ISIT

AIO becomes Aware of the Other and Appreciates Its Own Image. AIO Knows the Other is a Reflection. And AIO Chooses to Engage. The Product of that Engagement is ISIT.

I remember the Moment I discovered the Ultimate Secret of Reality — the concept of this ISIT Construct. I don’t recall the date or exact time of day. But I remember the Moment. I was going through a rough period in my life. It was a couple years after I closed a business I had spent most of my 20’s pouring my heart and soul into, not to mention every penny I had, and then some. I was a 31 year old failed entrepreneur on a mission to reinvent myself. I had decided to set aside my business ambitions and pursue another great passion of mine — Psychology.

So there I was, sitting in a theater style classroom. Only it wasn’t a psych lecture I was attending that day, but financial accounting. You see, I hadn’t really given up on all my business ideas, and I figured as long as I had already completed over three years of college as a Business major I would just finish off a few more classes and graduate with degrees in Psychology and Business.

So there I sat along with 50 kids ten years my junior, listening to a terrible instructor who was struggling to speak English, let alone explain arcane accounting principles like dual-entry bookkeeping. Needless to say, I found my mind wandering. Financial accounting is probably my least favorite subject. You can imagine how tough this was for a guy who spent his free time thinking about things like wave-particle duality, Taoism and entrepreneurial ventures.

The instructor was trudging on with his lecture as I scanned the room for interesting faces, checked my book to make sure I was still following the material, looked up at a new slide on the instructor’s projector, and just gazed off into space.

And that’s when I saw it… the Sign!

It was right there in front of me — clear as a bell — hanging in plain sight. Once my eyes rested on the Sign, it took just a moment for me to make the first connection, and within seconds I had already comprehended the most fundamental foundations of what would become the ISIT Awareness System.

What was this sign?

Brace yourself! This is intense!

The sign was two 8 ½ X 11” sheets of white paper, one with the word ‘IT’ printed in large black letters, and the other with the word ‘IS’ in the same font, taped to the wall, right behind the professor.

OK, so obvious sarcasm. In fact, it was such a mundane little detail that, had I been in a slightly different frame of mind, I would have completely overlooked it, just like everyone else in the class did.

My first thought when my eyes rested on the Sign was “What does ‘IT IS’ stand for?”, and I quickly deduced the answer: It stood for ‘Information Technology/Information Systems’. This classroom was obviously used for engineering courses as well as business. So there you go — a mundane, boring sign with an equally mundane explanation.

But for some reason, I didn’t stop there.

The next thought that entered my mind was ‘IT IS’ is a sentence. In fact, it is just about the most elementary form of sentence in the English language. IT simply means the Thing — the Object. IS simply means Doing, Being. It was the most elementary noun with the most elementary verb — the highest level of Abstraction in terms of words or meaning. Hmmm.

Then it occurred to me that that wasn’t actually true. You could argue that ‘I’, being the first-person, is a higher level of Abstraction than the second-person ‘IT’, as ‘Am’ is a higher level of Abstraction than ‘IS’, and that the sentence ‘I AM’ is a higher level of Abstraction than the sentence ‘IT IS’. I found that very intriguing.

I had been reading the Bible a lot in those days. I read the entire Old and New Testaments, front to back, twice. So of course the notion of ‘I AM’ — as in God ‘identifying’ Himself to Moses — was not lost on me. I had the feeling I was contemplating something of deep significance. But I wasn’t sure what.

Of course, this all happened within a few brief moments — maybe ten seconds — for everything I’m describing here to register in my mind. So that feeling of uncertainty was fleeting. Just as my mind was about to wander off on some recollection of a Bible Story… it hit me!

IT IS. I AM. Wave-Particle Duality. Credits and Debits. Objects Being. Things Doing.

I recognized the Pattern! And I realized that I was looking at the most fundamental and abstract representation for all of Reality ever expressed.

Old notions of representing this Fundamental Duality that we all experience had just been rendered Obsolete — Yin and Yang. Heaven and Hell. God and the Devil. Mind and Body. Masculine and Feminine — I realized these were all Derivative concepts of the most Elementary, Essential representation of the Fundamental Duality: IT IS.

The thought was hitting me in shock waves of realization, and I let it sink in. As I suppose we are prone to do when confronted with high levels of Abstraction, I immediately began thinking of words to describe it in more concrete terms. The first words that came to my mind were ‘Structure’ and ‘Energy’. Though these two aren’t really a mutual Duality, they are the first words that sprang to mind that represented the concept of this ‘ITistic’ nature that forms everything in Reality and the ‘ISish’ essence that makes it all go.

And then I was off! I started reciting all the Dualities that occurred to me (quietly in my mind, of course). What I quickly found was that each Duality fit neatly into either the IT or IS group.

IS IT

Light Dark

Energy Matter

Wave Particle

Credit Debit

I was soon even more convinced that I was pondering some really deep philosophical Truth.

It occurred to me as I sat mulling over those two words that not only does the sentence define the Essential Nature of Reality in the most Elementary way possible, but each letter of the sentence represents its characteristics.

I first noted that the letter ‘T’ — two opposing segments — clearly represents the concepts of structure, division, limits, opposition, etc. If you sound out the letter you can Observe that the sound reflects its Nature as it comes to a hard stop. When your tongue leaves your teeth, that’s it — sound over. It’s a finite sound.

Compare this to the sound of the ‘S’ — sssssssss — a letter that can just go on and on as long as you want it to. This never ending sound and the curvy S shape both clearly reflect the infinite, flexible, expanding Essence of AIO’s proxy in Reality — IS.

It did occur to me at the time that this whole morphological line of thought was only significant for the English language. Still, given that English is the dominant language in the world today, I was starting to get really excited as I realized more and more that I had stumbled upon a very significant symbol with deep meaning behind it. My mind was fully Engaged.

I turned my attention to the letter ‘I’. I instantly recognized that the ‘I’ in IT represents the Ego. Our Identity. That which makes us an Individual. It is all those details about our lives that define us. Our name, our appearance, our job, our family, our possessions, our hobbies and interests, etc.

The ‘I’ in IS, on the other hand, represents the Awareness of Absolute Infinite One. This is the Great ‘I’ of ‘I AM’ fame. It represents Unity, which immediately brought to mind that the I is the Roman numeral for One, and is a pretty close approximation for the number 1 in the Hindu-Arabic number system we use today.

I also had a passing familiarity with Hinduism, and quickly made the connection to the Hindu concept of Brahman (the Absolute Awareness of One) and Atman (the individual manifestation of that awareness in Humans).

So there again was a Fundamental Duality woven into that tiny sentence — The complete Awareness of AIO and the limited perception of our Individual Identities.

Having contemplated the individual letters in those words, I began to consider the words themselves, and it occurred to me that each word is made of two letters, a vowel and a consonant. That quickly led to the recognition that the ISIT Construct applies to the alphabet as well.

Vowels clearly represent IS. Like the ‘s’, any vowel can go on and on for as much breath as you have. Vowels don’t have a beginning or an end — like AIO. The sound produced by consonants on the other hand, all have a definite beginning or end, and so have an ITistic function in our language. They break up words, providing the staccato rhythm between those melodic vowels. (Naturally some consonants (like ‘s’, ‘z’, and ‘f’, are softer and more ISish than others.)

So every word in every language (with just a very few odd exceptions) is made of consonants (IT) and vowels (IS).

And it doesn’t stop there. Sentences have the same naturally dualistic nature. In English, at least, every sentence contains a noun (IT) and verb (IS). In fact, that is the definition of a complete sentence. I thought about following this pattern into paragraphs and books, but that felt like a tangent.

Can you believe I was actually sitting there in a financial accounting class thinking about all this stuff? But it’s true! And I thought about a lot of other things that day, which we’ll get to in time. But those were some of the most interesting revelations I had that afternoon.

Anyway, at some point the class was over and I probably had to rush off somewhere. I was busy going to school full-time while holding down two jobs. And while this new revelation was fascinating to me, I figured it was kind of a far out concept that most other people wouldn’t appreciate. So I didn’t bother to write any of those thoughts down. In fact, I didn’t do a single thing about it. I just went on about my busy life. But I remembered everything that was revealed to me that day.

Over the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, I just kept rolling the IT IS Philosophy, (as I had named it in those days), over and over in my mind, like a rock tumbler polishing stones. One new understanding led to another, and the volume and complexity of interrelated concepts in this web-like Model of Reality that was developing in my mind continued to Expand.

Many Aspects of the model took years to evolve. Certainly much of the imagery came to me only after years of contemplation. I have often wondered why I never took steps over all those years to seriously develop and promote the ISIT Awareness System. But one major contributing factor was certainly the lingering sense that I hadn’t worked everything out — far from it.

I knew that I was pondering something very profound, but I was having a tough time trying to wrap my mind around it, let alone articulate it to others. Deep down, I guess I felt like I had something very precious in my care and that if I went blurting out a bunch of half-baked notions I would just make a fool of myself and, more importantly, snuff out ISITism in the cradle. I think that might be another reason it has taken me this long to get serious about writing this book. It just wasn’t ready for prime time, and I knew it.

I’m sure that doesn’t fully explain it, but there’s no point dwelling on the past. Rather, let’s take a closer look at this IT and IS concept with the benefit of the 30 years I’ve had to work it out. And since I mentioned the numerology model earlier, let’s start there.

Sacred Numerology According to ISITism

Numerology systems have been used for millennia — at least since the Babylonians and Egyptians — and have had a central role in religious beliefs through the ages. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (who is best known for the mathematical formula related to the right triangle — The Pythagorean Theorem) was convinced that numbers held the ultimate secrets to Reality. Plato, who studied Pythagoras, was also very very attuned to numerology.

However, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., the Christian Church associated numerology with astrology, divination and other forms of ‘magic’, and numerology has been generally viewed as paranormal mumbo jumbo ever since. Ironically, Judaism, and by extension Christianity, are rife with numerology. Many people believe that there are hidden messages embedded in the Torah and even the New Testament that can be revealed by applying a numerological system.

The ISIT Contruct approach to numerology begins with the fact that numbers are among the highest forms of Abstraction, and therefore are a useful and appropriate Tool to help conceptualize the most Fundamental Nature of Reality.

In fact, it seems to me that any significant Belief System MUST have some form of numerology. After all, numbers and mathematics are the most basic, common concept upon which virtually all of humanity agrees. We all know that 1+1=2 and 2×2=4 (though the actor/entrepreneur/philosopher Terrance Howard has certainly stirred up much controversy over his assertion that 1X1=2.)

And most people agree that numbers are not an invention of the human mind. They have deep meaning and significance in their own right, and that meaning should map clearly to any Theory of Everything. Over the years, I gradually realized that, indeed numbers do map perfectly to the ISIT Construct.

We have already established that Oneness is the highest level of Abstraction. The Absolute Infinite One is the Alpha and Omega. There can be nothing more Abstract.

Twoness — Duality — is clearly the next highest level of Abstraction. AIO and Not AIO. AIO and the Other. 1 and 0.

And then there is Three. The Trinity. You see, this stuff is just too easy! It’s so clear to see that these numbers represent sacred concepts. How could you not include a numerological model in any supposedly complete Belief System? Anyway, back to Three.

In ISITism, the number 3 is associated with the Union of AIO with the Other to form their Creation: ISIT. Up until now I have been using the words ‘IT IS’ in sentence form to refer to this sense that there are two opposite Aspects of the cosmic Duality. Now we are collapsing it into ‘ISIT’ — a name to Identify this thing we call Creation, or Reality.

ISIT is the offspring of AIO and the Other. It is not AIO. It is not the Other. It is a new, Third entity that is completely unique.

The great philosopher Hegel had it exactly right when he used his dialectic approach that involved forming a Thesis, which naturally gives rise to its Antithesis, and ultimately the resolution to the tension between these concepts — Syntheses — the union of Thesis and Antithesis.

Hegel intended this as a universal model that applies uniformly throughout Creation, and indeed it is. In fact, this is the most indelible pattern embedded in Reality. AIO Imagined its Opposite and Engaged with IT. The product of that Engagement was ISIT — the Synthesis of AIO (Thesis) and the Other (Antithesis).

And as noted before, ISIT is as completely different from its progenitors as they are from each other. For while AIO and the Other are Absolute states, ISIT is completely Relative.

Of course we do sometimes experience those peak moments where we seem to catch a glimpse of that Infinite State of Being, but those moments are fleeting and impossible to recapture. And given the nature of Infinity, we are forced to conclude that any ‘glimpse’ of the Infinite that we may catch while we are Bound to these Material Forms can only be a faint reflection of the Absolute.

In Reality, there is an asymptotic relationship between ISIT and both AIO and the Other, in that the closer an Object within the Sphere of Reality approaches one of these Absolute states the more difficult it becomes to shed that final bit of Relativity. No matter how close something may come to simply dissolving into the Absolute, it will just never quite seem to make it.

No, the only way to be as One is to be transformed from a Relative state into Absolute, and that is impossible as long as you have any attachment to anything related to Reality.

That’s what the Buddha was referring to with the Second Noble Truth: that the cause of suffering is attachment or desire for things ‘of the flesh’. If he had Abstracted that concept further he would ultimately have arrived at the concepts of IT and IS and concluded that the cause of suffering is the attachment to the ITistic Nature of Objects in Reality. I suppose his metaphorical representations are more relatable though — certainly to people in his day who didn’t have the benefit of all the collected knowledge we possess today.

Of course the King of colorful metaphors was Jesus. His quip that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” makes the same point; our attachment to the Material world — to Relativity itself — is what makes the Absolute a completely different, unattainable state, and why ISIT/Creation is a third and completely distinct entity. Which brings us back to the numerology model.

Obviously, Absolute Infinite One represents (or is represented by) the number 1. It is just as clear that the Other, being the second state of Existence, is represented by the number 2. And as just discussed, ISIT, i.e. all of Creation or Reality is represented by the number 3.

As elementary as that revelation may seem written above, I had been thinking about the IT IS philosophy for many years before I started realizing that I was looking at the foundation of a more complete numerological system. The idea is to map the Aspects of the underlying state (for lack of a better word) with the number it represents. Starting with the first three numbers:

1 – Unity, whole, complete, origin, expansion, action, unique, dynamism

2 – Division, partial, incomplete, duplication, reaction, repetition, reflection, inertia

3 – New, different, novelty, change, creation, individuality, engagement

As this book progresses we’ll see a natural numerological system develop from this beginning. But we can already begin to see certain patterns emerge. For example, notice that the concepts associated with the number 3 are more similar to those associated with 1 than with 2. It’s as if AIO started the process by Being Aware of the Other, and then the Other reacted by asserting those opposite Aspects. Then AIO responded by Engaging with the Other, thus Creating a third entity in its own Image. (I say “It’s as if…” above because the Truth is that AIO imagined the Other to represent its opposite. The Other didn’t actually react or assert anything, as it has no volition).

The point is that the number 3 is associated with the number 1 in terms of its orientation to the concept of AIO/IS, indicating what we will see repeated in subsequent chapters; that we have Identified another Duality associated with IT and IS: Odd numbers are associated with IS while even numbers are associated with IT.

What we also see beginning to reveal itself is the trend toward increasing complexity. While the attributes associated with the number 3 are more similar to those associated with 1, they also reflect those of 2 as well. For example, a hallmark of the number 2 is ‘division’. The words ‘new’ and ‘different’ are related to (actually Derived from) ‘division’ because you can’t have ‘difference’ without some form of ‘division’. You can’t have something new unless it is separate and different from the old.

The Unity of Oneness is not the same as the individuality of Objects, as individuality inherently involves differences from other individual Objects.

Thus, while the concepts of uniqueness and individuality attributed to the number 3 represent the Wholeness and Unity of AIO, they are really amalgams of those ISish aspects with the ITistic aspects of Division and Duplication. In other words, an Object is a whole unit that is separate and distinct from other objects, so it is reflecting attributes of both IS and IT.

We find this numerological model getting more complex and subtle already, and we will see this pattern repeated as well.

This book has been written in ten chapters, and we will develop this numerological system further with each new chapter. But for now, let us return to this entity we have named ISIT and those Fundamental Aspects of Reality labeled IT and IS.

Amazingly, I had been pondering these concepts for at least 15 years before I ever actually recorded any of the Dualities. Once I did, it only took a couple Googles and an hour or two to generate a long list of Dualities. I was struck by how clearly and obviously most of them applied to one absolute aspect of reality or the other. And the more associations were established the more obvious the assignment became with each subsequent Duality.

Following is a list of over 100 Dualities associated with the IS and IT Aspects of Reality.

IS	IT	IS	IT
1	0	movement	stillness
alive	inanimate	nature	technology
all	nothing	novel	familiar
always	never	now	then
attraction	repulsion	obscure	apparent
beautiful	ugly	observer	observed
belief	knowledge	odd	even
bold	timid	one	zero
celestial	terrestrial	one	many
circle	square	open	close
clarity	confusion	optimism	pessimism
comedy	tragedy	organic	artificial
confidence	doubt	outward	inward
creative	logical	peace	anxiety
curve	straight	peace	war
dangerous	safe	permissive	authoritarian
deviant	normal	pleasure	pain
durable	fragile	positive	negative
electricity	magnetism	present	absent
electron	neutron	pride	shame
honest	corrupt	pure	dirty
eternal	temporary	questions	answers
exception	rule	reality	illusion
expand	contract	relaxed	tense
exposed	covered	responsible	dependent
external	intern	right brain	left brain
fantasy	facts	simple	complex
fast	slow	sound	silence
feeling	thinking	spirit	body
fine	coarse	start	end
flexible	rigid	strong	weak
forward	backward	success	defeat
function	form	sun	moon
future	past	transparent	opaque
generous	greedy	unique	standard
genuine	superficial	unity	division
random	patterns	this	that
here	there	profit	loss
hope	despair	up	down
hot	cold	variety	repetition
interesting	boring	vertical	horizontal
invisible	visible	vigorous	languid
join	divide	vision	memory
joy	depression	vowels	consonants
levity	gravity	wave	particle
life	death	white	black
light	heavy	whole	part
love	hate	Yang	Yin
macroscopic	microscopic	young	old
motivation	apathy	true	false
global	local	nurture	nature
function	data	foresight	memory
analog	digital	noumenon	phenomenon

I should make it clear that none of these words are synonymous with their corresponding Aspect of IT or IS. As with the analogy I used in the previous chapter of a football player using multiple adjectives to describe their feeling about winning the Super Bowl, here it is the collective or intersecting meanings of all those Derivative words that sum up to an approximation of what we mean by the Absolutely Abstract concepts of ‘IT’ and ‘IS’.

While it is impossible to define an Absolutely Abstract concept in terms of its Derivatives, it is quite possible to do the reverse, i.e. assign somewhat Abstract concepts to their corresponding Absolutely Abstract form. For example, once you know that ‘IS’ is associated with the words ‘light’, ‘active’ and ‘energy’, it’s pretty clear that ‘life’, rather than ‘death’, should be associated with IS as well. But while the meaning of ‘IT’ and ‘IS’ become better defined with each Abstract concept we associate with it, we understand that there is a certain je ne sais quoi about those Absolute terms that we will never quite be able to put our finger on.

The Fibonacci Sequence is a great metaphor for this. The Fibonacci Sequence produces closer and closer approximations of the irrational number Phi (1.6180) with each repetition of the pattern, but it never arrives at a definitive number. Just so, all the various dualities can contribute some sense of meaning to the essence of IS and IT, but no matter how many examples we add, we can never completely define these Absolute concepts.

Uncertainty

As I mentally pulled this list together into what seemed to me to be a crystal clear collection that eclipsed any other Dualistic representation of Reality that had come before, one thought continued to nag at me; that maybe I was just confused and suffering from delusions of grandeur to think that I had captured the fundamental duality more accurately and completely than all the other belief systems that had been established for thousands of years, with billions of faithful adherents.

I think of myself as a rational person with an objective view of reality. Looking at my thought process objectively, I had to admit that I was either contemplating launching a belief system destined to disrupt the global spiritual landscape — or I was losing my mind. And I was fully aware that the application of Occam’s Razor would suggest that the reality was probably closer to the latter than the former. So even though I thought and felt like I had been pondering something amazing for all these years, I couldn’t or wouldn’t bring myself to accept it.

You could attribute this hesitance on my part to ‘humility’, but the truth is that it was a lack of humility that hindered me. My inertia was really due to an incomplete awareness that I am, like everyone and everything else in Reality, simply a facet of Absolute Infinite One. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always felt this deep down in my core. But I’ve chosen to live my life engaged in the temporal world, which makes me prone to all the trappings and confusion that entails.

I just couldn’t help thinking of the ISIT Awareness System as something I had developed in my mind.

After all, it wasn’t dictated to me by an Angel of Light. I didn’t discover some ancient tablets in a cave. I just saw the words ‘IT’ and ‘IS’ printed on a couple sheets of paper taped to a wall. Everything else happened inside my mind. So it had to be me — Mentor — who developed it, right? At the same time, I also felt that since I was a person of no particular reputation or accomplishment, no one in the world would give it much credence.

My lack of humility was twofold: I was thinking that this wisdom was my Creation, and that my reputation or personality would determine whether other people would appreciate it.

Again and again I wrestled with the contending beliefs that I was sitting on Essential Wisdom and selfishly remaining silent rather than sharing it with the world, and the more reasonable suspicion that I had just convinced myself of the significance of this understanding, which was really just a fanciful notion I had constructed in order to boost my battered ego.

I didn’t want to be perceived as a stark raving loon, babbling on about something that made perfect sense to me but sounded like complete gibberish to everyone else. I just couldn’t be ‘that guy’. So I just kept it to myself for the most part.

I did tell a few people about it here and there — a few family members and a few friends. When I did I was generally met with mild interest and faint encouragement. Nobody told me they thought I was crazy, but then, nobody got all that excited about it either.

At times I would attribute this apathy to the fact that no one quite saw the entire System as I did. (How could they, when I hadn’t taken the time to express it fully?) Other times I defaulted back to the theory that I was just misguided and others’ indifference was evidence of that delusion. Surely, I reasoned, if I was really talking about something so profound, others would recognize it, just from my brief verbal descriptions.

Then I would see some television show or Observe people on the street, or have a direct Experience of my own that clearly exemplified the Principles of ISIT, and my Belief in the philosophy would be reinforced. I would witness the confusion people experienced because they were trying to force Life circumstances into distorted Dualities such as ‘Right’ vs. ‘Wrong’, ‘Good vs. Evil’ or ‘Us vs. Them’, and my commitment to develop the ISIT Awareness System would grow.

During all this time, life went on. I finished earning my degree in psychology, started a couple of Internet businesses, got married, had two daughters, became an employee, bought a house, got laid off (a few times), lost our house in the Great Recession of 2008, suffered debilitating back problems, got divorced, tried and failed to start more businesses, declared bankruptcy, and generally struggled along, week after week, month after month, and year after year.

My Ego had taken repeated beatings until my self-image was reduced to that of a person who, while not a total loser, was certainly not a great leader or anyone who was equipped to change the world in any significant way.

Then something interesting happened. As my Ego continued to diminish, the ISIT Awareness System kept increasing in clarity and power in my mind, until gradually the realization sank in: I didn’t invent this Truth — I simply discovered it. This wasn’t some complex formulation developed by a genius. It was simply the Truth, and I had just stumbled upon it, and had been struggling to understand its significance ever since.

Einstein didn’t invent Relativity. He discovered it. The physical laws of Relativity were there all along. Einstein just happened to be the first one to Identify them and bring them to the rest of our attention. I see ISIT in very much the same way.

The ultimate Nature of Reality IS What IT IS.

It was just a matter of time before someone recognized the pattern and uncovered this simple and elegant way of representing it. Apparently, that person just happens to be me. Who woulda thunk it?!

Well, for such a humble person I certainly have gone on and on about myself, not to mention comparing myself to Einstein!

So let’s shift our attention back to the Nature of IT and the Essence of IS. After all, my whole premise is that the philosophy is the key, and I am but a humble messenger.

Unification

One of the core Purposes of the Church of ISITism is to Unify all the religions, philosophies and disciplines of all kinds along a few simple, Abstract Concepts. We hold that all valid Belief Systems follow certain discernable Patterns, and ISITism aims to Define and Express those Patterns as clearly as possible.

Describing IT IS in terms of how it relates to other Belief Systems will certainly be an effective way to describe and to understand it. As you will see, there is a great deal of correlation between ISITism and all of the other great religions of the world. So in this section we will explore the elementary patterns inherent in the leading Belief Systems and their equivalent in ISITism.

Judaism

On the surface, Judaism appears to be decidedly Monistic — not Dualistic. The doctrine is adamant that there is only one God that created everything — good and bad. There is no Devil or other comparable entity. However, when you consider the Jewish approach to the Creator, it is apparent that there is an inherent Duality: God and Creation. In Judaism, Creation is never described in a pantheistic sense in which God is Creation and vice versa. From the perspective of humans within Creation, God is unknowable and ineffable. He is clearly considered a self-contained entity that created the Universe as a separate entity.

Though this might sound quite different from the IT IS philosophy at first glance, it is really quite similar. The ancient Hebrews understood that we live in a temporal, relative world in which everything eventually passes away, and that God was Eternal, and therefore existing in a separate state. They obviously conceived of God in the same sense that I have described The Absolute Infinite One.

The Book of Genesis, in which the creation of the Universe is described, makes no mention of any second entity, which is actually consistent with ISITism. After all, ISITism asserts that the Other doesn’t really exist, but is simply The AIO’s mirror image. The Book of Genesis makes no mention of this mirror image, but there is certainly no shortage of Dualistic images, right from the very first sentence.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

We are immediately presented with the first Duality: the heavens and earth. Furthermore, these two creations clearly correspond to the IT IS Duality. Earth is described as dark and empty, while the Spirit of God hovered over it, presumably in the heavens.

And the Dualities continue. God proceeds to create the following Dualities:

Light/Dark
Day/Night
Morning/Evening
Sky/Water
Water/Land
Sun/Moon
Man/Woman

Genesis also goes on to describe the multiplicity of plants, animals and stars that God created on the foundation of these Dualities, which is consistent with the ISITism view that Reality, in its Infinite Complexity, arose from the union of IS and IT.

So here we see that Judaism and ISITism are in agreement about the most fundamental concepts:

The Creator is Absolute, Infinite and One
Creation has Duality baked in from the very beginning
The infinite Complexity of life is based on these Fundamental Dualities

We’ll explore the differences in the approaches a bit later, but for now, let’s take a look at that great offshoot of Judaism: Christianity.

Christianity

The Christian religion is loaded with examples of Dualism, starting with the epic power struggle between God and Satan and their corresponding domains, Heaven and Hell — with Creation stuck in the middle. God, existing in a state of Absolute Eternity creates the Universe. The Devil, who actually has no Creative powers is a deceiver who just imitates God, causing confusion and suffering in the world.

When you strip away all the details and personification, the Christian view is quite similar to the IT IS model. In ISITism, The AIO exists in a state of Absolute Eternity and simply decides that there will be an Other. This Other doesn’t really exist, has no power of Creation itself, and is just a reflection of The AIO. Creation is the result of The AIO Engaging with it’s own mirror image, and the cause of all Life’s confusion and conflict is the misunderstanding that the reflected Image of AIO is what is Real, not The AIO Itself.

To be sure, there are some key points with which I’m sure many Christians would differ. We’ll cover those in the following section, but let’s examine the similarities a little further.

Of course, there’s no point discussing the meaning of Christianity without considering what Jesus Christ himself said. And throughout his teaching the concepts of IT and IS are clearly evident. As God incarnate, Jesus describes himself with many of the same words we see in the descriptions for IS in our list of Dualities: Light, Life, Eternal, Love, Truth, Belief, Peace, Spirit, Unity, etc.

And his deeds reflected his deep association with The Absolute Infinite One as well. He loved children, those effervescent little bundles of joy, saying “…for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” His many parables and metaphors show his immense creativity. He was generous, bold and joyful.

Jesus even corresponds to one of the more non-intuitive aspects of IS… he was a Deviant.

What!?

Did I really just call Jesus Christ a Deviant?

Yes I did.

And since I have a feeling that some people may not take too kindly to that, I better explain this idea in a bit more detail.

According to ISITism, ‘IS’ is the active, dynamic Aspect of Reality that causes change and novelty. ‘IT’ is the static, inert Aspect that can only copy or duplicate what it perceives and what it knows. The instinct of IT is to line things up in columns and rows, encase them in boxes, and maintain them in a steady state. When confronted with an ITistic force bent on capture, containment and conformity what does an ISish force do? It swerves and curves and otherwise eludes attempts to contain its energy.

Given this basis, if we say that someone or something ‘deviates from the norm’, it should be clear that the word ‘norm’ is associated with IT (repeated, predictable, known) while the word ‘deviate’ is therefore and obviously associated with IS (unusual, random, unpredictable).

The Pharisees and Sadducees were constantly trying to pin Jesus down with legal arguments, but Jesus always had a way of eluding their traps while simultaneously further illuminating those people around him who had the Awareness to understand him.

On several occasions in the New Testament, the Jews tried to physically capture Jesus and again, he always mysteriously escaped their clutches — except for when it was least expected. At the height of his power, with the cheers of Hosanna! Hosanna! still ringing in His apostles’ ears, Jesus allowed himself to be captured. His disciples never saw it coming.

Jesus was very, very different from anyone else. He did not fit any mold or feel compelled by any arbitrary, man made rules or customs. He was free to be different because he knew that he was aligned with the Source and that his physical existence was only a temporary state. He is clearly the essence of IS in this world, and therefore, a deviant.

Of course, that word ‘deviant’ is generally used as a pejorative in today’s vernacular, but if you strip away all the negative connotations and look at the word from the Abstract perspective just described, it’s a perfectly apt description of Jesus.

That is really what the ISIT Awareness System is all about — stripping away the muddled up connotations around words and concepts so we can view them in a clear light from a higher plane. And as I have stated before and probably will again, Abstraction is the tool by which we gain that perspective and clarity.

Recognizing that Jesus was a deviant is a useful object lesson in that regard, and it certainly won’t be the last time we’ll need to address collective misconceptions that have built up around certain words and ideas over time.

But back to Jesus and Christianity. Jesus understood better than anyone the true Nature of Reality. The words he used to describe the World and those who were attached to it clearly correspond to those words associated with IT: corrupt, greedy, blind, anxious, superficial and confused.

Jesus was speaking to people from a much simpler time 2,000 years ago, so his approach was very concrete. He relied on stories and images to which people in his day could relate. So rather than saying that all of Reality is a manifestation of the Absolute Infinite One, he described the world as like a magnificent mustard tree that grew from a teeny tiny seed to a magnificent tree that becomes the home for birds. He knew that people of that time weren’t capable of understanding the complete truth in its most abstract. But he also knew that a select few would be able to read between the lines of his words and take the true message to heart.

That’s another way in which ISITism is similar to Christianity. Even today, most people see spirituality or the metaphysical in terms of concrete metaphors, and even believe those metaphors to be actual representations of Reality. ISITism will be too Abstract and sound like woo woo nonsense to these people.

Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice’. That is, to those relatively few people who are tuned in and ready to understand, his words make perfect sense, while to everyone else he sounds crazy or even blasphemous. Likewise, I think ISITism will be fully understood by that small percentage of people who are capable of letting their hearts and minds elevate to the highest levels of abstraction.

In case that sounds like I am now comparing myself to Jesus, let alone Einstein, let me state emphatically for the record that I am not. I am nobody’s Messiah. Trust me.

But I will say this: Jesus would have totally grokked the ISIT Awareness System!

Islam

Islam, is the third great Abrahamic religion, following Judaism and Christianity. As such, it is also fiercely monotheistic. The religion’s most fundamental concept, Tawhid, means “doctrine of Oneness”, which holds that Allah is One (Wāḥid) and Unique (āḥad), which connotes ‘unification’, ‘union’ or ‘combination’.

The Muslim holy book Qur’an states:

“Say (O Muhammad): He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”

—Qur’an, Sura 112 (Al-Ikhlas), ayat 1-4

Sure sounds like the Absolute Infinite One to me.

While Islam also incorporates the concept of the devil (Iblis), this character does not seem to have the same gravitas as the Christian version, and the concept of Dualism is not very prevalent in the Fundamental beliefs of Islam. We’ll discuss the significance of this in the following section.

Buddhism

When Gautama Buddha was asked ‘What are you?’, he answered, ‘I am Awake’. He was Aware. Not only is prajñā — viewing reality as it is, not just as it appears to be — the first step on the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, but for good measure samādhi — Awareness to see things for what they are with clear consciousness — is the seventh step. Clearly, attaining Awareness is held as the highest Purpose in Buddhism, just as it is with ISITism.

Unlike the western Abrahamic religions, Buddhism makes no attempt to personify the ultimate Source of Creation. On the contrary, Nirvāṇa is described more as an event rather than a state, let alone a place or an entity. Rather, it is conceived as the absence or cessation of the grasping desire and delusions that keep us bound to saṃsāra — the endless cycle of birth, life and death. Buddhism does not go to much effort trying to describe the state of Nirvana, because it is inexpressible in any terms that make sense in our Reality.

According to Buddhist scholar Walpola Rahula, “Nirvāṇa is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is therefore beyond our conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, existence and non-existence.”

Obviously, the Buddhist conception of Nirvāṇa is perfectly consistent with the IT IS concept of IS — the active, creative Aspect of Reality, which ultimately represents The AIO in Creation.

Furthermore, the Buddhist concept of dukkha — the Sanskrit word that roughly translates to anxiety, dissatisfaction or suffering — is equivalent to the concept of ‘IT’ in ISITism. Dukkha is commonly explained according to three different categories:

The obvious physical and mental suffering associated with birth, growing old, illness and dying.
The anxiety or stress of trying to hold onto things that are constantly changing.
A basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all forms of existence, because all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance.

In short, Dukkha is the attachment to ITistic structures in Reality that are inevitably temporary, flawed, conflicting and subject to the dominant force of IS which causes constant change. Ultimately, the cycle of suffering and rebirth known as saṃsāra arises out of avidya (ignorance), or a lack of samādhi (Awareness).

Taoism

At around the same time that Gautama Buddha was teaching his Belief System in Northern India, Lao Tzu was writing the Tao Te Ching — the formative text of the Chinese religion of Taoism. Taoism has not attracted nearly as many adherents worldwide as the other Major eastern religions — Buddhism or Hinduism — though with about 2.7 million practicing Taoists, it certainly deserves to be counted among the major religions of the world. And the ubiquitous Yin-Yang symbol that is closely associated with Taoism is well known and intuitively understood by a far larger population than are familiar with the broader teachings of the faith.

Of all the major religions, Taoism is probably the one that most closely resembles ISITism. First we see the obvious parallel between the Yin-Yang Duality with the IT-IS Duality. A cursory look at the list of Dualities associated with Yin-Yang shows that they line up clearly with IT IS, though the IT IS list is far more extensive than anything ever developed for Yin-Yang (to my knowledge).

Even more important is the approach Taoism takes to defining, or rather NOT defining, its version of the Absolute Infinite One: The Tao, which means The Way. The Tao Te Ching begins with the following lines:

The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.

Naming is the origin

of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

In case those lines were a bit too cryptic, the Tao Te Ching goes on to say:

There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

It is serene. Empty.

Solitary. Unchanging.

Infinite. Eternally present.

It is the mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name,

I call it the Tao.

I certainly wouldn’t claim that AIO is a better name than Tao, but it is certainly just as good, because both names are attempting to the express the same concept.

With the possible exception of Buddhism, Taoism is the religion that takes the most Abstract approach to understand the nature of Reality. A core approach of Taoism is to identify patterns and then follow these patterns through their increasing levels of complexity to find guidance for how to live our lives. The whole iChing system of divination is a prime example. This focus on patterns has lead to Taoism arriving at many of the same conclusion as ISITism. Perhaps one of the most striking is this verse from the Tao Te Ching:

The Way begot one,

And the one, two;

Then the two begot three

And three, all else.

Sound familiar?

But though Taoism and ISITism start from the same origin, Taoism is subject to philosophical faults just as are all the other religions that were developed over the centuries. In the upcoming section on Derivation, we will see how even Taoism falls into the usual trap of falling back on analogies and other shortcuts, which ultimately make it another Derivative of ISITism.

Hinduism

Akasha is Yin to Prana’s Yang

The prevailing image among non-Hindus is that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with a pantheon of gods as extensive as the Greeks and Romans. This conception is not unwarranted, though this is largely due to the fact that the Hindu religion is an amalgam of many different belief systems and cultures that have existed on the Indian sub-continent for at least 4,000 years. These various beliefs and practices coalesced around the Hindu religion, resulting in an incredibly diverse and expansive Belief System.

However, at the root of this religion are the Vedas, ancient writings from as early as 1700 BCE. And the Vedas describe the Creator of Reality in much the same way as ISITism and all the other major religions of the world.

He is without any form, yet dwells inside and outside all things

With form and shape,

Yet He is entirely free of error, faultless and pure.

He is far beyond anything a human body can comprehend.

And being the Divine Poet. He is inspiration itself.

He maintains peace and harmony because He is both peace and

Harmony made manifest.

— Rig Veda

He is the Supreme Brahman, the Self of all, the chief foundation of this world, subtler than the subtle, eternal. That thou art; thou art That.

— Atharva Veda

Whatever exists and wherever it exists is permeated by the same divine power and force.

— Yajur Veda

Him who is without beginning and without end, in the midst of confusion, the Creator of all, of manifold form, the One embracer of the universe — by knowing God, one is released from all fetters.

— Yajur Veda

He is the never-created creator of all: He knows all. He is pure consciousness, the creator of time, all-powerful, all knowing. He is the Lord of the soul and of nature and of the three conditions of nature. From Him comes the transmigration of life and liberation, bondage in time and freedom in eternity.

— Yajur Veda

God is, in truth, the whole universe: what was, what is and what beyond shall ever be. He is the God of life immortal and of all life that lives by food. His hands and feet are everywhere. He has heads and mouths everywhere. He sees all, He hears all. He is in all, and He is all.

— Yajur Veda

He is the God of forms infinite, in whose glory all things are, smaller than the smallest atom, and yet the creator of all, ever living in the mystery of his creation. In the vision of this God of love there is everlasting peace.

— Yajur Veda

He the Self, is not this, not that. He is ungraspable, for He is not grasped. He is indestructible, for He cannot be destroyed, He is unattached, for He does not cling to anything. He is unbound, He does not suffer, nor is He injured.

— Yajur Veda

Can there be any doubt that the writers of the Vedas were attempting to describe the same Creator as each of the religions we have described so far, including ISITism?

And the Hindu Creation Story, while quite fanciful, maps neatly to ISITism’s.

Hindu Creation Story

Before this time began, there was no heaven, no earth and no space between. A vast dark ocean washed upon the shores of nothingness and licked the edges of the night.

A giant cobra floated on the waters. Asleep within its endless coils lay the Lord Vishnu. He was watched over by the mighty serpent. Everything was so peaceful and silent that Vishnu slept undisturbed by dreams motion. From the depths a humming sound began to tremble, Ohm. It grew and spread, filling the emptiness and throbbing with energy.

The night had ended, Vishnu awoke. As the dawn began to break, from Vishnu’s navel grew a magnificent lotus flower. In the middle of the blossom sat Vishnu’s servant, Brahma. He awaited the Lord’s command.

Vishnu spoke to his servant: ‘It is time to begin.’ Brahma bowed. Vishnu commanded: ‘Create the World.’ A wind swept up the waters. Vishnu and the serpent vanished.

Brahma remained in the lotus flower, floating and tossing on the sea. He lifted up his arms and calmed the wind and the ocean.

Then Brahma split the lotus flower into three. He stretched one part into the heavens. He made another part into the earth. With the third part of the flower he created the skies.

The earth was bare. Brahma set to work. He created grass, flowers, trees and plants of all kinds. To these he gave feeling. Next he created the animals and the insects to live on the land. He made birds and many fish. To all these creatures, he gave the senses of touch and smell. He gave them power to see, hear and move. The world was soon bristling with life and the air was filled with the sounds of Brahma’s creation.

The earth was created from the interaction between ether, one of the gross elements, and sound. This universe which is one of many has three parts, the heavenly planets, the lower worlds, and the earthly realm.

In this Story, the water, coiled snake and Lord Vishnu clearly represent IT — asleep, motionless, silent, dark nothingness. The sound Ohm represents IS — ‘throbbing with Energy and filling the emptiness’. Ohm Awakens Vishnu, just as IS Engages with IT. So obviously, ISIT and Brahma are equivalent. Brahma is an Infinite Being, but is the servant of Vishnu, which was Awakened by Ohm, just as ISIT is the Infinite Creation of the Engagement of IT with IS. And what number is associated with Brahma? Three. That’s 3, just like ISIT.

The stories map so closely that I wouldn’t blame someone for saying that ISITism is a rip-off of Hinduism — just adding a bunch of modern terminology to replace the outdated imagery. Actually, that is pretty close to the case. Except I don’t think IT IS is ripping off Hinduism.

In fact, as counter-intuitive as this sounds, I would say that Hinduism is Derivative of ISITism. What I mean by that is that ISITism is a more distilled, refined depiction of the essential Truth than Hinduism, (and all the other religions) are trying to convey.

Through millennia of word-of-mouth stories, writings, discourse, societal changes, and an unfathomably complex mangle of experiences, Hinduism (and the others) have developed accretions and idiosyncrasies that bind the religious teachings to its cultural roots.

All of the world’s religions are trying to tell the One True Story, but they are all obscuring it by applying their own patchwork templates. Only ISITism, strips away all of those details to reveal the Essential Truth and Awareness that lies at the core of all religions.

Hermeticism

It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that all major world religions hold similar beliefs about the Absolute Infinite One and the Nature of Reality, because all of these religions find their roots in the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian Master of Masters who established the Hermetic Core Concepts common to all valid Belief Systems.

As it states in the Kybalion:

From the land of the Ganges many advanced occultists wandered to the land of Egypt, and sat at the feet of the Master. From him they obtained the Master-Key which explained and reconciled their divergent views, and thus the Secret Doctrine was firmly established. From other lands also came the learned ones, all of whom regarded Hermes as the Master of Masters, and his influence was so great that in spite of the many wanderings from the path on the part of the centuries of teachers in these different lands, there may still be found a certain basic resemblance and correspondence which underlies the many and often quite divergent theories entertained and taught by the occultists of these different lands today. The student of Comparative Religions will be able to perceive the influence of the Hermetic

Teachings in every religion worthy of the name, now known to man, whether it be a dead religion or one in full vigor in our own times. There is always a certain correspondence in spite of the contradictory features, and the Hermetic Teachings act as the Great Reconciler.

This is why I was certain that the ISIT Awareness System was based on Truth when I read the Kybalion and found that it was completely in sync. A brief review of the Seven Hermetic Principles, upon which the entire Hermetic Philosophy is based, will reveal this correlation.

The Principle of Mentalism

The Kybalion states:

This Principle embodies the truth that “All is Mind.” It explains that THE ALL (which is the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of “The Material Universe”; the “Phenomena of Life”; “Matter”; “Energy”; and in short, all that is apparent to our material senses) is SPIRIT, which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE, but which may be considered and thought of as AN UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, LIVING MIND.

By now it should be crystal clear (as it probably was before) that on this concept all major religions agree, and that this is perfectly in sync with the ISITism Concept of The Absolute Infinite One as pure Awareness and Potential.

The Principle of Correspondence

The Principle of Correspondence is summed up in the axiom “As above, so below; as below, so above.” This addresses the patterns that are repeated at every scale and on all planes of existence from the micro to the macro and beyond. Think about our trip out past the Universe to the Infinite Hosts beyond that. Or think of Man creating the car in his own Image as God created Man in His own Image. These representations are based on the same Truth: that the Host Object will always leave their imprint on their Creations, and you can learn to understand things on other levels by understanding their corresponding nature on our level.

Of course the other religions share this Concept as well. Jesus said something to the effect of “The Son can only do what he sees the Father doing”. The whole Father-Son motif in Christianity takes a very personal approach, as does the idea of Heaven as a place that is similar in many ways to our Present Life. But both represent the Principle of Correspondence just as surely as ISITism’s nested objects model (See Chapter 4: Objective Reality).

III. The Principle of Vibration

This is the Principle that everything throughout Reality is in a constant state of vibration and change. From the smallest atom to the farthest reaches of the Universe. These vibrations vary on a scale with base matter vibrating at a low frequencies and spirit vibrating at high frequencies and.

Hinduism is a great example of incorporating The Principle of Vibration into it’s own. It proposes that the expansion of the Universe starting with the Big Bang is just one expansion of the universe, which will be followed by contraction and then another Big Bang and expansion in a perpetual cycle. This repeating cycle of the Universe contracting and expanding illustrates clearly that vibration is the Foundation of Creation.

That understanding is clearly in alignment with ISITism which holds that vibration is the medium for the manifestation of IS in Reality. We’ll explore that further in the next chapter.

The Principle of Polarity

It is amazing how much debate there has been over the centuries about Dualism vs. Monism when Hermes Trismegistus made it perfectly clear long ago. According to The Kybalion:

“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”

This principle asserts that while everything in Reality has a Dual nature, the Duality is really an illusion because any two opposites are actually just different ends of a spectrum in terms of a given attribute. For example, Love and Hate are simply the extreme ends of a spectrum that runs from ‘Love’ through ‘like’ through ‘ambivalence’ through ‘dislike’ to ‘hate’. Light and Dark are really just descriptions about the amount of Light. Dark is just the lack of light; cold the lack of heat; hate the lack of Love.

All major religions incorporate Duality into their teachings, and all attempt to reconcile this Duality with Unity. ISITism holds that all the various Dualities derive from the Absolute Duality of IT and IS, where IS is the only Real substance, and IT is simply the lack of IS.

The Principle of Rhythm

According to the Kybalion:

This Principle embodies the truth that in everything there is manifested a measured motion, to and fro; a flow and inflow; a swing backward and forward; a pendulum-like movement; a tide-like ebb and flow; a high-tide and low-tide; between the two poles which exist in accordance with the Principle of Polarity described a moment ago. There is always an action and a reaction; an advance and a retreat; a rising and a sinking. This is in the affairs of the Universe, suns, worlds, men, animals, mind, energy, and matter. This law is manifest in the creation and destruction of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations; in the life of all things; and finally in the mental states of Man.

The Principle of Rhythm combines the Principle of Polarity with the Principle of Vibration. The Principle of Polarity holds that everything exists along a spectrum of apparent polar opposites, and the Principle of Vibration asserts that everything is in a constant state of flux; pulsing and throbbing as the Essential Aspect (light, heat, love, etc.) rises and falls. The Principle of Rhythm recognizes that these fluctuations/vibrations occur according to patterns that we can recognize.

The Principle of Cause and Effect

Careful attention to the Hermetic Principles will reveal that they gradually decline in Abstraction as they proceed, with each Principle being, in a sense, Derivative of the last. The first principle — that the ALL is ultimately Mind/Awareness — is highly Abstract. The second Principle of Correspondence recognizes that we can be Aware of patterns that are repeated at all levels of existence. The third Principle of Vibration establishes that these patterns are in a constant state of flux. The fourth Principle of Polarity asserts that the nature of these pattern fluctuations occur along a spectrum between two apparently opposite poles that are actually just a measure of the One Real Concept being considered. The fifth Principle of Rhythm considers how all the foregoing Principles manifest in recognizable patterns.

The sixth Principle of Cause and Effect is more Concrete still. The Kybalion states:

“Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.”

This is a much more mechanistic perspective, and the Kybalion discusses how the Master can harness and Control this Principle in order to affect the circumstances of their life. While still very esoteric, the Hermetic has moved from the realm of the Absolute and Abstract to the realm of Relative and Concrete.

All other major religions do this as well. They all attempt to discern the ultimate patterns — or Laws — from the highest plane and apply those Laws to our day to day lives. And of course, this is the Purpose of ISITism as well.

VII. The Principle of Gender

The final Hermetic Principle is that of Gender. The Kybalion states:

“Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.”

Of course, all the major world religions have the concepts of gender woven into their very fabric, just as Duality itself is woven in. Taoism’s Yin-Yang concept is perhaps the most obvious of these, as male is explicitly associated with Yang and female associated with Yin. The Judeo-Christian religions established Gender as a Core Concept with the story of Adam and Eve. Christianity’s concept of God/Jesus being a bridegroom while the church is the bride is just as clear. I could easily list examples from every religion, but will rather consider this point to be established, as well it should be, because like all the previous Hermetic Principles, the masculine/feminine Duality is apparent within our daily lives and has been from the beginning of Human Awareness.

However, it is at this point that ISITism must testify to a higher level of Awareness and assert that all of these Belief Systems, including the model set forth by Hermes Trismegistus, have made the error of mixing Abstract concepts with their Concrete Derivatives, thus sowing the seeds of confusion and conflict.

Derivation

So now, after repeated claims that the Beliefs of all other major religions and their common progenitor, Hermeticism, are Derivative of the IT IS philosophy, it’s time to back that up.

Let me begin by clearly defining what I mean by the word ‘Derivative’. This is important because, like most words, ‘derivative’ has a range of connotations. For example, we can think of ‘derivative works’ in which someone expands on an existing creation. Or we can think of it in the sense that someone might say “Oh, this movie is totally derivative of that other movie”. In this sense, the second movie may be different on the surface but is based on the same themes, archetypes or situations as the first. And many of us are now aware of the concept of Derivatives in financial markets, in which basic financial instruments or practices are combined with others to create more complex and potentially volatile instruments.

All of these connotations, however, have a common thread, which I identified in Chapter 2 – The Other where I described Derivative as “one that derives or arises from another more elementary Concept”. In fact, each of those three definitions of the term ‘derivative’ are Derivative of the more Abstract definition I just provided. (If you didn’t catch that little mind bender, go back and read that last sentence again!)

The definition of ‘derivative’ according to Merriam-Webster is ‘to take, receive, or obtain especially from a specified source’. A reader might reasonably wonder how something written thousands of years ago could possibly be derivative of something written today. Surely the earlier work would have to be the ‘source’ and the later work the derivative.

But this depends on the meaning of ‘source’. In this context, if we consider the ‘source’ to be ‘Source’ or Ultimate Truth, then the prime work is that which approaches the Source in the most clear and abstract way, and the derivative piece is that which adds more complexity and concrete detail. In other words, we consider abstraction and simplicity, rather than chronology, to be the primary basis for the meaning of the word ‘derivative’. And it is on this basis that I make the audacious claim that all other religions are derivatives of ISITism.

Gender

Though I called attention to the increasingly concrete nature of the Seven Hermetic Principles, the Kybalion itself makes no such distinction. Rather, all seven Principles are presented as though they are all on the same level of profundity. Now, I actually like to think that the originator of this Wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus, was well Aware of this obscure pattern but chose not to spell it out, so that only those with deeper understanding would recognize it. But the fact remains that neither the Kybalion nor any other Hermetic writings (to my knowledge) acknowledge that the Seven Hermetic Principles present some complex, concrete concepts as if they were simple, abstract concepts. This is the very trap all existing religions fall into. ISITism seeks to bring clarity to these misconceptions.

The concept of Gender as it applies to the spiritual or religious Beliefs is possibly the most common case in point. This is understandable, given how Fundamental gender is from our human perspective. We experience our own gender and we see gender represented in virtually all living things from micro-organisms through plants and animals. We even perceive characteristics of the genders reflected in greater objects like the Earth, Moon and Sun.

This has inevitably lead to some confusing conclusions that have resulted in much conflict over the centuries. Judeo-Christian religions depict God as being essentially masculine while Wiccans view their prime deity as a goddess. In case this seems like a small matter, just consider all the women burned at the stake for their feminine orientation or all the women denied positions of leadership in organized religions.

The feminine/masculine duality is actually a derivative concept. In fact, if we look closer we can see at least three layers of derivation as follows.

Masculine/Feminine

⇓

Male/Female

⇓

Men/Women

Let’s take a closer look at this, starting with Men and Women, which refers strictly to Humans, specifically the male and female of the species. The words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ communicate much more than simply our roles in the reproductive process. There are many layers and aspects of cultural Beliefs that establish what it means to be a man or woman in any given society. One person with the XY chromosomes may be considered much more ‘manly’ than another, even though they are both definitively male.

Male and Female likewise Derive from the more abstract concept of the masculine and feminine we see manifested throughout Creation. We recognize certain characteristics in a derivative concept like ‘male’ and generalize that to the higher order concept. So we recognize that as men penetrate women during sexual intercourse, male penetrates female and masculine penetrates feminine. Or we may see that men tend to exhibit more overt energy and we generalize that attribute to all males in every form of existence as well as to the masculine.

This can be useful when we are Aware of the process. It can also cause massive confusion. Consider this analogy: Suppose an alien who knew nothing of sports visited Earth and was introduced to an NBA basketball team. This alien might take note that these people are very tall and conclude that all basketball players are tall — a reasonable conclusion. But if they extrapolate that logic to conclude that because basketball players are athletes that all athletes must be tall, they will be confused once they meet a female gymnast or horse jockey. In summary, generalizing from the specific to the general can get very confusing.

The Kybalion acknowledges that all things contain both male and female Aspects. All men and women have both male and female characteristics in different degrees. What it apparently does not recognize is that ‘maleness’ itself incorporates aspects of masculinity and femininity, and that masculine and feminine both incorporate both aspects of the ultimate Duality: IT and IS.

In ISITism, the IS Essence is associated with concepts like ‘energy’ and ‘action’ — words we would generally associate with masculinity. The Nature of IT is associated with words like ‘receptive’ or ‘quiet’, which we would generally associate with femininity. So does it follow that IS is essentially masculine and IT is naturally feminine? Well, let’s consider the words ‘flexible’ and ‘change’ — words that are clearly associated with IS. Do those better describe men or women? Masculinity or femininity? Many people would probably relate those ISish attributes to femininity. What about the word ‘analytical’ or the shape of a square? These ITistic attributes would probably be more commonly associated with masculinity.

So just as all men and women have aspects of both male and female characteristics, and as all males and females have characteristics of both masculine and feminine, so masculine and feminine are combinations of the most Abstract concepts of IT and IS.

I am Aware that I have made some very bold claims about the veracity of ISITism and the deficiencies of other major religions, and have provided only one example — the mischaracterization of Gender as a Fundamental Aspect of Reality — in support of those claims. Gender is just one way in which ancient religions have distorted their wisdom with Derivative concepts. There are many others, and we will explore some of those over the course of this book.

But this should not be taken as an attempt to tear down those other religions in order to build up ISITism. ISITism is here to reinforce the core messages of all the religions by dismantling the confusing concretions and derivative concepts.

Reconciliation

All of the major religions have attempted to focus Human Awareness on the Absolute Infinite One, each in their own way and in the contexts of their various cultures. They attempted to raise the awareness of the masses, helping them to comprehend the concepts of IT and IS in the infinite creation using the frames of reference that were understood by people at the time.

Given the limited range of experience and relative lack of knowledge available to the populace before the modern age, teachers and prophets were forced to fall back on analogies, metaphors and similes to express abstract concepts (as we still are today). It should come as no surprise that so many people took those illustrations literally. The fact is, even today the majority of people are still bound to their limited mindsets and are not willing to let their Minds stretch to higher levels of Abstraction, so chances are, there are relatively few who are ready to absorb and accept the Principles of ISIT, which sits at the pinnacle of abstract ontology.

And now, having covered the most Abstract of Concepts — Absolute Infinite One, the Other, IT and IS, and their union into ISIT, which is all of Creation — it is time to begin our exploration of the more relatable subject of Objective Reality. From that firm Foundation we will set the stage for the unveiling of the Master Key to Joy, Peace and Abundance.