History, the account of things that happened as it is known now, consists of the records of the survivors, filtered and augmented by the victorious parties, and prepared for general consumption by the slaves of the rulers of mankind - whoever that may have been at the time.

In the process, entire libraries have been burnt down. Opposing or revealing opinions have been eradicated to hide uncomfortable or contradictory news.

Thus, 'history' as such has not only been falsified _once_ by the representants of the 'establishment', but it consists of a _string_ of falsifications, each layer adding yet another twist onto a mud pie of convoluted presentations of asserted 'facts'.

A difficult task for a professional historian, if s/he would honestly try to find out what really happened. But then, historians get paid by institutions of the current governments - see above. And nowadays, they can take pride  in having their fictions called 'science'. As long as they say what is currently 'politically correct', that is.

Now, what does this have to do with liberation?

The answer is very simple: nothing!

Any philosophical or 'religical' system that aims for the liberation of the individual is only as good as it works NOW, in present time - today! If it works now, it will
work in eternity. Because the only thing that is eternal is the NOW.

For its application, it doesn't matter what particular teaching came first. For the system to work, it doesn't matter who copied what from whom. For a person to become liberated, it doesn't matter if the 'founder' of a 'school' or theory was an 'avatar' or a 'descended master' or just someone who happened to wake up from the dream of life.

In the latter case, it is (at least to the author of these lines) much more reassuring to know that it was NOT some excalted someone from 'another dimension' who found out the truth for himself but someone like you or me.

The proof is in the pudding. Only if a 'normal' guy can reach liberation based on his or her own insights, only then one can be sure that it really works for _everybody_ who wants to become truly free as a Being.

The semantics, the meanings within human language, changes over time; mostly slowly but sometimes in surprising leaps.

A 'gay couple' in the 1920's was just having fun; fifty years later, or less, the same couple would perhaps feel insulted of being called 'gay', since they're not homosexuals.

One could conclude that any philosophical system that happens to survive for more than 50 years, ought to be checked on  changes in its semantics and its cultural context
periodically. But then, some systems survive much longer and one of the more recent ones reversed to its opposite in less than 30 years (some readers may know what system I'm
referring to and hopefully they will be able to see it with some kind of humor and detachment).

Giving in to the solidly accepted illusion of time for only a brief moment in same, it could be said that the past is over by now, the NOW is exactly as it is right now, and the future could be molded by the impulse created in this moment.

(I will politely refrain from asking the silly (?) question of WHEN EXACTLY something is changing if it is true that the presence is completely determined by the past.)

The historian and the prophet share more traits than courtesy would allow to describe. What is different, obviously, is that one talks about a fictitious past while the other is talking about a fictitious future.

Both historians and prophets are trying hard to turn fictions  into facts but the prophet has a considerable advantage:

My personal favorite is of the sort: "as soon as we are ready, the shift will happen for us and everyone else (those poor guys!) will have to stay in the limits of their miserable existence."

This, of course, is a tautology - a statement that will always be true, no matter what, and which therefore does not have any intrinsic meaning whatsoever.

There is a positive side to it, however, and I'm glad to point it out: shifts happen. And preparing for shifts boils down to mentally _doing_ the shifts mentally in the HERE and NOW.

As long as it doesn't involve that there is some kind of waiting  for something else to happen, the modern prophets of millennial shifts are not doing too much harm, it seems.

It can become a boomerang, later, though, when the time comes and the prophecy proves to be wrong, the follower may drop the strive to positive change as well.

There is an easier way, however, and that is: just working on a change right NOW, no matter what was or what will be.

Dreams of the future are created from within the dream we live now.