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Olive pointed out that those few examples are very crude examples of utilizing Plato's method. She also pointed out that this method can also be applied to images that we can't see at all, like the images that we have already created in the mind, but which are often just as false when the principles involved are not correctly understood. She said that this happens when we don't expand our inner vision wide enough. She pointed out, for an example that it is commonly assumed that the quickest path for an object to get from point A to point B is along a straight line, which corresponds to the shortest distance. She proved that this assumption is not always correct it by pointing to a historic experiment.
"Our assumption of how the universe operates is often too simplistic," she said. "If one rolls a steel ball down a ramp that covers the distance between a high point and a low point in a straight line, it will take longer for the ball to get to the end point by the most direct path, than it would take if the ball was rolled down a ramp that is inclined according to the function of a cycloid. In the latter case the ball would travel a longer path, but get to the end point significantly sooner. This paradox shouldn't be possible, right? Our simplistic assumptions tell us that this can't happen, but it is demonstrably true that in this case the longer path is the quicker path. This quirk creates a paradox for us that we must resolve in our mind. We do this by examining our assumptions about what is real. As we do this, we discover that in the real world, the principle of least action comes into play. Suddenly we can see in our mind that the steel ball, which would normally fall straight to the ground, is severely impeded by the shallow incline of the straight-line ramp. It can fall, but only a little bit. It has to move forward to be able to fall. On a cycloid ramp, however, the steel ball is allowed to almost fall freely at first, till it gets up to speed and then other principle become involved. The principle of least action, which is exploited right at the beginning, actually enables the steel ball to get to the end point a lot sooner in spite of the longer path it has to travel. By recognizing the operation of this principle, we come closer to understanding the actions that are involved with the motions that we observe. In other words we get a clearer perception of what is actually happening in the world around us by opening our inner vision a little wider."
Tatsuhiko began to laugh and suggested that a long detour might be the fastest way when there is no other path available. "What we are doing here may look like a long detour, but it may be the only path there is. Mankind has struggled for a hundred years to advance the cause of peace, but the only thing that we see increasing is the growing intensity of imperial fascism."
Olive disagreed. "We are not taking a detour," she said emphatically. "We are utilizing the principle of the cycloid path. Our conference here is designed to correspond with the first portion of the cycloid ramp where the steel ball falls almost freely and gains speed the fastest way possible. With this momentum established we'll reach our goal sooner than we would with everyone plugging along at home or at the conference level where one is constantly impeded by small-minded thinking. Tatsuhiko is right of course that Mary's pedagogicals and Plato's method make our goal an achievable proposition. Mankind has failed, because it has been dancing around in dark without a demonstrable principle. It has been trying to create peace and prosperity on an imperial platform instead of the platform of the Principle of Universal Love. That's like trying to make a river flow uphill. We can't even enforce this demand with the worst kind fascism imaginable, which we've seen a lot of already, stinking with tragedies. If we pursue this for another thousand years, we still won't be any further ahead, if we survive that long; if indeed we survive another decade. The river of life only flows in the direction of the gravity of its universal principle, which can be summarized as the Principle of Universal Love. It needs to flow as unimpeded as possible, and as stewards of the river we need to assure that and flow with it."
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