The Paradigm Shift

[Mr. Nick]

This is an informal essay I have written. Thank you very much for taking the time to read and respond to this.

Food For Thought

Several books exist indicating or directly addressing a growing consciousness amongst humanity. This consciousness could be equated to a utopian supper. For most it has come with a subtlety comparable to delicious food smells, drifting on the wind to a person unaware of the lurking pleasure except for a slight rumble of an unsatisfied stomach. For other people this growing consciousness is dreamt of as one might visualize a utopian supper causing a similar rumble yet coupled with the satisfaction of a resolving mystery.

Humans have been sliding along a timeline marked by increasing existential complexity. Through the growths of religions, societies, and scientific knowledge, ruling worldviews have cinched the knot on the common thought process. The same metaphoric smell has passed the nostrils of historic man inciting progress although the growing hunger is eventually stunted by fault of knowledge, preoccupation, and lack of immediate need. This is the point when curiosity fails to continue progress. Along humanity’s timeline, the lines of religion, society, and scientific knowledge have often intermingled and are now approaching the point where a braided harmony is possible.

Complexity is the secret of simplicity. Even in a basic system complexity is overwhelmingly apparent, and in a complex system the overwhelming intricacies become exponentially more existent. The expansive society of today has become a quasi-unsupportable system of extensive necessity, which may become totally unsupportable in the future.

Even the conservative societies have begun to taste progress through world political and economic integration. Such tastes have turned on the conservative pallet to the smell of the stomach rumbling pleasure lying somewhere in the distance. The religions of the world are becoming aware of one another and the atheists, agnostics, and spiritualists. This awareness has created a type of compare and contrast highlight of the powerful and feeble aspects of each. Scientific knowledge has reached the point where the fundamental nature of matter and being is opened to the metaphysical, where there was a once ordered and controlled observation resulting in a unique result, we now have a science, quantum physics, that delves into the foundation of nature and being whose results vary depending on the perception of the observer. Although generally science is quantitative, the fact that it is founded in something qualitative blows the hinges off the hatch. The way we view science, nature, and existence is being shifted, and with this shift will come a shift in how religions and spirituality are viewed. These shifts could powerfully affect the daily life of humans.

Follow the Leader

The state follows the will of the people. If the people are liberally minded then ability for progress is created. If the people follow the will of one person the state’s triumphs and defeats depend primarily on the ambition and ability of the leader. If the will of the people follows a religion then the state will be limited to the interpretation of the religion.

Liberal and conservative are the opposing forces of government; essentially, the old versus the new. The most conservative governments are maintained by a religious foundation. Such governments like that of Maldives could be said to be ruled by God’s law as presented in their religion. God’s Law doesn’t change and therefore the religious government is not progressive. A liberal government is the contrary as it embraces the new as necessity dictates. The most liberal type of government is a democracy. A democracy is a government directed by the general population. However even this most liberal of government systems is not completely progressive. There are bound to be conservatives in the general populace voicing their opinions against progress, thus slowing the liberal government’s embrace of the new. A liberal system of government can even be conservative with ignored ability for progress if the conservatives are the majority. Change will occur for both liberals and conservatives when staying the same is not an option. This very necessity for change is becoming apparent with the growing number of social problems. The greatest that man has yet faced being our infrastructure’s harmful effects on the environment. With almost too many to list the principle concern is global warming. As a part of the environment and depend on its health, changing our relationship with the environment is a necessity for humans. Social change will come about with a progressive will in the people. The personal change will be multi-faceted and incited by a number of realizations and re-adaptation.

Imagination, Realization, Re-adaptation, Evolution

Imagination is a product of the mind. Realization occurs with application; usually as a result of common agreement. For example, there exists a sphere. One person imagines this sphere is a ball and all the connotations that go with the word. This is idea is realized with the application and with the agreement of the group that it is indeed a ball. Some people say that a world of harmony between people and with the environment is an imaginative fantasy. Humans building a machine to go to the moon was surely only an imaginative fantasy at the time of the American Civil War, and 100 years later it was reality. The point of realization occurs first with the acknowledgment of possibility.

The evolution of man and the wonder of the world and universe are testaments to possibility. With the existence of possibility we consequently have imagination, realization, and reality. It is this process that shows how human reality is created in the mind. All barriers are created in the same place where they are destroyed. This place is he mind. Some reply that we are only human. Yet, this will not always be so. In a world that is 4.5 billion years old we only became human at an estimated 200,000 years ago.

If the barrier in the path to harmony is the human condition such as greed or aggression then the solution lies with a re-adaptation of the brain. These detrimental attributes may have been useful at one time, like wisdom teeth, but have since outlived their purpose. Re-adapting the brain is a new concept that has shown to be effective in helping stroke patients regain the use of limbs by changing the job that controlled the non-functioning limb to another part of the brain. The idea behind re-adaptation of the brain is to focus on positive things such as love, generosity, and forgiveness, and transfer the extra workload of using positive ideas more, to the area fueling the detrimental aspects we wish to replace with positive thoughts. This change is not as easy as flipping a switch, but the hard work results in benefits for this life and the next. When people with this brain difference have children it may be possible to pass along the altered brain functions to the next generation thus creating an evolution of humans, not in form but in function.

Not Necessarily

As a result of detrimental attributes like greed, impatience, and aggression we have created necessities which in turn have created more necessities; this idea is called necessity extension. An example of this for greed could be made with meat. Humans are omnivores so a little meat is part of our natural diet, however greed has driven us to excess and a necessity to create more meat, faster. So there is meat production where cows are grown in confined space creating a necessity for grain that could be used to feed people who need it. The extended necessities go beyond this, but the point is being made. Impatience can create a necessity for fast convenient transportation such as cars. Cars create a necessity for gasoline, once again the necessity extension continues on in this situation. Aggression has created a necessity for laws, law enforcement, ect. Without necessity extension life is simpler, a balance is created, resources are distributed more evenly, and a focus on harmony can be more easily obtained.

Back To Basics
Figure 1 Figure2 Figure 3
http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/h...hift%20Images/

Figure 1 shows how with increased income the cause effect relationship with necessity extension is exponential. Roughly 1/6 of the world’s population is living in extreme poverty just trying to scrape together the most basic and true necessities such as food, shelter, and water. These people have to get to the level of stable survival before they can worry about paradigm shifts, so we move a bit to the next level. Impoverished persons who have a stable lifestyle however basic are actually very close to being able to easily shift into this type of mindset. The problem that arises with this group of people is that as portrayed in figure 2 successes is often viewed as a linear relationship to money. The man with lots of money is successful. However the person with less necessity extension is in a better position to focus on re-adaptation and to become a pioneer of the paradigm shift. Instead of struggling with an upwards battle for “success” and money this group could realize it already has a good situation in the new system and by being there first it can be powerfully influential in laying the roots. The same situation exists for the middle class. Instead of struggling upwards an easier and open option exists to slide down a notch and be a pioneer for this paradigm shift. With the loss of necessity extension resulting from wealthier people living more simply a balance can eventually be found, as shown in figure 3. Many of the people who are already close to this base line living simply but with some amount of stability are often too preoccupied maintain such stability and/or trying to work up the success line to think about the benefits of their current situation. It becomes the jobs of socially conscious persons to be progressive and slide down the line towards the real success, talk about the benefits of simple living and find leaders originally from the impoverished socio-economic group to help lead others in the same situation to re-adapt and help global consciousness progress. With the impoverished people and others who slid down to success there will be a consciousness and power to address the more complex necessity extensions and bring about a balance and harmony for our world.

A Connect-the-Dots Guide

We all have our own yellow brick road, which is presented as soon as we open our door. This paper was begun with a general citation to books that have been puzzle pieces in my personal journey. None of them had the total picture but all presented new information or at the very least affirmations of what I already knew. Other pieces of the puzzle were sources such as life observation and experience.

The past few years for me have been filled with a growing awareness for consciousness, spirituality, and the world, coupled with this connect-the-dot like discovery that some people would describe as coincidences yet feel like so much more. One of the most recent dots was when I discovered others are experiencing the same thing... and writing about it.

This consciousness is like a chick trying to hatch based on some knowledge there is something more beyond the present closed conformity. Groups such as Gathering of the Minds (A live gathering group also on Facebook), may, knowingly or not, be essential in this task of breaking out. Several of my connect-the-dot experiences were a result of things seen or discussed in this very group. Now continuing with this idea in a group setting--Imagine a group of eggs all the same in form but containing unique chicks inside. All of these chicks are causing their eggs to knock against one another helping the others to break free, as none of the chicks know other chicks are doing the same thing and only have an idea that they are getting themselves free. Now we are begging to break through. We haven't completely gotten there yet, but some of us are peeking out, seeing what’s happening, and tweeting. Those tweets are raising the word about what is happening in exactly one of these connect-the-dot sensations. Chicks peaking through the holes thinking, ah-ha this is what we are doing, helping ourselves to help others, breaking free.

Like the concave and convex parabola, the conscious and subconscious lie together in unity. They are only separated by perspective. Quantum physics shows us that the actual make up of our world is dependent on our perspective. I have been told by professors and psychologists and others that it is impossible to have a world in which I am only caused happiness. I know that it is possible and depends on my perspective. Every even my not be viewed as happy based on common sense perception, but perception is a constant. You can have a perception of reception. The psychologist said, "Everyone gets sad."

I responded by saying, "yes, but isn't it happy to rejoice in sadness, such a feeling of being. A strange thought, but 'united we stand, divided we fall.' If I am in control of my perception of reception, why should I divide myself into a self-conquering system of being?"

It may seem as if I am trying to hold on to a perspective that everything is joyful. However, this is not the case. The goal is to shift the perspective to accept being and rejoice in it, thus a secondary result is happiness throughout.

Open your door and the road will be presented. Do not try to hold on to one perspective or the puzzle will never fit. Do not try to hold on to one perception, because as quantum physics shows us, there is no such thing as an objective/single position observer. Do not fear the unknown. It does not exist, because there is only the unrealized. To hold unity you must allow a shifting focus that raises the most important aspect of the moment to clarity.

"We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is to learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way."-- Excerpt from Island by Aldous Huxley.