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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 […]

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Human Mind Pre-Human Minds Religion Spirituality

Quadrune Mind: A Secular Spirituality for the 21st Century

Introduction To define religion and spirituality is difficult to do. Yet, it is important that we have some understanding of what these words mean for the quadrune mind model of spirituality and this blog. The best definitions of “religion” and “spirituality” for the quadrune mind model come from Bowling Green State University. Spirituality is defined as “the […]

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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 […]

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Contemporary Issues Foundational

The Content of Our Mind Does Not Determine the Level of Our Consciousness

(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 […]

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Spirituality

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 […]

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Contemporary Issues Old Mammalian Mind

QM, the Strategic Error Made by “Anti-Racists,” and the Mind of a Bigot

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 […]

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Contemporary Issues

QM, Unenlightened Power Elites & Mindless Oppressed Masses

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 inherited from our evolutionary past are a behavioral reptilian-like mind, an emotional old mammalian-like mind, and an intellectual new mammalian-like […]