Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Secret History #24: Empire of Church

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Secret History #24: Empire of Church

Okay, good morning class. So we have five more classes in the semester, and the four last classes are the most important. So what I will do with this class is set up the background and context for the last four classes. So what I want to do first is review what we've learned so far. Okay, so we discussed the Roman Republic, the Roman Republic, It was essentially an oligarchy, okay? So oligarchy just means rule by the few.

So it's very much like Sparta. It is a war society. And at this point in history, the fact that the Roman Republic was an oligarchy, basically it had about 100 families that commanded it, okay? And these were called the patricians. It was actually to the advantage of Rome, because at this time, Rome was small.

it was poor, it was at war. Okay? So in other words, even though there was nobility, they were not that much better off than other people. And everyone knew each other. So they were very open, energetic, and cohesive society. And so over time, they became the most dominant society in the Mediterranean. They defeated Carthage.

they defeated the Greeks. But now that they're an empire, the fact that Rome is an oligarchy is a huge problem because now they are corrupt, unequal, and stagnant. And one way that we know is

women and women just start to refuse to have children. So they were dying as a society. And at this point in history, what should happen is, that they should build an imperial bureaucracy, a centralized, standardized system in order to better manage the empire. But they couldn't really do that because of the oligarchy. The families, which now are about 50, okay, they refuse to give up power.

So rather than a centralized bureaucracy, the Roman Empire was in many ways a system. in which different families have different territories. And what this led to was constant civil war. Civil war. And remember, it started with Sula, and then it went on to Julius Caesar. And after Julius Caesar, August of Caesar became the first among equals. But he still failed except the bureaucracy. And so it kept on leading to war.

Eventually what happened was that Constantine, decided this system doesn't work so what I need to do is I need to reinvent the Roman people and you do that by moving the capital from Rome to a new place he calls Constantinople okay which now becomes the Byzantine Empire okay and there's an empire now because it's a new culture it cannot become a bureaucracy In fact, their official language becomes Greek. It's a Greek bureaucracy. And this is what we call the second rule.

At the same time, while this is happening, you have a massive migration of the steppe people. They're coming into Europe from many different locations. Why is this happening? Because in China, the Han Dynasty is waiting a war against the state. Deaf nomadic people, the people call the Shongnu. So they are forced westwards, which forces the other steps people to migrate into Europe and into Central Asia.

So these people are called the Gulfs. And this means a huge problem for Rome, because their people are not having children, and they have all these massive migration coming in from the steps. from the steps. And so what the women decided to do is divide and rule. And so what this means is that a lot of them absorb into the army as mercenaries and as soldiers in order to defend the border in order to fight these civil wars.

Now, remember last guys, we talked about the rise of the Catholic Church, okay? And we discussed how the Catholic Church was in mind. many ways being supported by these noble families. Not all of them support the Catholic Church, but some of them did. And those that did had a huge advantage because now what they can do is absorb these new migrants into the society,

where they're at the top and the migrants are at the bottom, okay? Then the question then is, why would the migrants agree to this? The reason why is, in this society, it is very egalitarian. And for war purposes, they would elect a war leader. Okay? But with this system, the Catholic church system, this war leader cannot become a nobility. Okay?

They can now join the 50 families to form a new nobility. Does that make sense, guys? All right. All right. So at this point in history, when Constantine sets up the Biting Empire, Now the Roman Empire is going to divide into two, a Western part, a Western part, and an Eastern part. And these two parts are going to have very different fates. The Eastern part is still part of the Middle East, okay?

The Lavant, Anatolia, Egypt, and so it is the wealthiest part of the empire. And as such, it engages in wars with the... Persian Empire, okay, and this will define most of its history. Its capital, Constantinapol, was designed to be invincible. You cannot lay seat to it, you cannot conquer it. And as such, the Byzantine Empire was stable. In fact, it lasted for about a thousand years, which is very, very impressive.

Okay, and as I said, it's very wealthy, and so therefore it's really able to dominate the world through mainly trade and diplomacy. So it became an imperial property. It fought wars, but it usually used a lot of mercenaries because it had a lot of wealth. So that's the Eastern Empire. And guess what guys, this is very similar to China, okay?

So think about China when you think about it. China when you think about the Byzantine Empire. They're not the same, but they're very similar in how they organize the society. The Western Empire is very different, because this is the poorest part of Europe. The other thing about this region is that there are lots of natural barriers.

And so you have like these competing societies, emerging, different cultures, different societies, and they're protected by mountains, by forests, by rivers. So there's a lot of diversity, there's a lot of diversity within the Western Empire. And so the power that emerges is actually the Catholic Church. As Western Europe increases in power

and Eastern Europe decreases in power, the Catholic Church will increase in power as well. How the Catholic Church commonly Western Europe? Because the Catholic Church believes it is out of history. So you kings, you compete for who rules the earth. But we the Catholic Church, we decide who goes to heaven. Okay?

So the Catholic Church becomes a dominant power in Western Europe. In fact, you can say that they are the empire now, but they are a spiritual empire. a divine empire that is out of history and which speaks for God. And as such, they become a very powerful empire as well. And this leads to tremendous conflicts throughout Western Europe. But there's a problem with the Catholic Church. And we discussed this last class.

With the Catholic Church, it's trying to control the divine spark. Remember, Jesus came to tell us that this was a divine spark in us. And as long as we try to glow this divine spark, we can be with God. And the Catholic Church says, no, no, no. This divine spark, it is that of the devil. And we must imprison it. Okay? And this works most of the time.

But now and then, you have religious leaders who are rise and said, no, no, no. The divine spark is within us. And so this leads to a lot of conflict. And ultimately the solution to the Catholic Church proposes is the idea of crusades, where warriors go and kill those who believe in the divine spark. And then they set a secret police called the Equisition in order to search for those who oppose the Catholic Church. Okay? The Equisition, the major idea is, if you believe in the divine spirit,

you're not an evil person, you're a stupid person. Because you don't know better. So the idea of the egoization is to educate you in the truth, which is the divine, divine spark is that of Satan, that of the devil. And therefore, you must obey the Catholic Church. But if you insist on define the Catholic Church, then you are a heretic. And therefore, you must burn at the stake before you can pollute other people. pollute other people.

Now eventually what will happen is that as a conflict in Western Europe gets worse and worse, certain states will break away from the control of the Catholic Church and they will embrace a new religion called Protestantism, okay? And this is something we'll discuss next class. Okay, so that's a history of Western Europe. Okay, so now I want to talk about Constantine and the rise of the Byzantine Empire So, Constantine is what he does that's very important is that he makes Christianity the official religion of Rome

So before Constantine you had Christian emperors, but they did not make Christianity official religion, but he made Christianity official religion The problem though we just because this last class is that Christian, it's a franchise model. So different churches teach different things. And so, Constantine was like, no, we can't have this debate. If we will make this the official religion,

what we need to do is have one orthodoxy, a unified ideology, okay? All right, so at this end of history, there are two major debates, or two. two major source of confusion. The first is what we call Christology. What this is is the question of like, what's the nature of Jesus?

Remember the story is that Jesus is in heaven, then he comes to earth. Mary gives birth to Jesus. Then Jesus preaches his message, the gospel. Then he is killed, and he is. resurrected and then he returns to heaven okay that's the official story of Christianity

but there are lots of problems with the story as you can imagine if Jesus is divine how did Mary give birth to Jesus right if you're a human woman and you give birth to a God that means that you're God yourself okay all right so who is Mary and what is her power second question then is is jesus divine or is he human okay because if he's human he dies that's a sacrifice right but if you're divine you can't die so his death and his resurrection doesn't make any sense okay so this is a problem in christology is jesus human or is he divine and there are different interpretations okay the first interpretation is jesus is divine in heaven

but he's human in the world. Okay, does that make sense? So, yes, Mary gave birth to Jesus, but she gave birth to the human Jesus and not the divine Jesus. Because you cannot give birth to divine God, okay? And that's why his death makes sense

because the Jesus who died was the human Jesus, but once he died and he was resurrected, then he went to heaven, okay? That's one explanation, that Jesus is really human. Another explanation is No, Jesus is divine. So Mary, the death doesn't really matter, okay?

He's just divine. Okay? So both are possibilities. What the church says officially is Jesus is human and divine at the same time. Okay? This is the official ideology of the church. This makes no sense, guys. All right?

But that's what you're taught. And so there were a lot of course people who are like, this isn't a stupid idea, okay? And these people are called the Nestorians. They were persecuted by the Catholic Church. And so they went to Persia. Okay? They went to the Middle East. They went to Persia.

They went to Arabia where they spread the message of Jesus. They taught Jesus as a human as opposed to a God. They taught that Jesus was a messenger, which is what I taught you, right? that he's really a messenger of the Monad. All right. So does that make sense? Okay. Now the second debate is actually even more confusing than the first debate, okay?

And it has to do with the nature of the three powerful forces, right? The three gods. You have God, the ultimate God, and you have Jesus, and you have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God expressed in the world. Okay, so when someone speaks to you, you think it's God. It's actually not God, it's the Holy Spirit. All right, so another question then is, what's the relationship between these three? God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.

And again, there are different explanations. And they kind of make sense, okay? So the first is the idea of modalism. Modalism is the idea that Jesus and God and Holy Spirit are just different modes of the same thing. They just change. So when Jesus is in heaven, he's God. When Jesus comes to Earth as a human, he's just Jesus. and then when Jesus wants to communicate with us,

he's the Holy Spirit, okay? So remember, but Paul talked to Jesus. But Paul didn't really talk to Jesus. Paul talked to the Holy Spirit. Okay, so it's the same force, but expressed differently. Okay, that makes sense, right? Second is the idea of partialism. Partialism is just the idea that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit,

all part of the same divine force. Okay, so think of an ocean, right? the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is huge, but there's different parts to it. Right? So that's the idea of parts of them. That makes sense too, right? Okay?

And the third idea is the idea of erythism, Aryanism. And Aaronism is just the idea that God came first, and therefore, and then afterwards he created Jesus. So, in other words, Jesus is God, but he's second to the real God. Okay? That makes sense as well, right?

Now, there are problems of all three, okay? The first problem, monelism, is if you read the Bible, Jesus talks to God, Jesus talks to Holy Spirit, that's kind of confusing, because why would Jesus talk to himself, okay? So there's a lot of inconsistencies in the Bible. Okay, so this doesn't really work. Partialism doesn't work either, because if you think about it,

if God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit are part of all, of a divine aspect, then that divine aspect should be God, right? Not these three. Okay, that doesn't really make sense. And erinism doesn't really make sense because the entire point of Christianity is to see that Jesus is God, right? We worship Jesus, not God.

So if you're saying that God's superior, why shouldn't we worship God instead of Jesus? Okay, so this is problematic as well. So what Constantine did was he organized all the bishops, all the different churches, succumb to Nicaea, it's called the Council of Nicaea, in order to come up with a solution to this problem. And this solution is actually even more problematic

than these three, okay? And it's called the Holy Trinity. So let's go over the Holy Trinity. What the Holy Trinity says is this, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, separate okay but they are equal they are separate but they're part of the same thing okay they're both separate and they are equal to each other okay now if you think about it it makes actually no sense whatsoever the only solution this

problem is that this holy trinity is both nothing and everything at the same time It becomes reality on to itself. Okay? And the only way to understand this is to accept this as a reality. So I know this is confusion, but think of the idea of money, right? So the idea of money is both nothing and everything. Money is nothing, but it can be everything at the same time. as well, because it symbolizes wealth.

Does that make sense? So none of this actually makes any sense. And the only way that it makes sense if you force it to make sense, if you just memorize it. So think of math class, okay? Guys, I'm not sure if you appreciate this, but the entire point of math class is to make you stupid.

Why? Because it is impossible for you to reason using mathematics. Because mathematics doesn't apply to the world. So the other thing that you can do is memorize the formulas and apply the formulas to each other.

And that just requires massive memorization and regurgitation. That's why, if you think about it, the best mathematicians are always in their 20s or 30s, because your brain has to be really energetic in order to process this information. But the order you get, the less capable you are in mathematics.

Doesn't make sense. This is really important, guys. The more math you learn, the stupid you become. But this goes against, say, philosophy or teaching, right? The older you get, the ones you become. Why? Because the information that you're learning, you can apply to reality and then figure out

what information makes sense, as you test this information against reality, okay? All right. So, the question then is, why would they do? this and the answer is very simple to make you stupid okay so so let's let's let's use a analogy let's do a thought experiment the sky is blue right so we know the sky is blue and now we're like okay why's the sky blue and is it

always blue and why are certain things blue okay from this from this very principle the sky is blue you can now start to ask more questions you can and based on this idea, start to reason out more things, okay? Does that make sense? But let's just say, I change and I say, the sky is red. You're like, no, the sky is blue. I'm saying, no, no, the sky is red. If you do not say the sky is red, you are a heretic.

I will burn you at the stake. And you're like, okay, all right. So what you're saying is this. You're saying that blue is red, red is blue. And I'm like, no, no, no. Blue is blue, red, the sky is red. And you're like, that makes no sense. And it's like, okay, well, then I don't care.

Because if you do not say the sky is red, I will bring you at the stake. Okay, I will fail you in school. Okay, you understand. So another way of saying this is your brain, the way it processes information is by using logic, right? Okay, so think about building. Think about building. Okay? Think about building.

Well, this makes sense, right? You're just sacking blocks on top of each other build a building, right? But let's just say, I say, no, no, this is what the building looks like. Okay, this is empty. You're like, well, that makes no sense. So what I've done by forcing the idea of the Holy Trinity onto you is I'm basically taking a part of your logical system, of your brain,

and emptied it out. So it's impossible for you to connect things, okay? Because from this, what you can do is say, oh, now I can just, keep on building more things, right? But if the principle is there's a layer that is unseen or an noble, you can't build on top of it. So your brain ceases to be able to process

and be creative. Does that make sense? Yeah? And I saw, like, people who learn math well and also, like, they have strong ability in computer science. they all work in Silicon Valley and they are wealthy,

but I think that also aligns our concept that they are pursuing the materialistic and the world is ruled by Satan. Is that true? Yeah, okay. We'll talk about this later, okay? But yeah, if you work in Silicon Valley,

you are a materialistic person who is incapable of thinking spiritually. Yes, that is correct. Also, like, also remember, people do computer engineering and do mathematics, like they're at the best in their 20s and 30s. By the time they reach over 40, they kind of burn out, okay?

Because, you know, for your brain to process all this, it eventually burns out, okay? Doesn't make sense? So again, I hate to say this, but math makes you stupid. All right? All right. Is that clear, guys?

Any questions? Okay, but as you can see, what's happening is that, Because people are forced to learn this. They don't want to learn this. And it starts a series of wars within the Roman Empire because Constantine and the Byzantine Empire is going to enforce this orthodoxy onto every Christian church.

And it starts a series of wars, okay? At the same time, the Byzantines, they are fighting the Sassanine Persian. Sassanin Persia, okay? Egypt, the Levant. And this is Arabia. So guys, this is really important. This is a con ministry, this is about 500 to 600, where there's a lot of conflict going on, okay?

Remember the first major conflict is between Byzantine and Sassanine Persians, okay? The second major conflict is the church orthodoxy against the independent church franchises, okay? So the Byzantine Empire is trying to enforce the orthodoxy on all the church. different churches who refused to who refused the Holy Trinity because it's such a silly idea okay what this is going to do is it's going to force Christians over to the sassanines as well as Arabia the desert okay and these are called the Necessantorians and again they believe that Jesus is a divine messenger as opposed to um god on earth okay also we have the Jews as well okay Because the Jews keep on resisting against the Romans,

because the Romans forced the Jews to obey Christianity. And so the Jews escape into Arabia. Okay? And at the same time, the Jews want to return to Jerusalem. Now, what's interesting is that most of people don't know this, but Arabia is, at this point in history, the most energetic, open, and cohesive society. society in the Middle East.

So first of all, it's open because Arabia has always point of a point of trade between the Levant, Egypt, and the Inosvalian civilization, India. So Arabia, they do a lot of trading. But they also are great fighters, because they're great mercenaries. Why? Because as the Sassanines and the Romans fight more, and more, the Arabians are recruited in as mercenaries for their armies.

And as such, they learn the most innovative warfare. And they're poor as well, so they're really good fighters. And now what's happening is that the Arabians, the Arabs, are being exposed to new religions, and that's during Christianity, as well as Judaism, okay? And both preach the coming of the Messiah. So Arabia is rising in energy, but the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanian Persians are decreasing in energy. Okay? The Bisons are fighting too many wars, and they're imposing too much orthodoxy, which is turning people into slaves.

And because the Sassians are fighting the Byzantines in war, and as the Bisonians become more orthodox and become more bureaucratic, the Sassians are forced to become much more bureaucratic as well, much more Orthodox as well. well and so the Nestorians are also being persecuted by the Sassanines so the Jews want Jerusalem return and the Sassan says to the Jews hey if you fight for us we'll return Jerusalem to you okay and so the Byzantines so the Jews went back to Jerusalem and then piss off the Byzantine so they come and they kill a lot of Jews now the thing about the Jewish tradition is they believe that when they're most persecuted when all hope is lost their Messiah comp to save them.

So the Jews are like, oh my God, the Maziah is coming, the Mazzia is coming, okay? Now, historians also believe the Mazi is coming as well. They believe that Jesus is going to return. And all it will take is for one charismatic leader to emerge

in the Arabian desert to say, I'm a Messiah, follow me. What I will promise you is this. I promise you that you will have the right to believe in whatever religion you want because the divine spark is in you and you know how to the best celebrate God by yourself.

I promise religious tolerance for the Jews, for the Christians, for the Arabs, for everyone. And so what will happen is this leader will emerge and his name is Mohammed. And Mohammed will unite Arabia and then he will unite the historians,

he will unite the Jews and they will together fight to get Judaism back. They will fight together. to get against Persia. And guess what happens? They basically win about much resistance. Because there's so much anger, so much opposition towards the Sassan Empire as well as the Byzantine Empire.

Plus both empires are exhausted. And so this gives us the Islamic Revolution, right? Okay. The Arabs are able to sweep through and conquer most of the world very, very quickly. When they do so, what happens is that Muhammad dies. And now what's going to happen is they have lots of different factions, right? The Nasorians, the Jews, the Arabs as well.

And they're going to fight a civil war amongst themselves as well. And then from the civil war, we emerge a new religion that we call Islam. Okay? But remember, this is really important. Mohan himself did not preach Islam. All he preached was, I'm Masaya, I'm the messenger of God, like Jesus, and I will promote religious tolerance. We'll have a community of people.

believers and followers in Jesus. But it doesn't matter if you're Jew, it doesn't matter if you're Christian. It doesn't matter what type of Christianity you are. You're free to believe whatever you want because that's what God wants. I think it worked on the, although like Muhammad said that you have the right to believe in your divine spark, but I think they all work on the same road as Paul because they are formed a religion because they follow Muhammad but not follow themselves. Okay, so this is really important idea you guys need to understand.

The messenger of God, the leader, the Messiah, he's never like, I'm God, follow me. He's always like, I'm a messenger of God, and the message of God is, you are divine children. The divine spark is in you. You should not be slaves. I will free you from slavery. I will free you from tyranny. I will free you from poverty, okay? That's always the message.

That's always the message. What will happen later on after some time is, You have a figure like Paul and merge who needs, I can turn this into my own empire. And then religion becomes organized, okay? That's always the process. So think of the Zoroastah. When he first came, he was preaching a message.

He was a poor prophet. So it's Jesus. So is Homer. So was Muhammad. But later on, people will turn his words into an empire. Okay? That's always the process. All right?

Okay, clear? All right. So let's do the PPP. So we can better understand what happened. Okay, so as we discussed before, at this point in history, the Roman Empire, it's huge, but please remember that it's on a bureaucracy, and therefore, each region is controlled by a certain noble family, okay, the patricians. And as a result, what happened is as, okay, and these are like the 50 top families in Rome,

and there aren't that many, okay? And remember what happened is, there are certain families that will adapt well to the change in the Roman Empire, mainly by embracing Catholic religion, by being early investors in the Catholic Church, and as such, they will continue on to today we call these people the black nobility, okay?

All right, so as I mentioned, there are different migrants coming in from the steps, the Huns, the Germanics, the Slavs. They're basically all the steps people, okay? But they will come into different regions and they will absorb into Europe differently. In the north, they're much more independent, and this is where the Vikings are, okay?

These are where the Germans are. They're very independent people. But as they approach the Roman Empire, they are assimilated and absorbed by the, Roman nobility using the Catholic religion. And so the people at the very bottom here, they become Christians. But they become different types of Christians.

And then actually they fight the Byzantines because the Byzantines want to enforce in Orthodox Christianity onto them. And this is what Europe looks like when the Western Empire falls. As you can see, there are different societies as well. And again, what makes this possible is the fact that Western Europe,

it has a lot of mountains. So it's pretty easy to defend your territory. This is Constantine, and he is going to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire when he becomes emperor, okay? So again, even after Julius Caesar, the Romans cannot help but keep on fighting civil wars. And Constantine wins one of them,

becomes emperor, and he moves the capital from Rome all the way to Constantinople. This is really important because now he can establish a new culture called a Byzantine Empire. They call themselves Rome, but they're not really Romans, more like Greeks. Another major difference is this. Rome is over in Western Europe.

Consenipo is off in Eastern Europe, and so now Rome is now able to defend its wealthy provinces of Anatolia and Egypt much more effectively, okay? The thing about concept pole that's really important is it's pretty easy to defend, because it's by the sea, and if you build high walls,

it's almost impossible for people who are to invade Concent-Pol. This is the Hagia Sophia, which is the official church of the new religion, okay? Today we call it Eastern Orthodox, but back then it was just the Catholic Church, okay? And this is the Hagia Sophia. This is what Kla-Sanpoa looks like at its peak.

And what's really important to understand is, it's very wealthy, but as you can see, it's surrounded by these sea walls, which makes it impossible to defend, and that's why it was able to sort of. stand for about a thousand years. The concept Nica is where they make the Holy Trinity, the official doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Even today, guys, if you're a Christian, you still recite it. It's got the Nassin creed. So can you read it, Alan? We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God, for God not bade, of one essence with the Father by whom all things were made, whom for us man and for all salvation, come down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man.

and he was crucified for us under Pontius Pallate and suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and ascending to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end and in the Holy Spirit. So what this does is establish the idea of that Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit are separate, but they are one and the same. They are different, but they are co-equal.

If you actually study this next scene, you'll find a lot of inconsistencies, okay? So Jesus Christ is a sin of God, but he is one with God as well. So if you think about it, it doesn't really make much sense, okay? But again, the Nicene Creed is something that you don't argue,

because you argue over it, your hair-tech, you'll be burned at a stake, it's something that you must memorize. It's like a math formula, basically, okay? In math class, you're not allowed to question a formula, you're just forced to memorize the formula, okay? So as you can see, what's happening is that the migrants are being settled throughout Europe, okay? But once it's being settled for Europe, the conflict between these noble families in Rome then

become the conflicts amongst states. these different groups, okay? All right, so after the Council of Niki announced the Holy Trinity, there's still a lot of resistance to it. In fact, you know, even by the year 500, which is about 180 years after the Council of Niki, most of Europe is actually,

they don't really believe in the Holy Trinity, okay? So, Arian just means you don't believe in the Holy Trinity, Catholic means you do. And as you can see, this part, which is controlled by this, by the empire, it's able to enforce the Holy Trinity, but most other parts are not able to enforce the Holy Trinity, okay?

This is really important idea to understand. The idea of the Holy Trinity only takes force a few hundred years after it is announced. But in the beginning, there's a lot of resistance to the idea of the Holy Trinity. The Byzantine Empire must fight these wars to enforce it, okay? And it will, because as the Byzantine Empire becomes stronger and stronger, you can see these green arrows, it's going to fight all these wars in order to expand the idea, of the Holy Trinity.

Okay, and Kassanable can do this because it's very wealthy and it doesn't really fear any enemies because of high walls, okay? Okay, as you can see it's almost impossible to attack Konsolable from by sea. All right, and the Bising Empire under Justinian will expand and expand and enforce the Holy Trinity on all churches. Okay, and by 565, it is at the peak of the its power but as we discussed when the empire becomes reaches its peak it's usually it's probably going to fall really quickly and that's what happens all all right so because of resistance with Trinity Christians are forced into

the Persian Empire and into the Arabian desert okay at first they're welcome by the Persians because these tend to be very well-educated Christians who contribute a lot to the empire but their time The Zoroastrians see the Christians as a threat and conflict arises between Christians and the Zoroastrians. The Christians will also go into the Arabian desert as well to promote Christianity. You can see how Christianity spreads. Destorian Christianity also spreads to China and Japan.

All right. One thing that you need to understand is that even though we don't really discuss Arabia a lot, it's a very important part of the world's problem. about history, this is a trade center, okay? So if you're India and you want to bring goods into Egypt, the best thing to do is to sail into Muscat and then have Arabian nomads carry the goods all the way to Mecca and then go into Egypt, okay?

So the Arabian desert, we don't talk much about it, but it is a crossroads of empire, and it's a crossroads of culture as well. And there are Jews in the Arabian desert, Because as the Romans persecute the Jews, the Jews go escape into Arabia because the Romans don't like sand. The Romans, what they're really good at is besieging cities,

but they hate fighting sand. That's why the Romans can never conquer Persia. All right, so this is another map that shows the extent of the trade as well. Okay. So as you can see, the Arabian desert, it's connecting the world, right? Because like you look at India, and India is now able to connect the world through the Arabian desert, okay?

It's in Africa, the Mediterranean, and Egypt through the Arabian desert. So what's going to happen is that once Muhammad comes into place and he unites the Arabian desert into a new community of followers, okay? They will spread really quickly throughout the world. And as you can see, there are now over billion Muslims in the world. And you can see how many Muslims there are in the world. So there's a lot of conflict between the Roman Empire, the Byzantines, and the Sassanines as well. There are lots of lots of major battles.

these wars are exhausting both empires and this is this is going to enable the Arabs to rise in power because as these two empires fight and their energy decreases this energy is being transferred to the Arabs okay because all our wealth is being transferred the Arabs but also a lot of mercenaries are learning how to fight from the Byzantine as well as the Persians okay all right so the major event that that sparks the Arab revolution is the persecution of the Jews. Okay? So, Alan, can you read please? The Persian army reinforced by Jewish force led by Nihama bin Hachir and Benjamin of Terberis

would capture Jerusalem without resistance. Okay, so the Jews want to return to Jerusalem. Remember the Romans kicked the Jews out of Jerusalem. So they make a deal with the Persians, okay? They basically say to the persons, if you support us, we'll support you in the fight against the Romans. And that's what happened. But once that happens, there are lots of Christians within Jerusalem, and they call the Byzantines for help. And so the Byzantines come, and they went back the city because the Christians help them, but they start massacring a lot of Jews, okay?

The capture of Jerusalem was interpreted by Jewish writer in a masonic context. Sacrifices may even have been renewed on the temple mount. Control of the city was handled to Nehama Ben Hachio and Benjamin of Turbius. Nihama was then appointed the ruler of Jerusalem. She began making arrangements for the building of the third temple and sorting out genealogies of established new high priesthood. Okay, so this is almost like the Bible where the Jews were kicked out of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the temple was burned down.

And so what the Jews believe is like now the new Messiah will return, we have to rebuild the third temple. Because in their religion, the Messiah will return all Jews to Jerusalem and build the third temple, okay? All right, keep on going. After only a few months, a Christian revolt occurred. Nehama Ben Hachu and his consul of 16 righteous were killed along with many other Jews, some throwing themselves of the city walls.

Following the outburst of violence in Jerusalem, the surviving Jews fled to Shambara's encampment at Ciceroa. Christians were able to briefly retake the city before the walls were breached by Sehaphrist forces who lay siege to the city. Sources vary on how long the siege lasted, depending on the source it lasted 19, 20, or 21 days. Okay, right. So the Jews take over to Jerusalem and they want to build, rebuild their temple. And the Christians are angry because they think this is my city. The Christians rebel and the Protestants help them and the Jews are massacred and a lot escape.

Where they go, they go to the Arabian desert. Why do they go to the Arabian desert? because they believe the Messiah is going to come. And so they preach that, hey, the Messiah is coming. And in the Arabian desert, there's a man who believes he is the Messiah, and his name is Mohammed. Okay? All right, can you keep on reading?

Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and were not allowed to settle within the three-mile radius. A general massacre of the Jewish population ensued. The massacre devastated the Jewish communities of the Galilea and Jerusalem. Jerusalem, only those Jews who could flee to the mountains of Egypt are said to have been spared. Okay, so this is from Wikipedia, okay? Alright, so the first thing that Mohammed's going to do is announce the constitution of Medina, which is to say that I'm the prophet, I am the Messiah, but what I promise you is religious openness and tolerance. It doesn't matter if you're Jew, it doesn't matter

if you're a Christian, it doesn't matter if you're Arab, you can practice whatever religion you want. It's called the Constitution of Medina, okay? That's a promise that Mohammed makes to all his followers. And we know this from the Korat. So we're going to read the Koran together, which is the holy book of the Muslims. And what we'll see is that Muhammad is clearly promising tolerance for all religious factions.

Doesn't matter what religion you are, you're allowed to practice whatever you want, okay? So, Alan, can you read please? O people of the book, why do you argue about Abraham when the Torah and the gospel were not revealed until after him? Why are you not reason? Here you are, you argue about things you know. But why do you argue about things you know? You do not know.

Allah knows, Allah knows, and you do not know. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a monotheist, a Muslim, and he was not of the polytheist. The people most deserving of Abraham are those who follow him. And these prophets and those who believe Allah is the guardian of the believers. Okay, so the legend is that Muhammad, when it was 40, he went into the desert. And in the desert he was meditating and had a revelation. An angel, Gabriel, visited him and spoke the truth of the universe. The Quran is just a running down of all these revelations.

And one major revelation is Gabriel tells Muhammad, you're all chosen of God, you're all the status of Abraham. Therefore, why are you guys fighting? You guys should be working together. All these differences don't matter. What's important is for you all to remember that you all believe in the one true God. That's what matters.

And these differences don't really really don't really matter, okay? Okay. They disbelieve with those who say, Allah is Messiah, the son of Mary. But the Messiah himself said, Oh, children of Israel, worship Allah, my lord and your lord. Whoever has associated others with Allah,

Allah has forbidden him paradise, and his dwelling is the fire. The Rondors have no savius. Okay, so this is really important. What the Quran is saying is this. Jesus is not God. God is Allah. Jesus is the messenger.

Okay? And the messenger himself, Jesus himself said, worship God. Don't worship me. Okay? So this is a historian position, right? Okay. Jesus is human.

In heaven, he's divine, but on earth he's human. Okay, keep on going. They disobleave those. who say Allah is a third of three, but there is no deity except one God. If they do not refrain from what they say, a painful torment will before those among them who disbelieve. Okay, so it's just saying that the Holy Trinity is sacrilege, it's blessed me, it makes no sense, man.

God is God, God isn't one of three, okay? God is his God. Keep on going. While they not repent to Allah as ask his forgiveness, Allah is forgiving and merciful. The Messiah's son of Mary was only a messenger, before whom other messengers had passed away and his mother was a woman of truth. They both used to eat food, note how we make clear the revelation to them, that note how

delude they are. To say that Mary is divine, you say that Jesus is divine, it's all superstitious. They're all just messengers of the one true God, like Moses and like Moses before him, okay? now like Muhammad today. Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad are all messages of God. Jesus was the penultimate and Muhammad is the last, the final messenger of God. All right, keep on, keep on.

With him are the keys of the unseen, none knows them except he, and he knows everything on land and in the sea. Not at Lee Falls, but he knows it. And there is not a single grain in the darkness of earth, nor is there anything wet or joy, but is in the clear record. record. It is he who takes you by night and he knows what you earn by day, that he raises

you up in it until a fixed-term term is fulfilled. Then to him is your return, then he will inform you of what you used to do. He is a conqueror over his servant, and he sends guardians over you. Until, when death overtakes one of you, our envoys take him avoid, and they never fail. Then they are brought back to Allah, the true master, unquestionably he is the judgment and he is the swift test of reckoners this is establishing the monad right as god the monad is the universe the monad is everything it's divine okay stop saying jesus is god that makes no sense all right okay so as we discussed now the iran desert it's energized people are energetic because people thirst for religious liberation

The Christians, the Jews, all unite behind Muhammad. And very quickly, once he's able to unite the Arabs, okay? They're now really quickly able to expand outwards. They re-take to Jerusalem and they conquer the Persian Empire very, very quickly, because both of these empires, the Biccetans and the Sassanians, are exhausted. The main advantage of the Bicetans is they still have Kansu, which is impossible to conquer, okay? So, Kastasemol is safe, but every else falls to the Arabs.

Okay? And as you can see, how fast their conquest is. And this is only about 100 years, okay? They're able to basically conquer most of the Roman Empire. They take Spain, they take Northern Africa, they conquer Persia. Okay? So really rapid conquest. Because at this point in history, people are just sick.

of empires and they're looking for religious liberation okay and over time but over time as Muhammad dies the Muslims will fight amongst themselves and they will establish different um empires called caliphates and they will break up as well okay and this will give time the Byzantines to reestablish themselves and then Western Europe will become more and more powerful now the Arabs will establish something called they have a golden age and this This marks a time of Germanist peace and prosperity for the world because the Muslims are able to establish trade networks throughout the world, okay?

Why? Well, because when you do trade, the biggest problem is one of trust, right? How can I trust you to take my money to somewhere else? But if you're a Muslim, you are, you must swear to Allah. So religion requires you to be trustworthy, and that allows Muslims to work together and establish trade routes throughout the world. But you can't really trust someone who's not Muslim,

but you can trust someone who is Muslim, okay? So these Muslims go all around the world, and including into China. And as such, the Islamic Empire is able to establish trade throughout the world, which brings tremendous prosperity to most of the world, okay? And as you can, I'm not sure you can understand Islam, but Islam is a beautiful, simple religion that builds trust and community.

This is Mecca and this is the Hajj, where Muslims come from all the world and they circle around the kebab, the cube, okay? So, Islam considered itself as the ultimate religion, because it improves on both Judaism and Christianity, okay? Christians believe they are improving on Judaism, Islam, Muslims believe they're an improvement on Christians and Jews as well. Okay, now let's talk about the Western Empire, okay? Because that's where our focus will be for the next semester.

4076, the Gulfs destroy Rome. Why? Because the power now is being shifted, from the empire to Catholic Church. So the empire doesn't really have that much power. So what happens is that it recruits mercenaries to fight for them, but he can't really pay the mercenaries. So the mercenaries in response go and sack Rome.

But at the time in history, Rome is no longer a power. It doesn't really matter anymore. Augustine, who is the main architect of the Catholic Church, he takes Paul's ideas and systemize it. He teaches us in the city of God that Catholic Church, is out of history. It is beyond history. It is divine.

So the kings can fight over the land, but it's the church who will decide who goes to heaven and who burns in hell. And that's the power of the church. One thing to remember about Europe is that there are lots of geographic barriers which allows for diversity within Europe. That's why Europe has so many countries, because historically it's been very very, hard to unify Europe because of the geography. And this allows for tremendous diversity and it creates a lot of conflict as well, which drives

innovation. So this is when the Roman Empire falls in the West, there are lots of different groups fighting for remains. Now, what's really important to understand about history is when we say the Roman Empire rises and it falls, this is our understanding. of them, okay? But from their perspective, the empire never fell because these warlords think that

I'm the empire now. Okay? And so what's going to happen is that they're going to compete for the legacy of Rome. And eventually, this leads to the rise of a new power the francs, okay? So the francs are expanding throughout

Europe. And they see themselves as the here to a Roman Empire. But how do you prove that you are here to a Roman Empire? How do you legitimize yourself? Well, you need to get the Catholic Church on your side, right? So in about 800, Charlemagne, who is the king of Franks, he is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope. And from now on, it is the Catholic Church, the Pope,

who decides who will be the Holy Roman Emperor. Emperor. There's not a negotiation going on, but in public, for the public, the Holy Roman Empire is always anointed by God. This is Charlemagne, and today he is buried in the Ackham Cathedral. One of the most beautiful buildings in the world. His body is still there, okay? The Atkin Cathedral. And this is what it looks like inside. Okay. Now the Catholic Church, because of this power, it's now able to annoy the Holy Roman Empire, it becomes wealthy, okay? Okay, so can you read this? Alan from the Bible. Then Jesus said to his disciples,

assuredly, I said to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So as I keep on telling you, Jesus himself was very anti-rich, He believed that the rich people, because they're too focused on material acquisitions, could never go into heaven. But the paradox is that the Catholic Church becomes extremely wealthy, okay? If you go to the Vatican, you can go back and you visit St. Peter's Basilica,

it is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It is extremely wealthy. Inside, guys, it's all gold. Okay? So the Vatican has been historically the wealthiest organization in the world. And it was able to do this because Western Europe started to become very wealthy over time. So from about 1,000 to about 1,300, the population of Europe doubles because of 10,000 innovation, because the climate is warming, allowing for agriculture, because of the rise of cities,

and because Europe is trading with everyone, okay? So at this time, Europe is becoming more more wealthy, which makes the Catholic Church really, really wealthy, okay? These are different urban centers of Europe at this time, and they engage mainly in trade. Okay, so the church becomes a much more powerful idea than the empire, okay? Why? Well, with an empire, it's the emperor who's in charge, right?

But the emperor is still a human being, and therefore he can change his mind, and he doesn't really know what he's doing. But in the church, the person in charge is God who is perfect, immutable, and eternal, okay? So this is the ultimate authority, the church. Second is, what is the man did? Well, an empire demands that you work hard, your labor. But the church demands your soul, your obedience. So, therefore, the church is able to extract more wealth from you. Now last thing is, okay, let's say you don't obey the empire.

What's the worst thing that can happen to you? Well, the empire puts you to death, okay? Not a big deal, but the church, what it can do is say you're to help for all eternity. Okay? That's why the Catholic Church becomes the most powerful organization ever in human history. And it's still true today. All right, so what makes the Catholic Church so powerful? What becomes a divine bureaucracy, okay?

And what it does is establish a very strict hierarchy. So the idea of the church is that God is distant, and God demands your obedience, right? So remember Augustine, city of God, remember Paul. right so one thing is that when you go to church the priest doesn't speak in your language the vernacular it speaks in latin and we don't really understand the language okay you know how to read the bible because at this time most people are illiterate um the holy trinity makes no sense but again you're not asked to debate it you're not asked to question it you just you just have to memorize it um there are lots of rituals to the Catholic Church. Some of these rituals are just really weird. So for

an example of the Eucharist where you believe that you're actually eating the body and blood of Jesus through the idea of transubstitization. The church is powerful because it can determine who goes to heaven and how and for how long. And ultimately, if you are a king, you don't obey the church, the Pope can excommunicate you, which is say, I remove you from the Christian community, and therefore any other king can come and kill you, and it'll be good in the eyes of God. Okay, does that make sense? So this is why the church is so powerful, but also it helps us to explain why the church is so corrupt as well. They have too much power. And ultimately, they will use this power in order to enrich themselves, okay? Remember,

the Catholic Church, the people who control the Catholic Church are the descendants of the Roman nobility, okay? And they will use Catholic Church to enrich themselves. They send them some called indulgences. And the idea is, let's say you're a rich person and you did a lot of bad things, and now you're afraid you'll burn in hell, right? Well, Jesus will say too bad, but the Catholic Church says, give us a lot of money and we'll give you an indulgence, okay?

basically you know a ticket to progatory all right and so as you see there's a lot of corruption going up some call simony where you can buy and sell positions in kind of church very similar to the imperial bronchrist of China right they're selling holy relics priests are not really divine they get married they sell their positions to nobles and the kings are the ones who can appoint leaders of the church as well okay so there's this negotiation going on between the Catholic Church and the Kings as well the parish the parish the parishioners no matter how poor they are they're forced to pay a tax they pay a tax to the Catholic Church and not

to the King okay as you can imagine the King is not really happy about this because a third of his land most of his tax revenue it's being taken over by the Catholic Church so that's why a lot of kings will eventually start to rebel against the Catholic Church okay the church controls one third of all land in your tax free. Okay? And this leads to feudalism. All right.

So at the same time though, even though the Catholic Church is so powerful in Europe, it says as a legitimacy problem, okay? Meaning like how does it prove that it is truly divine? Well, you have some certain problems. The first problem is the Muslims occupy the Holy Land. If you truly represent God, why is you lose some in the hands of the Muslims? Also, Spain is part of Europe, but Muslim Spain is actually much more wealthy and innovative than the rest of Europe. 10.54, the Eastern Orthodox Church, led by the Byzantines, break with the Catholic Church.

because both want to be the ultimate center of the world, but the bipartisan says that we're the center, and the Romans say, no, we're the center, okay? And there's corruption going on. Everyone says it's corruption, but there's also lots of religious leaders who are rebelling against Catholic Church because they want to unleash a divine spark, okay?

So there's all this legitimacy problems going on. And so there are different solutions. One solution the Catholic Church does is that it persecutes Jews. So the Catholic Church allows Jews to exist just so that the Catholic Church can scapegoat the Jews. And throughout this time, as you can see, Jews are being persecuted, mainly by being forced at their homes where they live for hundreds of years. And a lot of them are forced to go east into the Muslim Empire and to go to space. and to go to Spain, okay?

But over time, there's being expelled from these regions. This is another map that shows the persecution of the Jews. As you can see, they're forced to go east. And often, there are lots of massacres as well, okay? So the black spots, the skull spots, are areas in which they were massacred. They were blamed for certain crimes. Alright, so this a map that shows the pilgrimages of Christians into the Holy Land. And again, it's a source of embarrassment for the Christians that their Holy Land is occupied

by Muslims, and they have to pay attacks with Muslims, and they go into the Holy Land. Right now, the Holy Land, Jerusalem, is being controlled by the Celtic Turks, the Ottoman Empire. And that's why Pope Urban II will eventually call for the Crusade to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. Okay, so can you read please? All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea or in battle against the penguins, shall have immediate remission of sins. Or what a disgrace of such a despise and base raised which worship demons should conquer a people which has the face of only potent God and is made glorious with the name of

Christ. Okay. Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war, which should have been begun long ago. That those who for a long time have been robbers now become knights. That those who have been fighting against the brothers and relevates now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. that those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the internal reward. Okay, so this is Pope Urban Second saying, the Crusades. It's to go and fight the demons.

If you fight the demon, it's no matter who you are. You could be poor, you could be rich, you could be a simple person, you could be a nobody. But now is your opportunity to go to heaven, okay? Like when you go to fight the demons, you will all be guaranteed access to heaven, no matter who you are, and what you did.

And so a lot of people go and join the Crusades for lots of different reasons, especially those who've committed crimes before, okay? So guess what? A lot of people join the Crusades are criminals because here's your opportunity to get good with the church, okay? That's why we see a lot of abuse during the Crusades. So as you can see, lots of people are now joining the Crusades

in order to liberate the Holy Land. And eventually they succeed, okay? Even though a lot of criminals, they're still very good fighters because they have religious devotion, okay? They're very energetic. And unfortunately, they're too energetic, so they have tendency to massacre people

when they succeed, because they literally see the Muslims and the Jews as demons. That's what the Pope taught them. One organization that developed during the Crusades is called the Knights Templars. This is very important. We'll be discussing Night's Templars later on. But the Knights Templars is really the first multinational bank because these pilgrims are going in the Holy Land and they need to bring money with them to fund the journey.

But if they take a lot of money with them, then they'll get robbed, right? So what they'll do is they'll give the money to Knights Templars and then when they get to Jerusalem, the Knights Templars will give them money back. to them, okay? So they're a bank, basically. And then they can use this money to start investing throughout Europe, and so they become a very wealthy organization. The problem is that because in Jerusalem, and they're away from the authority of Catholic Church, they start to embrace new ideas. They start to discover the true nature of Jesus from the Muslims and from other Christians in that area. And so the church thinks that they become more corrupt over time. And that's why their leader

Jack Dumolay, he is burnt at the stake, and in 1307, the organization is banned by the Catholic Church. But a lot of the survivors, they will go over to other places, and they will form the basis of a secret society we call the Freemasons, okay? So we'll discuss the Freemasons later on. Okay, there's also something called the Aboriginesian Crusade. So there are still individuals who believe in the divine spark, okay? And these people are called Cathars. And the church sees them as a threat. And that's why they launched a crusade against these cathars.

Okay, so can you read, Alan? Siemen and many of his soldiers may determine effort to convert the catheter perfect but failed. Okay, so again, the Catholic Church is, if you disagree with us, it doesn't mean you're a heretic. It doesn't mean you're stupid. So we first want to educate you in what is right. The Cathars believe that no, no, the divine spark is in me. I know the truth for myself. You can never convince me, okay?

Keep on going. Ultimately, only three women recanted. The 140 who refused were burned at the stake. Some entered the flames voluntarily, not awaiting their executioners. So if you believe in the divine spark, okay, you believe you've discovered truth. You're not afraid of death. So the catholicians are saying, like, if you don't get, we'll burn you up the steak. The catholic is like, good.

Keep on going. In August, the crusade proceeded to besiege the stronghold of termists. Despite salis, cellis from period roger decaprate, the siege was solid. The occupants of terminals suffered from a shortage of water. and Roman Rehomond de Termes agreed to a temporary truth. The Cathars were briefly relieved by an intense rainstorm and so Rehman refused to surrender. Ultimately, the defenders were not able to break the siege and on 22 November, the Cathars managed to abandon the city and escape. By the time operations resumes in 100 to 1,11, the actions of honored and,

Armory and Seaman D. Montfort had alienated several important laws, including Raymond D. Toulos, who has been excommunicated again. So as you can see, what's really important to understand is the crusade against Cathars is not just a religious crusade. It's also one of geopolitics where the local laws resent the power of the Catholic Church, and so they support the Cathars, okay? All right, so, and this is going to happen throughout Europe. So the response of the church is to establish a new society led by Francis of Sisi called the Dominicans,

okay, the Dominicans, which goes and basically tries to figure out who the catheters are, okay, by interrogating everyone. And this leads to, of course, the equisition. So the idea is that if you disagree with church orthodoxy, they will figure it up. out and if you refuse to recant if you refuse to obey they will burn you at the stake okay so at this time in history because of the Inquisition because of the public Catholic Church Western Europe is one of the least innovative places in the world okay all right at first this is fine but eventually um bad things start to happen in Europe okay so the letter the

little ice age begins and you have the great famine then you have more wars then you have Benetri, okay? And then of course you have the black death. So if the Catholic Church represents the will of God and all this is happening, then it's got really happy with the Catholic Church, right? So this is a black death which kills about a third of the European population.

And people, because they're religious, they think that this is the will of God. It's because the Catholic Church, it's corrupt, it's evil, it's stagnant. That's why God is punishing us, okay? And this will lead to conflict within Europe where the Catholic Church is actually broken into different parts as well. So there are some who believe that Rome is the true center of the Catholic Church, and there are other people who believe that Amon is the true center of the Catholic Church.

And this creates even more legitimacy problems with the Catholic Church. All right, and then you have individuals who will emerge to challenge the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church. Okay, so this is Freit Dosenna, we won't read. John Whitecliffe is a British person who was, he was not punished when he was alive, but afterwards, after he died, decided he was a heretic. So what they did was they dug up his party and then burn up the stake to make sure he'd burn in hell, okay? Jian Hu's will lead a revolution, okay? And this is called the Hewitts Wars.

And none succeed, but then another man will emerge called Martin Luther, who will eventually lead a successful revolution against Catholic Church, and this is called Protestantism. Protestantism, okay? And we'll discuss Martin Luther next class. Next class will discuss the rise of capitalism. of capitalism. All right? Any questions, guys? Yes? Like, there's a case of my mother friend telling me that she, her husband has a severe cancer and they try to pray to the Catholic Church

and later the cancer just disappears and they said it is a miracle by the Catholic Church and they all believe in the Catholic Church. Can it explain? the miracle? Like is there really miracle there? Okay, yeah, okay, that's your question, okay. So this is what we call the placebo effect. Okay? The placebo effect is basically, you feel really sick. And you're like, doctor, doctor, I'm really sick, I'm gonna die.

Is there any medicine that can save me? And I'm a doctor, and I don't wanna say there is no medicine. So I say, okay, well, here's some, here's a medicine, okay? It might help you, but this medicine does nothing. You take this medicine and then you feel better, you get better. And this happens a lot, okay, it's called the placebo effect. So what does this happen? It happens because if you understand that mind leads to matter, then your reality is shaped

by your perception, your belief. Okay? So if you believe that this medicine can improve your body, then it will have effects, okay? The question though is, how much do you really believe in this medicine? Okay? So you can argue that cancer,

it's really a question of loss of faith. What is cancer? Cancer is a splitting of cells, right? So why is your body literally falling apart? It's because you've stopped believing in yourself. You've stopped believing in the purpose of life. You've stopped believing that you have relevance in the world. Okay?

So when you say, I want to cure my cancer. I want to cure my cancer. What you're really saying is, I want to find a new faith. I want to believe in myself again. I want to reestablish my relevance in the world. Okay, does that make sense? So you have that desire. When you have that desire, then the cure makes sense.

Okay? So another we're saying this is, okay, let's just say that you don't feel well, right? Well, if your parents make you go see a psychiatrist, you probably won't feel better. But if you yourself want to get better and you go see a psychiatrist, you'll probably get better. Okay? So why this person, why he or she improved his or her cancer is because of faith. Okay? She won to get better.

So if you're able to orientate your mind in a certain way, you're capable of tremendous miracles. Another idea is an idea of meditation, right? You're able to control your thoughts. If you're able to calm yourself down, your body will heal a lot faster. Does that make sense? All right. Any more questions? Great.

So next class, we'll discuss capitalism.