Religion

This tool is designed
to become the base
for an open dialogue of different religions
and to rejuvenate the spiritual roots of the West
where the split between science and religion,
between blind belief and common sense
has led to a difficult situation.

The image shows the inside of the Hagia Sophia (Sacred Wisdom) at Istanbul.

The city of Istanbul, once known as Constantinople, is situated at the meeting point of Asia and Europe, so that, geographically, it symbolises the meeting of East and West.

1500 years ago an impressive dome, which is still standing today, was built on this place. It was at that time the spiritual centre of the Roman-Byzantine Empire and here Christianity reached its first peak of development. In this tradition, the union of opposites was recognised to be a key principle of spiritual and human development.

500 years ago the cathedral was transformed into a mosque, after Constantinople was conquered by the expanding Islamic tide. In the 20th-century it became a secular museum. Since the artwork of the interior had deteriorated, a restoration became necessary. For this purpose a huge scaffold was erected, right up to the center of the dome.

This centre point, the highest peak, symbolises the meeting point of heaven and earth, and the structure as a whole symbolises also the meeting of East and West.

In this symbolism we can see how this meeting reached a peak in the past, in connection with the union of opposites, an understanding which was later lost and forgotten. It also suggests that the old wisdom is now being restored and that the modern world is about to reach the centre of this secret.

This picture is highly symbolic of the Wisdom Science Project. The photograph was taken in the year 2000, when the philosophy was taking its shape in the mind of the author at the island of Büjük Ada, near Istanbul.