October 29, 2006

WORLD VIEW - 3

A Pair of Dimes (Paradigm)?

Seldom do I find a person who understands the word, “paradigm.” Actually, its usage has changed in recent years. Originally the term meant “a pattern or model, an examplar,” and that is what you will find in a dictionary. One of its original uses was in science to define the model for any particular experiment. Then in the second half of the 20th century, various scientists and social scientists began to use the term to refer to what we have been defining as “world view.” T.S. Kuhn (1970) defined a paradigm as: “an entire constellation of beliefs, values and techniques shared by the members of a given community.” In effect, it is a kind of “view of reality.” Social scientists in particular began to speak of “paradigm shifts.” To understand this, we need to look at such paradigms and how shifts have taken place in the past, and possibly may be taking place in the present time. [Information here comes from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on the internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm].

Let’s take a very brief look at history and at some of the dominant paradigms at various times. A “dominant paradigm” means “the values, or system of thought in a society that are most standard and widely held at a given time.” Prior to the development of Christianity, the Western world was a kind of “mixed bag”. Since in those distant years, there was little communication, most people were illiterate, and opinions were largely scattered and more limited in scope than today. Some influences at the time, especially in the Mediterranean area, were Greek philosophy and then Roman power. Whoever was either in power or doing the teaching tended to influence how local people thought.

When the Christian Church developed and gained considerable power in Western Europe, the Church and its theology largely directed the thought and opinions of the people in the area. For most of those years the average person couldn’t read, and therefore was dependant on priests and scholars of the church who told them what to think about the Bible, God, and the world. Even most of the ruling heads of Europe were under the control and auspices of the Church. Therefore the paradigm at that time was centered on God and the teachings in the Bible as interpreted by the Roman Church. There were no other options, for any disagreement at the time brought the label of “heretic” and the threat of torture or death.

A paradigm shift involves “a new way of thinking about old problems.” (Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980). A shift, or transition in thinking about the world occurred around the time we now call the Renaissance. The word means “re-birth” and it was a re-birth of some of the older ideas from Greece and Rome. Plato and Aristotle’s philosophies became a part of the education of at least upper class students. The arts and architecture of earlier periods were examined, appreciated, and copied. New technology, such as the printing press, made it possible for greater numbers of people to learn to read.
The fact that many more people could read the Bible themselves contributed to the revolution called the Reformation, the time of Martin Luther. Protestantism challenged the former total power of the Catholic Church.

Ultimately in paradigm shifts, some blending or synthesis of earlier ideas takes place, and certainly various new perspectives about life, spirituality, government, evolve. At this very same time (1500-1600) the New World was discovered and explored. And we see the beginnings of modern science with Galileo, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and Rene Descartes leading to new thoughts about the world and its reality. Somewhere around 1600 historians report the big shift to a scientific view, based on Newton’s description of the world as based on mechanical forces. This new paradigm, sometimes described as a “clockwork universe,” prevailed until the 20th century.

In other words, although most people still include a spiritual perspective within their world view, guided by whatever religious training they may have received, the predominant model of the world since 1600 has been largely “controlled” by the scientific community. People in general, especially in secular education, looked to science for the answers to how the world was created, and what we are expected to do within it. The mechanistic model is still apparent in many modern aspects of life, especially our medical model. For example, allopathic medicine, by definition, treats illnesses by focusing on symptoms. That is, the body is thought of as a machine. You go to the doctor to get “fixed,” much as you take your car to the auto repair shop.

Many writers today--social scientists, frontier edge scientists such as quantum physicists, and spiritual teachers--propose that we are in another transition period, moving toward another paradigm shift. One can easily observe this new trend in medicine with the growing interest in and support for what is called Integrative Medicine. Simple research will confirm that most major medical schools are now including integrative medical courses in their curriculum. Different in philosophy from allopathic medicine, integrative medicine views the patient holistically, as a combination of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual being. Traditional medical schools fought this new idea for awhile, but many today, from Johns Hopkins to the University of Michigan to UCLA Medical schools and Duke University are encouraging the exploration of these new models (literally paradigms) of medicine. In other words, in medicine today we can see the “shift” towards some new perspectives, new opinions, new approaches to healing.

For the hard sciences, Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity “formed a new paradigm that superseded Newton’s physics.” Even more rapidly, the growing science of quantum physics is moving us into the new paradigm. Research and studies by Alain Aspect, David Bohm, and Karl Pribram, among many others, are discovering new aspects of reality that can drastically change many people’s world view. At least, it can affect that change when and if people learn and assimilate this new information. For me it has been highly significant and has clearly expanded my world view. We’ll get to that later. First we have to discuss “The Universe as a Hologram.”