The Power of Truth: A Lesson From Ancient Egypt

In the times of ancient Egypt, there was a great King. A strong ruler of his people. But this king was different.

He had a gift for seeing when people were lying to him. People began to realise that they could not lie or hoodwink this king to get what they wanted for themselves.

Traditionally, there had always been much lying and deceit in the royal palace. Just as there is today with politics in the world as we know it.

However, going back about 12000 years, this king, who grew up in the royal court spent all his time sat close to his father and mother.

They both ruled for many years and the young prince could always when people who came to visit his parents, where lying.

He could see the subtle changes in their facial expressions, see them sweating or their eyes darting about.

He learnt to look for the signs, taught to him by one of the royal teachers. An old man that was almost discarded by others due to his age and his immense wisdom ignored.

But the boy prince loved all the stories that the old man told him. But most of all, he loved the tricks and magic that was shown to him. Especially, how to detect when people were lying.

His father and mother did not hold the old man in high regard but they also respected him due to his age and his long service to the royal family over the years. They were happy for him to tell his tales to their son but they thought nothing more of it.

The boy's mother would respectfully listen to her excited son telling her the stories and what he had learnt but she never really paid much attention.

One day, dark clouds covered the kingdom. It was not rainy season so it was very unusual. The king had asked various priests and wisemen to come forward and explain what was happening.

The young price sat at the feet of his father and every time one of the men came and told the king their version of what was happening, the young boy would whisper, "he is lying".

It turned out that every single one of them was lying. The king, not fully trusting his son's analysis, listened to each of them in turn.

It turned out that a volcanic eruption had happened many thousands of miles away in another land and this was the ash cloud covering the whole ancient Egyptian kingdom.

The only man who knew this was the old teacher of the young prince. The dark clouds lasted for many months and the sun did not make an appearance at all.

Despite the many sacrifices made by the priests to appease the gods, nothing changed. It remained dark. The crops stopped growing and died for they obviously needed sun light.

There was a lot of panic in the whole city. There was a lot of illness as food became scarce and certainly fresh food was difficult to come by.

The king thought they were all being punished for something that he had done. Both the king and queen fell ill. The old man told the young price that his time would come soon.

The boy, with the knowledge of the truth had never worried about his own safety. He knew that there was no terrible reason for the months of darkness.

He knew that one day, the clouds would lift and the Sun god, RA would return from his slumber. But things became desperate. People were driven mad by the lack of sunlight.

Finally, his father succumbed to his illness and died. As was tradition, the young price ascended to the throne despite being only 14 years old at the time. His mother remained weak and ill.

However, a magical thing did happen. Coinciding with the ascension of the young boy to king, the clouds finally lifted and the sun shone through once more.

All the people in the land knew this was a good omen and they rejoiced at their new king.

It became known that the king possessed a magical power and that no one could lie to him and get away with it. This made a huge difference to the whole royal court and system.

A kingdom run on honesty and people being authentic was a truly magical one. Great things happened when everyone lived in their truth.

There was significantly more success and wealth created. There was a more even distribution of wealth and work among the people.

More trust developed amongst people as well. All the people were onboard with the new system. Being caught lying to the king would result in an instant execution and so they were highly motived to be truthful.

The kingdom flourished and thrived for many years until the kings death when he was an old man.

His son took over as king but unfortunately, he took advantage of people's trust. He was greedy for more power and gold than his father ever had.

And in only a few years, society had reverted once more back to lying and cheating and deceit amongst the royals and the people.

It was sad indeed because humanity showed such promise when people lived in their truth and where honest with one another.

If only we could return to this way of being, great things would happen in the world we live in today.