Truth vs Falsehood (6 page)

Within the Newtonian paradigm (cal. level 460), science (cal. level 460) has been both informative and reliably, pragmatically productive. The domain of traditional science has been secured by its innate limitations and discipline of structure and form. The linear is predictable and has an innate reliability that resulted in a shift of society’s faith from the unseen, such as traditional religion, to the demonstrable reliability and benefits of science.

To the modern mind, science is ‘real’ and ‘objective’, whereas the nonphysical phenomena and experiences of a mental or a subjective nature are considered unsubstantial, of questionable authenticity, and subject to doubt and argument (Arehart-Treichel, 2004). The appearance of quantum mechanics (cal. level 460) and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (cal. level 460) spell the end of the dominance of the Newtonian paradigm of reality and the beginning of the emergence of a more sophisticated and advanced evolution of science that leads from the predictable linear domain to the unpredictable nonlinear domain (cal. level 500 on up to infinity).

Throughout the ages, the human mind and its intellect have been both the tool as well as the subject of investigation of the enormous complexity of reason and rationality. The sheer volume of man’s investigations filled vast libraries and grew to enormous proportions. Inquiry led to a bewildering proliferation of information rather than a conclusive resolution or simplification. As a consequence, in the 1950s, an erudite group of educators and scholars chaired by Mortimer Adler sought to give organizational recognition to the intellectual efforts of the great thinkers over the centuries. This resulted in the production of
The Great Books of the Western World
(1952), which included the works of the most excellent of the excellent scholars and thinkers in their best efforts in the attempt to arrive at and define truth. This study of man’s intellectual history is continuous and widespread, and its value is currently supported by the National Association of Scholars (Fields, 2000), which recommends that one schedule a serious study of
The Great Books
over a ten-year period. Its contents include the major contributions of the following great thinkers of all history.

Calibrations of
The Great Books of the Western World

Collectively, The Great Books calibrate at 450, but with the elimination of Karl Marx, they calibrate at 465. Thus, philosophies that calibrate below 200 (the critical level that discerns truth from falsehood) have a seriously negative impact, as history and current research well demonstrate. (In contrast, Socrates, not an author himself, calibrates at 540.)

The crucial importance of discovering the essential nature of truth can be deduced from the sheer size and intensity of effort of the world’s greatest thinkers and scholars. These authors represent only the Western world. Similar efforts and a comparable list of great thinkers can be derived from other cultures and intellectual traditions of both Asia and the Middle East. Unfortunately, records of man’s earliest works were lost in the fire at the Great Library at Alexandria in the year 48 B.C.

Subsequent to the many centuries of scholastic and intellectual inquiry, a new system of inquiry began in which the scientific method, which had been so successful in the physical domain, was applied to the study of the human mind and its physiology. It is notable that the final volume in the
Great Books of the Western World
is devoted to Freud, whose most seminal discovery was that of the importance of the unconscious mind and its primary role in all aspects of mental and emotional life. The great contribution of psychoanalysis was that it demonstrated the decisive role of subjectivity as the
a priori
substrate of experience and its interpretation and intrapsychic dynamics.

After Freud, a proliferation of psychologies ensued, of which the discoveries of Carl Jung were the most significant in that he included the human spirit as a powerful, significant element in human consciousness, both individually and collectively. To further clarify the unconscious, Jung elucidated the inherent patterns as the great archetypes. Whereas the work of Freud calibrates at 499, that of Jung calibrates at 520, which signals an important critical advancement of paradigm.

Experimental academic psychology confined itself to more mechanistic issues and learning theory. During approximately the same time period, semanticists studied linguistics and the basic structure of language itself. Hayakawa (1971) and Ayer (1966) explained the essential point, which had been made earlier by Descartes
(res cogitans
versus
res externa),
that “the map is not the territory,” in which the importance of this defect of human mentation was emphasized. Consciousness itself became a focus of scientific inquiry as a consequence of the crucial discovery and inference of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Although Einstein (whose work calibrates at 499) rejected the philosophical implications of the Heisenberg principle, they were understood by David Bohm, who described and delineated the implicit/explicit and enfolded/unfolded paradigms of reality. (The consciousness level of Bohm’s work is 505
.
) This more advanced contextualization of the universe recognized the reality of both the unmanifest substrate of existence and its unfoldment from potentiality to actuality.

The conceptual and philosophical implications of quantum mechanics and the emerging science of nonlinear dynamics led to a series of annual academic meetings on the subject of “Science and Consciousness” at the University of Arizona (Hemeroff, et al., 1996), and elsewhere. This was followed by the publication of the
Journal of Consciousness Studies
(1996). The consciousness level of these conferences and journals was at approximately 410 to 450, which indicates that they were primarily efforts of the intellect, advantaged by advanced scientific theory and the associated mathematics.

During approximately the same time period, psychiatry as a field of study had deserted psychoanalysis and the whole realm of subjective reality by which man experiences and interprets his existence as a continuum, not only from event to event but also as an evolutionary unity. Psychiatry also succumbed to the mechanistic reductionism of brain chemistry and, paradoxically, became increasingly dehumanized, with a progressive loss of empathy for the uniquely personal human experience (Kendler, 2001). The everyday practice of psychiatry became dominated by the development of effective psychopharmacology as well as by the business model introduced by the insurance industry. The upside of these developments, however, was the benefit and pragmatic value of a widespread reduction in the suffering from painful subjective symptoms, such as psychosis, depression, and anxiety. These benefits became readily available and accessible to large numbers of patients, whereas, prior to the development of the pharmaceutical industry, few patients could afford the time or an actual investment in intensive psychotherapy, such as psychoanalysis.

To help fill the vacuum of human need, nonmedical psychotherapists fulfilled the role of the empathic healer whose main modality was the inculcation of psychological insight and emotional education, which again reemphasized the critical importance of subjectivity and the value and meaning of personal experience.

A very significant aspect of the development of the psychotherapies was the reaffirmation of the importance of the spiritual aspects of the human psyche and their contribution to happiness and fulfillment in both physical and mental health. Ministerial counseling had a centuries-old foundation in which the idea of healing as a whole concept was central. Research also revealed that people whose lives included spirituality or religious values had better health, lived longer, and experienced less disease, less crime, and less poverty as well as lower divorce rates. They were happier, better adjusted, and had better-functioning children (Robb, 2004). This is currently being studied in a four-year research project on attitudes and self-images of adolescents by the Lilly Endowment-funded National Study of Youth and Religion. Major psychological associations, such as the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, emphasized the importance of the recognition of spiritual realities and their contribution to physical and emotional health. The
Journal of Spiritual Health
is devoted exclusively to the subject.

A major development that affected the lives and recoveries of millions of people around the earth was the appearance of the Twelve-Step recovery program that arose out of Alcoholics Anonymous (cal. level 540). It evolved into the more generalized and widespread acceptance of ‘recovery’ as an effective and transformative solution to multiple personal and social problems and behaviors. Great multitudes of people recovered from grave and incurable illnesses, and these recoveries were witnessed by millions more of relatives, families, employers, friends, and grateful spouses.

Faith-based therapy groups in prison populations reduced the recidivism rate by 35 percent (per consciousness research). Despite the widespread proliferation and application of the twelve-step principles to a great diversity of ostensibly hopeless human problems, the core of the twelve-step recovery model and discipline remained pristine and unsullied. It resisted commercialization or exploitation and did not fall prey to worldly commercialization or the temptation of control over others. By the internal discipline of the spiritual truths upon which it was structured, the twelve-step movement had “no opinions on outside issues” and rejected wealth, prestige, and political influence (Wilson, “Bill W.,” 1939, 1953). Its power was based solely on its consciousness level of unconditional love and selfless honesty, which calibrate at level 540.

The populace of today’s world is naïve in that it presumes that the prevalence of available knowledge of society has always been the human condition, whereas the opposite has been true. Historically, information of great value was guarded by the privileged few and unavailable to the masses. The printing press had not yet been invented, and the educated were very few in number. Even the most favored and erudite scholars had no instrument or means by which to discern truth from falsehood. Therefore, the inclusion of error was inevitable, e.g., the severe drop in the level of consciousness of Christianity that occurred after the Council of Nicaea. The exclusive province of access to knowledge then became a temptation by which to control others, and claim to exclusivity became the very fuel that fired intolerance and strife. In addition, the disputative mind clings to exaggeration of the irrelevant details that divide people rather than emphasis of the central point of truth, which would thereby unite them.