Post Script to Archeology, Volume One

The Power of Imagination

A Scientific Sidebar

Fortunately, for men like Heinrich Schliemann, they were living in an age when they were capable of carrying out their lifelong ambitions. But imagine being born too soon, during a time when the necessary technological know-how was still decades away, or even centuries. A long time ago, a friar by the name of Roger Bacon wrote:

Someday even the largest ships will travel at speeds that would have previously required an entire crew of sailors. And even though these vessels are so huge, each one of them will be guided by a single man. Chariots will be built which move very fast, without the aid of animals. Men will create machines that will allow them to walk along the ocean floor. And, someday, their machines will even help them fly.₁

Too bad this remarkable visionary lived in the wrong century. Until the beginning of the 20th century, scientists were still quite unanimous in their pronouncement that human flight was impossible. Anyone who had even thought about trying to build an airplane would have been considered a fool. That’s why it is so startling to consider that Roger Bacon made his predictions as early as the 13th century. Leonardo da Vinci wouldn’t be born for another 200 years.₂

Story Continues Below

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Story Continues From Above

Everything Bacon described has come true, but at the time that he was writing, it was obviously more an act of faith than of logic. According to Arthur C. Clarke, in Profiles of the Future, "Here, we have yet another example of the triumph of the imagination over hard, cold facts."₃

More on the Role of the Imagination in Science

In John Michell’s book, The View Over Atlantis, there is a chapter entitled “The Order Of Art and Science Seen In A Flash.” In it he wrote:

The essential truth of philosophy, synthesised from every natural science, did not in the earliest days rest only in priests and leaders, but was universally apparent to everyone. Before the violation of the Earth, and before the loss of contact with the former spirit, which spreads confusion and superstition, men must have exercised certain faculties, which are now for the most part dormant in us. The heightened state of perception enjoyed by those who live close to the natural sources of life can amount to a further dimension of vision. People whose livelihood depends on familiarity with their native country and its resources become aware of certain qualities in the landscape and atmosphere which are not apparent to strangers.

There is nothing so obscure that it cannot be illuminated by a flash of vision. Most inventors admit that their greatest discoveries were made through no apparent logical process, but in some odd moment when everything came together in their minds. Crossword and riddle solvers are all familiar with the answer that leaps over a chasm on the trail of logic to deliver the clue from seemingly destined frustration.

Carl Jung’s research confirmed the existence of a secret storehouse in our minds from which dreams, never before seen, and facts yet unknown can rise to the surface and become part of our conscious equipment. In an article quoted by Mrs. J. Jackson he gave several instances of crucial discoveries whose origin lay in sudden revelations from the unconscious. Both the mathematician, Poincare, and the chemist, Kekule, were inspired in this way, and Descartes experienced a moment of utter enlightenment in which he saw in a flash “the order of all the sciences.”

So ends this Article of THE LOST STORIES JOURNAL, Volume One. To read more, please click on one of the following links:

Read the Next Article to see how when we could no longer act or think freely, a new awareness of ourselves developed through film.

Read the Previous Article to discover how archeology took shape, all thanks to the power of the imagination.

Read the First Article of The Journal, Volume One, to learn how by harmonizing a multiplicity of perspectives our results can then be trusted.

Read the First Article of The Journal, Volume Two, to find the most important thing is to avoid overemphasizing one discipline at the expense of the rest.

Heinrich Schliemann (1822 - 1890 A.D.) German archeologist Uncovered ancient cities of Troy and Mycenae.

Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294 A.D.) English Philosopher and Scientist Work laid foundation for the Scientific Method.

Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008 A.D.) English Author of Science Fiction and Fact Wrote 2001:A Space Odyssey and Childhood’s End. His ideas led to the development of satellite broadcasting.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519 A.D.) Italian Scientist and Artist Painted The Last Supper, The Mona Lisa.

Faith: an act or attitude, based on one’s confidence in the providential care of God and His Word.

Logic: a science that deals the standards of valid thought, traditionally comprising the principles of definitions, classification, demonstration, and proper lines of reasoning; as opposed to rhetoric.

Science: the systematized knowledge of any one department of mind or matter; acknowledged truths and laws, especially as demonstrated by induction, experiment, and observation.

Technology: the science of the application of knowledge to practical purposes.