This story is rooted in one simple idea: “When you know the truth, the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The truth we are talking about is called perennial wisdom: perennial because it reoccurs in every civilization throughout recorded human history, and wisdom because it reveals the true nature of life and how best to live it. What perennial wisdom frees you from is the illusion of otherness that fuels the sense of fear and alienation that drives so much of our ego-centered lives. In the context of perennial wisdom, truth is that which leads us beyond alienation and isolation to integration and unity. It is that which leads us beyond fear to love; beyond exploitation of the other to justice for all; beyond violence and war to cooperation and peace; and beyond the zero-sum, winner-take-all worldview of “us against them” to the nonzero, win–win worldview of “all of us together.” In the context of perennial wisdom, truth is that which collapses the divisions between chosen and not chosen, believer and infidel, saved and damned, and leads to the understanding that we are all one community of seekers. …