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ARTICLE 4
HISTORY OF HEAVEN AND HELL
Ancient religions like Zoroastrianism of Persia created a heaven and a hell in their Scriptures (Gathas) based on geographic “places” where a human goes to after s/he dies. The date of Zoroaster’s birth is uncertain, however, scholars suggest it was sometime between 1000 BC and 600 BC.
These “places” became “realities by definition” within a culture using revelations by Zoroaster (and by other prophets in other religions) to determine in their “holy” Scriptures the “truth” to believe and follow. This gave both the secular and the sacred leaders of a culture control in determining their rules and regulations over their populations for countless centuries.
These “places” (heaven or hell) are where a human receives eternal punishment for disobeying the rules and regulations or heavenly benefits for obeying them. They were prescribed by the secular and sacred authorities of every culture.
Zoroaster took a firm stand on the revelations he had received. The Gathas (Holy Scripture) again and again set forth his claim that he had been called to his prophetic mission by Ahura Mazda (the name of his God) himself, and that the religion he taught was the final and perfect religion.
Zoroaster’s cardinal moral principle was that each human’s soul is the seat of a war between good and evil. This war is of critical importance. In creating humans Ahura Mazda gave them freedom to determine his or her own actions and hence the power to choose between right and wrong. However, Angra Mainyu’s (the god of evil) had the power of suggestion and could persuade a human to choose wrong or evil. In Christianity this power is given to Satan or the Devil.
Thus for the first time in a world religion, “eschatology”, the conception of “last things” or the end of the world, comes into prominence. According to Zoroaster’s teachings, a general resurrection will take place at the end of the present world order.
EVIL IN THE EAST BECAME KNOWN AS KARMA.
EVIL IN THE WEST BECAME KNOWN AS SIN.
Civil Law was also developed in Mesopotamia to a point where it was actually published. The Code of Hammurabi was published about 1800 B.C. by being engraved in cuneiform characters on an eight-foot column of very hard stone which has survived intact for almost four thousand years.
Many of the Ten Commandments are to be found in the Hammurabi Code but as we awaken to a Universal Source, we find that when rules and regulations are required within a culture (secular or sacred), there will be secular “rulers” or sacred “prophets” that will channel the rules and regulations fitting that particular culture.
For countless centuries populations that could not read or write were told by a culture’s authorities what to obey or else. This resulted in each culture having its own particular “stories” or “myths” that were presented as factual truth or sacred scripture.
It is these cultural “myths” and “scriptures” that have produced a planet of different political systems and different religions that continue to fight each other up to, and including, our current century.
For example, in our culture the Templeton Grant is an excellent attempt to have a properly credentialed scientist admit to the possibility of a supernatural God that could be the creator of all the discoveries (creations) of this world, thereby justifying the theism of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
We prefer to have our beliefs validated!
HP/SOS research has discovered that the problem is not whether there is or is not a supernatural God that is separate from his or her creation by whatever name he or she may be worshipped.
Science will become aware in the twentieth century that questions about
the nature of God are capable of being comprehended within a human being.
There is an encyclopedia on the market that lists over 2,500 Deities of the World that are worshipped by different cultures on planet Earth. What did not appear on planet Earth until the twentieth century was scientific research into the evolutionary nature of human beings which included the different ways in which a human is capable of comprehending “God” as a philosophical/psychological process within him/her self, where the “self” is capable of recognizing different realities.
HP/SOS (Holographic Psychology/Science of Spirit) represents research into these evolution processes of a human being and his or her ability or inability to comprehend “different realities” that are being investigated by the psychological sciences of behaviorism (early 1900s) and by humanistic and transpersonal psychology beginning in the early 1960s.
The first problem with any question about anything is with the words that are used to describe the meaning and feeling of the reality under discussion. Until the twentieth century science of physiology and behavioristic psychology there would be no reason for a human to be aware that what s/he thought (meaning) and felt (feeling) was a result of his/her conditioned brain rather than a description of an external world or of a personal self. Thoughts are not the things they represent. Thoughts are symbols (metaphors) of one’s current beliefs.
Question: Are you telling me that when I ask you a question about God or myself (or anyone or anything else) that my answer will be determined by my brain’s conditioning?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. When a person thinks that s/he is discussing God or any other subject how could s/he respond with data of which s/he has no awareness?
Question: But would that not limit everyone’s ability to know anything beyond what they have learned in their past?
Answer: Your question helps us understand why change is so difficult for most people. Yes, it is our conditioned brain that will limit our ability to discuss any subject that we know nothing about. How could we discuss a subject that is currently unknown?
Question: But isn’t all learning a process of discovery of the unknown? How could or would someone be able to learn what had no prior meaning or feeling at the time it is first presented?
Answer: You have now asked the major question that changes a human’s orientation from a belief that learning is from external sources (teachers, mentors, etc.) to an internal awakening from one’s transcendent aspect of being.
Question: How can a transcendent aspect be responsible for human learning?
Answer: Plato was one of the first philosophers to be aware of the transcendent aspect of a human being which he named “archetypes” that were perfect. He also named the archetypes “ideas” and “forms”. Carl Jung was a psychologist who wrote about the transcendent. He also named this aspect of our nature “archetypes” and the “collective unconscious”. Most mystic teachings named this Universal Source “involution” that produces “evolution”. Ernest Holmes named our transcendent aspect “Universal Mind”. HP/SOS names our transcendent aspect “Spiritual DNA” that is discovered in an awakened third reaity.
Question: How can a body with a brain have a transcendent aspect?
Answer: It doesn’t in first reality understanding. That is why behavioristic psychology cannot answer questions about creativity when limited to external input, as one’s source of learning. As a “self” is born in the awakening of a second reality, a capability is born in which dialog and testing such questions begins. A human switches from outer orientation to inner orientation which HP/SOS has named “LOC” or Location of Comprehension. This opens a human to explore his or her inner aspect where s/he will discover his/her transcendent aspect or Universal Mind.
Question: Are you telling me that I have a Universal Mind that I can know nothing about?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. Not only do we know nothing about our transcendent aspect in a first reality understanding but because of a human’s conditioned brain we are limited to whatever we have learned or accepted without having a self to entertain options. Second reality is a requirement for free will or choice to make sense. People argue definitions in first reality believing that they are arguing about an external world rather than personal biases (beliefs).
Question: If the God one has been conditioned to believe-in is the God that justifies one’s current reality, then how can the brain of a finite separate human being that is limited by its conditioned brain be aware of an unlimited source or Universal Mind?
Answer: You have just answered why most people live limited lives on planet Earth. Until second reality awakens, whatever one has accepted about his/her life; health, wealth, love, happiness, etc., etc., will be the reality that they live and die with as their truth.
Question: Then is a human never really talking about God or anything else?
Answer: Until second reality awakens (even if intellectually at first) to the limiting aspect of a human’s conditioned brain why or how could there be a “self” to reflect upon one’s own conditioning?
Question: In other words you are telling me that I live a life of other people’s definitions until second reality?
Answer: Tell me how it could be otherwise if all I am capable of knowing is what I have been told by someone else. It is in second reality that a “self” awakens giving us the opportunity to choose. It is second reality in which options can be entertained that go beyond anything I have ever believed about myself or my world including God. It is second reality in which I for the first time am both responsible and empowered over my own conditioned brain. It is second reality in which I learn to test new options with a freedom never before available to me. This would include the option of a transcendent aspect of unlimited potential awaiting actualization which HP/SOS named third reality or Universal Mind.
Second reality awakens to a new language model which HP/SOS has named a “process language model”. First reality can live and die using the subject/object language model of he, she or it, believing that s/he is describing people, places or things in his or her external world. Process language is the result of a self’s participation in the dynamics of change, after awakening to the subjectivity of one’s beliefs within one’s conditioned brain. HP/SOS names this capability “refereeing” which is the process of a new idea challenging a current belief.
Remember, a “conscious self” does not even exist in first reality as first reality people continue to argue over which definition is more accurate.
First reality people spend their entire lives arguing over which definitions are right or wrong or best or worst. First reality understanding is unaware that the beliefs that we are using, when we describe ourselves or our world, are a result of our conditioned brain and its current beliefs that we have made our reality. How could we be relating to a world or ourselves when our meaning and feeling is determined by our acceptances within our brain?
THE OBSERVER
Of primary importance in the study of any and all IDEAS is the role of the observer? YOU and I perceiving the “observed”. Unless and until we have determined the means by which we comprehend reality, of whatever sort, there is the risk that we will continually mistake what we “see” as an authentic, genuine reality, rather than what it actually is: a collection of assumptions (metaphors) we ourselves verify using our currently held belief-system. If we alone verify reality, how can we be sure it is “in fact” the reality we assume it is?
This graphic is for an individual that is awakening to what we have named The Location of Comprehension (LOC). Until we realize the implications of this graphic we are unaware of the most important aspect of consciousness. Who and What it is that we are actually observing. What makes up our current reality?
Understanding this graphic allows countless problematical areas to be explained. We never see the outside world directly because what we actually observe is the result of a process of evaluation that is given its meaning and feeling as a result of our self-image (current biases, prejudices, subjective opinions, and countless other influences that color and determine our current self-image).
After a person is capable of locating where and how s/he understands his/her reality, s/he is empowered for the first time to be a decision-maker as to how and what response s/he will give to his/her current experiences. S/he is now aware that s/he is relating to his/her own habits and not to his/her past or an outside world.
This is the beginning of a second reality in which choice is rational for the first time. As long as a brain’s conditioned habits rule one’s behavior there is no self that can be responsible for change. Prior to second reality one’s world is blamed for unwanted experiences.
In major contrast, after the second reality paradigm shift, we are now aware that meaning and feeling deals with one’s own acceptances (evaluations) rather than external input. It is this awakening human being that now deals with an subjectively evaluated world that is the result of one’s current beliefs about God and self.
This is why in first reality one always feels “right” about what they think and feel because they are unaware that it is one’s own beliefs that are justifying what they think and feel.
Second reality replaces outer orientation with inner orientation that is aware that it is our currently accepted belief system that is subjective and that it is our language model of that belief system that we use to describe our behavior.
This replaces first reality beliefs that external input causes our behavior.
This produces an emancipated human that now lives with a freedom to test and actualize options of meaning and feeling enjoying a new and different self-image or self esteem.
This human begins a life of actualizing love, joy, happiness with a drive to express a creativity beyond any reality ever imagined within the limiting boundaries of first reality’s body with a brain.
For countless centuries most of the world populations have used the subject/object language model of first reality without being aware of its metaphor nature. It is this ignorance of the science of physiology and behavioristic psychology that has led humans to believe that the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) deal directly with an external world that is “out-there”.
These sciences would not mean very much to our ancestors that needed only to ovoid being eaten by predators or unfriendly neighbors.
It will only be in the recent past hundred years or so that these sciences of physiology and behavioristic psychology located our five senses as processes existing in our brain.
This means that meaning and feeling as well as our five senses are processes within our brain.
Question: Are you telling me that I do not see you directly? Are you telling me that when I describe someone or myself that I am not actually doing just that?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. We now know that it is quite impossible to see another person or a world directly. The five senses are processes in our brain and the meaning and feeling that we use to describe ourselves and our world are a result of our conditioned brain not the actual world or our actual self.
This is why HP/SOS research is so important.
Until second reality’s LOC we are not aware that how we comprehend ourselves and our world is second hand knowledge given to us by someone else and we have innocently accepted that knowledge as our reality.
What is discovered in HP/SOS is that in first reality we are unaware that it is our brain that describes our reality when we believe that it is our actual world or ourselves that is being described directly by our senses.
Is it not ludicrous to believe that a finite and limited individual’s body with a brain can both think and feel that s/he is a finite and limited separate person with an individual’s self-image and also at the same time comprehend and experience that s/he is a Universal Mind of unlimited potential awaiting actualization that transcends his or her finite and limited separate individual body with a brain?
The most important area of change that second reality makes possible is found in how as well as why we relate to life itself in the way that we do. First reality is a total dependence on external authorities, secular or sacred, with second reality opening an awareness of an inner source of change with a self, I, ego or person that is motivated to actualize change when manifesting his or her dreams.
In second reality it is a direct result of this awakening of an inner world of potentials and a UNIVERSAL SELF to actualize those potentials that opens the doorway to another paradigm shift which HP/SOS has named third reality.
On page 120 in the original textbook of Dr. Ernest Holmes which was written in 1922 and published in 1926 he tells us that:
“There is One Infinite Life acting through Law, and this Law is mental; the Law is Mind in action. We are surrounded by an Infinite, Subconscious, Impersonal, Neutral, Plastic, Creative, Ever-Present, Thinking Stuff from which all things come, which, in its Original State, permeates all things. By impressing our thought upon this substance we can cause It to produce for us that which we think, to the limit of our ability to mentally embody the idea. Impressing our thought upon It is not an external act, for when we impress our thought upon ourselves, we are thinking into It; this is because of the Unity of all Mind. This is one of the great lessons to learn; we do not know anything outside ourselves. This is what Jesus meant when He said, ‘Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free’ (John 8:32). When we know within ourselves we are knowing at the point of that Individualized Spirit which we are; upon the very Heart of the Infinite, the Ever-Present Substance, which is ever responsive to Itself.”
On page 135 Dr. Holmes expresses this awesome cosmology (world view) in graphic form as follows:
On page 77 Dr. Holmes clarifies his use of the term “Mind” by stating that there is only One Mind:
“There is no such thing as your mind, my mind, his mind, her mind and God’s Mind; there is just Mind in which we all live, move and have our being. There is Mind and nothing but Mind. We think of Conscious Mind and Spirit as One and the Same”.
How and why is it possible for such data to be new? Isn’t HP/SOS merely using the ancient wisdom of mysticism to structure its different realities? What makes the idea new of a human being God? Isn’t that the ancient philosophy of pantheism?
Why, if all humans have this awesome potential do they continue to kill each other and practice so many areas of lack in their lives? What are the two cosmological bases that historically have justified this on-going dispute?
1. Materialistic Monism. This is the world view that is still accepted by most scientists in the twenty-first century. It is the belief that the world of matter around us is seen as the only reality. Life or consciousness is but a by-product of physical processes.
2. Idealistic Monism. This is the world view that consciousness and its ideas are the supreme reality. The idealists looks upon physical matter as an extension or form of spirit, mind or consciousness.
Most scientists are oriented to an evolutionary process in geology, astronomy and physics, however, ever since Darwin, most scientists have accepted materialistic monism in which a human is a descendent of the apes.
How does HP/SOS answer this scientific population with its many years of evidence.
Almost everyone of us occasionally asks some philosophical questions of the profoundest meaningthe purpose of life, the origin of the world, the ultimate reality of spirit or matter, or the measure of freedom of the human will.
HP/SOS is a philosophy that exposes how and why the philosophical doctrines held by the leading philosophers throughout history are capable of being shown to be the inevitable product of their own innate tendencies, desires and difficulties rather than of their profound reasoning and irrefutable logic.
HP/SOS sees our philosophy as our general outlook on life, the way we “feel” towards the world surrounding us and towards our fellow humans, our aspirations and struggles, our achievements and failures. These are the aspects of our life that determine our philosophy and its doctrines.
We accept or evolve a philosophy of life because it provides a framework within which our spontaneous tendencies can work. In first reality this framework is given to us by others working from a dualistic world of self and not self, using a subject/object language model of person, place or thing in which we live in a world of the pair of opposites (good or evil, rich or poor, sick or well, happy or sad, alive or dead, etc.).
The materialistic monism model has served the first reality level of understanding for countless centuries.
It was with this observation of how and why humans behave as they do that HP/SOS emerged on the scene with its synthesis of the psychological schools that justifies an involution/evolution within human beings.
By studying the basic psychological systems that have evolved over the past one hundred years, HP/SOS recognized a pattern of paradigm shifts that not only corresponded to the psychological systems but also corresponded to changes in levels of human understanding.
The major breakthrough of HP/SOS was the discovery of a human ability to practice reflective analysis which was named second reality. It justified the massive research of Humanistic Psychology as well as Secular Humanism. HP/SOS has discovered that this paradigm shift is still rare, however, our research has noted a growing increase in the numbers of people capable of practicing this awesome freedom produced by a second reality when a human is capable of both comprehending its principles and living them.
The basis of this second reality paradigm shift is the birth of a self, I, ego or person that participates in refereeing between new ideas and old conditioned habits in one’s brain with the help of multiple self-help systems (secular and sacred).
This new person is now responsible for his or her conditioned habits and is empowered with a capability for choosing options in every area of his or her life.
This new person is practicing some form of service in their community and is creative in his/her personal life. Humans that are still stuck in first reality definitions will continue to react to new ideas as being unacceptable.
As this new person becomes their own authority, their fellow humans that are still stuck in first reality definitions will stick to their accepted authorities with their accepted “truths”.
The game of arguing definitions is as old as language itself.
As this new person explores his or her inner world of consciousness s/he begins to make another major paradigm shift into his or her transcendent aspect or Universal Mind.
Question: Are you telling me that humans are this transcendent aspect or Universal Mind before they have any awareness of it?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. After second reality we have made the switch from a world view or cosmology of materialistic monism to a world view of idealistic monism. With a universal base understanding to our lives an eternal identification can now make sense in how we live our lives.
Question: Would this not make wholeness or oneness a pre-existing potential merely by being human? How will this affect prayer and healing in earlier levels of understanding?
Answer: Fantastic questions. It answers why and how prayers of every human in every culture are answered when belief in the answer is accepted. It answers why and how healing is accomplished by the acceptance of the person regardless of the method (secular or sacred) being used. All methods basically act as a placebo effect. To better understand prayer and healing more research is necessary into left and right hemispheres of our brain and the connection of our brain to our transcendent aspect.
HP/SOS is showing that this idealistic monism cosmological model justifies the mystical teachings of most major religions. This also explains why a person in early realities is still successful with both prayer and healing. We are discovering a new human being that is both responsible and empowered. We are discovering a new human being that is capable of being inclusive of every method (secular or sacred) that helps a human better understand and live his or her life.
Only after the creation of psychology as a science requiring empirical testing through some form of verification did philosophy become testable as a person’s world view beginning with self-image psychology.
This opened the doorway to having a power and control over our own belief system that was non-existent when relating directly to a world.
There can be no personal responsibility or empowerment when our behavior is believed to be externally caused, rather than a subjective acceptance of an evaluation process of our own beliefs.
This is why CCRS as a church organization has no prescribed dogmas, but we respect each of our member’s dogmas.
In first reality, where one believes one is relating to a world directly, one is usually unaware that one even has a dogma of certainty that is justifying his/her reality. When one believes his/her beliefs are “truth” they are not considered dogma.
Thoughts are not things, thoughts are the philosophical/psychological symbols representing one’s beliefs about things.
I (subject) BELIEVE IN _____________ (named thing or object).
In first reality, the subject or believer is unaware that her/his belief is an evaluation within her/his own comprehension that is based on her/his current level of understanding. It is irrelevant how s/he spells the word that s/he places on the object line. Beliefs are in the believer and are not in the person, place or thing (label or word) s/he places as the object of his/her belief. This is why prayer is practicing a faith within the believer that has worked and continues to work for every religion (and non religion) throughout history. The belief or faith in help being possible can produce the help one is praying for regardless of the name of the object prayed to that is believed to be what is producing the change. It is also faith that works for science because it is quite impossible to observe and evaluate anything without one’s current beliefs governing the process of one’s behavior (consciously or unconsciously).
How can this explosive change be understood in first reality when humans in that reality have been fighting each other over whose God or Goddess, etc., is the right one (right name) to pray to?
First reality definitions require submission or the acceptance of someone else’s world view labels as verification of one’s reality without knowing that the spelling of the object prayed to is irrelevant.
The power of belief is IN THE BELIEVER.
First reality requires a person to be a follower of someone else’s opinions. In contrast, a second reality decision-maker is open to options (the ability to replace unacceptable beliefs with acceptable beliefs) for manifesting change.
Remember, the belief is in the believer, not in the words of the particular object.
Prior to second reality a human will mistake her/his first reality definitions as truthfully describing the actual world, instead of a description of one’s current self-image that as a world view will be related to as if one’s self-image is the real world (out there) instead of being beliefs subjectively held (internally).
This is why a human awakens to empowerment over his/her beliefs in second reality, in contrast to first reality believing that s/he is relating directly to a world or a past that is the cause of his or her reactions.
First reality’s past and future orientation justify a theology (cosmology) of salvation and retribution for disobeying someone else’s rules and regulations.
Many religions teach that these states are experienced later in an afterlife or another life (reincarnation) promising heaven or nirvana and/or hell.
This orientation gives no clue of how to currently experience
one’s desired feelings of heaven or nirvana.
Examples of this future orientation are:
I will feel happy when _______. I will feel rich when ______. I will feel secure when _______. I will feel love when _______. I will feel healthy when _______ and so on.
These are all first reality beliefs of people that are future oriented in their world view and, in most cases, will blame their past or their current world for their unfulfilled desires. Please notice the part feeling plays (current self-image) in all of the above.
We believe the struggles of early realities are the way that humans are forced to ask questions that can lead to enlightenment. When everything in one’s life is in a satisfactory state of affairs, one is usually not asking questions.
It is time to live in a present state orientation
using a philosophy of unlimited potential awaiting actualization,
and a method for testing such an awesome theory.
It is this paradigm shift of second reality that is so revolutionary after making the discoverythat it is our beliefs that give meaning to the belief that we can ever think in the future or the past.
Our world of understanding is always dealing in the present
even when we delude ourselves that we are dealing in the past or future.
Try an experiment and test yourself about the future and/or the past. See if you can think or feel in the past or future without practicing your test in the present NOW. People that talk about their past are not in their past.
Past orientation can only be helpful because one’s current habits that are being blamed or credited are actually one’s current belief system in which habits that may have been unconscious, are being replaced.
Question: If all humans use Universal Mind then is not “time” merely a definition creation of first reality?
Answer: Fantastic question. Only after second reality discovery of belief systems and language models are we aware that all words are metaphors or symbols that are used to describe our realities. We use time to structure our lives in first reality without questioning its truth. Second reality is aware that all words are symbols representing our current meaning and feeling as we learn to live in the present NOW. Third reality is aware of an ETERNAL SELF.
This is why past oriented therapy can be helpful because the therapy is not dealing with one’s past but with one’s present belief system that desires to be changed. As change is practiced, change will happen because change is being practiced in Universal Mind even if one is not yet aware of Universal Mind or one’s transcendent aspect. This is why prayer, when accepted, works for every human regardless of their religion or lack of religion.
Remember, pre-existing wholeness awaits actualization regardless of the method used (sacred and/or secular) to obtain that realization. Ernest Holmes used to say in almost every lecture, “The universe can only say yes”. Whatever feeling one is currently accepting will be validating (beneficially or detrimentally).
As a human begins to question his/her reality, s/he will already have certain basic beliefs about the world, God, the environment and the people in his/her world, including him/her self.
When we are very young, our WHY and WHAT questions are generally answered by our immediate family.
As we grow in years we question more authorities about sacred and secular matters. Our schooling is conducted by such authorities, usually without our being aware that we are forming a belief system that will be the determining factor of our reality.
As our reality increases in its complexity and scope we find our world necessarily corresponds to our reality. There is no way, at first, to distinguish between our reality and the world of person, place or thing our reality is describing.
Why would we question what we have accepted as the truth when we are not yet aware that our reality of meaning and feeling is being formed by other people’s opinions?
There is no way, at first, for us to be aware that our reality is made up OF OPINIONS when our beliefs are considered to be the TRUTH about the actual world of person, place or thing. In first reality we believe that we perceive the world directly, which science labels “empirical evidence”.
It is this ignorance of how we establish our reality that Plato attempted to expose with his complex theory of knowledge, viz., how we know what we know.
Plato developed a system of levels in which he explained the steps through which a human evolves as wisdom replaces ignorance.
Plato described how the human mind achieves knowledge, and indicated what knowledge consists of by means of 1. his allegory of the cave, 2. his metaphor of the divided line, and 3. his doctrine of Forms or Ideas.
The first step is told by his allegory of the cave in which he asks us to imagine some people living in a large cave where from childhood they have been chained by their legs and by their neck so that they cannot move. Because they cannot even turn their heads, they can only see the back wall of the cave that is in front of them.
Behind them is an elevation that rises abruptly from the level where the prisoners are seated. On this elevation there are other persons walking back and forth carrying artificial objects, including the figures of animals and human beings made out of wood and stone and various other materials.
Behind these walking persons is a fire, and further back is the entrance to the cave.
The chained prisoners can only look forward toward the wall at the end of the cave and cannot see each other nor the moving persons having the fire behind them.
All the prisoners ever see are the SHADOWS on the wall in front of them, which are projections of the persons walking in front of the fire. They never see the objects that are being carried, nor are they aware that the shadows are shadows of other things.
When the prisoners see a shadow and hear a person’s voice echo from the wall, they assume that the sound is coming from the shadow, since they are not aware of the existence of anything else.
These prisoners only recognize AS THEIR REALITY
THE SHADOWS on the wall of the cave.
Plato asks: what would happen if one of these prisoners was released from his chains, was forced to stand up, turn around, and walk with eyes lifted up toward the light of the fire?
All his movements would be exceedingly painful. Suppose he was forced to look at the objects being carried whose shadows he had become accustomed to seeing on the wall of the cave. Would he not find these actual objects less congenial to his eyes, and less meaningful than the previously viewed shadows?
And would not his eyes ache if he looked straight at the light from the fire itself?
At this point he would undoubtedly try to escape from his liberator and turn back to the things he could see with clarity, being convinced that the shadows were more real than the objects he was forced to look at in the fire’s light. This is what first reality understanding is doing when current definitions are controlling one’s behavior.
But suppose, asks Plato, that this prisoner is not allowed to turn back, but is dragged forcibly up the steep passage to the mouth of the cave into the sunlight.
The impact of the sun’s radiance upon his eyes would be so painful that he would be unable to see any of the things that he was now told are real.
It would take some time before his eyes became accustomed to the world outside the cave. He would first of all recognize some shadows and would feel at home with them. If it were the shadows of a human, he would have seen that shape before as it appeared on the wall of the cave. Next, he would see the reflections of humans and things in the water, and this would represent a major advance in his knowledge, for what he once knew only as a solid dark blur, would now be seen in more precise detail of line and color.
A flower makes a shadow which gives very little indication of what a flower really looks like, but its image as reflected in the water provides the eyes with a clearer vision of each petal and its various colors. In time, he would see the flower itself.
As he lifted his eyes skyward, he would find it easier, at first, to look at the heavenly bodies at night, looking at the moon and the stars instead of the sun in the daytime.
This extraordinary experience would gradually lead this liberated prisoner to conclude that the sun is what makes things visible. It is the sun that accounts for the seasons of the year, and for that reason the sun is the cause of life in the spring.
Now he would understand what he and his fellow prisoners saw on the wall of the cave, how shadows and reflections differ from the things as they really are in the visible world, and that without the sun there would be no visible world.
Plato asks, how would such a person feel about his previous life in the cave?
Plato answered this question by saying that he would recall what he and his fellow prisoners took for wisdom, how they had a practice of honoring and commending each other, giving prizes to the one who had the sharpest eye for the passing shadows and the best memory for the order in which they followed each other so that he could make the best guess as to which shadow would come next.
Plato then asks, would the released prisoner still think such prizes were worth having and would he envy the person who received honors in the cave?
Plato again answered his own question by saying that instead of envy the released prisoner would only have sorrow and pity for those that remained prisoners in the cave.
What would then happen, asks Plato, if the released prisoner were to return to his former seat in the cave? How would or could he return to his shadow realm of reality?
Plato again answers his own questions by saying the liberated prisoner, at first, would have great difficulty from going from sunlight into a cave of darkness.
He no longer competes very effectively with the other prisoners in making out the shadows on the wall.
While his eyesight was still dim and unsteady, those who had their permanent residence in the cave of darkness could win every round of competition with him.
They would, at first, find this situation very amusing and would taunt him by saying that his sight was perfectly all right before he went out of the cave. But since he has returned, his sight is ruined.
Their conclusion would be that it is not worth trying to venture outside the cave. Indeed, says Plato, “if they could lay hands on the man who was trying to set them free and lead them up, they would kill him” (as they did to Socrates and many others throughout history that questioned traditional beliefs).
Plato is saying that most of humanity dwells in the darkness of the cave. They have oriented their thoughts around the blurred world of shadows. It is the function of educators to lead humans out of the cave and into the world of light.
Plato explains the steps that a person takes when discovering his/her transcendent aspect as s/he awakens to his/her awesome nature.
This is shown by THE DIVIDED LINE graphic below.
In the process of discovering true knowledge, the “mind”, says Plato, moves through four stages of development. At each stage, there is a parallel between the kind of object presented to the mind and the kind of thought this object makes possible. These objects and their parallel modes of cognition are diagramed by the divided line graphic above. “Mind” to Plato is the Universal Mind of HP/SOS.
The vertical line from x to y is a continuous one, suggesting that there is some degree of knowledge at every point. But as the line passes through the lowest forms of reality to the highest, there is a parallel progression from the lowest degree of truth to the highest.
The upper and larger part represents the intelligible world and the smaller, lower part the visible world. The unequal division symbolizes the lower degree of reality and truth found in the visible world as compared with the greater reality and truth in the intelligible world.
Question: Didn’t Plato name his transcendent level the Intelligible level of “Forms” and “Ideas” as perfect and the material world as imperfect? Isn’t that why his cosmology has always been considered a dualism?
Answer: Yes, philosophers that are unable to include the transcendent aspect of a human being have believed that dualism was Plato’s world view because it is their world view. To do so, however, is to totally ignore his allegory of the cave parable. Plato’s shadows are what HP/SOS has named “beliefs”. In first reality humans are unaware that they are not dealing directly with the world via their five senses but with their conditioned brain. Because of this ignorance of first reality awareness people can live an entire life that is based on other people’s opinions. Plato is telling us that our reality is “imperfect” when we are unaware, at first, that we are incapable of actually dealing with the perfection of the transcendent.
Question: Are you suggesting that until humans awaken to their transcendent aspect (Universal Mind) they live a programmed life that is based on opinions of others?
Answer: Tell me how it can be otherwise? Before second reality’s LOC, it seems quite impossible for first, a self to be “born” and second, for a self to reflect on his or her current conditioned brain aware that it is his or her current beliefs that s/he is making his or her reality, and third, that an individual “self” is actually a Universal SELF.
Question: Are the pair of opposites the “shadow trap” of first reality?
Answer: Fantastic question. Yes, yes, yes. Until second reality’s LOC, a person is unaware that s/he is describing a belief that is determining his or her behavior. Until LOC s/he lives in a dualistic world of love or hate, rich or poor, sick or well, happy or sad, wise or foolish, etc. Think how many times a person “bashes” other people verbally. As long as humans think that it is the world and its population that needs changing, the pair of opposites will be used to describe that world. Change happens within the perceiver before it can manifest externally.
Question: If Universal Mind is the basis of all thinking and feeling, then isn’t every manifestation of that “Universal Mind” perfect?
Answer: Another fantastic question. It is that question about the perfection of Universal Mind versus the “imperfection” of beliefs when one is thinking and feeling from a cosmology of dualism. This is the question that exposes one of the most important aspects of HP/SOS. By showing the levels of understanding found in the different psychological schools HP/SOS explains why and how involution justifies evolution in which consciousness evolves from the simple to the ever more complex.
Most humans begin their lives on planet Earth in a first reality dualism in which they think and feel from an individual cosmology or world view. The subject/object language model describes the world of person, place or thing in she, he or it words or symbols. The pair of opposites is justified with expressions of pain, suffering and limitation. Why or how could or would this level of understanding have any idea of a different world view? It seems as if this level of ignorance of one’s actual spiritual nature of Universal Mind has dominated human expression for countless centuries. This first reality mindset described in HP/SOS is what Plato named “shadows” in his allegory of the cave parable. Only after second reality awakens are humans capable of realizing that their world is an “evaluated world” of beliefs which includes the belief of being a finite and separate individual that is born, lives and dies. This all changes after awakening to one’s transcendent aspect of Universal Mind. With the awakening of levels within one’s SELF, realization can now take place in which all struggle, disease, pain and limitation are realized as “perfect” examples of beliefs that dualism ignorance manifests. It is the manifestation of one’s belief that is “imperfect” (disease, pain, limitation) because of dualism ignorance producing it. After awakening to Universal Mind one is capable of comprehending why and how beliefs prior to LOC must manifest as a result of acceptance which would include both the desirable and the undesirable.
Question: Are you saying that cancer, pain and limitation of any kind are not “perfect”?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes, The “perfect” correspondence of a belief exposes the “law of belief” and its validation (E=mc2). Until all aspects of Universal Mind are included (physical, mental and spiritual) a human is “crippled” in his or her knowledge of reality. This ignorance of first reality dualism and its pair of opposites is what produces disease, pain and limitations in an individual’s life. This is why Dr. Ernest Holmes stated that the Universe can only say “yes”.
After LOC we are aware that we only deal in present time orientation which is based on our current belief system. That we relate to a subjective awareness of our current beliefs, rather than an objective awareness of an “out there” world of past or future. This, of course, includes personal responsibility and empowerment for any believed-in observation attempting to change an unacceptable belief.
It requires taking personal responsibility and empowerment in order to change current beliefs.
Question: Are you saying that consciousness outgrows or evolves beyond the ignorance of dualism or the pair of opposites?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. After LOC or second reality, humans are no longer “stuck” in the limitations of a first reality’s conditioned brain.
Question: Is this process of awakening to one’s Universal Mind the transition from a limited finite human being that is born, lives and dies, to an awakening eternal spiritual being?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes. HP/SOS is researching those processes of how and why a human can and does awaken to his or her eternal nature.
Love, joy and happiness become a practiced living style. Peace is accomplished because all feeling has been located within one’s own being. Humans no longer strive to become spiritual because after the awakening of their transcendent aspect (Universal Mind) they no longer try to get what they already are in potential awaiting actualization. Cause and effect changes to acceptance by degree. Heaven and hell are no longer “places” in an afterlife because one is no longer living in the past or future of an “external” world.
As we awaken to our awesome nature we are NOW oriented to a creativity that is in the process of transforming planet Earth. The infinite number of self-help systems, secular and sacred, are examples of the pre-existing wholeness being discovered by human beings in every culture.
All humans are included in a world in which uniqueness is respected and appreciated. The creativity of this new human will make his or her “present” a joy to behold.
I call it giggle power.
With this understanding every human now enjoys cooperating with every other human and is eager to help make this world the amazing “place” it can be.
HP/SOS helps us become aware of the importance of each person and the part s/he can play in this new world.
ENJOY!!!
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