Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 was a name intended for a Swedish child who was born in 1991. Parents Elisabeth Hallin and Lasse Diding had planned to never legally name their child as a protest against the naming law of Sweden which reads, “First names shall not be approved if they can cause offense or can be supposed to cause discomfort for the one using it, or names which for some obvious reason are not suitable as a first name.”

Because the parents failed to register a name by the boy’s fifth birthday, a district court in Halmstad, southern Sweden, fined them 5,000 kronor. Responding to the fine, the parents submitted the 43 character name in May 1996, claiming that it was “a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation.” The parents suggested the name be understood in the spirit of pataphysics. The court rejected the name and upheld the fine.

Pataphysics is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. It is a parody of the theory and methods of modern science and is often expressed in nonsensical language. It is the science of imaginary solutions, as defined by Alfred Jarry, the first thinker to explore its foundations. It is an extension of metaphysics, the same way metaphysics is an extension of physics. The central concept is to take an idea, assume its veracity, and see where that gets you.

In essense, pataphysics is a degree of separation from reality. So, for example, if we see someone we know on the street and believe they are ignoring us even if it is not true, and then begin to imagine a reason they are doing so, we are essentially thinking pataphorically. So pataphors and pataphysics may also be said to describe the world of our fears, mistaken assumptions and belief systems run amok. They are worlds built of assumptions based on assumptions.

As an example, the neutral interpretation of an event might be “Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line.” A metaphorical interpretation would be “Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line, two pieces on a chessboard.” A pataphorical interpretation would “Tom took a step closer to Alice and made a date for Friday night, checkmating. Rudy was furious at losing to Margaret so easily and dumped the board on the rose colored quilt, stomping downstairs.” Thus, the pataphor has created a world where the chessboard exists, including the characters who live in that world, entirely abandoning the original context.

A pataphor attempts to create a figure of speech that exists as far from metaphor as metaphor exists from non figurative language. Whereas a metaphor is the comparison of a real object or event with a seemingly unrelated subject in order to emphasize the similarities between the two, the pataphor uses the newly created metaphorical similarity as a reality with which to base itself. In going beyond mere ornamentation of the original idea, the pataphor seeks to describe a new and separate world, in which an idea or aspect of a concept has taken on a life of its own.

Like pataphysics itself, pataphors essentially describe two degrees of separation from reality, rather than merely one degree of separation, which is the world of metaphors and metaphysics. The pataphor may also be said to function as a critical tool, describing the world of assumptions based on assumptions, such as belief systems or rhetoric run amok.

In the 1960s pataphysics was used as a conceptual principle within various fine art forms, especially pop art and popular culture. Actual works within the pataphysical tradition tend to focus on the processes of their creation, and elements of chance or arbitrary choices are frequently key in those processes. Select pieces from Marcel Duchamp and John Cage characterize this.

Religious Science, also known as Science of Mind, was founded in 1927 by Ernest Holmes. It is a spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical religious movement within the New Thought movement. Ernest Holmes stated that Religious Science is a correlation of the laws of science, opinions of philosophy, and revelations of religion applied to human need and the aspirations of mankind. He also stated that Religious Science or Science of Mind is not based on any authority of established beliefs, but rather on what it can accomplish for the people who practice it.

Religious Science should not be confused with Christian Science or Scientology. While Christian Science and Religious Science share a common root in history they are not the same teaching, and neither of these organizations have any connections with Scientology. One major difference between Christian Science and Religious Science is that Christian Scientists do not believe that traditional medical practices are compatible with their philosophy, whereas Religious Science believes that all proven healing practices are part of the whole, so that the practice of Spiritual Mind Treatment can be performed supplementally with medical practices.

The Religious Science teaching generally incorporates idealistic and panentheistic philosophies. It teaches that all beings are expressions of and part of Infinite Intelligence, also known as Spirit, Higher Consciousness, or God. It believes that, because God is all there is in the universe, Its powers can be used by all humans to the extent that they realize Its presence. Ernest Holmes said said that God is not a person, but a Universal Presence, already in our own soul, already operating through our own consciousness.

Religious Science believes that people can achieve more fulfilling lives through the practice called Spiritual Mind Treatment, or Affirmative Prayer. Spiritual Mind Treatment is a step-by-step process, in which one states the desired outcome as if it has already happened. In that way, it differs from traditional prayer, since it does not ask God for assistance. It declares human partnership with God to achieve success.

Treatment is to be stated as personal, positive, powerful, and present. The goal is to gain clarity in thinking that guides action to be consistent with the desired outcome. Spiritual Mind Treatment is believed to set off a new chain of causation in Mind that leads one to act according to the good for which one is treating. Spiritual Mind Treatment, as currently taught in Religious Science centers, contains five steps: Recognition, Unification, Realization, Thanksgiving, and Release. Some adherents also use supplemental meditation techniques, including visioning.

Although Holmes was criticized for not focusing much on Love, he did say that Love points the way and Law makes the way possible. The Law of Cause and Effect simply states that every action has a consequence and is good, bad, or neutral. It can be described as whatever goes around comes around. It differs from the Hindu and Buddhist definition of karma in that it is not related to reincarnation and that it happens in this life as well as the next. Personal responsibility is a major tenet of Religious Science.

Ernest Holmes did not originally intend for Religious Science to be a church, but rather a teaching institution. In that spirit, many member organizations have traditionally referred to themselves as centers. The mental healing work of Dr. Phineas P. Quimby was a source of inspiration to much of the New Thought movement, including Religious Science. Ernest Holmes was especially strongly influenced by Emma Curtis Hopkins, and by the writings of Judge Thomas Troward and Ralph Waldo Emerson, as he developed his own synthesis, which became known as Religious Science.

Upon publication of his seminal book in 1926, The Science of Mind, which is based largely on the teachings of Jesus, Holmes established the Institute for Religious Science and School of Philosophy in Los Angeles. This organization would later become the Church of Religious Science. Holmes had previously studied another New Thought teaching Divine Science. He saw humans as being open to evolutionary improvement of consciousness in all areas of life. This concept has inspired Religious Science organizations and their teachings to evolve over the years.

As stated in the book New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality, New Thought still is evolving; it may yet be the point at which religion, philosophy, and science come together as the most effective combination to move the world to greater peace, plenty, health, and harmony. Many believe it might be the quintessential spirituality for the next millennium. His teachings attracted famous celebrities of his time, including Cecil B. De Mille, Peggy Lee, and Cary Grant.

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. It is concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of being and the world. Metaphysics also attempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, space, time, causality, and possibility.

The term metaphysics has also been used to refer to subjects that are beyond the physical world. A metaphysical bookstore, for instance, is not one that sells books on philosophy, but rather one that sells esoteric books on spirits, faith healing, crystal power, occultism, and other such topics which the 

The nature of the mind and its relation to the body has been seen as an issue as science has progressed in its mechanistic understanding of the brain and body. Proposed solutions often have ramifications about the nature of mind as a whole. Descartes proposed substance dualism, a theory in which mind and body are essentially quite different, with the mind having some of the attributes traditionally assigned to the soul. This creates a conceptual puzzle about how the two interact. Another proposal discussing the mind body problem is idealism. Idealists claim that material objects do not exist unless perceived and only as perceptions. Idealism is a common theme in Eastern philosophy. 

The world seems to contain many individual things, both physical, like apples, and abstract such as love and the number three. Such objects are called particulars. Now, consider two apples. There seem to be many ways in which those two apples are similar, they may be approximately the same size, or shape, or color. They are both fruit, etc. One might also say that the two apples seem to have some thing or things in common. These properties are known as universals to metaphysicians.

Idealist metaphysicians claim that space and time are mental constructs used to organise perceptions, or are otherwise unreal. Suppose that one is sitting at a table, with an apple in front of him or her. The apple exists in space and in time, but what does this indicate? Could it be said that space is like an invisible three dimensional grid in which the apple is positioned? Suppose the apple, and all physical objects in the universe, were removed from existence entirely. Would space as an invisible grid still exist? Some metaphysicians believe it would not, arguing that without physical objects, space would be meaningless because space is the framework upon which we understand how physical objects are related to each other.

Time presents some special problems of its own. The direction of time, also known as time’s arrow, is also a puzzle, although physics is now driving the debate rather than philosophy. It appears that fundamental laws are reversible and the arrow of time must be an emergent phenomenon, perhaps explained by a statistical understanding of thermodynamic entropy.

Common sense tells us that objects persist across time, that there is some sense in which you are the same person you were yesterday, in which the oak is the same as the acorn, in which you can step into the same river twice. Philosophers have developed theories for how this happens. Broadly speaking, they maintain that a whole object exists at each moment of its history and the same object exists at each moment. They believe that objects are four dimensional entities made up of a series of parts like the frames of a movie.