“It is entirely possible to verify for oneself that we are part of a caring and intelligible universe. The verification is a kind of proof since it is a way of understanding that is based upon a realization that our mind constantly communicates with us and for our benefit. The communications from the mind are as profound as they are utterly appropriate to our circumstances; for while the scope of the mind is pervasive, its precision is always directed to what is personally significant. We will demonstrate that our choice of goals, the problems we face, the daydreams or fantasies we have, and the dreams that visit us in our sleep - each and every one of them are like doorways into the richest source of insights into our life. What we discover through these insights is that the mind itself provides ample evidence of its own goodness and intelligibility.” –Pierre Grimes, PhD, Philosophical Midwifery: A New Paradigm for Understanding Human Problems

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roused into myself from my body - outside everything else and inside myself - my gaze has met a beauty wondrous and great. at such moments i have been certain that mine was the better part, mine the best of lives lived to the fullest, mine identity with the divine. fixed there firmly, poised above everything in the intellectual that is less than the highest, utter actuality is mine.

but then there has come the descent, down from intellection to the discourse of reason. and it leaves me puzzled. why this descent?

-plotinus

the mares which bear me, reaching as far as the heart could desire, escorted me, when they went, guiding me, on the much fabled way of the divinity, which bears the man who knows throughout every city; on it i bore myself, for on it the very wise horses conveyed me, galloping with the chariot, while maidens led the way. the axel blazing in the nave let loose a piping hum (for it was urged round by whirling wheel on either side), when the hand maidens of the sun, throwing back their veils from off their faces with their hands, left the halls of night, and hastened to convey me into the light. there are the gates of the ways of both night and day, and they have an embracing lintel and marble threshold; they are ethereal but are closed by great doors; and much laboring righteousness holds their alternating latches. the maidens speaking gently, paying attention to every detail, persuaded her, so that she quickly threw back the fastened bolt from the gates; the opening of the gates made a wide expanse, revealing the doorposts wrought of bronze, the hinges held with revolving bolts in their hollow parts and fastened with spikes; at once the maidens guide the chariot and horses straight through them on the high road. and the goddess greeted me graciously, she grasped my right hand with her hand, and she spoke words in this wise and addressed me: “youth, linked with immortal charioteers and the mares which bear you to our halls, welcome!, since no bad fate, but righteousness and order sent you forth on this road (which is far from the path of men). it is right for you to learn all things, both the calm heart of well-rounded truth and opinions of mortals among which there is no persuasive truth. in the same way, you will learn these things also, how the appearances rightfully appear to be, all being in the midst of each." ~ fragment 1