"Temple of Set Reading List: Category 17 - The Gift of Set" (3/1/86CE) Reprinted from: _The Crystal Tablet of Set_ (c) Temple of Set 1989 CE Weirdbase file version by TS permission by Michael A. Aquino, Ipsissimus VI* Temple of Set Electronic mail: MCI-Mail 278-4041 Sometime between the Lower-Paleolithic Period (about 800,000 years ago) and the Middle-Paleolithic (about 100,000 years ago), the proto-human brain underwent a mutation directly contrary to the objective-universal laws of natural evolution. Between Pithecanthropus Erectus and Cro-Magnon the cranial cavity almost doubled in size - from about 900 cc to about 1,700 cc. Darwinian evolutionists are completely unable to explain this development and therefore deal with it in texts by simply glossing over it. The Temple of Set does not. 17A. _Childhood's End_ by Arthur C. Clarke. NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1953. (TS-3) MA: "A most fascinating - and delightfully diabolical - speculation on the Gift of Set that, in a more abstract version, was later brought to the screen as _2001: A Space Odyssey_. The eventual sequel to that film, _2010_, broke no new ground; what more was there to say?" 17B. _The Eternal Man_ by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. NY: Avon Books #380-16725-150, 1972. (TS-1) MA: "There are a great many sensationalistic paperbacks on the market dealing with 'startling discoveries concerning human history and prehistory'. The Setian may browse among them at will, picking and choosing data that seem to have substance for further investigation and utilization. This book, by the dynamic duo who brought you #4B and #22B, is, however, a unique item." 17C. _Lifetide_ by Lyall Watson. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1979. (TS-3) MA: "Dr. Watson, an anthropologist who is only very slightly 'tainted' by his interest in phenomena that polite academia carefully avoids, is the author of #22D as well. Here he discusses scientific evidence for the extra- terrestrial origins of life on Earth and attempts to describe the development of the phenomenon of self-consciousness through purely-natural means. It is a valiant attempt. He stumbles, however, on certain features (such as the working vertebrate eye) that cannot be explained by evolution, and finally he is forced to admit that there is something beyond the natural order at work. In an effort to avoid taking the plunge into theology, he coins the term 'lifetide', a sort of neo-version of the 'vitalism' used as an escape-valve for inconvenient facts by hard-core Darwinists. An excellent book for seeing just how far science can go in beating its head against the door of non-natural tampering with the human intellectual equation." 17D. _The Ordeal of Change_ by Eric Hoffer. NY: Perennial Library #P-110. (TS-1) MA: "This book is listed specifically because of its included essay 'The Unnaturalness of Human Nature', which is brilliantly conceived and phrased." 17E. _The Neck of the Giraffe: Darwin, Evolution, and the New Biology_ by Francis Hitching. NY: New American Library (Mentor) #0-451-62232, 1982. (TS- 3) MA: "The recent attack on accepted Darwinian theories of evolution and natural selection by religious fundamentalists has prompted a few brave natural scientists and biologists to question some of the 'sacred cows' in the field of evolution. Evolution as a principle stands up to the most exacting tests, but some of the Darwinian sub-assumptions are found not to. There are 'gaps' in the fossil record between major species - for example, between early invertebrate sea creatures and ancient fishes. And between fish and amphibians. And between the reptile & the mammal jaw. How could the hyper-intricate human eye have evolved through 'intermediate stages'? Hitching then launches into a careful discussion of mutation, genes, and cellular coding, after which he analyzes the best arguments the creationists have to offer. While dismissing creationism as ridiculous, he agrees with British Museum pal¾ontologist Colin Patterson: 'They [the creationists] didn't have the right answers, but they certainly asked a lot of the right questions.' In addition to a 4-page bibliography of technical works, Hitching provides an additional 4-page annotated bibliography of introductory reading, keyed to points brought out in the chapters of his book. If you intend to think or talk about evolutionary theory, this book should be considered TS-1; if you don't, then TS-3." 17F. _The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life_ by Robert O. Becker, M.D. and Gary Seldon. NY: William Morrow, 1985. (TS-3) MA: "Becker is an orthopedic surgeon who gradually uncovered a number of correlations between electromagnetic phenomena and the behavior of living tissue. In this tightly argued and well-documented book, he discusses human brain evolution and behavior in terms of past and present EM field influences, as well as the more general effects of EM radiation on living beings. This book is reviewed in detail in _Runes_ #III-3. From the text: 'Francis Ivanhoe, a pharmacologist and anthropologist at two universities in San Francisco, made a statistical survey of the braincase volume of all known Paleolithic human skulls, and correlated the increase with the magnetic field strength & major advances in human culture during the same period. Ivanhoe found bursts of brain-size evolution at about 380-340,000 years ago, and again at 55-30,000 years ago. Both periods correspond to major ice ages, the Mindel & the Wuerm, and they were also eras when great cultural advances were made - the widespread domestication of fire by Homo Erectus in the early Mindel, and the appearance of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Cro-Magnon peoples) and gradual decline of Neanderthals (Homo Sapiens) during the Wuerm ...' [See also #19I/J.]"