THE LOOP

The Possible, The Impossible and the Postulate 

Well, I see we got some space left on this tape and decided to usefully fill it and introduce you to
a piece of information called the loop. Now the loop is a piece of information which gives the
relationship between a postulate and what that postulate permits to be possible and what that
postulate permits to be impossible. 

Now the first thing you should know about the loop is that it is not peculiar to this universe, it is
a general principle that will be applicable to any universe. But it is certainly applicable to this
universe. Now what it amounts to is this; if you have a postulate you can deduce from the
postulate what is possible in the universe in terms of that postulate and knowing what is
possible in terms of that postulate in the universe you can deduce what is impossible in the
universe in terms of that postulate, and, knowing what is impossible in terms of that postulate in
the universe you can deduce the postulate. 

So it is a loop, it is like having 'a', 'b' and 'c' and if you know 'a' you can deduce 'b ', and if you
know 'b ' you can deduce 'c ' and if you know 'c ' you can deduce 'a ', you've got the loop. It is like
a snake going round and being connected up, the tail end of the snake is connected up to the
mouth of the snake. The whole thing is connected up in a circle and that is why we call it a loop. 

Now it is very easy to prove logically that when we have a situation like that where 'b' is a valid
deduction from 'a' and 'c' is a valid deduction from 'b' and 'a' is a valid deduction from 'c' that 'a'
and 'b' and 'c' are all identical to each other. 

In other words 'a' equals 'b' equals 'c' equals 'a' (a=b=c=a), the whole lot are identical to one and
another. It is very easy to prove this logically, I won't bother to prove it on this tape; you can find
the proof in any logical text book. It is an easy proof. 

Now I will give you a very simple example of this. Let's consider a particular loop, let's say that
we entered a particular loop, we discover that 'all crows are birds'. Now that is the relationship,
that's the postulate; 'all crows are birds'. 

Now from this we can quite validly deduce that it is impossible for the class of creatures that are
crows and non-birds to exist, so that is our first deduction, we have now deduced the impossible,
what that postulate 'all crows are birds' makes impossible in our universe, you see. 

Knowing that this class of creatures that are both crows and non-birds doesn't exist in the
universe, that the postulate has made impossible, we can now deduce what is possible in the
universe in terms of this postulate. 

Well that turns out to be: we can either have birds in the universe or non-crows in the universe,
or we can have both, that tells us what is possible in terms of our postulate. Now in that
particular example we have not really learned an awful lot, but let's get very fundamental, let's
take a very basic postulate in this particular universe that we all inhabit. 

We know in this universe that ‘a thing cannot both exist and not exist simultaneously’. We know
that, we call that the law of the impossible in the universe. I have already mentioned that. This
was on an earlier supplementary lecture, that this is a valid deduction from the basic law upon
which  this  universe  is  constructed,  this  idea  that  ‘a  thing  cannot  both  exist  and  not  exist
simultaneously’. 

So here we have an element in a loop, you say "Ah we recognise this as an element of a loop."
You say, "Ok let's find the rest of the loop." There are two more elements in this loop. Let's find
the rest of the elements of the loop. 

Ok, now we got the impossible, we should be able now to easily deduce what is possible. Yes?
Well, what is possible in this universe is that ‘a thing either exists or it doesn't exist’, that is
possible, that exhausts the possibilities. 

So now we have the impossible, ‘a thing cannot both exist and not exist simultaneously’, that is
the law of the impossible, now we have the law of the possible that a ‘thing either exists or it
doesn't exist’. 

All right now that is two out of the three members of the loop. Well what is the third member of
the loop? The postulate here is that let X be the thing that exists, if the thing exists we call it X,
well X equals X, if X equals X, that is the 3rd part of the loop. 

[Note. The three parts of the loop are: The Possible – a thing either exists or it doesn't exist. The
Impossible – a thing cannot both exist and not exist simultaneously. The Postulate (Identity) – a
thing is itself X=X - Editor] 

Now each element of the 3 elements in the loop is identical to the other 2 elements. All parts of
the  loop  are  identical  to  the  remainder  of  the  loop.  This  identification  is  not  a  false
identification, it is a true identification. 

The postulate that X equals X, obviously is true in this universe. All X’s are X’s, there is no doubt
about that, all cats are cats and all kings are kings and all coal heavers are coal heavers, all X’s are
X’s is true. 

But  what  isn't  immediately  obvious  is  to  say  that  X  cannot  both  exist  and  not  exist
simultaneously is just another way of saying that X equals X. Now that isn't obvious is it? But it is
true, because of the loop. When we say that X equals X, another way of saying X equals X is to
say that X cannot both exist and not exist simultaneously and another way to say that X equals X
or to say that X cannot both exist and not exist simultaneously is to say that X either exists or it
doesn't exist. 

So again you see, now we are into something useful, aren't we? Now we are really discovering
something, it is not obvious that those 3 expressions are actually meaning the same thing, are
simply different ways of saying the same thing, but it is so, I can assure you because of the
identification in the loop, and the fact that the identification is a true identification. 

Now this loop will appear in another lecture. I mentioned that at this stage we won't be using it, I
won't be discussing the loop any further at this stage, but the loop will appear in a later
supplementary lecture when we take up the subject of the anatomy of insanity, we will find this
loop turning up again. So you see, you will discover that it does have some tremendous practical
uses this does, but I am giving it to you at this stage, partly to fill up this little blank on this tape
that we have here, and also to give you some time to think about it, to get your mind wrapped
around this idea of this connection between a postulate and the subject of the possible and the
subject of the impossible. 

To see that there is a very real connection between these 3 things, which is true in all universes.
To give you some time to prepare your mind for this idea. Ok, that is all I want to say on the
subject, I better get off the subject now before this tape runs off the end of the spool. 

End of tape 

LECTURES MAIN PAGE