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Chapter Three

Concealing the Hidden Powers

Questions can be asked at this time as to why the metaphysical powers of evolutionand goodness are not common knowledge today, and secondly how have they been hidden? The ‘why’ can be approached by contemplating Plato’s warning that rulers did not want their subjects to possess or even know of individual inner powers and certainly not to find a union among themselves that exceeds loyalty to the rulers. Another reason for its hidden nature is that people are instilled with a fear of unknown powers, present in others as well as within themselves.

The answer to how the metaphysical or unknown can remain hidden is that in our modern high technological society there is very little teaching of ubiquitous metaphysical powers. Neither Science nor Religion (currently perceived as the two major players in the nature of reality debate) accepts the existence of independent metaphysical forces. Thus they are both quite similar when attempting to explain why or how things interact or happen. Religion of course speaks of the control by God’s Will, but that is not much different than Science’s control by the Laws of Physics. For example, a rock is heavy because of the Will of God or because of the Laws of Physics, yet neither is a true answer to a child’s simple ‘why?’. Instead of really digging into such metaphysical questions, Religion attempts to define and modify God’s Will, while Science attempts to understand and add to the Laws of Physics. Even Philosophy, which used to be primarily interested in exploring underlying metaphysical forces, appears to be now more interested in defining the physical nature of reality.

In order to unravel the metaphysical secrets of inner powers, the knowledge of modern physical Science needs to be utilized along with the ancient metaphysical philosophical writings. However, to do this we need to understand the philosophical foundation of Science which is built upon the statement of the early Greek philosopher Empedocles that everything is built of basic metaphysical unchanging and universal building blocks. The building blocks were defined to be: earth, air, fire and water, which are the equivalent of today’s ‘dimensions’ of mass, length, energy and time (which also metaphysical quantities). Every physical thing and every physical interaction in Science must be defined in terms of dimensions or building blocks rather than causes and without concern where the basic building blocks came from or what they are made from.

Consider the following short and simple mathematical exercise used in defining gravity without any concern for what it is, where it came from or why it exists.

Science views gravity as the interaction of an object with the earth. A scientist then describes this interaction mathematically as W=mg where the weight is W and its rate of falling in a gravity field is g and its mass is m. This states the obvious to most people that the cause of physical weight is physical mass or that the more mass an object has, the heavier it is.

But what is mass? In defining mass, the circular interconnectedness of Science is encountered, since mass can only be defined in its relationship to some other physical property. Mass is therefore described by the expression m=F/a which states that mass is equated to how much force, F, it takes to accelerate, a, the mass. This too is obvious as anyone discovers when pushing a car. Since weight is also force, and g is also acceleration, the two expressions amount to stating the same relationship, but without any description of what gravity, weight, force or mass consist of or might actually be. Science, in other words, can state that mass is the cause for the phenomenon of weight, but cannot explain how mass becomes weight. However, science knows how they interact sufficiently well to send rockets to the moon.

This ignorance of Science as to the actual nature or ‘why’ of things is well hidden from the majority of people by the use of metonymies that seem to give an explanation for the hidden metaphysical effects. (A metonymy is another word that expresses the same meaning of a given word in a different manner.) Since the general public cannot understand the above mathematical expressions, Science explains that the weight of a rock is caused by its inner force of gravity which is a metonymy (Latin, gravitas, which means ‘heavy’). Medicine offers simpler examples when it appears to explain that a muscle ache is caused by myalgia (Latin myo algia, meaning ‘muscle ache’) and baldness is caused by alopecia (Latin alopecia, ‘hair loss’).

Religions use a form of metonymy which is as old as the Greek philosophies. They basically explain the nature of things in much the same manner that the early Greek philosophers did by assuming the existence of elemental earth, air, fire, and water which God used to create things. A rock therefore is heavy because it is made mostly from the element of earth which is heavy. A muscle ache might be caused by the excess of the element fire which causes pain and baldness is caused by the excess of the element air which is thinness and the lack of solidity from the element earth. Modern religions of course cut corners and simply state that things are the way they are because God made them that way.

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