The voynich manuscript as a diabolic tool to lure people into mental health issues?

[Kaybo]

I have the feeling that some people can get very obsessed with the manuscript and that it can have a negative impact on their lives. I can see that it tries to lure me into it and it is very difficult to not loose myself. If I read about some theories, then I think some people are too much into it and that this has a bad effect on them. 

I just want that out to be a warning. Take a break, if it is overwhelming you.

[Philipp Harland]

It's just a weird manuscript that people like to prod at to see if/how they can decode it.   I don't think it's that deep. It's not the Necronomicon or a book with Yahweh Himself's face in it. But it IS a book.

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I have the feeling that some people can get very obsessed with the manuscript and that it can have a negative impact on their lives. I can see that it tries to lure me into it and it is very difficult to not loose myself.

Considering the amount of time that people at NSA and Bletchley Park veterans wasted on it, at the height of the Cold War, one might think that it is a devilish invention of the Bolsheviks meant to neutralize Western intelligence agencies before the October revolution.  Which continued to to its job until well after WW2.  

One problem with this theory is the known history of the VMS.  The theory would be more credible if the Manuscript had surfaced in the West no earlier than, say, 1912 (when the Bolshevik party was founded), through the agency of, say, an immigrant who was a notorious Russian revolutionary, who may have told conflicting stories about its provenance and possibly failed to produce clear documentation of his purchase.  It would be even more credible if the provenance of the book had been supported only by circumstantial evidence, like, for example, a vague letter from the 1600s allegedly found still attached to the book, in spite of it allegedly having been moved many times in the next 400 years in an improbable international shell game; and if there was absolutely no record before 1912 that clearly identified this book.  But I gather that none of this is the case.  So we can safely ignore this possibility.

All the best, --stolfi 

[Koen G]

It does have negative effects on people, but there's nuance to it. The people where we see it take over their lives in a bad way (which there have been examples of throughout history) must have had a certain predisposition or vulnerability. 

It's a bit like alcohol consumption. Most adults have learned to use it responsibly. Others like to indulge in excess every now and then. And a minority see their lives ruined by it. (Although the term "minority" is misleading here - given the prominent role of alcohol in society, we're looking at huge absolute numbers). But the latter category tends to be populated by individuals who were already burdened, genetically or otherwise.

In other words, I don't think the manuscript causes issues, but it can definitely expose and magnify certain tendencies and vulnerabilities already present in people. This can range from nationalism to grandiose delusions to conspiracy thinking.

Just like with alcohol though, people need some time to learn what it is and how it behaves. That's why I always hope people with untenable theories can still be argued with, and why I'm always happy to see that people here try to engage in meaningful ways with theorists.

Not with lazy AI solvers though, they can go straight to jail 

[Kaybo]

It does have negative effects on people, but there's nuance to it. The people where we see it take over their lives in a bad way (which there have been examples of throughout history) must have had a certain predisposition or vulnerability. 

I think a genius is always on the brink of insanity. To solve very difficult tasks you need to get one with subject and sometimes it eats you up.

[Koen G]

True, but there's a lot of insanity that's not on the brink of genius...

[MarcoP]

It's not the Necronomicon 

I am not 100% sure

[rikforto]

It's not the Necronomicon 

I am not 100% sure

It's just so hard to rule things out with this document. We've got a couple of experts on the material document itself, does it have any non-Euclidian features?

[JoJo_Jost]

We could, of course, start a support group.

AVA = Anonymous Voynich Addicts 

   

But seriously: almost anything can be addictive... love, sport, food, science, etc., and drive one to madness.

[Jorge_Stolfi]

does it have any non-Euclidian features?

Well, the circles in Cosmo/Zodiac are supposedly drawn with a compass, but if you measure them they often come out distorted by a few mm, more like ellipses.  The explanation seems to be that the vellum, although two-dimensional, is warped.  Not surprising, given that there are so many stars inside those diagrams.  Even a whole galaxy...

All the best, --stolfi