“While often being called transdisciplinary, theonomous reasoning is actually a first step back to ancient wisdom in which methodological sensation [or what we now know as science] has completely merged with methodological revelation [or totally known mystical knowledge in which every aspect of the occult has been overcome]. A true tradition has no occult or hidden phases left in its process. The creators and the audience are in perfect harmony.” KnowsFirstsHas BeensLeftProcessPerfectKnownStepsAudienceAspectTraditionOvercomingHarmonyAncientCreatorReasoningRevelationsSensationsFirst StepsPhasesMysticalOccultAncient WisdomPerfect Harmony Author:Paul Laffoley
“I began to research the concept of dimensionality from the point of view of quality, and not just quantity, as a mathematician might do. Taking my clues from the theosophical use made of the Vedantic levels of reality, I identified the western notion of Energy (as someting which is effecatious by means of motion), with the idea of Time. The more comprehensive dimension 'eternity' I defined as a form of energy which is efficacious without motion. In this manner I began to establish the qualities of dimensions and open out the seemingly monolithic concept of energy.” MeanMadeIdeasUseRealityMightFormEnergyLevelsViewsQualityResearchConceptsEternityWesternNotionPoint Of ViewDefinedDimensionsQuantityMathematicianClueComprehensive Author:Paul Laffoley
“The main thesis of mind-physics holds that consciousness and matter are both manifestations of a more primary entity, and that the processes of manifestation exhibit equivalent invariances for both consciousness and matter. When the program for mind-physics is complete the subject-object dichotomy of modal logic, the polarity of concept-percept, and the antagonism between morality and technology will all come to an end. Then the non-repeatable experiment will be understood to be more primary than the traditional repeatable experiment.” MindEndsMatterProcessConsciousnessTechnologySubjectsObjectsMoralityUnderstoodConceptsProgramLogicPhysicsExperimentsTraditionalPrimariesManifestationEntityExhibitsThesisDichotomyAntagonismPolarity Author:Paul Laffoley
“My father knew all about this stuff [C.W. Leadbeater]. I owe a lot of what I'm doing, I think, to him. I'm sort of continuing my father's work.” ThinkingFatherStuffContinuing Author:Paul Laffoley
“[My father] was a banker. He was the president of the Cambridge Trust Company, the head of the trust department, and he taught classes at the Harvard Business School. And he was a member of the Harvard Faculty Club, which I am, too, because what I did is... I have the same name as my father, only Jr.” SchoolFatherNamesPresidentCompanyClassTaughtMembersClubsDepartmentFacultyBankersHarvardCambridgeBusiness School Author:Paul Laffoley
“I was born rather late in [my father's] life, in his mid - 40s. And so what he did up until the time he was 15, I think probably from age 12 to 15, my grandfather made him demonstrate mediumistic powers at the Exeter Street Theater, the first Spiritualist church in the United States.” ThinkingFirstsMadeStatesAgeFatherBornChurchUnitedUnited StatesStreetsLateTheaterGrandfatherMy GrandfatherExeter Author:Paul Laffoley
“At 15 [my father] revolted against his father like any teenager, and said, "I'm out of here! What are you doing to me?" He thought he wouldn't be involved in that kind of stuff for the rest of his life. He just wanted to make money. He was one of those people who took over the family responsibility. His own father was pretty irresponsible with money and borrowed from people all the time.” PeopleKindSaidWantedFatherStuffResponsibilityInvolvedMaking MoneyTeenagerIrresponsibleBorrowedFamily Responsibility Author:Paul Laffoley
“[My father] was always saying I'd end up like my grandfather. Okay. My grandfather was an architect, I'm an architect. It's true, certain characteristics are similar.” EndsCertainFatherOkayCharacteristicsArchitectGrandfatherMy Grandfather Author:Paul Laffoley
“Anyway, my father became super-responsible. You know, he was the kind of person that absorbs all responsibility in the family, and then everybody else can act like a child in relation to him.” KnowsKindChildrenPersonsFatherResponsibilityRelationResponsible Author:Paul Laffoley
“When [my father] reached his majority, he was the head of the family. Everybody depended upon him. He went into a very uptight appearance; he would wear Chesterfield coats to work, Homburg hats, really getting into the whole thing. He knew people like Oscar Levant. He loved New York. He wanted to live there.” PeopleWholeWantedFatherNew YorkMajorityAppearanceHatsOscarsCoatsUptight Author:Paul Laffoley
“[My father] was always upset that my mother didn't want to live in New York. Because he said he wanted to live in a hotel and not have to mow the lawn and all that. In other words, he never liked sports clothes, he always liked to be dressed up formally, 24/7. And he drove big cars and, you know, just loved to act the banker.” KnowsWantSaidBigsWantedMotherFatherSportsCarNew YorkClothesUpsetHotelBankersLawnsDressed UpBig Cars Author:Paul Laffoley
“[My father] was also a lawyer in his bank and specialized in tax law. He would have to do the tax returns for all the Harvard profs because they were buffaloed by that kind of reasoning. Professors in the economics department, even they knew nothing about it.” KindLawFatherReturnTaxesEconomicsLawyerReasoningDepartmentProfessorsHarvardTax Returns Author:Paul Laffoley
“Today the patent office is obsolete. You just take whatever you do, tool up, and start production for six months. At the end of the six months you put the data on all the computer inputs all over the world and you got your business. You can make all your money, and then people can steal it, but by then it doesn't matter because you've made the money up front and you avoid wasting money in lawsuits. [My father] had all these kinds of ideas years ahead of others.” PeopleWorldYearsKindMadeIdeasEndsMatterTodayFatherFrontsMonthsOfficeSixComputerToolsProductionsStealingDataSix MonthsObsoleteInputPatentsLawsuitWasting Money Author:Paul Laffoley
“[My father] had this quirky thing of not believing in gravity. And giving me a constant headache about that one. He would say if I showed any interest in gravity, I was becoming a dupe of the system. He could see indications I was beginning to believe in it.” IfsGivingBelieveFatherInterestBecomingConstantGravityIndicationHeadacheQuirkyDupes Author:Paul Laffoley
“I would say [to my father], "Why don't you actually take some courses in physics instead of saying [you are not believing in gravity]?" But he would never do it. Businessmen for some reason or other, think, because they're successful in a single direction, that they know everything. You know what I mean? You ever meet people like that?” PeopleThinkingKnowsBelieveMeanReasonCoursesFatherSuccessfulPhysicsGravityBusinessman Author:Paul Laffoley
“The Babson Institute, which is now an actual university, was started by this guy [my father] who also had a problem with believing in gravity. And so he started the Babson Institute in New Boston, New Hampshire, which then moved to Gloucester. Each year they have a competition of one thousand dollars for one thousand words of an essay on gravity. That's the way they do it.” WayYearsBelieveProblemGuyFatherThousandMovedDollarsCompetitionUniversityGravityEssaysThis GuyBostonInstituteHampshireNew HampshireGloucester Author:Paul Laffoley
“Stephen Hawking won [Babson Institute competition ] one year with his black hole stuff. It's keeping an open mind on whether gravity exists or not. I think my father believed this because ... when the wind blew on him, he'd get angry, because it was something he couldn't control.” ThinkingYearsMindFatherStuffBlackWindAngryCompetitionHolesGravityOpen MindInstituteBlack HoleKeep An Open Mind Author:Paul Laffoley
“Forms of energy from nature gave my father trouble. He refused to believe he was going to die. He had these weird delusions. It's amazing. Along with all the great thoughts, he had all this funny stuff.” BelieveFormDiesFatherEnergyStuffTroubleDelusionFunny Stuff Author:Paul Laffoley
“As a kid, I was getting information in areas that no one else was getting. I think that was one of the reasons my mother didn't want me to go to school too soon. Because I would be beaten to a pulp, you know, if I walked down the street and said there was no such thing as gravity.” IfsThinkingKnowsWantSaidReasonWould BeKidsSchoolMotherStreetsInformationAreasWant MeGravityBeatenPulp Author:Paul Laffoley
“My father would conclude his dissertations by saying, "Of course, [Albert] Einstein never believed in gravity. It was a distortion of space." And so my father couldn't believe that an attraction at a distance was a reality.” BelieveRealityCoursesFatherSpaceDistanceAttractionGravityDistortionDissertation Author:Paul Laffoley
“You know, in the suburbs, most people believe in gravity, but they don't have much of a sense of humor.” PeopleKnowsBelieveSense Of HumorGravitySuburbs Author:Paul Laffoley
“To have that radical a mind in that bourgeois-looking body was really hard for a lot of people to take, because, when my mother would want to have people over she'd tell [my father], "Don't start with the gravity stuff." And then he would invariably do this and the guests would look at each other and say, "Well, I think it's time to go now."” PeopleThinkingWantMindWellsLooksHardBodyMotherFatherStuffRadicalGuestsGravityBourgeois Author:Paul Laffoley
“I met a guy who had the same theory and wrote a book about it. His name is Walter C. Wright Jr. His book is called Gravity Is a Push. I wrote to him and told him about my father, and he said he wished he'd met him. My father died quite a while ago.” SaidBookGuyFatherNamesTheoryMetsDiedGravityFather DiedMy Father Died Author:Paul Laffoley
“Walter C. Wright has a more cogent presentation than my father did about [gravity] being a push. But he had the same basic belief, that the idea of magnetism attracting something was not the reason why the effects of what we call gravity occur.” IdeasReasonFatherBeliefEffectsReason WhyGravityPresentationMagnetism Author:Paul Laffoley
“My father was an extremely brilliant man. I consider him a genius, and so he probably could have joined Mensa. But why? I got in it with a 79 I.Q. and the first day I said, "I'm getting the hell out of here quick!" They're all losers. All they do is talk about their IQ.” MenFirstsSaidFatherHellGeniusBrilliantLoser Author:Paul Laffoley
“I really wanted to study with Bruce Goff [one of the masters of "organic architecture"] at the University of Oklahoma.” WantedStudyMastersUniversityArchitectureOklahomaOrganic Architecture Author:Paul Laffoley
“My father said he did have the mathematics of mind physics, or the physics of consciousness.” MindSaidFatherConsciousnessMathematicsPhysics Author:Paul Laffoley
“At one time in the mid-'70s I became the president of the Boston-Cambridge chapter of the World Future Society. Because I'd been in my studio by myself since 1968 on up. And the thing is that my social life consisted of being involved in organizations like that. I would get people to come and speak, and speak myself and that kind of stuff.” PeopleWorldKindSpeakSocialStuffPresidentInvolvedOrganizationStudiosOne TimeChaptersBostonSocial LifeCambridgeFuture Society Author:Paul Laffoley
“Buckminster Fuller was down in Pennsylvania, then he'd come up and go to his island in Maine. He wanted to remain a New Englander. He taught from '48 to '49 and '50 at Black Mountain College. That's where he met Kenneth Snelson. Fuller kind of stayed a Yankee right in the New England area. So it was pretty easy to get him to come on over, and we would have lectures at the Harvard Science Center.” KindWantedEasyBlackTaughtCollegeMetsMountainAreasEnglandCome UpIslandsYankeesLecturesHarvardEasy To GetNew EnglandPennsylvaniaMaineBuckminster FullerKenneth Author:Paul Laffoley
“[Buckminster Fuller] always liked to say that he got kicked out of Harvard three times. Mostly you only got kicked out once, but he kept coming back.” ThreeThree TimesComing BackHarvardBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“[Buckminster Fuller ] never got past his freshman year [in Harvard], because the guy was an insane womanizer and he did parties every night, never studied anything, never took a note, didn't care about anything and just had a blast. So they said, "We gotta let you go. You get zeros all the time." Today it wouldn't even matter, because they don't care if you can read.” IfsYearsSaidMatterCareTodayPastNightGuyPartyNotesDon't CareInsaneEvery NightThey SaidHarvardBlastFreshmanLetting You GoBuckminster FullerFreshman YearWomanizer Author:Paul Laffoley
“[Buckminster Fuller] was quite willing to talk. He'd talk at the drop of a hat.I learned to talk in front of people by listening to the way he did things. Because he would give lessons in how to lecture. He would say, "Never take a note, just stand up and start babbling. And then eventually you're going to be able to make some coherent statements, and so it's like you're vamping. And then people will gradually start to listen to you when this spot of logic shows up in this torrent of verbiage.” PeopleWayGivingShowsAbleFrontsWillingLike YouListeningLessonsLogicNotesStatementsSpotsHatsLecturesBabblingBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“[Buckminster Fuller] could do four, five hours straight where some people would leave, eat, get a snooze and come back and he's still going. He was like a fireplug.” PeopleStillsHoursFiveFourBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“I started modeling myself on [ Buckminster Fuller], like with the hair. I reached an age where I sort of, kind of, looked like him a little bit, you know? I thought it was great.” KnowsKindLittlesAgeBitsHairLittle BitModelingBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“We would go on retreats to Florence. The people in the planning team got to be good friends and so we did things like, we'd all go over to the Fort Belvedere in Florence and take that thing over. Because it's up for grabs, you can rent it. And then have New Age meetings and all that kind of stuff. [Buckminster] Fuller loved to go there.” PeopleKindAgeStuffTeamGoes OnMeetingsBe GoodPlanningGood FriendRetreatNew AgeFortsFlorenceBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“I would have private conversations with [Buckminster Fuller]. I once had an argument, for four hours, about the existence of the Mobius strip. Because he believed in the Klein Bottle, you see. And I said, "How in hell can you claim to believe in the Klein Bottle and think that the Mobius strip is dubious?" He said, "Well, it's a torus." I don't know what he had in his mind as a mathematical background, because I don't think he got topology. Because, in other words, the Mobius strip didn't have angles in it.” ThinkingKnowsMindBelieveWellsSaidHoursExistenceHellFourConversationArgumentClaimsBackgroundsMathematicalBottlesAngleDubiousBuckminster FullerTopology Author:Paul Laffoley
“The tetrahedron was [ Buckminster Fuller's] big thing. He'd talk about it in the same way Plato talked about angles.” WayBigsAnglePlatoBig ThingsBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“I said, "Well, why do you believe in the Klein Bottle?" He said, "Because I can imagine it." I said, "You don't have to imagine a Mobius strip. It's right there in front of you!" But [Buckminster Fuller] couldn't see how that could involve a cross cap, meaning something that couldn't be reduced to a two-dimensional surface. Which it does. It's because he was thinking that the matrix was the thing that a fly could walk over the edge of, like a torus.” ThinkingBelieveWellsDoeSaidI CanTwoWalksImagineFrontsCrossesEdgesSurfaceBottlesCapsBecause I CanOver The EdgeBuckminster FullerMeaning Something Author:Paul Laffoley
“The Mobius strip is only an analog for the reality of what it is.” RealityAnalog Author:Paul Laffoley
“[Buckminster Fuller] was quite a Newtonian in certain ways. But he was an excellent inventor and kept people on their toes.” PeopleWayCertainExcellentToesInventorBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“[Buckminster Fuller] would pretend to be deaf at the right times.” Right TimeDeafBuckminster Fuller Author:Paul Laffoley
“I think [Theosophical and Masonic books] wasn't that I was inspired so much. I was corroborated by them.” ThinkingBookInspiredMasonic Author:Paul Laffoley
“I always had a sense of liking diagrams, from the time I was studying architecture. Architecture is built diagrams, basically.” StudyBuiltArchitectureDiagrams Author:Paul Laffoley
“Any sort of working drawings are simply diagrams. Architecture encourages your imagination to work that way.” WayImaginationArchitectureDrawingDiagrams Author:Paul Laffoley
“I actually challenged The Theosophical Society on their concept of planes of reality. I said, "What you're doing is, you're stacking two-dimensional surfaces in three-space. And you are not going into any other dimensions at all." And they were furious, because they thought I was attacking Madame [Elena] Blavatsky.” SaidTwoRealityThreeSpaceConceptsSurfacePlanesDimensionsAttackingFuriousStacking Author:Paul Laffoley
“[The Theosophical Society] are ideologues in terms of the way they present the material. That's one of the reasons why, when they teach their courses, you only get a smidgen of stuff and you have to keep coming back every week. They won't do an overview. Because they're trying to bypass your conscious critical faculties by leaking the information slowly.” WayTryingReasonCoursesStuffTermTeachWeekInformationMaterialsConsciousCriticalReason WhyFacultyComing BackBypassIdeologuesOverview Author:Paul Laffoley
“I've kind of always done diagrams. It helped me think.” ThinkingKindDoneDiagrams Author:Paul Laffoley
“I hear some guy teaches a course in diagrammatic thinking now; he's written books on it and stuff like that, and so it was kind of natural for me. Because it was a way in which words naturally fitted into something that's visual. I was always interested in doing that.” ThinkingWayKindBookGuyCoursesStuffNaturalTeachWrittenVisuals Author:Paul Laffoley
“I went to the Mary Lee Burbank School in Belmont. And it was a place where you, like, learned to go to the store? And I was saying, Oh God, I want to learn something else. I wanted to learn to read and write better and do mathematics better. They were very much into Abstract Expressionism and that artsy stuff. And where most kids did what I call meaningless blobs, I could render perfectly.” WantWritingKidsWantedSchoolStuffMathematicsStoresAbstractCall MeMeaninglessMaryExpressionismAbstract Expressionism Author:Paul Laffoley
“I could do Superman, the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, this kind of stuff [at school]. And kids would give me their lunch money to have these things.” GivingKindKidsSchoolStuffWonderGive MeGreenLunchLanternsWonder WomanGreen Lantern Author:Paul Laffoley
