This story is an ancient effort to recognize and confront the illusory nature of language meanings.

Main Ideas
The story can be interpreted at the following levels:

the "thing-in-the-world," or reality as created and interpreted by the five senses, cannot be accurately communicated through language exactly as experienced (the "map" is not the "territory" [Korzybski, 1933])
reliance on symbols (words, drawings, pictures) can create major intellectual errors for the person attempting to understand what is Real (Truth) behind this filtered and distorted data
societies ride on language myths that may or may not accurately reflect a True Reality, i.e., the Reality they must respect in order to survive and thrive.  Each member may think that her/his beliefs regarding such myths are exactly shared by all others members of the society. But in fact, each person holds a different literal interpretation of the myth without knowing they are alone in their unique denotative and connotative understandings of their society's myths.
both the denotative and connotative meaning of language and symbols will always be warped by the ego intellect as required to serve its needs.

Applications in "The World"
Many plots of literary classics and modern fiction (both tragic and comic themes) depend upon scenarios grounded in primal miscommunications among the characters.  Serious efforts to document and define aspects of one's view of reality as experienced in life are vulnerable to crucial errors which can create both gross and subtle misunderstandings of the topic.

Implications for Subsequent Material
All efforts to communicate via language and symbols are vulnerable to inducing gross error in the intellectual consciousness of the recipient.  Such effects will be observed when discussing certain contemporary myths about our way of life that have highly destructive portent for our future well being.  Successful communication requires that a communicator understand that the "meanings" in a message are always defined by the receiver, and that every communication to that receiver must respect that definition.

Allegory or parable in sequence.
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Allegory or parable prior to this one
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From which you were directed to the associated allegory or parable

The "Brute"

This is a story that suggests a process by which the world's languages are likely to have come into being.

Main Ideas:

break through in consciousness occurs spontaneously to minds that are receptive (a Spiritual dynamic that is usually not recognized for what it is.) Notice that the Brute was lounging and at rest when he saw the gull.  Resting or meditating in silence is a major prerequisite for Spiritual awakening.
primal language is highly onomatopoeic (i.e., the words emulate the actual sound of what is being described, e.g. the r-o-a-a-a-r of a lion.)
the advance of conceptual sophistication (intellectual consciousness) moves in parallel with advances in social behavior and language sophistication.
language communication is always a partnership between the sender and a receiver in which the receiver creates the actual or useful meaning of the language and symbols. These are received entirely in the context of the receiver's prior experience with the icons, symbols or words.

Applications in "The World"
History is replete with examples of devastating consequences following from misinterpreted communication, e.g. the disastrous charge of a British Light Brigade during the Crimean War. A cautionary word used by the General was misinterpreted by the brigade commander as "charge"   Agendas of power and control often hide, both innocently or deliberately, in the innate confusions of language and symbols.

Implications for Subsequent Material
OT/MP will document how this language pitfall is used to advance the power positions of unscrupulous persons and organizations. Abuse of communication vulnerability creates confusion, promotes undeserved loyalty or betrayal, and can even intentionally cause harm to others (e.g., destroy an individual's integrity, or destroy the ability of a viable person or business to function.) Advertising and marketing strategies depend upon this flaw in human communications to stimulate purchasing by the public.  Lawyers, liars, and politicians depend upon these communication flaws to manipulate the semantic screen of a receiver to achieve their objectives.

[Note:  There is a difference between the semantics of language (meaning) and the Spiritual power of language sounds.  This nature of this difference relates to Consciousness and will be developed in the associated dialogue.]

Fatal Attraction

This story illustrates the unwitting beginning of a potentially bad marriage as created by the nature of language.

Main Ideas:

children learn mostly from what they are shown and by what is persistently demonstrated to them by their adults and peers. They seldom learn as effectively from what they are told or taught.  They learn most when they can participate in what they see demonstrated.
the origins of personal tragedies are often rooted in ignorant actions initiated as good will
there is nothing inherent or evident in the adult situation itself that gives a direct clue to the existence of (let alone understanding of) the adverse and problematic internal emotions the word "mother" triggers in the young woman
subtle and sophisticated communication awareness (consistent with a viable Spiritual Consciousness) is required for the couple to detect and head off the roots of near certain disaster in a marriage
Spiritual Consciousness creates the potential to inoculate the couple against the disastrous fallout from radical differences in language linkages to their childhood experiences

Applications in "The World"

Sensitivity training on the dynamics of miscommunication in the context of a Spiritual Paradigm is helpful to healing the wounds of past miscommunication generated stress and  adversity. The power to forgive is a Spiritual capacity that releases the forgiving person from continuing bondage to the adverse aspects of miscommunication or felt deceptions in their past.  They then become a clear channel for Spiritually guided  information to flow into their Consciousness.  NOTE: While the forgiver is released from bondage to an incident of harm, Dialogue 6  will demonstrate that any perpetrator of harm is not released from their fate from retribution in the perfect Justice derived from the Cosmic Laws of Karma & Reincarnation.
Programs of criminal and adolescent rehabilitation ought require active exploration of a prisoner's language structure (meaning matrix) derived from a prisoner's root experiences in childhood.  The insight derived from such exploration must be shared by all participants in the institutional  network.  This condition does not now exist in our prisons.

Implications for Subsequent Material
Dialogue 3 contains a convincing demonstration in its "communication" theory that "words have no meaning." [if you visit this link now, use your browser's back button to return here] The concurrent learning of  a Spiritual Paradigm as context will be shown as an essential ingredient for teaching intellectual models of communication, especially if stable trust relationships are to be built, and long term stability of mutual understanding is to be expected from the participants.

The Nefertiti Incident

            [picture source]
This parable presents a dramatic example of the scale of disaster that can result from miscommunication.  Significant differences in the denotative and connotative meanings of language among persons of diverse cultures and backgrounds aggravate the potential for serious interpersonal and cross-cultural problems and conflict.

Main Ideas:

ignorance can kill, ignorance trumps good will.
the images that define ideals of beauty and character are unique with each individual although often consistent in general across a culture.
the price of communication ignorance, or failing to account for the meaning of a language always being in the receiver, can be high
goodwill will seldom prevail so as to permit an analysis of the fallout from ignorant communication initiatives when significant emotional energies are released and also present in the situation.
failure to intentionally create, apply and enforce forums for correcting communication grounded misunderstandings (resident in disparities of consciousness) among volatile groups has, is, and will lead to the ongoing slaughter of innocents, e.g., the middle east.
low Consciousness persons and cultures are especially vulnerable to reactive aggressive and destructive acting out when they experience insult, whether intended or not.

Applications in "The World"
Assigning blame for acting out one's emotions experienced as a result of a miscommunication is irrelevant and useless.  As usual, all parties to this incident are guilty.  Acceptance of protocols by individual, groups, organizations and societies for exploring the origins of any conflict situation are required to resolve "The Paradox of Communication" [defined in Dialogue 3.]  Such mediating protocols are required for promoting trust and stability across and among diverse civilizations, subcultures, groups, and individuals.

Implications for Subsequent Material
Relationships between these kinds of events in the world will be compared with and without the presence of Spiritual Consciousness as a mitigating and healing factor.  The essential role of Spiritual Consciousness is central as an antidote for, and as an inoculation against, such incidents.

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Plato's Allegory of the Cave

This allegory reflects the dynamics of mental consciousness to illustrate how dependent each of us is on what our senses admit to our intellect to define our reality.  The story reveals the inner fear that is created that compels our belief in these visions and sounds.

This story illustrates the link between the necker cube demonstration of consciousness [revisit in in Dialogue 1] and the limits imposed by the paradox of communication (in dialogue 3.) It sets the stage for appreciating the further confounding contributions from the limits set by one's level of HIP competence which is the following section of OT/MP.

Main Ideas:

the occupants of the cave have grown up such that their sense of security and belonging is defined and limited by their physical consciousness, and ego interpretations, of what is "real." Call this the "A" reality.
the shadows on the wall of the cave and the source of the sounds they hear define their limited reality.  Consistent with the nature of the necker cube, they remain oblivious to all other dimensions of their reality until challenged.
the person who discovers any of the hidden dimensions which may challenge the reality of those who are chained constitutes a threat to them. Their basic agendas are threatened when a liberating person or experience creates the potential for greater insight within the limits set by the paradox of communication. The cave dwellers have no valid referent for the symbolic terms that the enlightened one is forced to use to try to unchain them from their intellectual limits that keep them in physical bondage.
the enlightened one (who discovers a second "B" Reality) not only discovers that limited nature of their immediate experience within the dimensions of their cave (the fire and movement of others behind the chained cave dwellers), he also glimpses the ultimate source of Spiritual light (a "C" reality) coming from beyond the cave.
any enlightened one is forced to first inspire the chained ones to examine their Spiritual natures because liberation cannot be achieved "rationally" from the unilluminated mind, but to accept the Reality of the Whole.  This ultimate Consciousness must first occur from within their own Spiritual natures (Soul.)
any enlightened one who attempts to communicate beyond the consciousness of those chained by their only paradigm of reality will be vulnerable to attack and even physical harm in proportion to the scale and nature of the threat experienced by his/her audience.
this story was likely inspired and informed by the fate of Plato's beloved teacher, Socrates, who was forced to drink hemlock poison by the authorities of Athens for "corrupting the minds of our youth" with his outrageous ideas.

Applications in the World:

the efforts of any populist reformers are vulnerable to persistent ruthless attack for their effort to bring the larger Reality of our costly predatory capitalist culture to the consciousness of the voting public. The dominant authorities, i.e., those who own corporate and political power, quickly rise to discredit, if not kill, the messengers reporting the evidence of the larger Reality. Thus, any desirable alteration of reality cannot be achieved by any rational means alone.  Spiritual Consciousness must first be quickened before the ego intellect can accept an alternative reality. This applies today when the ego intellect confronts our heretofore unchallenged way of life in which predatory capitalism now flourishes.
any malevolent authority (e.g., those who have chained the cave dwellers) cannot even imagine the disastrous consequences that their own ignorance of the larger Reality in Truth is causing them to arrange for themselves and those that support or tolerate them. Their only focus is determined and limited by their persistent, ego driven, and fear based agendas by which they are enslaved (chained.)  They remain in bondage to serve their fear by their ego's controlling need for power, control, and enforcement of their power status and positions. For change to occur, for enlightenment to occur, the power and control of the owners of power must be contained at all costs.
our capitalist cave dwellers are enslaved to their corporate masters and the myths of capitalist America.  They are likewise oblivious to the certain disastrous fate they will make themselves victim of.  This fate will result from their failure to remove themselves from their intellectual and cultural chains.  This ignorance allows them to justify their discomfort by accepting their chains as a nobel commitment, and by creating and serving indefensible myths about the benefits of their plight that they are desperate to validate.
social reformers and populist politicians cannot and will not succeed in promoting social and political change using only intellectual justifications for the change they seek no matter how valid their justifications are in fact or principle.  This is because the referents for their arguments are not in the respective consciousness of those they need to influence, nor even in those who would fully support them if it were.  This is why violent revolution or external conquering have been the constant history of changing governments, cultures, and civilizations.  The difference in the threat now, is in the scale of the weapons of mass destruction that those frustrated elements are capable of using due to the depth of their own impoverished Spiritual Consciousness.

Implications for Subsequent Material:

social reformers must ground all approaches to public influence through the concurrent use of Spiritual approaches to the public they seek to influence
as in General MacArthur's "Battle of the Pacific" strategy during W.W.II, only those islands that served as logistical centers needed to be conquered, thus causing the vast network of the Japanese holdings to collapse.  To apply this model to society, the power mongers who are key players in our current dilemma need not be directly attacked.  There are many "worker bees" upon who they depend to achieve their agendas.  These upper and mid level managers, and those potential whistle blowers with lower level decision making capability can bring down the largest house.  Most important of all are the enforcers who will be assigned to crush any overt challenge to the controlling power mongers. They must be caused to see their role in a context beyond duty to their masters, and instead, to accept a primal duty to serve a larger Spiritual Truth.

With regard to US foreign policy, our national decision makers appear to be entirely ignorant of the role of Spirituality and the dynamics of ego controlled human communication in attempting to win over Islamic cultures to principles and ideals not in their consciousness.  Well meaning persons of altruistic motivation are likewise oblivious to the dynamics of Spirituality, its absence,  and the pitfalls of intellectual communication in western societies.

as the dynamics of the power broker are developed in a subsequent section of OT/MP, such potentially effective influences among the average American can help them understand how their role requires them to serve the evil agendas of their corporate masters, and keep them chained to their cave. They will gain insight into the contributions they can make to begin turning this nation into a valid example of what our founding fathers and mothers Spiritually conceived, that the USA be created form the Principles of Spiritual Truth as a truly free society of individuals, not corporations. When we become enslaved to any corporate or institutional master, then our elected government will become useless to serve our needs as is already rapidly coming to pass.  Our elected government and the agencies of government are already puppets being commanded to serve their corporate masters.  The public, observing the symptoms without Spiritual comprehension, scratches their heads in confusion, as they attack each other in support of false gods.
Regardless of your position in society, there is no escape for anyone who wishes to deny their culpability in accepting the status quo, nor can they safely ignore their moral obligation to take ethical action by any means you can. The dialogues on Karma and Reincarnation will re-define conventional "Ethical" actions in terms of OT/MP's Spiritual Paradigm. These insights will provide you and those other pilgrims sharing this experience with you a variety of abundant justification for the urgency of stopping the erosion of our precious freedoms and way of life.  The desirability of taking some kind productive action to begin our escape from the chains of our predatory capitalist cave is urgent.