Nothing to add directly to the OP, but…
[slight hijack]
Does anyone remember the Monty Python skit where someone wrote a joke so funny everyone died laughing when they read it? Then the Allies took the joke and had it transcribed into German one word at a time and read it on the front lines to kill the Germans. Just had to mention it here, sorry…
[/slight hijack]
I’ve heard that sitting through the Battlefield Earth movie cold drive a person mad. . .
All Monty Python skits can be found here:MontyPython.net - The Ultimate Monty Python Site The Funniest Joke in the World skit
(Opening Scene: A suburban house in a boring looking street. Zoom into upstairs window. Serious documentary music. Interior of small room. A bent figure (Michael Palin) huddles over a table, writing. He is surrounded by bits of paper. The camera is situated facing the man as he writes with immense concentration lining his unshaven face.)
Voice Over: This man is Ernest Scribbler… writer of jokes. In a few moments, he win have written the funniest joke in the world… and, as a consequence, he will die … laughing.
(Ernest stops writing, pauses to look at what he has written… a smile slowly spreads across his face, turning very, very slowly to uncontrolled hysterical laughter… he staggers to his feet and reels across room helpless with mounting mirth and eventually collapses and dies on the floor.)
Voice Over: It was obvious that this joke was lethal… no one could read it and live …
(Ernest’s mother (Eric Idle in drag) enters. She sees him dead, she gives a little cry of horror and bends over his body, weeping. Brokenly she notices the piece of paper in his hand and picks it up and reads it between her sobs. Immediately she breaks out into hysterical laughter, leaps three feet into the air, and fa11s down dead without more ado. Cut to news type shot of commentator standing in front of the house.)
etc…
handy
May 19, 2000, 3:50pm
24
Want a book you can find at your library to drive you insane? Got the guts to try? Read ‘A Course in Miracles’
Same idea, someone got an ephipany & wrote this book. Give it a shot. Whoa, your head be spinning.
There is one book that has been proven to frequently cause insanity among its readers . . . the infamous [deleted], by [deleted]. A particularly harrowing passage is as follows (sorry, quoting from memory here):
Oh, dear sweet Jesus, after writing that out, I need to go out to the desert again to find some of my special cactus. I might be back in a few weeks . . .
[Note: this post has been edited by manhattan, for the good of mankind.]
Trion
May 20, 2000, 1:21pm
26
M.K. - No, Battlefield Earth won’t drive you mad. I know, I went (hey, it wasn’t my idea). It will however waste two hours of your life.
I’m gonna add one more quote from the link that Arnold provided for the benefit of anyone reading who might be interested in the original question.
Another recent Hubbard work, called Self Analysis (published in 1951 by the International Library of Arts and Sciences, whatever that is), carries even further Hubbard’s intrepid attempts to produce parodies of his original ideas. This book enables the reader to give himself a “light processing.” The author’s claims, as usual, are quite modest. “Self analysis cannot revive the dead,” he says in his opening sentence. “Self analysis will not empty insane asylums or stop wars. These are the tasks of the dianetic auditor and the group dianetic technician.” The book is written only for stable readers who want to improve their health, happiness, and efficiency. If you are stable enough, there is no danger. Otherwise? “I will not mislead you,” Hubbard confesses. “A man could go mad simply reading this book.”
Upon inspection, the book seems harmless enough. It consists mainly of page after page of questions which the reader asks himself, such as “Can you recall a time when somebody you liked was asleep?” Or “Can you recall a time when you skipped rope?” To aid the reader in meditating on these episodes, Hubbard provides a cardboard disk with slots cut in it. The disk is placed on the page so that a question shows through one of the slots. If the top of the disk says “sight,” you try to “see” the incident. On the next question you rotate the disk so another “sense” appears on top – say “smell.” You now try to recall the “smell” of the episode. As you can imagine, many curious combinations of senses and memories result from this ingenious process. “Without using the disk,” Hubbard warns, “the benefit of processing is cut more than eighty per cent.” Two disks are provided, one green and one white. “Use the one you like best,” Hubbard says.
Rift
May 21, 2000, 11:51pm
27
I can’t remember the exact quote but L Ron Hubbard is attributed with saying something much like the below:
You don’t become a millionaire writting for a penny a word. The way to become rich is to start your own religion…
(This was a year or two before he founded Scientology)
The exact quote is floating about on the web somewhere (and as we all know, if you read it on the web it must be true!)
Whammo
May 22, 2000, 3:36am
28
Nothing of meaning to the OP but there is a Church of Scientology here that has a big sign, “Now Hiring” …struck me as odd and slightly humorous.
