Senator Mike Lee has an extraordinary grasp of American history, and he expresses that beautifully in an excellent interview with Glenn Beck. Please listen to this link below. My commentary follows which expands the depth and breadth of the whole issue of constitutional liberty and provides not just an historical context, which is of course a critical component and well defined by Mike Lee and Glenn Beck, but highlights a future based on today’s recent neurological discoveries. If we stay rooted in the past only, without updating the implications of constitutional liberty based on the latest neuroscience, we risk losing the struggle for the future soul of humanity to behaviorism, which is the psychological component underlying socialism, Marxism and fascism.
https://www.blazetv.com/watch/channel/series/series/84hZ4lf8REZu-the-glenn-beck-podcast/episode/cJkLUtU3WMs4-gb-podcast-sen–mike-lee?t=0
The Three Movements in Psychology
The first psychological movement was the brainchild of Sigmund Freud and is sometimes referred to as Freudian psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis focuses on the past to better understand one’s present life.
“Psychoanalysis seeks to deepen one’s understanding of how the subjective present is influenced by one’s past. Through this exploration we come to recognize how memories and understandings are influenced in turn by the subjective present. Ultimately this unfurling of current thoughts and experiences in light of past thoughts and experiences allows for a deeper understanding of oneself. Exploring the past along with the present creates the opportunity for a kind of reweaving process so that over the course of the treatment there is growth and development of the self.”
The second major movement in psychology was behaviorism, which in part scrutinizes the future and applies goal-oriented behaviors as an important component of successfully adapting to life.
“To “have a goal” is probably a universal experience in language-able humans, and the custom of talking about one’s goals is a commonplace behavior in everyday conversation. Future goals tend to be ascribed significant value, on a personal basis, and goal-oriented behavior almost seems to delineate the complexity of human responding in comparison with that of other species. Clinicians who reside within a behavioral tradition are trained to emphasize clear and tangible goals in treatment.”
The third significant movement historically in psychology is often referred to as humanistic psychology, which unlike psychoanalysis does not dwell as much on the past, and unlike behaviorism does not over-emphasize the future either, but instead focuses primarily on the “here and now” or the present, especially emphasizing the processing of current feelings.
“Humanistic psychology emerged as the third force in psychology after psychodynamic (AKA psychoanalytic) and behaviorist psychology. Humanistic psychology holds a hopeful, constructive view of human beings and of their substantial capacity to be self-determining. This wave of psychology is guided by a conviction that intentionality and ethical values are the key psychological forces determining human behavior. Humanistic psychologists strive to enhance the human qualities of choice, creativity, the interaction of the body, mind, and spirit, and the capacity to become more aware, free, responsible, life-affirming, and trustworthy.”
Wikipedia provides an excellent summary of this third force in psychology as well.
“Primarily, humanistic psychology encourages a self-awareness and mindfulness that helps the client change their state of mind and behavior from one set of reactions to a healthier one with more productive self-awareness and thoughtful actions. Essentially, this approach allows the merging of mindfulness and behavioral therapy, with positive social support.”
“In an article from the Association for Humanistic Psychology, the benefits of humanistic therapy are described as having a crucial opportunity to lead our troubled culture back to its own healthy path. More than any other therapy, Humanistic-Existential therapy models democracy. It imposes ideologies of others upon the client less than other therapeutic practices. Freedom to choose is maximized.”
In the last few decades, neurophysiological research has uncovered the function of the human prefrontal cortex, the most evolved and highly associative portion of the human brain, which is largely responsible for conferring mindfulness, a unique and critical faculty which is supported by all of these different forms of humanistic psychology.
“Mindfulness is the practice of being aware of all the elements of the present moment without being lost in the past [primary focus of psychoanalysis] or the future [primary focus of behavioral psychology] . It is paying attention when the mind wanders to negative places where there is no creative outcome possible.”
Abraham Maslow, one of the earliest humanistic psychologists, is credited with diagramming the progression from basic physiological “needs” to higher “needs,” such as self-actualization and spirituality (see diagram below). More recent neurophysiological research has now related self-actualization, transcendence and mindfulness to prefrontal cortex functioning in the human brain as demonstrated by recent brain imagery studies. This neurophysiological evidence is discussed in some depth in my book Awaken Your Godly Brain, which expands MacLean’s model of the Triune brain into the Quadrune brain and highlights the critical role of the prefrontal cortex.
Back to the Mike Lee and Glenn Beck Interview
This discussion should imply that a supreme being does not necessarily have to be invoked to define spirituality or the importance of our inalienable rights; life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Recent neurophysiological science has shown that the human brain is in fact anatomically designed to promote spiritual growth. However, it’s perfectly OK with the author, as proposed by the interview above between a couple of devout Mormons, to invoke the older religious and spiritual traditions on which our democracy was founded. This is, of course, much preferred to fascism, behaviorism, socialism, and satanic Marxism (see book, Marx and Satan by Richard Wurmbrand).
As the author has written about incessantly, all of the historically recognized, enlightened saints and sages, from Jesus of Nazareth to Gautama Buddha to Muhammad to LaoTzu and the Zen masters to Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, and probably to many unremembered and unheralded thousands to millions of other self-realized human beings, all “achieved” their astonishing levels of transcendence with roughly the same brain hardware that you and I and almost all human beings possess. The purpose of humanistic psychology and related psychological growth methodologies such as mindfulness training, is to assist others to capitalize on their evolutionary, neurological hardware, and to shift to individuation, then self-actualization and even transcendence as an ultimate “objective.”
Note in the diagram above that “Esteem Needs” is the highest category in the “Deficiency Needs” section of Maslow’s model. In other words, the “need” to be liked and “approved of” by others is of importance to those who have not yet moved on to the higher levels of cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization, or transcendence. In Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), a cognitive psychotherapeutic method categorized as a type of humanistic psychology, which is frequently used by the author in his practice and originated by Dr. Albert Ellis, the seeking of approval of others is listed as the number one irrational idea. The need to be liked and approved of by others can be a major impasse to psychospiritual growth and access to higher levels in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Letting go of the irrational demand that “I must be liked and approved of” by others can pose a major obstacle to psychospiritual growth, and keep an individual stymied in fascism, behaviorism, socialism, and Marxism. The socialist pressure to conform to the expectations of others and of the state is critical to maintaining behavioral control.
Behaviorism is defined here as the psychological analogue of socialism, fascism, and Marxism, as it is oriented to a future, which from an existential or humanistic psychology perspective, is an utter illusion. For instance, the success of Alcoholics Anonymous and 12-step programs is dependent in part on their members “living one day at a time” and dealing with thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the present, in part because “the future never comes.” One cannot get sober tomorrow, anymore that one can achieve psychological healing someday, or that any pie-in-the-sky political promise often promoted by socialism could ever be effective. The only opportunity to improve one’s life is today, in fact, in the present moment, because in reality, the “here and now” is all that we have. Such a discovery is “actually” the truth, AKA self-actualization, and any political system which promotes freedom of self-expression as opposed to oppressive fascism, thus opens the door to here and now expression and moving upwards in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. And the point should be emphasized, that self-actualization and transcendence is indeed a “need,” and that by virtue of possessing a human brain, we can’t not “yearn to be free.”
Inalienable rights are thus now quite simply defined by our anatomy – by what in fact we are – by our most evolved prefrontal cortex, and as defined in the review of recent brain imagery studies in my book Awaken Your Godly Brain. I believe we must enhance our traditions of religion and psychology, to include neurophysiology, so that we have a modern weapon to use against behaviorism as the psychological analogue of socialism, fascism, and Marxism, which falsely promises a better future and snares so many gullible individuals into accepting its lies.
The ultimate purpose to being a human being, is thus now clearly defined by NIH-supported studies on our brain, especially those compiled and published by neurophysiologist Paul MacLean and summarized in his extensively referenced book The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions. Our prefrontal cortex, which is fully 1/6th of our brain, is designed ultimately for one main purpose, “to care for one another.” This incidentally also happened to be a core notion promoted by Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Lao Tze, all the Zen masters, Gurdieff and Ouspensky, and perhaps millions of self-realized beings throughout history, both in Eastern and Western cultures. “Caring for one another” is no longer just a religious/spiritual concept, but it is in fact a programmed purpose of 1/6th of our human brain, and we are all inevitably “pulled” to self-actualize into that state, whether we like it or not, as Drs. Maslow, Perls, Ellis, Rogers and all of the humanistic psychologists have suggested. I studied these methodologies extensively in my earlier years and I still occasionally read their inspiring materials.
The extension of average life expectancies from the current, expected mortality of approximately 80 years, by 50 years to an average of 130 yo by the end of this century as predicted now by many university studies, may have a far more important purpose than merely extending human lifespans. Lifespan extension may be critical to provide most human beings with the required, additional time to “actualize” and mature out of their younger, murderous, competitive, primitive, Chimpanzee/monkey brain – 5/6ths of our human brain – into our most recent and evolved evolutionary structure, our prefrontal cortex.
Now we are positioned to proceed to use this critical neurological evidence to bolster the case that satanic Marxism, fascism, behaviorism, and socialism are extremely dangerous. These policies can only lead to certain destruction because they stymie the full maturity and development of the human brain. Besides our rich historical traditions, we now have the scientific evidence that the human brain is anatomically designed to benefit from an open, democratic political system and from psychological interventions which promote its growth and transformation. On the other hand, the human brain, by virtue of its design and function, will have its growth and maturity damaged by fascist political systems and by behavioral psychology, and we must take action to prevent this from happening.