About Discovering Infinity

. . . . . . Cygni

The research series, Discovering Infinity

An introduction to the individual books

The nine book series, "Discovering Infinity" was created by Rolf A. F. Witzsche, in North Vancouver, Canada, over a span of more than 15 years. The work began in the early 1980s, but its central element is rooted in a science created a hundred years earlier by a New England woman named Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910). The woman was probably the most accomplished scientists in the field of exploring the power of intelligent perception for elevating human existence, including the healing of disease on a scientific metaphysical basis. However, the series presented here goes still farther back in time, to the work of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) who is regarded by some as the first stepping stone towards the Golden Renaissance that uplifted mankind probably more profoundly than any other period in history. This renaissance ended the dark ages and uplifted the world. It stands as one one of the great turning points in the history of mankind.

We need this kind of renaissance again in our modern dark world, that has become a world of fascism, nuclear weapons, slavery, poverty, and financial disintegration. I addition we face the return of the Ice Age that's already looming dark on the not so distant horizon. With these shadows fast falling around us we find that our civilization hangs in the balance once more, as in the time of Dante, only more precariously now than ever before. Our strength is failing; our defences are wearing thin; our riches are crumbling; and the light of our hope is getting small, matching the smallness in thinking that has become the hallmark of modern society.

Dante found himself in a similar kind of world. His home city was the center of the greatest financial world empire of the time, which was rotten to the core. Dante became a rebel bearing warnings and presenting critical choices that could avoid doom. But instead of being heeded he was banished from the city.

Dante poured the principles that he understood into his writings. The best known of these is his epic poetic trilogy the "Commedia," or translated, the "Divine Comedy." The poem is a serious work designed to lift the society of his time out of its 'smallness' by raising its perception of truth and its self-perception to higher levels of thinking. The Commedia presents three such levels in a progressive sequence. The three levels are incorporated into the makeup of the research series presented here.

In order to be able to do accomplish the complex task that Dante had laid out for himself, he had to first create a high-level language, a new kind of language that is able convey the complex ideas that he wanted to express. On this track he gathered together the most beautiful aspects of all the Italian dialects that he could find from the numerous sources across the country. It is being said that he literally created the Italian language for this purpose. Of course there was nothing more worthy of that language than his own poetic works.

The language that he created became the central language of the Golden Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance, the renaissance typified by the Council of Florence of the mid 1400s. Dante would have been proud of this development, but he died long before the Renaissance became a reality. Nevertheless he understood the principles that the Renaissance represented, and he expressed these principles in the "Commedia."

The Commedia tells us the story of a pilgrim and his guide. Both journey together through the three distinct progressive stages that he called: Hell; Purgatory; and Paradise. The research series presented here is designed to follow this pattern and to go through the journey twice, once in the perspective of the pilgrim, and once in the perspective of the guide. For this reason the series is made up of six sets of books, Volume 1 through 6.

Volume 1 through 3 are written from the standpoint of the pilgrim.

Volume 1 corresponds with Dante's concept of Hell in modern terms. Actually Dante's personal hell was two-fold. He was a rebel against the financial empire of his time. He saw doom spelled in big letters in the corrupting decadence that stank with arrogance, but was in real terms a hollow, empty shell. He must have spoken out powerfully with calls for sanity for which he was banished from his beloved home city and lived in exile as it were. While he didn't live long enough to see the collapse of the financial system that he had warned about, he understood that the system would collapse by the sheer weight of its gravity, and the weakness of its emptiness. The collapse occurred 24 years after Dante's death, with consequences far worse that he might have imagined. The collapse had weakened the population so severely that it opened the door to the Black Plaque that swept like wildfire across Europe and destroyed nearly half the population.

Since we are now poised for a replay and a possibly deeper and wider financial collapse, the first book of the series, Volume 1 (Volume 1A) focuses on the hell that Dante had fought against. The tile for this volume is, "The Disintegration of the World's Financial System." Indeed, when the mighty giant that is deemed as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar becomes an empty shell the inevitable happens.

The second part of Volume 1 (Volume 1B) focuses on the crimes committed by those who would uphold today's dying private empire against its built-in demise. The tile for this volume is, "Crimes Against Humanity."

In the Greek legend in which Saturn is devouring his sons, the god-giant does this not by a rage of 'greed' in order to nourish himself, but out of fear. Dante the poet was banished by the mightiest financial empire of his time, out of fear. The empire was scared of the humanity of the poet.

Volume 2 mirrors Dante's concept of Purgatory, a stage of healing. The title for this volume is "Science and Spiritual Healing." The healing here is a kind of self-discovery, the discovery of a spiritual dimension in our humanity that takes us beyond the crude limits that we have placed on ourselves in the 'smallness' of closed-minded thinking.

Volume 3 takes us to still higher ground. It presents the scientific platform of Christ Science, Dante's "Paradise" advanced in great measures to a true science. At this stage the pilgrim finds that the guide inevitably leaves him standing alone in order that he may be guided by his own human resources. America's spiritual pioneer, Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, the discoverer of "the divine Principle of scientific mental healing," has done exactly the same. In the late 1800s she developed a vast pedagogical structure for scientific and spiritual development, in support of her science. However, she only outlined its design. The structure is so enormous in scope that it encompasses all of her major words, with some strikingly advanced concepts added, but she never imposed and dogma as to how it must unfold in the mind of the student. She poses a lot of questions in the way the structure is outlined, but she never really provides any answers for them. It is as if she is saying, like Dante, that the answers must emerge through the process of discovery as one individually begins to search for the truth.

Volume 3 presents the details of the discovery and the subsequent exploration of Mary Baker Eddy's pedagogical structure. What is presented resulted from a process in which one is always alone, supported only by the substance of science and the spiritual riches of our humanity. The title of this volume is: Universal Divine Science - Spiritual Pedagogicals.

Her begins the second cycle. The next three volumes, Volume 4 through 6 take us through the same journey once more, from Hell to Paradise, but from the standpoint of the guide instead of the pilgrim.

Volume 4 takes us through Hell as seen by the guide who must plot a safe path through the jungle. Here the great concepts demand clarity: Is evil a power, or is it a negation without power? Is darkness substantial, or is there substance only in light against which darkness cannot stand? The title of this volume is, Light Piercing the Heart of Darkness.

Volume 5 explores the dimension of Purgatory with the eyes of a guide who must turn the spiritual potential, by means of science, into a profound renaissance that uplifts the whole world. In this case the guide understands the advanced pedagogical structures that the pioneer of the past has provided, who then finds himself challenged to apply them to create a portal to a new world. The title of this volume is, Scientific Government and Self-Government. Perhaps the profoundest realization that we have learned in the historic periods of renaissance is the now evident fact that our 'bread' does not come not from the sky, from heaven, nor does it come from the Earth, but is created as the product of the human mind, drawn from the discovery and application of universal principles in which our infinite dimension comes to light.

Volume 6 is once more split into two parts, both representing Dante's "Paradise" from the standpoint of the guide. The first part, Volume 6a, has the title, The Infinite Nature of Man. Mary Baker Eddy made a statement in 1884 that must have shook the starched motions of that time. She wrote, "Woman is the highest term for man." In the context of her science this statement bears not a sexual reference, but a spiritual one. It reflects the highest concept of humanity that we find described in the biblical Apocalypse as "a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

This non-sexual reference to woman as a metaphor for the spiritual identity of mankind, the highest idea of our humanity, comes with not a small challenge for to to live up to. It's not even a small challenge just to discover what worlds upon worlds it encompasses. In this realm even the guide is alone, and infinity itself becomes the frontier, and there are no inherent limits.

The second part of Volume 6, (Volume 6b), is focused on the spiritual dimension of leadership. The title for the book is simply called, Leadership.

So what is it that we are after to provide leadership for? What kind of leadership makes any sense in the infinite domain? Is the goal to achieve victory? Or does a new type of leadership unfold that raises the standard of achievement?

The research series presented here contains one more volume, an introductory volume. It opens the series. Its title for this opening volume is, Roots in Universal History.

This volume sets the stage for the series by exploring who and what we are as human beings in the vast scope of universal history. In this sphere of the real world the roles of the pilgrim and the guide are blurred and intermingle. In this sphere we are but children growing up, or children that refuse to grow out of their infancy as it is so often the case. In this sphere history sometimes offers itself as a guide, but to what end? And who listens anyway what history tells us? Dante must have felt that society needs more than just history, because history by itself comes with an empty promise all too often. Dante must have felt that something more is needed, like timeless principles and a humanity with built in riches that we have barely begun to explore, much less utilize. Evidently Dante wrote the Commedia to open the door to this universe of principles and a profound humanity.

I have written this nine volume research series in an attempt to bring back the spirit of Dante whose achievements became a stepping stone to the greatest renaissance of all times, that became the greatest period of humanist development in the entire history of civilization. It is my hope that this still existing potential may be realized anew in our time. The principles that Dante had once glimpsed so long ago, according to the nature of principles, are valid for all times, and are so today. For this reason the great renaissance that we need again in our time, has the potential of becoming realized. We are not looking for a dream coming true that never was, but for the truth of our humanity to come to light with a light brighter than that of the sun. We may yet realize that we have this potential.

Maybe Dante's greatest legacy lies in this cradle that holds the potential for our awakening towards an infinite futures that remains forever within our reach to be claimed.

Rolf A. F. Witzsche

Published by
Cygni Communications Ltd.
North Vancouver, B.C.
Canada