My Big TOE

[CFTraveler]

I could have sworn this trilogy was here already, but I couldn't find it.
I haven't read it yet (it's been on my to-read list for about a year, and I still haven't gotten it).

Thomas Campbell has done a lecture series on it here: http://www.malleablelight.net/videos/thomas-campbell/

I'm watching it, and it makes me want to read it even more.

[Ouroboros]

Huh, that sure looks interesting...I'll have to see if I can watch some of those videos tonight.

[CFTraveler]

On YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta17zNaQpLc

[ariesr]

Thanks CFT, that's a good link.

I've got DVD's for his lectures at TMI and London. Both have insights to offer.
I wil go over the DVDs to look over stuff I didnt pick up. The reason I went for the DVDs was a comment on Amazon.co.uk that the author was a better speaker than writer, and that the DVDs covered the main points.

[farewell2arms]

Just wanted to mention that the books are available for free at google books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=YxMf-lyn0qoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+big+toe&hl=sv&ei=fGisTeTuKNjS4wb_-dC7Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true

I haven't read them myself yet though.

[soulreaper]

i have finally completed the trilogy........:rolling:
this is a must read from my side.......i will probably give it 4.5/5 stars.......
when i was reading the 2nd book, i could give it 5 stars but i am a bit disappinted after reading 3 of them....
the author talks about raising your consciousness quality all along the book.......i mean these words are everywhere "you have to increase the quality of your consciousness"
and because of them i was expecting some real examples of how to do it.......he says its all in intent but he never even gave an example of making those important choices or intent.....
probably it is possible that i missed the instruction......if this is the case let me know.....
otw a very good trilogy.......

[Beekeeper]

Soulreaper, it would, in my opinion, make a decent thread: What does it mean to you to raise consciousness?

[Summerlander]

I finished reading Inner Workings. Most of what it contains I had already thought about ages ago. Can you believe it? Still, it is only one big THEORY. Good read though. I loved the quotes at the end the most! Very philosophical! LOL!

[CFTraveler]

One of the reasons I haven't invested my money in the trilogy is that a lot of the information I already know- but as a physicist he fascinates me, and I want him to show me something. Maybe I'll break down and buy it (I don't like reading on the laptop, and I prefer paper anyway) just to have it.

[Korpo]

I thought his books are available for free reading? At least the first one.

[CFTraveler]

Yes, but IIRC it has to be streamed, and my reader has to be downloaded. Unless I'm missing something.

[PauliEffect]

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?

[PauliEffect]

(continued from above...)

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.
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.

[PauliEffect]

(review further continued from above...)

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 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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?

[Korpo]

Hello, PauliEffect.

What an interesting book review, I enjoyed reading it.

I didn't pick up TOE after browsing it. It seems to be a book aimed at a certain audience that needs the comfort zone of scientific or apparently scientific wording to feel comfortable with the topic at hand. For such audiences it may be useful. It didn't appeal to me as I quickly got the suspicion that it explained something I already knew in a way that I would not necessarily find conducive.

Seems like you came away with a similar conclusion.

[Sinera]

I would at least expect
a physics professor to include in a TOE how the non-physical can connect to the
physical.
I think he does so, if I understand (and remember) it correctly by explaining the basis of the physical which is the non-physical. It might be equivalent to the holographic viewpoint. The physical is just "another" digital reality in a set of virtual realities. Hence there is not really interaction necessary. As in every reality created and experienced, it's all based on non-physical consciousness / mind. At least that is how I understood it, but it is a while ago when I read it.


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?
You're presenting this now as your conclusion and final punchline for your review. Actually, however, this is exactly the reason that Campbell gives in his book. Reality is subjective, so any "TOE" will be subjective / personal, too. Tha'ts why he gives the advice that you should also explore the LR for yourself, use his books as a guidance to develop out of it your own (little or big) TOE.

I agree, however, to your general criticism that the book(s) could have been much shorter, as there is a lot of diversions, interruptions by side-remarks - even as whole sub-chapters and sub-subchapters, and also repetitions that would not have been necessary, imho too.

[Sinera]

It didn't appeal to me as I quickly got the suspicion that it explained something I already knew in a way that I would not necessarily find conducive.
I can agree here, although with the difference that it still appealed to me nevertheless (despite its unnecessary vastness) because it shed light at the same matter from a different angle, which made it interesting for me.
Monroe actually did the same for me by applying another 'language' but still meaning more or less the same thing (e.g. he called karma 'baggage load' and nearing the end of an incarnation cycle as 'gaining escape velocity', just to name 2 examples).
Actually, Tom does the same, as I see it. Tom worked at the TMI so it is the 'same school of thought' in a way. It's a way of describing the same concepts in different terminology - stripped of mysticism but not by denying or diminishing it, just by using 'modernised language' - that I already intuitively felt to be right before even if described in different terms.

[Korpo]

"Digital reality"? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term, can you elaborate?

[Sinera]

"Digital reality"? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term, can you elaborate?
Well, he uses computing as an analogy to describe almost anything. So every reality is 'virtual' or 'digital'. Consciousness is 'digital' for him too. GOD / Source is the Big Computer. :)
I never thought about how 'literal' he takes it. For me it's all metaphor and/or analogy in the first place. We cannot make up our minds on this anyway, moreover since I do not feel qualified to do so. However, his school of theoretical physics applied to explain reality is 'digital physics', a relatively new line of thought among theoretical physicsts, but growing (so he says).

[PauliEffect]

Tom worked at the TMI so it is the 'same school of thought' in a way. It's a way of describing the same concepts in different terminology - stripped of mysticism...

I'm not sure if you refer to T Campbell or TMI itself, but I just have to point out:

T Campbell has not "stripped of mysticism". He goes as far as thinking mysticism is needed for a TOE (see valid portions of my review above). my 2 cents only. :)

[PauliEffect]

"Digital reality"? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term, can you elaborate?

As you may have noticed in my review, Campbell thinks that consciousness, all consciousness (not only human), is digital. The consciousness mind is very equivalent to a computer using something similar to ones and zeros to "think" and "feel", which also is the reason why consciousness is digital in its core. The physical reality is a digital simulation, much like the computer game SIMS or a computerized war game. The computer/software is consciousness and it's digital, also - non-physical time is portioned in small well defined increments, much as ones and zeros are. Time is stepped forward (or backward in simulations) like the digital counter in a computer program.

The Whole, Source, All-Mighty God or what you want to call All-There-Is, is in other words digital in function, only working with ones-and-zeros, according to Campbell.

The physical reality can according to Campbell be stopped/paused, while other parts of the computer/God/Source continues to execute computations of possible future development. Then the computer can start reality again and let the simulation run and see what its tiny small inhabitants do by use of "free will", which is an ingredient needed to make the computer run at some randomness. Without free will, the simulation would not be needed as the huge computer would be able to calculate all results on its own, without the need for a simulation (= physical reality).

Nothing in the physical really exists on its own, as everything physical only is pieces of software in the Source's mind/consciousness.

[Sinera]

Nothing in the physical really exists on its own, as everything physical only is pieces of software in the Source's mind/consciousness.
... which ties in perfectly with the mystic's reality + god concept of (us humans being part of) "All-That-Is" ;)

[Korpo]

Thank you for explaining, PauliEffect!

And does he provide any evidence for this hypothesis, any validation through his own mystic experiences, or is this just speculation? Your review seems to indicate he seems to be a bit light on anything to validate his beliefs.

[Korpo]

... which ties in perfectly with the mystic's reality + god concept of (us humans being part of) "All-That-Is" ;)

But not necessarily in a valid way. Two similar sounding items can be linked in inappropriate ways if not ultimately based on direct energetic experience validating the link.

A lot of things sound the same or similar in language and in concepts, but aren't.

[PauliEffect]

I would at least expect a physics professor to include
in a TOE how the non-physical can connect to the physical.I think he does so, if I understand (and remember) it correctly by explaining the basis of the physical which is the non-physical. It might be equivalent to the holographic viewpoint. The physical is just "another" digital reality in a set of virtual realities. Hence there is not really interaction necessary. As in every reality created and experienced, it's all based on non-physical consciousness / mind. At least that is how I understood it, but it is a while ago when I read it.
(I'm not sure about what you mean with a holographic viewpoint. Campbell doesn't really use
that expression in his book. Somehow I think that any talk about "holographic", is a way of
escaping explanatory problems.)

Well, maybe Campbell has explained it in a very general and easy-going way.

But I have some problems with it, at least:

1. If the physical reality is a simulation, and my consciousness is real, I should somehow
be able to view the connection between physical and non-physical reality.

2. If the physical reality is a simulation, things like retrievals, where non-physical people
gets stuck should be explained a little more, as other non-physical inhabitants should be
able to quite easily alter the stuck person's unreal surroundings., which after all are only
"simulations", right? Yet you seem to need some other kind of help in Moen-style to
retrieve stuck dead people. Why?


There are other issues, but if one thing is the simulation and another thing is the real
deal, there should be some explanation how they are connected, right? And it should
be possible to see why one thing is either of them two and their connection?

And also some explanation to _how_ we can or can't observe the connection between physical
and non-physical reality, unless we are silly small dolls, walking around like robots inside
the huge AUM computer, the EBC, driving all those TBCs - or...?

To me at least, this far Campbell has only produced a very sketchy and fuzzy model,
apparently disguised in a dress which looks a little "scientific", but he hasn't produced
something which could resemble a TOE and I feel that the part, which has been presented
is quite unclearly in the book.

In my opinion, not clearly addressing important questions in detail over +800 pages,
raises some doubt, when talking about a Unifying Grand Theory, a theory of them all,
a TOE.

[Sinera]

But not necessarily in a valid way. Two similar sounding items can be linked in inappropriate ways if not ultimately based on direct energetic experience validating the link. A lot of things sound the same or similar in language and in concepts, but aren't.
We always find what we are looking for. Look for differences and you find differences. Look for commonalities and you find commonalities. I like the second thing much more now, but of course your have a point in looking for differences too.
Still, for me regarding these concepts and descriptions, it is a lot about language, analogies and metaphors, as I cannot find a way to describe the larger reality in any other way, anyway. The semantic denotation behind the connotation is the core for me that mostly remains the same.
There is some"thing" bigger and we are part of it (ok, some already digress here as they say that bigger reality is mostly pure potential and thus it is no"thing", albeit still "existing" ...).
The computing / IT analogy (and that is what I like about it) does not disturb me. It's one method or viewpoint to describe the same core truth (I'm aware of 'truth' being too big word here, maybe), since it is a good way to explain it to myself or others if necessary.

(E.g. I like to think of my personality, including body and 'mind ego', here now as being an 'avatar' in a multi-person video game called Earth Life ;), with my Higher Self being the player who also kind of co-created / assembled the 'ego' before to 'play the game' with this token. There's my HS in it (in "me"), but it is not necessarily my HS in total. This description is of course only an analogy, humourously done, and it's 'play'-ful, and applied just for the sake of description - not too literally to be taken, but still there is some value and 'truth' in it for me - it serves its purpose, for the time being).

[PauliEffect]

And does he provide any evidence for this hypothesis, any validation through
his own mystic experiences, or is this just speculation? Your review seems to
indicate he seems to be a bit light on anything to validate his beliefs.

In the book I haven't found any non-physical experiences of Campbell, which could
support his TOE ideas.

But he mentions some experiences of his own in Volume I, Section 1, which are
worth reading.

[CFTraveler]

I have some thoughts about this- perhaps I should hold off until I finally read the trilogy (I've read parts and seen parts, but it's not the same) but I don't think he means that the simulation isn't real- 'reality' is subjective, and I've heard him say this in various places- I think what he is trying to say is that the experience of threedimensionality is the simulation, and the actual experience is 'other' (nonlocal?) but we don't perceive it that way, because our focus is in the simulation.

...I should somehow be able to view the connection between physical and non-physical reality. But I think you do, it's the basic premise of Mysticism- all Mystics say the same thing in different ways in various traditions.
Wow, that was not clear at all. I might come back and clarify, when I have time to sit and ponder for a while.

[PauliEffect]

I found this on Wikipedia on digital physics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_physics

Also, someone on another forum pointed out to me that perhaps I'm wrong
when I thought Campbell was a professor.

[Sinera]

Also, someone on another forum pointed out to me that perhaps I'm wrong
when I thought Campbell was a professor.
He's a Dr. - iirc. But should we be blinded now by academic titles? Do we need to make it that personal? Is "not a professor" sth negative now?
I'd even go so far and state that if he was fully integrated into a career path in academia, he wouldn't have been as open minded as needed for the book and his work and practical experience with TMI. Look what happened to many 'professors' in the academic establishment. They receive their pay checks, do their daily work necessary for upholding a (questionable?) status quo (which isn't science at all, as science must be always on the MOVE).

[PauliEffect]

He's a Dr. - iirc. But should we be blinded now by academic titles? Do we need to make it that personal? Is "not a professor" sth negative now?
No, I just wanted to point out that I was wrong, to keep down any obvious errors
in my original review.

[CFTraveler]

I like the term 'naturalist computationalism'.

[Korpo]

We always find what we are looking for. Look for differences and you find differences. Look for commonalities and you find commonalities. I like the second thing much more now, but of course your have a point in looking for differences too.
Still, for me regarding these concepts and descriptions, it is a lot about language, analogies and metaphors, as I cannot find a way to describe the larger reality in any other way, anyway. The semantic denotation behind the connotation is the core for me that mostly remains the same.

No, I don't agree that it's the same. I see very different implications. This is what I mean: It sounds like the same but isn't.

The differences may be subtle, but make for a very different outcome in overall terms.