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Interconnectedness

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May 31, 2024
Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog

God bless Jerry Zaltman. In my May 17th blog post, I reported that Harvard’s pioneer neuroscientist who introduced the field of subconscious measurement by his creation of the patented ZMET system, is joining with me in a project to introduce methods in schools for thinking more constructively, objectively, clearly, and creatively. In laying the groundwork for this project, Jerry is finding that others are already moving in the same direction, which is inspiring.

Today I received notice from Jerry of a new paper in the Journal of Education for Business  – Mental health among college students: Relationships with Actively Open-Minded Thinking, Spirituality, and Psychological Wellbeing – by educators at two US state universities, Arkansas and Idaho, which proves that:

“Mental health, like many other physical diseases, can contribute to a significant loss of output in our economy. Higher education institutes can play a significant role in enhancing the mental wellbeing of college students. In support of this endeavor, this research investigates how actively open-minded thinking (AOT) and spirituality (SP) relate to psychological wellbeing (PWB). Data revealed that both AOT and SP have a positive impact on most dimensions of PWB and in some instances, SP acts as a moderator. Our study highlights the importance of SP in the PWB of college students.”

One might wonder how spirituality being taught in public and state schools jibes with the separation of church and state. This paper however addresses spirituality at its core essence as a feeling and as a concept of interconnectedness. The spiritual feeling an individual has is that person’s sense of being connected with others, and possibly even with the universe itself. The Founders who insisted on freedom of religion would probably not deny the teaching of this concept and the feelings that surround it.

In the paper, the authors compare spirituality in this meaning to holistic thinking, starting from the big picture of how a specific subject is connected with other subjects, before drilling down to a micro level within that subject of interest. In this they consciously align with what they call the Eastern philosophical approach, contrasting it with the Western approach of starting from the micro level and studying a subject and possibly never getting to seeing the connections between that subject and all other subjects.

Back in the 70s, someone came up with the idea of adding one more level to Piaget’s model of the evolution of human cognitive processes, Systems Stage, which would appear above Formal Operational Stage in the model. This is where holistic thinking comes in, seeing everything as part of a single interconnected whole.

Prior to that the term “Systems Thinking” was coined by Professor Jay Forrester in 1956 when he founded the Systems Dynamic Group at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

The idea that we are all interconnected was reintroduced in a new way in the modern era by one of Piaget’s influencers, Carl Gustav Jung, who published the idea of the Collective Unconscious in 1916.

Today in the Standard Interpretation of Quantum Physics it is recognized that particles become entangled by association with one another and after that they are able to share information instantaneously regardless of the distance they are apart.

This lays the groundwork for physics to one day include the entanglements of consciousness as part of its quantum entanglement theory. John Wheeler has already established a framework for including consciousness in the quantum physics model, called the Participatory Anthropic Principle (1983), which Stephen Hawking referenced and tacitly endorsed in his final book.

This Principle explains that consciousness, which observes, transforms non-determined probability waves into concrete realities by its act of observation. In my book A Theory of Everything Including Consciousness and “God”, I carry Einstein’s, Wheeler’s, and Hawkings’ ideas further by speculating that a single consciousness is all that exists, and that one of the ways it operates is to “look out from” a multitude of apparent selves (all of us including everything in the universe), and that Wheeler’s Quantum Foam is the substance of that Original Consciousness.

Science consists of theory and experimentation. Experimentation is the way that theories are proven, altered, or disproven. One wonders what sorts of experiments could be run in order to study the relationship of consciousness to quantum physics.

Another brilliant neuroscientist and perhaps the first of the neurophysicists, Dr. Richard Silberstein, is the first to carry out experimentation into the possible quantum entanglement of consciousness.

Science Explores Telepathy from a New Angle

Robert A. Heinlein wrote many great books, one of which is called Time for The Stars. The story is about achieving interstellar travel but needing a way to stay in touch with Earth, a method that is not limited to the speed of light, because when traveling light years away, messages would take years to go back and forth, which is not conducive to providing learning to the people at home.

In the story, the solution found is that some identical twins are able to telepathically communicate with each other, and that these messages happen instantaneously regardless of distance.

My great friend and highly respected neuroscientist, Dr. Richard Silberstein, never read that Heinlein novel. But he got the same idea. He read scientific papers which led him to have the idea. Having invented and patented an improved brain measurement system (steady state tomography, SST) he applied that method (commercially available through the company that Richard founded, Neuro-Insight) to conduct an experiment with monozygotic (MZ, coming from a single egg, “identical”) human twins.

The experiment was written up in the respected neuroscience journal Frontiers in Neuroscience paper published about a month ago.  There is now strong statistical evidence that information was transmitted mind to mind in a significant number of cases within the design.

If and when science was to announce that telepathy is real, that too could have a potentially positive impact on the moods and emotions of the masses.

It would say —

We can be more than we think we can be.

Here’s a ten-minute video piece on Connectedness: Sanity Is an Acquired Taste: Connectedness

My best to all,
Bill

 

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If You Are Normal Today, It Might Be Holding You Back

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Created May 17, 2024
Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

With metacognition a child can become a mensch at an early age… And it’s never too late to begin practicing metacognition.

The norm today is Emergency Oversimplification Procedure (EOP: the condition that sets in when there is too much information resulting in desperate shortcutting such as rationalized guesswork), a way of using the mind that as little children we fall into as a result of being surrounded by people in that state.

It never occurs to us to question it because it’s totally automatic from the first moment of awareness.

A new paper reports that children who are taught to watch their minds starting at age 2.5 years, show advantages in memory over the control group by the time they are 4.5 years old.

There shall be many other such experiments; and I will be doing some of them with Dr. Jerry Zaltman, in our work of teaching metacognition (also known as self-awareness, mindfulness, Observer state, etc.) to students from Kindergarten through college.

Eventually this will lead to children’s books, animated content, and games (physical, mental, emotional; interactive video, Artificial Reality, etc.) which teach the youngest children to pay attention to their minds as well as everything else. Jerry and I are also planning to insert courseware for public schools and colleges, and, with Chaim Oren, workshops for C suites.

Metacognition does not just improve memory, it improves quality of life. As Aristotle said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

The more adept the individual is at metacognition, and the more constant is his or her use of metacognition, the more situational awareness they will have, the more they will comprehend the causes and effects they experience, the more they will be able to discriminate quickly between healthy and unhealthy impulses they have. The more rapidly they can understand the principles of ethical behavior. The more easily they can avoid ego-driven behavior.

With metacognition, a child can become a mensch at an early age.

A child can learn to pay attention to hunches and see if they come true. And can realize when they are having inspired thoughts. And can even precociously discover their purpose in life. But they can only do this if they are watching their own minds as much as they watch the events being reported by their senses.

The same applies to us at all ages.

And it’s never too late to begin practicing metacognition.

The norm is by definition =100 IQ. Today’s amazing AIs are crowdsourcing and parroting everyone, hence their advice is also coming from a 100 IQ. Aspire to something higher and better. Aim for supernormal.

It is said that Buddha taught his son metacognition using a mirror.

“There are actions which bring good to the people and actions which bring harm,” Buddha said, holding up a mirror so Rahula could look at himself. “Before you say anything or do anything, reflect on what good it can do and what harm it can do. If there is any harm, do not say it, do not do it. Do this reflecting continuously. Only take actions that are purely for the good.”
—The First Son, Episode Two of Agents of Cosmic Intelligence, by Bill Harvey

My Best to All,
Bill

 

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ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Depression on the Rise

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Created May 10, 2024
Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

The inability to pay attention is a symptom of EOP (Emergency Oversimplification Procedure). My theory of Acceleritis postulates that the amount of question-producing stimuli experienced by the average person per day has been increasing ever since the start of written language. This produces information overload and the tendency to hasty closure – making up one’s mind too fast. It also causes reduction in considering the ultimate questions because we are too busy keeping up with the pace demanded of us by those around us, including media. The natural awe and wonder at life and the universe every child feels, fades away.

Do you let people complete whole sentences without jumping in to say something?

In EOP, one has little patience, because everything is happening too fast, and a part of oneself that wants to do everything perfectly is perpetually frustrated by this. Which makes us rush others to complete their thoughts.

Many people who have not yet been formally diagnosed as ADD or ADHD also have it.

In a recent New Yorker article, writer Nathan Heller cites a study by medical software company Epic which found an over-all tripling of ADHD diagnoses between 2010 and 2022, skewing even higher among younger people.

Inability to sustain attention doesn’t necessarily get optimally controlled by drugs, which often have side effects that bring down individual effectiveness in other ways. Metacognition would be a more successful medical strategy. Meditation could be more effective than medication in the long run. The optimal combination might include a gradual reduction of the drug and finally its removal.

50–70% of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) also have ADHD according to the American Psychiatric Association:

“Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are both associated with internalizing problems like depression and anxiety, and the two often co-occur. A recent study found that ADHD is more strongly linked to depression than autism. ADHD traits are also a stronger predictor of depression symptoms than autistic traits.

Youth with ADHD and autism are at high risk of experiencing mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. Depression is one of the most common mental health problems in young people with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) like ADHD and ASD. Depression in NDDs can be more severe, have an earlier age-at-onset, and have a worse prognosis than in the typically developing population.

Some factors that might be driving the relationship between ADHD and mental health problems include: Genes linked to ADHD, Stressful life events, Environmental factors, and Social cognitive factors.”

Gallup in May 2023 reported that in 2017, 18-29-year-olds in the U.S. were about average in terms of being diagnosed with depression, but by 2023 that level had increased +68% in just six years, to over one in three people in that age group. The whole population is experiencing an increase in depression. Metacognition is not just a nice to have anymore. It is a must.
Rising trends: lifetime and current depression rates

Today science is finally looking objectively at the use of psychedelic drugs for their potential benefits in dealing with medical problems of cognition and affect. The Harvard professors who brought this up in the 60s spelled out the necessary setting and mindsets necessary for such experiments to have the most beneficial effects.

Millions of people today are using cannabis, MDMA, psilocybin, etc. mostly for mood elevation, and can be taught to also use them for self-reflection, under medical guidance respecting the setting and mindset best practices established by the former Harvard professors, much-maligned Timothy Leary and much-beloved Richard Alpert (Ram Dass).

Use of drugs is not a necessity for the achievement of self-awareness, even for those with neurodevelopmental disorders. To demonstrate that semantic and semiotic interventions without chemicals can have beneficial effects, you might try reading parts of this free booklet, The Navigator, from The Human Effectiveness Institute to someone you know who is having any kind of hard time.

Another exercise you might suggest to a person suffering from any of these variations of extreme EOP is to try doing this exercise:

    • Get out along in nature.
    • Find a flower (or any interesting object).
    • Contemplate it.
    • Maintain eye contact with that object.
    • Gently focus your attention upon it.
    • Allow it to permeate your mind.
    •  Notice what you notice about it.
    •  Sustain this attention for at least one full minute without checking the time.
    •  If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the object of contemplation.
    • When you’ve had enough of the object, keep your eyes focused on it for a little while longer while using your peripheral vision – without moving your eyeballs – to see how much of the background you can see to the left, to the right, up, and down.

This exercise will also begin to bring attention under your conscious control.

Love to All,
Bill

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An Interview with Bill Harvey about his latest novel:
THE GREAT BEING

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Created May 2, 2024
Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

I’m sharing my IndieReader interview with you, my Pebbles readers, as it reveals the motivations behind my latest book, The Great Being, and the other books in the Agents of Cosmic Intelligence series. My editor says The Great Being is my best novel so far and reviewers seem to agree, with IndieReader giving it 4.2 stars and including it in their “Best Books of the Month” listing for April.

“FOLLOW YOUR INTUITION AND DON’T EDIT UNTIL LATER.
LET IT FLOW AND ENJOY THE PROCESS.” — Bill

indie Reader Approved s
The Great Being received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.

Below you will find IndieReader’s full interview with me.

“What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Great Being. March 1, 2024

What’s the book’s first line?
[Circa 14 Billion BCE]

The Nothingness felt surprise upon realizing itself.

What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The Great Being combines science fiction and alternative history to tell a story about how the universe might have started, with a single Consciousness, and how that Consciousness could have created all of us out of Itself.

Episode 1 in the Agents of Cosmic Intelligence series, The Great Being chronicles from the beginning of the Multiverse through Melchizedek’s teaching of Abraham. A Great Rebellion is going on in Heaven and therefore throughout the Universe, all of which is a single Mind at play. The Rebels have taken their final stand on Earth. Two Agents of Cosmic Intelligence, Melchizedek and Layla, are dispatched to infiltrate the Rebels on Earth. However, the Rebels have interfered with evolution on Earth, so that the human brains the Agents step into suppress knowledge of their true identities. They lose track of their Mission, getting sidetracked into identifying with the human bodies they inhabit while on Earth.

What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?

I had a sense of spiritual realization that came about as a result of a long history of amazing hunches in my life—which helped me innovate and invent things, get patents and an Emmy and other awards—and people often called me a media visionary and a futurist. I felt very strongly a desire to share my potentially scientific and perhaps accurate view of reality. I wrote nonfiction books and articles about it, and then I decided to create a series of novels, which in my dreams will become movies someday. The Great Being is where the whole saga of the series Agents of Cosmic Intelligence begins.

What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?

I hope it’s for their enjoyment and possibly the expansion of their consciousness in that they sense the story might be a clue as to what is actually going on here on Earth. Ideally, they’ll feel a new excitement about life, which I have felt ever since realizing that we might all be a single Consciousness.

What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who—real or fictional—would you say the character reminds you of?

The main character starts out as The Great Being, HisandHerSelf. Then the storyline follows two of the avatars created by The Great Being, Melchizedek and Layla. The most distinctive thing about The Great Being is that HeSheUs is, for all intents and purposes, God, and has the familiar Godlike qualities of love, compassion, honesty, egolessness, nobility, and nurturing. The most distinctive thing about Melchizedek is, to me, his humility, despite being one of the very first avatars in the universe. The most distinctive thing about Layla is that she is extremely playful for a genius—kind of reminds me of Einstein in that way.

When did you first decide to become an author?

At four years old, I wrote a vignette about a man who invents an injection that can transfer his consciousness into other things. He finds himself in the body of the cat and has to jump on the hypodermic needle to get out of the cat. He moves his consciousness into various things and eventually becomes the planet Earth itself. The second trumpet player in my father’s orchestra told me I was destined to be a writer, which was the first thing anyone told me about my future that made me happy. I decided to become that thing, whatever it meant, wherever it would take me.

Mind Magic: 1st edition cover

Is this the first book you’ve written?

I’ve been writing my ideas and drafts for books since I was sixteen. I published my first book, Mind Magic: The Science of Microcosmology (original subtitle), in 1976. I now have seven books published, four fiction and three nonfiction.

 

 

What do you do for work when you’re not writing?

I’m a media research consultant, well-known in the industry.

How much time do you generally spend on your writing?

Not enough, probably about 30 hours a week. Some of that is business writing. Each year, I plan to spend more time writing, and I am following that plan.

What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?

The best part is having total control of the content (with my trusted editor) and cover design. The hardest part is getting into bookstores.

What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?

Follow your intuition and don’t edit until later. Let it flow and enjoy the process. Don’t have any expectations as to making money or becoming famous, do the writing for its own sake because it expresses who you are. Stendahl had been dead a hundred years before he was discovered and added to the list of the world’s greatest novelists.

Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?

To get into bookstores—but it would largely depend on the publisher and their vision for my work.

Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)

Helping people see the upside possibilities for their own lives, not just the downside ones.

Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?

William Shakespeare.

Which book do you wish you could have written?

Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Trilogy. Neal lists Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Thomas Pynchon as among his influencers, and they are also among mine. My list also includes F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert A. Heinlein, and many other amazing writers and thinkers too numerous to mention.“

You can read a free chapter, read reviews, and more when you visit 
THE GREAT BEING webpage.

All my best,
Bill

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