Charles Musès
Encyclopedia
Charles A Muses (28 April 1919–2000), was an esoteric philosopher who wrote articles and books under various pseudonyms (including Musès, Musaios, Kyril Demys, Arthur Fontaine, Kenneth Demarest and Carl von Balmadis). He founded the Lion Path, a shamanistic
movement. He held unusual and controversial views relating to mathematics, physics, philosophy, and many other fields.
Muses was born in Jersey City, New Jersey
, and grew up in Long Island, New York. His father abandoned the family when Muses was a young boy forcing his mother to support Muses and a large, extended family on a school teacher's salary. Years later he would remark in lectures that if his mother hadn't had an overarching faith in "young Charlie" he might never have been able to escape the confines of his impoverished youth.
Muses' earned an M.A.
in philosophy
from Columbia University
in 1947, followed by a Ph.D.
in 1951.
Muses had no success in attaining a tenured position as a faculty member at an institution of higher education. Forced to give lectures to earn a living, he wrote books and began traveling the world. He continued these pursuits for the remainder of his life.
Muses eventually proposed an astrological method called 'chronotopology,' which he claimed could measure the qualitative multidimensional structure of time. He published a book on this subject titled Chronotopology: Destiny and Control in Human Systems. It is currently available from Martino Publishing on Amazon.com.
Muses also envisioned a mathematical number concept, Musean hypernumber
s, that includes hypercomplex number
algebras such as complex number
s and split-complex number
s as primitive types. He assigned them levels based on certain arithmetical properties they may possess. While many open questions remain, in particular about defining relations of these levels, Muses pictured a wide range of applicability for this concept. Some of these are based on properties of magic square
s, and even related to religious belief. He believed that these hypernumbers were central to issues of consciousness.
To date, none of these visions have been realized, and his reliance on subjective experience to support models that are otherwise not verifiable or falsifiable places much of his work into the realm of pseudoscience
(as it is not following the scientific method
).
Professor Muses was arrested in March, 1957 in Egypt when he tried to remove a number of very valuable artifacts from Egypt on the argument that he didn't realize that a license was required. He was finally convicted in August, 1957, but later allowed to return to the United States.
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
movement. He held unusual and controversial views relating to mathematics, physics, philosophy, and many other fields.
Muses was born in Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, and grew up in Long Island, New York. His father abandoned the family when Muses was a young boy forcing his mother to support Muses and a large, extended family on a school teacher's salary. Years later he would remark in lectures that if his mother hadn't had an overarching faith in "young Charlie" he might never have been able to escape the confines of his impoverished youth.
Muses' earned an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1947, followed by a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1951.
Muses had no success in attaining a tenured position as a faculty member at an institution of higher education. Forced to give lectures to earn a living, he wrote books and began traveling the world. He continued these pursuits for the remainder of his life.
Muses eventually proposed an astrological method called 'chronotopology,' which he claimed could measure the qualitative multidimensional structure of time. He published a book on this subject titled Chronotopology: Destiny and Control in Human Systems. It is currently available from Martino Publishing on Amazon.com.
Muses also envisioned a mathematical number concept, Musean hypernumber
Musean hypernumber
Musean hypernumbers are an algebraic concept envisioned by Charles A. Musès to form a complete, integrated, connected, and natural number system....
s, that includes hypercomplex number
Hypercomplex number
In mathematics, a hypercomplex number is a traditional term for an element of an algebra over a field where the field is the real numbers or the complex numbers. In the nineteenth century number systems called quaternions, tessarines, coquaternions, biquaternions, and octonions became established...
algebras such as complex number
Complex number
A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
s and split-complex number
Split-complex number
In abstract algebra, the split-complex numbers are a two-dimensional commutative algebra over the real numbers different from the complex numbers. Every split-complex number has the formwhere x and y are real numbers...
s as primitive types. He assigned them levels based on certain arithmetical properties they may possess. While many open questions remain, in particular about defining relations of these levels, Muses pictured a wide range of applicability for this concept. Some of these are based on properties of magic square
Magic square
In recreational mathematics, a magic square of order n is an arrangement of n2 numbers, usually distinct integers, in a square, such that the n numbers in all rows, all columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant. A normal magic square contains the integers from 1 to n2...
s, and even related to religious belief. He believed that these hypernumbers were central to issues of consciousness.
To date, none of these visions have been realized, and his reliance on subjective experience to support models that are otherwise not verifiable or falsifiable places much of his work into the realm of pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
(as it is not following the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
).
Quotations
"The word astronomia, even the word mathematicus, meant someone who studied the stars, and in Kepler's sense they calculated the positions to know the qualities of time. But that's an independent hypothesis. The hypothesis of chronotopology is whether you have pointers of any kind – ionospheric disturbances, planetary orbits, or whatnot – independently of those pointers, time itself has a flux, has a wave motion, the object being to surf on time."
"The contemplation and use of hypernumber forms and properties will prove and already has proved both by self-experience and teaching to be a most efficacious and irreplaceable method of evolving into conscious access the powers and capabilities of our superconscious selves. And that way man's future lies."
"If you take a moment of time, this moment cuts through the entire physical universe as we're talking. It holds all of space in itself. But one point of space doesn't hold all of time. In other words, time is much bigger than space."
"It is the moment of evolutionary truth for the master race, and what man does with that moment will be more important than the events of the previous millennium. Failure is not an option."
Professor Muses was arrested in March, 1957 in Egypt when he tried to remove a number of very valuable artifacts from Egypt on the argument that he didn't realize that a license was required. He was finally convicted in August, 1957, but later allowed to return to the United States.