People are bad predictors of what will make them happy. With most of our happy moments being accidental and unexpected it is also a short-term event.
Permanent happiness is therefore a fantasy pursued at times by setting unrealistic goals or making needless purchases or empty plans. Discouraging as this may seem happiness has also never been so obtainable thanks to new understanding in science, mostly in the fields of epigenetics and neuroscience.
Happiness can now be seen more as a biological event that is a result from successful and harmonious social interaction. Making love may first come to mind for many but even this is merely a temporary closeness with elation resulting from a temporary peak of a few hormones (oxytocin and vasopressin). This very basic state of contentment however represents only a small state of a much larger picture. And here is where it gets really interesting. Passion, real passion comes from doing what matters and when doing what matters success and happiness will follow, even from what appears to be perpetual failure.
Now science tells us how our epigenome can alter not only our destiny but happiness.The epigenome is the set of chemical modifications to the DNA and DNA-associated proteins in the cellthat can be altered in response to environmental exposures or disease. And more opportunistically by perspicacious perception.
Using a multitude of chemical compounds the epigenome can tell the genome what to do. Like all else in biology the epigenome is made up of chemical compounds and proteins that can attach to DNA and direct such actions as turning genes on or off, controlling the production of proteins in particular cells.
When epigenomic compounds attach to DNA and modify its function, they are said to have "marked" the genome. These marks do not change the sequence of the DNA. Rather, they change the way cells use the DNA's instructions. The marks are sometimes passed on from cell to cell as cells divide. They also can be passed trans generationally.
Think a happy thought just for a minute. As you did this you have alter your epigenome!! Now think bad things or get stressed again your epigenome is responding and altering your construct on molecular level.
Talk about interconnection! We are truly part of everything around us and interactive on levels undreamt off.
This new era of a more conscious biology and awareness of the boundless potential once we can break free from material constraints and reductionist concepts is exciting to say the least.
In Spheres of Perception we utilise these new concepts to obtain principled interconnections in business and healthcare.
What to obtain from this?
· Successfully feel your way through life and ideas instead of over-thinking it
· Delayed but ongoing gratification
· Dumping the unnecessary burdens of excess
· Improved health for both your business, yourself and staff
· A better world for all
· Interconnecting with fulfilling and interesting people
· Dumping toxic environments, harmful drugs, chemicals and stressful people — health and happiness
· Openness to your own and others and their emotions
In Spheres of Perception we see active living systems operating within active living systems and success directly related to the consonance of these interactions.
The three Spheres of Reasoning introduced in this book is a practical new way of thinking about reasoning. It is a method that will clarify how we perceive reality, and thus help us achieve humanity’s potential. There are three main qualities of the human brain we can enhance by employing three spheres of reasoning: 1. Pragmatic thinking - so that our creative ideas can better achieve the results we intend. 2. Resilience against manipulation – so that we will be less vulnerable to advertising, pseudoscience, and rigid reductionism. 3. Greater adaptability and pliancy – so that our minds will better adapt to changing conditions and better incorporate new information into our understanding of reality. Together these abilities can help us avoid getting stuck in old thinking or blocked from finding a clear forward path. These three spheres interact in unison as the Physical sphere of reasoning (PSR), Logical sphere of reasoning (LSR) and the abstract yet vital, metaphysical sphere (MS).
ThePhysical sphere of reasoning(PSR) is where we contain the verifiable, workable ideas about our physical world. This is where an empirical science mostly operates, for example by finding and eliminating errors. It is a Sphere of Physical realities, functional theories and applicable mathematical equations. It delivers pragmatic results: rockets that send humans to the moon, surgeries that heal, skyscrapers, the Internet. An important feature of the Physical sphere of reasoning is its dependency on what, who, when and where you are. Imagine the physical sphere of Columbus compared to that of the average human today. The security provided by high bar of entry into this sphere also makes it difficult (though not impossible) for false ideas or manipulated evidence to creep in. Yet another important feature is that the ideas in this sphere are constantly being adjusted and adapted as new knowledge enters it. Nothing is permanent. For example, Newton’s laws of physics had to adapt to the arrival of Quantum mechanics. The virtue of this lack of permanence is that it allows for progress – the evolution of knowledge. In this way, the PSR mirrors the principles of evolutionary biology, as our genes themselves evolve from generation to generation. Guided by both and internal and external principles, the PSR constantly interacts with the much less certain Logical and Metaphysical spheres.
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TheLogical sphere of reasoning(LSR) is the sphere where ideas are considered and evaluated to determine whether or not they can be placed within the Physical sphere or reasoning. This sphere is where hypotheses are tested. Although full of uncertainty and doubt, this sphere relies on sound logic, scientific methodology and reliable perceptions in order arrive at valid conclusions. Due the uncertainty of the concepts being evaluated in this sphere, there is always the possibility that personal biases, deliberate manipulation, or simple lack of information might lead us into error. Therefore we have to be careful to only hold tentativelyany ideas that are in this space. Here’s a simple example, if we see an apple on the table, we can pick it up, taste it even, and thus verify it is an apple. So, it belongs in the Physical sphere. But if we imagine there might be an apple waiting for us on our desk at work, where we left it last night, we can’t know it for certain (someone may have eaten it). So that idea of an apple we only contemplate rests in the Logical sphere. Other ideas in the Logical sphere include the possibility of microbial life on other planets, or the health benefits of certain traditional medicines that have not been rigorously tested. It also includes new ideas in subatomic physics, predictions about the stock market and most other economic predictions. And it would include unscientific but still potentially testable ideas – conspiracy theories, the existence of fairies, heaven and hell, even God.
We can perhaps see why our current thinking is often in turmoil: because we fail to clearly distinguish between ideas that have been validated, and those we hold due to belief. When our beliefs conflict with the facts about reality, all too often we choose the familiar over the rational. The desire to impose our personalized beliefs on others has been the cause of much human conflict and suffering. But there could be great social utility to this distinction between spheres: That which is in the Physical Sphere has been thoroughly tested, and so those ideas become a common ground that people can agree is true. Clarifying difference between the Spheres can give each person a better possibility of recognizing an error of reasoning, and adjusting their understanding to better fit the facts.
TheMetaphysical sphere can also be called the sphere of the unknown. It includes the whole great realm of existence that humanity has not yet contemplated, explored, or discovered. Meta-physicalliterally means beyond the physical, and so we can take it to mean that which is beyond the Physical sphere of reasoning. In this sphere lies our future discoveries and unthought of experiences. Since we have not yet thoughtwhat is in this sphere, we can’t really call it a sphere of reason. Yet the ideas we generate about the Metaphysical are vital to humanity. As George Bernard Shaw wrote: “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not?” By contemplating the metaphysical we create, invent, imagine and conceive new thoughts.
One advantage of including the Metaphysical as a Sphere is to escape from reductionism. A reductionist mindset asserts that only the physical exists. If something can’t be tested and validate by science, it can’t be considered real. But such an approach can easily also be responsible for clouding our imagination and hampering progress. Just as we are developing a new understanding of a perceptive evolution, so too our own ideas about reality are constantly evolving. The Metaphysical forms the substrate from which these new ideas come into our minds. It gives us mental material with which to think new thoughts and stimulates our mental evolution – most vitally in response to new challenges in our human environment. In this this way, the metaphysical can be seen, like the other two, as an actively evolving sphere, wherein the previously unperceived is turned into the newly perceived. There are endless unknown answers, unimagined and unformulated questions out there in this Metaphysical sphere of our existence. This vital sphere interconnects and interacts with the other two spheres, and we simply cannot evolve a sound epistemology without it.
To further clarify: the idea of a Higgs boson particle used to belong in the Metaphysical sphere (MS) – an unthought of unknown, until Peter Higgs thought of it. As soon as he thought of it, the new idea shifted to the Logical sphere or reasoning (LSR), where it was studied, debated and tested. As soon as it was validated, the idea moved to the Physical sphere of reasoning (PSR), where it is now taught in physics classes as a fact about the world. However, as the realm of subatomic physics so well demonstrates, just because an idea is in the Physical sphere today, doesn’t mean the idea might not be sent back to the LSR tomorrow as new evidence comes into our awareness - or entire new paradigms. So even the Physical space of our knowledge remains unfixed, and constantly adjusts to new information. This is essential if it –and we – are to continue to evolve and adapt. The significant adjustments scientists now witness in our genome interlinked and continuously interacting with our epigenome and environment, also reemphasizes the importance of the unimagined in a rapidly evolving world.
ãAuthor Spheres of Perception,Changemaker Books 2019.
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