Everything Has a Belief System

Everything has a Belief System; "everything," in this instance refers to all sciences, all religions, all professions, and all other fields of study, such as the study of human behavior. In a previous blog, I referred to a friend of mine stating, in a philosophy class he was taking, that, "We all stand on Dead Men's Shoulders." This, according to him, struck all present as exceedingly profound, and raised him up a number of notches in everyone's opinion.

We do all stand on dead men's shoulders metaphorically, in that the vast majority of developers of sciences, the Prophets of religions, and expounders of new philosophies, 1) have been men, and, 2) their ideas have been incorporated into, if only in a historical context, the basics tenets and theoretical constructs of what is taught in all schools of higher learning.

In primary education, we are given the basics it is believed are needed to go on to learn what is taught in institutions of higher education. After having learned the basics of language (reading, spelling, writing, etc.), mathematics (addition, subtraction, division, etc.) in the course of being educated, we are required to learn, practice and duplicate the work that purports to have proven various facts which we are required to accept as FACTS. Currently, few are the Liberal Arts Institutions which still teach and discuss the non-vocational subjects, which used to be thought of as the basis for becoming an educated person.

Students are not informed that what they have been taught are just the rudiments, or allowed to think that they might be improved upon, or proven wrong. Facts: Christopher Columbus discovered America; Charles Darwin proved that humans evolved from animals; early humans developed in Africa from proto-humans, who evolved from the ape family; Gregor Mendel proved how family traits are passed on from one generation to succeeding generations, etc., etc.

These are some of the dead men's shoulders upon which the entire current belief systems stand; these are belief systems in that each of them, whether a science, a profession, a religion, or a philosophy, have basic interlocking/interdependent postulates, tenets, truths held to be FACTS; each of us has learned varying amounts of these FACTS. Brave is the individual who dares to "question authority," let alone attempt to rethink those basic tenets, or suggest others. Instances of the fate of such individuals can be found, if one delves deep enough, and it isn't pretty.

There is always more to the story! There is always more to discover! In the last 100+ years vast amounts of new facts have been piled on the old facts, with very few noticing that there has been a sea change in what is now "known," and without the muddy bottoms of these systems being stirred. As in "Critical Thinking," (mentioned in a previous blog) a new system is built upon the old systems, giving no thought to the possibility that the old system may be dead wrong!

The possibility rarely, if ever, crosses the minds of the educated that they may be chasing down the wrong rabbit holes. Many scientists, after spending vast amounts of time and money, have discovered this fact, and quietly folded their experimental tents, and stolen away into the night to search for a new theory to explore. It is now being revealed that some of the prestigious Journals, which publish what is considered high level findings in various fields, have been publishing experimental results which have been bought and paid for by vested interests.

Rarely do scientists, who work outside of what the vested interests want known, ever receive grant monies to pursue those interests. Those who have pursued those interests, perhaps on their own funding, tried to publish their findings, which questioned established fact, have found that, if it does not support established FACT in any field, generally, it will not be published. Earlier published scientists who discovered information that the vested interests did not wish to be known, have had their work either quietly changed, ignored, or debunked by the professional de-bunkers.

A case in point, in the field of psychology Fritz Perls, who developed a form of Gestalt Therapy, which I have studied, and been trained in, is no longer among us to defend his work. When I was in the process of finishing my Masters Degree in Art Therapy, in a final exam, we were to expound on three of, I think, five different forms of therapy being practiced currently, one of them being Gestalt Therapy.

Everyone had been given "cheat sheets" summarizing all of the therapies prior to the test. (Oh, how far education has fallen!) As I was familiar with Gestalt Therapy, as well as others, I didn't think it was necessary to refer to the sheets. Imagine my surprise, when I got my test papers back, to discover that the answers I had provided on Gestalt Therapy had been marked wrong.

When I protested to the Professor that my answers were not wrong, I was told that they were not the answers on the provided summary sheet for Gestalt Therapy. When I checked the sheets, I was shocked to learn how distorted what Fritz Perls had taught had become, to the point that it is little wonder that it appears to have been dropped as a form of therapy currently, as what was being presented was bizarre.

When I discussed this with one of my Art Therapy Supervisors, who was herself studying for another psychology degree, she told me that Gestalt Therapy was not the only form of psychology where you had to give the wrong answers to have them be considered correct.

The establishment has many ways of keeping you asleep and/or dysfunctional.

Thus, I end today's blog.

Shirley Gallup








Opinions and Beliefs; Truth and Facts