Like Animals - Then

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W We live in historic times. Mankind is currently undertaking one of the great movements in its history:The liberation of our health from the yoke of a medicine driven by the „ business with disease“ . It is the liberation of our bodies and health towards natural medicine that prevents commercialism and eradicates diseases effectively without harmful side effects.Together we are writing history.

Once before in this millennium a similarly comprehensive liberation took place, the liberation of the human mind. 500 years ago, despite the relentless resistance of those in power at that time, millions of people in Europe achieved the right to read and write.The liberation of the human mind 500 years ago ended its century long slavery during medieval times and, at the same time, gave birth to modern times.

To understand the dimension of the changes that liberated humanity forever, I invite you to join me on a journey 500 years back in time. Come with me to a time when those in power kept millions of people poor and ignorant to the extent that they differ from their house pigs only by their ability to stand upright. This time travel is meant to be a historic eye opener, and is not intended to criticize any religion.

Millions Live in Poverty

II magine around you the live year somewhere in Europe 1500. Chances that you were born to a poor peasant are great because more than 80% of the people in Europe at that time were peasants. If you were lucky, you owned a tiny piece of land, but more likely you were the personal property of the landlord

Over 80% of the people in the Middle Ages lived as Peasants and personal property of their landlords, in total illiteracy and in great poverty.

who owned the land in your area. But you were not alone, most of your neighbors and contemporaries were the personal property of their landlords.Two thirds of whatever you earned went to the landlord.At least 10% of what you made was taken away by the church. What was left was too little to live on and too much to die on.

Most people in Europe ’ s villages died before they reached the age of 50.That one day the average life expectancy would reach 75 or 80 years is something you do not know. Life is hard. Of course, life as we know it today does not exist at that time. But you do not know that because day in and day out you are primarily concerned with nurturing your living children.Two of your children died at birth.The other 3 died before they reached their first birthday and you were told that God had called them to heaven.You did not know that they were killed by the polluted drinking water in the nearby pond that served also as a bathtub for the village because micro organisms and infectious diseases would be discovered centuries later.

Two of these three children died during the last winter, which was particularly long. In December their gums started to bleed and the bleeding increased with every piece of bread they chewed. In January your children ’ s skin became paler, almost whitish and they were too weak to stand up. By the end of January both of them were dead. But this was no exception, since your neighbors and the peasants in the nearby village shared the same fate. Most of the people actually died during the winter months, but this winter was particularly harsh.You do not know that this mega-death during wintertime is caused by scurvy and vitamin deficiency because this connection will not be discovered for centuries to come.

Like in this contemporary drawing by the medieval painter Albrecht Duerer, millions of peasants lived during the 16th century in poverty fighting a daily battle for survival.

Millions Are Illiterate

N N o of one the in the village children die asks why half before they reach the age of five, although some of the people suspect that it has to do with malnutrition. But, at second thought, everyone is happy when death finally takes the children away because it ends their suffering, and children were believed to go directly to heaven.After the sermon at the cemetery the priest at that time consoled you and promised you a reunion with your children in heaven.The condition for this reunion, of course, was that you continued your life in modesty, poverty and total submission to the rulers of the land and the church.Your sorrow is brief because the struggle for survival continues.

From sunrise to sunset you work in the field.Your wife and children are also helping because otherwise you can not pay the taxes to the landlord and the church.The ruler ’ s envoys who collect the taxes are without mercy.Those who do not pay are incarcerated. Many of your neighbors have lost everything they had to the landlord because the tiny piece of land they had just did not provide for the huge taxes claimed by the rulers.While they were sitting in prison their tiny piece of land and their hut were taken away. For the families of those incarcerated, this was a verdict of death.Those who were incapable to survive as beggars were dying. No one dared to protest because this was how things were to be. It was inconceivable to you, that the landlord was intentionally rising the taxes in order to drive the peasants into bankruptcy and thereby acquire their land.

Life is a burden. But this is how God has designed it said the church at that time. They also tell you, that it is written in the Word of God that it is easier for a camel to walk trough a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.You think, if this is so, it is better that I do not own any property.After all you would like to go to heaven at all costs.According to the church at the time, heaven is a land where milk and honey flows in rivers. This is where you want to go when you die. No price is to high and no burden to heavy in order to reach this goal.

Every night you lie down on the straw sack beside your wife and mumble to yourself: another day less on the stony path to paradise.The thought, that your poverty does not please God but solely the rulers of the land and the church has never crossed your mind. For this thought to occur, you would have to question everything you have ever heard and learned from those placed above you by destiny.

Your Illiteracy Is Intended By Those in Power

Y Y ou the also do wish of not know God that that you it is are i not lliterate and can not read and write. The rulers of the land and the church are telling you that it is only the simple-

minded person who will go to heaven. The thought that knowledge is power has never crossed your mind and you have never conceived that your illiteracy is a precondition for the injustice and the excessive greed and wealth of the rulers.

Your entire life you could neither read nor write.There are no schools and your parents and grandparents were all illiterates.The ability to read and write is considered an art and is one of the best-kept secrets at that time.You never thought of lifting this secret. Only a small and chosen worldly and clerical cast knows the art to read and write. Among them the priest in the village. God can understand your wishes and thoughts.This is why at least once a week you go to confession, an audience with God with a Latin translator.

The greatness and power of God is reflected in the church building, the only building in the village made of solid stone.The windows are made of colored glass, a material that does not exist anywhere nearby.

Many years ago you undertook a pilgrimage to the magnificent dome in Cologne which was already 200 years old by that time.You were numbed with adoration and reverence.You would never have thought it possible that god is so power-

The only information you get is from other peasants in the village where you go to mass every morning. During mass you do not understand anything because the priest speaks for one hour in Latin, supposedly the language of God.The priest also reads the Word of God from the bible, which, of course, is written in the Latin language. Likewise, the priest’ s prayer is also in Latin, the only language that God understands, according to the priest.

The church at that time tells you that it is in vain to even attempt to pray, because God does not understand German, English, French or any other language spoken by common people at that time. If you want to talk to God, you need a translator, a priest who speaks Latin.According to the church at that time, this is the only way, that The dome in Cologne, constructed from 1248 to 1322, was a symbol of medieval power of the Roman Church in Germany.

Indulgence letter issued in Rome on August 31, 1492, the year Columbus reached America. Only the name of the buyer had to be added.This indulgence letter secured the absolution from any sins for a limited time only: Exactly 100 days.

ful that he can construct such a magnificent building. Making your way amidst the beggars, you reached the interior of the dome of Cologne.With deep reverence you admired the gigantic architecture and the golden statues. It has now been 20 years since you undertook this pilgrimage but there was not a single day when you did not clearly recall the greatness and splendor of this magnificent building.

Yet, even this impressive dome in Cologne is not the largest building of God. Somewhere far away behind the Alps, the huge mountains in the south, lives the direct representative of God on earth. Rome, the city he lives in, is supposedly built of gold and jewels. He reigns over the entire earth and, in addition, possesses the keys to heaven.The church at that time tells you that this man decides whether on judgment day you go to heaven, to purgatory or directly to hell. Of course, you don ’t dare to question this dogma, because that would be a sin.And sinners are sure to be turned back from the gates of heaven and sent to hell or eternal damnation.

The stony way to paradise

O O ne thing i presence s cl on ear ear to th you: If has to your be a burden, you want to look forward to the heavenly paradise.The last thing you want is to live through hell on earth and then in eternity.The desired places in heaven are commercially available, but t a price.Again and again the indulgence traders, envoys of the roman church at that time, come into the village and preach that “ only if the Taler (a precursor of the dollar) clangs in the chest, the soul will spring out of purgatory ” . More recently you can also buy indulgences in order to liberate your

deceased ancestors from purgatory – everything has its price.

Whenever the indulgence trader sells the indulgence letters in the village market place, you are close to tears. Once again you don ’t know what you should use your last pennies for that you saved after paying the heavy taxes to the landlord and the church. Should you use these pennies to buy food for your children or to secure the entrance of your soul to heaven or to liberate your ancestors from purgatory?

A simple monk ends the dark Middle Ages

B B ut then something unheard occurred.The event was so of powerful that it brought down the entire card house made up of lies dulling people ’ s minds and permitting premature death of millions of people caused by unbearable poverty.This event was so fundamental that it terminated the dark Middle Ages with one strike and determined the course of human events until today.

On October 31, 1517 a young monk Martin Luther nailed his theses to the castled church of Wittenberg in Medieval Germany. Luther ’ s message was simple and clear: Neither the pope in Rome nor the roman Church owns the key to heaven, nor can indulgence traders sell it.The key to heaven, said the young monk, is within yourself – or not. Two weeks after these theses were made public everything was quiet. But it was the silence before the storm.Then the storm of liberation from the dark Middle Ages began to blow across Europe. Millions of people realized that they and their ancestors had been kept stupid in ignorance and poverty – like animals – and served only one purpose: the excessive enrichment of the church and the nobility.

The stormy wind of the liberation of the human mind was soon blowing all over Europe and brought down the existing

The castle church in Wittenberg. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther hammered his theses against the indulgence trade to the door of this church.

On April 19, 1521 Martin Luther refuses to recant his teachings under heavy pressure from the emperor and the pontifical legates.This day became the turning point from the Middle Ages to Modern Time, one of the decisive days of the second millennium. systems of the world. In April 1521, only four years later, Luther was called in front of the Emperors Diet in the city of Worms. In the presence of Emperor Charles V and the pontifical legates, he was pressured to recant in order to stabilize the antiquated order of things. Luther did not recant, and consequently, was banished by the Emperor and the Pope. He was branded an outlaw who can be killed by anyone without fear of punishment.

Luther made good use of time during his banishment. In the Wartburg castle he translated the bible from the antiquated Latin language into the common German language.With the help of the book printing technology that had just been

One of the first printed copies of the Luther bible in the German language from 1524. Bible translations into English, French, Dutch and many other languages follow.With their help, millions of people in Europe learned to read and write.

During the 16th century the illiteracy rate in Europe dropped from 80% to 20%.

invented, over 100.000 copies of this popular bible could now be printed in the spoken language.

Liberation from illiteracy

II magine written that you acquire such in colloquial German, a bible English, French, Dutch, Spanish or any other European language. In the evening you sit in your medieval hut and with the help of candlelight you start to read the Word of God all by yourself. First it is a very slow process, but then you literally devour the pages.

Pictures in the form of current woodcuts illustrate the texts and help you to learn and understand.Together with millions of other disenfranchised peasants you realize that God understands the German language as well any other spoken language.You suddenly discover what had thus far been inconceivable for you, that you can talk to God in your own language, even your dialect.You can suddenly pray to him without an interpreter and, best of all, you know He under-

Colored woodcuts, here from Lucas Cranach, the chronicler of Luther ’ s time illustrated the first printed bibles. These illustrations accelerate the process of learning to read and write for the common people.

stands you. Suddenly, it becomes clear to you that the Latin language was a lie and a deception by which the spiritual and secular authorities kept the people of the earth poor and ignorant – like animals.You understand, that this deliberate illiteracy and poverty had one purpose: to maintain the excessive power and wealth of the rulers of the world and the church at that time.

More importantly, the newly acquired ability to read and write can not only be used vertically from earth to heaven to communicate with God it also enables you to communicate horizontally with your fellow country men through letters and written texts – even over long distances. Suddenly, you can participate in daily life. Imagine the undreamed of perspectives suddenly opening up to you. Every minute of your day is now filled with the unrestricted feeling of liberation from a century old yoke of poverty and illiteracy.

The rulers of the land and the church react immediately.The first bibles printed in the spoken languages were banished and its printers prosecuted. The rulers know knowledge is power! And they were unwilling to share their knowledge and their power with their subordinates. But millions of people at that time no longer asked for permission of the rulers.They simply took the right to learn the art of reading and writing and no prohibition could prevent this huge literacy campaign organized by the people themselves. In the course of only one century the illiteracy rate in Europe dropped from 80% to20%. The liberation of the human mind became irreversible.

From a historic perspective the narrowminded role of the nobility was remarkable. No one benefited more from the dissociation from Roman dominance than the European nobility, who had to pay huge taxes to Rome.Their support of Luther would have saved the European earls and dukes millions in church taxes. Of the few dukes who dared to support Luther openly, most notable was Fredrick the Sage, from Saxony.

Duke Frederick the Sage of Saxony (1486 - 1525) supported Luther and the new Age, among others, because he no longer had to pay heavy taxes to the Roman Church.

The invention of book printing was the decisive technological advance without which the liberation from illiteracy could not have been accomplished.

The decisive breakthrough for Luther came not from the nobility, but from millions of people. But equally important was a new invention: Johann Gutenberg had developed the technique of book printing. From then on books no longer had to be copied by hand, so100 copies or even 1000 copies could be produced at one time.

The combination of Luther ’ s teaching of the liberation of the human mind with the possibility to multiply and disseminate this information through printed media changed the course of history. This liberation also had direct economic consequences.The money saved by no longer having to pay indulgences and by the dissolution of monasteries and abbeys could now be used for immediate and urgent social needs.The “ common chest” of the city of Wittenberg was established at that time in order to help the poor and needy citizens.The money that became available to develop trade and commerce was, of course, many times greater.

The “ common chest” of the city of Wittenberg.Abolishing the indulgence trade set free considerable amounts of money which now could be used to support the poor, old and sick in the town.The first social benefit program had been created.