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Therefore, in immemorial times, awake minds wondered that were the forces and the powers which enable the behaviors and phenomena, in particular the physical forces shown by the individuals and the animals.
What have been their answers ?
The primitive religion of the Native Americans,
the descendants of Indo-European hunters who emigrated having crossed the Bering Strait during periods of glaciation, 20.000 to 35.000 years BC (some scientists speak even of 40.000 to 100.000 years),
even, European nomads who, during the last glaciation, progressed westward, along the ice-floe,
is showing for example, the belief :
- in an universal force which give supernatural powers to the men, to the animals, to the plants and to the phenomena ; the Iroquois baptized it : Orenda, the Aleut : Agudar,the Lakota : Wakan, the Algonquian : Manitou,
- in of the invisible entities : the minds associated to the beings and things.
Some Indian tribes imagined even a supreme Spirit ; let us quote in particular, the Creator of the Lakota, the Great Spirit of the Algonquian and the Master of Breath of the Creek.
In which beyond the world were these Powers ?
Let's quote the ancient egyptian beliefs :
"when an Egyptian had to answer of his acts on earth, during the judgment after the death, he was presenting his defence in the form of negations, which constitute the famous negative confession of the Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead ; we read to it in particular : I do not know the non-existing, …,
When the deceased is accepted after the judgment as being one of the just and elected men, he is authorized to pursue his road towards the pastures of the beyond ; it is however necessary to him to cross many dangerous places as the door named : the one that swallows those who do not exist, …,
Finally he reaches Osiris, the Lord of the deaths. He is in the presence of a god who has among his multiple attributes : the one to whom comes the one who is and the one who is not. " (Cf. E. Hornung - The Gods of Egypt, the One and the Many).
So, the ancient Egyptians considered that the death was only a ford and that after the passage in one beyond, they could live as on earth, on condition however, that their body is intact.
Let us remember rites which accompanied the death : the body was embalmed and buried with foods and the possessions, before going within the eternal beyond the world.
It is true that at time of the Pharaohs, the notions of virtuality and of potentiality were unknown ; the priests thought even, that after the death, having left the state of existing, the man had paradoxically in the non-existing, all the elements which compose his environment.
This beyond the world, was even imagined in the sky, but situated outside the road of the sun ; as for the expiation place of the beings condemned during the judgment of the deaths, our hell, it was thought : "totally deep, totally dark, totally infinite." (cf. Chapter 175 - Book of the Deaths).
Also, according to the Old Testament and the Persian and Egyptian beliefs, to reach this empire of the deaths, it was necessary to cross infernal rivers forbidding any ascent to the light :
"… the cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me." (Cf. Bible - Psalms 18, 4), even, it was necessary to cross mouths of abysses described as infernal doors.
Until the period of the writing of the second book of Maccabees, the Jews believed that an invisible part of the body was joining a singular space : the sheol, an underground and dark domain.
Later and until fifth century, following the example of Philon of Alexandria (this Greek Jewish philosopher, adept of the metempsychosis), for the rabbisbe, before living in bodies, souls existed in an upper world,
a space named Gouf, situated at the top of the sky and preceding that of the angels.
Also let’s remind the Gehene, this beyond the world reserved to the vile souls, that will be object of mysterious calculations, some rabbis doing estimating its dimensions.
In the Talmud and concerning the beyond, it is specified for example :
"in the world after the death, we do not drink nor eat, we have no sensual enjoyment, but the just men sit, crowns on the head, and amuse themselves of the brightness of the Divinity." (cf. Berak’oth – 67, a).
Afterward, the Jewish theologians have been annoyed by the variety of these points of view.
To remedy this situation, Maimonides (1135, 1204), theologian and doctor imbued of Platonism, even of Neoplatonism, will suggest privileging the interpretation of the biblical tradition.
He indeed considered that the ideas exist potentially in the reason, and that the reason acquires substantial reality only when it builds by means of perceptions.
Also let' remind the seven heavens of the Muslims :
"The seven heavens and the earth celebrate His praises, and all who therein are; nor is there aught but what celebrates His praise : but ye cannot understand their celebration;- verily, He is clement and forgiving." (cf. the Koran – Sura XVII, 46).
As for Plato, he was recognizing to the Forms in themselves, that are the eternal Forms, a space of transcendence, even, has recognized in these Forms a transcendante nature :
Parmenides : but a thing is sure in any case, it is that the Forms in themselves, you agree (Socrates), are not in us and that they cannot be in our world. (cf. Parmenides - 134 b) ".
But, did he consider this nature inherent to that of a transcending order implicated in the world ?
We do not think it, although he wrote :
"Parmenides : Indeed, the One we saw him I believe, is in himself as in a whole.
Young Aristotle : It is just.
Parmenides : Is not the One also in the other things ?
Young Aristotle : Yes.
Parmenides : Consequently, in the degree where he is in the other things, he will be in touch with the other things; and as he is in himself, the contact with the other things will be forbidden to him, and it is with himself that he will be in contact, given that he is in himself.
Young Aristotle : Apparently.
Parmenides : Thus therefore the One will be in contact with himself and with the other things.
Young Aristotle : He will be it." (cf. Parmeides - 148d, e).
Actually, the Plato’s alternative about the Forms in themselves :
"or every Form is constituted by thoughts and each thinks, or it represents of thoughts which do not think. ", is henceforth obsolete.
The recent scientific headways, in particular in neurobiology, introduce of new paradigms which lead to an upsetting understanding of the world's dynamics.
Still it is necessary to take the quintessence of these new knowledges and to be on one's guard concerning the simplistic expressions which are made of it !
In particular, it appears, without being great specialist of the subject, that the Forms in themselves are fruits of transcendent activities, as are it the thoughts, the concepts, the ideas, the anticipations, …,
and what besides, they do not dwell in the spirit because the spirit elaborates them,
and that for elaborating them, he has to transcend them.
Nevertheless, an inescapable problem remains :
where dwell to virtual state, the thoughts, the ideas, the concepts, the anticipations, …, and the links (notably the logics) that enable the coherence and the adequacy with the reality ?
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According to our distant ancestors, the powers associated to beings and to things are diverse and organized into hierarchies just like the phenomena and the behaviors.
In Egypt, there were thus "distant gods" as Amun ( the hidden), Sekhmet (the power), Nun (the primordial stream), Houh (the infinity), Kek (the darkness), Ma’at (the goddess who was incarnating the order of the world), …, and of the "more objective gods", in particular those associated to the daily life, as Khnum (the god of the waterfall), Khefthernébès (goddess personifying the Theban necropolis).
As for the Hindu pantheon, it expresses a large variety of sensibilities, of feelings and of presentiments and is composed of a large number of gods, of goddesses, of devils,of démones, and of supernatural beings.
We find there, pell-mell, of enemies of the gods (asuras and daityas), subterranean beings (nâgas), geniuses (gandharvas), nymphs (apsaras), …,
in particular, eleven gods, the Agni (the fire), are supposed to live in Empyrée (the highest of the celestial spaces), eleven, the Indra (warriors), on earth, and eleven, the Varuna, in an intermediate space.
Also let us remember the extraordinary Greek myths of the antiquity, in particular in Iliad and the Odyssey, the exploits of Ulysses, victor of Troy who condemned by gods, had to roam on the sea with some companions of weapon.
Naturally, the analysis of these beliefs would get out the frame of this study.
Nevertheless let's observe that problems, always of current events, inherent to the power of the love, to the obsession of the death and to the presentiment of a beyond the world, were there omnipresent.
It is true that the beliefs to such unrealistic virtual worlds, have calmed for centuries, calm still, metaphysical fears of a part of the humanity !
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