Distance Itself From It and Turn It Into an Object
In order to understand the world intellectually, the left brain has to distance itself from it and turn it into an object.
from The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
Symbolic and poetic hubs that gather recurring motifs, emotional structures, aesthetics, and thematic patterns from across the site.
→ Browse Full Themes DirectoryIn order to understand the world intellectually, the left brain has to distance itself from it and turn it into an object.
from The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that.
from The Truman Show
All entities move and nothing remains still.
from Cratylus (dialogue) by Plato
The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded...
All THE upside-down, inside-out, other-way-round thinking of the secret societies, all that is bizarre and mind-bending in what follows stems from the belief that mind preceded matter. We have almost no evidence to go on when we decide what we...
Source: The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth
For those who have a sense of this invisible, other reality, the answers to life’s mysteries offered by modern science are inadequate and unsatisfying. They are unable to accept them and they find themselves seeking something else.
Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
In a culture conditioned to think in categories of Cartesian dualism or of a pre-Copernican cosmology that split the heavens and the earth, Spinoza was taken either as an atheist who reduced everything to matter ... or as a pantheist...
Source: Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll
For one thing, the esoteric tradition deals in imagery and symbols, the meanings of which are often complex and multiple, and which elude the left brain’s demand for clarity and definiteness; they are more attuned to what McGilchrist calls the...
Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
The right brain is geared toward engaging with living things, McGilchrist says, and with recognizing overall patterns, meanings, and relations. It is attuned to the network of connections that links everything with everything else. Its fundamental attention is to the...
Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
It may be postulated that this single bit of physical awareness brought about the greatest change in the mind of man since the dawn of creation. Before Magellan's time, mankind had simply accepted as self-evident the fact that there was...
Source: JFK by L. Fletcher Prouty
This is not to say that the new wave of philosophers necessarily wanted to deny the existence of the gods, rather that they merely refused to believe that it was divine meddling that was responsible for natural phenomena.
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
What this secret tradition reveals is that the one whom most Christians naïvely worship as creator, God, and Father is, in reality, only the image of the true God. According to Valentinus, what Clement and Ignatius mistakenly ascribe to God...
Source: The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
What sets the mental-rational structure apart from the previous three structures is that it is the most separated from “Origin.” In it, human consciousness, which had previously felt a fundamental connection to the world around it, was now unattached and...
Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
Egocentric attitudes may have been a contributory factor behind the dominance of the geocentric world-view, but there were other reasons for preferring an Earth-centred universe to Aristarchus’ Sun-centred universe. One basic problem with the Sun-centred world-view was that it appeared...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
The study of cosmology shows how our relationship to the universe and our fellow humans is inextricably conditioned by our underlying belief systems and mythologies. As every thoughtful person realizes, the life of each civilization-and every individual-is influenced by underlying...
Source: Jesus Christ, Sun of God by David Fideler
Are you in a universe which is ruled by natural laws and, therefore, is stable, firm, absolute—and knowable? Or are you in an incomprehensible chaos, a realm of inexplicable miracles, an unpredictable, unknowable flux, which your mind is impotent to...
Source: Philosophy: Who Needs It by Ayn Rand
Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?
Source: 1984 by George Orwell
Another reason to adopt moderate skepticism concerns the very real danger that we might be deceiving ourselves in our beliefs, even when we think our beliefs are based on sound evidence. One way in which this can happen is well...
Source: The Beatles and Philosophy by David Detmer
In this spirit of mystery they professed to imitate the Deity, who hides Himself from our senses, and conceals from us the springs by which He moves the Universe. They admitted that they concealed the highest truths under the veil...
Source: Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike
Even figures associated with the rise of modern science and the modern world—Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton—were profoundly influenced by Hermetic ideas. Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, made a living as an astrologer, and Newton wrote more...
Source: The Secret Teachers of the Western World by Gary Lachman
In the Middle Ages people believed that the earth was flat, for which they had at least the evidence of their senses: we believe it to be round, not because as many as one per cent of us could give...
Source: Saint Joan (play)
To start by making the trade center disappear, though, seems a good way to begin.
Source: Divided We Stand
Playboy: One critic even called 2001 “the first Nietzschean film,” contending that its essential theme is Nietzsche’s concept of man’s evolution from ape to human to superman. What was the metaphysical message of 2001? Kubrick: It’s not a message that...
Another reason why the Greeks rejected Aristarchus’ Solar System was its apparent failure to stand up to scientific scrutiny. Aristarchus had built a model of the universe that was supposed to match reality, but it was not clear that his...
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
This architecture of scientific logic has an inherent beauty which emerges from how various arguments fit together, how several measurements interlock with one another, and how different theories are suddenly introduced to add strength to the edifice.
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
I have given Truman the chance to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place. Seahaven is the way the world should be.
Source: The Truman Show
Mike Michaelson : Christof, let me ask you, why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world until now? Christof :We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented....
Source: The Truman Show
Thus, we may say that a new idea disturbs the existing stock of ideas and distorts the accepted frame of reference. In our endeavor to restore the former coherence and balance, to remedy the disturbing situation, we are compelled to...
Source: Nature and Human Nature by Lawrence K. Frank
Throw in some assumptions, such as moonlight being nothing more than reflected sunlight, and a framework of scientific logic takes shape.
Source: Big Bang by Simon Singh
You start to see the world a little differently when you turn it upside down
Source: Upside Down (Paloma Faith) by Paloma Faith
And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right
Source: Round Here by Counting Crows
If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it - Anything you want to, do it - Want to change the world? There's nothing to it
Source: Pure Imagination by Willy Wonka
The things I've learned from a broken mirror - How a face can change when a heart knows fear
Source: Cecilia and the Satellite by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
Oh, well, a touch of grey Kind of suits you anyway
Source: Touch Of Grey by Grateful Dead
Because you're upside down and inside out and you can feel it
Source: Upside Down & Inside Out by OK Go
The shit's over their head, but under their nose - Not a star cause I'm a sun when it comes to a flow - Ya know?
Source: How We Live by Styles P
On top of the chain and safe from the rain - Whatcha' know about the ways of the underside?
Source: The Mission by Puscifer
And who knows which is which and who is who
Source: Us and Them by Pink Floyd
Living is easy with eyes closed - Misunderstanding all you see
Source: Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles
'Come down now', they'll say - But everything looks perfect from far away
Source: Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
And all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be
Source: Breathe (In the Air) by Pink Floyd
Into the flood again, same old trip it was back then - So I made a big mistake - Try to see it once my way
Source: Would? by Alice in Chains
The world begins to disappear - The worst things come from inside here
Source: Einstein on the Beach by Counting Crows
We are digging holes to China - Then we pray to our reflections in the water when it rises
Source: God Of Ocean Tides by Counting Crows
Will you tell me what you saw, and I'll tell you what you missed, when the ocean met the sky - You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye - When the Earth folded in on itself
Source: Ocean Breathes Salty by Modest Mouse
I heard it, somebody lied, and I'm staring out the window - Gonna let this thing continue In its natural time - Round heads, square heads - Get settled in
Source: Moon Rocks by Talking Heads
Changes are shifting outside the word
Source: No More “I Love You’s” by Annie Lennox
Everything I say falls right back into everything
Source: Still Sane by Lorde
People asking questions, lost in confusion
Source: Watching the Wheels by John Lennon
The crust is elusive when it casts forth to the childlike man
Take me to the place where you go - Where nobody knows if it's night or day
Source: Don’t Look Back in Anger by Oasis
Sometimes the very thing you're lookin' for, is the one thing you can't see
Source: Save The Best For Last by Vanessa Williams
Is this just an illusion - That I made inside my head to get me by?
Source: America by Imagine Dragons
Call it magic - Cut me into two - And with all your magic, I disappear from view
Source: Magic (Coldplay) by Coldplay
There's a humming in the restless summer air - And we're slipping off the course that we prepared - But in all chaos, there is calculation
Source: Glory and Gore by Lorde
How long am I gonna stand, with my head stuck under the sand? I'll start before I can stop or before I see things the right way up
Source: Speed of Sound by Coldplay
Feeling kinda tilted and I’m pouring out the truth, just fading out these talkers ‘cause now all I want is you.
Source: Sit Next To Me by Foster the People
Will you tell me what you saw and I’ll tell you what you missed, when the ocean met the sky.
Source: Ocean Breathes Salty by Modest Mouse
One more sun comes sliding down the sky - One more shadow leans against the wall
Source: Einstein on the Beach by Counting Crows
The old blueprint no longer manifests itself as the correct way to exist - wipe the grime off the view hole
Source: World Go ‘Round by No Doubt
And as I roll along, I begin to find, things aren't always just what they seem
Source: Upside Down by Jack Johnson
And oh my dreams - It's never quite as it seems
Source: Dreams by The Cranberries
We'll find there's a kind of place that can only be seen with the naked mind
Source: One Minute More by Capital Cities
Cause Everything Is Never As It Seems…
With a wave of his hand, he had made the Earth a planet and set it spinning.
We Built This City on Rock and Roll
…how different theories are suddenly introduced to add strength to the edifice.