Forbidden Knowledge - Teachings that must be earned

[ASU]

This is a thread about the concept of "forbidden knowledge", that is to say, forbidden and restricted (non-military) books and teachings. There are many kinds of forbidden knowledge, the most famous would probably be the (likely mythical) Necronomicon, a book supposedly created by an insane Arab prophet, written in blood and bound in human skin. If it ever existed it was likely destroyed long ago, but scammers have printed fakes that can be found still in most bookshops.

Another type of forbidden knowledge are widely banned books such as Hitlers "Mein Kampf". But there's a third type, a type that is about books and teachings that a person must be initiated into a belief system to legitimately obtain. I'm aware of at least three of these.

The first, which most Kiwis will have at least heard of, are the Masons, or Freemasons. I'm not very knowledgeable about them, but their "secret" books are widely available online, and they are not considered "dangerous" for non-initiates to read. That doesn't apply to the next two groups, however.

The first of these are Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhists. Before I list some of their forbidden books, I'd like to start out by explaining what "secret knowledge" traditionally means to them by referring to a quote from the 1967 book, "The Secret Oral Teachings of Tibetan Buddhist Sects":

The attainment of transcendent insight is the real object of the training advocated in the traditional Oral Teachings, which do not consist, as so many imagine, in teaching certain things to the pupil, in revealing to him certain secrets, but rather in showing him the means to learn them and discover them for himself.

The Masters of the secret teachings say that the truth learned from another is of no value, and that the only truth which is living and effective, which is of value, is the truth which we ourselves discover.

If this were not the case, it would be enough for us to read the innumerable works in which philosophers, savants and doctors of the different religions have explained their views and to choose from among
them one which agrees with our own ideas and to which we can cleave.

So their secrets are only secret if you lack the ability and patience to discover them within yourself. However, if you attempt to purchase their books you will find some are forbidden to be sold to the general public. You must have an officially recognized teacher approve of your purchasing the book. Why is this? I'll let "The Guyagarbha Tantra -
Secret Essence Definitive Nature Just as It Is" explain:

...anyone wishing to enter the path of Secret Mantra who does not first receive empowerment prior to listening to or reading the teaching will not only fail to reap the benefit of the blessings, but will
actually bring unwanted harm and even ruin upon themselves. This is mentioned in the tenth chapter of the root tantra:

"Failing to please the vajra master and not receiving empowerment-

For those who start to listen and so forth-

Not only will there be no result, there will be ruin."

This book runs $150, and on its publishers website is posted:

Restricted text: Anyone interested in purchasing or reading this text must have received the empowerment of Vajrasattva's Magical Manifestation Matrix for the peaceful and wrathful deities from either the kama or the terma tradition and must have received the reading transmission.

There are many of these forbidden Vajrayana texts that I can name, another is called "The Roar of Thunder - Yamantaka Practice and Commentary". What is Yamantaka, and why is it forbidden to teach it to the public?

Yamantaka is a wrathful, buffalo-headed meditational deity (Tib: yi-dam) of the Highest Yoga Tantra class... he is always depicted as fear-inducing, scary, and intimidating. Not only is he terrifying to look at but - according to the Vajrabhairava Tantra - he also has conquered all evil spirits, including the Lord of Death, Yama. That's why he is also called "Yamantaka", the Slayer of Death. The Vajrabhairava Tantra belongs to the father tantra using negative emotions such as anger and hatred as the path. Vajrabhairava is powerful enough to overcome and subdue even the most powerful negative emotions. Visualizing oneself in this highly energetic form of the yidam is said to help conquer and transform such negative emotions:

"Like other wrathful deities, Yamantaka gives the forces of the Shadow [in the Jungian sense] a symbol that hooks their energy and provides a channel and direction for their expression and transformation" (Preece, p. 187).

Yamantaka is the act of channeling anger until you transcend normal understandings of reality. Heavy shit, right? Where did this teaching come from?

The origin of the bull-head is ascribed to the tradition which speaks of a holy man who lived in a cave, practicing meditation. As he was about to achieve his objective and enter nirvana, two thieves with a stolen bull entered the cave and slaughtered it. When they saw the ascetic, a witness to their crime, they beheaded him too. But to their astonishment, the victim lifted the head of the bull and replacing his own severed head with it, became the ferocious form of Yama. He then not only devoured the two thieves, but his insatiable thirst for human blood threatened the whole population. The followers of the Vajrayana, therefore, appealed to Manjusri who, then assuming the fierce bull-headed form of Yamantaka, defeated Yama in a fearful struggle.

So Yamantaka can be considered the Deity of "Getting So Angry You Forget To Be Dead".

But still these books are purchasable. What of those that have no price?

Most people are at least vaguely familiar with Satanists. What most don't know is that the Church of Satan split, many decades ago, and those that departed splintered into what became known as The Temple of Set.

The ToS is an Esoteric Setian Order devoted to darkness, "Utterances" that create "Aeons", and personal development (no, really, lol). Their knowledge and teachings have been written in a number of books, the majority of which are only available to certain ranks within the Temple. Their highest-ranking book is called "The Sapphire Tablet of Set", and it is only given to those who earn the position of High Priest. The "Crystal Tablet of Set", given to those who pass their year(s)-long initiation period, is over 1300 pages in length (although I'm not quoting it here because I don't care to piss off Satanic Cults).

Do any other Kiwis know the names of any more forbidden instructions belonging to groups like these?

 

[ActualKiwi]

I heard there was such a thing as the Necrosonichon, but that may have just been a rumour.
On-topic, truly forbidden texts are hard to find because knowledge of them is just that-forbidden. So they get lost and nature does the rest.

 

[Mark Corrigan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum

 

[ASU]

Finding them, in the internet age, is actually easy. I have all the books I've mentioned.

Finding their names in order to track them down is the hard part. This sort of knowledge is something that only those that bother to look for it realize exists, which is why I'm asking; I'm sure there are schools of thought I'm ignorant of.

I doubt I'll get much in the way of real responses but I like posting things people don't expect to see here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum

Thanks, but that's just books historically banned by the Catholic Church.

 

[ActualKiwi]

Ahh but how can you guarantee that what you have is in fact the real deal, rather than just some shyster's knockoff of it? That's the problem with collecting any such items.

 

[ASU]

Ahh but how can you guarantee that what you have is in fact the real deal, rather than just some shyster's knockoff of it? That's the problem with collecting any such items.

Because:

The attainment of transcendent insight is the real object of the training advocated in the traditional Oral Teachings, which do not consist, as so many imagine, in teaching certain things to the pupil, in revealing to him certain secrets, but rather in showing him the means to learn them and discover them for himself.

The Masters of the secret teachings say that the truth learned from another is of no value, and that the only truth which is living and effective, which is of value, is the truth which we ourselves discover.

If this were not the case, it would be enough for us to read the innumerable works in which philosophers, savants and doctors of the different religions have explained their views and to choose from among them one which agrees with our own ideas and to which we can cleave.

Or, to put that another way, these books are not books of answers like some great cosmic cheat sheet. They are self-help manuals that allow you to explore your consciousness without drugs. They either work, and you feel it when you practice their lessons, or they don't. There is no middle ground. This is not simply religion. It is psychology combined with posture and breathing exercises and trance states, etc.

This is in addition to noting that there are plenty of former members of these groups that can verify authenticity.

 

[XYZpdq]

There are many of these forbidden Vajrayana texts that I can name, another is called "The Roar of Thunder - Yamantaka Practice and Commentary". What is Yamantaka, and why is it forbidden to teach it to the public?
Yamantaka is the act of channeling anger until you transcend normal understandings of reality. Heavy shit, right? Where did this teaching come from?
So Yamantaka can be considered the Deity of "Getting So Angry You Forget To Be Dead".

Spoiler: That sounds totally fucking awesome.

 

[ASU]

Spoiler: That sounds totally fucking awesome.

Ha, yeah. I was thinking last night that it's very likely the religious inspiration for the idea of going super-saiyan. There's a lot of pop culture references that suddenly make a weird amount of sense when you realize they were all mostly stolen from earlier cultures. The Force from Star Wars is heavily based on Zen, for instance.

 

[millais]

You can get all those Scientology texts for free online due to the leaks over the years, but back in the day those cultists had to pay many thousands of dollars to the organization to get access to them.

 

[Dr. Meme]

not supposed to share this one but mcdonalds secret sauce? yeah thats just thousand island dressing.

 

[Pepsi-Cola]

I forget the name of it, but iirc that Japanese death cult that did nerve gas attacks in Tokyo had a written bible or some other kind of theological text that was lost or forbidden.

Again, if I'm remembering this right, parts of it were leaked and it's batshit insane. It includes stuff about how the British Royal Family are the heads of the Illuminati, how the group's founder was the Buddhist Reincarnation of Jesus, how the USA is Satan as described in the bible, how the Dutch are planning nuclear war, etc.

 

[Vitriol]

there is a sovcit movement called Rusa that keeps its constitution secret as it technically brings the groups from legal fraud to domestic terrorists. If someone was to get me a copy i would be ever so grateful.

 

[millais]

Also Mormons won't share their "original" untranslated copy of the Book of Mormon that is supposedly written in an unknown language only Joseph Smith was able to decode and translate.

 

[melty]

KFC'S eleven herbs and spices are forbidden knowledge

More seriously, I think the coke recipe is secret. Not quite forbidden religious knowledge, but overall an interesting topic.

 

[ASU]

there is a sovcit movement called Rusa that keeps its constitution secret as it technically brings the groups from legal fraud to domestic terrorists. If someone was to get me a copy i would be ever so grateful.

Unfortunately, in addition for being the basis for several acronyms, "rusa" is a common word in multiple languages. If you have the formal title of the text it might be possible, although political/military texts are probably out of my league, and such a text would run into the problem of being nigh-impossible to verify the accuracy of unless it was verified by "rusans" or whatever they call themselves.

 

[Vitriol]

Unfortunately, in addition for being the basis for several acronyms, "rusa" is a common word in multiple languages. If you have the formal title of the text it might be possible, although political/military texts are probably out of my league, and such a text would run into the problem of being nigh-impossible to verify the accuracy of unless it was verified by "rusans" or whatever they call themselves.

The constitution of the Republic for the United States of America (restoration) 2008/1865/1777 Standing Under GOD and OATH. ab initio bona fide ceritiorari. Consensus facit legem. non plc non corporate.

Aka 'the Utah Document'

I could verify it- i've read extracts before but never found the full thing.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

The Doctrine of Fascism
Industrial Society and its Future
Value theory could be considered forbidden knowledge because the contemporary economy depends on people acting in an individualistic hedonistic manner instead of critically looking at what
The possible effects of intellectual property law may also be forbidden knowledge as people knowing them would likely cause large outrage at technological stagnation that occurs from them (but maybe with good reason as this could cause a societal collapse if people knew about it)

 

[ASU]

RuSA's "Utah Document", the Declaration of Sovereign Intent ("DSI"), of which only about 8 to 10 sentences have been publicly revealed so far. It is so exceedingly secret that even members of the RuSA Congress cannot have copies, and probably haven't even seen a copy, yet they are punished for not complying with it.

Sounds like a clusterfuck.

 

[Zeorus]

Also Mormons won't share their "original" untranslated copy of the Book of Mormon that is supposedly written in an unknown language only Joseph Smith was able to decode and translate.

This actually isn't the case. The Church's teaching on the matter is that the plates were taken up to heaven by the angel who had visited Joseph Smith originally. As for what language they were in - Smith said that they were in a variant of Hebrew written using Egyptian characters (usually called "Reformed Egyptian" by scholars of Mormonism).

Whether or not one chooses to believe this (belief and non-belief are both entirely reasonable), it's not being "hidden" per se (at least, not hidden in the same sense as other knowledge mentioned in this thread).

 

[SoldierOfClerici2]

All humans want, by nature, to know. A sign of this is our esteem of the senses; for in addition to their usefulness we love them for themselves, and, more than any other, the sense of sight. Not only in the face of action, but even when we are not going to act, we generally prefer sight to all other senses. The reason for this is that in all senses sight helps us better know things, and shows us many distinctions. Animals are born by nature with the ability to feel, and from this some develop memory, while d others do not. And because of this, the former are smarter and more able to learn than those who are unable to remember. Those who cannot hear noises (such as bees and other kinds of similar animals) are intelligent, but cannot learn. Only those who have this sense in addition to memory are able to learn. Other animals live by impressions and memories, and have little experience. On the other hand, the human race also lives by art and reasoning. From memory comes experience to humans, because the many memories of the same action produce the effect of a single experience. Experience seems very similar to science and art, but it is actually through experience that humans acquire art and science.