Paul Laffoley Biography & Quotes

“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.”

“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.”

Mean Made Ideas Use Reality Might Form Energy Levels Views Quality Research Concepts Eternity Western Notion Point Of View Defined Dimensions Quantity Mathematician Clue Comprehensive

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.”

“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.”

Thinking Father Stuff Continuing

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.”

School Father Names President Company Class Taught Members Clubs Department Faculty Bankers Harvard Cambridge Business 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.”

Thinking Firsts Made States Age Father Born Church United United States Streets Late Theater Grandfather My Grandfather Exeter

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.”

People Kind Said Wanted Father Stuff Responsibility Involved Making Money Teenager Irresponsible Borrowed Family 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.”

Ends Certain Father Okay Characteristics Architect Grandfather My 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.”

Knows Kind Children Persons Father Responsibility Relation Responsible

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.”

People Whole Wanted Father New York Majority Appearance Hats Oscars Coats Uptight

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.”

Knows Want Said Bigs Wanted Mother Father Sports Car New York Clothes Upset Hotel Bankers Lawns Dressed Up Big 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.”

Kind Law Father Return Taxes Economics Lawyer Reasoning Department Professors Harvard Tax 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.”

People World Years Kind Made Ideas Ends Matter Today Father Fronts Months Office Six Computer Tools Productions Stealing Data Six Months Obsolete Input Patents Lawsuit Wasting 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.”

Ifs Giving Believe Father Interest Becoming Constant Gravity Indication Headache Quirky Dupes

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?”

People Thinking Knows Believe Mean Reason Courses Father Successful Physics Gravity Businessman

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.”

Way Years Believe Problem Guy Father Thousand Moved Dollars Competition University Gravity Essays This Guy Boston Institute Hampshire New Hampshire Gloucester

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.”

Thinking Years Mind Father Stuff Black Wind Angry Competition Holes Gravity Open Mind Institute Black Hole Keep 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.”

Believe Form Dies Father Energy Stuff Trouble Delusion Funny 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.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Want Said Reason Would Be Kids School Mother Streets Information Areas Want Me Gravity Beaten Pulp

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.”

Believe Reality Courses Father Space Distance Attraction Gravity Distortion Dissertation

Author:Paul Laffoley

“You know, in the suburbs, most people believe in gravity, but they don't have much of a sense of humor.”

People Knows Believe Sense Of Humor Gravity Suburbs

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."”

People Thinking Want Mind Wells Looks Hard Body Mother Father Stuff Radical Guests Gravity Bourgeois

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.”

Said Book Guy Father Names Theory Mets Died Gravity Father Died My 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.”

Ideas Reason Father Belief Effects Reason Why Gravity Presentation Magnetism

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.”

Men Firsts Said Father Hell Genius Brilliant Loser

Author:Paul Laffoley

“I really wanted to study with Bruce Goff [one of the masters of "organic architecture"] at the University of Oklahoma.”

Wanted Study Masters University Architecture Oklahoma Organic Architecture

Author:Paul Laffoley

“My father said he did have the mathematics of mind physics, or the physics of consciousness.”

Mind Said Father Consciousness Mathematics Physics

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.”

People World Kind Speak Social Stuff President Involved Organization Studios One Time Chapters Boston Social Life Cambridge Future 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.”

Kind Wanted Easy Black Taught College Mets Mountain Areas England Come Up Islands Yankees Lectures Harvard Easy To Get New England Pennsylvania Maine Buckminster Fuller Kenneth

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.”

Three Three Times Coming Back Harvard Buckminster 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.”

Ifs Years Said Matter Care Today Past Night Guy Party Notes Don't Care Insane Every Night They Said Harvard Blast Freshman Letting You Go Buckminster Fuller Freshman Year Womanizer

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.”

People Way Giving Shows Able Fronts Willing Like You Listening Lessons Logic Notes Statements Spots Hats Lectures Babbling Buckminster 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.”

People Stills Hours Five Four Buckminster 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.”

Knows Kind Littles Age Bits Hair Little Bit Modeling Buckminster 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.”

People Kind Age Stuff Team Goes On Meetings Be Good Planning Good Friend Retreat New Age Forts Florence Buckminster 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.”

Thinking Knows Mind Believe Wells Said Hours Existence Hell Four Conversation Argument Claims Backgrounds Mathematical Bottles Angle Dubious Buckminster Fuller Topology

Author:Paul Laffoley

“The tetrahedron was [ Buckminster Fuller's] big thing. He'd talk about it in the same way Plato talked about angles.”

Way Bigs Angle Plato Big Things Buckminster 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.”

Thinking Believe Wells Doe Said I Can Two Walks Imagine Fronts Crosses Edges Surface Bottles Caps Because I Can Over The Edge Buckminster Fuller Meaning Something

Author:Paul Laffoley

“The Mobius strip is only an analog for the reality of what it is.”

Reality Analog

Author:Paul Laffoley

“[Buckminster Fuller] was quite a Newtonian in certain ways. But he was an excellent inventor and kept people on their toes.”

People Way Certain Excellent Toes Inventor Buckminster Fuller

Author:Paul Laffoley

“[Buckminster Fuller] would pretend to be deaf at the right times.”

Right Time Deaf Buckminster Fuller

Author:Paul Laffoley

“I think [Theosophical and Masonic books] wasn't that I was inspired so much. I was corroborated by them.”

Thinking Book Inspired Masonic

Author:Paul Laffoley

“I always had a sense of liking diagrams, from the time I was studying architecture. Architecture is built diagrams, basically.”

Study Built Architecture Diagrams

Author:Paul Laffoley

“Any sort of working drawings are simply diagrams. Architecture encourages your imagination to work that way.”

Way Imagination Architecture Drawing Diagrams

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.”

Said Two Reality Three Space Concepts Surface Planes Dimensions Attacking Furious Stacking

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.”

Way Trying Reason Courses Stuff Term Teach Week Information Materials Conscious Critical Reason Why Faculty Coming Back Bypass Ideologues Overview

Author:Paul Laffoley

“I've kind of always done diagrams. It helped me think.”

Thinking Kind Done Diagrams

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.”

Thinking Way Kind Book Guy Courses Stuff Natural Teach Written Visuals

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.”

Want Writing Kids Wanted School Stuff Mathematics Stores Abstract Call Me Meaningless Mary Expressionism Abstract 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.”

Giving Kind Kids School Stuff Wonder Give Me Green Lunch Lanterns Wonder Woman Green Lantern

Author:Paul Laffoley

Paul Laffoley Biography

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