1. Plato's teachings about dialectical interchange are encrypted in a secret language.
True
False
2. It would be foolish to say that there is an esoteric aspect to philosophy.
True
False
3. Philosophy is the actual practice of learning to leave the physical body and live in the soul, the spiritual body.
True
False
4. Plato used the Greek words maieutic psychagogy to denote dialectical interchange.
True
False
5. Maieutic denotes the science of helping to bring out (give birth to) new elements (ideas, beings) from a person's soul or to bring into (transmit to) a person's soul, elements from a higher level of being
.
True
False
6. Psychagogy denotes a midwife, one who assists in the delivery of a new being.
True
False
7. Plato's Socrates, in the dialogues, practiced an extraordinary kind of shared mystical experience in which he served as a psychagogic midwife, overseeing the process of the divulgence of, the bringing into being of new elements: ideas, feelings, inspirations, and images.
True
False
8. It would be absurd to say that persons in genuine dialectical interchange are in an altered state of consciousness.
True
False
9. In Plato's dialogues, participants with Socrates in dialectic sometimes spoke of being entranced, charmed, or bewitched.
True
False
10. Plato believed that we can discover truth when we are in our ordinary consciousness.
True
False
11. What Plato was describing in the dialogues was merely two or more people, in their ordinary state of consciousness, conversing about philosophical concepts..
True
False
12. Dialectical interchange involves the participants attempting to gain a genuine understanding of "that which has true being"--eternal Forms.
True
False
13. Since Plato makes it clear that eternal Forms cannot be discovered or understood in the ordinary mind-state, dialectical interchange can occur only when the participants are in a heightened mode of consciousness.
True
False
14. If a person were in an altered state of consciousness in dialectical interchange he would have to be aware of it.
True
False
15. Dialectic is the only philosophical process which seeks for wisdom by anagogically
uplifting our intellectual foundations so that our Higher Self ascends to the Origin.
True
False
16. The mystical aspect of dialectic is evidenced by the sudden flash that shines forth,
the light that is kindled in one soul which leaps to another and then sustains itself.
True
False
17. The mystical experience of maieutic pschagogy involves the participants in a process which teaches how to develop and take part in the process.
True
False
18. Dialectic is an interpersonal activity in which the leader and participants enter a higher state of consciousness, allowing psychic material to flow through them.
True
False
19. A person could not write a description or a record of the phenomenon of maieutic psychagogy.
True
False
20. It's factually possible to write a spiritual experience; this is not something which can only be lived.
True
False
21. The special experience of higher knowledge cannot be transmitted through writing.
True
False
22. The experience of Higher Knowledge cannot be expressed or encapsulated in a fixed form; it is a living, organic interchange which evolves and requires that the Seeker evolve with it.
True
False
23. The experiential interchange of which dialectic consists--including the recollection of previously unknown ideas within oneself--is a creative process which produces genuine knowledge.
True
False
24. Even though the process of dialectic cannot be written--since it must be experienced--the results, the record of dialectical interchanges can be recorded in written form.
True
False
25. Plato's dialogues are not written chronicles of prior dialogical experiences, containing important knowledge acquired through dialectic.
True
False
26. Plato's statements concerning writing means that nothing of any importance can be recorded in a written form.
True
False
27. The process of maieutic psychagogy--dialectic--cannot be transmitted through writing, since it requires that a person actually experience the dynamically unfolding procedure.
True
False
28. Plato would not have written his dialogues and letters had he believed that writing could not transmit something of value.
True
False
29. Platonic dialectic does not involve an intuitive mode of apprehension and communication.
True
False
30. In the ordinary state of consciousness, intellectual expression of ideas in words always follows limpingly behind the fleeting meanings we wish to express and which thoughts and words can never fully embody or signify.
True
False
31. An expression in words is never lacking in the vital principle; it never fixes merely a thing that has ceased to move.
True
False
32. The language we must use--to write, speak, or conceive--in seeking understanding of higher realities--is made up, not of words, but of those moving, ever-changing things known as actions--doings.
True
False
33. Inspired action is the instantaneous and directest expression of that which, when unperverted by false habits of mediating thought, comes to us directly from primal sources.
True
False
34. Participants in dialectic engage in reflective, verbal deliberation, not in expressing immediate inspiration from the Source.
True
False
35. When we begin learning to follow intuition in immediate dialectical interchange, we never make blunders or mistakes.
True
False
36. Dialectic involves allowing supersensible wisdom to flow through us in an untrammeled and unpremeditated way.
True
False
37. Since we can study the nature of ordinary physical objects through the use of science and mathematics, the essence of humans is also ascertainable through those means.
True
False
38. Plato's dialogues are instructional or indoctrinating devices, used in imposing ideas on students.
True
False
39. Practicing genuine dialectic requires that there be at least one person at an advanced level and prepared participants willing and able to actively engage in the experience to the fullest extent.
True
False
40. With the introduction of the Internet, the nature of written expression of ideas has undergone a revolutionary transformation, allowing for dialectical interchange online.
True
False
