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Monday 8 March 2010

What kind of map do you have?



A map is essential for travelling as a visual representation of the area we travel. In life paradigms serve as maps. Paradigms are models of reality. These are what we think, imagine and believe about the world, the life and ourselves. Our beliefs about the world don’t mean the reality itself. Alfred Korzybski stated: “the map is not the territory". Similarly, an oil painting depicting the landscape is not the landscape itself. It is the representation and an artist’s individual interpretation of the real landscape. All of us are such artists when we paint with brushes and colours of our minds the world around us.

Firstly, we perceive through our senses only a portion of reality. Some species such as dolphins and bats have different senses not available to us, and we do not see in infrared of ultraviolet light. Secondly, only a small percentage of the information reaching our brain reaches our Consciousness. It can be compared to illuminating the surface of the water with a reflector. A bright spot of light slides the surface of the water. The water seems to be a lake or a river but in fact it is an ocean. And there is no way to tell what is under surface of the water or where is the nearest beach. In a sense each of us is a drop of water which reflects the universe. Senses are in fact extensions of the brain. Technically speaking, eyes do not see but the brain “sees” (interprets) through the electrochemical impulses reaching the brain. Information that comes to the brain is filtered and interpreted for example through the prism of personal filters, experiences, preferences, etc. Going deeper into that, we could discuss the nature of reality, quantum physics and interesting philosophical questions. It is worth remembering when we try to answer questions such as: What is the world, who we are and where are we going? What does it mean to be a human?

I think the questions are more important than the answers. The questions channel our minds and our thinking. The questions remain mostly the same but the answers tend to change along our development.

Over the centuries humanity has reached thousands of unique worldviews. Every ever existing society tried to find their answers to the above questions. That wealth of humanity can help us better understand life and ourselves. Ken Wilber, the creator and propagator of the integral theory of everything, put it like this: “all views have a degree of truth” because “no human mind can be 100% wrong. Or, we might say, nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time”. At the same time nobody has the monopoly for the truth. All worldviews turning what they really are – ways of thinking, models of reality, paradigms – into undisputable truths, dogmas – are harmful. Dogma – the term not restricted to religion – deceives, deludes, impoverishes, restricts Dogmatic attitude regardless of the subject is an open demonstration of delusional conviction: “I know better because I know the truth, all other people are wrong and I am not going to listen to them. “

What is behind such a dogmatic attitude? The mentality of “Us and Them”; dichotomy good-evil, black-white; mentality of “besieged fortress”; the ongoing effort to “fight for the faith” or for the ideology; ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom; complete confidence in the superior authority and its representatives, fear of committing thought crimes; defensive attitude against other views or lifestyles regarded as wrong, sinful, dangerous, etc. The world is a stage on which the conflict takes place between good and evil. Of course, that’s just a one version of manifesting human Ego.

It is often necessary to take a step back from the painting to see the whole. A piece of jigsaw puzzle says very little about the whole picture. Being limited to just a one worldview is like fixation on a simple element of the puzzle. Broader perspective on human development is proposed by theory called Spiral Dynamics. It applies to both individuals and societies and it is associated with people as Clare W. Graves, Don Beck, Chris Covan, Ken Wilber. Spiral Dynamics is a very plausible model which uses colours: Beige, Purple, Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow, and Turquoise for different stages.

The dogmatic attitude mentioned earlier is characteristic for Blue. Above the Blue there are further four phases’ developments of consciousness which are also psychological structures, value systems and ways of adaptation in different spheres of live.


Field of knowledge called memetics is another interesting way of thinking about culture. For memetics the central concept are memes – units of cultural information. Just as there are genes in genetics (biology) so there are memes in memetics (culture). “Virus of the Mind” is the revealing title of Richard’s Brodie book. Memes are mind viruses which compete with each other in our minds. Examples of highly contagious memes are fashions and religions.

Assimilation of new points of view is beneficial because it allows to better understand the world and ourselves. With new ideas we can create new and better maps of the world. Oliver Wendell Holmes put it like this: “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

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