Science of Spirit Alliance

                             Free Yourself from the Cave of Illusion         

       From the Book, “Thoughts of an Emperor, a Slave, a Philosopher, and a Christ.

"Socrates -The Cave" and the modern day counterpart... the Television

Socrates to his friend Glaucon in Book Six of The Republic 

"Imagine a group of people confined to an underground cave, in which they have lived their entire lives. They can do nothing but stare straight ahead, at the back wall. Behind them is a fire blazing at a distance, and between this fire and their backs are men carrying figures made of wood and stone, so that the shadows of these objects are cast on the wall in front of the prisoners. For them, those shadows are the only reality."

Now Socrates asks what would happen if one of these prisoners were freed from bondage, turned around, saw the fire and the men with the objects, then went further, escaping from the Cave into the sunlight. How would he feel? What would he think? "Suppose, now, that this escaped prisoner, having grown accustomed to the real world above, returns to the Cave, and tries to tell the other prisoners what he has experience. What would happen?"

Socrates and Glaucon conclude this returned prisoner would have great trouble adjusting the darkness. Moreover, the other prisoners would have trouble adjusting to his insistence that there was a "higher" reality outside. "The prisoners who had never left the Cave would refuse to listen.

 Socrates: And if their way was to reward those who were quickest to make out the shadows as they went by and to note in memory which came before which as a rule, and which together, would he care very much about such rewards? And, if he were to go down again out of the sunlight into his old place, would not his eyes get suddenly full of the dark?

And if there were to be a competition then with the prisoners who had never moved out and he had do his best in judging the shadows before his eyes got used to the dark—which needs more than a minute—wouldn’t he be laughed at? Wouldn’t they say he had come back from his time on high with his eyes in very bad condition so that there was no point in going up there? And if they were able to get their hands on the man who attempted to take their chains off and guide them up, wouldn’t they put him to death?

Glaucon: They certainly would!

Socrates first spoke about this Cave of illusion 2500 years ago... since then few people [spiritual beings having a human experiences] have broken free of the Cave.  

Socrates best-known parable is that of The Cave. It is the archetypal Western metaphor for our progress from illusion to reality. This parable of "The Cave" is paramount in studying the Book and is the essence of a “Science of Spirit” looking deep within oneself and finding the “Lost keys to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth”… We are employing Socrates parable of The Cave and using this great metaphor for our progress from illusion to reality… finding the truth from ancient knowledge that can break the spell over the Sheeple and turn them from puppets into "spiritual beings having a human experience" . [From the illusions of Wood and metal to an infinite invisible spiritual reality].

 

Thinking people in every generation have applied this parable of The Cave to their specific circumstances. Down the centuries, philosophers and theologians as diverse as St. Augustine, Rousseau, Spinoza, Hegel, and Freud have evoked The Cave to dramatize the difficulties of seeing through our delusions and fantasies, to attain truth. Whenever we think of our intellectual progress as a movement from darkness towards the light, we are using imagery which started with Socrates’ allegory of The Cave. It was his way of dramatizing our journey towards understanding… Our understanding that life is more than survival making money in this materialist paradigm… Fixing broken bodies at high prices living in a maze of manufactured obstacles... worrying about the stress of toxic workplace hazards not making enough money for good food… good shelter… good education or good health care of our loved ones.

 

The allegory of The Cave expresses this deep conviction. Note that there is pain involved in the ascent from the world of shadows [and lies] to the world of valid knowledge{and wisdom that seems like Magic when used}. And there is comparable pain – as well as danger -- in returning to the Cave with one’s new awareness. This danger goes well beyond being laughed at, as Socrates explains, prophesying his own fate at the hands of his fellow Athenians [The truth may set you free but many more have died in the name of this Great truth... the first being one of the Greek Gods... Prometheus].

(Editor: If this begins to sound like the  many 100's of millions of today’s coach potatoes- puppets of the puppet masters the international Banking Cartel... We are sheeple, fixated on our TV, being fattened for the end of days...  the analogy is apt! the grand illusion is our at our stupidity and ignorance of the nature of  Money... coin, credit, and circulation).

Our modern-day interpretation of "The Cave" is the living room and our big-screen television where we spend most of our time... This is a pharmaceutical induced illusion of a materialistic reality streaming from your television and your cell phone 24 hours a day seven days a week... any man who attempts to take the chains off others and guide them up to a greater reality are harmed, tortured or put death by the same Pinocchio like puppets wishing they were spiritual beings having a human experience... they are "bewitched "...   

Pharmaceutical drugs repair broken mechanical bodies for Pinocchio like puppets wishing they were spiritual beings having a human experience. No-thing in their reality can break the spell over Gepetto's puppets from the outside... no matter how many times they hear the truth. The desire has to come from deep within Pinocchio himself... the desire and dream to one day become a real boy... A Spiritual being living a human dream so that he can "break the spell of ignorance" and free himself from Gepetto's pharmaceutical research lab so he and his sisters can heal themselves and live long exceptional lives.

Little does he know that the path for his escape from Gepetto's pharmaceutical research lab has been laid out for him in the book, "Science of Spirit: Lost Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven On Earth."

 

   The Path out of this Cave and the way back home is in book 2, “Creating Genius” looking deep within oneself and finding the “Lost keys to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth”…

 

 

                From the Book, “Thoughts of an Emperor, a Slave, a Philosopher, and a Christ

Socrates' Life and Times

Socrates founded the Western tradition of critical thinking, Born in 470 B.C., son of a stonemason and a midwife, he grew to manhood as the city of Athens moved into its Golden Age.

After youthful study of the new theories of cosmology, Socrates realized that his unique vocation was to bring philosophy down to earth by applying logic to the problems and challenges of living. He devoted his life to dialoguing with his neighbors, usually in the agora, the vast outdoor marketplace at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens (on top of which stood the Parthenon, which his father had worked on).

Socrates is famed for his Socratic Method exploring complex ideas by asking questions, and continually refining the answers to meet various objections. Because this method sometimes annoyed people, he was dubbed “The Gadfly” -- referring to the insects that would bite at the hind quarters of farm animals in the Attic summer, sometimes driving the animals mad.

When Socrates was in his thirties, the fortunes of Athens changed. Its rival, the militaristic city of Sparta, broke a long-standing truce and invaded the city's environs. As a result of a siege of the city, a devastating plague broke out and decimated the population.

As Athens’ fortunes declined further, the people grew impatient with criticism and independent thinking. At the age of 70, in the year 399 B.C., Socrates was charged by three fellow citizens of corrupting the minds of the youth, and of worshiping gods other than those of the city (a reference to his “inner voice” of conscience).

Socrates defended himself with a brilliant “Apology”, but was judged guilty and sentenced to death by hemlock. The night before his death, his oldest friend Crito visited him in his jail cell and begged him to accept his friends’ plans for him to escape into exile. Socrates refused, believing that the right course for him was to accept the verdict and sentence – thus launching the noble tradition of civil disobedience. The account the trial and of those last days of Socrates are immortalized in Plato's dialogues Crito, The Apology, and Phaedo.

Steer the Chariot of Your Soul

Socrates conveyed our lifelong struggle for emotional harmony through a powerful image: a charioteer challenged to control two mighty steeds.

"Of the nature of the soul, let me speak briefly, and in a metaphor: a pair of winged horses and a charioteer," he says in The Republic.

"One of the horses is noble, and the other is ignoble, and driving them is immensely difficult.

"The right-hand horse is upright and cleanly made – he is a lover of honor and modesty and temperance; he needs no touch of the whip, but is guided by word only.

"The other is a crooked lumbering animal; he is insolent and proud, shag-eared and deaf, hardly yielding to whip and spur.

"This vicious steed goes heavily, weighing down the charioteer to the earth because he has not been thoroughly trained: this is the hour of agony and extremist conflict for the soul.

"The charioteer must drag the bit out of the teeth of the wild steed, force his legs to the ground, and punish him sorely. When this has happened several times, and the horse has ceased from his wanton way, he is tamed and humbled, and follows the will of the charioteer."

Socrates was renowned among the Athenians for his understanding and control of his emotions. The allegory of the Charioteer vividly portrayed the struggle which this entailed.

We, too, must become adept at the task of the charioteer in his great metaphor. We must learn to understand and control our most powerful emotions.

Unrestrained, our emotions can bring us to grief despite our rational intelligence. But understood and controlled (not merely ignored or stifled), they can become our wellspring of motivation and passion for life.

 Challenge Your Oracles

One of the charges against Socrates was that he failed to worship the gods of the city. And indeed, he could not accept conventional religion of his day.

Conventional religious thinking among Socrates’ fellow Athenians was a mish-mash of contradictory notions. Legends about the Olympian pantheon of gods – Zeus, Aphrodite, and Apollo – had proliferated, and taken grotesque turns such as Zeus taking the form of a swan or a bull in order to rape mortal women. Most sophisticated Athenians considered these tales as, at best, metaphors for human emotions.

However, there was widespread conviction that "the gods" were likely to punish human beings for such things as hubris (excessive pride and arrogance), or even just great good fortune.

Socrates’ way of thinking about the gods exemplified his way of approaching every issue. He

** questioned conventional thinking;

** demanded clarity;

** learned from everyday experience;

** came to his own conclusions.

 Grow with Friends

For Socrates, philosophizing consisted of talking with others about the issues that matter most in our lives and our communities. Only in the actual moments of interaction, he firmly believed, did real understanding occur.

He held this view so strongly that he eschewed writing down his own views. There are no texts signed by Socrates. We would know nothing about him, were it not for the admiration and affection of his friends, Plato and Xenophon, who devoted a good part of their lives to writing about their dear friend.

"Good friends give me greater satisfaction than other men get from good horses or dogs or gamecocks," he said with characteristic irony. "If I have anything good, I teach it to my friends, and I place them with others from whom I think they will make some gain. There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend."

 Speak the Truth

Socrates exemplified the independent spirit who is willing to speak truth to power. All his life he challenged his fellow citizens, as individuals and collectively, to examine their principles and their behavior.

"I am that gadfly which the gods have sent to sting you Athenians," he declared in his Apology. "Our state, my friends, is like a great steed – powerful and impressive, but lazy and dim. Without the constant provocation by the gadflies, it would grow even more unwitting and unfit."

Socrates commitment to Speak the Truth had three aspects, as he notes in the "Apology": Personal, Social, and Political.

He felt the need to confront individuals who were deluding themselves, social practices that needed scrutiny, and political issues that were misunderstood.

As a result, Socrates has always been a mentor for men and women who have felt the need for honesty, personal and public.

  Neurotech Research A New Science of Spirit

Our first step on our path to enlightenment is "to know thyself" is not a program... we can see we are not the program in our Astrological Chart wheel and all the aspects it makes to all the people in our life...

The Good News is You can learn to secure your Brain…debug… defrag… and get rid of the spyware… that has plagued you and society for a millennium… with worn-out programs, belief systems, religious dogma and political agendas. 

By installing a Spiritual program... one that is subservient to Spirit... with you at the command center... You take control of your life in the now moment as an observer...

 If you like what you have read get the updated E-book, Science of Spirit: expanded to 675 pages.

Go to Freedom of the Spiritual Warrior 

Go to the Invisible Spirit

Go to  Astrological Profiles 

Go To Know thyself

Go To The Personality Vs. Spirit

Go to Selling to the Old brain

Go To  a love of Wisdom   

Go To  What's in it for Me nutritionally in 2012