To give an idea of how I approach academic disciplines, I'll sketch some of the thoughts  and questions that enter my mind when I study a piece of text.

For example, Russell Ackoff and Fred Emery have written some stuff on goal, objective, and  purpose in their book "On Purposeful Systems". I'll quote a small piece of text from this work. On page 240 we read under the heading of "The Nature of Ideals and Their Pursuit": "It will be recalled that the goal of a system in a particular situation was defined as a preferred outcome that can be obtained within a specified period of time. Further, an objective of a system was defined as a preferred outcome that cannot be obtained within a specified time period but can be obtained over a longer time period. A purposeful system is of a qualitatively higher order than is a goal-seeking system: it can pursue objectives."

The text goes on for quite a while, but this was the first passage I looked up in the book, as i was drawn immediately to chapter 14 on Ideal-Seeking Systems. Associations with Arthur Young's work immediately arose in my mind. Associations with the fractal human being by Onno Damste entered my mind as fractals can be seen as layers upon layers of development. Associations with and questions pertaining to the different kingdoms of nature entered my mind: do plants have goals?, do animals have objectives?, what about degrees of freedom regarding purpose and goals? What about the role of choice in these matters? What about the principles of mind involved in setting a goal, defining your objectives and purpose? How do Bennett's energies fit into this?

What about the interfaces or gradations between plants, animals and humans? How about the role of different brainstructures in this matter? The list goes on but this is to illustrate how a short piece of text can give rise to hundreds of questions (and ultimately hypotheses) about the human,animal and plant nature. This all pertains to the world of the true scientist.

Philosophy and belief-systems  cannot be seperated from this enterprise as there is no such thing as a theory-free fact. About all perception is loaded with conceptual matters (filters through which you perceive). Scientists like to avoid these matters (bury their heads in the sand), but that is no solution! From "atom" to "time" or "space", all the way to identity, and even feelings; all involve concepts we have or ideas or beliefs about the world, the other, ourselves.  I distinctly remember fellow psychologists avoiding subjects such as these (like the qualia problem) like the plague, trying to adopt a reductionist approach like physicists do, but this gets them nowhere in my humble opinion. The social sciences are fragmented into hundreds of little theories as a result. There is no one overarching theory in psychology.

The approach I just sketched leads to more integration of fields of knowledge since it deals with the whole picture at first and identifies hundreds of important points for research in relation to each other and the whole! It can also help organize knowledge, like Arthur Young's paradigm can and John Bennett's ideas can help to bring some order into a multitude of little systems/paradigms.

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Posted by m_euser at 3:36 PM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 22 July 2007 11:25 PM MEST

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The way of developing notions and raising questions in the domains of fact and values in my work can be said to be "broad brush-stroke like". First I try to establish a rough frame of reference, typically using notions from one of the fields I mentioned in my last posting. This approach ("broad brush-strokes") ensures that we keep an eye on the whole situation instead of losing ourselves into infinite details. It is a time-honoured approach from the East which I fully endorse. We can add some details after we have established the broad outline, not unlike one does with setting up a drawing.

 The last twelf years I have extracted some essentials from esoteric literature and teachings, which provides us with:

1. A basic ontology

2. A basic epistemology

3. In relation to the former two: a real philosophy of life, including basic understanding of the afterlife, human's role on earth, moral guidelines and an understanding of the Oneness of life.

4. Most importantly, a method for transforming oneself into a more harmonious being.  See my ebook about that on http://m_euser.tripod.com/ScienceSpir3dmil.pdf

These points deserve full attention of all serious people. This knowledge is quite unparalleled in history and should be taught at schools and universities. The ideas expressed can be applied in real life and  the  inner worlds experienced. A whole new world of meaning can arise out of that.

I myself have some interest in researching philosophical and psychological notions in connection to esoteric teaching in order to see deeper into the relations between  these notions. That is the subject of my other postings.

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Posted by m_euser at 2:36 PM MEST

Updated: Saturday, 21 July 2007 3:21 PM MEST

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 In the fourfold model of the human being there is soul on the second level, after spirit. Soul has been designated "buddhi-manas", enlightened thinking. It is the realm of Understanding, different from mind because mind has knowledge, but little understanding!  Understanding means: seeing the big picture, seeing relations between things on the inner level.

Soul instills values to mind, like a parent does to its child. The child must develop it's conscience and the parents help it to do that by setting rules and explaining why and how  some actions can be hurtful to others. The child internalizes those rules and explanations. Likewise, the adult learns some lessons in life later on. The life experience in its essence is transferred from mind to soul during sleep (and at death). During sleep there's an opportunity for feedback from soul to mind (e.g. ideas, advice on problems, etc.). If you know how to listen to the "small voice" within then you can get feedback during the day as well.

Keep in mind that I am talking about the inner Self, the parent-self, your Higher Self. The "formation of a soul", spoken of in esoteric literature, pertains to a "light-body" and is not dealt with in this posting. That formation is part of The Great Work.

In the theosophical model (see my ebook), soul is called True human soul or higher human soul or higher self. In Kabbalah there is the ethical triangle which pertains to this soul. This could be a good topic to do a little research about. What is the function of the three sephiroth that form the ethical triangle? It includes Tiphareth as the messenger of the spirit, so much is certain. By my hypothesis, soul transfers values to mind. And life-experience leads to development of values. Soul distills values from mind or rather from life-experience. 

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Posted by m_euser at 2:08 PM MEST

Updated: Friday, 20 July 2007 3:45 PM MEST

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It occurred to me that historically there have been three ways to deal with the mysteries of life and the universe:

1. Religion. Degenerated into fundamentalisms of all kinds.
2. Science. Rife with savants idiots. Scientism as new religion.
   
3. Older than science, but usually numbered as three: Hermeticism, the Middle road to truth. Gnosis, Freemasonry, Rosicrucean orders, several theosophical societies, anthroposophical, etc. can be considered as Third way attempts to understand life and provide people with a philosophy of life. Unfortunately, dogmatism is strong with many members and leaders in such orders, not to mention the flood of questionable material from the last century in some of these movements. Plus a reluctancy to do research relating to their ideas.
   
4. A "Fourth Way" occurred later: Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and offspring ideas like Bennett's systematics. Little research taking place  as far as I know; Bennett's systematics provide some clues for developing a more coherent science (I mean all disciplines).

My own writings find their source in all of the four above (and in some of my own experiences). I think it is high time that a true syncretism (fusion of ideas into a larger framework) takes place. Especially ideas from the humanities and fields such as cybernetics should be incorporated into a philosophical model of the will, being and function of the human being and her/his place in society and cosmos. A good name for this endeavour is Fifth Way since it transcends and incorporates the preceding four ways and is not only inclusive of scientific findings but actually studies and refines academic disciplines (at least in principle). It is just in it's beginning stages and hopefully will attract many knowledgable and creative participants. The least it does is raising important questions about the human drama, the larger setting of life and cosmos, and providing some tentative answers that may very well help guide humanity into a sane course of life.

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Posted by m_euser at 4:12 PM MEST

Updated: Friday, 20 July 2007 3:44 PM MEST

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Douglas Dewar has written extensively on evolution.

He asserts that Darwinists are wrong in many of their suppositions.
Although I think that selection is an established mechanism operative in  nature,  there are many other questions that  require serious consideration.
His posthumously published book The transformist illusion is well worth some study. See for yourself!

More texts on evolution can be found at: TUP online
Especially, see "Man in evolution" by Gottfried de Purucker.

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Posted by m_euser at 2:53 PM MEST

Updated: Friday, 20 July 2007 3:43 PM MEST

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Just watched a documentary on waste = food. It seems that designer William McDonough and the chemist Michael Braungart are succeeding in implementing the idea of a wasteless economy. When one can reuse waste for 100%, or nearly so, then one has created a circular economy (eco-nomy).

Quite impressive, I have to say. They say that when 5% of consumers are motivated to buy products designed according to wasteless criteria a hugh shift will occur in world economy. China seems to embrace such an approach.

Good idea. This clearly shows how valuation (in this case the valuing and understanding the profitability of ecological design) impacts decision and act, resulting in change and fact.

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Posted by m_euser at 10:11 PM MEST

Updated: Friday, 20 July 2007 3:41 PM MEST

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The four level model of the human being can give us some guidance as to the debate about Darwinian evolution versus Intelligent design.

In my ebook, first article, theosophy basics, part one, I indicate the real meaning of the word evolution. It is a movement from within to
manifest certain "inborn" principles. The idea of natural  selection has its place in esoteric philosophy. I refer to the book "Man in evolution" by Gottfried de Purucker. See www.theosociety.org in the online section. The idea that by total chance events DNA molecules get into existence is refuted by esoteric philosophy afaik. There are ordering factors at
work in the development of a cell. Some scientists have been making calculations as to the chance that a DNA molecule is formed. The chances that mechanical, molecular forces, etc. form this are astronomically small, let alone the formation of a cell. Not to talk about the emergence of human intelligence, hehe. Biologists will eventually come to the conclusion that they must research the organizational forces of life much deeper than has been done up to now. They begin to discover a thing here and there, like the biogenic radiation coming from a cell when it divides. The future will undoubtedly bring many a surprise to us in the realm of discoveries. There has just been a publication in Wageningen, in my country, about plants secreting certain substances that will attract enemies of leaf-eating organisms. The motto for the plant seems to be: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". It shows that plants are not so passive in behaviour as many biologists have thought to be.

To get back to the current scientific idea about evolution: there is not one level of evolution, but there are separate lines of evolution coming together in the human being. See for example my e-book, second article. The fourfold model may yield  more insight as to the relations of these lines of evolution to each other.

JG Bennett describes in this tome "Dramatic universe" how hidden factors have an influence on human evolution. See his fourth volume in that series.

Instead of trusting blind fundamentalists and deaf scientists and politicians who lead our society into disaster we better trust the wise people on our planet - if we can detect them! It will already make a difference when less money is spent on military issues and more on good education, health, etc. As to religion, the leaders must help develop their mythologies, stories, into viable directions that have something to say to well-educated people or risk becoming obsolete. I already discussed the failure of scientism in my ebook (see appendix about reductionism). Also, the splitting of ethical considerations off the scientific enterprise has been a very dangerous one. Think of the technological applications of science: nuclear energy, including mass destruction technology, gene manipulation, mass pollution, etc. and you get the picture.

 Ok, now let's return to the 4fold model. I found a couple of nice links as to the mind and it's functions. To my delight some psychologists have started thinking about the will, conation, and tried to incorporate a little of this factor into their models. See for example http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/motivation/motivate.html

There's much more to be found there as well, for example a feedback model that includes spiritual/soul as a factor:

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/behsys/feedback.html 

 See also my link to the insightful http://home.tiscali.nl/knmg0234/concentric.zip

Then I found a thorough consideration about the mind as producer of thought:  http://www.theos-talk.com/archives/200602/tt00098.html

That article brings also the factor of soul into consideration, which is a necessary thing for reflection and experience for people of our civilization. People are so out of touch with their feelings that our whole civilization often looks like a zombie or psycho movie.  Only an orientation on true spiritual values can lead our world into a healthy direction.

 I will come back to that article at some point, because it fits in nicely with some ideas of Arthur Young and also with  Jim Miller's Living Systems Theory. His subsystems are described in my article http://m_euser.tripod.com/science/examples.html

especially http://m_euser.tripod.com/science/table1cellLST.html 

and  http://m_euser.tripod.com/science/table2organismLST.html

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Posted by m_euser at 10:09 PM MEST

Updated: Monday, 23 July 2007 1:12 AM MEST

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Huston Smith presents a four level model of man and cosmos in his
book "Forgotten Truth".

In basic form it reads: body, mind ("psyche"), soul, spirit. I omit other names/terms from several religions, because that doesn't make things clearer.

This corresponds with the Kabbalistic Four Worlds: Action,
Formation, Creation and Emanation.  This four level model seems
to correspond to some degree  with Arthur Young's model. One has
to equate Level four with molecular action, level 3 with
organizational forces and blueprints, level 2 with soul,
beliefsystems, values, etc., and level 1 with spirit (autonomous
field as Vitvan would say).

The following theosophical correlation can be made to body, mind,
soul, spirit: body is the configuration of physical body plus
linga sarira plus prana; mind is kama-manas; soul is
buddhi-manas; spirit is atma-buddhi. All these terms are
explained in my free e-book. [link]

It gets really interesting when we ascribe the following aspects
to these four combinations:

Body as a configuration is the place where influences get combined.
It is a locus and means of action, execution of plans, etc.  

Mind or more precise: kama-manas (desire-mind) is sometimes described as lower psyche, roughly our personality. It is the locus of psychodynamic factors (impulses, desires, imagination, personal motivation, energy, etc.). Circulation of driving energy. It also has an aspect of planning and formation of images, I believe. Also: processing of ideas.

Buddhi-manas ("soul") has to do with true ethics and moral values (true to the  natural order as Vitvan would say). It can be seen as our inner  Higher Self, a source of conscience and advice. Our inner teacher or guardian angel and spiritual parent in the esoteric sense. I suppose that buddhi-manas can be equated with noetic mind. (Nous means spirit in Greek). A steering factor if we allow it to be!
Intuitions are impulses coming from this level, I believe. Our
thinking combines in this case as it were already existant ideas
into something new. New paradigms are sometimes formed in that way.

The Great Work consists of the transformation of our ordinary
nature (kama-manas)  into buddhi-manas (Christ-nature). It is an example of the interaction of the vertical dimension (spirit, already developed, the parent monad) with the horizontal dimension ("personality" and "I", opening to the inner world) to realize spirit, to develop its inner nature. This involves lower self and the parent higher self to "make a soul" - a transformation of the lower self.
This was the true subject of the Mystery Schools of old. See my e-book for the monad-model of man in the article theosophy basics, part two.

Atma-buddhi is one's spiritual monad (see e-book). For our
purposes we can see it as the Field we live in (our Father in
Heaven). The inspiration of this sublime being may be felt in
one's life occasionally. True inspiration translates in complete
new ideas about life. Obviously a rare event in history. Most, if
not all, of the founders of the great religions had some inspiration at
work in them, I think. But this is not the place to discuss that
at length.

There is a ton of teaching behind this. Much has been explained
in the writings of Dr. Gottfried de Purucker. See my e-book for
links to his work.


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Posted by m_euser at 11:32 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 5 July 2007 10:26 AM MEST

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The  manas and buddhi work each in a different way. While manas is said to be a centripetal or contractive force, buddhi is centrifugal or expansive. These energies or forces work together to produce form and consciousness/sensation together with the all penetrating rays/essence from atman. Buddhi, the Light, works in the developed manas (mind) as the Christ principle, the reconciliator. Focus on your essence and pretty few things can put you off balance. You transcend the working of opposites. Let those thought bubbles that used to worry you vanish into thin air.
Question: what is really important to you? Outer success? To what extent? Inner peace? Permanent matters or evanescent trifle?

  This all reminds me of Yin/Yang philosophy and something I read in an anthroposophical article on the web. The rythmical expansion and contraction factors are visibly at work in growing plants. Just follow the growth of the stem with its nodes and leafs and parts between. A nice exercise in phenomenology!

 In a sense I can follow the concentration of essence into a form. What to think of the packing of ideas into a symbol?

More info on mind and some Sanskrit terms can be found in this yogic model. 

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Posted by m_euser at 10:57 PM MEST

Updated: Saturday, 16 June 2007 10:33 PM MEST

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Bennett sees "eternal pattern" as a kind of time-dimension.

In the here-now there are several factors at work: from space-time limitations to will (hyparchic time: see a previous posting) to potentiality (patterns). While patterns have to do with potentialities ("eternal future"), form has to do with "eternal past" (realized potentialities).  I always think of a seed with it's DNA patterns which have the potentiality of a beautiful rose, horse, man, etc., but that pattern has to be realized or actualized in a specific form.  It is in another sense like a prototype that has to be refined to be useful on this planet. The main idea is that patterns can be unfolded and combined with substance of the environment in order to yield a substantial form.

The same usually happens with an intuition: the idea has to be developed into a workable system or method such as in science. The factors that contribute in this process can be many and varied. From insight (buddhi),  manas (thinking) to desire to accomplish something useful.

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Posted by m_euser at 3:43 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 14 June 2007 3:46 PM MEST

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