Some truths can only be stated in hidden ways

WARNING:  Do not stare at these images for longer than 5 minutes.  Staring at one for 15 minutes will change your color perception for several months.  This may make you curious, but please DON'T DO IT. See the McCollough Effect for more information.

Human perception is fragile and all-too-flexible because of the way neural connections work, mainly their speed and the velocity of any (and every) neural network's rate of change.


As we live in rigidly structured societies, with thousands of clear and unbreakable rules that cannot be ignored (e.g., get naked in public and see what happens!  No, I'm kidding....please don't!), there are some basic human truths, truths of nature, that can barely be stated and, when they are expressed, they must be hidden deep within metaphors.  The following is a clear example:

(For mobile users who cannot see the video embedded above, please click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVegpypXN1I)

"Know Thyself" was inscribed at the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.  Visitors to Delphi looking for advice from their Oracle, the greatest oracle that has ever existed, would find this message along their way.  I strongly urge you to follow it ---  Know yourself!

A little known fact about the Oracle of Delphi (which sheds light into the reality of psychics) is that visitors to it were made to wait for days before they finally entered to hear the advice they were seeking.  The visitors almost always left the Oracle baffled, perplexed, and astounded by the quality of the advice they received. What they didn't know is that the Oracle of Delphi would send out scouts immediately when a person arrived to gather as much information as they possibly could about that person.  There was nothing magical about the psychics at all.  It was their due diligence and long training and experience that made the Oracle of Delphi the most sacred and most influential oracle that has ever existed.


In the words of Walt Whitman:

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.


Published in Leaves of Grass, Final "Deathbed Edition", 1892.