Worldviews: Tree of Knowledge winning over the Tree of Life?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Your worldview is invisible to you. It’s like the floor you walk on… the foundation of your life.

You need to understand that your dislike of certain people makes you a moron if you also decide that THEREFORE what they say must be stupid…

Or you like how someone looks, and therefore they must be smart. Ugh.

You need to be able to tell the difference between a person, an idea, a behavior, and see them as independent from each other… That what the person says is important. To look and choose with discernment, and after consideration.

Of course 99% of humanity was never asked to think…

…was never taught to think, and this discernment and this consideration I am asking for will not land as a valid request, because you can’t…

This is why in the past 3-4 days a good chunk of my followers sloughed off… unsubscribed, withdrew. They don’t agree with the worldview I talk about.

I remember when I was younger I also thought that being around people who believed reality different from me were like a disease I could catch because I listened to or read what they said.

I was young. And I didn’t feel safe in anything different from what I was told ‘the right worldview’ was.

I was a communist, or socialist, or Marxist… that was the right worldview in mid-20th century Hungary.

Worldview is like the floor you walk on. Any change in worldview makes your floor dissolve… so it’s frightening. Only the mentally tough risks it… And those snowflake people who leave me and my teaching are not.

This article won’t be different: it will clearly delineate one worldview from another… and we’ll lose more snowflakes, I predict.

As people round the steps in the 67 step coaching program, as they begin the second cycle, some start to see new things, others keep on seeing the same things…

Some see the things from memory. Comparing. ‘Knowing’. And some, a very few, from actually seeing.

Step two (in the 67 steps) introduces the idea of the Selfish Gene, and ess, the evolutionary stable strategy.

This point is where people diverge: one goes in the direction of the Tree of Knowledge, the other goes in the direction of the Tree of Life.

It is really amazing to watch them go, unaware that they went there because they are unaware of the other path.

I recognize the ‘there is only one right way’ view of the one who wears blinders, so they cannot look wide… they can see only where the ‘already always’ path lies. Their worldview.

The view of the world, the view of people… and themselves among those people in that view of the world.

I will illustrate this with their own words… but before I do, I want to set down some principles:

Naturally, unmitigated by culture, society, memes, genes like to EXPERIMENT and arrive to new evolutionary stable strategies.

Evolution, the desire for evolution is innate to the selfish genes…

Evolved species start to use the edge effect: get more out of life.

Except humans. Humans have been hindered by culture, the family, society, memes… the Tree of Knowledge. The worldview.

The 67 step coaching is a possible evolutionary journey…

…and depending on the strength of your devotion, even insistence on the Tree of Knowledge, the program will help you to evolve, or not.

Drumroll… please.

It is that simple.

Your ‘fear’ of stepping into new territory is a fake fear. There is no new territory for anyone, until…

In the book The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles teaches how to grow. He says:

Begin where you are by starting to do things in a certain way. Then you’ll grow too big for that space…

Like a baby in the mother’s womb.

But, of course, how you understand what Wallace D. Wattles says will be crucial in what you’ll do…

What you’ll do will depend on your worldview.

If you see the world and you in it incorrectly, in the way you were taught in school, or your parents, or the church, or by a teacher, your actions will be vastly different from what you’ll see if you have a worldview that is closer to how it really is…

What you learned in school or church is an ideology was created to serve not you, not your growth, not your prosperity, but instead the power, the government, the intelligentsia, the rule-makers. The rulers.

Human imagination, fueled by false images by memes, books, society, news media, etc. depicts growth as a jump.

But growth only seems to happen that way. It’s a seeming. An awful lot of work happens in the invisible before the growth there becomes visible.

People enamored with this seeming. They see the world as if a fertilized egg could next day pop out of the mother’s belly in full armor. In full armor, an adult, like Pallas Athene popped out of her father, Zeus’s head. As if they could become an adult and a millionaire maybe even a billionaire in a hurry.

When I say it this way, it does sound ridiculous, doesn’t it?

Much like the immaculate conception 2-3 billion Christians believe in… yeah, worldview all right.

But this is what ‘they’ are teaching you: jump from ignoramus to millionaire through listening to some audio, making a vision board showing what you want, or by doing a course, preferably costing thousands of dollars.

Or become suddenly equipped with incredible skill and talent because you paid $45 for a capacity activation. From one moment to the next.

This is the Tree of Knowledge path:

no work is done, no growth is caused on any level.

Add to it fear of failure from going to that ‘next level’ of making a million dollars. Fake fear. There is no danger of any of it… you are barely functioning where you are…

Wallace D. Wattles says, remember? Begin where you are by starting to do things in a certain way. Then you’ll grow too big for that space…

But you fill your space only to a degree of 5-10% now… why would you even THINK of going to the next level, unprepared!?

So what is the Tree of Life path?

Yes, you’ll recognize it as what Wallace D. Wattles says: You start doing what you do now with more power, with more dedication, with more conscious awareness. With the future in mind. Do it better. Start doing it in a certain way. Putting all power in all action. Making more of your actions excellent.

For most people this is already a serious alteration of their worldview.

On this stage there is no visible change… all change happens inside the belly of the mother: a new human is going to be born at the end of that growth…

One student gets it, the other doesn’t

Tai says: do simple things simply. And ask questions if your understanding is spotty or if the doing looks complicated. If it looks complicated then you are looking at it wrong.

What is my recommendation? Read The Science of Getting Rich. Especially the chapter where he talks about The Certain Way.

Put what you learn into action. You’ll have difficulties, because it is too simple, and it won’t make you look good: there is no bombastic smart sounding speaking, and there is no fear… It is all doing. It is all below the hood… below the visible… in the all important level of the invisible.

Even the thinking part is ‘doing’. It says: think this… It doesn’t say: have these thoughts.

You need to learn to THINK what you intend to think.

Not thinking about, not repeating it like a mantra… NO. think that. Simple and incredibly hard… until you get the hang of it. I remember when I first heard that instruction… whaat?!

OK, I promised to illustrate the Tree of Knowledge path and the Tree of Life path with students’ posts:

So many times in my life I have reached that point where I am at the top of the ladder and was pushed to move on, having to face the fear of being a beginner again, but every time I moved on I was a much better person.

There is a smugness, a self-righteousness with being comfortable at the top of the ladder. There has to be change, and there has to be adaptation, and it’s challenging, and it makes your blood flow again, and grows you.

Fear of failure is paralyzing.

It has paralyzed me. But looking at ‘failure’ through different filters, seeing it as the necessary process for learning, for growing larger, it helps it become acceptable; doable.

Do the things that are humbling, and unknown, with a child’s heart. Can I do that? I think I can.

And fear has been a companion for a while now; fear that I have to make this huge leap into the unknown. That I have to drop everything I am currently doing, my friends, family, my security, and walk into the fog.

But that is black and white thinking; far from the perspective of taking one step at a time. I can work at it, chip away at the sculpture little by little, allowing things to take their course over time.

This student was talking a good talk, but only to sound good, and avoid doing the work. Tree of Knowledge… fake.

I am certain you can’t hear it… because you are also a proponent of the Tree of Knowledge path… the fake path, pretending to want something, but you don’t…

You need stability in your strategy by an action.

OK that’s what I’m working on. Just a simple strategy of reading, bringing my attention back to what I’m listening to and the 67 steps.

It’s nothing too big that I can’t come back to. That’s the strategy and the sense of stability and the reward I’m getting every day from these small actions is what makes it worth it.

I know the changes won’t happen right away but over time they will. so then I have time to adapt to new ways as I go. Then I will be able to adapt when I need to.

I mean if I don’t learn how to keep my attention on where I need it how can I ever be aware of anything going on around me? and if I don’t read and learn from people who have been there and already done something, how can I ever adapt to the world so I can give to it?

Like I said before I can only take tiny steps right now because I have no foundation yet.

And I know myself enough that if I try to leap and take on more than I can handle: it’s going to come down fast that’s why I’m doing my reading, bringing my attention back to what I’m listening to and the 67 steps.

that’s going to be my stable foundation but it will take work. So every step I will write this so I keep banging it into my brain and even if it takes 90 days to make it a habit for a lifetime.

If you can hear that this second student is not talking about doing, he is doing. And he is building. And you have real hope for his evolution. You can taste it… And it tastes delicious.

The only thing that gave me pause is what he says in the end: the 90 days.

When it comes to new habit building, or worldview building, it starts over when you fall off the proverbial wagon. And he did… And he never grew.

So what is the fundamental difference between the two paths, the two worldviews?

We can safely say that humanity has been, for the past 10,000 years, on the path of the Tree of Knowledge. No growth, neither intellectually, nor emotionally or spiritually. No growth.

It’s unnatural. It’s AGAINST NATURE. Against the Selfish Gene’s wishes.

But why?

My guess is that with the introduction of language, people could sound smart, and wear feathers to decorate themselves. Wear feathers they did not earn. By using words.

And those feathers deceive others thinking that there is some value there, and they buy it.

Worthless politicians, worthless managers, worthless intellectuals, social justice warriors, do-gooders, reformers, church leaders, almost any leader… you know the kind.

And, like any conspiracy, no one dares talking about the conspiracy… in fear that they are wrong. Because everyone is pretending. Just like in the fairy tale ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ people go along to get along.

So people feel powerless. So people, instead of telling the truth, they invent non-existent conspiracies. because it is safer than to call out the liar, the cheat, the fraud, the naked emperor. Because hating conspirators is juicy. Aliens, reptilians, pedophiles in underground tunnels, and other juicy bullshit that require no thinking, no new worldview, only blaming and yelling and storming the castle waving a flag or two.

When there are enough made up conspiracies then you can be sure no one is looking at the real conspiracy: The people on top are robbing people of the power to make a life for themselves and their children.

The whole of humanity is dressed now in clothes that exists only as a belief.

Tree of Knowledge now trumps reality, rationality, and Life.

Some rare individuals can break free of the spell… but no one believes them.

I am one of the ones who broke free of the spell.

And you could be one too…

Maybe.

In the Starting Point Measurements…

…the measurement that measures to what degree you are able and willing to hear and heed feedback. It’s an attitude, it’s a worldview. If it is fearful, if it is resistant, if it is arrogant and superior, you probably won’t heed the feedback.

You’ll send me hate mail and call me names. And unsubscribe. Even if your other numbers are decent, this one measure can tell me if you are willing to change your mind, and start living your life on the Tree of Life… in reality.

Now you see why I don’t have thousands of followers… If only a tiny fragment of humanity is able and willing to change the floor they live on… then it’s normal that I have only a handful of followers.

That attitude is the pivoting point: if you are willing (even if you are not able yet), you can raise your vibration.

If you are ‘resistant’ you can’t. Won’t. Can you change that ‘attitude’? Maybe. It is probably the hardest thing a human can attempt to change their attitude… And unless you say ‘It’s worth it for me to change that attitude‘ you won’t.

And that is the big issue:

Is it worth it for you to change your mind?

If you are a snowflake or a social justice warrior or a victim… I would not bet on you.

If you expect life to be smooth, pleasant… If you expect to be right all the time. You expect your teacher to never yell at you, the weather to be always sunny and mild and the rain to fall when it is supposed to… you will never change your mind. About anything.

To my utter surprise some people keep on hanging on… keep on coming back… keep on trying… so far unsuccessfully. But never say never.

I like to say ‘not yet‘. It allows me to take responsibility and look for more and different ways to help them over the threshold…

It’s not strictly gradual, by the way. Although there are no jumps in reality, worldview is not a reality phenomenon.

In the three circles of the life, worldview is in the right hand circle…

Not accidentally what you say in the right hand circle (worldview is all words!) will decide for you everything in the middle circle. That is your experienced, aka ‘personal reality’.

No one lives in the reality circle, other than wordless animals. Humans live in the middle circle…

So worldview, in essence is an interpretation of what you see in the reality circle. It is cultural, learned, formed, shaped, naive or sophisticated. It depends on your education, and your ability to think.

The Greeks interpreted the celestial phenomena, storms, shooting stars, meteorites, comets in an anthropomorphic way, as if the gods were people like them.

Anything and everything is interpreted by a human… it is a must for them. But the interpretation either matches reality closely or not…

We have, finally, come full circle: people don’t even look in reality, because it would require some education not only ideology. And in most schools you are not even offered that. 🙁

When I look back at my life and look for sentences that turned my worldview, I find a few:

• The first was in 1977… I read the book ‘Brave New World‘ by Aldous Huxley. It removed the most important element, the rightness of the ideology of communism or socialism, or Marxism and left me to build my own ideology.
• The second was ten years later, 1987, when the idea of ‘me’ was turned upside down with the question ‘Who are you that you are?‘ in The Forum.
• The third was when I had my magazine and my clients were millionaire club owners… and they were uneducated and in my view stupid. And I realized that you don’t have to be smart to be rich. It’s OK to be stupid. Stupid didn’t mean what I’d thought it meant.

• The fourth was

when my friend Nancy emailed me a copy of the first chapter of The Science of Getting Rich, and I read that. It said that I had the right to want to be rich… It shook my world almost as much as the Huxley book. I cried for days. I’d never thought I had the right for anything, including to be rich.

• The fifth was when I found out that 100% of my complaints were based on a worldview that things were supposed to be in a certain way. Parents were supposed to love their children, life was supposed to be fair, etc. Every.single.complaint I’d ever had… even complaints about the weather.I learned that unless there is a binding agreement signed by both parties, things are what they are, people feel what they feel… and that is that. It was for me, probably, the most significant step towards freedom.
• And then, on the shoulders of that, the idea that freedom is recognizing your limitations, whether they come from life, your DNA, your age, society…Freedom is only available to you if and when you find it inside the limitations… inside even the human machine and its invisible dynamics.
• And then the four sentences I learned to say in the Partnership Course, that redirected my attention to where my good feelings come about myself…being empowered by who I am, not by what I did or produced.Being empowered by the things I have power over… the beginnings of responsibility. The beginnings of being outcome independent. Major!

Half of my work is revealing the invisible dynamics so you can recognize them, so you can be free.

Limitations are not wrong. They are limitations…

• The last and most recent revelation was reading and listening to what Thomas Sowell has to say. Some of it cut deep, deep, deep. Some of it suddenly helped me make sense why I could not pass my last exam in my MBA program. Didn’t pass it so I never got my degree.And then again some of it has made me make sense of what my economist father tried to do and failed. So yeah… without that I wouldn’t be writing this article and know what the heck I am doing.

So, what should you do now, now that you got to the end of this article? Good question, right?

If you are a pansy, then maybe you should unsubscribe… instead of pretending that you intend to become an expanding human being, but never read my articles. You know who you are…

If you have the Life Force strong in you, if you haven’t given up, haven’t given in, then embark on some ‘spiritual’ practice, like

• reading 30 pages a day, or
• listening to the 100 hours audios 30 minutes a day,
• …or increase your cell hydration to above 10% every hour of the day so you are not some hapless dull doll,
• or whatever small action could be a daily habit that could serve as a trimtabbing device to turn you and your worldview around.

I remember falling in love with Kaizen when I read about a woman, single mother, overweight and sick, working three jobs to make a living for herself and her children. She turned her life around with Kaizen.

Her first Kaizen assignment was to stand up in the midst of  her one hour of TV watching a day. She got on her feet and stood for one minute… 60 seconds.

After a few days of that she realized that she could stand for 60 seconds, she upped the ante… and stood for two minutes… after a week of that, she went to five minutes, then she went to walking in place, to waving her arms, to eventually getting to exercising, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to work and to the grocery store… and after a while she became fully healthy.

This methodology takes reality into consideration with respect… you can’t get from A to Z without first getting from A to B.

I have been living the Kaizen lifestyle… My Hero program IS the Kaizen lifestyle, the Kaizen way to achieving anything.

What I most like about the Kaizen way is that there is no one to tell you what to do. It is self-managing. I am there to spot you, maybe occasionally cheer you on, warn you when you are on the wrong path, but I don’t tell you what to do.

The winners in life, whether in industry, science, business, literature, anything were not micromanaged. They followed their curiosity.

But one thing you may need, one thing I may need to provide, and that is direction… in the beginning.

One of my tools for that, just one of many, is a little inexpensive workshop, called What’s missing. It is a workshop, meaning we’ll follow a set of assignments that more often than not lead to a direction that is a good direction for you to start your journey.

Why? Because it points out something that is missing that you can start… or alternatively something that you need to stop doing.

Either can be a potent and reliable way to start your journey on the hero program.

Start your Kaizen-like journey to the topPS: I haven’t been talking about it, but it is very important to emphasize again, and again, that doing what you said you would do, with the right attitude, taking repeated small steps, strengthens the connection between your higher self and weakens the connection between the feeling center, the scaredy cat self, over time.

So the Kaizen/Hero method creates actual physical changes in your brain, to make you a producer, a more accomplished human.

I also call it the hamster method… and write more about it in this article

Thomas Sowell’s stuff has 70% truth value… if you were curious to know.

And yet he is not part of the 1000.