(BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE{1}[continued[4]])[5th April 1987]

[Redbook3:121-122][19870405:1057d](BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE{1}[continued[4]])[5th April 1987]

19870405.1057

(Sunday)

[continued]

I have to distinguish between Indirect and Direct Knowledge: one might term them Secular and Religious Knowledge, although this has drawbacks. In the natural world, I see and hear a bird singing. My perception is direct knowledge, the sight and sound; if I feel joy at this sight and sound, my joy also will be direct knowledge (but of the joy, not of the sight and sound).* My knowledge that it is a bird, and that it is singing, are indirect knowledge.

In the matter of the Circles: my systematisation of information in the patterns, symbols etc. of the Circles is Indirect Knowledge, which is why terming it 'Secular Knowledge' has its drawbacks**. This has much in common with Belief: the subject matter is similar; the difference is perhaps between what we are inclined to accept evidentially (Indirect Knowledge), and what we are not inclined to accept evidentially but are persuaded to accept despite the evidence or lack of it (Belief).

In this usage, Belief requires an effort of Faith***. Mere unthinking acceptance of the intrinsically unlikely is not so much Belief as a rather flimsily based Indirect Knowledge. The distinction is important because during Outer Circle developments, many influences will work to convince the Individual, quite rationally and logically****, that Indirect Knowledge of or relating to the Inner World is untrue, and that no such World exists. Irrational belief in the existence of such a World, founded on Faith, however it arose**** *, will help the Individual to rise from this condition and transfer to the Inner Circle in due course.

*cf. Denis Donaghue, The Arts without Mystery (1982 Reith Lectures), p25 (on Santayana). <890110>

**[See last previous entry.]

***(p120 also [– last previous entry.])

****Rationality and logic do not necessarily give rise to Truth. <[87]0414>

**** *(i.e. possibly due to an early experience of Inner Direct Knowledge? – see below.)

[continues]

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