(Good but Weak, Strong but Bad, or Good and Strong) Background During the 1960s a popular and accessible model of psychotherapy, Transactional Analysis (TA), was developed by Eric Berne. Berne described his approach in his famous book, Games People Play. Everyone will recognize the players in TA’s examples of transactional “games.” TA continues to be a […]
Author: Tom F Shadid PhD
(Understanding What Is Good, Great, Evil, and Human) Introduction Most of us believe that people possess one mind. Sometimes that mind has the wisdom and courage to declare in the face of widespread civil violence: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies”—a thought that surely comes to us from “the better angels of our nature.” Other […]
Creationism is a dramatic story. The Supreme God commands the universe into existence, touching the earth to make humanity. But I think a more powerful story is the extraordinary evolutionary force that brings a universe into existence and gives rise to stars, life, and human consciousness. Every atom in our bodies was once stardust. Biblically, angels […]
The quadrune mind model of consciousness states that the human brain can support not one, but four distinctly different minds. Three of these minds are associated with parts of our brain that we share with our evolutionary ancestors: reptiles, herd mammals, and primate mammals. The fourth mind in this model, associated with the newest part […]
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Why Are We on Earth?
(Or, Why On Earth Are We?) Why are we on earth? I believe we are here to help extend an ancient trend from instinctive personal survival, to self-sacrifice for group survival, to seeking methods of universal survival and even well-being. The quadrune mind model is melioristic, meaning it believes the world naturally tends to get better […]
Introduction. Quadrune mind is a brain-based model of spiritual consciousness that says the human brain can produce four different kinds of minds, or levels of consciousness. Each mind is identified by our behaviors. The three types of minds we have received from our evolutionary/developmental past are a behavioral reptilian-like infantile mind, an emotional old mammalian-like childish mind, and an intellectual […]
Quadrune mind is a brain-based model of spiritual consciousness that describes three types of minds we have inherited from our evolutionary past: a behavioral reptilian-like mind, an emotional old mammalian-like mind, an intellectual new mammalian-like (primate) mind, as well as a mind only seen in human beings, our Human mind, which is capable of awe […]
Creationists and evolutionists have a long history of animosity toward each other. Some creationists see the theory of evolution to be a direct attack on the existence of God. Some evolutionists would agree. For instance, naturalists such as Stephen Jay Gould could become apoplectic at the suggestion that evolution is a teleological process (see The […]
As is true of all models, the quadrune mind model of human consciousness is a simplification of reality. The diversity of people’s mentalities is much more complex than QM’s basic four: reptilian-like, old mammalian-like, new mammalian-like, and human. However, complex variations arise from the interactions of these four fundamental levels of consciousness. Understanding the dynamic […]
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QM, Wisdom, and the PhD Degree
If we want to know in which direction our life is heading, then we should pay attention to what we are enthusiastic about. The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek en + theos: the God within. What we feel enthusiasm for is what inspires us to put forth our best efforts to achieve our goals against any odds. […]