Revelation or invention are processes whereby a sentient being acquires useful information that is extremely difficult to obtain in normal circumstances. The process is so rare that a community regards such events with extreme respect whether it occurs within religious or scientific community. We often speak of revelation in the context of prophets and prophesy when they state that they have received a message or understood a message from an esoteric or exoteric source. Invention we think of as a secular event, but the process of revelation and invention are almost one in the same. In the case of invention, the inventor or recipient of the revelation is regarded as the active participant in the revelation process, whereas in the case of revelation, the recipient is a channel through which an exoteric or esoteric entity is the active participant. Revelation is not confined to the religious or spiritually focused community, but is part and parcel of scientific discovery and invention. One might use the term discovery instead of revelation in cases where the person from or to whom a revelation occurs accepts a minor role.
The reality is that it does not require a prophet for the process of revelation to occur. Its not so much the participants in revelation that matters as much as the process and meaning of the revelation to the wider community. Its also quite natural when an amazing revelation occurs to regard this as a supernatural event whether it is supernatural or not.
In any event, the person receiving the revelation, or making a deiscovery, becomes a hero to the community. The fact that a reward is obtained as a result of the revelation process means that many might be tempted to claim a revelation even though the process has not occured.
In ancient communities, the stability of the community often depended on revelations being monopolized by a group of individuals or a single individual who claimed to be responsible for the process of revelation. With the printing press and the age of discovery, the fact that many more people and people outside the monopoly group to which revelations were accepted to occur could claim inventions and revelations. These were feared by the status quo which thought that new ideas or discoveries would destabilize the existing structure of authorities, especially if they ranked highly within these structures.
The monopolization of revelation by a specific group of individuals within a community gave them enormous power to keep authority structures as they were and rather than sharing revelations they would guard them and keep them for themselves. In a very real sense, revelations being new knowledge were power. Inventions were power. Prophesy was power. Those in authority grabbed power by monopolizing the process of revelation.
We now know that revelation is a process that can occur to the least individual in a community, and does not necessarily require an enormous education. Communities that realize this progress far more rapidly in knowledge creation and dissemination thatn communities that don't. In turn, communities that innovate from invention and revelation progress far more rapidly in power than those which don't. Knowledge and invention when applied to innovation grant enormous potential and capacity to communities.
By opening up pathways for revelation, the internet and information spreading technologies can produce genuine democratization of power within communities and this can lead to more even distributions of wealth and authority by means of pluralist politics. The greater sharing of authority is a good thing because it means everyone in the community and the community as a whole can progress and make better decisions. With pluralism everyone potentially is a winner. In game theory it has been shown that cooperating is a much better strategy for a community than outright competition. A mix of competition with cooperation is the way for communities to build pathways to rapid revelation, invention and progress through innovation or creative destruction that moves a community forward and assists in adaptations to complex world environments necessary for the survival of life and living entities.
It follows that free education and liberal education is a very powerful instrument in development. It has been shown that countries that provide low cost education right up to university entrance and beyond progress more rapidly that communities that allow groups to monoplize education processes. This is why people in some countries like the UK and USA are failing economically as their education systerms are inadequate and high cost to the vast majority. It is why people from other countries with better education systems and more liberal attitudes to education will overtake them very rapidly in the new internet age.