966 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 81 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing Summarizing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 9/1/22

Transcending Paradigms - The Greatest Challenge of Our Time


Blair Gelbond
Message Blair Gelbond

Chaos
Chaos
(Image by Damian Gadal)
  Details   DMCA

Regarding the world's "villains" and destructive events - we find ourselves discussing. organizing, and analyzing the dynamics; we hurt, we cry out, we whine, and experience anguish and denial. But are we up to the most powerful, arduous, earth-shaking, orgasmic shift there is?... Taking on the responsibility of changing our consciousness.

Introduction

Since our mental models set the path for everything in our world - including ourselves - shifting our invisible paradigms constitutes the most powerful level of change we can create in individual consciousness and social institutions.

As Edgar Morin states:

"[A] paradigm is both underground and sovereign in all theories, doctrines, and ideologies. The paradigm is unconscious, but it irrigates and controls conscious thought."

In Waking Up, Charles Tart, an American psychologist and parapsychologist known for his work on the nature of consciousness, introduced the phrase "consensus trance" to our lexicon. Tart likened normal waking consciousness to hypnotic trance. He discussed how each of us is from birth inducted to the trance of the society around us.

Duane Elgin, in turn, asserts that our lives within a given worldview can be described as existing within a "perceptual paradigm," in which we experience life to the limited degree that the given paradigm allows. He posits that the invisible "dimensional geometry" that structures physical space also analogously structures psychological or perceptual space as an organizing framework.

Each new dimension or context is designed to call forth new potentials from us. As we perceive the possibilities inherent in each new dimension, we begin to actualize them - such that each provides new opportunities or learning contexts for individuals and societies to fill in with creative actions.

We began as hunter-gathers, then morphed into farmers, and eventually moved into the technological era.

However, eventually a fresh paradigm becomes stale and confining; we may feel like a chick whose survival depends on its ability to peck its way out of an egg.

**

In the previous article we were presented with one of the deepest, usually unconscious, worldviews by which we are possessed - "power-over": man over nature, men over women, and men over other men.

In future pieces we will explore parallel paradigms that exist alongside our current mental and institutional frameworks.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Must Read 1   Well Said 1   Valuable 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

Blair Gelbond Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I work as a psychotherapist with an emphasis on transformational learning - a blend of psychoanalytic and transpersonal approaches, and am the author of Self Actualization and Unselfish Love and co-author of Families Helping Families: Living with (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter

Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

IMAGINING OUR FUTURE: PERILS AND PROMISE Story 1: The Global Brain Is Waking Up

Toward a Mature Global Civilization

Imagining our Future" FORWARD INTO THE PAST - A New Birth: Interbeing

Transcending Paradigms Pt. 10: Primitive Humans > The Trauma of Modern Society > Global Citizens

Enzo and our Planetary Marathon

The Progress of the Soul

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend