The Power of Stories

The man Phostismos had been in this room a long time.


He was not alone here. There were others who came here long ago but neither he nor the others could remember how they got here or when it was that they had decided to close their eyes. They only knew what the old ones had always said: that there had been a time before the darkness, before they came into this room when people could experience the light of the Sun.

But all were blind now and what was known about this room in which they lived had come from bumping into the things in it. These things made of sharp corners and straight edges, had created an impression on the blind ones and from these impressions they had fashioned their own individual inner mind-map of the room.

In time they forgot the stories of the old ones. but it lived deep in their hearts, like a little spark.

With time it grew increasingly difficult to navigate in the dark and people chose to stay on one side of the room or on the other, permanently. Human beings are social creatures and they soon formed communities and groups around their likeminded inner view of their side of the room. These views became dogmas and laws which each side fought hard to protect because to let go of them was to lose their orientation.

You see, these dogmas arose because both sides were too afraid to open their eyes. They had 'heard' things bumping about in the dark that they could not see or understand and they were certain these were evil and hideous. Those who created the original dogmas called these things demons which needed no explanation, others came who created new dogmas and called them collectively, science, Science was a way of using the things which they bumped into and which scared them, to explain what they were.

But there was more to it. No one remembered that long ago the decision to close the eyes had been made because the light had been switched off by one of them.

They couldn't remember that a more developed occupant of the room had originally brought them here from the outside to gain power over them, and he did this by enticing them into the belief that they could learn more in the room and without any light. This member shut off the light and told them that just by closing their eyes and developing an inner life through memory of the light they could find freedom from everything outside them. All they had to do was to remember the light inside them.

They did not realise, because they were blind, that this was a form of incarceration.

Another member even more advanced than the first soon jumped on the bandwagon to become his partner in crime - and like all such criminals he was of a mind to usurp the first one one day. Each allocated the other the task of controlling one side of the room for mutual benefit - each had his eyes wide open.

The first one inspired the people on the left side of the room to create other rooms in their minds and to 'imagine' different things with the light they remembered. They need never leave the room, just live in their beautiful imaginations which were far better than the reality of a dark room! It didn't matter that the imaginations had no connection with the things that they bumped into. They could build their own inner pictures through the ideas that the first one gave them and build with these their own reality - and that is how the first one gained power over them - he inspired them.

The second one instructed the people on the right side of the room to grow more and more afraid of ever leaving it, and taught them how to create ideas without light but only from what they bumped into in the dark. He told them there was never going to be light and they had better get used to the darkness. He taught them how to build weapons with the thoughts they had created from the things they bumped into, to protect them from the blind ones on the other side of the room who were surely guided by demons because they were inspired by things that did not coincide with reality.

That is how he gained power over them - he frightened them and kept them busy.

Yes, for this reason the two partners in crime were either called demons or gods depending on which side a blind one belonged to. But the two partners knew that the real gods existed outside the room - and that if they were to be considered gods by their own people they had to protect this secret and so they walked about poking and prodding those with closed eyes to make them do whatever they wanted, keeping them blind, delusional, and busy and thus taking more and more power for themselves.

Sometimes they worked together and sometimes they worked against one another just to make things more difficult for the blind ones, but in the end their goals were the same: to create a disparity between the picture in the mind and the truth outside it so that fear inspired both sides to believe the same thing: there is nothing in the room at all and that to open the eyes is to fall into an abyss.

Those who could not see but were close to their 'gods', joined forces, and began to preach and to wage war against those who tried to develop new eyes, blaming the desire to see on the demon that belonged to the other side. They each warned against terrible consequences should anyone attempt go against the accepted dogma and science. 

Prejudice reigned supreme on both sides of the room. The priests and kings from both sides said the same thing: 'You will die if you open your eyes! For there is truly nothing out there only the annihilation of your soul! You can live a good life by staying put and either creating illusions of remembered light or being satisfied with scientific explanations about the darkness.'

But sometime ago a number of people had seen something through their eye-lids - a flash of light, and a fresh breeze had come with it into the room, as if a door had been opened! It left them with an impression that there had to be more than the room full of sharp corners and straight lines from which they had been forced to create either fantasies or dark concepts. 

Those who could see this light most clearly began to hear a voice, but this time it was in their souls, and it inspired them to look inside their souls. Here they found what had remained from the stories they had heard long ago - a little spark. This spark however, was not a memory of the light, the stories had left behind a living quality which could give birth to a reality! Those who found this new light used it to fashion new eyes but when they were discovered, they were either  killed by the priests or imprisoned by the kings, who needed to keep them from spreading about their knowledge. 

Still they prevailed and gathered together in small groups.

The sightless also gathered in councils to discuss those who believed in this light. They made it an anathema to speak of it, punishable by excommunication from the group, which was, in a way, the same as death. They abolished the light and said that the light does not belong to blind ones for it can never be found by looking for it with their atrophied eyes. This a lie, but because it was embedded in a truth, it was believed.

One could not use the old eyes, no, but one could create new eyes to see!

But he priests and kings fought hard to prevent this from being known, for in their hearts knew the power of those gods who guided them would be lost if the people were to see the room for themselves!

One day the man who called himself Photismos, gathered around him those from both sides who had fashioned new eyes from the light but who had not yet had the temerity to open them to see.  Those willing to go out on their own as heretics groped their way quietly to a place they had been to before. A place where they always heard the voice of the light most clearly. No sightless ones had ever come here for they were too afraid lest the voice of light take them from their gods.

The advanced ones, the gods and demons and their followers put many obstacles in the way of those who worked their way to towards the voice of light but the voice nevertheless lighted the path and their toils actually helped them to see more and more clearly until finally they reached the place where the voice was the clearest. It said to them:

'I AM the true light you have created within you, do not hide it under a bushel! Open your eyes and behold the I AM which is outside you!'

When they opened their eyes to see, they beheld the source of their inner light outwardly! It is was a great and mighty being of light, could it be the same one which the old ones long ago had spoken of in their stories?

The recalling of these stories which had enlightened them now met in joyous celebration of understanding with their source. They recognised that this was the outer Sun which had inspired all the stories of the old ones, the Sun which had entered the room to help them to find a way to the door - this he did out of love for them!

They looked around now and saw the difference between what they had created inside them and what lived outside them. Conversely they saw that the light that was inside them was the same as the light that was outside them! They saw also, how, on both sides of the room, blind ones huddled behind furnishings, fearful, throwing bric a brac at one another, blindly groping, and they knew the demons and gods to be only advanced beings who had once been human but who had not moved on remaining behind through a desire to gain power over the blind ones.

This mighty being, then, who had deigned to come into this room for their sake, to suffer the darkness, to rescue them through love, opened the door. Beyond this door they could see the real world of the gods! They were filled with bliss and a desire to leave!

The sun being said to them that many had gone through the door freely, but that to do so was to leave all one's loved one's behind to suffer in the darkness.

The man who guided them, Photismos, decided to imitate the love the Sun being had shown them and stay to help the blind ones. A few gathered around him. They would remain in the room but with open eyes. They would not tell anyone what they had seen but would work quietly in their communities both right and left. They did not preach or harangue or fight wars. They told stories, like the old ones. Stories about the great being who had brought the light into the dark room, a light that was only waiting for them to feel the inner spark of the IAM. These stories were so full of light that they sparked a light in those who heard them.

No one knew that there were men among them whose eyes were open, they seemed only story tellers who made them feel the light in them differently after hearing their stories. Even the scientists who heard these stories were inspired to seek for explanations about what might lie beyond the room to know if they were true for they had felt the spark!

Gradually harmony arose between left and the right side. Even the demons and gods who had taken advantage of the blind ones began to change now, for they could not help overhearing these stories and they called forth in them a memory of their original tasks, which had been to help those in the room to find an individual and free inner life! They themselves had been blind to their own tasks!

These now became the benefactors of the community and helped to lead the blind towards the being of light and the door to true freedom.

Photismos remained behind until the very last person could see.

Nowadays, in many a dark room, stories are still told by wise men of  Photismos, of the being of the Sun who entered into the darkness to help men to find the light, and of those who remained behind through love.

Now you have heard the story, if you feel the spark...follow the voice of light with me...together we will find the door.