When
we as individuals go through life, we pass periods or phases when we
change our identity -- from baby to child, adolescent, adult, parent,
maturity, old age, end of life. Each change may be accompanied by some
sort of identity crisis. As a species we also encounter periods of
challenge and change when we must consider just who we are and will be.
Feudalism, religious repression, scientism, materialism, and an education system designed for capitalism have all conditioned us for subjugation and compliance and a lack of emotional intelligence.
As
it happens we live in interesting times when we are faced with
decisions which may drastically affect the future of our species. This
generation may remembered for a very long time for what we do or don't
do about critical choices which must be made, concerning issues such as
the environment, genetic manipulation, and weapons of mass destruction.
It
seems that we are facing a kind of collective end of adolescence which implies
dealing with our issues of power, greed, lust, and progeny. How an
adult handles these issues becomes the measure of who they are. It is obviously time to have a
look at some of our shadow issues. A few of the characteristics of
adulthood include accepting the consequence of ones actions,
coping with delayed gratification, and taking care of family.
Most
people seem to get their beliefs from the media, and that's messed up. The media as we
know it, grew up inside an odd paradigm where the attitude toward the
natural order of reality was skewed toward empiricism and reason as the
twin pillars of a philosophy of life appropriate for an Age of Science.
The dogma, attitude and methods of this science was thought to be universally applicable to all phenomena, and was based on Reductionism,
which is a philosophical position which holds that anything and
everything is just the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can
be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. While Reductionism
was useful in developing of the objective laws of physics and
chemistry, it is becomes problematic when applied to more subjective
realms. Where reductionists most often disagree among themselves is how
much this "reduction paradigm" can be expected to apply to the understanding of living
things.
"I'm not contained between my hat and my boots" - Walt Whitman, ('' Song Of Myself'' )
Scientism is a rather recent word, associated with many other “isms” with long and turbulent histories:
materialism, naturalism, reductionism, empiricism, and positivism, and behaviorism.
Scientism is a term used, usually pejoratively, to refer to belief in
the universal applicability of the scientific method and approach, and
the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative
worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of
other viewpoints.
The roots of scientism extend as far back as early 17th century Europe,
an era that came to be known as the Scientific Revolution. Up to that
point, most scholars had been largely concerned with a combination of
Judeo-Christian scripture and ancient Greek philosophy. But a torrent
of new learning during the late Renaissance began to challenge the
authority of the ancients, and long-established intellectual
foundations began to crack. The Englishman Francis Bacon, the Frenchman
Rene Descartes, and the Italian Galileo Galilei spearheaded an
international movement proclaiming a new foundation for learning, one
that involved careful scrutiny of nature instead of analysis of ancient
texts.
Descartes and Bacon used particularly strong rhetoric to
carve out space for their new methods. They claimed that by learning
how the physical world worked, we could become “masters and possessors
of nature.” - Thomas Burnett
Before the 17 th century, people generally believed that Earth was at the center of the universe.
Galileo, however, was not afraid to challenge existing beliefs when he
published his work in support of the Sun-centered, or heliocentric,
Copernican theory. For a very long time before that dominant moral
paradigm had been based on what Joseph Campbell referred to as " Old Testament gods;
lots of rules and no mercy." This old paradigm that had become stagnant
and corrupt and the Renaissance brought a general sense of relief.
In a way the new view of the universe was larger and more grand, but it
meant that mankind was no longer at the center of the universe.
The Scientific Revolution continued
the trend or paradigm change and it brought changes in humanity's
diminishing view of itself, nature, and God. Newton and his
contemporaries viewed the universe as a machine. For a time, this model
saw the universe as orderly, coherent, and natural. God was viewed as
the creator of this machine, who brought into being the world in its
lawfulness, regularity, and beauty. This image viewed God as the master
builder who created a perfect machine and then let it run. This view of
God was called Deism, and was accepted by many who supported the " new
philosophy.
At age 26 Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands for only 3 weeks.
But what he saw there allowed him to connect the dots with ideas others
had been developing about geological evolution so he could see how biology follows a similar pattern. Since Darwin's publication of his "Origin
of Species" there has been a increasingly widespread acceptance,
particularly in the 'westernized' parts of the world, of the idea that
Mankind 'evolved' from earlier forms of life. In a big way this further
diminished Man's Place in Nature, while it unified all of nature. At about the same time, Karl Marx appropriated science as a justification for his theories, and how science replaced religion in Marxist communism. Marx changed history drastically because his writing inspired various revolutions.
Religious reductionism generally consists of explaining religion by boiling it down to certain nonreligious causes. Sigmund Freud's
idea that religion is nothing more than an illusion, or even a mental
illness. As an atheist, Sigmund Freud reduces God to a dream of man. As
a materialist, he reduces man to his body, the human body to animal
desire. He laid the foundations of reductionism in psychology, which
refers to a theory that seems to over-simplify human behavior or
cognitive processes, the belief that human behavior can be explained by
breaking it down into smaller component parts. Freud adopted an
interactionist approach, in that he considered that behavior was the
results of dynamic interaction between id, ego and superego, and that
"No other forces than the common physical-chemical ones are active
within the organism."
Behaviorism was a school of psychology
that takes the objective evidence of behavior (as measured responses to
stimuli) as the only concern of its research and the only basis of its
theory without reference to conscious experience or introspection ism.
Behaviorism emphasized the outward behavioral aspects of thought and
dismissed the inward aspects of existence. Behaviorism also became a
pervasive worldview that operates on a principle of "stimulus-response"
conditioning, primarily concerned with observable and measurable
aspects of human behavior. This belief that all behavior can be
explained without the need to consider internal mental states or
consciousness led to a kind of survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog
pessimism.
In Literature this set of beliefs became known as
Naturalism, which the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to
supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world. This
deterministic view of human life and actions represents a
rejection of idealism. Humans are portrayed as victims in a hostile
universe of alien forces they cannot understand or control. This raw,
slice-of-life attitude has become pervasive in melodrama media plots
where might makes right and sensationalism rules.
"Survival of
the fittest" is a 19th-century concept of human society, inspired by
the principle of natural selection, postulating that those who are
eliminated in the struggle for existence are the unfit. In this
scenario, life is usually portrayed as a competition where there is one
winner and the others are all losers. Once upon a time a fable or
legend was about a heroic
figure who braved the unknown for the good of all, or at least for his
own community. Now cult media icons are more apt to be antiheroes whose
character and goals are apt to be associated with things like drug
abuse, exploitation, criminal activity, and self destructive
behaviors. To have an immense popularity means not becoming too
mainstream if you don't want to loose your their fan base and fabulous
earnings.
An exploitation film is typically both low budget
and of low moral or artistic merit, and therefore apparently attempting
to gain financial success by "exploiting" a current trend or a niche
genre or a base desire for lurid subject matter. These films then need
something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,
violence, or romance. An "exploitation film", however, due to its low
budget, relies more heavily than usual on "exploitation". Some
films even might be advertised by the producers themselves as
"exploitation films" in order to pique the interest of those who seek
out films of this type.
The media in general exploits the public by pandering sensationalism, sex, violence and relentless
commercialism. There is always something exciting, enjoyable and
tempting to grab our attention. There is a false presumption of instant
gratification and quick attainability of happiness or of contentedness.
Loyalty, patience and persistence are mostly absent. But even worse is
the desensitization resulting in the diminished emotional
responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus after repeated
exposure to it. We seem to be ever more emotionally insensitive or
callous; as normal emotional response (as of fear, anxiety, or guilt)
to stimuli that formerly induced it is extinguished. In this
brave new world everything is energy and intention.
Getting
past adolescence requires dealing with self-doubt and
self-centeredness and being responsible for our actions. Humans or no
longer in a paradigm where the earth is
the center of the universe. And the old-fashioned frontiers are mostly
behind us where most issues were dealt with with a gun and a bottle of
whiskey. Territorialism, colonialism, and imperialism have failed and
in the past paradigm our place in the universe has been diminished and
confusing. People in the old world had a sense of their identity and
entitlements, limited though they were. Now it seems that anything goes
and chaos reigns.
According to Cellular Biologist Sondra Barrett,
the structure and behavior of Leukemia cells is chaotic. There is no
order at all compared to a normal blood cell. And since all life must
have a place to exist, then perhaps in some way we must be taking in or
creating chaotic conditions internally which promotes cancer. A
cancerous cell gets stuck so that the normal growth pattern doesn't
move into its final phase, but keeps on growing. The normal cell programs the final phase which is cell death. Living cells maintain regular vibrations, while dying a cell's frequency of vibrations increases until the cell disintegrates.According to Gwilda Wiyaka, physical manifestations cannot exist at very high frequencies.
She extrapolates
that illness happens when we internalize the chaotic conditions around
us in the external world. So at some level, confusion and chaos can
make us ill. She believes that one of the most important lessons is LETTING GO.
She observed that people who go into remission find a way of letting go
of some of their larger patterns of in their lives, especially patterns
of being rigid. When something important is holding us in patterns
related to being rigid, it interferes with the normal programming of
cells.
Letting go means letting go of struggle and moving into peacefulness; letting go of guilt or fear. Bruce Lipton
writes that the only way to move from fear into love is through the
heart. So what is there for you that can be heartfelt; where/what is
your bliss? What attachments can you let go of.
According to the string theory, cells are made up of particles made of intelligent strings that are vibrating. Entraining your vibrations
(resonance) into peacefulness is a positive approach. Scheduling down
time nature walks, beautiful music, literature, poetry or art is one
way. Careful preparation and enjoyment of healthy food is another.
Meditation, Chi Gong, Yoga, or spiritual practice based on gratitude
are other proven ways.
The bottom line is just listening and
experiencing without criticizing, judging or becoming defensive.
Emotion is the catalyst that draws something to you. Reactions of
either love and hate magnetizes externals and draws them into your
internal personal sphere experience.
It is important here to
make the distinction between detachment and indifference. A response of "I
don't care," says you will take whatever you get. Such indifference
just promotes alienation and the dangers of anonymity. But an attitude that everything will somehow be OK, says I care, and am open to creativity.
Einstein said that the greatest decision in life is whether we live
in a friendly or a hostile world.
Simplicity is without pretension, though it takes on a spiritual
dimension, an overview that moves beyond the fear of loss or
deprivation. True simplicity purifies, clarifies, unifies and frees us.
Simplicity allows us to let go of yearning for the future, preoccupation
with the past, and strategies to protect the present. There is nowhere
left to go but where we are. To connect deeply with the present moment
is to be able to appreciate the ultimate beauty of reality. Great
simplicity is only obtained by a few who are able to eliminate the
superfluous trivia of the complex world, and the intricacies of our own
body, to find essence.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo DaVinci
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