We turn to Plato's metaphysics. Here too, Plato's thought i…

We turn to Plato's metaphysics. Here too, Plato's thought is regressive and has much more in common with older styles of thought than other philosophers. In particular, Plato's doctrine that the world of the forms is somehow a real place where abstractions and other contents of the mind exist on their own dissociated from any mind is best compared with a tribal belief in a dream world that we visit when we sleep. Except that Plato has intellectualized it, as if a mathematical chain of reasoning is also a journey through the dream world. Indeed, Plato's dialogs themselves are very much like dreams and can be compared with shamanistic journeys, guided meditation, acid trips, or other altered states of consciousness. This is what puts Plato in a class of his own. We call him a philosopher, but maybe he's better understood as a kind of shamen.