The Allegory of the Cave: Turn Around :: essays research papers

The Allegory of the Cave: Turn Around   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Putting the Allegory of the Cave into my own words seems comparable to the Christian idea of using the lord's name in vain. First, I'd like to introduce a phenomenon I have observed throughout my life time. I call it soul resonance. Bear with me here. When two objects emit sympathetic vibrations, the sound or force multiplies. Example: Two tuning forks of the same frequency are struck upon each other and held a few feet apart. The vibration is much stronger. Something basic about each object recognizes a similar quality in the other, and amplifies it. As with so many other laws of science, this law applies to many other phenomena. I believe this is what people feel when they first hear the Allegory of the Cave . . . soul resonance. Somehow, something deep inside tells them that here we have found a singular truth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Allegory, taken as the story of one man, narrates his life from ignorance to enlightenment. He sits within a cave, facing away from a blazing fire. He stares at the wall opposite him, watching pretty shadow puppets. He listens to the exotic, wonderful, and large words whispered in his ears by the puppeteers. He would naturally turn around, or perhaps even stand, but chains bind him to the ground, and the puppeteers have servants who hold his head in place. One day, a situation arises where he finds that the chains are broken, and he stands. This is against the will of the servants, but they have no physical power over him, if he does not allow it. He turns round and sees the fire and the puppeteers and then he realizes that all has been lies. He is not what they have told him. He does not feel what they have said he does. The fire blinds him. The puppeteers, seeing they have lost another to knowledge, quickly get rid of him by pushing him into the dark cave that looms off to the side, hoping for his demise. The man is lost, he has gone from darkness to light to darkness once again. Something within him tells him to climb, and he does, scrabbling. He cuts himself many times, and many times he almost falls to his demise on the rocky ground below. He pauses often. Until there comes a time when he sees a distant light at the exit/entrance to the cave. When he sees this light, he is not sure whether this is yet another shadow puppet on the wall, but it is upward and that is where he must go.