Principia Discordia

Rating:
Summary: You Got The Wrong Fenderson...Fnords!!!!!
Review: "If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe."--Kerry Thornley, from the introduction of this publication...Hail Eris!!!!! Is your life out of wack? Does everything around you contradict everything else? Can't find any explaination of all this chaos in any one philosophic, religious, or scientific approach? No? The answer is here! In the Principia Discordia! If you can't find the book anywhere to steal it, then buy it here! And when you do, read it five times at one sitting, then backwards! And once you do that, bury the contents of your bank account in your backyard, consult your pineal gland, give yourself to Eris, and email me with your address. Fnords! Hail Eris!!!!! Poeee!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: But Seriously Folks...
Review: ...don't be serious. If you are the sort of person whose life can be changed by a book, *this book will change your life.* As Gregory Hill, co-author (Malaclypse the Younger) observed decades after writing it, "At first I thought I was (messing) around with Eris. Now I see that Eris is (messing) around with me."

Whether you believe in Eris, the Goddess of Confusion, or not, this book explains a *lot* about what's really going on, in language that even people with no previous exposure to philosophy or religion past a little Sunday school twenty years ago can understand. Once you've got into it, you'll never take anything on faith again that isn't *worth* taking on faith. You'll see. This edition also contains the introduction by Lord Omar K. Ravenhurst, which makes it worth having all by itself.

Rating:
Summary: Eris Stole My Sanity and Played Basketball With It
Review: A refreshing look of religion, beliefs and ethics formed from a giant collage of chaos. Malaclypse The Younger avoids running around his ideas and giving hints to the reader. Instead he forces a reader into a head dive sucking him into his world. A true work of poetic terrorism.

To some this might seem as an explanation for just another religion, to others a blasphemy and a selected few as a whole new way of approaching the world. This book is a must have for any chaos magician, a big giant sigil designed to awaken your mind.

CAUTION: After purchasing this book expect Eris to play head games with you and tasting chaos early in the morning.

NOTE: Principia Discordia and Principia Discordia or How I Found Goddess And What I did To Her When I Found Her are the same book except for a special afterword and a collage found at the end in the later book. Of course Eris did not inform me of this and I bought both. Twice the fun.

Assume Nothing

Rating:
Summary: Welcome....to Discordia.
Review: Discordianism has been described as a religion disguised as a joke, and a joke disguised as a religion. Decide for yourself, with this foundational book of the Discordian Society.

Rating:
Summary: I Challenge You To Read This Book
Review: Merely touching this sacred writ will imbue you with an aura of magic. Reading the words will give you special powers over people of the same sex. Comprehension will make you a goddess (doesn't matter if you are male). My life changed. My teeth straightened, my hair acquired luster, and I began to glow in the dark. What strange magic will it work upon you?

Rating:
Summary: This Book Changed My Life!(TM)
Review: My Discordian friend from England gave me this book so I would see what the joke was about. There is an online edition, which can be found all over the Internet, but there's nothing like compressed plant fibre when you're looking for holy scripture.
So I read through it, had a good chuckle, read it again, and then I saw the light. It was kind of greenish-purple in color. I turned off that light and went to sleep. The next day, I knew I was a Discordian. Ever since, I see the world differently - particularly how silly and confusing everything is. Go on. Buy this book. It's best to read the Illuminatus trilogy after you've read this - you will get a lot more of the in-jokes that way.
This book truly contains everything there is to be known about absolutely anything. And if you think it is just a joke, read the page with "The Golden Secret" again - slowly and carefully this time. If you're still thinking "What a load of hippie (expletive)" afterwards, then Discordianism is probably not for you. If you start saving your barcodes afterwards, then I am happy to have helped you a little along the path. Praise Eris. Or don't. She doesn't really care, but do something funny and maybe She will reward you.
By the way: there is a second compilation of Discordian scripture, the Apocrypha Discordia. It's in the public domain and available for download at 23ae.com. (No, I'm not paid to advertise it. ;)) Have a good time, anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Notes of a "guerrilla mind theatre"
Review: The Torah of Judaism. The New Testament of Christianity. The Qu'ran of Islam. The Dhammapada of Buddhism. To these, and other immortal sacred texts of the world's great religions, we can add the Principia Discordia, the foundational text of Discordianism.

Since I first read the Principia (also known as the Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger), it has become one of my favorite books. I recommend the edition that contains an introduction by "Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst" (also known as Kerry Thornley), who is celebrated in a cover blurb as "the co-founder of Discordianism."

Thornley opens his delightful intro, "If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe." Discordianism, which is inspired by the Greek goddess of chaos and confusion, is such a disorganized religion. In his intro Thornley recalls the founding/revelation of Discordianism in 1958 or 1959 in a bowling alley in California.

The Principia itself could be read as a collage-like satire of conventional religions and their sacred texts. The book is a merry blend of jokes, puns, satiric narratives, parodic songs and rituals, word games, illustrations, and secret ciphers. Among the gems in the book are the Law of Fives, an explanation of the Discordian calendar, and information about the Bavarian Illuminati ("The World's Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy").

One section of the book notes that the Discordian Society "has been called a guerrilla mind theatre." The Principia is a manifesto of this theatre. If you want to read something really different, check out the Principia Discordia.

Rating:
Summary: Scriptures of Chaos
Review: These profound scriptures come close to rivalling James Robinson's edition of the Nag Hammadi Library as the most important contribution to 20th century metaphysics. And not only for those who consider Discordianism as a form - albeit a weird one - of Gnosticism. Certain passages are more inspiring than others, like "The Enlightenment Of Zarathud" and Lord Omar's "Epistle To The Paranoids", although only the orthodox version of the latter appears here. According to the Samaritan Codex and the Octuagint there is an additional verse which reads: "Ye build high buildings, only to cast yeself from the roofs." The same Codex (but not the Octuagint) also contains "The Epistle To The Neurotics" by St. Euthanasius that sadly didn't make it into this edition. These minor gripes aside, I do recommend this work to all those who are searching for the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Eris, goddess of Chaos, is ready, willing and able to help you. For more information about spirituality and chaos, read Peter Carroll's Liber Kaos or Liber Null And Psychonaut. And if you appreciate this type of humour, you will love the work of Robert Anton Wilson.

Rating:
Summary: Genius!
Review: This book changed my life! I simply would not be who I am if not for this book.

Rating:
Summary: You're a Fenderson.
Review: This is either one helluva pun or it's some divine knowledge or something... I laughed, cried, and hit myself in the eye. Taking a stand back from the hype: this book isn't a joke. It can lead to some very confronting issues such as: the ambiguity of belief, the need for dogma and many other "shattering" realizations. I don't feel that a proper review can be written for this book--it is too stupid, profound and obscure. Pegging this book down is like kicking a hyena in the face for laughing.