Bishal Nepal
Cambridge, MA, USA
bishalnepal@gmail.com
Rhetorical Analysis: An epistemological thought about mentalism
Plato sits under a tree, and announces that he is bringing a guest
performer—a mentalist. A group of people—citizens of Athens—are
gathered around the tree to see what Plato would profess and what the
guest would perform. The mentalist claims that he is not a magician or
a psychic. The show goes on, and the show bewilders the citizens of
Athens. A citizen shouts, "How do you do that?" The mentalist says, “I
do it by reading through people's mind.”
Plato stands up and says, “My fellow citizens of Athens! I hope that we
learned a lesson today. Let me tell you what this is all about.” He
asks, “My fellow citizens! Have you utilized your mind to find God
inside you?” The crowd replies, “No.” Plato says, “Here you go, the
mentalist is doing the exact thing; he has shown to you how true
knowledge can be achieved. And, in order to achieve the knowledge, he
used his mind. This knowledge that he has achieved is transcendent of
all knowledge that you ever know. This is the level of skill or
knowledge that we need in order to see God within our mind. The
mentalist utilizes his mind and calls for God to sit inside his mind,
thereby, he is empowered with the absolute knowledge and the power.
This knowledge and power allows him to clearly see what is written in
other people's mind. Now, this mentalist, who is blessed with the power
of God in this mind, has achieved the highest form of knowledge that
anyone may ever get in a lifetime. You all fellow citizens can see his
absolute knowledge by his ability to control and influence others by
using his biologically ordinary mortal mind. To my fellow citizens of
Athens, this is exactly what I am talking about. Now, after seeing
these kinds of supernatural talents, I believe that all of my fellow
citizens of Athens, who now are sitting under this tree, realize how
absolute knowledge is achievable, and how God can be brought into a
human mind.”
A guy from the crowd creeps outside. He rides on a horse, and the horse
comes galloping to a Sophist's house. He enters the house and demands
to the Sophist, “You cult teacher, I want my money back.” The Sophist
says, “My dear student, what money are you taking about?” The guy says,
“I want back the money that I paid you for your misleading and flawed
lectures.” The Sophist says, “Oh son, why do you call them misleading
and flawed lectures?” The guy answers, “They are misleading because
Plato just showed to me how God can be achieved and how true knowledge
can be blessed to a human being. Plato brought God and true knowledge
into a human mind; I saw God and true knowledge right in front of me.”
He adds, “Now, I find it unfair that you charged me for your misleading
lectures that say that God cannot be found and true knowledge is
unreachable. I find your lectures misleading and flawed, and I find
that you are charging me unfairly for such misleading and flawed
lectures. Therefore, you should return the money back to me by
accepting the fact that you cheated your student in a bad faith.”
The Sophist says, “My dear student! I feel sad that your brain is
psychologically attacked by the mentalist in a way to paralyze your
natural way of thought-process. The mentalist tried to control your
mind by pre-conditioning your mind, and by using techniques of
hypnosis, precognition, psycho-kinesis, clairvoyance, mind control, and
brainwashing. These mental techniques are far from real, and they are
no way close to absolute truth and no way close to God. These
techniques disguise the reality and make you believe in those things
that are not real. Manipulating others brain to get the result that a
mentalist wants does not mean that he got the absolute truth, and does
not mean that he is close to God. Instead, this means that he used his
ill-techniques to get influence on political and social power. A
mentalist studies human behavior, and practices it to perfection in
order to predict human being's thought. This prediction of thought is
practiced by a mentalist many times over until a statistical accuracy
is achieved. This statistical accuracy allows a mentalist to read
anybody's mind with a reasonable precision. The mentalist attacked your
brain by pre-condition and post-conditioning your conscious and
sub-conscious parts of brain, and thereby, he produced a result that is
already pre-conditioned. This pre-conditioned result is a lie.
Mentalism is a highly manipulative show that conditions your mind to
deny the reality and to deny the Mother Nature. And, believing in such
show is a surrender of reality. We should live in a real world my son,
so please be assured of the fact that such acts are not absolute truth,
and God is still very far away.”
The confused student has no word to say.
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