From: William Stoertz
Reply to Questions on Ideals and Perception 
 


	In all our work, our research, our discussions, we should 
remember one thing, in order to be effective, meaningful, and 
7good*: God is the center of our purpose, goal, and method. 
Thus our work may be prosperous and beneficial. 
	Through your study, in your institute, you may give glory 
to God and True Parents. You may also learn better than 
anyone else, because you have been given the deep-rooted 
vision and understanding which opens the eyes to what is 
7behind* the existence, phenomena, and appearances of the 
visible world. 
	In so doing, you may think of Plato, the original 
Philosopher, and a true Philosopher up to this day, as opposed 
to those 7fools* (as the Bible says) which call themselves 
7philosophers* and are sincerely interested in the cosmos and 
the origins of things, but cut themselves off from truth, 
goodness, and beauty by denying God and the Essential World. 
	Now, most professors in most Philosophy Faculties are 
themselves defying or denying God, so they will not respect 
such deep, penetrating, and clear thinking. This is true both East 
and West. Therefore, you must ask yourself: do you want to 
Really know the Truth; or do you want to just satisfy the 
professor and get through it as quick as possible? (I can see a 
justification for either approach). 
	7Sophists* were called those speakers and 7thinkers* who 
studied merely how to argue convincingly, without seeking 
Truth and Goodness. Just as today, those were the types that 
Socrates and Plato, the true philosophers of their day, had to 
deal with, and so do we. 
	I want you to know that Divine Principle is extremely 
philosophically sound, as is true Christian philosophy and 
theology. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Greek philosophy. 
True Parents are the fulfillment of both Hellenism and 
Hebraism; Christianity and science. Check it out: True Parents 
are philosophically True. 
	So, you will see that the True Human Being, and the True 
Family, stand right in the center and goal of the existence of the 
entire physical universe and the whole Cosmos, since the very 
moment of Creation, and also embracing the existence of the 
spiritual world and the Ideal World of Forms which Plato 
spoke of. 
	In psychology, it is said by some that 7The human being is 
the gestalt or essence of all forms in the world of perception, the 
irreducible atom of perception and consciousness.* 
 
	Now, to your question: 1. What is 7Ideal*? 
	Very good question. You must know the order of creation 
in order to properly answer that question. 
	The order of creation is: (1) God"s Heart, (2) God"s sung-
sang and hyung-sang, (3) God"s yang and yin, (4) Universal 
Prime Force immanent in God, (5) God"s overall Purpose, (6) 
The Ideal Realm, (7) God"s overall Plan or Providence, (8) 
God"s Logos (Principles), (9) God"s specific Logos (Forms or 
Images of Beings), (10) God"s specific Plan or developmental 
sequence, (11) Universal Prime Force or origin of matter and 
energy, (12) Universal Prime Force as directive energy, (13) 
actual creation, starting with (14) the Womb of Creation or the 
Cosmic Egg, leading to (15) 7The Big Bang*, (16) Hadron 
phase, (17) Quark phase, (18) Plasma phase, (19) Atomic 
phase, (20) Stars, (21) Supernovae, creating heavy elements, 
(22) Interstellar dust, (23) Secondary stars (like our Sun), (24) 
Planets, (25) Solid crust, (26) Oceans, (27) Continents, (28) 
Unicellular life, (29) Plants, (30) Single-celled animals with 
perception, (31) Invertebrates, (32) Fish, (33) Amphibians, (34) 
Reptiles, (35) Birds, (36) Mammals, (37) Monkeys and Apes, 
(38) Hominids, (39) Homo genus, (40) Adam and Eve. 
	Actually, this corresponds well with the Bible account in 
Genesis 1 and 2. So much is contained in the simple statement, 
7In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.* 
	There are more or less steps, and it is more or less detailed. 
You could also rearrange them. 
	But the main thing is that God made the plans before He 
created the physical world; this is radically different from 
evolution theory. It was all done according to purpose and plan. 
	The 7Ideal Realm* is the realm of God"s planning. 
However, it is not the Spiritual World. It is important to 
distinguish these three: Ideal Realm, Spiritual World, and Sung-
Sang. 
	Ideal Realm is within God"s mind. It is the drawing board, 
the imaginary space, within God"s mind, where reside His 
Principles (Divine Principle, logic, mathematical principles, and 
natural and social principles or laws), His Plans (providential 
sequence), and Individual Images (designs for species of living 
things, shapes and maps of stars, landforms, structures, etc.), 
and even Individual Images for individual people. 
	Spiritual World is a universe created by God, with 
dimensions of 7time* and 7space*, with many 7compartments*, 
and very flexible for all different manifestations. It is also called 
the Invisible Substantial World. 
	Sung-sang is not the spiritual world, though it is invisible. 
It is the invisible or vertical dimension or axis to physical 
things. Each Individual Truth Body has a corresponding Sung-
sang. Now, individual beings are composed of smaller 
Individual Truth Bodies, which also have Sung-sangs on a 
lower level. So there is a hierarchy of Sung-sangs, from greater 
to lesser -- from the whole vast physical universe, to humanity, 
to nations, cities, each family, each person, each organ, each 
living thing, each cell, each molecule, each atom, each particle. 
Sung-sang is not the spiritual world; but the spiritual world is 
relatively sung-sang, in relationship to the physical world. The 
spiritual world has its own sung-sang and hyung-sang, in good 
order, just like the physical world. 
	All we see physically is the external physical (hyung-sang) 
manifestations of things. However, not all hyung-sangs are 
visible (for example, air, energy, electricity, or the objects 
behind the door!). 
	However, scientists and regular people (even Marxists) all 
admit the existence of laws of nature and society. Those are not 
necessarily written somewhere. But they are already in the Ideal 
Realm. There is, right there, a proof of the existence of some 
form of Ideal Realm. Because, why are the laws of nature the 
same everywhere? Because there is a unifying principle. It is in 
the Ideal Realm, in the realm of God"s Logos. Nobody can 
explain the origin of the material world nor of the incredible 
order in the world, without ultimately referring to God or to the 
Ideal Realm. 
	The Ideal Realm is part of God"s Logos. 
	Whatever you contact within the Ideal Realm is wonderful 
and satisfying and real to you. You have a sense of 
transcendence, leading to something wonderfully more real than 
the physical reality we are living in. Love, beauty, goodness, 
truth -- all touch upon the Ideal Realm. It is there that such 
7ideals* dwell, and are found. 
	There is a principle of correspondence, analogy, or 
reflection between God, man, and the world. Namely, the 
structure and order of God is also found within man (in image), 
and within the natural world (symbolically). So, we can 
understand something about God also by examining the human 
mind and body, or nature in general. This principle can be 
pursued or investigated to great depth! 
	The question or issue of Idealism and Materialism touches 
upon evolution. Evolution as a theory denying the Ideal Realm 
is certainly wrong; however, physical and historical evolution, 
in light of God"s Plan, is most certainly correct. The origin, 
heart, and motivation is completely different. 
	Furthermore, knowing God and His Original Purpose and 
Ideal, then we realize there is right and wrong, there is good and 
bad, there is beautiful and ugly. Not all things are acceptable. 
Values are not relative but absolute and ultimate. Socrates and 
Plato were right; the Sophists, also Darwin, Freud, Marx, John 
Dewey, Masters and Johnson -- are somehow off-center. We 
can learn something from them, but we have to get back to God 
and the Ideal. 
	The physical reality is the one you see and touch. It is 
7real* to our physical senses and to scientific instruments. 
However, it is always changing. Some things are more eternal, 
like the orbits of the planets, or the shape of living things from 
generation to generation. But those things very directly reflect 
God"s eternal principles, found in laws of nature. 
	So, we tend to think the physical reality is the only real 
one. Yet, it is quickly changing and disappearing! We too will 
die and vanish, in this sense. 
	The more fundamental reality is in the Ideal Realm. 
Though all phenomena or manifestations disappear, the Ideal, 
the Principles, the values, the Heart of God -- never will. 
	So, which is 7reality*, from the Unificationist viewpoint? 
Actually, the answer to that is: both of them. Both the physical 
world and the Ideal Realm, and also the spiritual world -- that is 
reality. 
	What is 7reality*? God"s Heart, God"s nature, God"s 
personality, the Ideal Realm (or Ideals, Forms, Principles), the 
spiritual world with its countless beings and realms, and the 
vast physical world which is always changing -- all that is 
7reality*. Each realm has a different quality and purpose, but 
they all fit together. 
	What about 7Ideal* as some side of psyche or 
consciousness? Yes. God"s Ideals, or the structure of the 
existence of the Ideal Realm in relationship to both Heart and to 
the observed reality, exists within God, and is reflected in 
people. We are like God -- in His Image and Likeness. Read 
Unification Thought, first three chapters. 
	In man, the Ideal is very important and very central. We 
touch it in our dreams, our subconsciousness, and our intuition. 
It is not obvious or dominant in our waking daily life, but we 
must have contact with our own ideals, our personal Ideal 
Realm, which reflects God. If not, we become mentally sick, 
rootless, in an existential crisis. People without ideals are like 
the mafia, destroying human life and violating the conscience 
for the sake of money, sex, and power. 
	Human consciousness touches upon God. God is the root 
of all consciousness (the true, essential, ultimate human 
consciousness). In the ideal sense, the true human being is one 
with God. Then we see as God sees, think as God thinks, speak 
as God would speak. Then God hears and sees through our 
ears and eyes. Then when we love, our love is complete, and 
God enters our union and loves through and with us. Then our 
consciousness is God"s consciousness. 
	However, the fallen, false, or immature human being is not 
one with God, and his consciousness is not true or deep 
consciousness -- it is off-centered, personal, distorted, limited. 
Yet there is a trace of original consciousness. Otherwise we 
would be automatons, robots, animals, worse than animals, and 
truly dead, in the sense of the ideal consciousness. Such people 
who are only half-alive are all around us. More or less, in the 
case of all people. 
	What is perception? You will do very well to read the 
Unification Thought on 7Epistemology*. Perception has an 
order or sequence, like God"s creation. First there is physical or 
sensory input. Light, sound, temperature, chemicals -- impinge 
upon the cells of the sense organs. By the way, those organs 
and cells have their own sung-sang or consciousness at an 
elementary level. Then the signals are integrated and transmitted 
to a nerve center in the brain -- centers for vision, speech, smell, 
touch, etc. Then a sensation is generated and perceived there. 
That is 7perception*, which is already existing on the animal 
level. Then there is instinct, or instinctual response, which we 
all know, but in human beings it can almost always be 
overridden by the conscious mind. That is the reasoning faculty. 
That is the next level. Intellectually cognizing, 7Ah -- that is...* 
That is called cognition. Finally there is the deep reasoning -- 
deducing principles, meanings, conclusions, etc. That 
corresponds to the more fundamental Logos of God. Logos is 
based upon Heart within God, and within man, the root of our 
being is heart, love, or a kind of deep, long-term emotion. Read 
about this in Principle. So, perception is a multiple-stage 
process -- from hyung-sang to sung-sang, to Logos, and finally 
Heart. 
	We feel joy, satisfaction, and completeness, when we 
complete this process, and come back to true Ideals, the 
knowledge in the Ideal Realm, as Plato spoke of 7forms* and 
7ideals*, and, what Father revealed, about God"s Heart, which 
no one truly understood before except Jesus Christ. 
	So, there, my friends and brothers, is a complete 
discussion of Ideal from the Principle and Unificationist point 
of view. Thank you, and I wish you success and victory in your 
studies and your mission. Connect those things, and connect 
them with your life and your family in the future. 
	Please don"t hesitate to ask me more, unless you find my 
answers too long or tiresome! 
	By the way, the person who lives his or her life in 
accordance with his ideals, with True Ideals, which come from 
God, will go to the highest Heaven, and this I wish for you. 
 
Yours truly, William Stoertz, ITPN