Worldview

A worldview is the means and/or the context by which individuals seek to answer the basic questions of life. It is based on an individual's paradigm, i.e. the basic unstated assumptions and understandings that an individual holds and which dictates how that individual comprehends their experiences and in turn how he or she might live their daily life.  But while a paradigm is often an unconscious picture of how we view and interact with the world around us, a worldview might perhaps be more accurately described as how we consciously perceive ourselves, the universe, and our place within it.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences in its publication, The 2007 Shift Report; Evidence of a World Transforming, states that "Everyone needs a worldview. Without a context for answering the basic questions of life, we can feel lost or disoriented." They go on to add, "We are constrained by a limited way of thinking about the world and our potential -- a worldview -- that we have inherited from the past and that may be incapable of overcoming the challenges it has created." Or to paraphrase the classic line from a down to earth stageplay, "We may have done peed in our chili!"

Clearly, any attempt at improving our individual and societal condition requires that we know from whence we came, or in other words, how we got ourselves into this mess. Fundamental to this understanding is knowing our worldview, and perhaps challenging the concepts and methodologies inherent in such a worldview and which we have used in the past in our mad dash to create a future.

The excellent Noetic Sciences report goes on to describe the research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, which describes a worldview as having seven components. These include:

"A model of the world: Who are we?

"An explanation: Why is the world the way it is? Where does it come from?

"Futurology: Where are we going? [and why are we in this handbasket?]

"Values: What is good and what is evil?

"Action: How should we act?

"Knowledge: What is true and what is false? How do we know what we know?

"Building blocks: What preexisting theories and models have been used to answer the questions of the other six categories?"

These are interesting questions; interesting in part because they are sufficiently nebulous as to invite a multitude of answers, said answers being based on wildly different levels of philosophical thought, which in turn provide vastly different answers.

For example, consider the first question of "Who are we?" The answer might range from: Me, members in good standing with the official fan club of the Bay City Troubadors, to Texans, to humans, to members of one of a vast multitude of species residing on a small, utterly insignificant planet located in the backwaters of a relatively minor, nondescript spiral galaxy. The fact that many will choose an exalted position of the human species as an a priori assumption does not impact reality at all.

The diversity of the world is such that it seems unlikely that any one set of answers to these questions will be applicable to the whole. And yet, if one of the answers to the age old question of "Who are we?" is the rather simplistic, "We are one!", then perhaps a single individual's worldview might be a bit more comprehensive than one might have thought. Or perhaps the presentation of such a worldview might provide something of a template for others to contemplate such basic questions.

Accordingly, rushing in where angels and used car salesmen fear to tread, this essay will present my worldview -- which is subject to change and modification as occassions demand and/or permit, and which provide me with a vast amount of comfort of knowing it all. Besides, if we are truly one, then this me portion is part of you as well, and there's no getting rid of it.

The me worldview begins with the questions of, Why are we here, i.e. why bother with a universe to begin with, and/or why have incarnations from the spirit into this illusionary matter stuff in the first place? Such questions do go to the heart of the matter, and the fact remains that until we determine the meaning of our existence, such relatively minor factors as how should we act are essentially indeterminate.

The good news is that the me answer to the meaning of existence is relatively straight forward:

The universe exists in order to increase. Incarnations from the spirit into matter -- what has been described by other incarnations of me as The Time Falling Matter Takes to Light -- are for the purpose of increasing the extent, breath, and totality of experience in the universe. This is accomplished in part by providing pieces of incarnations with free will, i.e., the ability to muff lines, miss entrances and exits, and ad-lib like crazy. All the world is a stage, and the people upon it merely actors of questionable ability to carry it off. Furthermore, the performance at its heart is that of a comedy, with just enough tragedy thrown in to test the actor's meddle.

Given this meaning of existence, many the answers to many questions logically follow. For example,

What is good and what is evil? Good is that which increases choice (free will) and thus allows for a greater diversity and breath of experience to be added to the sum total of the universe. Evil is that which limits choice.

How should we act? Act in such a way as to increase choice, promote good, and diminish evil

Who are we? The logical answer is that we are data collectors and experience junkies.

What is true and what is false? Easy. Whatever is true to me is true. False is whatever is claimed to be true by you -- the latter that entity which has become separated from me for no justifiable reason. [The good news is that what is true can vary, change, and go with the current fasion of me. The whole point of being true or false is to provide comforting answers for arrogant souls who would really prefer not to bother with all of these rethinking and recalculation efforts.]

How do we know what we know? I am, therefore I know. On a more mundane level, the me knowledge stems from intuition, insight, logic, reason, and copying the answers from the papers belonging to other, distinct incarnations of me.

What preexisting theories and models have been used to answer the questions of the other six categories? Oh, give me a break!

This leaves the questions thus far unanswered of:

Why is the world the way it is?

Where does it come from?

Where are we going?

[Isn't it amazing how certain assumptions can really help to avoid thorny problems?]

The obvious answer to these last three questions is that the universe was initiated, developed, and subsequently volved in order to best accomplish the mission inherent in the meaning of existence, i.e. to increase the universe. This suggest a future, where-are-we-going scenario to be one which is by definition unknown. We can make limited guesses -- if only for the experience of being proven right or wrong, but for the most part, the true random walk has the distinction of not having an obvious destination. We can also note parenthetically that the world is the way it is based on where it came from, and the means by which it got from where it came from to where it is now. [That actually makes sense if you think about it enough.]

Be that as it may, there may be a bit more to the latter two questions. On the one hand, it can be said that the answers to all of the other questions continue to be valid, even when they are taken to more mundane levels. The final two questions, however, need to be answered on a slightly more mundane level in order to reach some slight measure of completion. In essence and for the benefit of our daily lives, we need to know where we came from and where we're going.

Regular readers of this website may already be chuckling to themselves, in the classic tradition of the answers already being known to me. And they are, of course, right.

The source of we as humans -- note that WE is just a parity, mirror version of ME -- is from a locally grown humanoid (probably homo erectus) as modified by extraterrestrials posing as gods and goddesses. The latter, aka the Anunnaki, Enki and Enlil, and so forth and so on, are the prime progenitors of the human race. They initiated our climb into history, and then apparently at one point pretty much abandoned there overt control of us. There is the suspicion that any future to the human race may be dependent upon the dictates of this Sumerian gang. However...

The nature and meaning of existence briefly extolled above might imply that the human experiment having been successfully launched, its control may be less in the hands of the initiators than in the hands of the rats in the maze. Life has a way of resisting limits and constraints, and bursting through concrete walls in order for a miniscule exposure to the rain and sunlight. And inasmuch as the meaning of life is to gather material for a stand up comic routine later on... any other prognoses of the future may be pointless.

The good news is that no one need feel lost and disoriented as long as they stick with me.