| The Book of Heresies appeared in its final form (including The Recordings) near the end of 2001, but there have been reports of seeing the first two parts (and in one case just the first part) before this, in a couple of cases as early as 1987. Some people have called it a philosophy, but it is generally regarded as being a religion, albeit an unusual one in that it has no leader, no established church, and utterly rejects the concept that universe cannot be understood by humanity. This is further complicated by its origin. The second part of the Book of Heresies, called The Apocrypha, tells of events occuring around 1970 or so, but there is a great deal of question as to how much literally happened. As a professed heretic once told me, "The Apocrypha itself says, 'A story need not to have happened to be true.' Anyone who thinks the events of the Apocrypha literally happened is not only not reading the title of the section, but is missing the entire point."
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| | I. The Principles | The Principles are a set of aphorisms or, as the title suggests, principles for living. There are very few religious overtones at all in this section, for this first section is fundamentally a dictionary in that it seeks to redefine forty-six words, or to point out older definitions of a word, or a new way to look at a word. Click on the title, "I. The Principles", to go to the annotated Principles. | | II. The Apocrypha | The Apocrypha is the largest of the three sections and is a bundle of contradictions - and so being, also arguably the most interesting. It details the account of the mother of the author of the Book of Heresies around 1970. The title of this section is telling, though, as many of the segments in The Apocrypha are clearly pulled from a wide array of other sources - Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist and Gnostic, though often slightly altered which often gives the passages a radically different meaning. Click on the title, "II. The Apocrypha", to go to the annotated Apocrypha. | | III. The Recordings | The Recordings can be compared with the Hadith of Quranic tradition. They are essentially essays and commentary by the original adherents to the Book of Heresies. Some of them, as a result, offer different viewpoints on certain aspects of the two earlier sections. Click on the title, "III. The Recordings", to go to the annotated Recordings. |
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