David;

I enjoyed your post and think it is accurate.

From Anthropology I learned (and question) the importance of Oral Tradition, using ropes, knots and other means. Smoking mushrooms was and is a way to communicate with "reality".

Psychology taught me something interesting. There were twenty-four students in our class. The teacher conducted an experiment to realize what happens when a story is passed from person to person. The teacher took one student out to the hallway where he could not be overheard, and gave him a short story. In turn each student was called out to the hallway and the story repeated by the last student to hear it. At the end of the experiment the twenty-fourth student repeated what he had heard.

The teacher had written down what he stated to the first student. The final version was nothing like the original. Conclusion: Oral tradition is suspect. Anthropologists would have you believe that ancient people passed on every word as in originally occurred.

From sociology I learned all the terms used by bleeding hearts. When I read Will Durant’s writings many things fell into perspective. Sociology and Psychology are the “two unproven sciences”. Tell that to someone who works in either field! That is a great definition.

History is perhaps the accumulative word by an individual who is expressing his/her thinking on a subject that may be true or not true. At any rate it is nothing more than a story and should be taken with a grain of salt. Those who believe too strongly in the exactness of an event may be disappointed. Or such individuals will start a war or public upheaval for what they interpret as “the truth”.

The truth exists in the minds of men. Those in power or those who take power control and shape truth.

Tom

>Hello Jos,
>
>Some interesting posts on this thread.
>
>After reading Homer's "The Odyssey" I learned that the story of Odysseus was penned by Homer somewhere around 700BC, and that the "actual" exploits were "supposed" to have taken place around 1200BC, nearly 500 years earlier. So let's see, 500 years of stories via word of mouth, songs around campfires, embelishments, why, it just CAN'T be an accurate account of what actually happened!!! Er....um....right. So why do we read such stories? I've been looking for Calypso's Island since I was 17 but never found it!!! But, I didn't read "The Odyssey" until after I reached 50 years of age. How is it that a young man's fantasy was penned by someone 2700 years earlier?....hmmmmm.....maybe History has less to do with the Time and Events of the World than it has to do with the Time and Events inside each Man who walks as Odysseus walked...through a life of knowledge and uncertainty, gods and demons, pleasures and pain, virtue and corruption, trial and error. "Is that what REALLY happened?"
> Absolutely. Is it "just a story"?....Absolutely.
>
>It appears that the studies of History and Psychology are the "Children of the Twilight Zone", a place that can NEVER be scientifically validated, but nonetheless holds what may well be the richest rewards for the Traveller who is not confused or intimidated by the ambiguities of the Thinking Life. It would seem that Psychology endeavors to uncover the Personal History of an individual, while History seeks to uncover the Personal Psychology of a Culture.
>
>Thanks for the Seed!
>
>David