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Chapter One

Inner Powers

There are a number of conspiracies being discussed today, yet the greatest and least discussed of all is how the creative inner power of individuals, including what it is and what it does, has been deliberately and intentionally suppressed. This suppression began, in part, when Religion decided that in order to save souls it had to first control the individuals possessing the souls. However, the first concerted effort by the early Catholic Church to obtain absolute control by military-type force led the world into the Dark Ages.[1] Over the centuries the methods and tools used for controlling individuals slowly evolved with similar types of failures but also with startling successes. These changes have led the vast majority of the members of the ‘free’ world into being under an absolute control that is far stronger than that first envisioned by the early Catholic Church.

Over twenty-three centuries ago, Plato warned the world of this loss of individual control as he wrote about a creative power  within individuals and how rulers fear its emergence within their subjects.[2] He gave an exaggerated example of the creative power in his statement that a mere handful of heroes  when fighting at each other’s side with that power, could overcome the world.[3] He gave a clue to the source of this power when he stated that the very word hero (Greek: heros[4]) points to the source.[5] These statements may very well have increased fears even in his time, since only a few years later, Aristotle, in his Metaphysics, noted that theologians had started to deny the existence of a universal source of such a fundamental power.[6]

Plato and Aristotle  were not alone in describing an inner creative power. Long before Plato, the book of Proverbs, the earliest writing used in the Judaic/Christian religions, taught of powers within the bowels or heart that can shape and change an individual’s life and future. Consider the following statements from Proverbs 23:7 and 16:9.

   "A man becomes what he opens (shaar) his heart to."

   "The heart directs (chashab) the path a man takes, but Yehovah[7] directs the steps.”

It is certain that the later Hebrew heroes demonstrated the power in the open heart; however, none of the extant Hebrew writings state the placement and nature of the heart or any detailed description of this power.[8]

There is likewise support that the Christians before the fifth century believed in similar powers. The best evidence lies in the Gospel of Thomas [9] that was believed completely destroyed by the rising Catholic Church but was secretly saved in the library recently found at Nag Hammadi. Plato’s model of a handful of united soldiers overcoming the world  is further exaggerated to make a critical point in the Gospel when it states that if two people can become as one or find union, they can tell a mountain to move and it will.[10] Also, there are a number of verses citing inner powers, such as the statement that the powers you can bring forth from within yourself can save you. Another is that a good man brings forth goodness from his inner storehouse.[11]

To return to the modern world, it is unlikely that Plato  and the other early writers could have foreseen the near total loss of individual freedom that exists in the modern highly controlled and mechanistic world. They, no doubt, were also completely unable to envision the marvelous and magical technological world that was wrought by the creative powers of a relatively few individuals over the centuries. The early writings around the world all agreed that the majority of people walked in darkness but that a few walked in the light. However, it may be that only in modern times is it possible to understand how blinding the darkness is and likewise how brilliant the creative light can become.

The inner powers of those few individuals who walked in the light were studied relatively recently by Abraham Maslow, the founder of Humanistic Psychology. He started his career by studying 'heroes' instead of the iniquitous or mentally ill as was, and is, popular in psychology. These  exceptional individuals, who are able to 'open their own hearts', he labeled "self-actualized" or "fully human." It is quite germane that the characteristics Maslow notes among these people are nearly identical with the early religious descriptions of the enlightened or virtuous[12] individuals found in most ancient cultures.

It is also interesting to note that Maslow [13] considers creativity and the ability to obtain union  with the world as the chief traits of the fully human, since these are also among the  among the highest traits described by the early Greeks. Maslow, for example, gives an explanation of how the fully human are able to create and do no wrong. He explains that an inventor is able to unite separate forces or objects together, that others cannot perceive, to create something entirely new to the world.[14] He further elaborates upon the powers of this process when he explains how inner-directed individuals are able to do no wrong as they manage to unite what they “want to do, what they need to do, what they enjoy now and will continue to enjoy” into a harmonious unity that lesser individuals are unable to do.[15] Maslow emphasizes the terms goodness[16] and unity[17] whose full meanings, he states, “are old to the philosophers but new to us.”[18]

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