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.”

CCXC

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.

CCLXXX

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.