day eighteen: paradigms
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.
-Nikola Tesla
Have you ever seen the Pixar movie Monsters, Inc.? It tells the story of a scare factory that captures children’s screams and uses them as an energy source. When a child accidentally gets into their city, it’s seen as a disastrous invasion, but the monsters soon learn that laughter has far more energy than screams do, and the tiny adorable intruder becomes a game changer. We need a paradigm shift of this magnitude.
Fear disables clear thinking. When our vision is clouded, we’ll believe (and buy) almost anything. Just like screams were an inferior form of energy for the monsters, we need to consider that fear may be inhibiting our evolution. Sure, every parent has used fear to try to gain control at some point. And we as individuals also use fear to control ourselves, maintaining the status quo because it’s comfortable, but as the famous meme says: the magic happens outside your comfort zone.
Old doors won’t open new ways. Fear creates a certain kind of consciousness that keeps us in fight, flight or freeze mode, but if we set that fear down, a void gets created for a new kind of consciousness that includes empathy, community and love. If we set fear down, we’d move from surviving to thriving. If we set fear down our thinking would clear and we’d get more creative about everything from the environment to hunger to healthcare to equality. And we’d also use new forms of learning and thinking.
These new forms might include non-physical phenomena—like Tesla speaks about in the quote above—new ways of knowing, like imagination and intuition. Thich Nhat Hanh said, Many scientists acknowledge that great discoveries are often realized through intuition. For them, reason is not an agent of discovery but a tool to explain and support it afterwards. They say that we human beings use a small percentage of our brain's capacity—what if we were invited to use all parts of our brains including all of our senses? What if we utilized non-traditional methods more? For instance, Michael Pollan’s best-selling book How to Change Your Mind has had millions of people consider that psychedelics might be an alternative approach to hard-to-solve mental health issues including PTSD and complicated grief. What if, along with modern medicine, we included Hippocrates old tenet of health, let your food be your medicine.
Per the prophecy of the eagle and the condor, which comes from the indigenous people of North and South America, to save the world someday we’d need to bring opposites together. We’d need science and technology along with—not in opposition to—the wisdom of ancient cultures. We’d need women and men. The young and the old. Artists and academics. Shamans and doctors. I think they were right, and I can’t help but wonder if this is the time they were speaking of.
Reflective Journal Prompts
How has fear helped you maintain the status quo? It could be in your work life, your relationships, your family or your community.
How could you invite in the thoughts and ideas of groups you haven’t been considering? How could you invite in new ways of sensing and knowing?
Discussion Prompts
Talk about non-physical phenomena that have enriched your life. For me, it was when my dear friend was dying at a hospital two hours away from where I lived. It pained me not to be with her in person all the time. On more than one occasion we met in dreams reassuring us both that there was a way to be together despite the physical distance.
Suggested Action
Blindfold yourself for an hour and see what you discover when you have to rely on other senses. I did this once in NYC for a whole day.
For children, watch Monsters, Inc. and discuss it. Available on Disney +.