Civilization #18: The Great Pyramid as Ancient Egypt's Manhattan Project

So this would be a fun class today. We are doing the Great Pyramid. Okay, so the Great Pyramid was built about 2500 BCE, that's 4500 years ago, by a pharaoh named Curfew and it was one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world. It's the only one that's still standing. From 2500 until 1400 CE, which is about 4,000 years, it was the tallest man -made building in the world. Okay? Great Pyramid, the direction is true north, meaning you can actually use the pyramids as a compass to tell the direction. Let's look at the architecture of the Great Pyramid. So the center is something called the King's Chamber. That's where the King's mummy rests in the sarcophagus. There's a grand gallery that gives you access to the King's Chamber and then a slope and then it's a pyramid structure and on the top of the pyramid is what is called the Ben -Ben or the, uh, the Pyrrhonion, okay, the Pyrrhonion, okay?

And it is extremely significant culturally and religiously in Egypt because in Egyptian mythology, the religion, the creator god, Atum, he's known as Atum, he's also known as Ra, the sun god, first came into existence on the Benben. So imagine a large, dark ocean, and there's nothing, and then suddenly emerges a mound, okay, called a Benben, and that's where comes the creator god, Atum, or Ra. Okay, that's one legend. The other legend is from the dark ocean of space comes down a Benben, and on top of it rests Atum, okay? So this idea of the Pyrrhonion, the Benben, it is central. To the idea of creation in Egyptian mythology. So this is an extremely powerful and beautiful monument to Egyptian culture. Architecturally, Napoleon, who visited the Great Pyramid, he calculated that if you took all the stones from the Great Pyramid, you could actually build a wall around the perimeter of France.

There's more material in the Great Pyramid, except for two. The first structure is the Great Wall of China. There's more stone in the Great Wall of China, okay? And there's more stone, there's more material in the Three Gorges Dam, also in China, okay? And it took about 26 years to build this pyramid. So today, in today's class, I'm going to look at three questions. The first question is, how did they build this? Because it's still with us today. You can actually go to Egypt, and visit Egypt, and visit the Great Pyramid. Second question is, why did they build this? What was the purpose? And the third question is, why did they stop building the pyramids? Okay, so those are the three questions we're looking at today. How was it built? Why was it built? And why did the Egyptians stop building the pyramids? So, how it was built is an extremely controversial question that has plagued historians and Egyptologists, and archaeologists for hundreds of years, okay?

And originally, a Greek historian, Herodotus, proposed the idea the pyramid was built in steps, okay? So it was first a step pyramid, and then using pulleys, they pulled the stones up, okay? And it was the accepted idea for the longest time, because there was no better idea. But architecturally, that has been disproven, okay? It can't work that way. Then, about ten years ago, there was a French architect named Jean -Pierre Houdin, okay? H -O -U -D -I -N, Houdin. And he's an architect. He's never been to Egypt, doesn't speak Arabic, never studied Egypt. But his father and him were very interested in how the Great Pyramid was constructed. So he came up with this theory. And they've run computer simulations and discovered this to be true. There's also a lot of physical evidence to suggest this theory is true, okay?

So this is how they built the Great Pyramid. What they did was they first constructed an external ramp in order to build the base, okay? So you now have the base. And then from the base, what they did was they built two structures, okay? And this is what they call counterweights, okay? So these counterweights are like pulleys, which allows them to pull the stones up to up high, okay? And then surrounding these two structures is what they call an eternal spiral ramp, okay? To carry the stones up. And so what they did was they basically built the pyramids from the inside out. And then once they built the structure, they covered it up with limestone so that it reflects in the sun, okay? If you actually were living back then and you saw the pyramids from a distance, you would think it was the star that has come down on the planet Earth, okay?

So that's how they built the pyramid. But then this raises another interesting question, is how they come up with this plan, and how were they able to do this without blueprints and without basically writing or modern engineering techniques? And the answer is, if you think about it, what they did was they built a model right beside the pyramid, which allowed them to figure out how to build the larger pyramid, okay? But it's still believed this was not possible because they believe that Egyptians didn't have the intellectual capacity to imagine this to be true, okay? And I'll show you later on that they actually did, that we underestimate their imagination and their intellectual capacity, right? So that answers the first question pretty easily, how was it built? A more controversial question is, why was it built? And for the longest time, the accepted theory is this was a tomb, okay? A tomb. The reason why is Egyptians believed in the afterlife.

And so the theory is, this pyramid is designed to ease the Pharaoh's transition into the heavens where he would become a star or a sun. And so the common phrase is, this is almost a resurrection machine where the Pharaoh goes up to the sky and then after a few centuries, he reincarnates inside the pyramid. And the structure is meant to accomplish this. And again, this is the generally accepted theory today. But there are three major problems with this theory, which basically makes it, which basically discounts it, okay? The first major problem is, there are about a hundred pyramids in Egypt, okay? A hundred or more, we don't know, okay? We have not found a mummy or a body inside any sarcophagus inside the pyramids. So this is a problem. If this is a tomb, why is there no body? We can't find the body, okay? So that's one problem. Second problem is this.

For this to be a tomb, this implies that the Pharaoh, because the Pharaohs are divine, right? They are basically the emanation of God on earth. This means that when they come to the planet Earth, and they become the Pharaoh, their priority is to build their own tomb, right? Does that make any sense? They come to earth and they're like, okay, well, I'm gonna die, so I wanna get out of here as soon as possible, so let's build that tomb, right? Now, the problem is that this would imply that the Pharaoh sees the Egyptian people as his slaves, right? You exist in order for me to live. And so, but the problem is that in Egyptian mythology, gods are considered benefactors of the human race, okay? So for example, Atum -Ra, he is the one who gave life to the world, but then his son, his descendant Osiris, another god, gave civilization to Egypt.

And then Horus, the son of Osiris, gave the institution of kingship to Egypt. Okay, so these gods come to earth in order to, to help the human race develop in some capacity. So it doesn't make any sense that the Pharaoh's primary purpose when he's on earth is to create a tomb because that's a very selfish reason, okay? Does that make sense? And the third problem with this is just pure logic. If you're a Pharaoh and your primary concern is the afterlife, resurrecting yourself, and the pyramid is a primary means of accomplishing this, and it takes about 26 years or 30 years to build a pyramid, how can you be sure that you won't die before the pyramid is built? Right? That's a problem, okay? So these are three logical problems. But again, Egyptologists insist that it is a tomb, okay? Primarily because of the way that Egyptians understand the afterlife, okay?

So here's some evidence to suggest it is a tomb. This is considered a writing of a Pharaoh to his son about what the pyramid represents. So this is what he says. Make your grave well furnished and prepare thy place in the West. The West is where they go off to die. Look, death counts little for us. We can conquer death. Look, life is valued highly by us. We want to become immortal. The house of the dead, meaning the tomb, is for life, okay? So the pyramid is what will make us immortal, all right? So this is, again, highly debated today. So logically speaking, it doesn't make sense that the pyramids are a tomb, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest it is a tomb. And because of this debate, different theories have been proposed as to the purpose of the pyramid. And there are lots of really strange theories out there, okay? Lots of really strange theories. One

really interesting theory was proposed by a man named Nikola Tesla, the founder, the creator of electricity, basically. And his idea was this. He studied the architecture of the pyramid, and he proposed the pyramid was a battery system, okay? In order to create free, sorry, to create free, clean energy. And the theory is this, okay? The theory is, first of all, if you look at the king's chamber, the sound frequency in it is F sharp. And F sharp is also the frequency of planet Earth, okay? So it seems like the pyramid is attuned to the planet Earth. Second of all, if you look at where the pyramids are geographically, it's true north, okay? It's put in a place that matches, the directions of the Earth. And so the theory is, the direction of the pyramid is capturing the energy from the electromagnetic field that the Earth generates, okay? And the third explanation is, inside the pyramid are granite stones, and outside are limestones.

And this is a perfect way to trap and store energy, okay? So think of a solar panel, where the sun and the moon reflects light onto the pyramids, and this energy is stored inside the pyramid, okay? And so this is a great theory. And again, there are lots of people who believe in this, because this is actually much more plausible than the tomb theory. But the problem with this, of course, is it doesn't work scientifically. And also you have the question of, if they produce all this free, clean energy, what are they using it for, okay? So this leads us with a big question. Why did they build the Great Pyramid? And today I want to propose to you another solution, okay? The solution is this. My belief is the Great Pyramid was designed as Egypt's Manhattan Project, okay? The Manhattan Project, as you know, was a World War II project in order to build the nuclear bomb.

And you can argue nuclear bomb is humanity's greatest invention ever. It took about 130,000 people over five to six years working in the United States, in Canada, in UK, and these are the best scientists in the world at this time, okay? Working collectively in order to create the nuclear bomb. And you can also make the argument that there are many working on the project who believe the Manhattan Project was about bringing peace to Earth, eternal peace. It was ultimately about mastering the secrets of the universe, channeling the power of God in order to create eternal peace, to bring God on Earth. And you can also argue that because we've had no major war after World War II, fingers crossed, they were right, okay? So that's my argument to you. The Egyptians conceptualized and created the Great Pyramid in order to harness the power of

God in order to create eternal peace on Earth, to bring an end to history, to bring an end to pain, suffering, and death, okay? So before I provide the evidence, let me explain this theory in general, okay? And again, this is my theory. It's speculation, it's imagination, but I think it makes sense, okay? So let me explain the theory to you. The trick is the body of the Pharaoh, the mummy, okay? Now, if the Pharaoh was divine, and the Jews believed he was divine, then after his death, the body would be sacred and divine, right? But knowing that, if you think about it, after the Pharaoh dies, he would ascend to the heavens and become a star or a sun, right? The body then becomes a portal or a mechanism for you to communicate with the Pharaoh while he's in the heavens. You could also argue the body, the mummy, could be a mechanism for you to channel the Pharaoh's powers on Earth, okay?

So imagine this. You have the sarcophagus. The mummy is inside, okay? Okay, and then you have the grand gallery. And inside the grand gallery what are people doing? They are there praying and worshiping the Pharaoh, which then draws the energy from the stars onto the Earth. And then, because of the limestone, this energy is reflected across Egypt. So the entire nation can bask in the divine energy of the Pharaoh, okay? So Nikola Tesla said that this was a battery in order to channel free, clean energy to power Egypt. Well, what if you change this to divine energy instead? The pyramid was a battery to channel divine energy in order to power Egypt, right? Now let me discuss if you are a worshipper in the grand gallery, what are you experiencing, okay? Well, first of all, you're experiencing the collision, the nexus of life and death, right?

Because the Pharaoh, he's dead, but he's still alive for your faith. Even though you're mortal, you are now communication with God, okay? So this is a nexus of life and death. This grand channel, sorry, this grand gallery, if you actually have such a visit, it in Egypt, okay, you'll recognize that this almost looks like a womb, okay? All right? So it's almost like you're inside a dark space that's taking you back to the point of your birth, right? But it's also, you can also be seen as a tomb, a place where you're being buried. So this is also like another collision or conflation or nexus of being born and dying. If you were outside and you just saw the pyramid, again, you would think of it as a star that has landed on earth, right? So this is a conflation, a nexus of heaven and earth. It's a collision, a nexus of myth and reality.

You can also make the argument that through divine worship, what you're really doing is you're reversing the great bang, sorry, the big bang. You're reversing the big bang. You bring it into this one space, and you are creating oneness, wholeness, and completeness. You have achieved the union and the unity of all things through your faith in the Pharaoh, which gives you divine energy to be born anew, cleanse of your sins, and to cleanse others of their sins to create a moral Egypt, okay? Does that make sense? All right, so that's the theory. So now let me explain the idea of eternal peace. Why would the pyramid create the idea of eternal peace? Well, the first reason is even though Egypt was an empire, a dynasty at this point, it was still divided culturally, okay? There were at least four different cultures scattered around Egypt, and they all had their own mythologies. They had their own religious practices.

They had their own faiths, right? So the point of this pyramid was to unite all these faiths into one singular object in the worship of the Pharaoh. If you were an Egyptian citizen, if you were in Egypt, and you looked at the pyramid, you could not help but think, this is God on earth. Okay? This centers your faith, and it forces your obedience and your submission to a higher authority, which is the Pharaoh, okay? That's the first reason, unity. Second is the idea of awe. So let's just say you're a powerful army, and you're an enemy, and you want to conquer Egypt. Well, you send your scouts to Egypt, and they see the pyramids, right? The Great Pyramid. What are they seeing? They're seeing God on earth, okay? So you're not going to attack God on earth. You're going to run away. So it creates a sense of awe around the world, right?

The last thing is the domination of nature. So through divine inspiration, Egyptians are able to summon the Great Pyramid, and it shows God's ability to control nature. Why is this important? Because a source of Egyptian wealth and power is the Nile River. Okay? The Nile River. And basically, it's the Nile River that has made Egypt the wealthiest country in the world for thousands of years, okay? So the thing about the Nile is if it's in a good mood, you live a very good life, because the Nile just floods, just floods the banks and leaves this rich soil, and then you just throw some seeds in it, and then you can grow all these crops very easily, okay? It's a very easy life, and you can become very wealthy that way. So if it's in a good mood, then you are a very happy person. But if it's in a bad mood, okay, for example, it doesn't flood, or it floods too much, you could die of salvation or of drowning, okay?

So it's very important for you to be able to control the moods of the gods, and that's what the pyramid is meant to do. The Egyptian word for Egypt is kemet, which basically means black earth. So the source of all life, in Egypt, is the soil, right? The black earth. And that's, okay? So let's go back to this quotation, and now we can actually understand it in a different way, right? Make your grave well furnished and prepare thy place in the west. That's fine. Now, look, death counts little for us. We're gods, we're pharaohs. We will never die, so we don't worry about death. We don't have to worry about dying. Okay? Look, life is valued highly by us. What is life? Life, our humans, the Egyptian people. Our concern as pharaohs is for the well -being of the Egyptian people.

So that's our primary responsibility, okay? The house of the dead, the pyramid, is for life. The pyramid is our legacy to the Egyptian people. It is our benevolence. It is our generosity. It is how we will make Egypt eternal and stable and prosperous, okay? So that's my theory of what the pyramid is. It is really the Manhattan Project, an attempt by the pharaohs to bring eternal peace. Okay, any questions about this idea before I elaborate on it and present the evidence for it? Any questions about this? You guys don't find this controversial? Are you confused by anything? Do you want to challenge me before I present the evidence? Okay, all right. So let me start presenting the evidence, okay? So the first piece of evidence is, again, Egyptian mythology, all right? So in Egyptian mythology, and it's very different from other mythologies we'll study in the future, like that of Mesopotamia, the gods give everything to the people, okay?

The people don't really do anything special. Ra gives life, Osiris gives civilization, Horus provides the kingship, okay? So the Egyptian understanding of the relationship with the gods is basically if they worship the gods well enough, the gods will always reward them, okay? So the idea that the gods will make the people build tombs doesn't really make any sense, okay? It makes more sense the pharaoh, the pharaoh is helping the Egyptians achieve eternal peace by inspiring them to build the pyramid, okay? The second thing is the architectural quality of the pyramid. Now, there is a misconception, a myth, that pyramids were built by slaves. They just had slaves, they used slaves, but they never used slaves for religious purposes. Right? Because slaves, you can't really trust slaves. So it was tens of thousands of laborers who built the pyramid together. And it's a complete mystery to people how they're able to achieve such a miraculous building, okay?

And so the answer is this. Let's think about for the past thousand years. The most impressive buildings in the world are usually churches. Churches, temples, mosques, right? So that just demonstrates the power of religious devotion in the act of creation. So if the Egyptians saw the pyramids as the ultimate temple, as bringing God on earth, you can imagine every one of them would work very hard in order to do their best. Does that make sense? Okay? The third is the idea of the cult of the skull. So around this time and throughout the world, people practiced ancestor worship. So the way they did that usually is maybe they have an ancestor who was well regarded, okay? They would keep a skull around. They would decorate it with clay and ochre, and they would use this skull as maybe a portal into the outer world, into the spirit world in order to draw inspiration, to draw good luck from this, okay?

So the idea that they would use the Pharaoh's body as a portal into the heavens is a very, would be a very common idea at that time. All right? And then you have cave paintings. So remember way back, way early in the semester, we looked at Ice Age cave paintings. Inside, so these paintings inside caves. And we discussed these paintings were a means of religious worship, of bringing the spirit world into our world, connecting the two, okay? In order to celebrate life and hunting. Okay? Then you have a place like Gopalapetample, which is considered one of the earliest temples. Okay? Remember it is a religious monument on top of a hill. Okay? Which would be also another way for you to connect our world with the heavens. And for your worship, draw divine energy from the heavens. So this, in other words, there's a pattern of humans trying to connect the spirit world with our world through religious worship.

And the pyramid represents the ultimate temple. Okay? Does that make sense? So the pyramid is a continuation of this sort of religious devotion and worship and religious practice. Okay? All right. Okay. Any questions before I move on? Okay. So now the last question is, why did they stop in the pyramid? And there's a very good reason why they stopped in the pyramid. Because remember, this pyramid was about creating eternal peace, pleasing the gods, unifying the world. Right? That's a theory. The problem is this theory doesn't work because in about 2200 BCE, the 4.2, 4.2 kilo year event happened. Okay? Think of this as a mini ice age where for about 100 years there's a drought in Egypt. Well, that's a problem, right? Because the entire point of the pyramid, why people sacrificed themselves so hard to work on the pyramid was to prevent a drought in Egypt.

Right? It was to control the Nile. And they failed. So this creates, first of all, a crisis of faith. Okay? A crisis of faith. Many now are forced to reject their faith in the Pharaoh. And now you see the rise of the priesthood. Okay? And other gods as well. So the first major reason why they stopped building the pyramids is a crisis of faith. Second problem is in order to build the pyramids, you need a pyramid economy. Okay? A pyramid economy. And what the pyramid economy represents is centralized planning, right? Centralization. The Pharaoh and his palace are able to coordinate all the resources of the state in order to create the pyramids. We know that when you have a centralization, you have three problems. The first is inequality. So if you're part of this planned economy, you do very well for yourself. Okay?

But if you're not, then you become poor. Okay? So inequality is a huge issue. But you also have a problem of corruption, where people in the system, they want to steal. Because it's just easier to do. Okay? And the third problem is just waste. It's not very efficient. So basically a pyramid, a pyramid economy is just a complete waste of resources. All right? And the third problem is this. Okay? And this is actually a much more... Okay? This is a huge problem. Okay? This idea of a nihilistic religious belief. What this religious saying is, life doesn't matter. It's death that matters. It's death that allows us to be like God, to be eternal. Right? And in order to ensure our ascent into Godhood, one, we have to be close to the Pharaoh. Okay? We have to be loyal to the Pharaoh. But two, we have to ensure we obtain a lot of wealth in our life. Okay?

So basically what Egypt was doing during the pyramid economy was taking all its grain, all its resources, and then selling it overseas in order to bring back precious metals that they could put in their graves so that they could take these precious metals, gold, jewelry, into the afterlife with them. Okay? So basically they were just taking all this tremendous wealth of Egypt, almost unlimited wealth of Egypt, and just squandering it, gambling it away, basically, in the promise of an eternal afterlife. And they really didn't care about the here and now. They didn't care about building a great nation. They really weren't concerned about ensuring everyone was well off and prosperous and happy in a nation. Okay? So you had an elite who was concerned about abusing the power in order to steal as much money as possible in order to ensure a good afterlife. Okay? And this is the three major reasons why they stopped building the pyramids.

Okay? One, because it's a Christ of faith. It doesn't really work. Second is the centralization creates inequality, corruption, and waste. And third is religious belief can only lead to the corruption of the state and tyranny. Okay? So I answered those three questions. Any questions before I continue?

Okay? All right.

So yeah, that's a great point. Okay? So you're actually right. Even though they stopped building pyramids, this civilization would go on for another 2,000 years. And it was still, for the majority of that, a very prosperous, stable nation. That was basically the hegemon of the Western world. Okay? So this is the Old Kingdom. That's what they... The Old Kingdom focused on building the pyramids, but the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom would also have a lot of glory as well. So I don't mean to denigrate the society. Okay? I'm just pointing out some logical flaws in the society that will lead to their eventual decay. Because even though the Old Kingdom will collapse, the society is very resilient. So as I said, the Old Kingdom will be replaced by the Middle Kingdom after a large civil war. Also, they will make changes to society that will make society much more stable. And the major change

is to take all the centralized powers of the pharaoh and then devolve it into the priesthood and creating a priest bureaucracy. Okay? Which is very much like the Confucian bureaucracy in China. And they will also start importing new ideas from overseas. So I apologize if I'm implying that this is the end of Egypt. It's not. After the Old Kingdom, after they stopped building the pyramids, you will have a new flourishing of creativity and innovation in Egypt. But they stopped perceiving the pyramids as the end on beyond. And the point I'm trying to make is, during the Old Kingdom, they did perceive the pyramid as the Manhattan Project. They really thought, if we build this thing, then there will be eternal peace. And you can also make the argument that the Israelites in the Bible make fun of them because there's the Tower of Babel story, right? The Tower of Babel story where the humans are erroringly trying to build a tower up to heaven to be with God, right?

And you can argue that that's what the pyramid is. And God laughs at them and mocks them. And they never succeed. And then God punishes them by making them speak different languages, okay? All right?

Sure.

Okay. So this is a great question, okay? What do the Egyptians remember about the Great Pyramid? So Herodotus was running about 400 BCE, okay? And this is about 2,000 years after the Great Pyramid. And Herodotus travels around Egypt, and he's basically a historian. He's a journalist. He wants to know how they built the Great Pyramid. And what he discovers is the Egyptians don't know. Not only do they not know, but they don't even know how to rebuild one, okay? If you ask the Egyptians in 400 BCE, can you build a pyramid, they've lost their expertise, okay? And so let me elaborate on this. When I talk about the pyramid economy, I'm talking about three things. I'm talking about specialization, right? Just massive specialization, including how to carve granite, how to move granite, how to do measurements, okay? You have specialization going on. Then you have something called institutionalization, which is basically creating a memory of this knowledge.

And you do that by passing this knowledge to your sons and your grandsons and to maybe in a guild or workshop, okay? And then you also have systemization, which is to say you have to bring all these pieces together, okay? So the pyramid economy, was extremely complex because you needed all three things to happen at the same time. Specialization, institutionalization, and systemization. You can also argue the man who created this system, the pyramid economy, his name was Imhotep, okay? And he's revered in Egypt as a divine figure, okay? I mean, he was a basically grand vizier to the pharaoh. He was royalty, but he was a man. But he was able to contribute so much to Egypt that they deified him basically, okay? And you can argue like his major contribution was in creating this pyramid economy that are all three elements, specialization, institutionalization, and systemization, okay? Because it's actually very hard to put the pieces together.

You need writing, a writing system. You need a financial system. You need a lot of elements, okay? I'm making this sound a lot easier than it really is, okay? So that's the first thing. Very complex. Second thing is, remember, for the Egyptians and for the pharaoh, the pyramids represented God and Earth, right? So there has to be mystery and secrecy around the building of the pyramid, right? So as I said, what makes the most sense is for them to build these models around the pyramid so that these working teams would know where to go at what time, okay? But after they build the pyramids, it would make sense for them to destroy all records in order to maintain a sense of divinity and inspiration, right? They're trying to create awe and fear and inspiration, so they would not want for people to know how to build the pyramids. They would think this has to be a gift from God, from the pharaoh.

Does that make sense? Okay, but that's a great question. Thanks. Okay, any more questions before I move on? Okay, that's a great question. Where was the mummy of the pharaoh? Okay, so in this theory, you have to understand what matters is not the pyramid. What matters is the body, the pharaoh, right? Because it's the pharaoh's body that's sacred in the vine. So if it's sacred in the vine, then you need a priesthood, a cult of the pharaoh to secure and take care of the body, okay? Does that make sense? So in other words, there has to be a team taking care of the pharaoh's body, the mummy. And that ensures, first and foremost, its safety, okay? So the Great Pyramid was part of a complex called the Giza Complex. So there are actually two other pyramids. And then around the pyramids are these tombs of people who worked for the pharaoh but who were not the vine, okay?

And you can make the argument what they're trying to do is create a constellation, right? Because when you look at the sky, stars don't travel by themselves, they travel in constellations. So it makes sense for the son and the grandson to be buried alongside curfew but as lesser deities, as lesser pyramids to show the Egyptian people the harmony, balance, and order of the system, okay? And what's great about the system is it ensures loyalty of people working for the pharaoh because if you're loyal, you're granted a tomb around the pharaoh which guarantees your ascension into the eternal afterlife. So you can be eternally with the pharaoh, okay? So this is a system of morality basically, right? So this is fine because there's lots of protections for the pharaoh, right? He's surrounded by many different systems. But when the system was

breaking down, it was clear that Egypt was, um, breaking into civil war, then the cult of the pharaoh had a responsibility to take the body and place it somewhere that no one could find it, right? Because again, what matters in this system is not the pyramid, what matters is the body. The body is what gives the pyramids energy and power. So they have to protect that body at all costs. So the reason why we can't find the body is they made sure we could not find the body, right? Because the body is the mechanism, the portal by which the pharaoh will resurrect himself. If we have that, then we control the pharaoh. We control God, okay? Does that make sense? So they must have a secret caves or places where they put these bodies. And the purpose is to ensure they can never be found. Okay, so great question. Thank you. Any more questions before I finish the class?

Okay. So what's inside the pyramid? So first of all, the pyramids have been around for about 4 ,500 years. And tomb raiding was a huge problem, right? So what's actually in the pyramids we can't be sure about, right? Because of time, because of tomb raiding, okay? We didn't find that much inside the pyramid. Okay? There were no pictures, artwork. There were very few hieroglyphics inside the Great Pyramid. There were hieroglyphics and paintings in other pyramids, okay? But inside the Great Pyramid, we haven't found that much, which I think gives even more credence to my theory that this was meant to be a temple of worship, okay? And this is also why people believe it's a tomb, because there's so few artwork. If it were a temple instead, you would imagine there would be a lot of artwork. Okay? Any more questions before I finish the class? Are you guys clear so far?

All right. So I want to finish the class with a different question, which is why is it that my interpretation is so radically different from the mainstream academic interpretation, okay? And I want to propose the way that our minds work today are radically different from the way that the minds of people like the Egyptians worked, okay? For three reasons. Today, the Egyptian people had a pre -literate mind. They also had a pre -science mind, also pre -capitalistic. So let me explain. Pre -literate is very simple. It just means they didn't read and write. They just spoke. And we are taught the literate mind is more powerful than the oral mind. But that's not true, okay? If you think about it, the oral mind works through imagination. The oral mind is capable of tremendous memory. Because back then, in order to do anything, you have to memorize a lot of information. Now we can just go online, right?

So their minds, even though were pre -literate, they were much more imaginative than we are today. And their memories were stronger. That's why they were able to build the Great Pyramid. Because everyone was able to memorize the model and figure out his or her place inside the structure. They were also able to imagine in their heads the Great Pyramid. Remember Homer and Virgil. The way that children learn Homer and Virgil is by memorizing them, okay? And you can do that. There are people today who memorize the Koran and who memorize the Torah. It takes some time, but you're able to do that. So back then, they were able to build the pyramid because they were able to visualize the pyramid in their minds. And you can do that with a pre -literate mind. Second is the idea of pre -science. So in today's world, science is our god. So in school, you're

taught the scientific method, which is basically you collect information, then you synthesize it, then you write your thesis, okay? It's a step -by -step logical process. But if you're a pre -scientific mind, then where do you get your ideas from? You get your ideas through divine inspiration, through God, right? So you can make the argument, like back then, they were capable of these grand ideas that we're not capable of today because we're locked in by the discipline of science. The other problem with science is it's very materialistic, meaning we're focused on the here and now. We're focused on what we can see as opposed to what we feel or what we believe, right? So when we look at the pyramid, we're always about what was built instead of, like, what were they feeling when they were building this? And that's a huge difference. And the third difference is pre -capitalistic. Today we do things to make money.

We come to school because we want to get a job, because we want to make money and we want to buy things, okay? It's a very utilitarian mindset. But for most of human history, most civilizations were not capitalistic. They were religious. They were focused on community. They were focused on what they could contribute to the betterment of the people around them. They were concerned about their relationship with God. They were concerned about how to create peace in the world. They're asking big questions like what is good and what is evil? What is justice? What is fairness? What is justice? And so they were much more focused on building a pyramid as a way to build community and peace and eternity on Earth, okay? So in other words, what's interesting is even though we are much more technologically advanced, we're much wealthier than the Egyptians, we don't have the imagination, we don't have the will to build something like the Great Pyramid again.

And that's why I think even today the Great Pyramid captures the imagination of so many people around the world because it's really beyond our own imagination. It really shows the limitations of our own imagination, all right? Okay, that's it. Any questions? Okay. Yeah, let's all be intuitive and free science here, yeah, yeah. Okay. So this begins a broad age. Okay? This is part of the Bronze Age. Egypt is the greatest civilization of the Bronze Age. Next class, we'll look at Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilization. Okay? So there are three great Bronze Age civilizations, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley, okay?