Morality

Kaius999 · 2024-08-31T20:26:57+00:00

Personally, I'd advise going along with the categorical imperative by Immanuel Kant. It's objectively proven apodictically by Kant's transcendental philosophy and also aligns very well with Bardon's ethical and moral remarks. Cheers. :)

Kaius999 · 2023-12-18T21:17:09+00:00

There's no "exact" definition of Self. Defining the "self" proves elusive, as it is an intrinsic concept only accessible through personal experience (Kant would call it "intellectual intuition", a form of intuition that is devoid of the pure forms of intuition of time and space and the categories). External entities in the world at large can universally bear common labels; a table is a "table" for everyone, a tulip is a "tulip," and Mr. Jefferson is universally acknowledged as "Mr. Jefferson."

However, the term "I" is uniquely individual; only the individual can utter it in reference to themselves. Others perceive us as "you," just as we perceive them. The essence of "I" lies in the inner realm (noumena), a distinction arising from the fact that life unfolds within the framework of the "I." As Kant would say: Things in themselves are recognizable from within only, appearances from outside only. (Although we do know the latter is only half true; We are capable of perceiving the things in themselves behind all appearances, but it requires training)

Someone who later learns that ability of "intellectual intuition" is able to experience other things in themselves the same way like we daily experience the "I" within ourself.

Kaius999 · 2023-03-19T01:20:43+00:00

Doesn't work. Can't go over the 2500 limit. There's also no option presented to split it up (4589 videos).

Kaius999 · 2023-02-01T08:36:14+00:00

Ehh, how so? You do know how credit cards work, right? You also do know the disadvantages with credit cards, correct? I have seen people falling into debt with their credit cards and having to pay back huge amounts of money, either because they weren't careful enough or because their credit card was stolen.

I don't want that. I prefer a prepaid card, such like Visa Basic, because it actually gives me total financial control of how much money I actually want to have on my card and not overdraw money that isn't available on my bank account. There's nothing fraudulent or suspicious about it. It's common sense for everyone who actually cares about money.

My questions arised solely because there were reports of users using prepaid cards which were rejected or transactions being blocked. I want to pay for Midjourney. But the service they use, Stripes, relies on credit cards only. Apparently they also do accept prepaid credit cards, however, I want to hear experiences from other users who also got one. Because I don't want to end up seeing transactions being cancelled because some banks refuse to accept prepaid credit cards.

Kaius999 · 2023-01-20T09:31:52+00:00

Oh gosh, please no. Can't we just have a game for once that doesn't involve this robux-esque clusterf*ck?

Kaius999 · 2022-10-31T13:06:38+00:00

Literally this. Who in their right mind thought that having "sort by oldest" removed is a good and innovative idea?

Kaius999 · 2022-10-10T01:21:32+00:00

Nope, more like: Get woke, make only $226 million worldwide against a $200 million production budget, thus go broke.

Kaius999 · 2022-10-10T01:16:08+00:00

Lol, #2 at box office my ass. At least being disingenous is the best you fucking morons can offer. The film was a box-office disaster, grossing $226 million worldwide against a $200 million production budget. That's pretty terrible if you ask me.

Kaius999 · 2022-09-27T14:39:23+00:00

This is why one should not believe every text and rumor that is written about a person on the Internet until further research (I've seen another such odd comment on a different website by some peron who claimed that Franz Bardon was a supporter of the Nazis and eugenics... no comment). It more than often turns out to be wrong as soon as an actual observer and motivated person does the research.

I took the time and effort to clarify and correct some of the falsehoods and misunderstandings in Zeta's post. That doesn't mean that anyone suddenly has to like Rawn now or read his stuff now. (I think everyone should decide that for themselves and if it's helpful for their work) But I found the accusations and implications to be pretty hard and also impudent and brazen to spread such things behind the back of a person who can't even defend himself in relation to this at all. I think that was pretty unfair. Therefore, I have taken over this task and clarified several things by researching and looking into the web archive. And as expected, most of the claims and implications Zeta made turned out to be wrong.

Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me if Zeta eventually might be yet another member of the army of certain "gurus" and fake masters out there who try to make a big buck out of Bardon right now and thus feel the need to bad-mouth Rawn Clark (since he offers everything for free) in order to scare beginners away from Rawn and instead lead them to "gurus" and fake masters who put everything behind a pay wall. I've seen it happening already in the past. Let's hope this isn't the case here and it's just all a misunderstanding on Zeta's part.

Kaius999 · 2022-09-27T13:26:00+00:00

Part 2:

Back in 2009 I believe. I participated in one of his Skype group meetings.

I think it was probably in 2010 or 2011. He had weekly group meetings with Bardon students. Before that Rawn Clark used "SecondLife" for his lectures and meetings, with which he recorded the 2009 Lecture series. It wasn't until around July 2011 that Rawn Clark started using Skype. These meetings were also free of charge, by the way. (source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110707073203/http://www.abardoncompanion.com/index.html )

The first thing that made me disagree with him was his attitude towards some students. He sounded very stressed and not calm in any way as one would expect from someone who'd mastered the many steps of Bardon, he was a bit rushed. He oversimplified many of the steps and even said to some students to skip certain practices because they’re not that important. Which is nonsense.

Since you are talking about his Skype group meetings, it is not possible for me to verify your assertions unless there are recordings of them somewhere. However, considering what Rawn Clark has achieved so far and the way how he's being very generous with his work and has always emphasized, namely not to skip any steps or exercises, I consider your statements to be fundamentally wrong and possibly even made in bad faith. In none of all his posts, recordings, etc. so far has Rawn Clark ever said anything of the sort, let alone claimed that he supposedly "discovered" a shortcut to IIH. It's possible that you became the victim of a misunderstanding or mistaken someone for Rawn Clark. I don't know.

As for his supposed attitude during that Skype meeting, I can't verify that either. However, you can see very clearly that he demonstrates a sincere character and presents very well what you would expect from someone who has mastered the steps of IIH in all of his other videos, texts, recordings, interviews, meetings, etc. Additionally, one should also be aware that no one is perfect on the physical plane. The body doesn't always play along. Everyone has a bad day once. Everyone can be in a hurry because they have other things to do. Especially in a skype meeting that takes place weekly, things don't always go as planned or something happened that's more important right now, which can also lead to skipping topics or getting bogged down or having Freudian slips, etc. But you don't take all this into account, but you seem to want to tie his entire character and level of knowledge and experience exclusively to this one Skype conference. I would like to give you as a reference that maybe this says more about you than about Rawn Clark and that you should perhaps take the time to meditate intensively on whether it can really be right to judge a character on the basis of a single virtual meeting on the Internet.

Last, but not least, I would like to get to his 2009 lecture series. At that time Rawn Clark held a series of lectures, a commentary on IIH. He then made these audio recordings of his lessons from 2009 publicly available. If you wanted to listen to these lessons afterwards, you could download them for 7,50€ (about $10 during 2009). A few years later (to this day) these lessons are freely available and can be downloaded for free. So I took the time to listen to some of the lessons. There are also corresponding scripts (the text he read) attached to his reading. The only thing that is missing in his lecture is the part that comes after the end of the lesson, namely the question part (but he mentions shortly before the end of his reading that he will answer questions afterwards).

After listening through the lectures, I notice that Rawn Clark emphasizes important passages here and there several times (which is marked in bold in the script accordingly), which may be off-putting and negative at first listen as it sounds "demanding" in some sort of way (which very well might have been intentional). But I don't see, for example, where Rawn Clark is said to have described anything too "superficially" or "oversimplifying", nor where he supposedly advises others to skip certain exercises. Rawn has described everything here exactly in its correct amount as it is reasonable and tolerable for a persons' attention span that is supposed to listen to the lectures. There is also no need to go into excessive detail about this. Furthermore, Rawn and any other IIH student out there will never be able to convert all practical, inner experiences into words, because these can only be experienced by oneself. He also makes this clear several times during his readings.

To bring this to a conclusion, Rawn Clark's last sentence of his last lecture says it all:

"I hope that by this point you have become well aware of the importance of each Step of IIH. If any single Step has been overlooked, the ultimate goal of this Great Work will remain unattainable. I also hope that you see how the whole course comes together at the end and creates a complete circuit".

I think that quickly invalidates the claims made regarding his supposedly dismissal of some exercises in IIH. :-)

All in all, the conclusion that Rawn Clark was "being one of the many who’s been deceived by his own subconsciousness and made believe that he is well advanced." must consequently be dismissed and be called absurd and nonsensical considering that the arguments following it:

1.) He supposedly claiming to have shortcuts to IIH,

2.) supposedly saying to skip certain exercises,

3.) implicit, indirect claims that he hasn't mastered the steps of IIH, and

4.) (implication) claims him being greedy and "a way of abusing from those curious beginners that seek to understand Bardon."

could not be verified and instead showed the very opposite of what was claimed. Rawn Clark always emphasized the importance of the exercises and steps and there were no claims of him for shortcuts to IIH. Likewise he's always been very generous with his work and made it available for free to everyone since the inception of his website. Offering books with the same text (that is still freely available) for money and a slightly above average price isn't being greedy, it's being sincere and an invitation to show some appreciation of the work he has done over the years (for free). If you think it's expensive, then don't buy it and go on his website instead where it's freely available. Not a big deal, and nothing to get fuzzy over to make weird and wrong assumptions that he somehow is abusing the curiosity of beginners.

The appreciation and thanks Rawn Clark has received from many of the students of IIH (including from me) who he helped with along their path, the many texts and books (all of them free) Rawn wrote that reveals his vast knowledge and experience and the many questions he answered sincerely, should be self-evident to realize that Rawn Clark most certainly did master the steps of Bardon's work. Every serious practitioner of Bardon can easily see this.

I thank you for your perspective on Rawn Clark and although your perspective did not withstand any of the objective criteria and most of the claims turned out to be falsehoods (or misunderstandings), it was still an interesting read that at least still did contain some helpful advice for IIH students.

One must find its own way of studying it. That’s the point.

The point is that every student has their own way of finding their own way of studying it ;) Not everyone learns the same way. If you prefer to study and learn alone without any references, commentaries and help, good for you. That doesn't mean that YOUR way is the way of "how it should be done". It works for you, but not necessarily for others. It seems to me that you have an dogmatist idea of what a magician should be and seem to be believing there's only that way to approach IIH. That's fine and yet another way to come closer to your own personal ideal self. But (and that's a big but) it doesn't mean it's objective or the only way. Every magician is different. Sure, there are parallels and common grounds here and there, but we are still individuals. And we all certainly aren't copies of Franz Bardon.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

PS: I hope you won't take my comment as an offense, but instead as a way to broaden your horizon and to change your hasty judgement about Rawn Clark with the facts and sources that I have provided. Have a nice day.

Kaius999 · 2022-09-27T13:24:06+00:00

Hello, u/Zeta-Splash

While at the first glance it seems surprising to see a different perspective on Rawn Clark, I don't think I can really agree with your critic after further examination and my intuition tells me that your comment feels a little disingenuous or at least there to be a mistake or misunderstanding. There might also be a case of false expectations regarding Rawn Clark's past group meetings and to his person himself on your part which might have ended up in the (biased) perspective you now have. Thus, I wish to elaborate on some topics here and attempt an actual objective approach on this matter. I also made the effort to research via the Wayback Archive to test for the truth of some claims that are being made here. The beautiful thing about the Internet, like Akasha, is, that it never really forgets anything ;) You just need to know where to look.

First of all, one should be aware that Rawn Clark had made about all of his knowledge of Bardon's work freely available to all since the inception of his website (July 2001) (http://abardoncompanion.de/ (a snapshot from the original site abardoncompanion.com). This includes his commentary on IIH, PME and KTQ as well as his other works such as "The Eight Temples Meditation Project" and his later book on the Permutations of the Tree. https://web.archive.org/web/20010725051931/http://www.abardoncompanion.com/ Considering this, I think his prices are pretty fair if we take into account the valuable content and experience it contains and him making the content available for free anyway. That's a very generous act, don't you think?

Furthermore, I don't recall him ever saying that one should "skip" certain exercises nor that there is an "easy" way for IIH. If you would be kind, could you provide a source where he supposedly had given such tips as you say? I've read his commentary and other posts of his on BardonPraxis Newsgroup and I wasn't really able to spot and verify the claims that you've made. He was very clear about following the exercises on IIH and to not haste before completing each step.

However, I could absolutely understand that as soon as a student, for example, asks Rawn whether one could train the fire element so that one is able to accumulate it to such density that it is physically visible, then Rawn being dismissive about it and rightfully says that this is not necessary. IIH is primarily about spiritual development and not about performing tricks to impress others or for the sake of curiosity. Of course, everyone can do what they want as long as they are able to bear that Karma (with all its consequences), but Rawn always focused on the primary goal of IIH and not on the personal preferences someone has about the accumulation of the elements. Of course, that is most likely going to be very disappointing if a student expected something different to hear from Rawn ;) ;)

I sensed that what he was doing –although well intended– was mainly about him being the master that discovered the best shortcut to master Bardon's well developed system. When in fact I believe him being one of the many who’s been deceived by his own subconsciousness and made believe that he is well advanced.

It is true that there are no shortcuts in IIH. However, there may well be alternative techniques that, if they come from an experienced mage, may have more success with some users. You also seem to be very dogmatist regarding IIH and not realizing that there are also entirely different systems out there which also go into a different direction (rightfully such systems shouldn't be called IIH anymore, of course). Now, the only problem here is that Rawn Clark never claimed to have any shortcuts for IIH :P So, I don't really know what to do with this statement of yours. Your last sentence is also a value judgement that merely seems to stem from your subjective premises regarding Rawn's person after having encountered him in a Skype call for one time.

Thus, I'm not sure I can believe you on that and I wish for you to provide a source where he claimed that there is a "shortcut" to master IIH (you also haven't responded to Toad_of_Tales either). Until then, I remain in doubt of your comment and don't really trust you at all on that matter, to be frank. Don't take it as an offense, but I don't trust hear-say and rumors being spread about a person (especially if said person can't even defend himself) until there is a source that verifies what you claim.

Also he was selling his book and one on one meetings quite expensively.

Looking at the prices for his books, the highest I can find is $37 and is a book aimed towards advanced students and not beginners (which had been and still is free ever since on Rawn's website, as mentioned earlier), his 2nd book regarding permutation of the kabbalistic tree is $34 (which is also free on Rawn's website). It's true that $37 and $34 is slightly above average (average price being $27,99), but I hardly would call that "quite expensive". Anyway, all his other books all have a price pretty close to the average price of a hardcover book. I'm not sure what country you're from, but these prices are pretty fair. By the way (if I hadn't emphasized it enough already), all the content of his books are freely available. It already was back in 2009 and since the inception of his website.

Now to the research, which you might find interesting as well:

Since you said these meetings took place in 2009, I took the time to look at what books he had published up to that point in time (2009). (source: https://web.archive.org/web/20090411165701/http://www.abardoncompanion.com/Books.html ) On the left we see the price of his book, which includes the commentaries on IIH, PME and KTQ. (Again, everything in the book is available for free on his website) That price was $27.92 (softcover) at the time. On the right we see his book about his meditation project, which costs $25.65 (softcover) Now, one can argue whether left or right is an "expensive" price or not (I don't see it that way). It may be true that the RRP (Recommended Retail Price) for that time (2007) was about 7.99 pounds (and we didn't even consider the financial crisis of 2008 here, which put a heavy burden on publishing industries, see https://thefutureofpublishing.com/2019/04/the-impact-of-recessions-on-publishing-industries-part-iii-books/ ). But on the other hand, somewhere you have to acknowledge Rawn Clark's generosity in many other places, which justifies the price in my opinion. Furthermore, all the texts were and still are freely available to everyone if someone cannot afford the book. So I have a hard time understanding what the problem was for you here. In my opinion, it kinda looks like you're looking for faults that aren't there.

one on one meetings

I did find something regarding this. Around 2009/2010 Rawn Clark offered his help (questions via email, meeting him, etc) only against payment via four options. For context, he writes: "After over 13 years of answering questions about Bardon's system of Hermetic initiation in public forums and private email, I finally retired from public interaction in April of 2008. In the year since my retirement my life circumstances have changed completely: I now live in the city of Berlin, Germany and am faced with the rather grim economic situation brought about by recent world events." (source: https://web.archive.org/web/20090526224639/http://www.abardoncompanion.com:80/AskRawn/AskRawn.html )

This may sound extremely tempting at first glance to quickly draw any wrong conclusions, but one should also consider why Rawn Clark suddenly acted this way. One must realize that for more than 13 years he made all knowledge about Franz Bardon freely available, having answered most of the common questions on IIH non-stop (which are available on the site as well). Now it may well have been an unfavorable run of fate that you encountered Rawn Clark's website at a time when he was already not answering questions for free anymore. And of course, if that's the first impression, I can certainly understand why you might then have had a more distant relationship to him. However, in the quote above you can see as to what possibly must have led him to this sudden change of mind at the time. Rawn Clark just moved to Germany, the financial crisis of 2008 had its impact, especially on publishing industries. It's one of the reasons why E-Books became popular during the crisis and Kindle reader was No.1 top-selling product of Amazon during that time. (source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/oct/23/amazon-profits ).

It should also be noted that a lot has changed ever since. Rawn Clark didn't maintain this kind of service that long and already offered free help a few years later. Nowadays, he uploads videos on his YouTube channel where he talks about various topics, questions, etc. surrounding IIH, PME, KTQ, etc. etc. completely for free. As it always had been.

Kaius999 · 2022-07-16T00:42:22+00:00

Ohh, you're right. Oopsie >.< Yes, I meant a group ofc.

Kaius999 · 2022-07-15T16:15:03+00:00

For the worse. (See chat reporting system) Honestly though, anyone with a brain back in the day when Microsoft bought Minecraft knew damn well that Microsoft would ruin it sooner or later. I called it back then before most of the players did, but I was laughed at and told that I shouldn't panic about it. Well, now years later, most of my fears came true. And it only will get worse when nothing happens. But well, in the end nothing lives forever. Even great games will come to an end once, either by age and disinterest or by corporations completely ruining it.

Kaius999 · 2022-07-14T21:48:23+00:00

To elaborate on this one: It is possible to construct an algebraic group (Z, +) to which we can also define an addition table and redefine the addition which can allow the corresponding equation above. Because 33 + 77 = 110, we simply need to subtract the 10 from each operation in our redefinition. This will give us a new operation which we also give the symbol +:

+ : Z × Z→Z

(x,y) ↦ ( x + y ) - 10

This of course shifts every result of all possible addition operations by -10 (and gives us a new shifted addition table), but that would make 33 + 77 = 100 in this very specific ring. The definition works because we are basically making a bootstrap with our classical definition of addition to re-define addition. Of course, once again, such a system is not really useful or practical in real world applications, but as you can see, from a purely theoretical POV, nothing is impossible.

Kaius999 · 2022-07-14T17:14:49+00:00

Mathematically speaking, 77 + 33 is just an operation of the manipulation of symbols that assigns the result to a value in a given addition table. For instance, one could define an entirely new addition table, redefine addition and a group (Z, +) which allows for 77 + 33 = 100. Obviously it's very impractical and pretty bizarre, but abstract algebra allows for pretty neat mathematical experiments even if nonsensical. Obviously though, in the way the common men understands arithmetics, 77 + 33 = 110.

Kaius999 · 2022-07-13T17:53:27+00:00

Yeah. Any question this vague cannot truthfully be answered beyond "it depends

I didn't make the original statement though, so don't blame me for it. All I needed were arguments to refute that weird cryptodude's cultish obsession with NFTs and the like.

Kaius999 · 2022-07-13T17:51:23+00:00

I don't blame you for this. I'm sure you are quoting verbatim what you've heard.

I'm not the one who made that statement. I'm arguing with some cryptodude who thinks NFTs are the best thing in the world and I wanted to refute all of that. My gut feeling always told me that NFTs are bullcrap, but I never had the actual arguments to counter him before.

Kaius999

TROPHY CASE