Soul and Body

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States The Death of Socrates, painting by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) 1 Soul And Body ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE IMAGE OF SOUL VS BODY, CONVEYING THE IDEA OF REASON & MIND VS SENSES JENS LAUSCHKE ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The separation of soul and body (the out-of-body experience), like the migration of the soul, is one of humanity’s most important and most misunderstood ideas. Let us seriously look at this idea in the context of Plato’s Phaedo. 12 good cheer when he is about to die, … after death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world. ... the true votary of philosophy … is always pursuing death and dying; ... he has had the desire of death all his life long.” 5 Plato argues in Phaedo that (i) death is the total separation of soul and body and (ii) that the soul is immortal because it survives this total separation. Let us ask: What is this ‘death’/’separation from the body’ that the soul survives? Let us find out what Plato means by this! 3 So, Phaedo is about the ‘readiness to die’, which Plato says is what sets the real philosopher apart from all other types of man. What does he mean by that? He means that only the person of a real philosophical nature can attain enlightenment. This is so because enlightenment is inner change brought about by an achievement of reason and only the person of a real philosophical nature (according to Plato) is able to overcome all fears 6 7 8 and In Phaedo, we read that “any man who has the spirit of philosophy, will be willing to die;” 4 “the real philosopher has reason to be of seriously and critically examine all aspects of his/her existence and therewith change. Who resists change cannot transform, he/she remains in the prison of the mind. In other words, by ‘readiness to die’ Plato means the character trait of an open and pliable mind. Any person who has an open and pliable mind has “the spirit of philosophy” and, thanks to this spirit, stands a good chance to be able to change when the time for change comes. ————————————————————— Spirit of Philosophy = Open Mind ————————————————————— Like in Apology, where Plato said that “death is ... a change and migration of the soul from this world to another,” 9 or, in other words, “the soul undergoes some sort of transformation, or exchanging of the present world for another,” 10 Plato, in Phaedo, again characterizes death as the change from one world to another. —————————————————— Death = World 1 ► World 2 —————————————————— He is not talking about passing out of life (!) but about “going to another place,” which he has Socrates describe as “the pilgrimage which I am about to make“ 11 and “going to other gods who are wise and good … and ... to men departed, better than those whom I leave behind.” 12 So, the change from one world to another (which Plato calls death) is a pilgrimage! ———————————————————— Pilgrimage = World 1 ► World 2 ———————————————————— Now, while Socrates considers it appropriate for him “to be thinking and talking of the nature of the pilgrimage,” he is not of the view that it is appropriate for all at all times! Therefore, before the discussion of “the nature of the pilgrimage” Plato puts a disclaimer: “a man should wait … until God summons him” So, the first point Plato makes about enlightenment in Phaedo is that one should not seek enlightenment but wait for the right point in life to do so, which is the crisis of the soul. This is so because enlightenment does not occur when we want it but when life wants it, which is what Plato means by we having to wait “until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us.” In other words, first one must be summoned and then one must be released! — by life. This is why Plato links the ideas of ‘dying and death’ to the idea of divine inner law. What he means by “a man should wait … until God summons him” is that enlightenment should only be sought by those who have entered the crisis of the soul, i.e., by those who are suffering under what he in The Republic calls “the conflict in the soul.” 13 He (in Phaedo) has Socrates say that “there is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery.” He might equally well have said something like ‘there is a divine law which states that man is a prisoner until God opens the door’. Plainly, for Plato, psychological suffering is a precondition for enlightenment, so it is not appropriate to seek enlightenment if one is not in a condition of suffering. separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from the body and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?” 16 17 Phaedo is the continuation of Apology, the two works belong together: Apology is the first defence of Socates and Phaedo is the second. The first defence is before representatives of the general public. The second defense is before representatives 14 of the circle of philosophers. 15 Dying = Process through which Soul separates itself from Body Again the question of questions is this: Is ‘death’ to be interpreted as actual physical death or as a symbol for inner change (which mythologically often is expressed as ‘death and rebirth’ or ‘death and resurrection’)? So, to be dead is defined as the state of complete “separation of soul and body.” ———————————————————— Being Dead = State of Complete Separation of Soul and Body ———————————————————— It follows that dying is the process through which the soul separates itself from the body. ——————————————————— ——————————————————— In fact, because Plato says that “the true votary of philosophy … is always pursuing death,” i.e., “studying to live as nearly as they can in a state of death,” the ‘dying’ he is talking about in Phaedo is the philosophical activity through which the soul separates itself from the body!!! ——————————————————— Dying = Philosophical Activity through which the Soul separates itself from the Body ——————————————————— Plato himself raises this question when he has Socrates say “what is the nature of that death which the true philosopher deserves, or how he … desires death ... let us discuss the matter ... . Do we believe that there is such a thing as death?” For us, his modern readers, this basically means the following: ————————————————— What is the meaning of ‘death’ in the context of ancient Greek philosophy? ————————————————— Immediately after having raised the question, Plato clarifies what he means by ‘death’ — i.e., by the ‘death’ the philosopher desires! He has Socrates say: “Is it not the That Plato is talking about a philosophical activity is clear from the fact that he equates dying with purification. He asks: “What is purification but the separation of the soul from the body.” 18 —————————————————— Purification = Separation of Soul and Body —————————————————— It follows that Plato sees in the separation of soul and body both process and result! It is obvious that purification leads to a state of purity. That means by ‘dying leading to the state of being dead’, he means ‘purification leading to the state of being pure’. ——————————————————— Dying ► State of Being Dead = Purification ► State of Purity ——————————————————— It follows that the statement “the true philosophers are always occupied in the practice of dying” simply means that ‘the true philosophers are always occupied in the practice of purification’! Now, it is important to understand that this ‘practice of purification’ has a specific result which is purity and that Plato equates purity with knowledge. He says that “while in company with the body, the soul cannot have pure knowledge” and that therefore “either knowledge is not to be attained at all, or, if at all, after death. For then, and not till then, the soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself alone.” ——————————————————— Dying ► Death ► Purity = Knowledge ——————————————————— So, death is that event which allows the soul to “exist in herself,” i.e, in a state of complete separation from the body. Plato says that the direct experience of this event constitutes knowledge !!! ——————————————————— Death = Event of Complete Separation of Soul and Body ——————————————————— The event of separation leads to a new state which is permanent and which Plato calls purity and knowledge. ——————————————————— Purity = State of Complete Separation of Soul and Body ——————————————————— It follows that the expression ‘separation of soul and body’ has three meanings (!): process, event and state. The process leads to the event and by the event a new permanent state comes into being! ——————————————————— Separation of Soul and Body = Process ► Event ► New State Dying Death Being Dead ——————————————————— This is what he means by ‘the pilgrimage from one world to another’. “like, as far as he can, to get away from the body and to turn to the soul?” 19 Essentially, Plato says that it is through meditation that “the actual acquirement of knowledge” takes place — a very important statement! 20 21 22 ———————————————— ———————————————————— Meditation ► Knowledge The Pilgrimage of the Soul = World 1 ► World 2 = Soul & Body ► Soul & Body United Separated ———————————————— ———————————————————— Plato is not talking about actual physical death here; he makes this plain by saying that the complete separation of the soul from the body, i.e., “the habit of the soul gathering and collecting herself into herself from all sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place alone, as in another life … is termed death.” ———————————————————— The Pilgrimage of the Soul World 2 State of Separation of Body and Soul ▲ Event of Separation ▲ World 1 State of Non- Separation of Body and Soul So, we must ask two questions: What is knowledge? What exactly does Plato mean by meditation? Knowledge is the Self-knowledge of the soul because meditation is the serious concern of the soul with the soul, i.e., with herself! To ponder is to meditate. ——————————————————— Knowledge = Self-knowledge ——————————————————— So, it is Self-knowledge which is attained through meditation. ——————————————————— Meditation ► Self-Knowledge ——————————————————— What is Self-knowledge? It is the knowledge of “true existence.” Plato calls the attainment of this knowledge the attainment of “truth.” ————————————————————— Self-Knowledge = Knowledge of True Existence ———————————————————— ————————————————————— Now, what it this philosophical activity? Well, what does Plato say? He says that it is that activity by means of which “the soul exists in herself.” From the viewpoint of psychology, it is fairly obvious what he is talking about here: he is talking about the practice of meditation! The question is: “When does the soul attain truth?” The answer is: When the soul concerns herself with herself!“Must not true existence be revealed to her in thought?” And is it not true that “thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself,” i.e., “when she takes leave of the body?” Is not that meditation? ————————————————————— Dying = Purification = Meditation ————————————————————— Is not the meditator “entirely concerned with the soul and not with the body?” Does he/she not When Plato says that “the true votary of philosophy … is always pursuing death,” he simply means that the true philosopher has a soul that is secretly pursuing Self- knowledge. This is what he means when he says that the soul of the true philosopher “runs away from his body and desires to be alone and by herself.” He means that a person of a genuine philosophical nature has a soul that has a strong inner drive to meditate on herself. By ‘the body’ Plato essentially means sense impressions! These are the roots of our “loves, and lusts, and fears, and fancies of all kinds, and endless foolery.” When they are present in consciousness, we are entangled in them and they take ”away from us the power of thinking.” It it this entanglement that the philosopher separates his/her soul from when he/she meditates because “thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of these things trouble her ― neither sounds nor sights nor pain nor any pleasure, ― when she takes leave of the body, and has as little as possible to do with it, when she has no bodily sense or desire.” ————————————————————— Mystery of Inner Transformation = Self-knowledge = Self-Realization ————————————————————— The term ‘mystery’ simply denotes the psychological phenomenon of inner change !!! — there is nothing esoteric here. This psychological phenomenon is “a wonderful truth” because it turns psychological suffering into inner peace — ‘the peace beyond all understanding (Eudaimonia). 26 ————————————————————— The Wonderful Truth = Mystery of Inner Transformation = Suffering ► Knowledge ► Peace ——————————————————— Meditation ► Self-Realization ——————————————————— “The term ‘Self’ is on the one hand definite enough to convey the essence of human wholeness and on the other hand indefinite enough to express the indescribable and indeterminable nature of this wholeness. The paradoxical qualities of the term are a reflection of the fact that wholeness consists partly of the conscious man and partly of the unconscious man. But we cannot define the latter or indicate his boundaries.” 29 In other words, the mystery of inner transformation bestows Self-knowledge, which is the knowledge of the Absolute. 27 Self-realization is the satisfaction of the soul’s secret desire for Selfknowledge, it is the fulfillment of the soul’s deepest longing 30 — that’s why it is said to be the Absolute. ————————————————— ————————————————————— The Absolute = The Good = Fulfillment of the Soul’s Desire for ‘Knowledge and Truth’ = Self-Knowledge = Self-Realization ————————————————————— Body = Sense Impressions Self-knowledge = Knowledge of the Absolute ———————————————— ————————————————— Plato goes as far as saying that “by reason of all these impediments we have no time to give to philosophy; and, last and worst of all, even if we are at leisure and betake ourselves to some speculation, the body is always breaking in upon us, causing turmoil and confusion in our enquiries, and so amazing us that we are prevented from seeing the truth” — because we are constantly distracted. 23 Plato asks: “Is there or is there not an absolute justice … and an absolute beauty and absolute good, ... absolute greatness, and health, and strength?” And “is not the nearest approach to the knowledge of their several natures made by him who so orders his intellectual vision as to have the most exact conception of the essence of each thing which he considers?” 28 Fair enough, but what does he mean by “seeing the truth”? He ultimately means “seeing true being?” He means ‘attaining true being’ by means of ‘knowing true being’, i.e., by attaining “the knowledge of true being.” He means the mystery of inner transformation (!) — i.e., the mystery24 that Self-knowledge is Self-realization !!! 25 Plato calls this “a wonderful truth”! By absolute justice and beauty and good he means that state of the psyche which is free of psychological suffering. In other words, the mystery of inner transformation consists in the experience of this state. Because it is the state which the soul secretly desires to realize, this state is known as the state of Self-realization — which we can conceive of only as a new state of the psyche. All that ———————————————— can be said is that through meditation and inner change the Self is realized! ————————————————————— Now, let us return to the symbols of dying and death. After having made his case for meditation being the noble road to wisdom, Plato sums up the arguments made by saying that “when real philosophers,” i.e., those who have undergone inner transformation, “consider all these things” they are led to conclude that they have walked “a path of thought which seems to bring ... the conclusion” that (i) ”our desire is of the truth,” that (ii) “while we are in the body ... our desire will not be satisfied,” that (iii) “the soul in herself must behold things in themselves,” that (iv) “then we shall attain the wisdom which we desire,” and that (v) all this “has been proved to us by experience.” 31 32 Essentially, his conclusion is that a philosopher will be a “real philosopher” only after having experienced inner transformation. 33 “In religious matters, it is a well known fact that we cannot understand a thing until we have experienced it.”34 When Plato says that “we shall attain the wisdom which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers, not while we live, but after death,” he simply means that the soul attains the wisdom it secretly desires through the mystery of inner transformation for which the mythological symbol is death. ———————————————————— Death = Symbol for the Mystery of Inner Transformation ———————————————————— When he says that “we make the nearest approach to knowledge when we have the least possible intercourse or communion with the body, and ... keep ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us,” he simply means that while the approach to the mystery of inner transformation is by meditation, the actual transformation is the work God/Life (and therefore can occur only when the time in life for that has come). 35 The symbol of death is defined as the complete separation of the soul from body through with the soul migrates from one world to another. ——————————————————— Death = World 1 ► World 2 36 ——————————————————— The “change … of the soul from this world to another” is the change from one state of the psyche to another state of the psyche (!) — the change which nowadays goes by the name of enlightenment but in antiquity was represented by (the mystery) of ‘death and rebirth’. 37 38 39 40 ————————————————————— Death & Rebirth = Enlightenment ————————————————————— Death stands for ‘end’ or ‘coming to an end’. Birth stands for ‘beginning’ or ‘coming into existence’. What comes to an end is Ego-centricity. What comes into existence is Self-Awareness. ———————————————————— Birth = Start of Self-Awareness = ▲ Death = End of Ego-centricity ———————————————————— World 1 is the state of Egocentricity and World 2 is the state of Self-Awareness and the two states are connected by the mystery of inner change (which the ancients mythologically expressed as ‘death and rebirth’). ————————————————————— World 2 = State of Self-Awareness ▲ Death = Birth ▲ World 1 = State of Ego-centricity ————————————————————— So, in Apology and Phaedo Plato is talking about psychological unfolding! Taking these two works together his message is that “the migration of the soul” is achieved by “separation of soul and body” — i.e., by meditation and enlightenment. 41 42 ———————————————————— State of Purity = Symbol for New State of Psyche ▲ Migration of the Soul = Symbol for Change in Psyche ▲ Death = Complete Separation = Symbol for Moment of Insight ▲ Practice of Dying = Symbol for Practice of Meditation ▲ State of Impurity = Symbol for Ordinary State of Psyche ———————————————————— Essentially, we have a group of three connected symbols for inner change here: separation, death and migration. Plato ends the first section of Phaedo with two conclusions. The first conclusion is that the prepared soul will do better in transforming itself than the unprepared soul. 43 He says that “the founders of the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning, and were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure long ago that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and purification will dwell with the gods. 44 For 'many,' as they say in the mysteries, 'are the thyrsusbearers, but few are the mystics,' ― meaning, as I interpret the words, 'the true philosophers.'” —————————————————— Mystics = True Philosophers —————————————————— The second conclusion is that the fear of death, by which he means the fear of inner transformation (!), is an illusion! He has Cebes describe this fear as follow: “what concerns the soul, men are apt to be incredulous; they fear that when she has left the body her place may be nowhere, and that on the very day of death she may perish and come to an end ― immediately on her release from the body, issuing forth dispersed like smoke or air and in her flight vanishing away into nothingness.” ——————————————— Fear of Death = Illusion ——————————————— Because Socrates understands that the fear of death is an illusion, he says “I am right in not grieving or repining at parting from … this world … . But most men do not believe this saying; if then I succeed in convincing you by my defence better than I did the Athenian judges, it will be well.” 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Photo: The Death of Socrates, painting by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436105 Plato. Phaedo. Translation by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford University Press. 1892. The complete text can be found here: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/plato-dialogues-vol-2 Phaedo is about the immortality of the soul by which Plato does not mean that the soul survives actual physical death but that it survives the mystery of inner transformation for which the mythological symbol is death. To be more precise, the work is about the fact that the fear of transformation (i.e., the fear the soul experiences as it approaches its own transformation) is an illusion. This fear is the fear of insanity. Plato describes this fear as the fear that when the soul “has left the body her place may be nowhere, and that on the very day of death she may perish and come to an end ― immediately on her release from the body, issuing forth dispersed like smoke or air and in her flight vanishing away into nothingness.” Because this fear is an illusion, Plato presents Socrates as a fearless/courageous man, possessing the necessary attitude for transformation. This courage is the courage that takes anxiety into itself, to use Paul Tillich’s phrase. “Any man who has the spirit of philosophy, will be willing to die, but he will not take his own life, for that is held to be unlawful.” — Plato. Phaedo (Translation by Benjamin Jowett). “I desire to prove to you that the real philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after death he may hope to obtain the greatest good in the other world. And how this may be, Simmias and Cebes, I will endeavour to explain. For I deem that the true votary of philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by other men; they do not perceive that he is always pursuing death and dying; and if this be so, and he has had the desire of death all his life long, why when his time comes should he repine at that which he has been always pursuing and desiring?” — Plato. Phaedo (Translation by Benjamin Jowett). Symbolically represented by ‘fear of death’. “Freud’s great discovery, the core of psychodynamics, is that the great cause of much psychological illness is the fear of knowledge of oneself ― of one’s emotions, impulses, memories, capabilities, potentialities, of one’s destiny.” — Ernest Becker. The Denial of Death. The Free Press. 1973 It is this fear that holds us back and it is a fear like no other. It is “a fear that can be confessed neither to oneself nor to others, a fear of insidious truths, of dangerous knowledge, of disagreeable verifications, in a word, fear of all those things that cause so many of us to flee from being alone with ourselves as from the plague.” — Carl Gustav Jung. Two Essays in Analytical Psychology (Translation by R. F. C. Hull). Princeton University Press. 1953. Plato. Apology. Translation by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford University Press. 1892. Plato. Defence of Socrates. Translation by David Gallop. Oxford University Press. 1997. “There is no reason why I should not repeat what I have heard: and indeed, as I am going to another place, it is very meet for me to be thinking and talking of the nature of the pilgrimage which I am about to make.” Later in the work he has Socrates say “I go on my way rejoicing, and not I only, but every other man who believes that his mind has been made ready and that he is in a manner purified.” “Then tell me, Socrates, why is suicide held to be unlawful? as I have certainly heard Philolaus, about whom you were just now asking, affirm when he was staying with us at Thebes: and there are others who say the same, although I have never understood what was meant by any of them. Do not lose heart, replied Socrates, and the day may come when you will understand. I suppose that you wonder why, when other things which are evil may be good at certain times and to certain persons, death is to be the only exception, and why, when a man is better dead, he is not permitted to be his own benefactor, but must wait for the hand of another. Very true, said Cebes, laughing gently and speaking in his native Boeotian. I admit the appearance of inconsistency in what I am saying; but there may not be any real inconsistency after all. There is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand. Yet I too believe that the gods are our guardians, and that we are a possession of theirs. Do you not agree? Yes, I quite agree, said Cebes. And if one of your own possessions, an ox or an ass, for example, took the liberty of putting himself out of the way when you had given no intimation of your wish that he should die, would you not be angry with him, and would you not punish him if you could? Certainly, replied Cebes. Then, if we look at the matter thus, there may be reason in saying that a man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him, as he is now summoning me.” — Plato. Phaedo (Translation by Benjamin Jowett). Cebes and Simmias, the disciples of Philolaus. Note that Socrates says: “Then I must try to make a more successful defence before you than I did when before the judges.” “In matters of this sort philosophers, above all other men, may be observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul from the communion of the body. Very true. Whereas, Simmias, the rest of the world are of opinion that to him who has no sense of pleasure and no part in bodily pleasure, life is not worth having; and that he who is indifferent about them is as good as dead.” 17 Note that Plato in Gorgias has Socrates say that “death, if I am right, is in the first place the separation from one another of two things, soul and body; nothing else. And after they are separated they retain their several natures, as in life; the body keeps the same habit, and the results of treatment or accident are distinctly visible in it: for example, he who by nature or training or both, was a tall man while he was alive, will remain as he was, after he is dead; and the fat man will remain fat; and so on; and the dead man, who in life had a fancy to have flowing hair, will have flowing hair. And if he was marked with the whip and had the prints of the scourge, or of wounds in him when he was alive, you might see the same in the dead body; and if his limbs were broken or misshapen when he was alive, the same appearance would be visible in the dead. And in a word, whatever was the habit of the body during life would be distinguishable after death, either perfectly, or in a great measure and for a certain time. And I should imagine that this is equally true of the soul, .. when a man is stripped of the body, all the natural or acquired affections of the soul are laid open to view.” — Plato. Gorgias. Translation by Benjamin Jowett. 18 “And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I was saying before; the habit of the soul gathering and collecting herself into herself from all sides out of the body; the dwelling in her own place alone, as in another life, so also in this, as far as she can; ― the release of the soul from the chains of the body?” 19 By pondering the nature of he soul, “philosophers, above all other men, may be observed in every sort of way to dissever the soul from the communion of the body.” 20 “The knowledge of God is attained by vision, the direct personal communion of a soul that no longer reasons and reflects, becomes utterly passive; it is in that strange experience when we check the stream of thoughts and desires that we get into touch with our real self, to contemplate is to see; to know that the supreme spirit is not to be confused with any object that can be apprehended in this life is the most perfect knowledge of it.” — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Eastern Religions and Western Thought. Oxford University Press. 1939. 21 “Knowledge of the soul and God is obtained without the assistance of the senses. ... Interior contemplation is the way to it. In ordinary life the mind is immersed in what is not itself, in sensible appearances. If we divest the mind of all that is sensible, outward and phenomenal, it rises through the pure intellect to union with divinity. ... When the individual withdraws his soul from all outward events, gathers himself together inwardly and strives with concentration, there breaks upon him an experience, secret, strange, and wondrous, which quickens within him, lays hold on him, and becomes his very being. [Through meditation], we are enabled to enter in some measure into the peaceful being of the Absolute, which knows nothing of errors and illusions and is tirelessly at rest.” — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Eastern Religions and Western Thought. Oxford University Press. 1939. 22 “When you go into deep mediation, for example, the thoughts stop. You know that they’ve stopped. You don’t “think” it, you are simply aware of “no thoughts”. You come back and say, “Wow, I went into this deep mediation, and for the first time my thoughts completely stopped. I was in a place of complete peace, harmony, and quiet.” If you are in there experiencing the peace that occurs when your thoughts stop, then obviously your existence is not dependent upon the act of thinking.” — Michael A. Singer. The Untethered Soul. The Journey Beyond Yourself. New Harbinger Publications. 2007 23 From the statement that “thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself” it follows that Plato by meditation does not mean practices like mantra-yoga or concentration but pondering the nature of the soul, which he calls “aspiring after true being” and “the search after true being.” 24 This is why Plato has Simmias say “What you say has a wonderful truth in it, Socrates.” The mystery is wonderful! — Indeed! The mystery/wonder is that psychological suffering disappears and gives way to the ‘peace beyond all understanding’. It is this wonder that makes the true philosopher! It is through this wonder that one leaves the prison of the mind. It is not surprising that the setting of the dialogue is the prison and that the death of Socrates is by poison. The poison is a symbol for snake bite and snake bite is a symbol for psychological suffering during the crisis of the soul. 25 Note that Plato makes a distinction between truth and knowledge when he says “and he attains to the purest knowledge of them who goes to each with the mind alone, not introducing or intruding in the act of thought sight or any other sense together with reason, but with the very light of the mind in her own clearness searches into the very truth of each; he who has got rid, as far as he can, of eyes and ears and, so to speak, of the whole body, these being in his opinion distracting elements which when they infect the soul hinder her from acquiring truth and knowledge —who, if not he, is likely to attain the knowledge of true being?” 26 Remember that Plato had Socrates say earlier in the work “there is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery.” 27 “Only in the experience of the great contemplatives do we have the pure apprehension of the Absolute.” — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Eastern Religions and Western Thought. Oxford University Press. 1939. 28 Note that according to Plato therewith one gets rid not of the body but of “the foolishness of the body.” He says: “And thus having got rid of the foolishness of the body we shall be pure and hold converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear light everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.'” 29 Carl Gustav Jung. Psychology and Alchemy. Routledge. 1953. Page 18 30 In the thought of the ancients, this state is the paradoxical union of the opposites, i.e., of mind and being, or Ego and Self. “Ultimately, this union is the fulfillment and goal of all religion: It is the union of the soul with God ..., the wholeness of the psyche or Self, of which consciousness is just as much a part as the unconscious”. — Aniela Jaffe. Symbolism in the Visual Arts in Carl Gustav Jung ed. Man And His Symbols. Dell Publishing. 1964 31 “And when real philosophers consider all these things, will they not be led to make a reflection which they will express in words something like the following? 'Have we not found,' they will say, 'a path of thought which seems to bring us and our argument to the conclusion, that while we are in the body, and while the soul is infected with the evils of the body, our desire will not be satisfied? and our desire is of the truth. For the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food; and is liable also to diseases which overtake and impede us in the search after true being: it fills us full of loves, and lusts, and fears, and fancies of all kinds, and endless foolery, and in fact, as men say, takes away from us the power of thinking at all. Whence come wars, and fightings, and factions? whence but from the body and the lusts of the body? wars are occasioned by the love of money, and money has to be acquired for the sake and in the service of the body; and by reason of all these impediments we have no time to give to philosophy; and, last and worst of all, even if we are at leisure and betake ourselves to some speculation, the body is always breaking in upon us, causing turmoil and confusion in our enquiries, and so amazing us that we are prevented from seeing the truth. It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body ― the soul in herself must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers, not while we live, but after death; for if while in company with the body, the soul cannot have pure knowledge, one of two things follows ― either knowledge is not to be attained at all, or, if at all, after death. For then, and not till then, the soul will be parted from the body and exist in herself alone. In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to knowledge when we have the least possible intercourse or communion with the body, and are not surfeited with the bodily nature, but keep ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us. And thus having got rid of the foolishness of the body we shall be pure and hold converse with the pure, and know of ourselves the clear light everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth.' For the impure are not permitted to approach the pure. These are the sort of words, Simmias, which the true lovers of knowledge cannot help saying to one another, and thinking. You would agree; would you not?” — Plato. Phaedo (Translation by Benjamin Jowett). 32 “These are the sort of words, Simmias, which the true lovers of knowledge cannot help saying to one another, and thinking.” 33 This is necessarily so because philosophy is all about the phenomenon of inner transformation. Therefore, only he who has experienced it can “consider all these things” and reason about “all these things.“ 34 Carl Gustav Jung. Psychology and Alchemy. Routledge. 1953. Page 14. See also Carl Gustav Jung. The Development of Personality (Translation by R. F. C. Hull). Princeton University Press. 1954. Page 200. 35 This statement links back to the beginning of the work where Plato has Socrates say “Then he, or any man who has the spirit of philosophy, will be willing to die, but he will not take his own life, for that is held to be unlawful. ... have you, Cebes and Simmias, who are the disciples of Philolaus, never heard him speak of this? Yes, ... I have certainly heard Philolaus, about whom you were just now asking, affirm when he was staying with us at Thebes: and there are others who say the same, although I have never understood what was meant by any of them. Do not lose heart, replied Socrates, ... the day may come when you will understand. ... a man ... is not permitted to be his own benefactor, but must wait for the hand of another. ... There is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door and run away; this is a great mystery ... the gods are our guardians, and ... we are a possession of theirs. … if one of your own possessions ... took the liberty of putting himself out of the way when you had given no intimation of your wish that he should die, would you not be angry with him, and would you not punish him if you could? Certainly, replied Cebes. Then, if we look at the matter thus, there may be reason in saying that a man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him, as he is now summoning me..” — Plato. Phaedo (Translation by Benjamin Jowett). 36 The expression ‘migration of the soul’ conveys the idea (and this is a very important idea!) that enlightenment is not just a change of consciousness but a change of the psyche as a whole! It denotes the fact that the psyche changes in a fundamental way when enlightenment is attained. In the language of transpersonal psychology, we can say that the conscious/unconscious dynamic changes. 37 Symbolically ‘the world’ is represented by a sphere, an abstract symbol which likely is derived from the shape of the human head. 38 In the thought of the ancient Greeks, enlightenment is the moment at which the world of human consciousness is transformed. 39 Of course, this interpretation hinges critically on what the ancient Greeks meant by ‘the world’, but much suggests that they indeed used the term to refer to the human psyche. There is evidence for this in Apology: right at the beginning we read: “They say that there is one Socrates, a ‘wise man’, who ponders what is above the earth and investigates everything beneath it ...” Above the earth is heaven and that is a symbol for consciousness and beneath the earth is the underworld and that is a symbol for the unconscious. Socrates is the man who is busy ‘examining himself and others’ which is to be equated with ‘pondering what is above and beneath the earth’. Essentially, Socrates is the man busy observing himself and others in order to understand the human psyche! Ultimately, this is what it meant by the practice of philosophy. 40 If the expression ‘migration of the soul’ refers to the change of the psyche as a whole, what exactly is ‘death’? Must it not simply be a synonym for enlightenment? Does not Plato use the word ‘death’ for what is an achievement of consciousness? 41 By “separation” he means both process and result for which he uses the symbols dying and death. 42 By this he simply means that Self-Awareness is attained through meditation on the nature of the soul. 43 This links back to the warning given in Apology. Socrates gives the warning to his executioners, i.e., those members of the jury who voted against him: “So, with this prophecy to those of you who voted against me, I take my leave,” (Translation by David Gallop). He says that “retribution will come upon you.” The meaning is the following: If you don’t practice philosophy, i.e., observe yourself and learn about yourself, then “retribution will come upon you.” In the context of ancient Greek religion, a prophecy always is to be understood as a statement about psychological development. It is the foretelling of a future event in the process of psychological unfolding. 44 This likely means ‘will have knowledge of the gods’, i.e., ‘understand the process of inner transformation’.