The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

Have you EVER read; "The Allegory of the Cave"?  This brief story has a powerful meaning. Today's discussion about a famous mentor in history, will be about Plato. Who was he and what did he teach.  More importantly, how his wisdom (that is older than 2,000 years), still has a vital lesson for us in this day and age.

One of the most profound stories that Plato wrote was called, "The Allegory of the Cave".  An abbreviated form of this story is as follows:

"Suppose there is a cave, and inside the cave there are some men chained up to a wall, so that they can only see the back wall of the cave and nothing else. These men can't see anything outside of the cave, or even see each other clearly, but they can see shadows of what is going on outside the cave. Wouldn't these prisoners come to think that the shadows were real, and that was what things really looked like?

Suppose now that one of the men escaped, and got out of the cave, and saw what real people looked like, and real trees and grass. If he went back to the cave and told the other men what he had seen, would they believe him, or would they think he was crazy?"

Plato says that we are like those men sitting in the cave; "We think we understand the real world, but because we are trapped in our bodies we can see only the shadows on the wall".

Linda Forsythe and Leyla Hur will be having a lively discussion about this story and how much the spirit of the story is alive in us today. How much do you believe is reality because of what you've perceived or been taught? 

Many answers to questions may be answered within yourself after today's show.