Well, I said, I will tell you a tale; not one of the tales which Odysseus
tells to the hero Alcinous, yet this too is a tale of a hero, Er the
son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and
ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already
in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay,
and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as [Er]
was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what
he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul left the
body he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came
to a mysterious place at which there were two openings in the earth;
they were near together, and over against them were two other openings
in the heaven above. In the intermediate space there were judges seated,
who commanded the just, after they had given judgment on them and
had bound their sentences in front of them, to ascend by the heavenly
way on the right hand; and in like manner the unjust were bidden by
them to descend by the lower way on the left hand; these also bore
the symbols of their deeds, but fastened on their backs. He drew near,
and they told him that he was to be the messenger who would carry
the report of the other world to men, and they bade him hear and see
all that was to be heard and seen in that place. Then he beheld and
saw on one side the souls departing at either opening of heaven and
earth when sentence had been given on them; and at the two other openings
other souls, some ascending out of the earth dusty and worn with travel,
some descending out of heaven clean and bright. And arriving ever
and anon they seemed to have come from a long journey, and they went
forth with gladness into the meadow, where they encamped as at a festival;
and those who knew one another embraced and conversed, the souls which
came from earth curiously inquiring about the things above, and the
souls which came from heaven about the things beneath. And they told
one another of what had happened by the way, those from below weeping
and sorrowing at the remembrance of the things which they had endured
and seen in their journey beneath the earth (now the journey lasted
a thousand years), while those from above were describing heavenly
delights and visions of inconceivable beauty. The Story, Glaucon,
would take too long to tell; but the sum was this: --He said that
for every wrong which they had done to any one they suffered tenfold;
or once in a hundred years --such being reckoned to be the length
of man's life, and the penalty being thus paid ten times in a thousand
years. If, for example, there were any who had been the cause of many
deaths, or had betrayed or enslaved cities or armies, or been guilty
of any other evil behaviour, for each and all of their offences they
received punishment ten times over, and the rewards of beneficence
and justice and holiness were in the same proportion. I need hardly
repeat what he said concerning young children dying almost as soon
as they were born. Of piety and impiety to gods and parents, and of
murderers, there were retributions other and greater far which he
described. He mentioned that he was present when one of the spirits
asked another, 'Where is Ardiaeus the Great?' (Now this Ardiaeus lived
a thousand years before the time of Er: he had been the tyrant of
some city of Pamphylia, and had murdered his aged father and his elder
brother, and was said to have committed many other abominable crimes.)
The answer of the other spirit was: 'He comes not hither and will
never come. And this,' said he, 'was one of the dreadful sights which
we ourselves witnessed. We were at the mouth of the cavern, and, having
completed all our experiences, were about to reascend, when of a sudden
[the tyrant] Ardiaeus appeared and several others, most of whom were tyrants; and
there were also besides the tyrants private individuals who had been
great criminals: they were just, as they fancied, about to return
into the upper world, but the mouth, instead of admitting them, gave
a roar, whenever any of these incurable sinners or some one who had
not been sufficiently punished tried to ascend; and then wild men
of fiery aspect, who were standing by and heard the sound, seized
and carried them off; and Ardiaeus and others they bound head and
foot and hand, and threw them down and flayed them with scourges,
and dragged them along the road at the side, carding them on thorns
like wool, and declaring to the passers-by what were their crimes,
and that they were being taken away to be cast into hell.' And of
all the many terrors which they had endured, he said that there was
none like the terror which each of them felt at that moment, lest
they should hear the voice; and when there was silence, one by one
they ascended with exceeding joy. These, said Er, were the penalties
and retributions, and there were blessings as great.
Now when the spirits which were in the meadow had tarried seven days,
on the eighth they were obliged to proceed on their journey, and,
on the fourth day after, he said that they came to a place where they
could see from above a line of light, straight as a column, extending
right through the whole heaven and through the earth, in colour resembling
the rainbow, only brighter and purer; another day's journey brought
them to the place, and there, in the midst of the light, they saw
the ends of the chains of heaven let down from above: for this light
is the belt of heaven, and holds together the circle of the universe,
like the under-girders of a trireme. From these ends is extended the
spindle of Necessity, on which all the revolutions turn. The shaft
and hook of this spindle are made of steel, and the whorl is made
partly of steel and also partly of other materials. Now the whorl
is in form like the whorl used on earth; and the description of it
implied that there is one large hollow whorl which is quite scooped
out, and into this is fitted another lesser one, and another, and
another, and four others, making eight in all, like vessels which
fit into one another; the whorls show their edges on the upper side,
and on their lower side all together form one continuous whorl. This
is pierced by the spindle, which is driven home through the centre
of the eighth. The first and outermost whorl has the rim broadest,
and the seven inner whorls are narrower, in the following proportions
--the sixth is next to the first in size, the fourth next to the sixth;
then comes the eighth; the seventh is fifth, the fifth is sixth, the
third is seventh, last and eighth comes the second. The largest (of
fixed stars) is spangled, and the seventh (or sun) is brightest; the
eighth (or moon) coloured by the reflected light of the seventh; the
second and fifth (Saturn and Mercury) are in colour like one another,
and yellower than the preceding; the third (Venus) has the whitest
light; the fourth (Mars) is reddish; the sixth (Jupiter) is in whiteness
second. Now the whole spindle has the same motion; but, as the whole
revolves in one direction, the seven inner circles move slowly in
the other, and of these the swiftest is the eighth; next in swiftness
are the seventh, sixth, and fifth, which move together; third in swiftness
appeared to move according to the law of this reversed motion the
fourth; the third appeared fourth and the second fifth. The spindle
turns on the knees of Necessity; and on the upper surface of each
circle is a siren, who goes round with them, hymning a single tone
or note. The eight together form one harmony; and round about, at
equal intervals, there is another band, three in number, each sitting
upon her throne: these are the Fates, daughters of Necessity, who
are clothed in white robes and have chaplets upon their heads, Lachesis
and Clotho and Atropos, who accompany with their voices the harmony
of the sirens --Lachesis singing of the past, Clotho of the present,
Atropos of the future; Clotho from time to time assisting with a touch
of her right hand the revolution of the outer circle of the whorl
or spindle, and Atropos with her left hand touching and guiding the
inner ones, and Lachesis laying hold of either in turn, first with
one hand and then with the other.
When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty was to go at once to Lachesis;
but first of all there came a prophet who arranged them in order;
then he took from the knees of Lachesis lots and samples of lives,
and having mounted a high pulpit, spoke as follows: 'Hear the word
of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new
cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you,
but you choose your genius; and let him who draws the first lot have
the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny.
Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have
more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser --God
is justified.' When the Interpreter had thus spoken he scattered lots
indifferently among them all, and each of them took up the lot which
fell near him, all but Er himself (he was not allowed), and each as
he took his lot perceived the number which he had obtained. Then the
Interpreter placed on the ground before them the samples of lives;
and there were many more lives than the souls present, and they were
of all sorts. There were lives of every animal and of man in every
condition. And there were tyrannies among them, some lasting out the
tyrant's life, others which broke off in the middle and came to an
end in poverty and exile and beggary; and there were lives of famous
men, some who were famous for their form and beauty as well as for
their strength and success in games, or, again, for their birth and
the qualities of their ancestors; and some who were the reverse of
famous for the opposite qualities. And of women likewise; there was
not, however, any definite character them, because the soul, when
choosing a new life, must of necessity become different. But there
was every other quality, and the all mingled with one another, and
also with elements of wealth and poverty, and disease and health;
and there were mean states also. And here, my dear Glaucon, is the
supreme peril of our human state; and therefore the utmost care should
be taken. Let each one of us leave every other kind of knowledge and
seek and follow one thing only, if peradventure he may be able to
learn and may find some one who will make him able to learn and discern
between good and evil, and so to choose always and everywhere the
better life as he has opportunity. He should consider the bearing
of all these things which have been mentioned severally and collectively
upon virtue; he should know what the effect of beauty is when combined
with poverty or wealth in a particular soul, and what are the good
and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of private and public
station, of strength and weakness, of cleverness and dullness, and
of all the soul, and the operation of them when conjoined; he will
then look at the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of
all these qualities he will be able to determine which is the better
and which is the worse; and so he will choose, giving the name of
evil to the life which will make his soul more unjust, and good to
the life which will make his soul more just; all else he will disregard.
For we have seen and know that this is the best choice both in life
and after death. A man must take with him into the world below an
adamantine faith in truth and right, that there too he may be undazzled
by the desire of wealth or the other allurements of evil, lest, coming
upon tyrannies and similar villainies, he do irremediable wrongs to
others and suffer yet worse himself; but let him know how to choose
the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible,
not only in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is
the way of happiness.
And according to the report of the messenger from the other world
this was what the prophet said at the time: 'Even for the last comer,
if he chooses wisely and will live diligently, there is appointed
a happy and not undesirable existence. Let not him who chooses first
be careless, and let not the last despair.' And when he had spoken,
he who had the first choice came forward and in a moment chose the
greatest tyranny; his mind having been darkened by folly and sensuality,
he had not thought out the whole matter before he chose, and did not
at first sight perceive that he was fated, among other evils, to devour
his own children. But when he had time to reflect, and saw what was
in the lot, he began to beat his breast and lament over his choice,
forgetting the proclamation of the prophet; for, instead of throwing
the blame of his misfortune on himself, he accused chance and the
gods, and everything rather than himself. Now he was one of those
who came from heaven, and in a former life had dwelt in a well-ordered
State, but his virtue was a matter of habit only, and he had no philosophy.
And it was true of others who were similarly overtaken, that the greater
number of them came from heaven and therefore they had never been
schooled by trial, whereas the pilgrims who came from earth, having
themselves suffered and seen others suffer, were not in a hurry to
choose. And owing to this inexperience of theirs, and also because
the lot was a chance, many of the souls exchanged a good destiny for
an evil or an evil for a good. For if a man had always on his arrival
in this world dedicated himself from the first to sound philosophy,
and had been moderately fortunate in the number of the lot, he might,
as the messenger reported, be happy here, and also his journey to
another life and return to this, instead of being rough and underground,
would be smooth and heavenly. Most curious, he said, was the spectacle
--sad and laughable and strange; for the choice of the souls was in
most cases based on their experience of a previous life. There he
saw the soul which had once been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan
out of enmity to the race of women, hating to be born of a woman because
they had been his murderers; he beheld also the soul of Thamyras choosing
the life of a nightingale; birds, on the other hand, like the swan
and other musicians, wanting to be men. The soul which obtained the
twentieth lot chose the life of a lion, and this was the soul of Ajax
the son of Telamon, who would not be a man, remembering the injustice
which was done him the judgment about the arms. The next was Agamemnon,
who took the life of an eagle, because, like Ajax, he hated human
nature by reason of his sufferings. About the middle came the lot
of Atalanta; she, seeing the great fame of an athlete, was unable
to resist the temptation: and after her there followed the soul of
Epeus the son of Panopeus passing into the nature of a woman cunning
in the arts; and far away among the last who chose, the soul of the
jester Thersites was putting on the form of a monkey. There came also
the soul of Odysseus having yet to make a choice, and his lot happened
to be the last of them all. Now the recollection of former tolls had
disenchanted him of ambition, and he went about for a considerable
time in search of the life of a private man who had no cares; he had
some difficulty in finding this, which was lying about and had been
neglected by everybody else; and when he saw it, he said that he would
have done the had his lot been first instead of last, and that he
was delighted to have it. And not only did men pass into animals,
but I must also mention that there were animals tame and wild who
changed into one another and into corresponding human natures --the
good into the gentle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of
combinations.
All the souls had now chosen their lives, and they went in the order
of their choice to Lachesis, who sent with them the genius whom they
had severally chosen, to be the guardian of their lives and the fulfiller
of the choice: this genius led the souls first to Clotho, and drew
them within the revolution of the spindle impelled by her hand, thus
ratifying the destiny of each; and then, when they were fastened to
this, carried them to Atropos, who spun the threads and made them
irreversible, whence without turning round they passed beneath the
throne of Necessity; and when they had all passed, they marched on
in a scorching heat to the plain of Forgetfulness, which was a barren
waste destitute of trees and verdure; and then towards evening they
encamped by the river of Unmindfulness, whose water no vessel can
hold; of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity, and
those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary;
and each one as he drank forgot all things. Now after they had gone
to rest, about the middle of the night there was a thunderstorm and
earthquake, and then in an instant they were driven upwards in all
manner of ways to their birth, like stars shooting. He himself was
hindered from drinking the water. But in what manner or by what means
he returned to the body he could not say; only, in the morning, awaking
suddenly, he found himself lying on the pyre.
And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved and has not perished, and
will save us if we are obedient to the word spoken; and we shall pass
safely over the river of Forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled.
Wherefore my counsel is that we hold fast ever to the heavenly way
and follow after justice and virtue always, considering that the soul
is immortal and able to endure every sort of good and every sort of
evil. Thus shall we live dear to one another and to the gods, both
while remaining here and when, like conquerors in the games who go
round to gather gifts, we receive our reward. And it shall be well
with us both in this life and in the pilgrimage of a thousand years
which we have been describing.
Yeah that's pretty much what happened to me. Funny now, not so much at the time.
?
) being in a kind of contemplative or meditative state where he receives and answers "prayers" etc. So that's maybe one function for certain people that hang out in 5D.
