The very idea of Notes is actually ancient.  An argument could easily be made that something like Notes began with the Presocratic Ancient Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus.  His various brain-boggling, difficult to understand, Fragments or famous sayings have always had a function similar to Notes.  The Fragments of Heraclitus would “enlighten the few and perplex the many” even in Ancient Greece and later in Italy.  Popular only among the deeply thoughtful, the Fragments were naturally rejected by the emotional masses, as well as by so-called “practical men of the world”.

Notes Readers of today who want to look into the Notelike character of the Fragments can try the following books:

1.     The Presocratic Philosophers

by G.S. Kirk and J.E. Raven

Cambridge University Press, 1957

Evaluation: Kirk and Raven are mechanical scholars without a clue about the real force of intelligence at work in the Fragments, but at least most of the preserved Fragments are there in reasonable translation of Classical Greek into English to get you started.

2.     The Great Philosophers, Volume II

by Karl Jaspers

Harcourt, Brace and World, inc. 1966

Evaluation: Jaspers does a chapter on Heraclitus that does a good summation of some general philosophical implications of terms used by Heraclitus in the Fragments.  With Jaspers we can begin to actually think a little about Heraclitus.  Maybe one Notes-reader in a million might actually want to think about Heraclitus.  The rest of course are the kind of distracted minds that made Heraclitus “obscure” in the first place.

3.     Heraclitus Seminar
by Martin Heidegger and Eugene Fink

Northwestern University Press, 1993

Evaluation: A reasonable effort on the part of Heidegger and his ex-student, Fink, to penetrate at least some of the intellectual problems contained in the Fragments.  Heidegger and Fink show off their impressive command of Classical Greek Language combined with mostly left-brained analytic linear “thinking”.  Still, at least somebody in our contemporary time tried to do something serious about Heraclitus in this 1966-67 winter semester at the University in Freiberg.  Worth a read if you are seriously thoughtful about Heraclitus, which I doubt.

4.     The Hidden Harmony

by Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh

Rajneesh Foundation, 1976

Evaluation: Rajneesh picks out a few Fragments and gives them a long-winded Rajneesh treatment that does bring out some rather good insights that indeed bring Heraclitus partially back to life for us.  Even though he does not always understand a Fragment, he at least raises issues that need raising.  I highly recommend this book to Notes Readers who want to get inside the Heraclitus Approach to boosting human intelligence with something like Notes.  The other books are a little too much just spiritually dead intellect, but Rajneesh goes too far the other direction into emotionally appealing mysticism and touting himself as a Guru.  But, E-for-effort.

In addition, there are some modern writers who have written books that also have Notelike affects on their readers.  For this supplemental Notelike reading, I highly recommend the works of

A — Robert Anton Wilson

B — Hakim Bey

From the point of view of cognitive self-improvement, which has good background in cognitive science and cognitive psychology, I would recommend all the books of Edward de Bono you can get your hands on.  The more you learn to shake your brain ruts with what de Bono calls Lateral Thinking, the more you understand and benefit from the Notes Technique.  You might also, if you want to look more deeply into the use of language, read Noam Chomsky on what he has said about self-referencing statements.  But, again, almost all our Note-readers are just not that serious about all that goes into the Notes Technique.  Even this particular statement does not interest anyone very much for some obscure reason.

I have also pointed out endlessly in Notes themselves that the Notes Technique has a direct connection with Zen, so any and all readings in Zen literature are not without a slight value.  Even this peculiar Zen statement could awaken you!

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