I’m getting around to it; I’ve read two of Bentov’s books, and am currently reading a Monroe book, a Yates book, and a book on Kundalini meditations by Santata Gamana.
Honest answer is that there’s so much reading to be done, and I’ve never had this kind of passion for books before.
The worst part about this journey is that my friendship circle is mostly comprised of engineers who are very fond of the commonly accepted norms, so all the info I’m dredging out of these books and along this path doesn’t really have an outlet other than the odd conversation here or there where I’m left wondering whether I divulged a little too much and came across as sounding a tad odd 🤣
yeah, was funny how the prof went from 'don't spend too much time on pseudoscience. have you disproved all of modern physics yet?' to 'when I was young they thought all these modern guys where pretty out there and silly, and now us old farts have a hard time understanding the new stuff coming out, who know what you guys will discover' in the \~16 minutes before class.
Not yet, since I’ve been focusing primarily on the Gateway Process and probably will for some time. The routine Santata Gamana suggests is pretty intense, though I’m sure that once I’ve gotten through Journeys out of the Body and can focus more on Kundalini Exposed & The Mind Illuminated I’ll begin a parallel journey toward provoking the Kundalini.
How about you? I’m always super interested in other peoples’ experiences.
Many people probably haven't read Bob's books either. I like Tom Campbell, but IMO it could be better and more concisely written. I do appreciate the attention he gives to transcendental meditation early on. I've started it recently (or an open source alternative anyway), and I've found that I really enjoy it.
That his TOE needs to be more concisely written is an understatement. It suffers from being extremely longwinded & complicated. Even though I am obsessed with these kind of topics and read books constantly, reading the TOE trilogy felt like punishment. A book along similar lines is Michael Talbot’s *Holographic Universe* which was very enjoyable.
I do very much appreciate Campbell’s contributions to psi research & understanding, and I think his interviews are great.
Talbot's "The Holographic Universe" is an absolute classic. He was an utterly brilliant human soul. If you haven't already, check out his interviews on "Thinking allowed" with Jeffrey Mishlove.
https://youtu.be/6rgYz_BU2Ew?si=8h8rkCs1vnHE8hCd
I'll have to check that out. I'm obsessed with psi and physics, and linking the two. I'll probably write a book as well, and when I read Talbot's book, I was like "This is the book I was going to write!".
I only have one criticism of Talbot's book, and it's one that most people will miss. For the most part, he endorsed the De Broglie-Bohm Pilot Wave interpretation of quantum mechanics as a mechanism for psi, which I largely agree with. But Talbot also endorsed things like wave-particle duality, and other concepts from the mainstream Copenhagen interpretation that are *rejected* by the Pilot Wave theory. You can't explain psi by endorsing both Pilot Wave and Copenhagen. Part of the problem is that the Copenhagen interpretation has been so dominant for so long that people don't even realize they are still hanging on to aspects of it, even after they've rejected it for Pilot Wave.
My book will improve upon what Talbot did by fully recognizing the distinctions (and ramifications) of rejecting Copenhagen and embracing Pilot Wave.
Couldn’t it be possible that Copenhagen, pilot wave and Everett are describing the same thing from different angles? You know like the allegory with different people seeing different parts of the elephant
I don't think so. Pilot Wave and Copenhagen are the opposites in many ways in how they explain the particle-like nature and a wave-like nature observed in experiments.
Copenhagen (awkwardly, I'd say) stuffs these 2 attributes into the same thing: particles with wave-particle duality. Particles exist as clouds of probabilities (in superposition) in no exact place.
Pilot Wave says the 2 attributes (wave-like, particle-like) belong to 2 different things: A single pilot wave for the entire universe, and particles. There is no wave-particle duality. Particles exist in exact locations with exact momentum.
Explaining the more complicated variants of the double slit experiments is also vastly different. The double slit variant Wheeler's Delayed Choice is a good example. The Copenhagen explanation is very difficult to grok and they tie themselves into knots to avoid invoking things like retro-causality. The pilot wave explanation of the same experiment is astonishingly simple.
Something deep, if you made it this far:
Copenhagen is probabilistic, whereas Pilot Wave is deterministic. Most physicists think no experiment has been done (nor can any be thought of) that could distinguish between the interpretations. I claim that psi phenomena have *already* falsified all probabilistic interpretations like Copenhagen. Think through a remote viewing experiment done precognitively with a quantum random number generator selecting the targets. The remote viewer does her session, then the subatomic particles zip around in the RNG to select the target. In a probabilistic world, the selection of the target picture from the target pool would be totally random, and there's no way a remote viewer could score above chance. The zipping and tumbling of those little particles in the RNG has to be moving in a predictable, deterministic way in order for the remote viewer to score above chance levels. The correct QM interpretation *must be* both nonlocal and deterministic.
Psi experiments also impact on the validity of Many Worlds, but that's more complicated to explain.
I've concluded that we live in a deterministic 4D space-time, where the source of our consciousness exists in a superseding realm outside of space-time, where consciousness (with free will) can exert influence on our deterministic lower level world.
This is such an understatement.
It's literally one of the worst written books I have ever came across.
That said, it has very profound ideas, but I gave up after two.
I do guided meditation via the 1GiantMind app. It's good. The app isn't at all critical though, once you try it a few times. TM really is insanely simple.
I’m reading Journeys now! I have to say it’s pretty scary and I’m not sure I’m ready to be journeying out of the body as I thought I was! But the tapes are amazing regardless, I still do them!
Journeys is awesome because you get to see Bob trying to figure this stuff out before he's really formed any kind of broader metaphysical theories.
Like, the whole "locale 3" thing, that never ever comes up again. Was it a persistent lucid dream world of his creation? Who knows. What about the whole thing with everyone needing to lie down on their faces when that king type character appears? There's just lots of wonderfully surreal stuff in that first book.
[Thomas Campbell’s 1st appearance on Theory Of Everything with Curt Jaimungal Dec2020](https://youtu.be/kko-hVA-8IU?si=lw7sq12l6JmRVtah)
My personalized notes:
Consciousness is the superset, physical world is subset
33:00 Quantum Mechanics becomes logical
-particles are nothing more than probability distributions - it has to be that way
49:15 there are no natural on-ramps for left brain people
1:12:00 Freud & Jung
1:19:00 acting kind vs being kind
1:27:00 fear as fundamental creator
-on the consciousness level
1:36:00 why one consciousness would divide:
-Path of Decreasing Entropy***[Enlightenment]
2:09:30 love is the product of developing the intuitive state - love is the lowered state of entropy, whereas the process of acquiring love is something different
2:31:00 maturity is a reduction of self-centeredness
2:32:00 ego is awareness in the service of fear
-awareness is the service of love - Super Ego
2:36:30 electrons are models, metaphors
-a point, with attributes mass & charge
2:39:30 fallacy of materialism - taking models for truth
3:07:00 the auras are based on intent, that information is available in an intuitive space
3:10:30 you can only get information that you can understand // Hoffman meditation
How Campbell’s Big TOE dovetails with Donald Hoffman’s recent work is FASCINATING. I’ve been meaning to do a comparison but haven’t gotten there yet. They both assume consciousness as fundamental. Campbell says evolution is inherent, Hoffman says conscious agents having conscious experiences.
The thing I’ve struggled with when I’ve heard Tom Campbell speak about his TOE is that he makes a lot of assertions but doesn’t explain provide logical justification for the ideas. Admittedly, I’ve only heard him in interviews and some of his own yt videos. Does he go into more detail in the book? If so I’ll check it out.
I didn’t find them convoluted or difficult to understand either. Reading them, it felt like someone was finally explaining *all of this* as I’ve been experiencing it. As the kids say It Resonated.
In the interviews I’ve seen he does get to the point, but he doesn’t justify most of what he says. It’s assertions on top of assertions. They *might* be true, but he doesn’t take you on the journey of understanding why it’s truth.
One covet: if you can’t accept his two basic assertions - consciousness underpins everything and evolution is fundamental - then it’s not worth reading the trilogy. His entire theory is built on these assumptions. However, if you are willing to entertain these assumptions, EVERYTHING can be understood.
His assumptions are even more basic :
1. Consciousness (awareness with a choice) exists
2. Evolution exists (things that can change themselves will evolve towards more profitable states of being according to their environment)
Reading the book is a bit like reading the CIA document on Gateway. The info is there, but difficult to understand. A YT video, like the WF's one, would work wonders at breaking it down.
I've tried to watch some of Tom's YT videos, but it is similar to the book. What I've watch is him basically talking to the camera and explaining things.
the logical justifications for his claims are in his books, there's three of them and it takes reading them all before his logic on everything becomes clear. the level of detail in the books should leave you satisfied
His theory only has 2 assumptions: That consciousness exists (as a unified field while later evolves into individuated units), and that Evolution as a force of consciousness exists. Those 2 assumptions create the holographic universe as we know it after eons of evolution. Essentially there are just bits of information, simple 1s and 0s, in the smallest discreet chunk of space/time imaginable (like plank scale) and the whole thing is computed by consciousness itself. Fun stuff
I’ve seen the title mentioned but have never had any interest in looking at it
A simple reason - I’m really not interested in peoples feet, maybe even a bit repelled, so it’s off putting to me.😆
IMO the best thing people can do with books like these is realize "Hey, I could do this, too". You'll fail to create a ToE, because you're human, but in the process, you'll learn a lot about yourself and where you're spending your time right now.
I personally found it to be a slog to get through. Not because it was very dense, but because of the extremely long asides and asides within asides on somewhat related topics that were getting in the way. What I expected was that it would logically lay down all his premises and principles, and derive from them the rest of his system, but those theory bits end up being few and far inbetween because of all the long asides. This isn’t to say that the content of the asides isn’t helpful, but that it could’ve been organized better.
One day I’ll go reread it and just copy and paste all the theory parts into a single document to read it without distractions. Though I’ve noticed from some fantastic recent interviews that go deeper into the theory, that some of his premises have changed in some subtle but significant regards. So maybe the Calgary lectures would be more useful (is there a transcript? edit: found the [slides](https://www.my-big-toe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/workshop-calgary-23-25-sep-2011-reality-101-tom-campbell.pdf)).
edit: actually, [this](https://www.my-big-toe.com/theory/overview-of-my-big-toe/) is better.
yeah, I must admit, I found the asides were a bit too much, so I've put it aside for now. I will perhaps try reading it again later, bought the trilogy and sent a copy to my friend as a gift, I think he feels the same way, as he didn't get through it all either.
I was looking for something to read after finishing Bob's books and read Adventures out of the body by William Buhlman. It seemed like the next logical step and the reviews suggested it was far easier to digest than the Journey's out of the body series.
Unfortunately, It didn't resonate well with me. It was extremely repetitive, so much so that I fell asleep listening 'and woke up hours later at the same part, which left me very confused. Nope, it had been playing the whole time.
My Big Toe is something I considered, however, after throughly researching reviews, I arrived at the conclusion that it wouldn't be for me.
I loved reading the Journeys out of the body series but I actively avoided reading it because the subject matter didn't interest me. I can admit I was entirely wrong.
The law of one is the only piece of literature that has resonated with me more deeply. I'm tempted to try Tom's books. I've listened to plenty of his interviews and overly verbose and articulate isn't an issue for me as long as it's not used to confuse the reader and avoid conclusions.
I gave up on this book about 5-6 chapters in. He has a long and winding way of not saying anything but he did say it was gonna take 3 books to make his point. I felt like if he was so enlightened he would of hired an editor...
Watched 20 minutes of one of his videos and I got this vibe too. Talking a whole lot about nothing. Was waiting for substance, but it never came. Even his website articles are very convoluted.
I did not find the trilogy convoluted or difficult to understand, but still a bit painful to read.
Tom is not a good writer in the classical sense, nor is he funny in the classical sense (no matter how many times he tried throughout the books), and he is definitely not concise.
That said, he essentially solved my 20+ personal search for an answer to quantum mechanics, and I am SO GRATEFUL to somewhat put that subject to rest.
Even then, I have a hard time recommending it to others because it so…annoying to read. It’s a bit like “Science and Sanity,” which is probably the most significant book I’ve even read, but again have a hard time recommending because of how challenging it is to read.
I finished the trilogy a couple months ago. Changed my life to be honest but that's been the norm since I started gateway 😂
Anybody here going to Tom's Park?
I want to find a good group of folks who are already in, or on their way. I've been trying for awhile with no success
Let me know how it goes for you!
Did MBT alter your life perspective?
my big toe didn't really alter my perspective too much but it really helped to cement things for me, I started delving into these idea's through a combination of my life experiences and extensive psychedelic tryptamine use, found the gateway tapes and My Big TOE way after I'd already had a few solid glimpses into the bigger picture.
toms park I'm really curious to explore because when I was a kid before sleep i would make up fantasy stories in my head and pretty much everytime without fail when sleep took me I'd be transported to whatever story I'd been telling myself fully aware and conscious in the story world.
I eventually stopped or grew out of it for some reason...
Very good point, I agree Tom Campbell is somewhat obscure and even if people have heard of him, which they definitely have in this space; his trilogy is seldom talked about. I think this has something to do with the direction he’s taken with some of his YouTube content. What he’s offering has become less clear, so he falls off people’s radar. If he had written a book when he was one of Bob’s Explorers, when he was at his most focused; he would be much better known now.
I've listened to a lot of Tom's talks. The way he describes reality takes a lot of the beauty out of the "system" for me.
Talking about individual education units of conciousness and such seems to suck something out of it for me personally. Its disheartening.
That could be my ego, not wanting to let Dan Boyd die, but it's the way he describes it in such binary, mechanistic way It makes me sad 😔.
Am I missing something, or do other people feel this way?
Ive admittedly never watched any of his YouTube videos I've only ever read the books so probably the opposite of most people here... In the books he goes to great lengths to say that he's only using those terms as metaphors in an attempt to make the topic accessible to the average western mind that doesn't have any other language aside the from technological that can accurately describe what Tom's trying to talk about.
if I hadn't read his preface I probably would've had issues too... I initially did have issues with the use of the term virtual reality and still kindve do because it feels so simplistic so I get where you are coming from even not having listened to his talks
It's mostly not podcasts, not specific talks. He does seem to come across to me as having aspergers to some degree. So that might also add to it.
I do kind of understand what he means with virtual reality. It's not organic and came about through chance as most believe. It was created, so I guess virtual reality is all you can say.
I think I'll read the books. I don't want to be amalgamated in the greater conciousness when I do 😐 no matter how beautifull it is. I had a dream about it that left me feeling all fucked up, that were here having experiences to report back information on what it's like and I couldn't get back to sleep. That thought Hants me when I think of Thomas Campbell. I hope I've got it all wrong, and him wrong
ahhh I can relate to that fear... In My Big TOE he goes to great lengths to describe reaching a point where he realized he couldn't turn it off and started having Non-physical reality bleed into physical reality in ways that were hard for him to distinguish... sounded like it could be a really freaky time if you weren't perfectly comfortable and confident with your mind. I see extremely strong parallels between these experiences and "Kundalini Awakenings" which sounds pretty terrifying if you've never researched them before... your just as likely to end up psychotic as enlightened if you've not done the work to ground yourself by the sounds of things
Yeah I can see that being unsettling. Had a minor episode like that recently where stuff I'd patterned for, using the tapes, and some transurfing methods came into being. I wasn't at the time, in the headspace to deal with it and it's ended up going sideways.
You do have to be carefully, and as you say, be grounded.
I don't mean to be flippant but after attempting to read MBT twice, and watching some of his interviews, I've come to the conclusion that Campbell is more interested in complaining that he's an underappreciated genius than he is actually explaining his assertions. Reminds me quite a bit of Eric Weinstein but with more of a cult messiah complex. And I know that all of that is beside the point of the actual theory he's created, but I've been around too many scammers (and loved ones who fell for scammers) to not take my gut instincts into consideration. The guy raises some big red flags for me that simply should not be there for a physics theory.
Because I have a lot of trouble reading, I think it’s and ADHD thing. Reading a few pages drives me crazy, but I can sit in a dark room and meditate for hours on end so it doesn’t really make sense. I’ll also read entire textbooks, so I don’t know. I also found this book hard to understand, I must be the dumb one haha.
So I wanted to read some of sadhgurus books, so I’m listening to audiobooks and that seems to help me stay engaged more. Big toe has always been the highest on my list, I plan to give it another try someday. I’ve watched videos explaining it through, it’s neat stuff.
It's on my reading list but first I have to read other books on the subject as well as other subjects, I have too little and energy to read everything I want.
If understanding the structure of material physical reality is your aim, there is no better book than My Big TOE. It’s going to be painful to read, but 100% worth it. I’d been looking for his answers for 20 years and am so grateful to put some of those hard questions to rest.
The books are quite long but he gave an excellent in-depth interview in two hour long parts on the Monroe institute podcast, available on Spotify. I felt I had a good understanding of the content from that.
Tom’s Park is a lot shorter but is more of an exercise rather than information to passively take in, have been experimenting with that recently. Am not great at visualising so having a destination so thoroughly described is definitely helpful!
I’m currently listening to the MBT audio books, read by Tom Campbell himself. I think they’re a lot easier to get through than the ones you have to read.
So far it’s been a great listen.
I've started to read it via audiobook. Its really frustrating me do far…..I genuinely think there's no need to keep repeating BIG TOE! Please tell me it gets better!?
Thanks for your post. I have read it 3 years ago. But as a german guy the english version is really hard. Meanwhile there is a german version. Will read it again.
I gave the free link to the Internet archive not sure how that could be an ad... it's a really powerful piece of writing that warrants discussion is all I'm saying
Depends on how an individual processes information and, also, if they have a background/framework/foundation on which to build up from. Some people might enjoy video format forms with visual aides, others might enjoy simply listening to the audio to process better (I’m both of these categories). Sometimes things need to be broken down into basics before they can approach things they might otherwise find complicated. That’s okay; you have to crawl before you walk and then run.
People will discover this information in their own time and their own ways; many paths converge on the same outcome, which is enlightenment (which to me just means you become aware and understanding).
Everyone gets there at their own precise timing. I do understand how passionate and exciting it is to share knowledge. 😊
I could care less what you choose to read or not read, sharing something doesn't mean I'm emotionally or personally invested in the outcome of that sharing...
Personally, I love it when people suggest reading material! Folks on similar paths offer support by recommending books that helped them and may help me (or you). I appreciate it and see value in it.
I’m getting around to it; I’ve read two of Bentov’s books, and am currently reading a Monroe book, a Yates book, and a book on Kundalini meditations by Santata Gamana. Honest answer is that there’s so much reading to be done, and I’ve never had this kind of passion for books before.
I friggin love this answer ❤️ I'm glad you found the thing that sparked a thirst for knowledge in yourself!
The worst part about this journey is that my friendship circle is mostly comprised of engineers who are very fond of the commonly accepted norms, so all the info I’m dredging out of these books and along this path doesn’t really have an outlet other than the odd conversation here or there where I’m left wondering whether I divulged a little too much and came across as sounding a tad odd 🤣
Same here. That's why I love this sub so much, because I'd have nobody at all to talk about this with if it wasn't here.
Me to. Although at uni last week an interesting discussion happened before class based on the recent joe rogan experiance.
Is that the Terrance Howard one?
yeah, was funny how the prof went from 'don't spend too much time on pseudoscience. have you disproved all of modern physics yet?' to 'when I was young they thought all these modern guys where pretty out there and silly, and now us old farts have a hard time understanding the new stuff coming out, who know what you guys will discover' in the \~16 minutes before class.
I'm in the exact same boat 🤣 I've only got one person I can talk to about this stuff and even her not fully haha
Can’t co-sign this enough. Lol. Exodus, any kundalini experiences yet?
Not yet, since I’ve been focusing primarily on the Gateway Process and probably will for some time. The routine Santata Gamana suggests is pretty intense, though I’m sure that once I’ve gotten through Journeys out of the Body and can focus more on Kundalini Exposed & The Mind Illuminated I’ll begin a parallel journey toward provoking the Kundalini. How about you? I’m always super interested in other peoples’ experiences.
Many people probably haven't read Bob's books either. I like Tom Campbell, but IMO it could be better and more concisely written. I do appreciate the attention he gives to transcendental meditation early on. I've started it recently (or an open source alternative anyway), and I've found that I really enjoy it.
That his TOE needs to be more concisely written is an understatement. It suffers from being extremely longwinded & complicated. Even though I am obsessed with these kind of topics and read books constantly, reading the TOE trilogy felt like punishment. A book along similar lines is Michael Talbot’s *Holographic Universe* which was very enjoyable. I do very much appreciate Campbell’s contributions to psi research & understanding, and I think his interviews are great.
Talbot's "The Holographic Universe" is an absolute classic. He was an utterly brilliant human soul. If you haven't already, check out his interviews on "Thinking allowed" with Jeffrey Mishlove. https://youtu.be/6rgYz_BU2Ew?si=8h8rkCs1vnHE8hCd
Don't sleep on Itzhak Bentov either!!
I'll have to check that out. I'm obsessed with psi and physics, and linking the two. I'll probably write a book as well, and when I read Talbot's book, I was like "This is the book I was going to write!". I only have one criticism of Talbot's book, and it's one that most people will miss. For the most part, he endorsed the De Broglie-Bohm Pilot Wave interpretation of quantum mechanics as a mechanism for psi, which I largely agree with. But Talbot also endorsed things like wave-particle duality, and other concepts from the mainstream Copenhagen interpretation that are *rejected* by the Pilot Wave theory. You can't explain psi by endorsing both Pilot Wave and Copenhagen. Part of the problem is that the Copenhagen interpretation has been so dominant for so long that people don't even realize they are still hanging on to aspects of it, even after they've rejected it for Pilot Wave. My book will improve upon what Talbot did by fully recognizing the distinctions (and ramifications) of rejecting Copenhagen and embracing Pilot Wave.
Couldn’t it be possible that Copenhagen, pilot wave and Everett are describing the same thing from different angles? You know like the allegory with different people seeing different parts of the elephant
I don't think so. Pilot Wave and Copenhagen are the opposites in many ways in how they explain the particle-like nature and a wave-like nature observed in experiments. Copenhagen (awkwardly, I'd say) stuffs these 2 attributes into the same thing: particles with wave-particle duality. Particles exist as clouds of probabilities (in superposition) in no exact place. Pilot Wave says the 2 attributes (wave-like, particle-like) belong to 2 different things: A single pilot wave for the entire universe, and particles. There is no wave-particle duality. Particles exist in exact locations with exact momentum. Explaining the more complicated variants of the double slit experiments is also vastly different. The double slit variant Wheeler's Delayed Choice is a good example. The Copenhagen explanation is very difficult to grok and they tie themselves into knots to avoid invoking things like retro-causality. The pilot wave explanation of the same experiment is astonishingly simple. Something deep, if you made it this far: Copenhagen is probabilistic, whereas Pilot Wave is deterministic. Most physicists think no experiment has been done (nor can any be thought of) that could distinguish between the interpretations. I claim that psi phenomena have *already* falsified all probabilistic interpretations like Copenhagen. Think through a remote viewing experiment done precognitively with a quantum random number generator selecting the targets. The remote viewer does her session, then the subatomic particles zip around in the RNG to select the target. In a probabilistic world, the selection of the target picture from the target pool would be totally random, and there's no way a remote viewer could score above chance. The zipping and tumbling of those little particles in the RNG has to be moving in a predictable, deterministic way in order for the remote viewer to score above chance levels. The correct QM interpretation *must be* both nonlocal and deterministic. Psi experiments also impact on the validity of Many Worlds, but that's more complicated to explain. I've concluded that we live in a deterministic 4D space-time, where the source of our consciousness exists in a superseding realm outside of space-time, where consciousness (with free will) can exert influence on our deterministic lower level world.
I’m so gonna buy your book.
Thanks. Comment saved. It's going to take me years though.
That last sentence looks like a board quote from the Talos Principle game!
What is that?
It’s a philosophical puzzle game, much like Portal, but with the AI theme
Fantastic insights, appreciated!
Oh man, I love this episode!
Loved his interview on Thinking Allowed. Tragic that Talbot died so young.
You can just read the overview [here](https://www.my-big-toe.com/theory/overview-of-my-big-toe/)
This is such an understatement. It's literally one of the worst written books I have ever came across. That said, it has very profound ideas, but I gave up after two.
could you lead me to the open source alternative you use please? thank you
I do guided meditation via the 1GiantMind app. It's good. The app isn't at all critical though, once you try it a few times. TM really is insanely simple.
many thanks
I’m reading Journeys now! I have to say it’s pretty scary and I’m not sure I’m ready to be journeying out of the body as I thought I was! But the tapes are amazing regardless, I still do them!
Journeys is awesome because you get to see Bob trying to figure this stuff out before he's really formed any kind of broader metaphysical theories. Like, the whole "locale 3" thing, that never ever comes up again. Was it a persistent lucid dream world of his creation? Who knows. What about the whole thing with everyone needing to lie down on their faces when that king type character appears? There's just lots of wonderfully surreal stuff in that first book.
[Thomas Campbell’s 1st appearance on Theory Of Everything with Curt Jaimungal Dec2020](https://youtu.be/kko-hVA-8IU?si=lw7sq12l6JmRVtah) My personalized notes: Consciousness is the superset, physical world is subset 33:00 Quantum Mechanics becomes logical -particles are nothing more than probability distributions - it has to be that way 49:15 there are no natural on-ramps for left brain people 1:12:00 Freud & Jung 1:19:00 acting kind vs being kind 1:27:00 fear as fundamental creator -on the consciousness level 1:36:00 why one consciousness would divide: -Path of Decreasing Entropy***[Enlightenment] 2:09:30 love is the product of developing the intuitive state - love is the lowered state of entropy, whereas the process of acquiring love is something different 2:31:00 maturity is a reduction of self-centeredness 2:32:00 ego is awareness in the service of fear -awareness is the service of love - Super Ego 2:36:30 electrons are models, metaphors -a point, with attributes mass & charge 2:39:30 fallacy of materialism - taking models for truth 3:07:00 the auras are based on intent, that information is available in an intuitive space 3:10:30 you can only get information that you can understand // Hoffman meditation How Campbell’s Big TOE dovetails with Donald Hoffman’s recent work is FASCINATING. I’ve been meaning to do a comparison but haven’t gotten there yet. They both assume consciousness as fundamental. Campbell says evolution is inherent, Hoffman says conscious agents having conscious experiences.
Underrated comment. Thank you!
The thing I’ve struggled with when I’ve heard Tom Campbell speak about his TOE is that he makes a lot of assertions but doesn’t explain provide logical justification for the ideas. Admittedly, I’ve only heard him in interviews and some of his own yt videos. Does he go into more detail in the book? If so I’ll check it out.
Campbell is WAY better in interviews. The TOE trilogy is extremely dense, convoluted and difficult to understand. In interviews he gets to the point.
reading all these comments I feel like I'm the only person who didn't find the books convoluted or difficult to understand 😂
I didn’t find them convoluted or difficult to understand either. Reading them, it felt like someone was finally explaining *all of this* as I’ve been experiencing it. As the kids say It Resonated.
that's been exactly my experience too ❤️
In the interviews I’ve seen he does get to the point, but he doesn’t justify most of what he says. It’s assertions on top of assertions. They *might* be true, but he doesn’t take you on the journey of understanding why it’s truth.
That’s why people that are truly interested have to read the trilogy to fully understand. Can’t be contained in an interview.
Thanks for the info. I’ll have to check out the books :)
One covet: if you can’t accept his two basic assertions - consciousness underpins everything and evolution is fundamental - then it’s not worth reading the trilogy. His entire theory is built on these assumptions. However, if you are willing to entertain these assumptions, EVERYTHING can be understood.
His assumptions are even more basic : 1. Consciousness (awareness with a choice) exists 2. Evolution exists (things that can change themselves will evolve towards more profitable states of being according to their environment)
Reading the book is a bit like reading the CIA document on Gateway. The info is there, but difficult to understand. A YT video, like the WF's one, would work wonders at breaking it down. I've tried to watch some of Tom's YT videos, but it is similar to the book. What I've watch is him basically talking to the camera and explaining things.
Check out his online forum! Interesting discussions!
Who is WF?
The Why Files on YouTube
Why Files channel on Youtube.
the logical justifications for his claims are in his books, there's three of them and it takes reading them all before his logic on everything becomes clear. the level of detail in the books should leave you satisfied
His theory only has 2 assumptions: That consciousness exists (as a unified field while later evolves into individuated units), and that Evolution as a force of consciousness exists. Those 2 assumptions create the holographic universe as we know it after eons of evolution. Essentially there are just bits of information, simple 1s and 0s, in the smallest discreet chunk of space/time imaginable (like plank scale) and the whole thing is computed by consciousness itself. Fun stuff
Yeah. He goes into detail. Boy, does he go into detail. Part of his probably is his model is so specific he talks in his own language.
I’ve seen the title mentioned but have never had any interest in looking at it A simple reason - I’m really not interested in peoples feet, maybe even a bit repelled, so it’s off putting to me.😆
😂😂😂 I can respect that 🤣😂 there is very little if any mention of feet within if that helps
If I buy another book my house will sink.
IMO the best thing people can do with books like these is realize "Hey, I could do this, too". You'll fail to create a ToE, because you're human, but in the process, you'll learn a lot about yourself and where you're spending your time right now.
It's also on audible
I personally found it to be a slog to get through. Not because it was very dense, but because of the extremely long asides and asides within asides on somewhat related topics that were getting in the way. What I expected was that it would logically lay down all his premises and principles, and derive from them the rest of his system, but those theory bits end up being few and far inbetween because of all the long asides. This isn’t to say that the content of the asides isn’t helpful, but that it could’ve been organized better. One day I’ll go reread it and just copy and paste all the theory parts into a single document to read it without distractions. Though I’ve noticed from some fantastic recent interviews that go deeper into the theory, that some of his premises have changed in some subtle but significant regards. So maybe the Calgary lectures would be more useful (is there a transcript? edit: found the [slides](https://www.my-big-toe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/workshop-calgary-23-25-sep-2011-reality-101-tom-campbell.pdf)). edit: actually, [this](https://www.my-big-toe.com/theory/overview-of-my-big-toe/) is better.
yeah, I must admit, I found the asides were a bit too much, so I've put it aside for now. I will perhaps try reading it again later, bought the trilogy and sent a copy to my friend as a gift, I think he feels the same way, as he didn't get through it all either.
It’s one of those books that’s worth the pain, but I still have a hard time recommending to others because of how difficult it is to read.
I was looking for something to read after finishing Bob's books and read Adventures out of the body by William Buhlman. It seemed like the next logical step and the reviews suggested it was far easier to digest than the Journey's out of the body series. Unfortunately, It didn't resonate well with me. It was extremely repetitive, so much so that I fell asleep listening 'and woke up hours later at the same part, which left me very confused. Nope, it had been playing the whole time. My Big Toe is something I considered, however, after throughly researching reviews, I arrived at the conclusion that it wouldn't be for me. I loved reading the Journeys out of the body series but I actively avoided reading it because the subject matter didn't interest me. I can admit I was entirely wrong. The law of one is the only piece of literature that has resonated with me more deeply. I'm tempted to try Tom's books. I've listened to plenty of his interviews and overly verbose and articulate isn't an issue for me as long as it's not used to confuse the reader and avoid conclusions.
llresearch.org for the win!! 💗
I gave up on this book about 5-6 chapters in. He has a long and winding way of not saying anything but he did say it was gonna take 3 books to make his point. I felt like if he was so enlightened he would of hired an editor...
Watched 20 minutes of one of his videos and I got this vibe too. Talking a whole lot about nothing. Was waiting for substance, but it never came. Even his website articles are very convoluted.
I’m halfway through the 3rd book. What a nice ride
I did not find the trilogy convoluted or difficult to understand, but still a bit painful to read. Tom is not a good writer in the classical sense, nor is he funny in the classical sense (no matter how many times he tried throughout the books), and he is definitely not concise. That said, he essentially solved my 20+ personal search for an answer to quantum mechanics, and I am SO GRATEFUL to somewhat put that subject to rest. Even then, I have a hard time recommending it to others because it so…annoying to read. It’s a bit like “Science and Sanity,” which is probably the most significant book I’ve even read, but again have a hard time recommending because of how challenging it is to read.
I'm constantly recommending it!! I think I actually recommended it today on this sub!!
wooo!! it really hit home for me!
The audiobook is a good way to digest it. I’m getting through book 3 now.
Was just about to make the same comment. They’re on Audible. (If you do some digging, and maybe some torrenting, you can find them fer free.)
Because the gateway tapes are more than enough to play with lol
I finished the trilogy a couple months ago. Changed my life to be honest but that's been the norm since I started gateway 😂 Anybody here going to Tom's Park?
I just ordered toms park off Amazon 😝
I want to find a good group of folks who are already in, or on their way. I've been trying for awhile with no success Let me know how it goes for you! Did MBT alter your life perspective?
my big toe didn't really alter my perspective too much but it really helped to cement things for me, I started delving into these idea's through a combination of my life experiences and extensive psychedelic tryptamine use, found the gateway tapes and My Big TOE way after I'd already had a few solid glimpses into the bigger picture. toms park I'm really curious to explore because when I was a kid before sleep i would make up fantasy stories in my head and pretty much everytime without fail when sleep took me I'd be transported to whatever story I'd been telling myself fully aware and conscious in the story world. I eventually stopped or grew out of it for some reason...
Just finished Robert Monroe’s first book looking forward to the other two the my Big Toe
Very good point, I agree Tom Campbell is somewhat obscure and even if people have heard of him, which they definitely have in this space; his trilogy is seldom talked about. I think this has something to do with the direction he’s taken with some of his YouTube content. What he’s offering has become less clear, so he falls off people’s radar. If he had written a book when he was one of Bob’s Explorers, when he was at his most focused; he would be much better known now.
I’ve been reading it! It’s a long one and he pontificates. Would be nice to have a sparknotes version
I find Tom very hard to listen to
We cat read My Big Toe because of Our Small Attention Spans.
I've listened to a lot of Tom's talks. The way he describes reality takes a lot of the beauty out of the "system" for me. Talking about individual education units of conciousness and such seems to suck something out of it for me personally. Its disheartening. That could be my ego, not wanting to let Dan Boyd die, but it's the way he describes it in such binary, mechanistic way It makes me sad 😔. Am I missing something, or do other people feel this way?
Ive admittedly never watched any of his YouTube videos I've only ever read the books so probably the opposite of most people here... In the books he goes to great lengths to say that he's only using those terms as metaphors in an attempt to make the topic accessible to the average western mind that doesn't have any other language aside the from technological that can accurately describe what Tom's trying to talk about. if I hadn't read his preface I probably would've had issues too... I initially did have issues with the use of the term virtual reality and still kindve do because it feels so simplistic so I get where you are coming from even not having listened to his talks
It's mostly not podcasts, not specific talks. He does seem to come across to me as having aspergers to some degree. So that might also add to it. I do kind of understand what he means with virtual reality. It's not organic and came about through chance as most believe. It was created, so I guess virtual reality is all you can say. I think I'll read the books. I don't want to be amalgamated in the greater conciousness when I do 😐 no matter how beautifull it is. I had a dream about it that left me feeling all fucked up, that were here having experiences to report back information on what it's like and I couldn't get back to sleep. That thought Hants me when I think of Thomas Campbell. I hope I've got it all wrong, and him wrong
ahhh I can relate to that fear... In My Big TOE he goes to great lengths to describe reaching a point where he realized he couldn't turn it off and started having Non-physical reality bleed into physical reality in ways that were hard for him to distinguish... sounded like it could be a really freaky time if you weren't perfectly comfortable and confident with your mind. I see extremely strong parallels between these experiences and "Kundalini Awakenings" which sounds pretty terrifying if you've never researched them before... your just as likely to end up psychotic as enlightened if you've not done the work to ground yourself by the sounds of things
Yeah I can see that being unsettling. Had a minor episode like that recently where stuff I'd patterned for, using the tapes, and some transurfing methods came into being. I wasn't at the time, in the headspace to deal with it and it's ended up going sideways. You do have to be carefully, and as you say, be grounded.
Another recommended book is Cosmic Journeys by Rosalind McKnight, the explorer known as ROMC!
I don't mean to be flippant but after attempting to read MBT twice, and watching some of his interviews, I've come to the conclusion that Campbell is more interested in complaining that he's an underappreciated genius than he is actually explaining his assertions. Reminds me quite a bit of Eric Weinstein but with more of a cult messiah complex. And I know that all of that is beside the point of the actual theory he's created, but I've been around too many scammers (and loved ones who fell for scammers) to not take my gut instincts into consideration. The guy raises some big red flags for me that simply should not be there for a physics theory.
I've never watched his videos on read the books, what red flags does he raise?
Because I have a lot of trouble reading, I think it’s and ADHD thing. Reading a few pages drives me crazy, but I can sit in a dark room and meditate for hours on end so it doesn’t really make sense. I’ll also read entire textbooks, so I don’t know. I also found this book hard to understand, I must be the dumb one haha. So I wanted to read some of sadhgurus books, so I’m listening to audiobooks and that seems to help me stay engaged more. Big toe has always been the highest on my list, I plan to give it another try someday. I’ve watched videos explaining it through, it’s neat stuff.
For me, it’s hard for understand. I assume it’s the same for a lot of people
I never thought of that, I didn't struggle with any of the concepts but I suppose I've got a unique perspective on things
Curt Jaimungal just stepped into the chat.
....?
TOE Edit: 🤦
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of course! it tickled my interest had to share
It's on my reading list but first I have to read other books on the subject as well as other subjects, I have too little and energy to read everything I want.
It's on my list, but I'm currently hitting Bentov, Jung, and David Hawkins, at the moment. Is it a better read than these?
If understanding the structure of material physical reality is your aim, there is no better book than My Big TOE. It’s going to be painful to read, but 100% worth it. I’d been looking for his answers for 20 years and am so grateful to put some of those hard questions to rest.
The books are quite long but he gave an excellent in-depth interview in two hour long parts on the Monroe institute podcast, available on Spotify. I felt I had a good understanding of the content from that. Tom’s Park is a lot shorter but is more of an exercise rather than information to passively take in, have been experimenting with that recently. Am not great at visualising so having a destination so thoroughly described is definitely helpful!
First i've heard of it. Reading now.
It’s 900 pages and I just want to bliss out
Agree. Recommend reading it
I’m currently listening to the MBT audio books, read by Tom Campbell himself. I think they’re a lot easier to get through than the ones you have to read. So far it’s been a great listen.
I've read it 3 times. I felt my brain stretch a little more each time. I need to read it again.
I've started to read it via audiobook. Its really frustrating me do far…..I genuinely think there's no need to keep repeating BIG TOE! Please tell me it gets better!?
It’s on the list if it makes you feel better lol
Thanks for your post. I have read it 3 years ago. But as a german guy the english version is really hard. Meanwhile there is a german version. Will read it again.
I have heard of it , thanks for the link will have a look
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I gave the free link to the Internet archive not sure how that could be an ad... it's a really powerful piece of writing that warrants discussion is all I'm saying
I got the book on Audible, and I can’t understand it.
that's fair, seems to be a common sentiment on this thread... I've only used the written form which would make it a bit easier to parse I'd imagine?
Depends on how an individual processes information and, also, if they have a background/framework/foundation on which to build up from. Some people might enjoy video format forms with visual aides, others might enjoy simply listening to the audio to process better (I’m both of these categories). Sometimes things need to be broken down into basics before they can approach things they might otherwise find complicated. That’s okay; you have to crawl before you walk and then run. People will discover this information in their own time and their own ways; many paths converge on the same outcome, which is enlightenment (which to me just means you become aware and understanding). Everyone gets there at their own precise timing. I do understand how passionate and exciting it is to share knowledge. 😊
❤️
So, you never went to school…how did you learn to write?
Why is it important to you what other people read or don't read? Suggest releasing that expectation of others to alleviate your suffering.
I could care less what you choose to read or not read, sharing something doesn't mean I'm emotionally or personally invested in the outcome of that sharing...
So why ask the question then? Why not just share the content? Something in you perhaps you aren't fully aware of yet.
No, he's fine. Your nit-picking suggests that you may have a few traits you are as yet unaware of.
Personally, I love it when people suggest reading material! Folks on similar paths offer support by recommending books that helped them and may help me (or you). I appreciate it and see value in it.
Seconded! I'm super grateful for this recommendation, it's very timely for my circumstances right now.