Originally published in 2006.
Jack and Jill were playing and fetching water one day, when Jack had this sudden realization:
“I love you”, he said to Jill.
This is the essence of metaphysical intuition, not in the sense of a gut feeling or hunch, but of a direct and positive realization. Direct because it is not mediated — it is an immediate realization. Positive because it is absolutely certain knowledge. Note, too, that this example demonstrates that knowledge = being. Jack’s knowledge of his love is identical with a change of his being from “not loving” to “loving”.
Notice how the “modern” mind looks at knowledge:
| I think I love you. | This is Jack the philosopher. It’s an interesting theory, but Jill is not impressed. |
| I believe I love you. | Jack may have reasonable grounds for his faith, but Jill has her doubts. |
| I get this funny feeling in my stomach when I’m with you. | No, Jack, that feeling is not your stomach. Don’t confuse lust with love. |
| My E-17 neuron in the left cortex has released 7 mg of endorphins. | The materialist. What Jack calls “love” is simply an electrochemical event in his brain. “Love” is folk psychology and such talk will give way to scientific descriptions just as astrology has yielded to astronomy. |
| You remind me of my mother. | Does anyone still read Freud? Did anyone truly believe it? | You look like sound genetic material. | Of course, the biologist tells us the selfish genes want to reproduce, even if only half of them get a chance. “Actually, Jill, Judy over on yonder hill has good genes, too, but her father won’t let me near her.” And Jack came tumbling down. Wonder why? |
| I don’t want a power relationship. | “Sensitive” Jack has been reading postmodern literature on “love” as a disguise for patriarchal oppression of women. This is what we mean by “mediated”. |
One more:
“I love you Jill, by the will of my will” – Jack the magus. Will it last?