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Proof of it being public domain or not is a simple test, who wrote it and have they been dead for a certain amount of time.  A long freaking time, most likely this is not the case.  If the author put it into the public domain specifically (and it has to say so on it) it ain't PD until something like 70 years after the creators death.  This isn't public domain.  The Principia Discordia is public domain it says so right on it (All Rites Reversed)

I too am not a person into Magic(k) (however you want to deal with it) but I am into ritual, the sociocultural side of ritual, why we do specific things and how to break the ingrained rituals of others which have become outmoded and without reason anymore.  Not everyone liked the book "Company" by Max Barry, but I rather enjoyed it, especially the ministory about the Chimps.

They did an experiment with Chimpanzees, they would have like 20 chimpanzees in an enclosure, and they would offer a Banana to a nearby Chimp, the Banana was rigged however that if they Chimp took it, it would electrify the floor, they quickly figured out grabbing the Banana was a bad idea.  So no one went for the Banana anymore.  They took out a few chimps and put in some new chimps, then they offered the Banana again, the new chimps not knowing went for the Banana, and the knowing chimps beat on the new guys mercilessly, eventually the new chimps learned not to go after the Banana, not because it electrified the floor, but because the other chimps would beat them up if they did.  So they removed some older chimps and put newer chimps in, and the cycle continued... eventually there were no chimps in the enclosure that knew that grabbing for the Banana would electrify the floor, but anyone chancing a grab at the banana would get beaten up because thats what they ended up being taught without knowing WHY it was wrong to do so.

Ritual sometimes has importance, and usefulness to everyone, sometimes we do it because its FUN.  But we have to not accept rituals blindly, unless we enjoy them enough that it doesn't matter.  Its important to question things, but also to enjoy things that make us happy.

PSB

RAW tended to know a fair bit about almost everything, and keep it all straight in his head (I have a hard time remembering what I ate yesterday and then if it was lunch or dinner myself) however he was also quite known for a fair amount of bullshit, I bet if someone called him out on it, he would smile and say "Thats what YOU know!"  When dealing with the 'Occult' (the hidden) there are rarely any 'correct' answers about anything.  So you can kind of make shit up as you go along.  The more you do it in a consistent manner the more people quote you on it.  After enough time, what is truth and what is false is dependant on what was recorded, and 'weight' is given to people who are consistently quoted.  RAW and the Illuminantus Trilogy have put their mark on things, but also skewed things in a similar but different direction.  Not to say others haven't done the same throughout the years, and in part we all are kind of required to do so at some point or so I would believe, no?   

The BIP while not the PD, is a reinterpretation for the modern culture of Discordianism, and a nice piece of work.  Heavily influenced by Dicks Exegesis and Valis (after reading BIP I spent a week trudging through Valis once again, a better work than Illuminantus, if albeit crazy) and its definately a more pro-active almost radical stance to the former PD.  Something which is kind of important every now and then, perhaps a form of rising of the house of podge (or would that be hodge, it would be all in the interpretation I would think).  Its really kind of the new skew on things, and the modern variant for people to align themselves with (or against).

PSB

Are we all being more 'Sovok' like, its hard to argue against it, leaving through the checkout isles while picking up my weekly allotment of soylent green, soylent yellow, and soylent red, I see the glossies like everyone else forced to sit there for the requisite five minutes thinking where has the Weekly World News gone?  The ONLY thing ever worth reading while sitting there has left the building... but forced to see commentary from The National Enquirer about Wright (on the front page no less) was a bit disconcerting, at least The Enquirer had some decency to be crazy about things, let alone all the usual suspects on US, People, Cosmo, and more... I am not even American, and I am sick of it.  I wonder if we swapped all this stuff out one day with lesser known magazines like Mole and Shrew Monthly, & Chess Life, if people would switch their opinions on things for just a moment.  But obviously its not just checkouts, I mention that only because its one of the few ways I am 'forced' to sit and see these things, others aren't so lucky, they see it more often than I ever do.  But it might help the discussion change just for a moment... and make people think a little bit differently even if just for a moment.

I'm forced to stay?  That almost makes me wanna leave.  Not that I am all 'reactionary' to everything, but ya know, its better than doing exactly what people say.  Regarding Pope, it used to be Rev. Shiny Beads, but I figured after thumping a few people calling myself a Rev. they seemed to latch on to it avoiding the Shiny Beads, (its okay to call someone 'Hey Rev' I guess) so I figured Id step down and fill my shoes properly and use Pope.  I could use Mome but... been there done that, whole other story.

The Discordia Totalus I guess was my own 'KJV1611' purposely avoiding a few books I found out there (like Jonestown, which is a massive book on its own) but still thick enough to be something that if dropped flat on a table would cause people to jump.  Only a few copies got printed (infact it still says 3 copies were ever put out) it was just a way for me to get my own copy of the book in hardcover format to hit stupid people with.  I like the fact as I get older people take me more and more seriously, having a big book helps, not that I have my own copy anymore, but I feel its best to make individual books these days, as opposed to compendiums, people balk at seeing large books, smaller books less so.

Is it all bullshit?  Isn't that what makes the plants grow?  If so maybe that aint so bad. Do I go and declare everything about the PD as gospel, like a indoctrinated robot?  Me thinks not.  I do admit that I am a tad 'conservative' in my 'faith' which is to say that I am less likely to jump on rooftops screaming memes at people in a version of shock therapy, it has its place, just not something I am wont to do.

PSB

Eris and I have crossed paths numerous times, so far (thankfully) missing each other each time.  However being occasionally in her wake has been dare I say 'Illuminating'.  My first time I must have been the tender age of 16 or 17, when I read a few grafitti'd scrawls on the wall saying Fnord!  Obviously I had no idea at the time what the hell it all meant, but this was for me High school, which was like almost 20 years ago to me now, a year or two later I picked up the Shea & Wilson Illuminantus trilogy which I know not everyone cares for but as a start was quite shocking (at least to me in my Straightlaced world) and scary but funny at the same time, where I learned the nature of 'Fnord' and the bell rang in my head and yes I think I did salivate upon hearing it.  I passed along the book to friends who rather enjoyed the crazy romp, them being a little more 'hip' in the whole drug culture connected with others as stoners seem to do, and they talked and word was passed to me that the PD that was regularly quoted was a real book, and not just some fictional piece of work, they claimed it was made by RAW & Shea (not knowing the real circumstances) that supposedly it was just something that they made up to help promote the book.  I collected the quotes and did my own searchings very intrigued by it all, though it took another year before I actually met up with people who had an actual copy of it, a Steve Jackson version.  They were a little more informed about the actual origins and the like in part because they were part of that inner steve jackson games crowd/circle, being regular beta testers and all that, and understanding the craziness of PD and Illuminantus was almost required to be a part of that world.  Within a few months, I had my own copy, but it wasn't a SJG copy, but a loompanics version though with the purple cover not the yellow.  And I started to really understand what was going on.

The funny thing was is that each and every time I came across the work was usually in May, each and every year starting from when I first saw the Fnord scribbled on the wall.  Right up until I moved out of the SJG beta-testers I was actually crashing with at the time.  Always right around May.  I started to devote myself to all this and it pretty much as stuck for the past 15 years, though in a very passive sense, with the occasional outbursts of crazy inspiration to do something, though they only happened sporatically, and no longer were they only in may, given the fact I had noticed already and Eris didn't need to indirectly hit me with that clue-by-four anymore.  A few years back I 'published' (I use the term very loosely) a compendium of discordian works which I called the Discordia Totalus, it contained the Principia Discordia, the Metaclysmia Discordia, The Summa Discordia, the Book of Eris, and The Zenarchist Cookbook, with the Apocrypha tacked onto the end.  It was something like 700 pages in total in hardcover via lulu printing (those who know lulu understand why I use the term publish very loosley).  Weighty enough that if someone bible thumped me I had a hard thick book now to thump them back with, hopefully causing injury.

The copy has since passed from my hands hopefully thumping others either with its content, or at least its weighty goodness over ones head.  Locally I did the whole EGGGASM thing here this past easter though I didn't talk about it, beyond my live in gf who still doesn't get it (she might, she might not, only time and Eris can tell), I plan on doing a little more solo mindfucks throughout the year because as I am on the road to age 40 now, I know that my 'faith' isn't just a teenaged whimsical desire to be a rebel, but something a little more real.

I tend to still come across as straight laced still (not like a mormon so much just as someone who doesn't look like they fit into any subculture, a faceless drone if you will) it gives me the perfect disguise to play with people because normal blinders are not up when I am around.  I don't know if I will make much contribution to the greater discordia as a whole, or even to these forums, all I know is that I am just a person who has been discordian whether I knew it or not for almost 20 years, and probably will for the next 40 years barring any chaotic accidents causing my untimely demise, but hey... crap happens.  Maybe Eris will come and pay me a personal visit and Ill find myself a raving lunatic homeless preacher type wearing a poncho with the chao on it with a beard down to my toes?  Who knows only time and Eris will tell.