Davis,
 
I had some time today to do some research in response to your question about the authenticity of Thoth/Hermes' Emerald Tablet and Newton's translation of it, and at the end of this email is what I found, for anyone who is interested in further exploring third dimensional documentation.  I did not find a definitive copy of Newton's original translation, but there are books with information about it cited below.  If you would care to share this with the Science & Religion group, others may be interested in this as well.
 
Also, there was a comment made that I was unable to respond to at the end of the session on Tuesday because another questioner had the floor, so I'd like to respond now if you would be able to post this to the website or pass it along to the group.  The comment was about the existence of small fragments of papyrus (evidently of the Gospels) from the first or second century A.D. that prove that the Roman Emperor/Pope Constantine couldn't have devised today's New Testament Christianity.  My response is that I've never claimed that there weren't writings of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John that pre-dated Constantine.  My claim is that Constantine selected one particular strain of the developing Christian message and further changed it into the type of religion that would assure a perpetual flow of wealth to Rome, at that time in decline.  Thus Constantine's New Testament contains a combination of truths, misrepresentations and omissions.
 
The timeline of events was: 
314 A.D.  Constantine changed Jesus' birthday from March to December;
324 A.D.  Constantine devised the Roman Empire's Church;
325 A.D.  Constantine declared that the Roman Empire's Church is the only church of Christianity, and all other forms of Christianity are based upon heresy.
 
His heresy declaration at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. authorized the Roman legions to slaughter every man, woman and child who followed any form of Christianity that differed from Constantine's own Roman Universal Church.  It was at this time 325-330 A.D. that a group of early Christians who were using the pure spiritual teachings of Jesus decided to bury numerous manuscripts at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, including the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary and about 50 other ancient manuscripts.
 
With regard to these issues and your other proposition about "testing" the ability of enlightened individuals to find the same things in the higher dimensions, I can only stress again that there can be no definitive third dimensional "test" of anything in a higher dimension; and that the whole point of everything I was talking about is that neither left brain "logical/information" and "testing" approaches or right brain "intuitive/experiential" approaches are of themselves adequate to conclude anything important that is higher dimensional in nature, and that it is only when both approaches are combined that one can be confident of finding truth.  We do something like what you propose among ourselves, not as a test of any sort but as a tool or part of a process for gathering higher dimensional information -- When someone is looking for a certain significant "sign" of something in the higher dimensions, for example, there are ways that others can be asked to go have an experience somewhere and, lo and behold, without any prompting or indication of what the seeker is seeking, some of those who go to "take a look" come back with the "sign" or validation that he is looking for.  This is all quite difficult to describe to anyone without experience in the higher dimensions, so my description may be woefully inadequate, but it's the best I can do to indicate how we combine electro and magnetic approaches in our work.
 
Thanks,
 
Kathryn
 
 
THE EMERALD TABLET OF THOTH/HERMES AND NEWTON'S TRANSLATION OF IT
 
Textual history of The Emerald Tablet
The oldest documentable source for the text is the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar, a pseudo-Aristotelian compendium of advice for rulers authored by Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in around 800 AD. This work was translated into Latin as Secretum Secretorum (The Secret of Secrets) by Johannes "Hispalensis" or Hispaniensis (John of Seville) ca. 1140 and by Philip of Tripoli c. 1243.
 
In the 14th century, the alchemist Ortolanus wrote a substantial exegesis on "The Secret of Hermes," which was influential on the subsequent development of alchemy. Many manuscripts of this copy of the Emerald Tablet and the commentary of Ortolanus survive, dating at least as far back as the 15th century.
 
The Tablet has also been found appended to manuscripts of the Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani (Second Book of the Elements of Foundation) attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan, and the Kitab Sirr al-Khaliqa wa San`at al-Tabi`a ("Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature"), dated between 650 and 830 AD.
 
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from http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0521524873/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-4508790-1451960#reader-link
 
 "Newton's Commentary on The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus:  its scientific and theological significance," in "Hermeticism and the Renaissance, Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Ingrid Merkel and Allen G. Debus (Folger Books; Washington, D.C., The Folger Shakespears Library; London:  Associated University Presses, 1988), pp. 182-91.
 

The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Thought
Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs  (Cambridge University Press)
(This book has many references to Hermes' Emerald Tablet according to its index available on Amazon.com, although whether it contains a copy of Newton's translation or information about its discovery, I don't know.)
 
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Newton and Newtonianism: New Studies (International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d'histoire des id饳)
J.E. Force, S. Hutton:
 
Excerpt from p. 217:
...."For example, among Newton's "alchemical papers" we find many dealing with Philalethes, one of Newton's favorite authors.  In the same category of "alchemical papers" we also find many dealing with Hermes Trismegistus. (32).....
 
and footnote 32:
...On Hermes, see Keynes MSS 27-29, among others; see also Dobbs, "Newton's Commentary on The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus:  Its Scientific and Theological Significance," pp. 281-191, in Ingrid Merkel and Allen Debus, eds., Hermeticism and the Renaissance:  Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe (Washington, DC: Folger Shakiespeare Library, 2988) and also J.E. McGuire, "Neoplantonism and Active Principles: Newton and the Corpus hermeticum" pp. 94-142, in Robert S. Westman and J.E. McGuire, eds., Hermeticism and the Scientific Revolution (Los Angeles: William Andresws Clark Library, 1977.)
 

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The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy of Personal Transformation
Dennis William Hauck
 
A footnote on p.148 of this book attributes information about Newton's translation of The Emerald Tablet as follows:
 
1  Newton's comments, and his following translation of the sixth rubric, are from Betty Jo Dobbs, "The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy, The Hunting of the Green Lion (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1984).  A more recent work detailing Newton's love of alchemy is Michael White, "Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer" (Reading, Mass:  Addison-Wesley 1997).
 
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The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton
Stanton J. Linden
(paperback   Sept. 15, 2003)
 
from Chapter 1, Hermes Trismegistus (Thoth / Hermes):
 
"Sir Isaac Newton, for example, wrote a serious Commentary on the Emerald Table (tablet), which serves as the final selection in this anthology and should be consulted."
 
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From http://www.halexandria.org/dward376.htm :
 
Sir Isaac Newton was an ardent alchemist, having embarked on a translation of the Emerald Tablet and the Corpus Hermeticum of Hermes Trismegistus, and having seen the underlying validity of the Hermes maxim: As above, so below.  In fact, Newton was so immersed in divine knowledge, numerology, and the hermetic lore of ancient times, that John Maynard Keyes once referred to him as the last of the Sumerians.  Meanwhile, Boyle conceded, with amazing foresight, that it was dangerous research [into the alchemy of the Philosopher's Stone] since the Stone, if misused, could disorder the affairs of mankind, favor tyranny, and bring a general confusion, turning the world topsy-turvy.[3] 
 
Hermes Trismegistus was often revered as the founder of alchemy and geometry, the keeper of the otherwise lost knowledge of the prediluvian Lamech, and in all cases was associated with wisdom, alchemy and intellectual pursuits.  A Gnostic document, found at Chenoboskion in Egypt and known as the Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus, states: It is thus by degrees that the adepts will enter into the way of immortality, and will attain to a conception of the Ogdoad, which in turn reveals the Ennead.  The Ogdoad (eightfold) corresponds to the heaven of the stars, outside the individual heavens of the planets, and the Ennead (ninefold) refers to the great outer heaven of the universe.  The separate heaven on Earth itself was called the Hebdomad (sevenfold). [3]  
 
 
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from  http://www.alchemylab.com/isaac_newton.htm :
 
Newton the Alchemist
 
As a practicing alchemist, Newton spent days locked up in his laboratory, and not a few have suggested that he finally succeeded in transmuting lead into gold. Perhaps that explains one of the oddest things about his life. At the height of his career, instead of accepting a professorship at Cambridge, he was appointed Director of the Mint with the responsibility of securing and accounting for England's repository of gold.
 
In fact, Newton -- the revered founder of modern science and the mechanistic universe -- also ranks as one of the greatest spiritual alchemists of all time. In his The Religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford 1974), F.E. Manuel concluded: "The more Newton's theological and alchemical, chronological and mythological work is examined as a whole corpus, set by the side of his science, the more apparent it becomes that in his moments of grandeur he saw himself as the last of the interpreters of God's will in actions, living on the fulfillment of times."
 
The Hermetic Tradition
 
This view has become more accepted in recent years, as more of Newton's private papers and alchemical treatises are being reexamined. "Like all European alchemists from the Dark Ages to the beginning of the scientific era and beyond," states Michael White in Isaac Newton:The Last Sorcerer (Addison Wesley 1997), "Newton was motivated by a deep-rooted commitment to the notion that alchemical wisdom extended back to ancient times. The Hermetic tradition -- the body of alchemical knowledge -- was believed to have originated in the mists of time and to have been given to humanity through supernatural agents."
 
Newton's Translation of the Emerald Tablet:
 
It is true without lying, certain and most true. That which is Below is like that which is Above and that which is Above is like that which is Below to do the miracles of the Only Thing. And as all things have been and arose from One by the mediation of One, so all things have their birth from this One Thing by adaptation. The Sun is its father; the Moon its mother; the Wind hath carried it in its belly; the Earth is its nurse. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into Earth. Separate the Earth from the Fire, the subtle from the gross, sweetly with great industry. It ascends from the Earth to the Heavens and again it descends to the Earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior. By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you. Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing. So was the world created. From this are and do come admirable adaptations, whereof the process is here in this. Hence am I called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended. 
 
Newton on Keeping Alchemy Secret
 
Isaac Newton wrote fellow alchemist Robert Boyle a letter urging him to keep "high silence" in publicly discussing the principles of alchemy. "Because the way by the Mercurial principle may be impregnated has been thought fit to be concealed by others that have know it," Newton wrote, "and therefore may possibly be an inlet to something more noble that is not to be communicated without immense damage to the world if there be any verity in [the warning of the] Hermetic writers. There are other things besides the transmutation of metals which none but they understand." According to B.J.T. Dobbs in The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy (Cambridge University Press, 1984), "The fact that Newton never published a work on alchemy cannot be taken to mean that he knew he had failed  [at the Great Work]. On the contrary, it probably means that he had enough success to think that he might be on the track of something of fundamental importance and so had good reason for keeping his 'high silence,' even though there is nothing to indicate that he himself was searching for that mysterious "inlet to something more noble." 
 
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