This world view is called hylozoics. Hylozoics was elaborated by Pythagoras, the famous mathematician. In so doing he wanted to lay the basis for the science of the future. How far ahead of his times he was is clear from the fact that it is only now that his system has a prospect of being generally comprehended. This is so thanks to the fact that scientific research has reached so far that it is beginning to converge with some basic hylozoic principles. Whereas science deals with physical reality only, hylozoics primarily describes the superphysical reality, for the causes of physical events are to be found in the superphysical. In the future, a direct connection between science and hylozoics will be possible.

Thus Pythagoras was thousands of years ahead of his times. This is explained by the fact that he belonged to a brotherhood the members of which had systematically developed their consciousness far beyond the limits of normal man. They roused to full activity "organs of knowledge" that still lie dormant within most of us. That gave them a sovereign knowledge of the universe and man, far beyond the possibilities of modern science, which is limited to information obtained through the physical senses and their instrumental extensions. That sovereign knowledge is called esoterics. Members of the brotherhood used to form schools of knowledge in various nations when these had reached a certain degree of civilization. At least a sizeable minority of the people should have been able to liberate their thinking from traditional religion and have begun pondering, in a rational way, the meaning of life and the nature of reality.

Around 700 B.C. Pythagoras founded a school of knowledge in Sicily, which was then a Greek colony. When Pythagoras appeared, esoteric schools had existed for thousands of years. The novelty of his esoteric school was the systematic and lucid mode of presenting the knowledge of immemorial age. He understood the Greek sense of concrete knowledge, scientific method, and exactness.

This is the reason why hylozoics is the esoteric knowledge system best suited to Westerners with their scientific and philosophical education, their liking for straight facts and dislike of ambiguous symbols.

For close on three millennia, hylozoics has been a living tradition, a path to knowledge of the world and of ourselves. Thousands of men and women have walked that path. Till very recently, the knowledge was kept secret to those outside the school. We live indeed in a world where everything truly valuable is threatened, of course knowledge too.

Only in our times an elementary presentation of hylozoics has been allowed for publication. This was in 1950 when The Philosopher's Stone by Henry T. Laurency was published for the first time, in Swedish. It was followed in 1961 by The Knowledge of Reality by Laurency. Since 1985 these books have been available in English. They are basic for all hylozoic study today. The greater body of hylozoic knowledge is still unpublished and will remain so for a long time yet. The knowledge of otherwise unknown powers in nature and in man will continually be given just to the very few, to those who have vanquished all temptations to abuse the power which all true knowledge confers.