Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Great Books #4: The Conscious Universe

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Great Books #4: The Conscious Universe

When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to Westjetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. We conclude the Elyad today.

All right? So remember that the Elyad, it's a war of wills. So the epic starts with the battle between Agamemnon and Achilles. And they're trying to impose their will on each other. And it leads to disaster for the Greeks because Hector and the Trojans are now about to destroy them. And the Greeks, led by Odysseus, come to Achilles' ship and beg him to return to the battlefield. But Achilles wants Agamemnon to come and apologize and kneel before him. for him, which Agamon is not going to do.

So Achilles says no. But this leads to conundrum because Agamonemnon is going to apologize, the children are going to come destroy the Greeks. Achilles needs Agamon to apologize in order to save face. So the Greeks and Achilles are all very anxious. So what Achilles does is he sends Patroclus. to get the Greeks to come and beg some more, right? But Nestor understands what Achilles is doing.

He refuses to apologize. But he tells Patroclus, listen, we can't get Achilles to fight, but maybe you can fight for us. And maybe that will save the day. Now, Patroclus is very excited, okay? Because he's went all his life to outshine Achilles because all his life, he's been in Achilles shadow, right? But now his problem is,

how does he convince his superior? his commander Achilles to go with the plan. Okay? So this leads to a conflict, a battle of wheels between Matroclus and Achilles. And remember, we read the speech last week and I want us to visualize how the battle is being fought, okay?

So this is Patroclus and this is Achilles. And if you read the speech, we will discover that This battle is being fought at three levels, okay? There is the conscious emotional level. Okay? Then there is the calculating manipulative.

And then there is the strategic, okay? Planning level. So imagine three different individuals together. in Patroclus. The first person is the actor, okay? The person who appears before Patroclus and cries like a girl, right? Then there's the calculating, which is like,

why am I doing this? I'm doing this because I want Achilles to agree to me to join the battlefield against the Trojans, okay? And the strategic, okay, the old wise man sitting in the back is like, okay, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna convince Achilles, to agree then I'm going to join the battlefield and I'm going to win honor okay doesn't

make sense okay the first person just appears before Achilles and does the acting second person is the one trying to explain the direction okay the third person is the long-term director okay so think of this as the actor director and producer okay or the investor what is my long-term gain from this. Now Achilles is the same right because Patroclus cannot understand Achilles mentality okay so the actor in Achilles is like why are you crying Patroclus this is not our war the director in Achilles is how maybe I can trick Patroclus in helping me enter the battlefield right and the producer is

like I want to win glory for myself okay and it's all very subtle but you read their dialogue if you read the debate you'll recognize that this is all happening at once but not only that but if you examine your own life and the decision this is you make you will recognize that you're doing all three at once okay subconsciously all right so Simon Freud would say that this is the

id okay the id is just the basic desire right you want glory you want sex you want money okay this is the super ego okay and this is the ego

okay or the maybe you can think of this as the conscious subconscious. So we've known for a long time that we as humans operate at many different levels all at once. And so we don't really know

why we do what we do. And so they are having this fight and it's all at a very subconscious level. And what Achilles does is he says something to Patroclus which as I said before, It's very weird what he says to Patroclus. Ultimately, he agrees to Pataclius is going,

and that's all he has to do, okay? Then nothing would happen. Petrolus goes. He faces Hector. He realizes Hector is stronger than he is, and he retreats. Right? That's what should have happened, and that's what Nestor and the Greeks expect to happen.

Right? And then Petrachos comes, and Achilles recognizes that he needs to join a battlefield because Hector is too strong. That's what's being planned. But what Achilles does is he adds an element to it which changes the dynamic of events, okay, which changes how things unfold. So, Ivy, can you read this?

Once I've whipped the enemy from the fleet, you must come back, Patroculus. Even if Zeus, the thundering Lord of Hera lets you seize your glory, you must not burn for war against these Trojans. stop okay this is what's happening Achilles is implanting into Patroclus some new ideas and these new ideas is oh my god Patroclus once you enter the battlefield Zeus okay Zeus is going to give you glory all right he's getting particularly excited but Trump is hoping to win some glory on the battlefield to prove his worth to prove at least he's equal to Achilles

But Achilles is saying, oh my god, Patroclus, it's possible you could be better than me. It's possible that Zeus himself anoints you the greatest war in the world. It's possible, Patroclus, that you in all the glory for yourself. Okay? Keep me keeping my reading. Mad men lestine for battle. Not without me. You will only make my word.

Okay, so do not outside me, Patroclus. I know all your life you've wanted to be. better than me or at least prove your equal but don't do that man okay I'm warning you do not prove you're better than me keep on going you only make my glory that much less okay you must not lost you you must not lost in the flesh and fire of triumph slaughtering Trojans outright drive your troops to Troy so imagine this Spartacoculus once you enter the battlefield everyone's gonna love you you're gonna kill Trojans one by one but don't do that

Because he will make me look bad. Okay? What if one of the gods who never die comes down from Olympus Heights to intervene in battle? The deadly archer loves his Trojans dearly. No, you must turn back. Soon as you bring the light of victory to the ships. Let the rest of them cut themselves to pieces on the plane. Oh, it's a god, Father Zeus, Athena, and Lord Apollo.

Not one of all these Trojans could flee his death. Not one. No archive either. But we could stride from the slaughter so we could bring. bring Troy's hallowed crown of towers, toppling down around us. You and I alone. So this little speech, okay, it's almost impossible to see to the naked eye, but it dooms Petroclos, okay?

Because what it does, it tells Petroclis, Patroclus, you have the opportunity to seek eternal glory. You have the opportunity to be better than me. In fact, you're probably better than me, okay? And that gives Petroclis hubris, right? And hubris is what's going to get impelled. because he will challenge Hector. Okay?

Okay. No way does Achilles in this speech say, be aware of Hector, okay? All he says is, Hey, Zeus is going to support you and you'll be better than me, okay? Now, if Achilles is stronger than Hector, but Trachlis can be stronger than Hector.

All right? And why does Achilles do you? this, Achilles understands that Patroclus, he's young, he's impetuous, he's jealous. If he give it the opportunity, he will say glory for himself. And therefore, he might get himself killed. And you know what? If he kills himself or gets himself killed, good for me, Achilles, right? Because now I have the perfect excuse to join a battlefield when win all the glory for myself,

Okay? You understand? And this is impossible to see. No one, the Greeks don't see this. The gods can't see this, but Trachlitz himself can't see this. And Achilles himself doesn't know he's doing this. You understand? Okay?

So the question for us then is, how does this happen? How are we able to function at three different levels and do things that are invisible to our self? invisible to ourselves and to others. All right? How is it that we make decisions? How is it that we manipulate other people as well ourselves? It doesn't make sense.

That's a question before us today. All right. So let's look at the standard understanding of psychology, okay? So remember, what happens is this. We have experiences, and then we turn this experience into memories. And memories are really emotions, okay? And then these emotions are organized in a way that creates an identity. All right?

And different memories can create different identities. And together we create the worldview, which is basically our personality, or how we perceive the world. And our personality determines our preferences, what we like, how we make decisions, and how we perceive the future, okay? All right, so this is a standard model of psychology, which you should have learned in psychology class, right? All right, there's some issues with this.

The first issue is, how do you filter experiences? We can have all the same experiences, but the way we perceive these experiences are different, which leads to different memories, okay? So what is the mechanism that allows for filtering? Second problem is that we know that memories are malleable and flexible. They're always changing, okay?

That's weird. All right? So it's possible over the course of your lifetime you go back to the same event, but each time you perceive it differently, which causes different emotional reaction in you. All right? So why is that the case? So for example, maybe, you know, when you were young, your dad hit you by accident, okay?

And at first you were really hurt and you perceived it as your dad doesn't love you. But maybe then when you get older and you have your own child, you hit your child accidentally and then you feel sympathy for your father, okay? You understand. So the memory changes according to your own development. So what does that happen? Okay. Now, the third thing is, the idea of imagination.

So we know from memories, you can expand them outwards and create new worlds and universes. That's how we create novels. That's how you write essays, okay? But how do you do that, right? Because your material is limited, but the imagination is unlimited. So there are clearly some issues

with the standard model of consciousness. All right? Now, this semester, we've learned a new model of consciousness, cautionist. So let's take that model and apply it to the Iliad and explain why they behave the way they do, all right? Okay. So the model that we use is from Kant.

And Kant says that rather being a passive observer of the world, meaning that we just absorb experiences and children of the memories, we are active participatory. in reality, meaning that we create reality. Okay? And so through space and time, okay? Which can be influenced by language and media.

We turn nominat, the things into themselves, but the things themselves are just vibrational energy, okay? Into the phenomena, things to us. Okay? Now, there are certain problems with this model. The first problem, of course, is where does our space and time come from? Okay, we know that we create space and time on our brains, but why do our brains do that? And what is a mechanism of our brain that does that, okay? Number two is what is the nomana?

Contents we can't see it, but what is it? The third thing, of course, is if this is all subjective, meaning that we all create our reality, how do we know we're creating the same reality, okay? And so to solve this problem, Hegel proposes this. The nomena is the geist, a spirit. And the geist is what gives us space and time. So as we are interacting with the nominat, the nominat itself responds to us, okay? Doesn't make sense.

And that's how we can all see the same thing, because it's the same force that we're acting on. Okay, so this is a bit confusing, so let's let's look at what the Greeks say. Okay? So the Greeks have a metaphor for this, okay? The metaphor is this, imagine even number of people, okay? And the consciousness extends infinitely, okay? So different dimensions, different waves. So on one level, you are just talking to yourself.

But another level, you're talking to another person. On another level, you're talking to more people, okay? This goes on and on infinitely. All right. Now, remember that as you engage the geist, the geist talks back to you. What this means is that figure of the internet where whatever you produce is stored online, but you also have some memory on your own hardware, okay?

All right, so this creates memories, okay? So your memories is now part of the geist, and as a result, the geist is constantly evolving as you evolve as well. All right, so it's like the internet, it's dynamic, it's not set. As you engage the internet, the internet changes. Okay? And so what happens is that these memories are stored in the geist. Some are permanent because these memories are extremely visual or very powerful.

Okay? And that gives rise to new consciousness, like gods. Okay? And they're higher gods. All right, so these are maybe new gods. But then you have the old gods. And so the higher you go, there are different consciousness or different spirits.

So the new gods are gods like Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, they actually interfere in human events. The old gods are older gods that have been there since the beginning of time. And there are things like honor, justice, fate, destiny, and they're stronger than the new gods, okay? But then you go up higher and you have God itself.

All right? And how can we understand God? We understand God as the immutable and unwritten laws of the universe, okay? We don't know what they are, but they're like gravity. they're gonna be there to structure the universe. And so think of them as like good and truth, okay, and beauty, all right? So there are different levels to this.

Right, why? Because as we engage the universe, the universe evolves. And we implant our memories into the universe. So even though we die, our memories are still there. And they're still living. We can access them at any time, okay? So what is interesting, about this is that the infinity of the universe is also captured in us okay we are

a hologram all of the universe right so the internet is this vast right but on our computers we have a hologram a replica of the entire internet all right because we connect it to it all the time we engage in it all the time so in In other words, whatever we do here, okay, impacts the entire universe. Whatever you do here will have reparations throughout the entire universe, throughout of humanity. One good act by yourself can impact the entire universe itself, because the universe is conscious. Now we understand why Patroclus and Achilles are able to do what they do.

if this is the universe, if this is our consciousness, then there are different spirits working within us. You understand? And so we are constantly able to... Sorry, let me do this. To operate in different dimensions. Okay? We're able to see far ahead.

We're able to focus on right now. we're able to be strategic and occupy different people. Okay? We are literally a universe onto ourselves. Does that make sense? Okay? All right. So you're like, okay, I don't think this makes sense. Well, if you read the Iliad, okay,

Homer actually reviews to you how this works. Okay, that's what poetry is. tree is a snapshot of this universe in motion. All right? So what we're going to do is we're going to read together the shield of Achilles. All right? So remember, Petroclus is dead, but Petrarchus took Achilles armor to the battlefield. So Achilles has no armor.

So he talks to his mother, Thetis, and Thetis goes to Hephaestus, the great armorer of the gods up in Mount Olympias. And Mepheus is going to design a shield for Achilles that will make him invincible. And the shield has living images. It's like a movie, okay? It's not a picture. It's a movie where the images are constantly appearing over and over. All right?

So this is only a part of the shield, okay? Can you read this? Andy forged a foul field, Broadridge Plowland tilted Tild forward the third time And across the crews A plowman wield their teams Driving them up and back and soon

As they'd reach the end strength Okay, so really important guys, okay? He's using a lot of verbs Right? Which says that this thing is in motion Right, you can see how they're moving Tiled Sorry, teal Tile for the third time

So you can imagine the first or second time. Crews of Plowman wield their teams, driving them, okay? Moving, okay? You understand? It's all motion. It's all living. These are what our memories are. Our memories are constantly images in motion, changing, reacting.

Okay, imagining. Keep on going. A man would run up quickly and hand them a cup of honey, hallow wine, as the crew would turn back down along the furrows, pressing again to reach the end of the deep fallow field, and the earth turned black behind them, like earth churn-churning. I can really read, uh, uh, turning. Solid gold as it was, that was the wonder of Hephaestus' work. And he forged a king's estate where harvesters labored, reaping the ripe grain, suing their

with its scythe. stalks fell in line with the reapers, row on row, and others to sheave binders, girded round with ropes. Three binders standing over the sheaves. Behind them, boys gathering up the cut swaths, filling their arms, supplying grain to the binders, endless bundles. And there, in the midst, the king, stepped her in hand at the head of the reaping rows, stood tall in silence, rejoicing in his heart. And not to decide, beneath a spreading oak, the heralds were setting out the harvest feast. They were dressing a great ox they had slaughtered, while attendant women poured out barley, generous, glistening a handful strewn for the reaper's midday meal.

Okay, so we said that this shield of Achilles, it's actually the soul of Achilles, okay? What his consciousness is, what is inside his, what is inside him. And what this is ultimately is a universe onto itself, right? You have lots of different characters, right? The king, um, the woman, okay, just lots and lots of people. Okay, it's a universe onto itself. And we know the soul is composed of memories. What this is telling us is that these memories don't come from our experiences.

These memories comes from part of our experiences, but also comes from the universe itself. Okay? These experiences, these memories only allow us to access the universe in dialogue with it. And as a result, we're able to absorb memories from elsewhere. Another way to understand this is that we are constantly living and dying.

When we die, all we're doing is really shedding our own bodies and assuming new bodies. But our memories stay with us, our experiences stay with us. The poetry in us stays with us and it's constantly being rewritten. Okay? And that's where our power comes from. Our power, our will to live, our will to fight comes from the fact that we are conscious beings constantly in dialogue with the universe. That is both infinite and internal.

Okay? And this is what this poetry represents. All right. Doesn't make sense to you guys. All right. So this is only a snapshot, but you know he goes on and on, which tells us that we are extremely complex, sensitive, and multifaceted beings. We are the universe ourselves, okay? Our consciousness is the universe. The universe is our consciousness. It's all interconnected.

All right? Does that make sense to you guys? Okay. All right. So this is an idea we'll come back to later when we read the other great books. Okay. All right. But something that I want to discuss is this.

All right. So Achilles jumps in the battlefield and he kills Hector. All right? And at this point, Achilles should be happy because he's killed the great Hector. which proves that Achilles is the greatest warrior in the world. He's out-secured eternal fame. But then he does something really weird. He decides to mutilate Hector's body.

He ties Hector's body to his chariot and runs, goes around the city of Troy, and that causes Priam and Hecuba, the parents of Hector, to go insane. They're screaming at this devil. And the Greeks, okay, are this. see his Agamaranana are disgusted. Because for them, Hector is a great warrior.

You respect a great warrior. You do not humiliate, mutilate a great warrior like that, okay? Hector fought well in the battlefield. He never cheated. He was just fierce and he was great. So he was respected among everyone, okay? Also, when Achilles jumped back on the battlefield, Hector didn't run away.

Hector stood his ground and died. Right? Everyone else ran back in the state of Troy, but Hector was like, no. No, I must take responsibility for this defeat. So he stands outside the gates of Troy. Everyone's shutting for Hector, come back, you idiot. Achilles is going to kill you.

And Hector is like, no, I must face the consequence for my action, which is the greatest act of bravery in the Elyat, right? Because he knows he knows he's going to die. So everyone's looking at this and saying, this is really terrible, okay? So what's happened is Achilles has gone insane. That's the only explanation for it. And the Greeks try to comfort Achilles by holding his funeral games for Patroclus, right?

But that doesn't really solve a problem. And now Achilles is in depressed, basically. He can't sleep. He can't eat. He can't even cry for his friend. He's so overburdened by guilt. Okay? So that is the issue where you are connected with the universe.

Okay? The universe is conscious, you are the universe itself. So when you make, when you do evil, okay? And he knows, he knows he knows he's the one who got Patroclus killed. He manipulated Patroclus into his death. Then you know, because the universe knows, and this haunts you for the rest of your life. Okay, you cannot escape it. So when you do it.

evil, God doesn't have to punish you because you punish yourself with a memory of it, okay? Your soul burns with regret and despair and guilt and shame. Okay, doesn't make sense. All right? So now you have this other conflict emerging in the Eliot which is, okay, Achilles is about to go insane. He can't sleep, but he doesn't know what he did wrong. He cannot admit that what he did because he doesn't understand himself, okay?

So what happens now is interesting because if you read the Iliad, the gods decide that there's this great meeting, okay, and decide that, you know what, we're going to broker a piece between Priam and Achilles. Hermes comes and takes Priam into the Greek camp, and then prime and Achilles meet, okay, and this comes, this is the ending of the Iliad. But then the question then is, how does that happen? Okay, is this being metaphorical or is it being literal? My argument to you is that it is literal, okay? So let's explain how this works.

All right, so this is Achilles, this is Priam. Okay, they hate each other. They could not be further apart, okay? But then you have everyone else. If you go back to this model, okay? At some point, okay, Achilles and Priam, their thoughts will converge together. Okay?

But this is the universe. So there are other consciousness within this universe. And they see the conflict in here and they will now engage in the dialogue to resolve the differences between Prime Achilles, okay? And these are called the gods, right?

Okay, doesn't make sense. The universe is full of these different memories that are constantly living and therefore they can engage in debate, dialogue, and imagination okay and so what they say is hey prime and Achilles you need to come to agreement and then subconsciously Achilles knows okay you know what prime's gonna come and talk to me and probably like I need to go and see Achilles okay and now what happens is the universe has come to an agreement and

so therefore the universe now will create a reality around this agreement. Does that make sense? So what this means is a prime can now walk directly from Troy to the Greek camp and what the Greeks will do is walk away and pretend it in C-Priam. Doesn't make sense, guys. Because the universe has instructed them. Prime and Achilles must meet, therefore you must make it possible for them to meet. So then, you know, the guard is sitting around. Primes walking this swing, he's like, hmm, I should tune that way. And then Prime walks past him. Does it make sense, guys.

Okay? Because we are, again, in constant dialogue with the universe, the universe has a plan, then we must obey this plan. Okay? And in China, we call this what? The mandate of heaven. Right?

The mandate of heaven. It's the will of the gods that Prime and Achilles must meet and reconcile the differences so that the universe can continue on, okay? Otherwise, the universe must stop at this point because Achilles is not going to give up Hector's body. Prime will only suffer because of this, okay?

Do you understand? And this is how the universe works. It's unbelievable you think about it, okay? When you think about it really hard, it makes a lot of sense. Why do events happen the way they do? When in China we say, mandate of heaven, because it is God's will. right

okay how do we explain in China Mao Zedong who's this peasant he was able to win this war and establish

the people's Republic of China not only that but during this war he never got injured once how to explain that there are all these things

that happen in history and these people come out of nowhere and like wait a minute where this guy come from how is he able to do what he does

the mandate of heaven, guys. There is a consciousness universe. There's a plan. There's an intention, a design to it. We all participate in its design, okay? Right? The conflict now is there's a great injustice in the world where Achilles refuses to return Hector's body to Priya.

And so everyone agrees. Both the Greeks and Trojus agree, we are going to pretend that we don't see the meeting, okay? Does that make sense? Do you guys understand what's happening? All right. Okay, so now we come to what is recognized as the greatest, sorry, as the greatest ending in all of literature, okay? This is the final battle between Priam and Achilles. This is the greatest battle in human history, all right? These are two people who hate each other. Prime saw Achilles murder Hector, his beloved son.

But not only that, but Prime also witnessed Achilles killed many, many of his sons, okay? And for Achilles, Prime is a great enemy. The person who stole Helen from the Greeks, the person who started this war. So now they're going to meet. This is the greatest battle in the Iliab, okay? So, um, Ivor, can you read, please? The majestic King of Troy slipped past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles. Clasps his knees and kissed his hands.

Those terrible man-killing hands that has slaughtered, Priam's his many sons in battle. Okay, so in the contrast, right? Achilles slaughtered many of Prime's sons in battle, okay? And what the magician king of Troy does is he kneels, kisses his hands, okay? He kneels before Achilles. Priam is out behind Achilles.

Prime could just take a deck and stab Achilles in the neck and kill Achilles. He doesn't do that. Instead, he kneels before Achilles and kisses the hand, the very hand, who killed all of his sons. All right? Keep on going. Awesome, as when the grip of madness seizes one

who murders a man in his own fatherland and flees abroad to foreign shores to a wealthy, noble host, and a sense of marvel runs through all who see him. So Achilles marveled, beholding majestic Priam. His men marveled to, trading startled glances. But Priam prayed his heart out to Achilles. And what's the effect? Awesome.

Okay? Okay. Achilles, the great warrior, who bows to no one. He is stunned by this. He is defeated by this. He is awed by the majesty of Priam. Okay? Greatness does not come from defeating your enemies,

It comes from forgiving your enemies. This is an act, okay? This one act of kissing the hands of the man who killed all his sons. It's going to change the universe forever, okay? One action is going to change the entire universe and bring peace and reconciliation to the world. All right? And not only is Achilles' stun, but so are everyone around him, okay? His man Marvel 2.

So this is reverberating across the universe where you're far away, but like you feel as though an earthquake has happened. You feel as though something magical has happened, and it changes you for the better, okay? So remember, what's happened is what has happened? When the group of man that ceases one who murders a man in his own fatherland and flees or brought to foreign shores so a wealthy nobleholds and a sense of war runs for all who see him. Okay? So there are people who do great murder, okay? And so they have to run away.

Now when they run away, their crime follows them. They become slaves in a new land. But some people are able to become successful in that place, okay? They're able to change their fate. So what this is saying is, because Priam has a strength in the curse to forgive his great enemy, he's changing his fate. He's changing the fate of the world around him, okay?

And the idea here is as above, so below. All right, and this is a great secret of the universe. What we do today, what we do at this moment, can change the course of history, because if what we do, do is memorable, it will implant itself throughout the universe and be there for all future generations. All right?

And that's what's happening, okay? So what Homer is doing is, he is drawing from the universe this memory and showing it to us. That's what the Eliad is, okay? Eliad is a depiction of the universe in motion, a universe of consciousness. All right? Okay, keep our reading, Ivory? Remember your own father, great God like Achilles, as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age.

No doubt the countrymen round him plague him now, with no one there to defend him, beat away disaster. No one, but at least he hears you're still alive and his old heart rejoices, hopes rising, day by day, to see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy. But I, dear God, my life so cursed by fate, I fathered hero's sons in the wide realm of Troy, and now not a single one is left, I tell you. Fifty sons I had when the sons of Aekea came, 19 born to me from a single mother's womb, and arrested by other women in the palace. Many, most of them violent ours, eras cut the knees from under, but one, one was left me to guard my walls, my people, the one you killed the other day, defending his fatherland, my Hector.

It's all for him I've come to the ships now to win him back from you. I bring a priceless ransom. Revere the gods, Achilles. Pity me in my own right. Remember your own father. I deserve more pity. Okay, so Prime is the greatest king in the world.

Why? Because he wouldn't humble himself before Achilles, right? Remember Agamannan. This struggle started because Agamon refuses to be humble. He refused to admit that Achilles, is right he refususes to apologize to Achilles okay okay but Priam is the opposite of Agamonon okay he's begging for Achilles forgiveness even though he hates

Achilles and why does he do this what gives him the power to ask for forgiveness to beg Achilles the answer is his love for Hector right All right? He's doing this because he wants Hector's body back. All right? So what animates, what unifies this cross universe is love. Love is God, guys. To really access this universe, to really know this universe,

you must love, okay? Love makes you invincible. And so Priam has the courage to come to Achilles, but he also has of course to beg Achilles, to forgive Achilles. All right? And what Parme says is, remember your father, Achilles, right? Okay? As I love Hector, you also love your father.

And how does he know that? Because we're all connected by the universe, okay? He's able to imagine the soul of Achilles. He knows that how Achilles loves his father, okay, as much as he loves Hector. So this is what allows him to come together. All right? The love of Hector makes prime imagine

the love of Achilles for his father. All right, and these are the two forces. Love activates the imagination. Okay, so love is a unifying force of the universe. It brings us all together. The imagination is the animating force of universe. It makes the universe alive. Okay?

And that is our purpose in this world. To love each other and then to activate our imagination, to create the reality that we live in. Okay? A world where the pillar is love is perfect and it's just. All right. Keep on reading, Ivory. I have enjoyed what no one on earth.

earth has ever done before. I put to lips the hands of the man who killed myself. Okay, so what he's saying is that this is a unique moment in history. No one has done this before, especially a king. A king submits himself before the murderer of his beloved son. All right? And because it is unique, because it is a perfect distillation of a father's love for his son, this will be remembered forever, okay?

This will become now part of the universe. And how? Because Homer is able to access it, okay? This might have happened somewhere, he doesn't know where, and this might have happened between two people. He doesn't know who, okay? But he knows this happen. He's able to draw on this to create the Iliad, do you understand?

The universe are the living memories of great deeds. And Homer is able to create this by accessing this, because they're all within us. if we allow it to be in us, okay? Keep on going. Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for his own father. Okay, so you see how this works. When you imagine things, you see the truth for what it is.

Okay? Hiban going. Taking the old man's hand, he gently moved him back, and overpowered by memory, both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely for man killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles' feet as Achilles whipped himself. Now for his father, now for Petrachlus once again, and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.

Then when brilliant Achilles had had his feel of tears and the longing for it has left his mind and body. Okay, so what's happened is that Priam has defeated Achilles. Remember Achilles' great problem is he can't cry. He doesn't know what he did wrong. He doesn't know how to. express his guilt and shame, okay? But now that Prime has forgiven him,

Prime has actually liberated Achilles, okay? Before Achilles, his soul was trapped in evil. And now, by forgiving Achilles, Prime has let his soul loose to reconnect the universe and therefore to return to its poetic self, okay? Do you want going? Then, uh, he rose from his seat. Raised the old man by the hand and filled with pity now for his gray head and gray beard.

He spoke out wingwards, flying straight to the heart. Poor man, how much you've borne? Pain to break the spirit. What daring brought you down to the ships all alone to face the glance of the man who kills your sons? So many fine, brave boys. You have a heart of iron. Come, please sit down on this chariot here. Okay.

Now the, and now this is a resolution, okay? This is the epithony of Achilles. He recognizes his guilt. And now because Prime is able to forgive him, he's able to forgive himself. And so he's become wiser, more gentle, more poetic, more generous. All right? And this is what life is. This is what it means to be human.

All right? To do battle with our own heart. Okay. So let me talk about what this all means. Like who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? So in the Buddhist and the Hindu tradition,

the idea is that we are constantly reincarnating. And this world that we live in, it's one of pain, it's one of suffering, but it's one that gives us insight. It's one that trains us to be wise. It's one that allows us to have the memories to create a more divine universe. And we do that because we incarnate

and we assume different roles, right? So maybe in this life, we are the murderer. But in the next life, we are the murdered. Maybe in this life, we're a human, Next life we are a plant. Then the next life is an animal. But it goes on infinitely until we've achieved wisdom. Okay?

So in other words, the point of this life is to develop empathy. Okay? Because empathy leads to wisdom and enlightenment. But the great thing about a great book is, it's a universe onto itself. and therefore you can actually speed up the process of wisdom enlightenment because by reading the iliad you can assume different lives you can have different lives all at once does that make sense so what makes aliat so powerful is that you're constantly switching perspectives

once today you're eggam anon then your achilles then you're hector okay and what's amazing is that Homer is a Greek and he's speaking for the Greeks. But it ends from the perspective of the Trojans. It ends with Priam getting back Hector's body, taking it back to Troy and everyone in Troy coming to see the body and crying, okay? Especially the wife of Hector Atromacki, okay? So this is the ending, okay? When you read, he is prime, okay?

So he called and the crowd fell back on either side, making way for the wagon. So everyone's coming and crying over Hector's body, but he tells him to move away, okay? Because they need to bury the body properly. So people depart like the sea, and HEC, and Prime is able to move the body forward. Keep on going. Once they had borne him into the famous halls, they laid his body down on his large carved bed. and set beside him singers to lead off the laments, and their voices rose in grief.

They lifted the dirt high as the women wailed an answer. And why armed Andrew Mackie? Andrew Mackie led their songs of sorrow, cradling the head of Hector, man-killing Hector gently in her arms. Oh, my husband cut off from life so young. You leave me a widow lost in the royal halls, and the boy will only be only a baby.

The sun we bore together, you and I so doomed. I cannot think that he will ever come to manhood. Long before that, the city will be sacked, plundered top to bottom. Because you are dead, her great guardian. You who always defended Troy, who kept her loyal wives and helped his children safe, all who will be soon carried off in the hollow ships and I with them. Okay, so this is how it ends. It ends with a prophecy, okay?

And this prophecy will turn out to be accurate, where the son of Hector will die. That's the way of war, okay? When a city is conquered, all the men and all children are killed, and all the women are enslaved. So there's Angiomaki saying, I'm going to be enslaved, and this is becoming a Trojan horse, right?

So the great hero of the Trojans, Hector, is now dead. So the Greeks are going to come and destroy of Troy. So you're a Greek, okay? And all your life, you've heard about the great victory of the Greeks against the Trojans. Okay? The Trojan War is the most famous story in your life. Now, suddenly this guy, Homer, he tells you about, he actually imagine what it's like to be a Trojan woman. Knowing that in a few months, your entire city will be sacked, your husband will be killed, your children will be killed, your children will be.

murdered and you be put on a ship to be enslaved while you watch your city burn okay think about the power of that okay think about what's happening in Gaza in Palestine today right where the Israelis are bombing the Palestinians they're killing a lot of children and they think it's right that we do so because we are defending our land. Now imagine one day they have a dream. They imagine themselves as the Palestinian who's being attacked for no reason,

as a child who's lost his mother, as a mother who's lost her child. Think about the emotional impact on that, okay? What this is, is the big bang of civilization. Because when you read this, When you're forced to switch perspectives, it's a violent assault on your own consciousness, your prejudice, your beliefs, your values all being destroyed at once, which allows you to access the entirety of the universe, okay?

Does that make sense? Only for trauma, only through pain, only for suffering, can you access empathy and wisdom. And that's a great truth of the Aaliyadh. But also, this is why the Iliad has to be a lifelong journey. Because it will take your life, life, an entire life to appreciate the nuance, the beauty, the power of the Iliad. It'll take your lifetime to understand the motivations, the psychology of all the characters, okay? These are all living beings. But if you were to spend your entire life doing so, I guarantee you you'll come out a much more wise person.

who now has a universe in your soul, and that will make you invincible and eternal. Okay. But it's your choice. Okay. All right. So that's it for the Iliad. We'll start the Odyssey next.

Okay, which is a continuation of the Iliad. Any questions? Ask a question, guys. Come on. Do you understand this? Does it make sense to you? We'll ask a question to make sure you understand what's going on. Okay, all right.

All right, this was a lot to take in, but this will stay with you for the rest of your life, okay? So over time, this will become much more clear. Alright, so we start the honesty next class.