aimlessly in space for
the most of Volume I.


Campbell's book is also disturbing in the way, that it quite often points forward,
to chapters/sections to come. That style of writing creates two problems. The first
problem is that the reader may feel that the "current" chapter is of little value,
which it often is because the content is vague and fuzzy. The second problem
Campbell creates, is the irritating feeling that the reader will have to wait
for a long time, until anything of value will be reached in the book.


In Section 2 Campbell talks about entropy, but if you already know what that is,
you will perhaps expect Campbell to explain how entropy fits into the picture of
the non-physical reality. That's not what is going to happen. Instead entropy
becomes a kind of "internal" state in consciousness, which increases the degree
of mysticism in Campbell's writing. Stating that evolution of the consciousness
is an improvement of entropy, gives little new info to the reader. Stating that
evolution of the consciousness is an improvement, that would have been enough.

Hmm...

Entropy.

There is an issue here.

The thermodynamic definition of entropy is that two objects, one warm and one
cold, will over time achieve the same temperature if they are close together in
space. Time and space.

You see?

Time and space.

Entropy is defined in terms of time-space in our physical reality. If there is
no time-space in the non-physical, how valid is the use of the concept "entropy"?

In Volume I, Campbell somehow indicates that the non-physical must have a time of
its own.


Regarding AUO, the first consciousness, the mind Campbell has given the abbreviation
AUO, who is not God, but kind of god-like. On page 208, Campbell makes the somewhat
strange remark that AUO's "external environment" can't be part of a Big TOE!

*cough*

I thought a TOE would cover a huge lot of things, but apparently it doesn't cover
the AUO's external environment, whatever that could be.

Now, if Campbell could have defined exactly what he means with an external or
internal environment of the AUO...

Campbell goes on to describe some ideas about the AUO, entropy and evolution.
I may either be too old or have read too many books, but nothing of the stuff
Campbell writes is new. And it is also sketchy, lacking substance, being
too wordy and very lengthy in text.

Perhaps the AUO concept is important? But I would have preferred it described
in less unclear words by Campbell.


I'm having a hard time swallowing that the astral should obey similar evolutionary
Laws of Nature that biology do. After all, non-physical reality is not made out of
physical matter. Because of that, it would have been good if Campbell had backed
up his often quite fuzzy "scientific" statements, with some experiences of his own.

In fact, it would have been good if Campbell had backed up _any_ of his claims,
with some experiences of his own, like Monroe, RB, Leland, Short, Ziewe or Buhlman
have done.


In the later part of Section 2, Campbell introduces the concept The Big Computer
(TBC), and declares that TBC is an equivalent to AUO's consciousness. Campbell
describes TBC in quite boring and lengthy terms, as it is a huge computer with
memory and processors.

Campbell seems to have some kind of problem finding anything interesting to describe,
and he often becomes wordy about things which are either just obvious or plain
contentless.


To bring something into concrete terms out of all those words, Campbell makes some
claims about his AUO concept:

* AUO somehow emerged in no-time, no-space and gained awareness (page 208 and others).
* AUO created duality, which other authors also have claimed (page 215).
* Then AUO somehow created time (also page 215), the first tick-tock.
* After that, AUO discovered space (page 217).
* AUO becomes "digital-thinking" as it evolves (page 246 and others).
* AUO eventually evolves into an Absolute Unbound Manifold (AUM), (page 250).
* AUM has space-time as one of many internal environments (page 256).

To back his claims, Campbell has some simple diagrams on pages 216 & 217, which are
not enough to convince me that he has explained anything.

Specially, I would have liked some experience of Campbell, to back his claim that
the AUO-AUM consciousness became "digital".

A little later Campbell seems to change his mind about what was discovered and what
was invented. He claims that AUM created space-time in the sense of an invention,
on page 256-257.


Campbell calls the smallest time increment to AUM, for "fundamental time quantum".
Such a claim requires some assumptions to be correct (page 259):

1. There suddenly exists time where there has been no-time earlier.
2. Time is quantified in increments.
3. Something "astral", changes in accordance with this time increment.
4. Physical matter ticks by a (different) time increment too.
5. All time increments must have the same length.

Campbell, who should be a scientist, doesn't back up his claim about a quantified
time increment in the non-physical. He reports no observations that this is true.

I would have wanted Campbell to state his experiences to back his claim,
specially as we have not in our physical universe been able to prove that
there exists a quantified time increment.

I must say that Campbell does a poor job of explaining what he means by space and
by time in relation to the non-physical. He can't make it sound sane. But he claims
that physical space is an illusion. Maybe he is right?

But I would have liked the experience described, which backs his claim. A story
like Monroe, Short, Moen or RB tell. I can accept an experience, but unbacked
claims doesn't convince me.


At the end of Volume I, all Campbell's small asides becomes bothering, as they
add very little to the content as a whole. It's also annoying that Campbell constantly
points to the end Section in Volume III, and at the same time gives the reader an
impression that all Sections before the end Section has to be read, to fully
understand the end Section of Campbell's book.

A 'reality cell' is Campbell's equivalent to a Monroe Locale III universe.
Sometimes Campbell mixes similar expressions and doesn't seem to be able to
make up his mind what expression to use. 'Reality cell' is also called
'other reality systems', and our reality cell is abbreviated OS (Our System).

Campbell comes with various claims about his AUM concept. For example that there
is an upper limit to the number of 'reality cells' to the AUM-digital-system, as
he sees the AUM as both being computer, programmer and operating system.

But Campbell doesn't give the reader any description on how he has acquired this
knowledge, so to me it hangs thin in the air as yet another unsubstantiated claim.

Also, when Campbell claims that there is a minimum DELTA-t time increment, he
should have said at least one word about how he has managed to measure time at
all, in the astral. I don't think anyone has succeeded measuring astral time
or any non-physical time. So any claim about how increments of time are divided
has to stand on solid ground, which Campbell this far has failed to provide.

Campbell would have won a lot by putting more structure into his claims and he
could remove some of his large, mostly pointless text portions which often only
state the obvious.



My Big TOE: Discovery, Volume II, 1 ed, 2003, Thomas Campbell

GRADE: 2.0


The corner stone of Volume II is that it is almost content free in regards
of anything new, not already mentioned in Volume I.

Campbell repeats the exact same synopsis, acknowledgement, preface and foreword as
he has in Volume I. I would really have liked him trim down at least the foreword.
Repeating the exact same text doesn't make it better. It just makes the read more
boring. (In the one-piece book (all Volumes in one), this repetition is not done.)

On page 41, Campbell repeats the same synopsis which he already has written on
page 9, and it is the part of the synopsis from Volume I. I have no idea why he
decided to twice repeat the synopsis from the previous book.

Some claims by Campbell.

* Big TOE has to be mystical, it has to deal with mysticism.
* AUM is _not_ infinite.
* AUM experiences change as the smallest DELTA-t time increment possible.
* Campbell on PUL: "Love is the result of low-entropy consciousness." (page 49).
* The future has not happened yet, so you can't go _into_ the future, you can only
  go to a _probable_ future scenario.

In Volume II, Campbell writes a lot about the "right" or "wrong" choice, and
"good" and "bad" motivations. Page up and page down. But very little of Campbell's
writings seem to have anything to do with the astral or a TOE. I consider the
initial part of Volume II having almost no usefulness, as it just states the
obvious of everyday life.

By now it has become very clear that Campbell's TOE is only in relation to
AUM's (the "god"/superconscious) mind, as Campbell claims that conditions and
details which interacts with anything outside AUM is of no (!) interest for TOE,
see page 72.

Around pages 103 - 109 Campbell has a very long aside (and an aside inside the
aside), which discusses computers' consciousnesses. Problem is that he makes
a poor effort to define what he mean with consciousness, and the whole aside
changes direction over the pages and leaves the reader with very little solid
info. I also wonder why he puts this computer-aside in the book? Maybe it
could be because he thinks that the computers consciousness is connected
to the non-physical reality, scrapping the hardware doesn't alter it?

Campbell produces another pointless one-liner in _bold_ at page 109:
"Organization is the ultimate form of energy."

Long boring descriptions of the ego, desires, some aspects of consciousness,
synergy and how it relates to consciousness. And a small passage on love.
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« Last Edit: Apr 10th, 2012 at 7:50pm by PauliEffectt »  
 
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PauliEffectt
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #1 - Apr 10th, 2012 at 6:11pm
 
(continued)

The book is packed with vague or unclear claims on several subjects,
only sometimes related to astral matters.

By now I become aware of one more annoying habit of Campbell. He enumerates
things. He count them up and write them on the forehead of the reader. Long
list of items or concepts, with no particular purpose, other than making his
book become even more boring.

Does Campbell say anything interesting, like: "Hey guys, I met this non-physical
consciousness of a scrapped computer. We talked for at while and once I've
informed it that its model went out of market, it realized there was no more
incarnation for it."
Does Campbell write anything fun like that?

His asides are mostly boring.

More than a third through Volume II, Campbell is now not only making forward
referencings, he also starts doing backward referencings to previous chapters.
Sadly enough this double pointed referencing doesn't provide the reader with
any more info, it just makes the book harder and more boring to read.

To paraphrase a TV-serie, The Big Bang Theory, where one of the characters
state: "Sheldon Cooper has managed to make a boring subject become unbearable."

Halfway through Volume II, I can say that Campbell certainly has managed to make
an interesting subject become not only boring, but reading his second book is
boring to the extent that I was actually considering _not_ finishing it. But in
the hope to get some enlightenment at the end, I struggled on.

It's a mystery to me how someone manages to write a full book about the astral,
and fill it with more than +800 pages of text without making the content of
the book become really exciting one single time. Campbell certainly has
worked hard.

Volume II really hits rock bottom. Reading Campbell's second Volume feels like
having had a heavy lead weight chained and locked to your ankles and being
shoved off the deck of a boat, into the ocean.


And somewhere after pages 170 - 180, the book slows down and becomes really heavy
to read. The later part of Volume II moves forward only very slowly and Campbell's
text enters loops where previous statements are repeated at least 10 (20?) times
with both forward and backward references to other chapters, many of these
chapters belonging to Volume I and III.

I get only vague motives from Campbell, why does he repeat the same statements
over and over again in various forms? A fair guess is that Campbell may see
his book as a teaching tool and he wants people to learn its content
by repetition.

The second half of Volume II is so slow that it at times almost seems to grind
to a halt, producing no new info. Only subjects and statements already mentioned
or already worked through by Campbell are worked over yet again.

The only remedy Campbell offers the reader is patience, patience and he
repeats it again, more patience, eventually if your read on for long enough,
you will reach Volume III, Campbell encourages the reader.

I actually went back to Volume I, several times, when Campbell made a backward
reference in Volume II. To my surprise, those referenced chapters in Volume I
often had little in common with the original reference in Volume II, so I
wonder if Campbell really is aware of the lack of consistency with his back-
and forward referencing in his texts? Campbell is particular fond of
backward referencing to Chapter 24 of Volume I.

At times Campbell's writings are so fuzzy that I can't even tell if he is
a poor writer or just a very boring writer. But surely the second part of
Volume II contains nothing, no experiences from the astral, not methods
to improve your astral abilities, just a lot of text about AUM and the
human consciousness, text which he already has stated in previous texts.

"AUM's attitudes and feelings toward ... humanity, or any particular human ...
...are beyond the scope of even the biggest Big TOE..."
(page 75)

Campbell reaches the conclusion very early, that everything in the physical
world is only thoughtforms of AUM. We and everything around us are only
thoughtforms of the AUM, which is quite like the idea that everything in
the physical world is a dream. And again, Campbell is forward referencing
(page 78).


Too often Campbell just points out the obvious, usually after a very long
text, sometimes spanning several pages, where the reader already has
figured out the conclusion after the first few sentences.

Such subjects of Campbell with very obvious conclusions ranges from
communication problems between humans, observing our world through our
five senses, religious opinions, reading books or being trapped in
scientific belief systems.

Often Campbell enumerates boring long list of objects like religion,
politics, business, commerce, trade, etc. And then he makes some very
pointless remark on his list, a remark which he then expands in a lot
of ways which are obvious to the reader from the start, and which adds
very little info about astral matters to the reader.

A little surprisingly Campbell makes a claim about our local astral leader
of our local astral reality. (The local leader is far from AUM.) The
Local Leader, Big Cheese, Big CEO, Big Boss, Top Dog, Local Supreme Being;
is male, it's a "he"! (page 91)

Campbell also claims the (local) Big Boss/CEO can terminate any astral
being who doesn't play by the rules (who's rules?). Campbell isn't too
clear about the expression "terminate", though, so we are left to guess
what that expression means. My own reflection is that Campbell's view
on the astral local Big Boss resembles traditional Christianity's view
on the one God, the Father.

Campbell also states a lot of interesting truths, except for the fact that
most people have already figured out these facts for themselves during their
early twenties.

At times Campbell has an annoying habit of telling the reader what to do
or what not to do, and many times he is kind of vague in his directions,
too, which makes his advice of less value.

It's very boring to read the same repeated statements about our consciousness
or that our bacteria in our colon or other intestines. In fact, Campbell for
lengths of texts repeats the words: anus, colon, intestinal and bacteria.

To no good I should add.

The problem with Campbell's repetition of all his already previously stated
statements is that he never comes to the point. What's the idea with three
Volumes full of text? Campbell probably can't put it any clearer himself,
with his own words in Volume II, on page 196:

"I expect that I have by now exceeded the credibility threshold of many readers.
In techno-jargon that means that I have pegged their BS meters."


In the second half of Volume II, Campbell makes a lot of comparison between
the astral and a computer. I say, maybe things can be modelled, but Campbell
gives away very few details about how he has come to that conclusion and
leaves out a lot, except for some very vague details about the astral. The
whole chapter where Campbell compares our world with a computer game is of
little value.

Campbell further makes the claim that AUM (the collected consciousness of
all there is), optimizes how each living being interacts. I would say that
such a view leaves a lot unsolved, as humans seem to have evolved very
little the last thousand years. Wars are still going on, we are consuming
our natural resources, polluting our environment, we have a lot of not
so democratic leadership and there are lot of criminals all over, etc.

But as with all Campbell's claims he seldom goes into details, and doesn't
discuss specifics of our world and why things look bad. I remember someone
saying, perhaps humans don't want to change? Nevertheless, Campbell
continues to draw parallels between biological evolution and a computer
game containing an "AI Guy" in the second half of Volume II, see for
example page 276 and forward.

Around page 320 in Volume II, Campbell again argues for the claim that physical
reality doesn't exist, it is created by our non-physical minds. At the same
time Campbell argues for the claim that we are here in the physical because
we are here to map uncharted territory, making new discoveries.

Campbell further claims that there doesn't exist anything except for
consciousness and AUM is consciousness. What lies outside AUM, which
is all there is, Campbell states is outside the scope of TOE.

At one point Campbell states that there is a bigger computer than TBC, as TBC
is just one of many computers, there exists an Even Bigger Computer (EBC).
Campbell seems to be a little vague if the TBCs are parts of EBC or if TBCs
are simulated within EBC.

I get the impression that both TBC and EBC are analogies to describe something
which is difficult to describe in words. Anyway, EBC seems to be almost
the same as AUM; EBC = AUM (?).


It's strange that Campbell doesn't touch the exterior to AUM, because I would
think that would be even more interesting than AUM, right? Introspection
only could be boring in the long run.

Sadly enough, Campbell provides nothing, no experiences of his own, not
even small detailed descriptions of his non-physical experiences, to back
up his claims. No written experiences from the astral. That's unusual
for a book which is about the non-physical reality.

Campbell returns to failures of science as he states that scientists only
look for small picture solutions, and when running into inconsistencies,
they add things like uncertainty principles, because they are unable to
see the Big TOE (Volume II, page 336).


Repeating 20 times that in the Little Picture you can't see the Big Picture,
doesn't help the reader. Repetition without substance doesn't move the
storyline forward, Volume II becomes stuck in a textual loop where almost
identical expressions of Campbell are repeated over and over again.

It's a shame.



My Big TOE: Inner Workings,  Volume III, 1 ed, 2003, Thomas Campbell

GRADE: 4.0


I question if Volume III is worth reading, unless you really want to follow every
track from the Monroe school to its end. Volume III is better than Volume II, in
the sense that Volume III does come to the point not as slowly.

Volume III mostly contains repetition of material already repeated several
times in the previous two Volumes. Volume III consist of two parts:

   Section 5 which repeats Sections 2 (from Volume I) and also repeats
   Sections 3 & 4 (from Volume II).

   Section 6 which summarize Sections 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Even Campbell himself, states at the beginning of Volume III, that the reader
may choose to skip some chapters as they are repeating old stuff from previous
Volumes.

I was trying hard to find something to quote from Volume III, which wasn't
already repeated in one of the two previous Volumes. I'm not sure I found
anything worth mentioning.

Somewhere during the year 1900, a German scientist, Max Planck, discovered a small
quantified time "increment", which he called the Planck Time. Campbell believes in
the idea of these time increments being fixed in the physical world, he also thinks
that AUM is able to use much smaller time increments in the non-physical world to
simulation the physical world.

(Campbell doesn't mention Planck in Volume III, he only mentions Planck and
the Planck Time in Volume I, page 261 and forward.)

Campbell uses his concepts The Big Computer (TBC) and Absolute Unbound Manifold
(AUM) a lot in Volume III. TBC is a small part of AUM. In fact there are plenty
of TBCs all over AUM. AUM is the equivalent of RB's the Source or some kind of
God of Everything. And our consciousnesses are tiny parts of AUM.

In the first half of Volume III, Campbell spends a good deal of text describing
how the AUM-computer-mind uses time increments. Reason being that Campbell thinks
that all of the physical world is a simulation by The Big Computer (TBC). The time
increments are used by TBC to calculate possible futures, while the physical world
is ticking by, on its much slower time increments stepped up by TBC.

The use of time increments to simulate a computer game is basic programming, but
by some reason Campbell uses tons of text to repeat almost the same statements
about his ideas about these time increments, utilized by AUM, the
digital-mind-computer.

As our minds are non-physical and we live in physical bodies, we are somehow
synchronized with the much slower physical world's time increments, if I get
Campbell right.

Campbell also mentions parallel realities copied from our reality, and the
possibility that AUM can stop the clock of a given physical world, to examine
the situation better.

TBC will let possible futures continue to run on their own, so AUM can find out
if the TBC simulation is appropriate. Such future TBC runs are not our actual
reality (but may become).

Travellers in the non-physical may pick up these future predictions of AUM and
may sometimes think that they see future events and not only computer calculated
possibilities. The Big Computer stores everything (page 98) in a way equivalent
to the famous sanskrit Akashic records, including possibly futures never actualized.

Campbell gives no description of his own experiences on how he has reached his
conclusions.

Volume III contains lots of repetitions and those all too common backward
referencings of previous material. Campbell presents some of his ideas in a
less fuzzy way in chapter 4 of Section 5 in Volume III, but at the same time,
Campbell provides very little new info, which hasn't already been put forward
by other authors like Monroe/Moen/RB, who I think have done much better work.

At times I feel that I'm reading a new, but poorer, version of Waiting for Godot.

Very seldom Campbell can be funny but probably not in an intentional way. His
standpoint is that AUM has a digital consciousness, a digital mind, thinking in
terms of ones and zeros, for example on page 78 Campbell claims:

"...if you can imagine that the AUM-digital-consciousness-thing is completely
beyond your imagination, you have taken the first step towards understanding..."


So, if you can imagine beyond your imagination, you may understand...

Well.

At the end of Volume III, Campbell claims that our consciousnesses are fractal
and he also quotes some scientists and philosophers.

---

This book is so without answers to a lot of questions. I would at least expect
a physics professor to include in a TOE how the non-physical can connect to the
physical.

How can our non-physical consciousnesses connect to our physical bodies, and
why can't we detect this non-physical thing with any kind of scientific equipment?

The book lacks answers to most questions for being about a TOE.


What Campbell says is essentially that he has a TOE (Theory of Everything).
He also doesn't present his TOE in more than a very fuzzy model. He further
states that it's almost of no use to the reader to read Campbell's personal
TOE. The reader has to find his own TOE. Everyone has to find her/his own TOE.
Also, every TOE will be different from anyone else's TOE. And that's the reason
why Campbell doesn't go into finer details about his TOE.

Everyone has to experience the Larger Reality for themselves to reach any
detailed conclusions about a TOE.

Perhaps that's the reason why the book is called _My_ Big TOE and not
The Big TOE?
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #2 - Apr 10th, 2012 at 10:04pm
 
  I didn't read all of My Big TOE--mostly because i didn't see the point since i got the gist of what was being, as you noted, often repeated. 

  I think there is plenty of good/helpful info in the book, and ultimately, it may be a sort of a moral code in disguise, but one thing i wish there was more of in the book is talking about techniques and methods to help us find out for ourselves our own Big TOE.  There is a little talk about the void and how to experience same, but it's more of a side note. 

  I disagree with the advice on and about the void to some extent anyways.  To me, the void state that he recommends is the same old, same old, Eastern over Yin/Right brain state of being of almost complete stillness, quietness, and receptivity.  There is value in in learning to quiet the "monkey mind" for sure, but it's not the end all for the meditative process. 

  I prefer the Hemi-Sync like state of being wherein the Right and Left brain work together in unison, wherein the receptive, still part of us and the active, thinking, creating part of us merge, and we can use whatever is most helpful in the moment.  But yes, it would be helpful if My Big TOE placed more emphasis on technique and methods, and explained these within the context of Consciousness and how Consciousness works according to the "rule sets" pre set up. 

   I've seen various replies from Tom to people at his forum, and i could feel and see holistic wisdom emanating from his advice/words, which is one of the reasons why i think Tom is the real deal.  I figure there may be deeper reasons of why he wrote his book the way he did, but since he is not a He/She type yet, there may be limitations and distortions of perception.   Actually, there has to be--it's really just a higher physics. 

  The more difference between one's wavelengths and that of the purely Creative Force within, which we are connected to by PUL, the more errors, limitations, and distortions of perception there can and will be in one's personal TOE. 

   Many at Tom's forum, seem to think and seem to treat Tom if he is an infallible guru figure, and it would probably be helpful if he actively curtailed this kind of perception and mystique of him.  In some ways, he seems to foster this mystique--especially through allowing the main moderator of that site to clearly and powerfully put him on a guru type pedestal.   That moderator is clearly obsessed with Tom, his work, and his "special relationship" with the powerful, infallible guru that he thinks Tom is. 

  This is very limiting, and Tom has been asked to wake up to this. 

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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #3 - Apr 12th, 2012 at 4:47pm
 
PauliEffect:

I've watched some of Tom's videos and he seems okay to me, but I've had his book for some time and never got around to reading it because going by what I read he takes too long to get to the point. He would probably have more success with his book if it had much fewer words.

He didn't describe the astral realms because he didn't want to influence people, but then on his forum he validated Seth. The poster who asked about Seth assumed that Tom was right. I suppose that poster assumed that Tom can't be wrong about anything. I disagree. This is what I think of Seth.

http://nondualityisdualistic.com/a-night-in-heaven/chapter-13/

I wish that some of the well known (or fairly well known) spiritual teachers of this World would put a little more effort into figuring out what various channeled sources are about before speaking up for them.
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #4 - Apr 12th, 2012 at 6:23pm
 
Somewhere within his book Tom wrote that he and Robert Monroe considered what Seth says when they tried to figure things out. Tom also wrote that one should have a mind that is both open and discerning. I don't know what Seth books he and Robert Monroe read, but both "Seth Speaks" and "A Nature of a Personal Reality" say things related to Jesus that seem quite false to me.

If Tom read the two Seth books I mentioned above, I wonder why he didn't notice that Seth said some bogus things about Jesus. Could it be because his feelings towards Jesus are tarnished by fundamentalist Christianity to an extent where he can't find the need to use an open and "discerning" mind when he considers what a source such as Seth says?

The same is true with Kurt Leland. I have two of his books. I find it odd that in one of his books he refers in depth to what Emanuel Swedenborg said yet he's such a big fan of Seth. He tried to channel Seth for a while. Played around with an Ouija board. Eventually he made contact with a being he calls Charles and he channels this being. Why did Kurt Leland fail to recognize some of the preposterous things Seth said about Jesus? Kurt's books are interesting reading, but his viewpoints of what happens after death are quite different than what many others have found and some of things he said are hard to believe.   
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #5 - Apr 12th, 2012 at 8:07pm
 
Exactly how did it seem false?
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #6 - Apr 12th, 2012 at 8:10pm
 
If you mean what Seth said, I explain on the link I provided.

PauliEffectt wrote on Apr 12th, 2012 at 8:07pm:
Exactly how did it seem false?

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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #7 - Apr 13th, 2012 at 6:51am
 
Ok, maybe Seth just wanted you to questions your beliefs so you don't get trapped in something which locks you?
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #8 - Apr 13th, 2012 at 11:21am
 
PauliEffectt wrote on Apr 13th, 2012 at 6:51am:
Ok, maybe Seth just wanted you to questions your beliefs so you don't get trapped in something which locks you?


  It's clear, PauliEffectt, that you have not communicated with expanded nonphysical guidance re: Yeshua.  My experience, is quite literally all expanded nonphysical guidance types (that i have communicated with) have the utmost respect and Love for this super expanded Consciousness.

He and his life and pattern is even well known in other Galaxies and other Universes /realities.  Every mature consciousness in existence wants to grow up to be like him someday.

Expanded nonphysical guidance types, know that a non religious understanding and focus on Yeshua and his example, tends to have a spiritually liberating effect on others. 

For Seth to minimize this example, to degrade this example, is highly suspect and it means that either Jane Roberts was spouting her own limited and erroneous beliefs through the guise of channeling, or she was channeling a hindering or ignorant nonphysical.  Either way, why would anyone with real experience and discernment listen to "Seth"?
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #9 - Apr 13th, 2012 at 2:19pm
 
By the way Pauli, thank you for taking the time to write such a long review.
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #10 - Apr 13th, 2012 at 7:53pm
 
Quote:
PauliEffectt wrote on Apr 13th, 2012 at 6:51am:
Ok, maybe Seth just wanted you to questions your beliefs so you don't get trapped in something which locks you?

  It's clear, PauliEffectt, that you have not communicated with expanded nonphysical guidance re: Yeshua.  My experience, is quite literally all expanded nonphysical guidance types (that i have communicated with) have the utmost respect and Love for this super expanded Consciousness.

He and his life and pattern is even well known in other Galaxies and other Universes /realities.  Every mature consciousness in existence wants to grow up to be like him someday.

Expanded nonphysical guidance types, know that a non religious understanding and focus on Yeshua and his example, tends to have a spiritually liberating effect on others. 

For Seth to minimize this example, to degrade this example, is highly suspect and it means that either Jane Roberts was spouting her own limited and erroneous beliefs through the guise of channeling, or she was channeling a hindering or ignorant nonphysical.  Either way, why would anyone with real experience and discernment listen to "Seth"?

Well, as F DeMarco has said at one time when he didn't want to believe in his
guides, if they didn't fulfill his expectations, the guides acted in a style so
they would seem to fulfill his wishes. If his guides had not, he would have
stopped believing in them, and his guides didn't want that development.

Perhaps your guides do the same? They fulfill your expectations in the hope
that they still are able to reach you.

That's partly why NDE for an Indian and a Catholic are quite different. Their
expectations drive what they get to see, or who they get to meet in the astral,
be it Jesus or a Death Deity.

So perhaps Seth was trying to help people release their belief burdens?

To prevent them from being chained by beliefs?
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #11 - Apr 13th, 2012 at 8:10pm
 
When I made contact with my higher self/spirit guidance I didn't expect to find out about Jesus but eventually my guidance decided to let me know about him.

Perhaps some people don't find out about him because things such as fundamentalism has made it so they are too closed to find out about him.
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #12 - Apr 14th, 2012 at 12:34am
 
PauliEffectt wrote on Apr 13th, 2012 at 7:53pm:
 
Well, as F DeMarco has said at one time when he didn't want to believe in his
guides, if they didn't fulfill his expectations, the guides acted in a style so
they would seem to fulfill his wishes. If his guides had not, he would have
stopped believing in them, and his guides didn't want that development.

Perhaps your guides do the same? They fulfill your expectations in the hope
that they still are able to reach you.

That's partly why NDE for an Indian and a Catholic are quite different. Their
expectations drive what they get to see, or who they get to meet in the astral,
be it Jesus or a Death Deity.

So perhaps Seth was trying to help people release their belief burdens?

To prevent them from being chained by beliefs?


  Belief burdens?  Beliefs are only "burdens" if they are inherently limiting and/or erroneous in nature.  How, exactly, is believing that a fellow human became such a pure/open channel of PUL that he completely liberated himself and thus became truly and completely "enLightened" as to overcoming all human, material limitations and telling others they can do the same if they live/chose like he did, a limiting belief?   Hmm, sounds a lot like Bob Monroe's most mature person living in his space/time cycle...   But, i suppose "He/She" is the actress Glenn Close?

  Re: guidance, Frank DeMarco, expectations, etc., my experience with guidance has not paralleled Franks whatsoever.  I've gone with certain beliefs, preconceptions, or ideas to guidance, but decided to be truly humble and to ask with no preconceptions about something, and have been told things which contradicted my prior preconceptions or inclinations. 

   Two recent examples from my experience "log".  I thought it likely that my wife and Rosalind McKnight might be part of the same immediate Disk.  I brought the question to Guidance under more ideal conditions.  I was told no.  I was told that Melissa Jager was part of her Disk though.  A name i barely remembered consciously and was quite surprised to "hear" (i was also a bit surprised to hear the "no" part to begin with). 

  Another recent example, for a bit, i was suspicious of the poster Wonderer, and questioned his intentions, thinking that perhaps they were deceptive or negative to some degree.  I brought the issue to guidance, under more ideal conditions, and told he was a rather old Soul and his intentions were basically loving in nature.  Quite a difference from what my personality self had been thinking and wondering.

   I don't get told things based on what i want to to believe, or previously believe or conceive.   I've long been interested in truth and humble or aware enough to know that my personality, conscious mind, doesn't always know what is expanded truth or not (despite that i've always remembered being a rather accurately intuitive person). 

Re: Yeshua, i've never have been religious in this life, nor have i been interested in religious dogma.  Since age 13, i've been intensely interested in researching and knowing about nonphysical/spiritual reality outside of dogmas or organized beliefs.  I started practicing meditation then, and i would get intuitive downloads (often at night when relaxing) wherein i was told about things like the Oneness of Consciousness, the important of Universal Love, the coming Earth changes, etc

  Re: NDE's, beliefs, and Yeshua, well i've read a number of NDE's, and while prior strong beliefs sometimes do influence a person's interpretation and/or translation of their experiences, this certainly is not always the case by any means.  I remember reading a NDE from a woman who was Jewish with little interest in and no "belief" in Yeshua, who had an experience with Yeshua and realized first hand that he was the real deal and the "Messiah" that her people have long denied.   Interestingly, she saw that he had reddish colored hair. 

This is very interesting since a few other unrelated sources all describe Yeshua as having reddish hair.  Edgar Cayce's guidance, Joe McMoneagle's remote viewing session initiated by Bob Monroe, and the prophecies found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Reddish hair is the most rare coloring in the world, and particularly not common amongst Hebrew/Israeli/Palestinian people's.  Nor in popular art or cultural references is he usually associated with reddish hair.

  Perhaps there is a bit of "projection" going on with your label attaching to others of being chained to belief burdens, etc.  I've read some of your experiences with "guidance" or "guides", which did not seem like you were in touch with real guidance, but with hindering, slow vibratory influences.  No wonder you would support Seth's "truth" over Yeshua's, for you don't seem to apply discernment or discrimination to your own experiences, perceptions, etc. 

  I've learned the hard way the importance of applying discernment and discrimination to psychic receiving of info, and have learned through experience that there are very much misleading and hindering forces out there.   One of their main targets, often, is Yeshua because of the fact that he and his example can help to spiritually liberate others.  These misleading, hindering, ill intentioned forces constantly try to minimize, twist, marginalize, and/or deceive others about this Teacher and his life and example.  Most often, they deny or falsify about either the crucifixion and/or the resurrection.   Sometimes they are even more clever, and claim to be him and to help write a book that has a limiting, brainwashing affect on others, hooking people with some truth mixed in with limiting falsehoods.  Also they have created religious institutions and dogmas which often distract people from his real teachings and example.

   If you are actually interested in truth, and finding out what's more true from more expanded perspectives, then i highly suggest you practice two techniques in conjunction.  One--make and sincerely state an affirmation of your deep desire to get guidance and help from only the most spiritually expanded, aware, constructive, and PUL attuned sources, and before asking your questions, practice Bruce Moen's "remembering the feeling of Love" technique or something similar (feeling/thinking gratitude is also quite helpful), and then get deep and still in meditation and ask your questions with no preconceptions. 

   These are ways to help self bypass one's natural, "Like attracts, begets, and resonates with Like" reactions, and to bypass misleading and hindering forces which seek to create limiting and false belief systems. 

   Do these and ask about Yeshua and/or Seth, and then we can have a real dialogue.   For, i do ask questions under these more ideal conditions and have been given a number of messages involving Yeshua--sometimes without consciously seeking them (usually these latter happen in the form of dreams). 

  Are you interested in expanded truth, or believing in what you want to believe based on preconceptions or prejudice?
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #13 - Apr 14th, 2012 at 12:16pm
 
David Oakford had an NDE with a guide, and his guide introduced him to Jesus.

Paul Elder had an experience with a guide, and his guide introduced him to Jesus.

Since David and Paul had a state of mind where they were willing to meet somebody other than Jesus, I believe it is safe to conclude that their meeting with Jesus wasn't about getting caught up in a belief.

Both David and Paul were very impressed with Jesus.

Kurt Leland wrote that George Ritchie probably met somebody other than Jesus when he had his NDE.  My impression is that George Ritchie was pretty clear about who he met.  I've found that other people are quick to dismiss experiences people had with Jesus even though they didn't have the experiences they dismiss. Their preconceptions cause them to respond in such a way. This just goes to show that people who speak of being free of belief systems aren't as free as they believe they are.
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Re: Thomas Campbell's book: My Big TOE
Reply #14 - Apr 14th, 2012 at 3:29pm
 
Any guide with enough PUL can take on the appearance of Jesus or whatever deity you want.
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