D

491. English faces this same demise in a time more likely measured in years than in centuries.

492. It is likely that the next great advances for humanity will come from third world countries with minority languages. If these countries are forced to Anglicize their tongues in order to co-exist in the modern world, we may forfeit our chances for survival and for advancement.

493. There are some things that we can do to combat the stagnation of our culture The first suggestion is to teach bilingualism to our children. In fact, multi-lingualism would be better. Ideally, all humans would speak at least three languages. These would consist of a major popular tongue—essentially English, Russian, Chinese—a classical language—for example, German, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese—and an emerging language such as Farsi, Thai, Korean, Afrikaans, etc.

494. By schooling our people in this way, we impart to them the past, present and future. They will see the classical concepts that are engendered in our modern thinking and have a truly dynamic grammar with which to create.

495. Alternatively—possibly simultaneously—we should be inventing new grammars and new words. Words should be invented even before meanings are found for them. Then let people strive to define them with their experience.

496. Whole new structural systems for communication should be invented to encourage expanded thinking. If we can invent multi-dimensional forms of geometry; can create massive computer systems of ones and zeroes; can fly to the moon; then surely we can utilize new grammars to conceptualize new ideas and to experience new events, emotions, and thought processes—perhaps even new senses.

497. A god must never allow its limits to be tested, for once tested it is confined to those limits, unable to grow, and therefore doomed to die.

498. To state that a god must never allow its limits to be tested is to limit the god just as effectively as testing them; therefore it is the creation’s inherent responsibility not to test the limits of its creator/god. To do so defines the limits of its god, thereby making the god less than god.

499.  Boredom is a substitute for deciding what to do, for creating, inventing, and thinking. If all the bored people in our world decided to do something creative (anything!) we would colonize the universe before the end of the century.

500. Final paradox: Frenetic activity may equally be a substitute for or a cover for ones boredom with oneself, ones inability to create, or ones incapacity for love.

 

And for good measure:

501. It’s hard to make a decent living as a professional victim.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This ends The Book of Wesley—his five hundred (and one) points of philosophy. The original writing was completed September 16, 1985. The editor has attempted to transcribe and correct Wesley's manuscript without over-editing, though occasionally sentence structure was changed to clarify concepts. The book does not reflect changes in society or our world over the past thirty years. Sometimes, however, his concepts are frighteningly on target.

J. Wesley Allen was a character created in my first novel, Behind the Ivory Veil which has never been released, though hope still exists. I proudly finished the manuscript and gave it to a trusted friend to read. He handed it back (all 120 pages) and pronounced it "Freeze-dried. If you added a little hot water it would be a whole book." Walking home that night I started going over all the questions I would ask of this character if I were interviewing him. I clearly heard him say, "If you'd shut up, I'd tell you how the world is. The entirety of that which exists has being only because it has been remembered . . ." Thus began The Book of Wesley. It was the first time (but certainly not the last time) one of my characters took over a conversation in my head and basically ignored me from that point on. Perhaps one day, Wesley will speak again.

XD

481. The fact of absolute zero—a temperature below which nothing may fall—should be indication enough that real numbers are all positive. The negative is a convention which only shows direction or relativity but has no bearing on reality.

482. An interesting cycle of events has occurred in the development of language. The words, phrases, sounds arise from the need to communicate. They augment and are augmented by gestures. The combined effect is useful in communicating between individuals when both are present.

483. If through my voice alone I am unable to get my message across, I can repeat it with different words or sounds, more emphatic gestures, etc. But my success or failure to communicate is immediately apparent.

484. When the race has advanced to a point where other people are deemed to exist even when they are not seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt, they might be able to communicate with others at times when no immediate feedback is possible. In other words, by writing. We develop an elementary grammar in which certain shapes represent certain sounds; or the shapes may represent objects/actions/concepts that have no sound as yet. This first grammar is strictly symbolic.

485. The second grammar is logic. In this grammar, the order in which the symbols are placed adds to the meaning. “House cat” and “cat house” refer to widely different concepts. “Run home” and “home run” cannot be interchanged. At this point the grammar is formalized and conventions come into play.

486. Conventional grammar is also order oriented but varies from culture to culture. “I see the dog” and “The dog I see” mean the same thing. In English, however, the former would be acceptable while the latter is stilted and awkward.

487. Finally, to expand on a word-short grammar, multiple meanings may be assigned to the same symbol (word) which can only be understood from their context. “Charging a purchase,” “charging a battery,” “charging a criminal,” and “charging the enemy” each assign different meanings to the symbol “charging.” Within the grammar, it is our only outlet for expanded concepts.

488. Paradoxically, the grammar which was born from the need to communicate begins at this point to limit communication. As it limits our ability to communicate new ideas, concepts, or experiences, it also begins to limit our ability to experience things which lie outside the grammar.

489. The limitation of experience also limits creative expression for, if anything, new artistic creations precede and build upon the experience of the artist/thinker.

490. The result is a stagnation in society and an ultimate death to the language. Perhaps the most notable example of this is the displacement of Latin as a spoken language, even in the church where it proves inadequate to express or translate religious experience. With the death of that language came also the fall of the world’s greatest empire.

CDLXXX

471. The second phenomenon has to do with absorption/dilution/solution. The nature of light is such that darkness breaks it down and absorbs it into itself. This is the same thing that occurs when you drop a lump of sugar into a cup of coffee. It dissolves and permeates the entire cup.

472. It is important to notice that the second phenomenon changes the character of the darkness. Just as having sugar in a cup of coffee changes the character (taste) of the entire cup.

473. As in a true chemical solution, the light does not “settle out” of the darkness, but stays attached to it, traveling through the darkness more by osmosis than through a propulsion of any sort. Thus it permeates the entirety of darkness, constantly moving toward an area of lesser concentration.

474. Unlike light, we have learned methods of keeping and storing heat. Heat must be viewed from the same perspective as light. It displaces cold; ultimately it is absorbed by cold, changing the character of cold.

475. An important difference between heat and light is that we have defined and isolated absolute cold—that temperature below which nothing can fall. We have not evolved a measurement or definition of absolute dark.

476. We have also learned to introduce a source of heat into an insulated chamber and that chamber will stay heated long after the source of heat has been extinguished. We have not learned to insulate a chamber in such a way that it stays lit after we turn out the source of the light. This should be possible.

477. Finally, we have learned to extract heat from our surroundings and use it—the process of breaking down a solution into its basic elements. The heat pump will theoretically extract heat from its surroundings down to a temperature of absolute zero—in other words, until no heat is left in the coldness. There must also be a means of creating a light pump which can extract light from darkness down to a lumen of absolute dark.

478. It should also be noted that since light ‘travels’ by osmosis, the speed of light is dependent on the rate of absorption into darkness. Since the absorption process indicates a movement from an area of greater density into an area of lesser density, the speed of light would be greatest when introduced to the area of greatest darkness.

479. A match lit in absolute darkness would be absorbed so quickly that it might not be seen by the human eye at all from several yards away. A powerful beam of light might take millions of miles of darkness (light years) to be fully absorbed.

480. A “light sail” could be created with which one could direct the force of a light beam during its absorption, driving a vehicle forward through the darkness.

CDLXX

461. If you travel perpendicular to the current—in other words, orbit the center—you experience time at its absolute rate, no matter how fast or slow you go.

462. This makes possible the theory of currents and short-cuts through space. The experienced space sailor will tack before the winds; pull out of strong currents; perhaps take cross-currents through space. If one actually found a whirlpool of space, conceivably one could use it to come out at a time before one went in and not suffer from the classic contradiction of existence. Perhaps that is what black holes are all about.

463. Among the first subjects treated in this work (43-45) is that of multiple relationships—assumed to be on any mental or physical basis with which the parties are comfortable. This appears to be as Utopian a philosophy today as it was when H.G. Wells first wrote of it.

464. Such relationships may never be possible in some societies where monogamy is so deeply seated that the results are an immediate guilt response, insecurity, and jealousies. However, were such a situation to prove possible, it would still be possible only in relationships which are completely, mutually open and honest. The alternative, of course, is that it will work in non-relationships in which nothing done by either party makes a difference to the other.

465. Typically, the relationship in which this is tried and fails is one in which one or both partners fail or refuse to recognize that anything they do might have any effect on the other partner. Therefore, their own acts are viewed as isolated and unrelational.

466. Honesty is empowering. (180-181) If Diogenes were to complete his search for an honest person today, he would find a person empowered to affect his or her own destiny.

467. An adjunct to self-empowerment is an inescapable power to effect other people’s lives. The self-empowered person (completely honest) must recognize and accept his or her ability to affect other people’s lives and accept his or her responsibility for the effect. Failure to accept the ability and responsibility will ultimately undermine the honest and the power. Failure to accept is dishonest.

468. A careful distinction should be noted in that honesty generates power to, not power over.

469. We tend to view energy like heat and light as mystical phenomena. This comes from our rational senses. You can’t touch light. You can’t see heat. You can’t smell or taste or hear either one. You can’t put a quart of light in a bottle and store it for use later.

470. There may be an advantage in assuming a physical nature of heat and light. I’m suggesting that light does not travel. Instead, two other physical phenomena occur. First is displacement. If you drop a stone in a glass of water, you raise the level of the water. Similarly, if you introduce light into darkness, you raise the level of dark or push it outward, away from the source of light. This forces a compression of the darkness at the edges of its container or simply forces it ever outward if there is no container. Theory of the ever-expanding universe—the more light that is introduced, the further out the darkness is pushed. You can see this effect in a darkened room when a light is introduced. Objects near the light are illuminated, but those farther away stay dim. The darkness resides in the shadows.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Even after expounding on relationships, Wesley returns to Light and Darkness. One wonders if that is how he defined his relationships.

CDLX

451. Let’s try the whole concept of the speed of light and time over again in a different light, so to speak. As a child in school, I was told to imagine myself on the surface of the imaginary planet Alpha, orbiting the North Star. On Alpha, I am equipped with an extremely powerful telescope—so powerful, in fact, that I can actually see events happening on the mysterious planet, Earth.

452. Today, as I look through my telescope, I see Columbus landing in America. I see this, even though in “reality” the people on earth are preparing to land a man on the moon. The reason? It has taken 450 years for the light to travel from the earth to Alpha.

453. If you have difficulty picturing reflected light, imagine that Earth is a gigantic movie projector facing Alpha. The movie started hundreds of years ago, and on Alpha, you are watching it as the projected images reach you—450 years after they have occurred.

454. As far advanced as Alpha is, you now have a space ship that will travel near the speed of light. You load your incredible telescope in the spaceship and blast off toward Earth, following the direction of the projected movie. Consistent with the theory that an object must pass through all intervening points in order to travel between two points, you will intercept all the projected images from Earth that have been sent from the one you were seeing at blast-off (Columbus) to the one being projected when you land.

455. Since the trip has taken over 450 Earth years, you see everything from Columbus to your landing time, sometime in the 25^th century. You have encountered 900 years of history!

456. But what time has passed for you on this remarkable journey? You step out of your space ship, set up your telescope to receive the projected images from your home planet Alpha and watch events occurring just after your blast-off. By your reckoning, on Alpha almost no time has elapsed at all.

457. Now the tricky part. Having proved that you could travel the 450 light years to Earth in almost no time at all, you turn around and head back to Alpha. On your return voyage, you encounter everything that has been projected from the time that you left with that same super spead that you viewed Earth with as you approached it. Your ship returns nearly a millennium later to hits home base.

458. Reversing your telescope to look again at Earth, you see the scenes of the day after you left, just reaching you. How much have you aged? By making the round trip, you are over nine hundred years lder, both by Earth standard and by Alpha standard. Does your own velocity keep you from aging? If anything, you have experienced nearly 2,000 years of history.

459. Now, let us extend the illustration one step further. Suppose that there is an absolute center of all that is—the cosmos if you will. Let us suppose as scientists have conjectured that all things originated at this center in a big bang and that they are forever expanding outward from the center. Time, in the absolute sense, necessitated by Einstein’s theory and the Lorenz transformation, originates at that center and radiates outward as a by-product of the expansion of the universe.

460. As you travel in your superoptic spacecraft, you will slow time down as you travel away from the center and speed time up as you travel toward the center.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This section and the one that follows shows Wesley in a new light. He has expounded theories and expostulated suppositions for 450 points, but in this he engages with the reader as if a student. He is a teacher, but the validity of his lessons remains to be seen. It appears that his logic could prove anything. It is his non-rational thought process at work.

CDL

441. Luvus chattelia: This is the love of a possession, or more appropriately of possessing. It is an emotion attached to an object simply because it is owned and like Luvus sexus, makes no distinction between animate and inanimate, though a case may be made for defining Luvus chattelia as referring only to animate subjects and Luvus objecta as referring specifically to inanimate objects, as in ‘I love my house,’ or ‘I love my car’ as opposed to ‘I love my dog,’ or ‘I love my wife.’

442. Luvus dominatus: Sometimes confused with Luvus chattelia and frequently accompanied by it, Luvus dominatus is the type of love that describes a ruler’s relationship to the subject Where Luvus chattelia is objective, Luvus dominatus is subjective. Both of these two are straight-line loves that describe a superior’s relationship to an inferior. ‘The King loves his country.’

443. Luvus seductia: The conquest. Contrary to common opinion, coitus is not normally the ultimate goal of Luvus seductia. Coitus happens merely as a means of keeping score. What counts in the seduction, or the conquest, is winning. Fair object of heart’s desire is overcome, submits to the conqueror. Like a good sting operation, the good seduction leaves its object at least satisfied with if not proud of its part and ending state. The subjects ending state may be described as Luvus worshipa. Many other types of love may be defined before we can hope to have a complete taxonomy.

444. Eintein’s theory of relativity (242, 285) implies a state within the universe or a point in complete stasis. At that point or in that state, a meter is a meter and time is constant. When placed in motion (when velocity is introduced) the measuring stick shortens and is less than a meter. The clock slows and time is dilated.

445. The earth, traveling at 30 kilometers per second is already in an insignificant time dilation of .99999995, Approximately 3.145 seconds per year.

446. If one travels away from the earth and back at the same speed as the earth, time remains relatively real. The same amount of time will be created by the earth’s velocity as by the traveler’s velocity.

447. If one traveled from the nearest star (approximately 4.5 light years) to the earth at the same speed as the earth, it would take several thousand years to make the journey. But the same time frame would have passed for both traveler and earth.

448. Proposition: As the traveler from this star increases velocity, it is not time for the traveler that slows down, but rather time on the earth that speeds up. So the traveler is stalemated. It will take that traveler just as long to reach the earth as the earth time that passes.

449. The Lorenz Transformation would indicate that traveling from that star at 90% of the speed of light would take the traveler five years but on earth, 21 years and ten months would have passed. Conversely, if the traveler reached earth in five years of earth time, the traveler would have been in transit only one year and two months, negating the speed traveled. The paradox of the timeframes would result in both the traveler and earth having the same amount of time pass.

450. This is completely consistent with the Einstein theory and with the constancy of the speed of light in a vacuum. In fact, it is this that would indicate that instead of light going faster or slower when you approach its source at an increasing velocity, it changes color.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The editor wishes to return to the taxonomy of love, which was at least partially understandable.

 

CDXL

431. There are many English words that may be classified as definitions of love; therefore, I propose the following taxonomy. Disclaimer: There is no hierarchy in this list, nor is any intended. Religious philosophers of a future generation can have at it.

432. Luvus accompanada: Common attraction. This type of love is identified by the simple pleasure of being in another person’s company. It is sparked by the immediacy of the person’s presence. It explains why people sit or stand where they do in groups. It must be carefully distinguished from Luvus attracta.

433. Luvus attracta: The desire to be in another person’s company. The distinguishing marks of this type of love is its internal motivation, not being dependent on a direct stimuli as the former. Subtypes A and B of Luvus attracta are differentiated only by whether or not the desire is directed toward a specific individual or is simply a desire to be accompanied in general.

434. Luvus affecta: Commonly called affection. This type of love is distinguished by the impulse to fawn, pet, or otherwise come in contact with its objective. This is equally as valid when the object of affection is a dog as it is when it is a person, therefore, Luvus affecta is not a purely sexual desire.

435. Luvus philea: Yes, this is brotherly or sibling love. This type of love is obligatory. It defines a socially acceptable mode of behavior attached to the relationship of the individuals. It is externally motivated and provides a framework for civil relations in the most unloving relationships. Luvus phelea is love based on the accident of birth.

436. Luvus cynthia: To the objective eye this may appear the same as Luvus philea as it also describes a sibling love that complies with social standards. Its difference is that it is internally motivated regardless of any apparent external pressures or prescribed behavior. Thus Luvus cynthia may properly be described as a hybrid of 433 and/or 434 with 435.

437. Luvus sexus: This is the object love generally felt at or near the moment of sexual fulfillment for any person or object facilitating it. Luvus sexus does not distinguish the facilitators from each other, cannot differentiate between the animate and inanimate, and does not grade for quality.

438. Luvus romantic: This is an environmental type of love, frequently brought about by appropriate lighting, looks, soft words, and music. It has the ability to affect a person’s judgment abilities and should may be closely related to Luvus seductia.

439. Luvus erotica: This type of love is a stimulus response. It acts on the central nervous system by way of neural centers located near the surface of the body. At this stimulus, the remainder of the body seems to respond involuntarily, marked by increased heart rate, engorged sexual organs, and rapid breathing.

440. Luvus parenta: Only a parent can love a child and thus this species describes the unique bond that exists between parent and child. Unlike many types of love, Luvus parenta describes a two-way flow of emotion and therefore may mutate into other forms if that flow is disrupted.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wesley continues in the next section with three more types of love and then professes this to be only a partial list.

CDXXX

421. Artists typically deal in n^th dimensional concepts in a world whose terms of reference are (n-1)^th dimensional or less.

422. Agreeing to play football implies an agreement to play by the rules of football. (195)

423. A body in motion tends to eat at every available opportunity.

424. Food is frequently substituted for deficiencies in a variety of areas, i.e. affection, success, security, honor, sex.

425. The key ingredient to thinking irrationally, or in attempting to explain irrationality, is that nothing makes sense.

426. Opportunity is never convenient. If it were, no one would pass it up.

427. Love is a generic term which is used as a catch-all for a great many concepts. The ambiguity of its definition is one basis for emotional trauma. If I assign to one word a multitude of meanings, I increase the likelihood that I will be misconstrued when I use the word.

428. The Greeks used three words to describe different kinds of love in their ancient language: erotic, filial, and agape; to which Christian philosophers mis-assigned the overall meanings of animal, human, and god. The, then, compose a hierarchy of love. One’s goal should always be the highest.

429. The unChristianized Greek concept was actually only a little better, describing the dichotomy of the individual rather than humanity’s relation to the gods. Greek gods did not behave much differently than Greeks, after all.

430. This dichotomy would separate the individual into three parts: the physical, the emotional, and the mental or spiritual. Here again, church philosophers have split the mental a spiritual from the single Greek word, psyche. It seems that it has always been considered wrong to apply mental processes to spiritual concepts.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wesley seems to have had a number of short quips to get off his chest before he started redefining what everyone believes about love. The diatribe on love will continue for another couple sections before he exhausts himself on this one.

CDXX

411. A complete destruction of the hope for escape—from our world, our solar system, our time, or our bodies—would result in a new pacifism. Energy would be directed toward co-existence rather than co-extermination. It is not only the hope of an afterlife, but the promise of death that drives our consumptive inhumanity.

412. The difficulty with treaties (234; 297) is that the treators seek constantly to create a document which exempts themselves from compliance while binding the other parties to a subordinate and inevitably vulnerable position.

413. Therefore, it is only to illiterate peoples (to whom the spoken word is binding to the intent of the agreement) that treaties with any true meaning can be negotiated. Advanced literary societies with complex legal systems cannot be expected to ever reach agreement.

414. To fully define the term in context with the world today: A treaty is a document in which the greater power subjects the lesser power to its will.

415. The most primitive artistic expressions of humanity’s relationship to the cosmos are geometric patterns.

416. If a viewer is deeply moved by a work of art—is impelled into an emotional awareness of the artwork—it is likely that the viewer is experiencing a residual of the exact same emotional impetus that went into the creation of the work in the first place. (141-143)

417. The chemical geometry of humanity is essentially the same from person to person. If this were not true, the concept of blood transfusion or organ transplant would be impossible. A significant difference in the chemical geometry might differentiate a mammal from a reptile, but not blue eyes from brown eyes.

418. From the moment of conception, our existence is defined in terms of three dimensions—the length, breadth, and height of the womb and the body that contains us. If one professes to live in a world of four or more dimensions or to have nth-dimensional experience, how can that experience be communicated in three-dimensional terms of reference? How can we transcend our own definitions of reality?

419. It is the chemical geometry we share that allows us to create art that transcends three-dimensional terms of reference to communicate nth-dimensional experience directly to the hearts of viewers. The viewer becomes a participant with the artist in the emotion of the work.

420. In artwork, this communication from artist to audience may transcend millennia as the viewer of a Grecian urn may still experience the emotion of the creator.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wesley hits three themes in this section that, at first, look unrelated. But when combined, all three focus on communicating something that transcends the bounds of language. One can surmise that Wesley might return to the subject by suggesting that treaties be captured in artwork and music rather than words.

D--The Book of Wesley

The Book of Wesley

Being an Inconcise Compendium

of Irrational Thought

in the Fields of Science, Language,

Philosophy, Music, and Theology

Which

Borders on Truth—

Most of the Time.

By J. Wesley Allen

MCMLXXXIV

Introduction to the Fifth Hundred

Sometime referred to as “Wesley’s 500”, The Book of Wesley enters the last discovered 101 points. The existence of point 501 indicates that Wesley had intended to continue, but either lost interest or became unable to go on. This may have coincided with his “rescue” from the dimensional trap in which he had been held for over twenty years. He must have had a sort of Rip Van Winkle experience as he re-entered contemporary society. His concluding point, therefore, becomes a touchstone for the hundred that lead up to it. “#501: It is a hard thing to make a living as a professional victim.” Wesley spends a great deal of his time in this final hundred contemplating love in all its varieties.

Nathan Everett, editor

August 11, 1986

CDX

401. All things are forever temporary.

402. There can be no healing where there is no injury.

403. Many believe that falling is the penalty for breaking the law of gravity. Actually, falling is the penalty for obeying the law of gravity. When you break the law of gravity, you do not fall.

404. Many of our laws extract a more severe penalty for obedience than for disobedience.

405. While it may be noble to maintain a respect for prophecy, no matter what the faith, we are all endangered when we place in authority a person who believes in the imminent destruction of the world or the promised rescue of a savior.

406. Prophecy itself is frequently the cause of its own fulfillment.

407. Violence is a byproduct of assuming the infinite.

408. Humanity has always assumed the possibility of escape: over the mountain, across the ocean, to the moon, to the stars.

 

409. This ability to go elsewhere inevitably leads to a cavalier attitude toward the treatment of the present environment.

410. The religious notion of a hereafter reinforces the temporal nature of the present. Even nihilists assume they will escape from the present.

 

CD

391. If it is true that emotion is experience-able only in a time-space relationship (154) then it is little wonder that our pictures of eternity are painted with oblivious smiles of non-feeling.

392. The Nirvana mindset is one of non-feeling, not one of all-feeling or emotion Christian heaven has no variance in emotion, being all-praise and all-joy. Being locked into a single emotional state for all eternity can be no different than having no emotion at all. The difference between heaven and hell is lost.

393. In ancient Judaism there was no expectation of significant change in the afterlife, but that afterlife was closely linked and bound to a single space on earth, not a different dimension.

394. Those who believe that witchcraft died in the seventeenth century, need only watch the sidelines of a modern sporting event for disproof.

395. The whole shape of modern sporting events in which two armies of warriors oppose each other as their spiritual guides on the sidelines step through intricate dances while reciting carefully cadenced rituals which serve to whip the worshippers into a spiritual/emotional frenzy, is not at all unlike any primitive spiritual encounter.

396. Modern sporting lacks only the deistic ingredient to rank it as equal to the great witch workings of magic of the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th centuries.

397. Imagine, for example, the overt symbolic magic which would be represented were we to dress our prison inmates in the uniforms of enemy armies, to be slaughtered on a field of combat by the forces of our native land to work sympathetic magic against our foes on the battlefield. Or, more profoundly, consider the socio-economic prestige gained by the conquerors in Olympic competition. Here, the priestesses have been denied admittance for the working of their ritual magic, leaving the fate of their tribes to hang on the prowess of the warriors alone.

398. Who invented the idea that 5,000 troops carrying automatic high-powered weapons, barricaded behind barbed wire fences, and plopped down in the middle of a country in which they do not even know the native language can possibly be called a peace-keeping force?

399. A multi-national super-corporation of civilians should  be created for thepurpose of creating peace in war-torn countries. They should be funded by a world fund, dedicated to establishing an economic recovery of the nation. The corporation should be production-oriented, custom made from the affected country, consumed internally, or for export.

400. This peace-making corporation must be made up of highly trained and skilled individuals, not the least of which training should be in the native language. For only by learning the language can the peacemakers hope to understand the people. Peace will not precede understanding.

CCCXC

381. Regarding the problem of sentience and the existence of a soul. Inevitably the philosophical/theological question will be asked regarding whether or not life forms found outside the human-occupied solar system are sentient or, being so, whether or not they have a soul.

382. There is no clear-cut definition as to what sentience is, nor is there any clear-cut proof that such a thing as a soul even exists, let alone having it defined however, it is normally assumed that a being must be sentient in order to have a soul.

383. A commonly propounded test for sentience is the ability to make (that is, to invent) and use tools. This limiting definition rules out the potential for may possible forms of life; for example, disembodied sentience or beings which are not physically equipped with limbs and appendages that an deal with materials in a similar manner to homo sapiens.

384. The ability to make and use tools, it should also be noted, reduces by extrapolation the existence of a soul to terms of common engineering.

385. This test, however, when applied to any species utilizing a form of vehicular transportation, would be adequate evidence on which to base the assumption that any species encountered traveling in space would necessarily be sentient.

386. It is herein proposed that the definition of “sentient” be simplified to “self-awareness.” The sentient being, therefore, must be tested only on its ability to communicate that self-awareness.

387. When necessarily removed from a homo sapiens monotheistic theology, we may redefine “soul” as “super-self-awareness;” that is, the awareness of the self of others in relation to oneself.

388. The supra-self is that which bonds all sentient life forms into common unity.

389. Therefore, our own supra-self mandates that we acknowledge the “soularity” of all sentient life forms.

390. The price one pays for a rite of passage is to leave a part of oneself behind.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In his own round-about way, Wesley acknowledges the fact that people are very slow to recognize the humanity of others. Slavery in America, in which Africans were deemed to be not quite human, or the American push into the West that reduced vast populations of natives because they were merely animals are two examples. Wesley projects this into encounters with other living creatures on earth and into his imagined encounter with aliens. Or, perhaps Wesley had some experience with aliens. ???

CCCLXXX

371. All higher mammals (including humans) have an inclination toward addiction. It is very easy to addict them to almost anything.

372. In some circles this is known as training.

373. Addictions are of two principal varieties: physical and emotional. An addiction to earning money or to love is every bit as compelling as a chemical dependency.

374. Our ravaged immune system is our only defense mechanism against both types of addiction.

375. An example of the expanded possibilities resulting from changing from a geometric system of x dimensions to a geometric system of x+1 dimensions is to be seen in the ancient problem of trisecting an angle, or creating a new angle of exactly 1/3 the radians of the original. In Euclidean plane geometry (2-dimensional) it is impossible to construct such an angle.

376. It can be demonstrated, however, that moving to a third dimension makes the trisection a theoretically simple procedure. It further poses the challenge, however, of creating the tools that enable us to model in three dimensions with the ease of a straight edge and compass in two dimensions.

377. Three planes, as defined in Euclidean systems, which share a common intersection—that is a single point shared by all three planes—will create three intersecting lines, defined by the intersections of each pair of planes. These lines define the x, y, and z axes of 3-dimensional solid geometry, which divides space into octants.

378. It is not necessary that the intersection of the axes form 90 degree angles in every relationship. It is, however, necessary to select an octant in which the three angular relationships of the axes are equal. These angles shall be called the angles of origin in the primary octant.

379. It is possible, utilizing the basic tenants of Euclidean geometry, to bisect any of the angles of origin of the primary octant. The resulting ray is always equidistant from the primary axes that it bisects; such a ray is a secondary axis.

380. If any two of the angles of origin the primary octant are so bisected, the angle formed at the intersection of the secondary axes will be 2/3 of the angle of origin. The secondary angle, when bisected, will yield an angle 1/3 that of the angle of origin, or one trisection of said angle.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A true genius like Da Vinci would have filled sketchbooks and notebooks with drawings illustrating what he was talking about and allowing a reasonably intelligent person with a background in the subject to deconstruct his logic. Not so with Wesley and thus it is impossible to determine if he had a moment of genius level clarity in this writing or if these are the ramblings of an idiot. There are no drawings or sketches to go with these notes. Wesley did everything in his head and thus even his theoretical planes may have been bent to his will. Perhaps a computer modeling program might be devised to follow Wesley’s descriptions, but Wesley himself, wrote in the early 80s before computers had become accessible to ordinary humans.

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361. The tesseract, now liberated from its antiquated bonds, can best be defined in metaphysical terms as any multidimensional system that may be supported by linear logic but which surfaces in quantum leaps independent of a logical process.

362. This, of course, is most applicable to philosophy, including its branches of mathematics, science, theology, etc. We must assume added dimensions of thought, skipping from peak to peak without bothering with the linear logic of the matter.

363. Tessering, far from the fantasaical riding of time waves through the universe, is a thought process that jumps across the peaks of concepts, connecting seemingly unrelated subjects and generating new creative ideas.

364. In this way the major thesis of the tesseract is preserved: The shortest distance between two points is not necessarily a straight line.

365. The difficulty with philosophical tessering is that it frequently leaves linear logic obscure at its best. It may take years for a technician to trace the logical course of an idea generated through tesser thought, thus slowing its implementation in the scientific world by decades.

366. Still, it can be seen that through the ages, most brilliant discoveries were made not through logical scientific investigation or process, but rather by the quantum leaps made by tessering from peak to peak of the thought process.

367. If the logic of tesser thought is difficult to follow, the pattern of a person engaged in tesser talk is even more difficult unless all the participants in that conversation are tracking on the same sine wave or thought process, frequently banking on the thoughts and ideas expressed by others.

368. In sum, the philosopher should avoid linear logic and engage in the quantum leaps of tessering in order to truly be of service to humanity. Leave logic to technicians whose responsibility it is to prove the theories of the tesserist.

369. Stupidity is its own excuse.

370. A wise man knows he cannot see his own mistakes. Women, too.

 

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351. We constantly intercept history as we move. The light of the star that we reach tonight may be the million-year-old relic of a reality that no longer exists and which has not existed for a longer time yet.

352. All socio-economic political systems are based on the premise that there is an inadequate amount of wealth to provide a comfortable living standard for all people. Therefore, each socio-economic political system, i.e. capitalistic, socialistic, communistic, etc., is based on how that wealth is to be distributed among the world’s peoples. In other words, Who will live in comfort and who will not.

353. The basic premise is false.

354. Ergo: The socio-economic political systems of the world, based on a false premise, are collectively and individually irrelevant responses to world government.

355. Trust is not earned; it is placed.

356. We recognize the definition of the word “tesseract” to be the fourth dimensional analog to a cube. This was created in a world based on mathematics that does not allow for the modeling of more than three dimensions.

357. Since normal Euclidean geometry did not take into account any physical possibilities of more than three dimensions, it was assumed that a fourth dimension must refer to a non-physical element of time.

358. The tesseract was conceived based on a sine wave model, units of which were measured by the crossing of the x axis.

359. It was further assumed by this model that short-cutting along the peaks of the sine curve might result in skips of time, distance, spatial relationships, etc. How this could be accomplished is still in question.

360. Since tetrahedronal geometry does allow for physical models of four dimensions, and in fact of five and six dimensional equations, we must redefine the concept of a tesseract.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It seems likely that Wesley's concept of a tesseract was influenced or even created by Madeleine L'Engle in the book "A Wrinkle in Time." Ms. L'Engle also was never exact in stating how one might fold time in order to skip along the wrinkles. Thus, we find one of those points at which Wesley builds a pseudo-scientific theory based on a science fantasy novel.

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341. If you reduce the size/volume of a body of reference to a non-dimensional point, the ultimate inside/outside relationship is revealed. Outside no longer exists. The entire universe can be defined as lying inside any given point of reference and is therefore finite, bounded on all sides by the same point.

342. Thus, just as the universe lies in all directions from any given point in that system, any given point lies in all directions from anywhere in the same system, contains it, and puts a finite boundary around the universe.

343. It might be suggested that a proponent of tetrahedronal geometry may as well increase the number of axes at will—develop a five-dimensional, six-dimensional, etc. system. There is nothing saying this is not possible.

344. The four axes approach, however, is the simplest model that can account for all spatial relationships without employing negatives. Fewer axes can define only a portion of space; more become redundant. If five axes are used, for example, one must always be defined as exerting null force on the point being located. Otherwise, any given point may be defined with an unlimited number of non-proportional coordinates. Thus, each point would lack a defined orientation. Normal Euclidean solid geometry actually uses six axes to define space, but the coordinates of three of those axes is always null. x and -x are two of the axes, etc. A point cannot have a coordinate on both axes.

345. To change one’s orientation in the universe, one must either “go there” or “be there.” The process of being takes no account of a time-lapse. The speed at which you go defines how much time is created in the interval.

346. Rationale for the development of a numeric/geometric system with no negatives: In a three dimensional spatial system, only one-eighth of the universe is “real” or having +x, +y, +z coordinates. Yet, by definition, that one-eighth is infinite.

347. The other seven-eighths of the system—also each deemed infinite—attempt to measure at least one coordinate as less than nothing. In reality, in order to deal with that quadrant, we must assume that a point within it lies a positive distance from the origin along a fourth, fifth, or sixth axis which we have arbitrarily defined as being negative. In fact, however, negative distance does not exist. Nor does negative space.

348. To go “outside” our system is equivalent to going a negative distance. Outside is, thus, a non-reality, all of our universe being defined as being inside our system, therefore finite, defined by any single point in the system.

349. Our strength is frequently defined in terms of what we cannot do rather than what we can do.

350. When there is motion, motion preempts simultaneity. Our moving, rotating, revolving globe cannot be perceived relative to other realities, but only relative to where realities have been. (17)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wesley almost lost me as I attempted to parse his first point in this section. There is a mathematics joke—which I have on good authority that Wesley had never heard—that goes: Three mathematicians were looking at a flock of sheep. The first said, “The smallest linear footage of a fence that would enclose the sheep is a square. It has the greatest area inside for the linear footage.” The second said, “The smallest linear footage would be a circle as the square would waste interior space.” The third drew a circle around himself and said simply, “I define myself as being outside.” In essence, Wesley has posited the same theory. A point, having no dimensions, can have no inside and outside. Wesley holds that inside and outside are the same. Therefore, any point in the rational universe lies in all directions from any other point. The universe is bounded by that single point.

Now my head hurts.

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331. This says a lot about creationist theology. (330)

332. A point, as defined by classical Euclidean Geometry, has no dimension (length, width, depth). It has only a location defined by its coordinates relative to a point of origin. For the moment, let us assume this is true in tetrahedronal geometry as well.

333. Any point in Euclidean Geometry may be the origin of an axial system designating  six directions—north, south, east, west, up, and down. (or x+, x-, y+, y-, z+, and z-) In tetrahedronal geometry, any point may also be an origin described by only four coordinates. For convenience, left, right, forward, and up. (x+, y+, z+ and t)

334. Any point may be observed from any direction ( in either system). Thus any point may be a definition of any and all directions.

335. The point which is the center of a sphere lies in every direction from the surface. Every perpendicular to the surface passes through the center point.

336. The “four corners of the earth” spoken of frequently in mythology and folk lore, are commonly interpreted as being the four points of the compass. But, while north and south are clearly defined by our poles, there is no such “corner” that is either east or west. The Euclidean system would require six corners rather than four.

337. The tetrahedronal approach to this question would assume that the origin of our system lies somewhere near the center of our roughly spherical globe. The four spatial axes would originate from this point. If north is considered as our constant, then the other three directions or corners of the earth would be definable points lying on a parallel at or somewhere below the Tropic of Capricorn.

338. Various sources have discussed “inner space” and “outer space” as two alternatives for exploration which are equally limitless. It may be a reasonable suggestion that our concepts of “inside” and “outside” are reversed.

339. That space that I define as inside my body is all that I can see, hear, feel, smell, touch. What is “inside” is defined by my senses (or perhaps an extension of them). What is outside is that which pumps my blood, that which supplies me with thoughts, that which propels and which motivates me.

340. Thus, the entirety of the universe is finite, defined by and contained within my senses. True infinity lies only on the outside—my mind, my soul, my imagination.

Editor’s Note: What Wesley continues to dance around, but never openly declares, is that tetrahedronal geometry actually assumes four finite points of origin “out there somewhere” against which all points are defined. He searches for an absolute that lies outside the observable from which the distance to all points can be measured. In Wesley’s world, it is assumed that this absolute (even four absolutes) is defined as God.

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321. Choosing a favorite does not devalue the other options.

322. Thus, one may love many differently and choose one to be surrounded by, yet take none of the value, joy, or quality away from any of the others.

323. Is there then a difference between love and commitment? Yes, for one describes the emotion subconsciously extended past all barriers. The other describes the choice of which love to surround oneself with. One may be committed to that which one does not love.

324. Since at rest all things are infinite (262) we approach a state of all-knowingness when we sleep. Thus, our dreams may prove prophetic or give us insight into past and future events.

325. Sleep is our most creative state. If we can achieve the plateau of rest normally achieved in sleep while we wake, our creativity is unblocked and ideas flow unhindered. This is meditation.

326. It is also possible that we may catch glimpses of past or future lifetimes when we encounter people or situation in our current time/space continuum who are or will be sharers of another time/space continuum.

327. Doubt is the birthing stall of fanaticism.

328. The residue of activity of primitive deities may still crop up in the most modern settings. Some seeds take millennia in the soil to germinate. Thus we may find ourselves surprised to discover a temple to the most ancient deity disguised as the most contemporary of scientific institutions.

329. If there are no negative (255) all numeric/geometric functions must have a finite origin.

330. Thus, all things (our geometrically defined universe being a numerical system) have a finite past, even if they have an infinite future.

Editor’s note: Wesley is all over the map in this set, including items that we must deem as relational, creative, and geometric. Into this, he tosses a gem on fanaticism. In Wesley’s book, it is not the true believer who becomes a fanatic, but rather the one who is plagued by doubt.

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11. One might state instead that this creature who writes words upon paper is the Perfect Embodiment of the Ideal of John Wesley Allen. He exists on no other or independent plain.

12. The generic “tree,” which stands before you is, as well, the Perfect Embodiment of the Ideal of which you have not learned the name. Not for Elm, Oak, or Maple, for they are still only generics.

13. The ability to call a thing by its Ideal name is a link to the control of that thing.

14. Innocence is the greatest power.

15. We are creatures of choice and choose our own lives. We create our own embodiment. It is unlikely that such creatures would ever choose lives which they are incapable of living.

16. “Knowing better” is seldom a preventative, never a cure.

17. Changing your mind is not a flaw. In all likelihood, the “mistake” you made yesterday is the foundation of your enlightenment today.

18. If what has gone before is true and 1) all things occupy the same space at the same time (8); 2) it is possible to be in two places at the same time (48); 3) we are simultaneously at all times (113); 4) at rest all things are infinite (262), then . . . ?

19. Is red better than blue? Is yellow less moral than green? Is one love ever inferior or superior to another?

20. Even if one chose to surround oneself with blue, dress in blue, decorate in blue, one would scarcely wish the grass blue, the sun blue, the roses blue, etc. (“Who painted my roses red?” demanded the Queen.)

CD--The Book of Wesley

Being an Inconcise Compendium

of Irrational Thought

in the Fields of Science, Language,

Philosophy, Music, and Theology

Which

Borders on Truth—

Most of the Time.

By J. Wesley Allen

MCMLXXXIV

Introduction to the Fourth Hundred

The full works which constitute The Book of Wesley have been dubbed “The M” or “The Thousand,” although it is not clear that he had a thousand coherent thoughts, much less that he wrote them down. Even though he considered the work “irrational,” a more appropriate term might be “non-rationalized.” He simply wrote his own observations and feelings and did not make an attempt to sort and categorize, but simply to express.

 

Each “C” or Book of One Hundred, explores at successively deeper levels the understanding that this one person came to have of life while living in a suspended state of consciousness. There has been no attempt by this editor to isolate and categorize the topics covered in anything more than the order in which he wrote them. Thus, cross-references are made only to preceding statements, and never anticipate or look ahead to future thoughts.

 

In the Fourth Hundred, Wesley continues to expound on topics about which he knows little; but even in those areas that he acknowledges mistakes, he presents them with commitment. In this penultimate hundred, Wesley touches on Platonic Ideals, Geometry, Magic, War and Peace, Socio-Economics, Sentience, and occasionally Love. This is the first hundred that contains no sections in colored ink or pencil and may have been written in a shorter period of time than the preceding hundreds.

 

Nathan Everett, editor

August 1, 1984

CCCX

1. Any strength in excess is a weakness.

2. Use greater strength against itself.

3. No principle, no matter how divine, is perfect once it has been stated.

4. The concept of the Ideal, as Plato would have it, is that once made material, no object is perfect. The Ideal of Table exists only in the mind.

5. It seems then, that these Ideals must be transmitted hereditarily or in some non-verbal, non-visual manner. For how could a person having seen only one table in his or her life develop the Platonic Ideal of Table?

6. Even after exposure to five, ten, or fifty tables, when does the mind make the link to Table as something that may be represented by numerous and various physical objects?

7. One would then have to consider this complexity: If it were possible to materialize a table directly from the workings of the mind, would it come out Ideal as in Table or would it come out as an image of a representation or composite of such, as merely a table?

8. The question of the Plantonic Ideal then might be reduced to this: Are generics Ideal? Is there actually an Ideal of Tree? Of Animal?

9. The likelihood is no. For if there were an Ideal of Animal, for example, we who are human could only comprise a flawed representation of the Ideal Animal, the Ideal Mammal, the Ideal Human, etc.

10. The generalization of our ideals is the flaw.

Editor's Note: As is often the case, it is unclear whether the last statement applies to the topic of Platonic Ideals, or to Wesley's own ideals. The word was not capitalized in the manuscript.

CCC

291. Move against the flow and you are drawn toward the vortex where the emotions are more intense and much closer together. It becomes very easy to skip from emotional extreme to extreme. Extreme love can change to extreme hate or extreme anger or extreme apathy.

292. The question is, do words have meaning and/or power of themselves, or is that strictly contained in the inflection, vocal tone, etc.? Words are frequently given meaning through ritual. Do they give meaning to ritual? (91ff.)

293. When it comes down to the wire, we always end in a barrage of words. Legal documents spend pages defining the words used in the documents.

294. We can only experience what we have words to express. If there is no means of expressing the experience, we doubt—in fact, we invalidate the experience.

295. Imagine: Our entire concept of God is limited to the same words that we use to make automobiles, wage war, make love, and entertain ourselves in novels, plays, and music.

296. One of humanity’s sorest needs today is for inventors of words.

297. If major world political units are reluctant to limit the growth of weaponry, it may fall to the smallest political units to respond to the need. Every state, town, and village has the power to ban the manufacture of military goods within its precinct.

298. Certainly no family lacks the right to prescribe alternate forms of employment.

299. The individual is the simplest and most significant political unit in the world.

300. An original idea may have been thought of before and still be original by virtue of the path it takes into being (288). Thus we may look at a person of the 20^th century industrial era and say, “Ah, here is a genius, for see how this person has discovered a way to invent the wheel.”

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281. Spiritually, we must occasionally risk what we believe in order to gain enlightenment on what we do not know.

282. Thus knowledge itself is relative to the frame of reference of the known.

283. It does not “take time” to travel from one place to another. (112, 254) Rather, the journey creates the time.

284. Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

285. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity also shows that a clock in motion runs more slowly than when at rest. (102-112, 242)

286. Thus, journey one half hour at the speed of light away from the earth and return at the same speed and several decades will have passed on earth by the time you return, even though by your own clock, only one hour has passed.

287. As soon as something has been thought of and made real in the mind, it becomes necessary for it to exist. (284)

288. It is possible to repeat oneself any number of times and be original each time. Many paths not taken before may lead to the same destination.

289. People of great intellect seldom tire of each other. People of little intellect seldom tire of each other. But people of moderate intellect seem to attract boredom in every kind of relationship.

290. Emotion is similar to a pinwheel. As you move in the same direction as the flow of the pinwheel, the emotions are weaker and spread further apart. You have a feeling of stability, with only minor fluctuations in emotions.

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271. It is helpful to remember that there are numerous mathematical systems.

272. What we are willing to risk is frequently indicative of our values. (253)

273. Usually, we risk what is of most value to ourselves for what is most attractive.

274. Inevitably, the subject risked is of greater intrinsic value than the object of the risk.

275. At the same time, gain comes only by means of risk. So while it may be possible to maintain the status quo without risk, it is impossible to grow.

276. Socially, people will risk their greatest assets for the slightest of goals if the most insignificant details of their daily routines can remain unchanged and unchallenged.

277. It would appear, then, that the swiftest means of preventing a rational risk or of ending one (i.e. war) is to maintain an internal threat to the mundane. (See Lysistrata, for example) (240)

278. The possibility of being disobedient to “natural laws” (as in gravity, etc.) is enhanced by the possibility of shifting to a different mathematical system. (271, 195) The changing of 1+1=2 to 1+1=10 is as simple as changing from a decimal to a binary system. What may be possible by shifting from Euclidean to Tetrahedronal geometry?

279. Mathematics is the first great division of philosophy, music the second, and theology the third.

280. (274) x risked for y in which x > y but for which y is not possible without x. Gain (275) is found only in x + y.

CCLXX

261. Absolute opposites are absolutely equal. This specifically applies to opposite ends of a scale. Just as 360° is equivalent to 0°, 0 is also equivalent to ∞.

262. Wesley’s Theory of Relativity (17-21) Refined: At rest, all things are infinite.

263. Theologians tend to limit God in the very language they use to describe his limitlessness. It is a fundamental principle of Xn theology that is the greatest “proof positive” that God does not exist. “God is infinite.” Infinity is exactly equivalent to “nothing” (0). (261)

264. It is for this reason that I accept god as slightly less divine, trusting that in that insult he or she finds room to be.

265. 0 * ∞ = 0. ∞ x 0 = ∞. ∞ = 0. (261)

266. Religions that offer an absolute peace seem to link humanity to the infinite. That absolute peace is nothingness.

267. Expanded corollary: The way back always lies ahead. (185, 261)

268. Far from repeating ourselves (267), however, we are ever in a process of redefining and rewriting history.

269. The past is always defined by and/or in terms of the future.

270. Most philosophical and theological precepts can be discovered, defined, or enlightened mathematically.