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My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

A physicist named Thomas Campbell wrote a book called My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything).
His explanation of the simulated universe is amazing and it corresponds to Buddism well. He starts his theory from the beginning of awareness itself and works his way forward to today. He goes further than just this universe as he has explored multiple other universes, some associated to "our" rule set as well as looked into "other" types of simulations/universes as well as the non-physical realities that contain these simulations. In this simulation everything experienced is data that is being piped into your consciousnesses (his definition of awareness as buddists know it). There is absolutely no self in the simulation just data being experienced. Being a geek, Thomas Campbell's metaphors speak to me and explain what Buddha was trying to convey from a modern western perspective I appreciate.

His youtube presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxECb7zcQhQ

Web site
http://www.my-big-toe.com/

His model
http://wiki.my-big-toe.com/index.php/The_MBT_Model_Link_Page

I can not recommend him enough as he really got me started on my journey of understanding the framework of reality and MCTB shot me forward into understanding the experiences as they happened.

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
7/14/12 7:10 PM as a reply to Dream Walker.
Hey DW,

I don't think I've said it already so: Welcome to the DhO! emoticon

Thanks for posting the links to this, I'm having a look at it right now and it's an interesting read so far. I'll need to get to grips with the terminology of it, not to mention the talk of pure mathematics (my maths is poor, but I like to think in those terms sometimes), but the mention of Boolean Logic, topology and fractals is tantalizing in the geekiest of ways. emoticon

I can not recommend him enough as he really got me started on my journey of understanding the framework of reality and MCTB shot me forward into understanding the experiences as they happened.

It'd be interesting to hear how you came to find the DhO and MCTB, could you say a bit more about where you've come from in terms of practice and real-life insight? Having come from a generally non-spiritual-as-such background myself, it'd be cool to know what sort of stuff has worked for you along the way and where you're at now.

Tommy

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
7/15/12 5:09 PM as a reply to Tommy M.
Hey Tommy thanks for the welcome to DhO.
Been lurking here a while and drinking from the information firehouse. So much info to absorb. I've not scratched the surface of the material available but continue to plug away.
I've always been looking in the spiritual direction but have been frustrated most of my life at the quality of information...I have a sensitive BS sensor when I read. When I happened upon Toms Big Toe trilogy I was enthralled. My BS sensor didn't go off with his theory. I came to understand intellectually that we are in a physical reality simulator so we can evolve consciousness. Tom said to shut down the data flow of this reality to experience the other realities but is a bit vague on exactly what meditation technique is best. I've been doing mantra with each breath off and on for relaxation but never consistently and with little results besides a pleasant drift into sleep. I started a daily practice of 20 minutes at nap time and would mantra/breath till altered then just kinda hung out in the lazy boy listening to binaural beats and often would slip in and out of sleep. Then I started clicking out. (As Bruce Moen author called it) I would completely loose any semblance of consciousness but would wake fully with absolutely no transition from wherever I had been and no sense of how much time gone was gone. It was very different from waking up from sleep. I thought I was astral projecting or something and missing out on bringing back the memories of what happened while i was away. I resolved to stop clicking out and to stay "awake" during whatever happened. I never did succeed in being awake during these click outs but they sure did slow down on how often they happened since I kept saying to myself "no more click outs" before each meditation. I also found myself in various altered states briefly but I'd loose them due to fear or most often excitement. Then I got sick with the flu. I almost never get sick but when I do its a beauty and most of the time noone else gets it. I never take anything for it even though it totally is miserable. This time it was especially bad - fever, chills, body and bone aches. Somewhere along the way I got very "altered". Being sick was now secondary. My wife couldn't tell I was sick and I had to remind her I wasn't well yet. It was like watching myself suffering but it was removed somehow. I kept saying I was very very present but couldn't explain it. I used the analogy of feeling like I was the tip of some iceberg and behind me was a lot more of something. I got over the flu but the altered state stayed. I continued my meditations/naps in the lazy-boy with and without binaural beats and continued to resolve no more click outs. I continued to drink too much beer as usual. Slowly the altered state started to fade after a month. I could concentrate internally and do this push thingy and pull it back briefly but it continued to fade. I started to look online at altered states/enlightenment and somehow found MCTB.

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
7/15/12 5:50 PM as a reply to Dream Walker.
I read MCTB thru once and then read it again. I started to meditate on breath at the stomach and would try to note when I got off the breath. I'd say "note thinking" or whatever came to mind besides breath. I stopped resolving to not click out and started to resolve to definitely click out every meditation. Clicking out is still there but not every meditation, just kinda randomly. I can not trigger it on purpose and I can't notice going into it at all- just the popping out. I went on a 10 day Goenka retreat last March. I had hoped to regain the altered state permanently. It didn't happen but I did get to some nice other Jhana states while there. Hands like balloons, arms like tree trunks and torso like a huge bolder feeling. Feeling of contracting and expanding at the same time. Feeling of my head above reality in some clear and clean place where breathing was amazing. I woke up from a nap/laying meditation where I was nowhere and there was nothing including me (that was scary so it went away then I popped back again and recognized the ?feel? and was more ok with it.) I feel like I was given a grand tour but without the talent/practice to get back again(yet). My meditation got sooooo much better in 10 days. Following my breath at the tip of the nostril seemed impossible then slowly got easy. I didn't much like the body scan as I couldn't get many sensations like Goenka said I should. I did much better at the internal scanning and focus would naturally go up and down the chakras very slowly whenever I let it. Came back happy with the retreat and have been looking for a sanga that I like with little results so far. Been reading here and KFD as well links. I need to reread MCTB again as well as Tom's MBT again. I need to really step up the cushion time also. Most of the time I try to get concentrated and then switch over to noting sensations but usually I don't get to far in the concentration department. I still drink more than I should and that really seems to interfere with meditation. I do get to click out on occasion and that makes me happy but the afterglow isn't what it used to be. I'm not sure what's up next but I know I need to work more to get to whatever is next.
So there you go...me in a nutshell (or is it a nut in a me shell? ;o)
~D

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
5/4/13 9:08 AM as a reply to Dream Walker.
I'm in the process of reading this book and would appreciate any further discussion. Not sure what to make of it so far!

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
6/10/13 7:30 PM as a reply to Dream Walker.
I have My Big Toe, and love it. I read a couple of pages at a time and let it set the tone for the rest of the day.

Mr. Campbell mentions doing some TM in early years but doesn't expound on it much after that. However, what I think was most impactful to him was his years working with Robert Monroe and setting up a ground breaking system of binaural waves to reach deep theta states that induced OBEs. ( I have played around with this a lot, as well as doing sleep cycle interruption in the early morning (3 a.m) and back to sleep, and it really works!)

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
6/10/13 9:46 PM as a reply to Carole Lindberg.
Carole Lindberg:
I have My Big Toe, and love it. I read a couple of pages at a time and let it set the tone for the rest of the day.

Mr. Campbell mentions doing some TM in early years but doesn't expound on it much after that. However, what I think was most impactful to him was his years working with Robert Monroe and setting up a ground breaking system of binaural waves to reach deep theta states that induced OBEs. ( I have played around with this a lot, as well as doing sleep cycle interruption in the early morning (3 a.m) and back to sleep, and it really works!)


Carole, can you recommend particular binaural tracks to induce OBEs? There's a lot out there, it's difficult to evaluate what's most effective, and I've been hesitant to spend a lot of time listening to potentially suboptimal (for reaching particular outcomes) binaural beats when I could be meditating instead, but I'm now at a stage in my practice where I'm more willing to experiment with these kinds of experiences. Thank you in advance for your help.

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
6/11/13 4:30 PM as a reply to Matthew Horn.
Hi Matthew,

I downloaded two binaural tracks from The Unexplainable Store. Astral 395 (my favorite) and Lucid Dream. After sleeping for about 5 or 6 hours, you awaken, (which can be 2 - 4 a.m) and put on one of these tracks with earphones. Go back to relaxation/sleep. Don't try to remain awake. I have had many OBEs and lucid dreams with this method. I also bought this program called Neuro-Programmer 3 (you make your own binaurals which is interesting and fun) which I like quite a bit and have used mostly to get into a kind of witness state (my consciousness aware of itself) while taking an afternoon nap. However, now I am beginning to get this alone from my meditation practice. But what was good was that by doing the binaurals, I was already somewhat familiar with what this felt like.

There's a lot of stuff out there with hypnotic voices talking over the waves. This never got me into the OBE - but would get me into an extremely relaxed state bordering on the witness one that I mentioned above. I find the voice dubbing too distracting so it would stop me from going where I was seeking. Also almost anything is used to accompany the binaural waves, as a base, I guess to keep the mind engaged as you are descending from alpha down to theta. Bubbling brooks, wind, babies gurgling, the white noise at a mall, some beautiful, some of it actually irritating. The Astral 395 and L. Dream ones mentioned above have some harmonious repetitive electronic music and pipe organ stuff going through it, and I like their rather somber and dark emotional tone which feels compatible to astral traveling.

Good luck!

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
6/11/13 4:53 PM as a reply to Matthew Horn.
Matthew Horn:

Carole, can you recommend particular binaural tracks to induce OBEs? There's a lot out there, it's difficult to evaluate what's most effective, and I've been hesitant to spend a lot of time listening to potentially suboptimal (for reaching particular outcomes) binaural beats when I could be meditating instead, but I'm now at a stage in my practice where I'm more willing to experiment with these kinds of experiences. Thank you in advance for your help.


Here is what I use....Gnaural
It lets you mess around and customize the frequencies and what not...
Tom recommends 3.8 - 4 hz. This will get you to the theta state.
Unfortunately he says that this will also "lock" you in to this frequency when you need to shift to another, making exploration hard outside this frequency realm.


Link to MyBigToe forum
Tom C:

The ramping down from 20Hz to 4 Hz, then staying at 4Hz for as time, then ramping back up to 20 Hz is a good way to start. Like training wheels on a kid’s bike. Eventually the 20 - 4 - -20 sequence becomes 10 - 4 - 10; next the time spent in transition between 10 and 4 gets shorter and shorter and then eventually it is just 4 (no transition is necessary). Finally it is nothing at all (0Hz) as the training wheels come off entirely and you are on your own ( no aids, no devices) with an ability to create a steady vibration state in 2 seconds or less any time you want to day or night under most any environmental conditions you find yourself in.
Most people who try to avoid the training wheels stages by leaping directly to the endgame end up out of the game altogether. Everyone is different -- start at a place and go at a pace that optimizes your learning rate. You may have to do some experimentation over several months to find that place and pace.

By the time you outgrow the need for binaural beats, they are becoming a trap. They put you up like a tethered blimp — stuck at the end of the rope.

You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run — only much later do you win a prize at the county fair for running superbly. Don't begrudge not being where you would like to be (an ego issue), just start from wherever you are and learn.

Tom C

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
6/11/13 5:10 PM as a reply to Matthew Horn.
Bruce Moen has a method that is interesting. He volunteers to do Psychopomp work (aiding the dead). He finds that the entities that use his help with stuck souls give him a lot of energy to perform the work and then after completing the journey he tags along with this boost and explores whatnot easier.
Helping the dead is one of the traditional shaman works. (role of shaman)(working with ancestral spirits, soul retrieval and transpersonal healing, or exploring the dimensional realities of the Upper Worlds) Shamanic journey work usually uses drums or rattles beat at 4 times a second to entrain the brain to 4 hz.
Have fun
~D

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
6/28/13 10:45 AM as a reply to Dream Walker.
Man this book is repetitive. It's one of the most boring books I've ever come across. Came to about page 200+ and i'm reaaly wondering if i should continue. When will it get to the point and stop promising it and stop planting ideas that never evolve. A good editor would shrink down this book from 800 to a 100+ pages. I strongly recommend this one to people suffering from insomnia. At some points it almost insulting to readers inteligence. Yeah we get it. It's a new model that requres an open mind but ffs you don't have to repeat that 20 times in 200 pages. Book makes me doubt all his claims. I also visited his forum and looked at some youtube videos. A gut feeling is telling me sometings just not right here and my time as everyone elses is precious.

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell
Answer
7/1/13 10:40 AM as a reply to Ivo B.
I agree with the need for editing...it should not be a trilogy...one book would be enough....but Im a reader so I just plowed thru and found that the good stuff was worth it. Never found anything so big picture and comprehensive...I also assume that he wrote this way on purpose...perhaps to keep people from reading it unless there was a strong attraction...kind like mctb is mostly for geeks.
Its worth it....
Keep reading...and meditating
D