Categories
Foundational

Blog Categories

Contained in this post are hyperlinks with previews of all posts in each of the following categories: Brain  (12) Contemporary Issues  (21) Foundational  (14) Human Mind  (13) New Mammalian Mind  (4) Old Mammalian Mind  (5) Personal  (6) Philosophy  (10) Pre-Human Minds  (7) Profile  (4) Psychology  (10) Religion  (6) Reptilian Mind  (10) Spirituality  (11)

Categories
Human Mind Spirituality

What Is It Like to be a Human Being?

How to Use Humanizing Habits of Mind to Create a Spiritual Consciousness More men become good through practice than by nature. —Democritus Background A basic principle of the quadrune mind model of spiritual consciousness is that people are not born either spiritually enlightened or spiritually fallen. Also, being spiritually conscious does not mean having a holier-than-thou attitude […]

Categories
Brain Foundational Human Mind Philosophy Pre-Human Minds

What Is It Like to Have a Mind?

Introduction If you were to ask a human being and a bat, “What is it like to have a mind?,” you would expect to get unimaginably different answers. What is less expected is that if you asked four different people the same question, you could receive four unimaginably different answers.  In 1974, philosopher Thomas Nagel famously asked […]

Categories
Human Mind Reptilian Mind

Silent Behaviors

The Differences among Automaticity, Solemn Rituals, Spiritual Rituals, and Awe Recent posts have described incidents of unusually silent behaviors of people: Sacred Spaciousness in a Physically Tiny Montreal Restaurant suggested that a Human mentality was dominant in the vignette presented, while Automaticity: Humans Behaving Like Machines described examples of speechlessness when a reptilian mind was dominant. In this post […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Psychology

How Entertainment and Art become Propaganda through the Loss of Aesthetic Distance

Introduction Aesthetic distance is the ability to consciously remember that the murder scene in a performance we are watching is not “real” even though we are emotionally caught up in the drama. That way, we don’t yell “Watch out!” when our favorite character is about to be shot in the back. Our emotions do not […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Foundational

Why We Are Not As Different From Our “Enemy” As We Think

If we look at the conflicts between people reported today in the news and recorded in world history books, we might be able to create a fairly long list of causes. Interestingly, for every cause there is an opposite and equal “re-cause.” Like the song Everyday People says, many people will always look for an […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Human Mind Religion Reptilian Mind

Why Religious Fervor and Spiritual Consciousness Are Not The Same

(A Comparison of Two Religious Politicians, Josh Hawley and John Lewis, in Light of the Quadrune Mind Model)  Josh Hawley and John Lewis each has lived his life in service to what he believed was right. But does that mean they have both lived spiritual lives? For the quadrune mind, it’s the level of consciousness, […]

Categories
Human Mind Philosophy Profile Religion

QM and the Human Mind of Siddhartha Gautama

Introduction In previous posts we have profiled each of the three pre-Human mentalities: the reptilian mind (as seen in Donald Trump’s behavior), the old mammalian mind (as seen in Temple Grandin’s understanding of animals), and the new mammalian mind (as seen in Tara Westover’s intellectual journey).  These profiles are not meant to demonize anyone, but […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Pre-Human Minds Spirituality

QM and Moral (But Not Spiritual) Arguments for Killing Other People

Introduction In the quadrune mind model of spirituality, there is no spiritual merit in the killing of another person—ever. In this blog we will describe some moral arguments for killing other people and indicate which level of pre-Human consciousness, as described in the quadrune mind model, best corresponds. We will end with an examination of the circumstances […]

Categories
Psychology

QM and the Four Steps—and Missteps—to New Behavior

Introduction I developed this model of behavioral change during my work as a mental health counselor. However, this model is presented here solely for informational purposes and is not intended to be used in place of professional counseling. Originally, these steps to change were not associated with the quadrune mind model of spiritual consciousness. However, […]