When a society offers at its apex a scheme of things, inclusive and integrative of all subordinate orientations, and then that scheme by virtue of being generally accepted as true holds great authority, then that society is unified and cohesive, is an organism. Every leader seeks to embody such a scheme of things, and charismatically to make it even more powerfully appealing, binding on the loyalties of all.

Should ever any scheme of things acquire absolute authority it would exclude from awareness anything beyond its limits. Nothing then could contend with it and no change could occur. It and the society it organized would be static and immortal. Each individual by allegiance to that scheme would share in that immortality. The dread of death would be overcome.

No scheme of things has ever achieved such authority, though some schemes have endured for millennia. Change is unstoppable; for no scheme of things has ever convinced everyone. All schemes involve limitations and denial. They are man-made. They reach out into the way things are, the realm of the existing, and make order. Then claim to be eternal.

A scheme of things is a plan for salvation. How well it works will depend upon its scope and authority. If it is small, even great great achievement in its service will do little to dispel death. We seek the largest possible scheme, not in a hunger for truth, but in a hunger for meaning. The more comprehensive the scheme, the greater its promise of banishing dread. If we can make our lives mean something in a cosmic scheme we will live in the certainty of immortality. The very great success of Christianity for a thousand years follows upon its having been of universal scope, including and accounting for everything, assigning to all things a proper place; offering to every man, whether prince or beggar, savant or fool, the privilege of working in the Lord's vineyard; and upon its being accepted as true throughout the Western world.

Whoever creates one reality that fits for everyone.