Mathematics and Geometry

Interestingly enough, geometry and numbers can help as well. Each level of the cave represents a number. One is the number of the shadows, Two is the number of the Fire, and Three is the number of the outside world, and Four is the number of the Sun. Using these numbers in geometric terms, each stage is related to the number of points of a geometric figure. The first stage, the shadows, is merely just a point. It has no connections, it has no direction, and it has no understanding of anything beyond it. It is just a point in space. As a person is released to see the Fire, they gain another point. They now have two, opposite points: the Fire and the shadows, the light and the dark, the good and the evil. These two points have a single connection, a single line between them. It is essentially a string for tug-of-war. This is the source of duality, the source of conflict. Compromise at this level lies in the various shades of grays that the fire makes, not merely the vast black and bright white of the flame. One could argue that there are more colors in the flame than just white; however, until a person exits the cave and sees the true colors of the outside world, the fire will be too bright for them to make any distinctions between white and any other color (besides black). Everything will be light or dark; we know not what color is at this level. In the world outside the cave, there are 3 points, a triangle. The triangle is the simplest and yet, the strongest 2-D geometric figure. It has the least amount points (a line is not a 2-D figure because it has only length or width, not both) necessary to make a 2-D geometric figure, and it is the only 2-D geometric figure in which all the points touch. If you try to touch all the points in a square, the resulting criss-cross would give you four triangles. Thus the triangle is the perfect symbol of compromise because all points are connected and held in balance by the other points. It is here, in the outside world, that we understand and can see color. We move beyond duality and into compromise and understanding. The final stage has 4 points. This can be seen as triangular pyramid, the simplest 3-D geometric figure. Like the 2-D triangle, all points of the triangular pyramid are connected to the rest of the points. It also gives a good illustration of the relationship between the sun and the outside world. The base triangle of the pyramid represents the outside world, and the point at the top represents the sun or the source shining down on the triangle that is the outside world.

Geometry is not the only place where these number combinations show up. Joseph Campbell discovered the number 432 to be found in many cultures throughout the world. The Hindus have a measurement of mythological time in which there are 10 periods. As humanity progresses through each Yuga, the morality of the world decreases until it is at its worse in the 10th period (Kali). Each Yuga is 432,000 years long. In Norse mythology, there are 540 doors in the great warrior hall of the Odin. At the end of days, 800 warriors will go through each door to fight the anti-gods in an Apocalyptic battle (Ragnarok). 800 times 540 equals 432,000. According to ancient Sumerian history, there were 10 kings who ruled for 432,000 years before the deluge or the flood. In the Bible, there are 10 patriarchs, starting with Adam, who ruled for 1656 years. In 1656 years, there are 86,400 weeks (7 may have been their base number, based on the Biblical creation week, and I will explain more about the base 7 later), and if you divide that by two, you get 43,200. There are approximately 25,920 years in a complete cycle of the zodiac. If you divide 25,920 by 60, which was the number base (we use a base 10 system) of Mesopotamia in 3200 BC, you get 432. Campbell also notices that, according to an exercise physician, the target resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute. If your resting heart rate is at 60 beats per minute, you are considered to be perfectly healthy. 60 beats per minute spread out over an entire hour is 3600 beats. In the span of 12 hours, that would be exactly 43,200 beats. (Campbell 208-210) In 24 hours, you would have two sets of 43,200 beats, thus belying the sense of duality: 43,200 beats for the day and 43,200 beats for the night. Likewise, if your heart-rate is one beat per second, then there are approximately 86,400 seconds in a day, split by the duality of night and day into 43,200. Taking this even further, the holy number of God in Christianity, as described in the Apostles Creed, is 777. The mark of the beast, or Satan, in Revelation is 666. If you divide 777 by 18 (which is just 6+6+6), you get 43.2, thus the relationship between Christianity’s dualistic deities, God and Satan, Light and Dark, is equivalent to the numerical concept of 432. As Campbell said, “this is the hidden, the occult, secret of the universe, society, ourselves, and all things, and its number is 432, the number and prime sign of the occult.” (210)

Lastly, 432 can be said to be a metaphor for the relationship between God or perhaps the Tao or the Force, Humanity, and the state of Duality. If four represents God, three represents Humanity, and two represents Duality, then the relationship between them is the intricate number, 432. Also, if seven is considered to be perfection and seven is just three plus four, then seven is equivalent to the God of Humanity. Equally, if six is considered to be evil and six can be represented by two plus four, then six is equivalent to the God of Duality. One could also say that six is just three plus three, in which case humanity is its own worst enemy. This however does not stand with the concept of seven because humanity could not be the root of duality and the root of perfection simultaneously, or could it?


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Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Plato, one of the great philosophers of ancient Greece, devised an intricate allegory meant to explain the complex process of understanding. His Allegory of the Cave was a thoughtful metaphor for the pursuit of knowledge, the quest of the philosopher. In this allegory, humanity is tied to poles with our heads tied in way to keep us permanently staring a wall in front of us. We cannot move our heads, and all we see is a result of the shadows cast on the wall by the fire behind us. The fire is maintained by workers who walk on a pathway that lies between us and the fire. Thus most of the shadows cast by the fire are actually just the shadows of these workers. The shadows are our initial preconceptions. Eventually, someone (typically a philosopher or teacher) frees us from our bonds and forces us to look back. After we adjust our eyes, we can see the entire cave: the fire, the walkway with the workers, the other prisoners, and even the shadows. The fire is the source of light inside the cave, the light that causes us to see the shadows and also causes us to polarize into light and dark, good and bad. Inside the cave are only artificial light and harsh surroundings. Beyond the fire is an exit from the cave, and the role of your mentor is to push, drag, and/or lead you out of the cave. Coming out can be very painful, and you will want to turn back, but the mentor must be there when u want to turn back. When you finally reach the outside world, you are blinded by the light or immense knowledge. Eventually you can see shapes or the basics, and slowly you can see more and more of the ground and your surroundings. Lastly, you’ll be able to see yourself in the reflection of a pond, but you still won’t be able to look up to the sky and see the sun or the source. The outside world is the true world as lighted by the sun or the source of knowledge. Once one can see the sun, or the source of knowledge, that person is truly enlightened; however the journey has only just begun. For Plato, once you are enlightened or know the truth, you must go back into the cave and try to show as many “prisoners” as possible the truth.

Most of humanity is not actually stuck to seeing just shadows. I believe that the majority of humanity is held inside the cave by the fire and the workers of the fire. We’re free to walk around and interact, but we are not free to exit the cave. In fact, it is quite possible that no one has left the cave in a long, long time. The fire creates a dualistic complex of light and dark, fire and shadows, good and bad, black and white. Thus, in the cave, we see only black, white, and shades of grey. We know nothing of color, and thus our perceptions of the world are completely skewed. It is very difficult to make it past the fire and the workers, let alone make it out of the cave and into the real world outside. Knowledge is a powerful thing, but it is very overwhelming at first. The journey would be easier if there was a mentor to lead us, but there are very few, if any, who have experienced the outside world. Thus, we must turn to the past for guidance, we must turn to the myths as our mentors.



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Duality Continued

So, as I mentioned before, we are stuck in Kohlberg’s stage two of moral development, a trust in society (which could be transferred to a trust in a God). This trust is flawed, however, and to understand the flaws, to see the colors beyond the black and white is to move onto the third stage of morality. This morality is not dependent upon society, but rather upon the person’s understanding of the world, perhaps even the person’s connection to their soul, perhaps even the person’s connection to the “World Soul” or the SELF. Duality traps the individual, the commoner, in between two extremes, like Conservatism and Liberalism. Both make valid claims, but in many times, neither side agrees to compromise, and even when they do, their compromise itself, is not true compromise. The "compromise" that we know is not a true balance. The individual feels the weight of this dualistic struggle, for the individual is in the middle; it is the individual that must hold up the see-saw of dualistic struggle. Thus, the individual is left with three choices: join with one, join with the other, or refuse to care (Liberate!). This is the problem in modern politics, as well as most dualistic struggles, the individual is forced to hold up this see-saw, to be the fulcrum, and yet, the individual has no power. So we are left with three groups, and still no solution. The duality of something, of everything, continues until a true balance is found.

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Religion vs. Government, Democracy vs. Tyranny, and Capitalism vs. Communism

I will apply this to religion and government. Religion and government go together, always have. In some civilizations the rulers were deemed gods or the people’s connection to the god, much like Christ is viewed as humanity’s salvation. In other civilizations the priests were at the highest social order, and the rulers looked to them for guidance. In the absence of credible religious figures, leaders turned to the unknown. King Arthur, according to myth and legend, utilized the help of Merlin the Magician. Likewise, many of our presidents have utilized the help of psychics. So it is natural for religion and government to exist together, and yet, it seems as if they are in constant conflict. Take Democracy and Communism for example. Democracy is based on freedom, it is based on humanistic ideals, and combined with Capitalism, it stresses the individual over the group. Conversely, Communism is based on equality and stresses the whole over the individual. Both have failed. It is said that “Democracy is the worst form of government, but it is the best we have.” This is so true, and at the same time, it illuminates one of the many downsides of Duality: apathy. When we are trapped between two warring sides, knowing that both are wrong, we tend to lose our spirit, lose our will for the ideal, and become lazy, apathetic realists. Religion plays a role in this because religion is responsible for the failure of both systems.

Communism failed because it strived to be atheist, saying that the government was the only thing that people needed. This failure to understand the basic needs of humanity, the needs of the soul, was the undoing of Communism. If it had been coupled with a form of stable religion, Communism would have survived. The religion would have been the uniting factor, the factor that kept the egos of the society on the same level plane. The government would have eventually dissolved, and the people would have existed in harmony, or at the very least, a much better harmony than witnessed in the former USSR, China, Cuba, and other Communistic states.

Likewise, Democracy is undone by religion. Democracy, and its chief economic counterpart, Capitalism, is based on the individual: individual freedoms, individual wants, individual needs. The government is there just as an individual-elected presence to allow the wants of the individual to come to pass. That is how it is supposed to be. Religion, on the other hand, stipulates that the individual is nothing compared to the power of a being much greater than man. Thus the individual is lowered to an insignificant level; the needs and wants are not important, only the wants, the demands of the powerful being are important. In Monotheistic religions, the being is supernatural and supreme, thus disconnected completely from the individual, usually by “imperfection” or “sin”. In many Eastern religions, everyone is part of a greater SELF, a Tao, or a Force, if you will. Thus, the needs of the individual still carry some weight, but it is the needs and wants of the whole that define the system. Regardless of which religion is followed, the individual still has no importance.

The conflict created by the combination of religion and Democracy is easily highlighted by the conflict of “Separation of Church and State”. Society, a living entity in a sense, realizes that Democracy and religion, especially a monotheistic one like Christianity, cannot co-exist, and thus it tries to create a pseudo separation. Unfortunately, society fails because the government, at least the US government, was based upon religious ideals and laws. Even the people-elected politicians (as well as the entire court system) are, for the most part, under the influence of some type of religious structure, and usually, that is monotheism.

Even the supposed Democracy of the world is nothing more than a Republic, carefully nicknamed a “representative Democracy”. This is not true, for even in a “representative Democracy”, the people are supposed to have more power than the politicians. Voter apathy is a strong indicator of who has the power; the people do not feel important, and thus they do not participate. Citizens become apathetic because the power, no matter how much some will say to the opposite, is not in the hands of the people, but in the hands of the politicians. Thus, we are a Republic, much like Rome and the “Old Republic” of the prequel trilogy in Star Wars. The Republic of Rome eventually devolved into a triumvirate, which was soon dissolved into an Imperialistic Empire. This is seen exactly in Star Wars, as the “Old Republic” slowly devolves from a Republic, to a triumvirate of the Senate, the Executive Office of the Chancellor, and the Jedi Order. Likewise, the potential for disaster lies in the US, as we are a Republic that could quickly dissolve into a triune government (and it may already be one with the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches), and then become an Imperialistic Empire, the very ideal of Tyranny that we are supposedly fighting against (“The Axis of Evil” of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea). If this sounds grim, take solace in the fact that Communism reverted to Tyranny as well.

Speaking of Communism, in its essence, it was never a government. It was just an economic system based on equality. Conversely, Democracy is just a governmental ideal based on equality and the rule of the whole. Capitalism was “adopted” by Democracy to perpetuate the individual, but in the end, it only perpetuates or helps a few individuals, like the Republic only grants power to the few. Equal opportunity for prosperity becomes prosperity for the few, and most of the times, those few become prosperous by taking advantage of not only the opportunity, but society itself, hence, the laws against monopolies. Perhaps the reason we do not live in a Democracy is because of the presence of Capitalism and Monotheism. Thus, Democracy vs. Communism was actually just Capitalism vs. Communism, Monotheism vs. Atheism. This is a well known and accepted idea, but what if taken in the context of Rome? What if the Cold War was merely just a battle to see which Tyranny, disguised as a government, would win? In this light, the war cries of Democracy vs. Tyranny, Patriotism vs. Terrorism, and Freedom vs. Oppression, could be seen as just another fight to preserve the status quo, the Tyranny disguised in Democracy. I offer, though, a possible solution (before returning to Duality), in the form of a question, a food for thought: What if the equal economics of Communism were combined with the equal government of Democracy and the equal philosophy of an eastern religion like Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, or perhaps a combination of all four?



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Duality

Duality, the existence of two and only two, is a contrast that has jaded and glared our eyes from the truth. It has sometimes scarred us beyond recognition. Duality is present in every facet of society. We see duality in conflict. In our political world, it is Democrats vs. Republicans, Liberals vs. Conservatives. In our social world, it is the New vs. the Old, Nature vs. Technology, Traditional vs. “New Age” or radical. In our social world, it is white vs. black, or white vs. any color. In everyday life, it male vs. female. In our global world, it is Democracy vs. Communism and Democracy vs. Terrorism, or Freedom vs. Tyranny. In our philosophical world, it is Religion vs. Technology and Monotheism vs. the occult. Eventually, it becomes Idealist vs. Realist and the Individual vs. the Whole. Many individuals do not necessarily agree with many of these conflicts, and yet society as a whole still perpetuates these sometimes pointless conflicts. Social psychologists would call this “Group Polarization”, the tendency for a group to take more extreme stances than those of the individual members. Gnostics would call this proof of the Demi-urge, and conspiracy theorists would blame this on an evil within government and/or the heads of society. Whatever you call it, our state of duality is our undoing. It is troubling predicament that is hindering our progress.

Some would argue that duality is necessary for us to understand our world. I agree, duality is necessary to gain an understanding of our world; however, dualistic understanding is only useful for children. For children, the truth is in black and white, right or wrong. For Freud, this was the Id, one’s basic biological urges (the unconscious) and the Superego, the values and ideals of society (lies in the conscious). The Ego was necessary to balance these two. The social connotations are evident, the Id is evil and the Superego is good, the Id is the primitive dark and the Superego is the quintessential light. It is these basic assumptions that blind our vision. What is primitive is not necessarily evil because “the values and the ideals of society” is not the quintessential light. The laws of society, every facet of it, including both government and religion, are not necessarily just. Democracy isn’t justice, just like Communism isn’t Tyranny. Humanity is stuck in Kohlberg’s second stage of moral development, conventional morality: morality that is based on trust, loyalty or understanding of social order. It is this trust that divides; we trust in what society says, and not in what our soul says. Interestingly, like the dualistic nature of the number 2, this stage of morality is the 2nd stage. The 3rd stage, post-conventional morality, is based on the understanding that laws are situational and can be changed. It is an understanding that not everything is black or white, not even just shades of grey; it is understanding that black and white are the extreme opposites on the outside and the inside, one absent of color and the other containing all color, and that the true nature of color lies in between them.


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May the Force be with Us: How Star Wars, Plato, and Gnosticism can help us evolve

Despite all of our technology and scientific progress, humanity is ignorant. If you take away the technology, we are not much better than our hunting and gathering ancestors who lived in caves. Perhaps we are even worse. At least, as modern anthropology is proving, hunter and gatherer societies cooperate and exist peacefully. We, on the other hand, are mired in a state of duality, and we have lost touch with our true human nature. Our entire focus is centered on extremes, Light and Dark, Capitalism and Communism, Tyranny and Democracy, Black and White, Patriotism and Terrorism, Poor and Rich, Republican and Democrat, Evil and Good. This tiresome state of duality does nothing but create a stagnant atmosphere were society is held back from evolving. Our current monotheistic religions do nothing except perpetuate this trivial state of us against them, right and wrong, black and white. It was monotheism that first created the concept of good and evil with the rise of Zoroastrianism. This concept was then taken by Judaism, and later filtered down to Christianity and Islam, where it then infected the whole world. This duality has since spread from religion to philosophy, where religion and science are supposed to mingle. By separating religion or the occult (Greek for the hidden) from science, we have furthered this dualistic approach and halted our development. Until we can learn to move beyond dualistic thought and merge science with the occult, we will not evolve. Fortunately, Plato, Star Wars, and Gnosticism give us a glimmer of hope.



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The Philosophy of Time Travel

This is just an experiment:

Jon Headlee
Sally Doud
Honors English 200
April 15th, 2005

The paper you're about to see unfold was written during my second semester of VCU - during a 4-day period in which I didn't use drugs but still achieved the "high" that is Kundalini.

;-)

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