Great Books #1: Secrets of the Universe

What is a great book? What I want to show you in this class is that a great book is something that makes you fully human by revealing to you the secrets of the universe and the secrets of what it means to be human. Now in school you've been taught that a comes from evolution, right? We evolved from monkeys. 99% of our DNA is that of a And you're taught that the world is primarily materialistic.

The world is what you can see, what you can observe, what you can measure, and that's it. And this is the great lie, the great deception that we teach you in school. And we know it's a lie. It's a deception because everything that you've been taught in school, everything that you've learned here, that you will learn in university, in graduate school, in science, in life, does not answer a fundamental question. What is consciousness?

Why do we see the world the way it is? How do we think? How do we have ideas? How do we communicate? You're not allowed to ask this question. And therefore, you're not allowed to ask a question: what does it mean to be human? What is human? Okay. And I will show you in this class that there are two aspects of being There is of course the material aspect. You have a body, but you also have a soul. Okay? You also have a soul that connects you to the spiritual or the divine.

And that's who you are. And the spiritual divine, there's a spark inside of you that comes from God. And this spark is what allows you to love and to imagine. So being a human means to engage in two fundamental acts. The act of love, of loving someone, which allows you to unify with God, and the act of imagination, to expand your consciousness, which allows you to be God itself. Okay. Love is the unifying force of the universe. The God force. The imagination is the animating force of the universe. And this is the great secret of the universe.

The universe is not material. It is conscious. It is conscious itself. Okay. So this is a really hard concept to understand. Okay. So let's work through it slowly. Okay. So we have Immanuel Kant, and we'll read Kant later on. Okay. And he's trying to figure out what reality is. How do we perceive reality? And his solution is this. He believes that the world is divided into reality itself, called the noumenon. Noumenon just means the things in themselves, the objective reality. And then there is the phenomena.

And what we do basically is that we perceive or we engage with the noumenon and we translate it into the phenomena. The things in themselves become the things to us, the things that appear to us. And we do this by filtering the noumenon through time and space.

Okay. So our brains are constructed in a way that allows us to perceive the spiritual and turn it into material. So another man named Julian Jaynes, he is an American psychologist, and he takes this idea and he gives it a physical basis. Basically what he says is that our brains have both a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere. Okay. Right. Left. So what the right hemisphere does is it connects to the noumenon, the things in themselves that we can never know, and then the left translates it into the phenomena. Okay.

So this is a mechanism in the brain that does this. The right hemisphere gets all this information from the noumenon, the spiritual, and then the left brain, for our eyes, for senses, translates it into the phenomena. Okay. Are we clear? All right. So another question then is, oops.

Okay. So another question then is, what is the noumenon? Okay. And this is a question that mystics, monks have been struggling with for all human history. Okay? And so we can never describe the noumenon because it is beyond space and time. It's beyond our capacity to describe it. So I can only explain to you metaphorically. Okay. What the noumenon really is is consciousness. Consciousness comes from energy. Okay? So the entire universe, it carries information. Information becomes consciousness. All right. So let's metaphorically say there's a source called a monad.

Okay. The one, okay, the center of the universe, God. And how the monad works is through breathing, emanation, and this creates vibrations throughout the universe. Okay. So the monad breathes in and breathes out and this is the basis of the universe, these vibrational fields. Okay. But through this process, this also creates other entities as well. Okay? And we call these the dyads.

So these are all the basic structure of the universe. And then the dyads create other forces as well. Okay. And as the universe keeps on vibrating, the vibrations, the frequencies become slower, right? You go from high to low, and because it's going slow, now physicality, materialism develops. This creates the material universe. Okay. But the thing to understand is that material is always connected to the spiritual. This entire force, the entire universe, it's all interconnected together. It's both everything and nothing at the same time.

Okay.

So how consciousness works is it's an infinite dimensional consciousness. So this is what happens, right? Your consciousness is expanding infinitely into the universe. As you can see, at one level you are by yourself. Okay, your consciousness is unique to you, but at another level, a higher level, you're connecting with someone else. And then you're connected to another person. Okay? And you go on and on until you connect with everything. So within your consciousness is a to connect with the entire universe, but it's really far, far away. Okay.

Okay. So this is complicated. And so different philosophers throughout history have tried to figure out how to best articulate this truth, this great secret to humanity. And the best metaphor that we have is something called Plato's allegory of the cave. Plato's cave.

And this helps us understand who we are, where we came from, and where we're going. Okay. So this is a metaphor, an allegory, that helps us understand what it means to be human and the human condition. Okay? So what Plato says is this. Imagine you have these prisoners.

Okay? And they're all tied down. They're chained to the ground. Their necks are chained. Their arms are chained. So you can't move your head. You can't get up. Okay? And what you're doing is you're watching a wall. Okay, this is a wall. And behind the wall, behind you, is this great fire. And then from behind this fire are these people. We don't know who they are actually, okay? But they are putting up these figures. And so they are projecting shadows onto a wall. And because we the prisoners cannot see the entirety of reality, we believe that the wall itself is reality.

Okay. So an example of this of course is movies. We watch movies and we think this is reality. Okay. So the question then is why are these people making this effort to fool us into believing that this wall, these movies, are real? And the answer is because they're trying to enslave us.

But then you're like, "Okay, but slavery means that I take a gun and I say, if you don't do what I say, I'll kill you." But that's not what slavery is. If the universe is conscious, okay, our energy comes from our attention.

Attention is energy. So what they want is our energy. Okay, that's true wealth. If they're able to focus our energy, capture imagination, they can construct reality in the way that they want it. Okay? Because reality is what we imagine it to be. The imagination is the animating force of the universe. Right? So if they can focus our for us, they can create their own All right? Now we understand why we watch movies. Now we understand why we have the internet. Now we understand why the school wants you to love artificial intelligence, because it's to enslave you.

It's all of human history is about Okay? That's what progress is. You think that, oh my god, I can now watch movies. Oh my god, I now have social media. I can communicate with anyone. Oh my god, I've got ChatGPT and ChatGPT can tell me the truth about the world. No, all these things are created to enslave your mind because you have access to God. And so what they're trying to do is trick you into believing that this reality is a true reality. Because once you believe that, this reality becomes the only Okay.

So then the question is, who are these people? Well, we don't know. Okay. You can say they're the elite. They're the powers that be. You can also say they're demons. We don't know. Okay. But they're interested in fooling us into believing that the movies that we see are real. The internet is real. Social media is real. Okay. So then the question is, okay, if this is slavery, what is freedom? All right. What freedom is, is to escape this system and to be able to think for yourself, to see for yourself, to be yourself.

So Plato goes on and says, "Okay, this one guy, for whatever reason, his chains break loose and he stumbles out of the cave into the wilderness." Okay, the wilderness. And he sees the sun, and the sun of course is God. And at first he's blinded by the light. Yes, you have a Oh yeah.

See everything that is around us, movies, the AI, school, as prison, as hell. And then you're able to look inside yourself and then connect back to God.

The spiritual, to look beyond the phenomena and return to the noumenon, to peer into the noumenon, which is vibrations, energy. Okay. All right. So that's clearly the allegory of the cave. This makes sense, right? Now this raises a question, which is, okay, that's fine, but how do we escape? Okay. How do we seek freedom?

Okay. So if you look at every single religious tradition, whether it's Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, doesn't matter. Okay? Every single religion proposes the same solution, which is meditation. Okay. What is meditation? Okay. All right. So, let's start. If the world is vibration, if it flows, there must be a logic to this flow. There must be a certain structure to this movement. Okay? And the Egyptians proposed that what governs this flow is the idea of sacred geometry.

Okay, sacred geometry. Okay, this is what DJ has spent thousands of years figuring out, that the vibrational energy flows in certain geometric patterns. Okay. And these geometric patterns are the basis for the universe. So now if we understand this sacred geometry, what we can do now is construct our consciousness in a way that allows us to match the vibrational flow of the universe. Okay? To harmonize with the universe, right? And how do you do that? You do that through breathing. Okay? Breath work. Because by breathing you're going to structure your consciousness in a way that becomes part of the universe. All right?

And this will take decades. But you can do this. And then when you're able to harmonize with the vibrational flow of the universe, then reality itself reveals itself to you. Okay? You're able to see this world as false. You're able now to connect to the true spiritual universe.

Okay. So this is true consciousness and this is what all monks in the world are trying to do. Okay? You're trying to leave your body and embrace the spiritual because when you do that it allows you to connect with the divine and discover the secrets of the universe. You're able to see both the phenomena as well as the noumenon. Okay. And this is a great secret of all religions. This is what all religions At the same time there are actually some hacks. Okay.

So, meditation is what you're supposed to do. But a lot of people are like, you know what, this is a long time, decades and decades of isolation, of just meditation, of trying to figure out how to connect to the universe. Okay, that's decades and decades, possibly 100 years. There must be an easier way. And there are. Okay, they're not great, but there are, and we figured it out. Okay, so the first hack that you can use is Right? So these drugs, and they could be magic mushrooms, they could be ayahuasca, peyote, whatever.

Okay? But they alter your consciousness in a way that disrupts your left hemisphere and allows you to focus on your right hemisphere, which allows you to see the noumenon. Okay? When you see the noumenon, you're like, "Oh my god, it's just energy." Okay? It's just colors, colors, colors. So if you go online and you see artwork from people who've used psychedelics, you will see that it's very colorful, okay? And it's very strong. It's all vibrational. Okay? So that's one hack. Another hack that you can use is self-denial.

Okay? So it's possible you can starve yourself, fasting. Okay? It's possible that you go out naked in the cold. Okay. But when you collapse your body and you're approaching death, your consciousness shifts into the spiritual. Okay. So what's important to understand is death is at the end. Death is release, because this world that we live in, our bodies are the prison. Okay? So don't fear death. It's just part of the natural cycle. Okay. And the third is something called NDEs, near-death experiences. So these are people who don't want to die, but they might be in a car accident or they could have drowned.

Okay? And they died for like 5 minutes. What happens? And they all come back and say the same thing. When they die, they escape into the spiritual realm and they meet God.

And these are people who don't know each other, but they say the same thing about the near-death experience, which is the world that they go into. It is Plato's world. It's like escaping the cave and going to the world of the light. It is a world of compassion, of love, of forgiveness. It is as though you're connected again with the divine.

All right. And then there's also another way, and this is what the Christians believe. Okay, so let's talk about So Christians, mystics, believe that there's a way for Jesus to connect fully with the Okay. And this is the idea of the Christ Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to explain slowly how this works, but it's very complicated. Okay. So, interrupt me if this is confusing. All right. So, what's important to understand is that we're not just observers of reality. We're active participants in reality. That's why Kant teaches us. Okay. So as we are receiving all these vibrations, we ourselves are vibrating, okay, for our imagination.

Does that make sense? So as we are receiving information which allows us to create memories, we then implant our memories into this consciousness, which changes the universe. So think of the internet, right? You have a computer, you have a laptop. It works because it connects to the internet. It's receiving information from the internet, but then you change this information and it goes back into the internet. Okay. So through memories, you are participating in the universe. Okay. All right. But another metaphor that we can use is, think of an ocean.

Think of an ocean, right, and all these are dropping into the ocean, which creates vibrations. You are that pebble. Okay. And your role in the world is to create as much of a splash as possible. Okay? To vibrate. The Greeks have a term for this called eudaimonia, which is the purpose of life is to be your creative best. To flourish, to blossom, to imagine, to vibrate as much as possible. Okay. So why this is important is that if we all at the same time imagine something to be true, it becomes true.

Okay? So who's the most famous person in the world? Jesus, right? So Jesus is immortal. He's eternal because there are two billion people in the world who love him, who imagine him all the time, who believe that he's part of their lives. And because of their imagination, Jesus still is with us today, but he's at a high vibration. Okay. All right. So, he's a high vibration, Jesus. Then the question is, how do you resurrect Jesus? How do you bring him back? And the answer is by making your body a vessel for Jesus to return in.

Okay? Your body can become a portal for Jesus to inhabit, to possess, if you welcome Jesus through certain spiritual practices. Okay? Including love, generosity, forgiveness. All right? If someone killed your son, you may hate that person, but if you're able to forgive that person and show true forgiveness, because listen, if someone killed my children, I'd be pissed off. Okay? I would hate that person forever. But if you're able to forgive that person of your own free you open yourself up to divinity. Okay? And this divinity can now flow into you.

And this is what we call the Christ consciousness or the second coming of So if you are a Christian, you believe the second coming, that Jesus will return. And Christian mystics believe that yes, he can always return if you open your heart to Jesus. But you have to construct your body, your mind, your consciousness in a way that allows for Jesus to inhabit you. Okay? So this is the secret of the The world, the universe, exists in our The consciousness is what's real. The material is what's false. And as we imagine, we participate in the universe, we change the universe.

And we focus on a certain reality, that reality becomes manifest. It becomes reality. And by living in the memories of others, we become immortal like Jesus. And by constructing our lives in a way that allows for Jesus to return, we can resurrect Jesus in ourselves. Okay? So that's a good secret. Secret of the universe. This is a secret to immortality, and godhood. Okay, these three things, and most of us will fail, but it's okay because why? Because our consciousness is forever. So reincarnation means that when we die we can escape back to the spiritual and then maybe a thousand years later we come back.

Okay? So it's a constant cycle where we're trying to achieve these three things. Immortality, reincarnation, and godhood. And the secret is love powering our imagination. Okay, we're here to imagine things. Okay, so this is a great secret of the universe. This is a secret that religions have passed on through thousands of years of human history and which schools, science, government, all the powers that be try to suppress because it is a direct threat to this reality. Okay, this reality is false. But they want to make it real because they derive power from this reality.

Okay, does that make sense, guys? Okay, everything that you've been taught in school, everything that you've learned in science class, it is complete and utter nonsense. This is what's true. Okay. So now that we understand all of this, we can also understand the great books, because what I will show you this semester is if you truly want to achieve these three things, immortality, reincarnation, godhood, the secret lies in the great books. The great books are constructed in a way that allows you to access the entire secrets of the Okay.

So what the great books are is a capturing of the universe in a state, and as a result there's a universe within the great books, and by embracing the great books, by letting the great books come into you and then you enter the great books, you have the capacity to travel in a new universe, but you also have the capacity now to create your own. And that's what the great books are, okay? They are the secret of what it means to be human. They provide the secret of how to be truly fully human.

All right? And what we'll do is This is not meant to be, okay, a semester later on, like 3 months from now, oh, you'll be immortal, you'll be God. No, no, that's not the way it works. Okay? What I will show you is a path. But it's up to you to focus and sacrifice yourself on this path into enlightenment. Okay. A simple analogy: everyone knows swimming is the best exercise in the world, right? Well, if I just say go swim, doesn't mean you learn how to swim in one day.

It'll take you decades to learn how to swim really well. We all know meditation is really good for you, right? But it'll take you decades to fully learn how to meditate well. Okay. So, this is a journey that is lifelong, but it's a journey that requires sacrifice. It's a journey that requires you to fully learn the great books. I can't teach you all the great books. I can't teach you all the secrets of the great books. I can only give you a framework.

And you must abandon this material reality that is false. Okay? Abandon money, power, sex, fame and focus on embracing the great books. And when you do that, the universe comes into you. Okay? Christians want to be possessed by Jesus. They want Jesus to enter them and resurrect Jesus, create the Christ consciousness in them. What we want to do is we want to welcome the greatest minds of human civilization, the prophets of our time, the prophets of humanity, including Homer, Plato, Dante, Kant, into our consciousness so we can be fully human.

Okay? So, we're going to do what the Christians want to do, but instead of Jesus, we'll have Homer, Kant, Plato, and anyone else you want. Okay? It's your choice who you want to come and possess you, who want to come and enter you. Okay? Now I will teach you the power, the secret, to resurrect Homer and Dante inside of you. But again, first of all, it's your choice. Second of all, you must abandon the world to do this. And third of all, you must dedicate your entire life to doing this.

Okay? So, this class is just meant to be a sample. Okay? But it's not meant to provide all the answers. Okay? Any questions?

Okay? And that's how the world works. We are the ones with the power of God. We're the ones with imagination. The ones behind us don't have an imagination. They have power. But they don't have imagination. Okay? So they need to trick us into wanting to create the world they want us to create. And this is how the world works, guys, right? Why are you in school being a slave? You say, "I'm not being a slave. I'm being free. I'm in school so I can get into a good college, make a lot of money, and live a happy Okay?

You've been tricked. But the truth is, no, no, no. You don't need money to be happy. You don't need anything to be happy. You have yourself. Okay? You have your imagination. You have the capacity to love anyone. If you just love your mother, if you just love your father, if you love everyone around you, you'll be happy. You don't need money. You're like, "No, no, no. I need a billion dollars to buy my brother a Porsche. I need to buy my mother a yacht. That's what my mother really wants." You've been tricked.

Okay? That's how the world works. So, it's really easy. Just say to yourself, I'm a slave and I refuse to be a slave. I refuse to listen to what everyone tells me. And that's the hardest thing to do in the world because it would mean your rejection from reality, right? It would mean, oh, I have no more friends. My parents hate me. I'm a loser. Everyone makes fun of me at school.

So that's the reality we live in. We fear social isolation. We fear being laughed at. So we just go with the flow even though in our hearts we know this is all a lie. This school, what the teachers teach us, it's all nonsense. ChatGPT, it's lying to us all the time.

Seeking money is going to make me unhappy. Why am I seeking money? Not for yourself. Because you fear social condemnation. You fear being laughed at. That's why you want money. That's why you want to do well in school. Once you accept that, you are free. Can you do that? No. No. No. You can't do that because all your life you've been brainwashed into thinking the thing you see is what's real. Okay. Through movies, through school, through parenting, through friends, through reality. Okay? So, that's what Plato's allegory teaches us. So, guess what guys, you'll probably fail, but if you're able to succeed, you'll be truly free and happy and that will allow you to ascend into Yeah.

Yeah.

Free will is the number one principle of the universe. Okay? When you say, I'm forced to be a slave, you're lying to yourself. It's always been your choice. Okay? Does that make sense? It's always been your choice. These prisoners, I mean, they can't break those chains. They probably could. Okay. And what do you think is going to happen when this guy who's seen the real world comes and tells everyone, "Hey guys, I've seen the real world. Let's get out of here." What's going to happen to him?

They're going to kill him. Right? That's what Plato says. If you dare speak the truth and people know the truth, they will kill you for speaking the truth. All right? So, don't try to convince anyone of the truth. Just know the truth for yourself and be free yourself. But you can never ever convince someone who doesn't want to listen. Okay? Don't try it. They'll just kill you. Okay. Did you have a question? Does that make sense? Okay. So, this is really important for you to understand. It's always been your choice.

But it's easier for you to think, "No, no, it's not my choice. I've been coerced. It's not my choice to come to school. It's not my choice to go get a job because if I don't get a job, I'm going to No, you won't. Okay?

And remember, in the real world, death doesn't really mean anything. Okay? Death just means a release. You tricked yourself into thinking that death is the worst thing that could happen to you. When in reality, it's slavery that's the worst thing that can happen to you. You fear death but you are living death right now. Okay. And that's what the great books will teach you.

What about the subjective physical feeling of pain in reality?

Well, that would just not be beneficial to anyone. Okay? If you want to have meaning, you have to struggle for it and that requires pain and suffering. So, even though Yeah. The question is, if this world is one of death, of pain, of suffering, why are we in this world? To improve our imagination. Okay? Because only through pain and suffering can you truly achieve your full potential as a human. That's why these monks meditate for decades in the snow, because they understand that pain is what allows you to focus your mind.

Okay. Without evil, there can be no good. If everyone's good, then what's the point of being good? It's only when everyone is evil and you choose to be good. That's what gives meaning to your life. That's what gives meaning to the universe.

Does that make sense? All right. Any more questions? Okay. And again, I know this sounds kind of strange, but you actually read the great books. First of all, you will recognize that's what they're saying. But also, what's more important is they're going to give you the energy, the strength, the power to liberate yourself if you truly open your heart to the great books. Okay. So, the great books we will start with is the Iliad by Homer. Then we'll go to the Odyssey, again by Homer. Then the Republic by Plato.

The Aeneid by Virgil, which is not a great book by the way, but we have to read it anyway. Okay. And then Divine Comedy by Dante. And then I'll figure out some other books we can read depending on how things go. Okay. So, I'd like to read Kant, the Critique of Pure Reason, but we may not have time. Okay. So, that's a plan for the