User:Phi

This page contains some ideas I had about how the wiki could be used to help crowdsource the effort of validating the claims of the OLB. Consider everything here simply a proposal. I welcome all comments, of course. If I haven't been clear about something, feel free to ask me to explain something better.

[2023-11-08] On a personal note, I should say that I can help do some of this but my overall amount of free time will become restricted very soon. Ideally I've described the process below in a way that anyone could do it.

Validation

Is any of the Oera Linda Book true? Is it a history book or only a work of philosophical fiction? How much of it is legendary and how much is legitimate? These are questions that will always stick with the OLB.

Many people have invested large amounts of time into researching the claims of the Oera Linda Book to validate its authenticity. Much of that information is unfortunately scattered throughout many disparate sources, and much of it isn't fully up-to-date with the latest scientific studies.

Notwithstanding translation tweaks, the text of the Oera Linda Book is static and fully known, therefore the sets of claims it makes are also static. I would like to propose a method for organizing the empirical claims made by the OLB. The goal is to establish discrete citable anchor points which further theories and arguments can reference. Effort should be made to distinguish between different sets of claims that exist within a single section of the OLB; two sets of claims are different if they would require different evidence to corroborate or refute them. Only details that can be possibly proven or disproven should be considered a Claim.

Once a process is in place, a review can be done of all the available books, posts, presentations, etc, to extract any original findings or clues and centralize the substance of them on the wiki with citations.

To have many people collaborate on a single dialectical discourse about the OLB's veracity, we have to be very careful to separate hard facts from "maybes" and from outright disproven claims shared for the sake of argument. The only "facts" we can say about the OLB is that "the OLB says X", never "X absolutely happened because the OLB says X". The goal should be to get to the point where we can say "The OLB says X and here is a theoretical argument that supports X".

Whether arguments are convincing is up to each individual. Many people will interpret the OLB and real-world evidence differently, so there will naturally be conflicting theories and arguments for explaining claims. If these are well organized, multiple lines of argumentation can be made in parallel so that no one dominant Gestalt suppresses new or divergent ideas. Ultimately, in a best-case scenario, one comprehensive Argument could be written about "Why the OLB is Real" that includes references to all the good Arguments made in the various Theories, per that author's discretion.

Proposal for Organizing Sets of Empirical Claims

Here is how I would suggest expanding the wiki to accommodate a collaborative validation effort:

1. Create a Claims page with all claims from the entire book on it
   • The page may become quite long, but a long page is easier to scan, search through, and re-organize. It can always be broken up later.
2. Edit the pages of each section (e.g. 2b, 7a, etc) to include a link to the relevant heading on the Claims page about that section (if any)
3. To present research relevant to explaining some claims, create a name for your Theory that summarizes it
   • e.g. "The Frisland Theory".
   • see the "Related Theories" section below in my example for more sample names
4. Create a new page for your Theory
   • In your Theory page, you must cite the relevant Claims from the OLB that the Theory is meant to support or dispute
   • Write a section called "Steelman Supporting Argument"
   • Optionally, write a section called "Steelman Disputing Argument"
   • Optionally, your Theory may have sub-theories; these can be included on the same page.
5. Edit the relevant "Claims" section(s) to include a link to your Theory page under a "Related Theories" header

The reason why a Theory page should have "Steelman Supporting Argument" and "Steelman Disputing Argument" is to give a space for yourself or others to play "devil's advocate" with a different interpretation of the evidence presented. Some steelman supporting arguments might sound good on the surface, but might have some critical flaws. Having separate sections offers a place for multiple ideas to be presented without editors fighting over diction and talking points. It will be up to the reader to determine which argument holds up better.

Below I've provided an example "Claims" section. Notice how there are two different sets of claims, one about the geological phenomena and one about population replacement. Each of the linked "Related Theories" pages should reference any of these claims that the theory seeks to address.

EXAMPLE "Claims" for Section 7b

7b

The Bad Times were brought about by a confluence of physical phenomena that greatly affected the Fryas and some Findas.

Claim: Geological Phenomena of the Bad Times

Some or all of the following geological phenomena began happening during the summer of the year that Aldland sank and lasted for up to three years:

• the first phase of the phenomena was marked by overcast skies and little-to-no wind
  • "All summer long, Sun had hidden behind clouds, as if she did not wish to see Earth. Wind rested in his bags..."
• the second phase involved tremors or earthquakes
  • "...Earth began to tremble as if she were dying"
• geothermal activity occurred
  • "Mountains split asunder, spewing fire and flames..."
• geothermal activity was accompanied by the creation of new mountains and the flattening, sinking or destruction other mountains
  • "...[mountains] sank into Earth's bowels; and where she had once borne plains, she thrust up mountains"
• a landmass called Aldland became completely submerged underwater
  • [Aldland] sank down... so that all was submerged.
• the Aldland landmass had mountains and valleys
  • "...the roiling sea trod everywhere over mountain and valley [of Aldland]"
• landslides buried some Frya peoples
  • "many people were buried by landslides..."
• at least in some areas, the phase of fire was felt before the phase of flooding
  • "...many who had escaped the fire later perished in the water"
• geothermal activity occurred in the lands of Finda's folk
  • "...in the lands of Finda did mountains spew fire..."
• geothermal activity occurred in Twiskland
  • "...also in the Twiskland [did mountains spew fire]"
• forest fires occurred in Twiskland
  • "Forests burned one after another and, when Wind came from [Twiskland], our lands were covered in ash."
    • Because the previous sentence emphasizes Twiskland, the antecedent of "there" is assumed to be "Twiskland" in this quotation
• rivers changed course
  • "rivers changed their course..."
• new islands were created by river water flow
  • "rivers changed their course and, at their mouths, new islands were formed of sand and drift."
• some lands were submerged
  • "Many lands were submerged..."
• new lands were created in the sea
  • "Many lands were submerged, others had risen out of the sea..."
• Twiskland was significantly deforested
  • "...half of the Twiskland had been deforested"

Claim: Finda Population Replacement in the Bad Times

• The final phase of the Bad Times involved population replacement of Frya's folk with Finda's folk
  • "Troops of Finda's people came and settled in the empty places. Our dispersed people were exterminated or made slaves."

Related Theories

• The Frisland Theory
• The Laacher Sea Eruption Theory
• The Atlantean Origin Theory
• The Methane Venting Tectonics Theory
• The Baltic Mega-Tsunami Theory
• The Lower Saxony Petroleum Basin Theory

Metaphysics of Wralda

In addition to organizing empirical claims, I believe discrete metaphysical claims can be aggregated from the entire book to help teach the overall ethos, mythos, and logos of the Fryas.

Proposal for Organizing Esoteric Claims

Here is an example of how I would translate section 2b to esoteric claims:

2b

• Wralda is wholly good
• Wralda is eternal
• Wralda created the ANFANG
• Wralda is masculine
• The ANFANG was created "before" Time was
• Time wrought Earth
• Earth is feminine
• Earth bore plants and animals
• Earth brought forth the dear and the good by day
• Earth brought forth the evil and the fearsome by night
• After the twelfth Yulefeast, Earth created Lyda, Finda and Frya
• Lyda was borne of glowing hot substance
• Finda was borne of hot substance
• Frya was borne of warm substance
• When Lyda, Finda and Frya were born, Wralda fed them with His breath
• Mankind is "bound to" Wralda through the breath He gave the triplets
• The triplets took time to reach maturity
• The triplets become fruitful as they matured
• The triplets took pleasure in their dreams as they matured
• The triplets each had 24 children (12 sons and 12 daughters)
• Each of the triplets had twins each Yuletide
• All of mankind is descended from one of the triplets
• Wralda's "od" was the masculine component of the pregnancies that bore the triplets' children

Potential Interpretations

• Frya was a virgin mother
• Each time Lyda, Finda and Frya gave birth to twins, the twins were 1 boy and 1 girl

Other notes

It might be beneficial to have a numbering scheme so that every sentence in the OLB has a unique identifier and can be cited by reference number. The numbering should be based on the way that the sentences are shown on the original pages. This could be used by claims (and other writing) to cite an exact sentence without copying a translation (that could become out of date) or referencing an entire section.