9
Transformation:

Frameworks, Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts

By

Joseph McNair

The German psychologist Otto Selz is credited with one of the fundamental ideas of cognitive psychology:

To solve a problem, we must first recognize that the situation represented by the problem is described by a known schema. We must find that schema and compare it to the problem situation.  The solution to the problem is found in the information presented by the schema which is left out of the problem situation. Scaruffi, Piero. 1998-2001. Thinking About Thought [online] URL: http://www.thymos.com/tat/cognitio.html

http://www.psychologie.uni-bonn.de/zentrum/history/bilder/selz.gif

In the essay, "Transformation: Schemas or Schemes" we chose Piero Scaruffi's definition of a schema as a starting point for the deconstruction of that concept. We stated that a schema is a network of mental images, propositional representations, and/or mental models that organize past experience. We made the point that schemas are used to solve problems.

The perception of a present experience [a situation which can be called a problem] produces a partially complete schema.  To solve a problem, a complete schema is required.  The problem-solver must access a complete schema to solve a particular problem.  A variation of an ancient Sufi teaching story may provide an apt example of this:

http://www.sojourner-institute.com/im/content_images/sufi.gif

A certain man walking along the street of perfume sellers suddenly felt faint and collapsed into the street.  A crowd of merchants and customers gathered around him wondering what happened.  They with one voice inquired if there was physician among them.  No one responded.  Finally, one of the merchants who had been selling on that street for many years came forward.  He said to the crowd:

" I think I understand the problem here.  I have seen something like this before."

Whereupon he reached into his robes and pulled out a white linen handkerchief. He walked over to the gutter at the side of the street and dipped the handkerchief into some of the excrement in the gutter. He returned to the fallen man and held the soiled handkerchief under his nose.  The man revived at once, jumped to his feet and proclaimed:

"Now that, my friends, is a truly fine fragrance."

The old merchant recalled a situation where another customer was overcome by the heady fragrances of the perfumes sold on the street.  Not being used to the abundance of beautiful fragrances, that customer had passed out. He had fallen close to the gutter and was revived when he smelled the gutter's odious ordure -- a smell he was apparently familiar with.

The old merchant remembered the event and the role the excrement played in reviving the man. This was the complete schema.  He applied the missing information to the present situation or partial schema [the fact that the smell of excrement might revive one who has fallen faint on the street of Perfume Sellers] and solved the problem.

By comparing the two representations (the complete schema with the partial schema) one can "see" (recall or remember) what is missing in the present situation.  When we solve a problem, i.e. fill in the information missing in the present situation, the present situation becomes a complete schema. Solving the problem in this case indicates that we understand the problem or what must be done to solve it

THE FRAME

Marvin Minsky is an influential figure in the development of cognitive science.  Minsky rediscovered Selz's ideas in the 1960s, reworked some of them and developed the notion of the  "frame".   A frame is but a variation on the schema.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/images/minsky.jpg

According to Scaruffi :

A "frame" is a packet of information that helps recognize and understand a scene. It represents stereotypical situations and finds shortcuts to ordinary problems. A frame is the description of a category by means of a prototypical member (i.e., its properties) and a list of actions that can be performed on any member of the category. A prototype is described simply by a set of default properties. Default values, in practice, express a lack of information, which can be remedied by new information.  Any other member of the category can be described by a similar frame that customizes some properties of the prototype. Scaruffi, Piero. 1998-2001. Thinking About Thought [online] URL: http://www.thymos.com/tat/cognitio.html

Let us see if we can place the foregoing explanation into a behavioral context. The following is a description of fairly typical behavior exhibited by sixteen year old Alex:

He felt good.  Really good.  Better than good, actually . . . nearly invincible. He felt like he had limitless energy and could go without sleep for days. He was full of ideas and plans and would be frustrated by the inability of others to keep up with him. He could barely express one thought before barreling onto another at a dizzying pace that would leave his listeners bewildered. But then there were the times when he felt sad. But it was more than that. The burden of life felt too heavy, too daunting to face. Nothing cheered him up. All the things he loved no longer gave him pleasure. At times his feelings of despair were so great he would even consider suicide. He often wondered how he could feel so unbelievably good at some times and so horribly bad at others... Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression), American Psychiatric Association 1999 [online] [URL] http://www.psych.org/public_info/bipolar.cfm

http://www.icsltd.net/patients/images/dis_bipolar.jpg

Alex's parents have watched him go through these highs and lows for several years. They have no explanation for his behavior. His father believes that if he would just "loosen up" and not take things so seriously, things would be okay.   His mother doesn't know what to think.  Her other two children don't act like Alex. She is terribly afraid that he might be a "bad seed."

Alex's behavior can be "framed."  There is a "packet of information that helps ...[us]...recognize and understand" his behavior.  Alex suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental illness

in which moods swing drastically from the depths of depression to the intense highs of mania. Commonly known as manic depression, bipolar disorder will affect nearly one in 100 people at some point in their lives. There are generally periods of normal mood as well, but left untreated, the moods will continue to swing from one extreme to the other.
Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression), American Psychiatric Association 1999 [online] [URL] http://www.psych.org/public_info/bipolar.cfmhttp://www.psych.org/public_info/bipolar.cfm

A diagnosis of bipolar disorder comes as a result of the process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of the disorder through evaluation of patient and family history, a study of the course of the disorder, and review of relevant data including laboratory reports and a medical knowledge base. Yet the behavior can be "framed" by identifying the stereotypical behaviors that make up the stereotypical situation e.g a boy with seeming limitless energy, going without sleep for days; full of ideas and plans; can barely express one thought before barreling onto another; then depressed; morose; even considers suicide. 

Individuals trained to recognize and identify symptoms of bipolar disorder will see the characteristic signs and indicators as a "stereotype" pointing to the disorder. Knowledge of the set of symptoms (the properties of the prototypical member) that indicate the disorder provides the "frame."  For someone untrained in mental health diagnosis, Alex is nothing more than a "bad" or troubled teenager.  For the mental health specialist who can draw upon training and education which includes research in the knowledge base, a working knowledge of symptoms and personal therapeutic experiences with people suffering from the disorder, Alex can be accurately "framed"  (diagnosed) as being bipolar.

Let's try another example:

http://physics.weber.edu/carroll/Archimedes/images/eureka.gif

After gaining royal power in Syracuse, King Heiro resolved to make good on a promise he made to the gods: He had promised to place in a certain temple a golden crown. He determined what it would cost to make it from the man he contracted to fashion the crown.  He weighed out a precise amount of gold and gave it to the contractor. The contractor, good to his word, delivered the finished crown to the King at the appointed time.  It was a beautiful piece of work and it appeared that in weight the crown weighed exactly what the gold the king gave to the contractor had weighed.

But afterwards a charge was made that gold had been abstracted and an equivalent weight of silver had been added in the manufacture of the crown. Hiero, thinking it an outrage that he had been tricked, and yet not knowing how to detect the theft, requested Archimedes to consider the matter. The latter, while the case was still on his mind, happened to go to the bath, and on getting into a tub observed that the more his body sank into it the more water ran out over the tub. As this pointed out the way to explain the case in question, without a moment's delay, and transported with joy, he jumped out of the tub and rushed home naked, crying with a loud voice that he had found what he was seeking; for as he ran he shouted repeatedly in Greek,  Eureka, Eureka, I have found it!

http://www.sandia.gov/tp/SAFE_RAM/IMAGES/TUB.GIF

Taking this as the beginning of his discovery, it is said that he made two masses of the same weight as the crown, one of gold and the other of silver. After making them, he filled a large vessel with water to the very brim, and dropped the mass of silver into it. As much water ran out as was equal in bulk to that of the silver sunk in the vessel. Then, taking out the mass, he poured back the lost quantity of water, using a pint measure, until it was level with the brim as it had been before. Thus he found the weight of silver corresponding to a definite quantity of water.

After this experiment, he likewise dropped the mass of gold into the full vessel and, on taking it out and measuring as before, found that not so much water was lost, but a smaller quantity: namely, as much less as a mass of gold lacks in bulk compared to a mass of silver of the same weight. Finally, filling the vessel again and dropping the crown itself into the same quantity of water, he found that more water ran over for the crown than for the mass of gold of the same weight. Hence, reasoning from the fact that more water was lost in the case of the crown than in that of the mass, he detected the mixing of silver with the gold, and made the theft of the contractor perfectly clear. Bogomolny, Alexander 1996-2004 [URL] http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/bath.shtml

The key to "framing" any situation is the imposition of information on the situation.  The information is the frame. To access that information, one must make use of the cognitive process known as  memory. Memory is much more than a storage system for bits and pieces of knowledge. Memory is a set of active processes that puts information in code. It "packages" information so that it is easier to recall and connect with related items already in memory. Memory does store information, but it constantly rearranges what has been stored so that new knowledge is integrated with old, and can be located and retrieved as needed.
The Head Injury Center, Introduction: Cognition and Memory Defined, 2001 [online][URL]  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/tbilab/recognition/

As regards framing, memory may be considered a network of frames. There is a frame for each concept that is known. Each act of perceiving selects a frame to compare and then to classify the present situation (The situation perceived fits into an existing frame or category or an existing frame is modified to contain the present situation.) According to Scaruffi, framing:

... is equivalent to interpreting the situation and deciding which action must be performed. Reasoning is adapting a frame to a situation. Knowledge imposes coherence on experience. Scaruffi, Piero. 1998-2001. Thinking About Thought [online] URL: http://www.thymos.com/tat/cognitio.html

The above examples of framing, i.e. diagnosing bipolar disorder and discovering the Bouyancy Principle, however elegant, are rather remote from the every day experiences of most of us.  Framing is sometimes as simple as "picturing" or visualizing how we are going to do a certain thing. Elite athletes visualize athletic performances prior to game day.  Lawyers visualize their closing statements.  Teachers visualize their lectures or their presentations.  When learning to do something new, a task or a skill, it is important that one is able to "picture" or "frame" what he or she is to do. As Oz Merchant (2002) in the following example points out, the expectation of success is a necessary ingredient in the frame:

I remember talking to my wife about learning to drive, and it was interesting to hear her say that when she was first learning, her frame was "I'll never get this!" Whereas mine was, "Oh this is a cinch!" Two completely different frames and as a result two different behaviors occurred. It took her quite a bit longer to drive a car. As we talked some more, I realized that there were differences in our mistakes as well. When she made a mistake, she would say, "Oh great I did it again!" Whereas I would say, "Oh I need to remember to do that (the right way) next time!" And I usually did. 
Merchant, Oz 2002 Framing and Reframing Your Successes and Failures [online] [URL] http://www.corechanges.com/resources/articles/2002-articles/framing-120202.html

Reframing

Equally important in framing situations is not just how one "sees" it but how one "feels about it" as well.  Negative emotions such as fear of failure can predispose our learning experiences into less than positive ones. As we are the ones who create our frames, we have the ability to examine or re-examine them and if necessary, re-create them.  This process is called reframing.  Merchant explains

Reframing is changing frames that have already been created. Now some of you maybe thinking, well isn't that kind of like lying. Well you have to realize that your initial perception was not really the "truth" to begin with. It was just how you framed it at the time. If it wasn't useful, then change it now. When I first learned about reframing, I utilized it to help her with her original frame she had about her driving ability. Now notice this often happens. She went from framing her experience of driving to her ability of driving. Now she had a less than useful frame of her driving ability. It had gotten to a point where this frame was making her accident prone. She would always avoid the interstate too. So I took her to an empty parking lot one evening and in thirty minutes taught her to drive my manual shift car. And as she began developing new beliefs about her driving abilities and while having a positive driving experience, I looked over at her as she came to a stop and all I said was "How much easier will driving your car feel?" She looked back at me, smiling, and said, "Yeah!" That is all it took. She reframed all her previous perceptions of her skills and abilities about driving and made them more useful.

http://www.hoot-uk.com/content/regulars/girl_torque/images/girltorque_05082001_1.jpg

You can either reframe the context or the content. When you reframe the context, you find a particular context in which the belief or behavior is more useful. You want to ask yourself "When/Where would this behavior/belief be useful?" When you reframe the content or meaning, you change the meaning of the particular belief or behavior. You may want to ask yourself questions like, "What else could this mean?" "What is the positive value of this behavior?" "How else could I describe this behavior?" Merchant, Oz, 2002 Framing and Reframing Your Successes and Failures [online] URL: http://www.corechanges.com/resources/articles/2002-articles/framing-120202.html

FRAMEWORKS

The framework is a conceptual tool which organizes experience and brings order to related but disjointed data by illuminating similarities and making connections. It is analogous to the "frame" in that it simulates on paper what happens to frames "in the head". "A simple description of a complex entity or process" is another way of explaining a framework.  As such, a simple framework can be an outline, a definition, a syllabus, a blueprint or an organizational chart.

Examples of Frameworks
http://www.umassk12.net/~schwortz/globalwarming/frameworks.gif
http://www.planetargus.com/outline.gif

Suppose the following question was posed:

What inventions that you see or use daily were inspired or derived from naturally occurring phenomena?

Let us devise a "pictorial framework" to answer this question.  Such a framework might look like this:

The above framework, through pictures and symbols, shows how the memory associates or connects the frames of "natural occurring phenomena" i.e. the bird, the chicken foot and the mouth and ear with the frames of "related" man-made inventions, the airplane, rake and telephone.  The equal sign shows the "connection." This same framework inscribed (written) might look like this:

More complex frameworks organize patterns of thought, resources, relationships, opportunities and tools in ways that are easily understood within and across academic and professional disciplines or areas of experience.  A conceptual framework is an example of a complex framework. The following describes the process a pre-teaching intern must go through to begin to form a conceptual framework for teaching:

As a teacher, you will make hundreds of decisions every day, decisions about what should be taught, why it should be taught, when it should be taught, how it should be taught, why it should be taught, and to whom it should be taught.  You make decisions that affect the learning of individual students and groups of students.  You will make decisions that affect students' future learning and academic progress.  All of these important decisions will be based on your knowledge, understanding, experience, purposes, values, attitudes, and beliefs.  The better informed you are, the more likely you are to make sound, defensible decisions, and the less likely you are to make serious mistakes in judgment.

As you progress through your program of study, you will be acquiring essential knowledge and understandings about the profession, schools, diverse learners, how people learn, the environment for learning, curriculum, instruction, and evaluation. 

The basic concepts you acquire initially will become increasingly complex and content specific as you progress through your program of study.  You will integrate all of this knowledge into a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. 

It will reflect who you are as a person and what you value, as well as what you know and understand.  You will also have opportunities to observe and reflect on the effects of teacher decisions on real students in public school classrooms.  During the senior internship, you will make teacher decisions and be responsible for the effects of those decisions on student learning and well-being.  All of these experiences are intended to prepare you for a successful transition from the preservice phase to the induction phase of your professional career. 

So, how does a person construct a conceptual framework?  Easy.  All that is required is a shift in mental attitude toward what you study in your courses, plus one important disposition or habit. 

 First, the shift in mental attitude toward what you are learning in your courses is this:  instead of checking off every assignment and every course as if it were a list of chores, own what you learn.  Make it count.  Make it worth the time and effort you put into it.  Make it meaningful to you on your own terms.  Think about what you are learning.  The second step in conceptual framework development is the disposition or habit to put what you learn into your own words, preferably in writing. 

Writing is thinking.  The act of writing about what you are learning or experiencing is a learning process called critical reflection.  Thinking in writing organizes your mind and your thoughts.  It also brings unanswered questions and unresolved issues to the surface of thought where they can be dealt with intelligently and consciously.
University of North Carolina School of Education, "Development of your Conceptual Framework for Teaching and Learning" [online] [URL] http://www.uncp.edu/soe/docs/Development%20of%20Your%20Conceptual%20Framework%20for%20Teaching%20and%20Learning.doc.

Conceptual frameworks describe and explain how the various component structures in organizations work, why they work the way that they do, the powerful ideas that drive them and the purposes and interests they serve.

 According to John A. Pisapia:

A conceptual framework  usually lists and explains the underlying assumptions (beliefs) of an organization, a procedure or process a set of ideas. The common belief that facts speak for themselves is a naive view. Facts do not speak for themselves.... (Pisapia, 2003, p.10).

Let us revisit one of our earlier examples of framing. that of Alex's bipolar disorder. It was stated that :

a diagnosis of bipolar disorder comes as a result of the process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of the disorder through evaluation of patient and family history, a study of the course of the disorder, and review of relevant data including laboratory reports and a medical knowledge base.

Individuals trained to recognize and identify symptoms of bipolar disorder will see the characteristic signs and indicators as a "stereotype" pointing to the disorder. Knowledge of the set of symptoms that indicate the disorder provides the "frame."  For someone untrained in mental health diagnosis, Alex is nothing more than a "bad" or troubled teenager.  For the mental health specialist who can draw upon training and education which includes research in the knowledge base, a working knowledge of symptoms and personal therapeutic experiences with people suffering from the disorder, Alex can be "framed" as being bipolar.

The "...training and education which includes research in the knowledge base, a working knowledge of symptoms and personal therapeutic experiences with people suffering from the disorder"...  is in this case the conceptual framework that the psychologist or the psychiatrist draws upon to "frame the disorder" or make the diagnosis.

Pisapia continues:

[Facts]... are and must be interpreted within an implied or explicit conceptual framework. In fact, there are occasions when people "reject conclusions which appear to be implied by the facts because these conclusions conflict with rudimentary theoretical structures which are implicitly accepted [Baumol, 1961]Pisapia 2003, p.10)

Consider the following story:

A certain Utah horse rancher advertised in a local newspaper a sale on Shetland ponies. He had about five of these animals and was willing to let them go at about $200 a piece.  Business was slow.  After about two weeks he cut his prices on the remaining three ponies to a $150 each.  He sold one more at that price. After another week, he began to despair that he would not sell the last two animals. On the day he decided to give up, a Tongan gentlemen in a pickup truck came by asking if the rancher still had ponies for sale.  The rancher told him he did and entered into some rather fierce bargaining with man.  Finally they agree on $100 a piece and the Polynesian gentleman bought both animals. After loading to animals onto truck, the Tongan took a sledge hammer and hit each animal on the head, killing them.  He turned to the horrified rancher and said "This is Lo'i Ho'osi ! It is excellent meat!

This is Lo'i Ho'osi
http://www.mthomas99.freeserve.co.uk/images/sale4.jpg

Frameworks may consist of a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. In the above example, cultural values "frame" the horse as food, rather than a work animal or pet. Let us read a few excerpts from Bob Mims' August 17, 2003 article in Salt Lake Tribune :

The Japanese call it bazashi, a toothsome treat served raw, with chives, ginger, garlic and onion. Italians boast of pastissado de caval, a succulent stew, while the Swiss savor fondue bourguignonne.

It is also popular with more than a few French, Belgian, German, Romanian, Kazakh and Chinese gastronomes. Tongans, too -- including those who brought the festive dish to Utah -- relish it roasted, shredded and basted in coconut milk, or spiced with curry...

William Afeaki, Utah's director of Pacific Islander affairs, wholeheartedly agrees that it is, literally, a matter of taste. In his native Tonga, and among some of his brethren who have immigrated to Utah, the horse meat dish Lo'i Ho'osi is a treasured staple at weddings, baptisms and funerals.

"Why, I'd eat horse meat any day," Afeaki laughs. "I like it. To me, it tastes a lot like whale meat. We cook horse in foil, buried in the ground in a sort of oven using hot rocks. It is delicious."

Adds Tai Macatiag, president of the Polynesian Association of Utah: "It's just like beef, but darker. It's not fatty, but lean. It's considered a treat.  Mims, Bob, "Americans not exactly champing at the bit to eat equine" August 17, 2003 article in Salt Lake Tribune [online][URL]http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08172003/Business/84406.asp

Frameworks may also contain a set of doctrines  or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic or other system.  Alice Hothem draws on a liberal conceptual framework as she presents her views on gay marriage:

... In his State of the Union Address, President Bush pledged his support of the Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996. Bush, in his address, said we "must defend the sanctity of marriage." Unfortunately, it seems Mr. Bush only wants to defend the sanctity of his sort of marriage. President Bush, in reference to a recent ruling in Massachusetts that a ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, stated that the federal government must override state judges' "arbitrary will." One state which is standing in contradiction to Massachusetts is Ohio, my home state. The Ohio Senate is close to voting into law a ban on the recognition of gay marriages. President Bush even went so far as to say that he would back a Constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in the United States. It seems the pendulum is swinging to the conservative side.

http://www.rudypark.com/editorialcartoons/topics/discrimination/gay_000306marriage.gif

It only seems fair and just to allow people of all sexual orientations to live their own lives in the way they see fit. Marriage among all people should be a personal choice, not a government-dictated one. Although a number of issues involving marital benefits and the like will have to be reevaluated, marriage between two consenting adults, of any sexual orientation, should not be government regulated. Although I am straight, I find myself constantly standing in defense of gay rights simply out of principal. Discrimination of any kind should not be acceptable in our country. If caring for other people and their fundamental rights regarding marriage makes me somewhat of a liberal, then a liberal I am.Hothem,

Alyce,2004 [online][URL] http://www.uahexponent.com/news/2004/01/29/Editorialopinion/Offering.A.Liberal.Point.Of.View-592821.shtml

Finally, frameworks can be a set of decision premises that structure facts into a constellation of assumptions [ideas accepted as true without proof; a supposition] and  approaches.  A decision premise is a proposition upon which a decision or choice is made. A proposition in this case is a statement that either affirms or denies something. Let us look at the following table:

The decision premises in this example are the statements: "I am hungry.  I have no money. No one seems to be paying attention to me.  I am at the fruit and vegetable section of the super market."  Based upon these premises, the indidvivual decides to steal a banana.  S/he justifies the decision based upon the following assumptions: No one should be allowed to go hungry.  Just because one does not have money does not mean he cannot eat.  If I act swiftly and carefully, no one will notice me taking the banana. I won't be hurting anyone by taking the banana, especially the super market.  

http://www.chunkymonkey.com/story/ontherun5.jpg

Let us look at another framework created by an American atheist that is built upon a constellation of assumptions structured to support the decision to disbelieve in God:

Adapted from The Raving Atheist, 2001 [online] [URL] http://ravingatheist.com/archives/basic_assumptions.html

http://static.wired.com/netizen/96/40/stuff/katz4a.jpg

It should be noted from the above table that several of the qualities attributed to God by theologians the world over, e.g. omnipotence, omnisicence, omnipresence and omnibenevolence, etc., are not logically possible because having one quality limits or prevents God from having the others.

Let us review. 

• sets of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of individuals and cultural groups;
• the premises and the assumptions that guide the decisions and choices we make on how to think and act in certain situations and circumstances..
• Organizations create conceptual frameworks to describe and explain how the various component structures in organizations work, why they work the way that they do, the powerful ideas that drive them and the purposes and interests they serve.

PARADIGMS

The word "paradigm" surfaced in the popular culture in the late 1960's. It was originally one of those obscure terms that one only encounters in graduate school.  The writer recalls having a professor who rewarded his expository efforts by as many as 10 points for the correct use of the term in a paper.  The term has "morphed" over the centuries from a "platonic form" i.e. an original archetype or ideal  to a grammatical device, a set or list of all the inflectional forms of a word or of one of its grammatical categories -- as in "speak, spoke and spoken!"

Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)
http://webpages.shepherd.edu/maustin/kuhn/kuhn.gif

It was Thomas Kuhn (1962), in his work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", a monograph written for the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science when he was a graduate student, who morphed the term paradigm into its new meaning. According to Lawrence Van Gelder:

His thesis was that science was not a steady, cumulative acquisition of knowledge. Instead, he wrote, it is "a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions." And in those revolutions, he wrote, "one conceptual world view is replaced by another."

Thus, Einstein's theory of relativity could challenge Newton's concepts of physics. Lavoisier's discovery of oxygen could sweep away earlier ideas about phlogiston, the imaginary element believed to cause combustion. Galileo's supposed experiments with wood and lead balls dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa could banish the Aristotelian theory that bodies fell at a speed proportional to their weight. And Darwin's theory of natural selection could overthrow theories of a world governed by design.

Professor Kuhn argued in the book that the typical scientist was not an objective, free thinker and skeptic. Rather, he was a somewhat conservative individual who accepted what he was taught and applied his knowledge to solving the problems that came before him.

In so doing, Professor Kuhn maintained, these scientists accepted a paradigm, an archetypal solution to a problem, like Ptolemy's theory that the Sun revolves around the Earth. Generally conservative, scientists would tend to solve problems in ways that extended the scope of the paradigm.
Emory University College of Education (2000)[online][URL]http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/kuhnobit.html

Science, explained Kuhn, does not move in an orderly or linear progression from lesser to greater truths. It usually remains "stuck" in a particular dogma or explanation -- a paradigm.  It takes a great deal of effort to change a paradigm. Changes in paradigms usually occur when one paradigm is replaced by another. According to Denise Breton and Christopher Largent:

Thus the Copernican system (the sun at the center of the universe) overthrew the Ptolemaic (the earth at the center) one, and Newtonian physics was replaced by Relativity and Quantum Physics. Science thus consists of periods of conservativism ("Normal" Science) punctuated by periods of "Revolutionary" Science.
The Leading Edge International Research Group, 2002 [online][URL}http://www.trufax.org/paradigm/paradigm.html

Thanks to Thomas Kuhn, other disciplines have appropriated the term paradigm. You hear people in all walks of life, not just scientists, talking about paradigms, paradigm shifts and paradigm change.

Paradigms are the most powerful form of mental models. A paradigm represents a well articulated shared view of events or phenomena -- how one is suppose to 'see" and interpret the same. A paradigm is a "lens" through which we view large chunks of our reality.  The properties of that "lens" influences what we believe to be real and true. Other names for paradigm are point of view, perspective and frame of reference.

Unlike the framework, the paradigm has an internal logic and a set of assumptions that imposes itself on what is perceived. This logic and these assumptions are, of course, learned and are believed to be real or true. The paradigm is broader in scope and more vital than a framework.  Where a framework may list, illustrate and explain the underlying assumptions of a political system, an organization, a procedure, process or a set of ideas, a paradigm is an approximation of reality. Where a framework is inscribed (written) a paradigm is experienced (Pisapia, 2003). 

We present the following not as an attack on any particular religion, but as an example of how our religious and philosophical beliefs become paradigmatic:

Original Sin
http://keptar.demasz.hu/arthp/art/r/raphael/loggia/l6b-sin.jpg

You were raised Roman Catholic.  You were baptized as an infant at a Mass of Anticipation within a few weeks after you were born. You took your first Reconciliation (Confession) and First Eucharest (Communion) when you were 7 years of age. From that point on, you attended  Sunday services regularly. From the age of 8 you went to Confession once a week and attended regular weekly Catechism classes.  You were confirmed at age 12. When you were deathly sick with scartlet fever at age 14, the priest came and performed the sacrament of Annointing. When you marry, you intend to marry a Roman Catholic believer.  You are Catholic through and through. As a Roman Catholic you have been taught to look at the world in a particular way.  You have been taught how to look at and understand events and phenomena, past and present.  You have been taught the meaning of the sacraments. You have been taught about an Almighty God whom you must fear, the authority of the  Holy Scriptures, a Savior who was the son of God who died for your sins, Redemption, Heaven, Hell, Eternal Damnation and Satan, who like a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour!. You have been given a set of "truths"  and told that these will be true under all circumstances.  You believe what you were taught with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You look out through these "truths" when you look at your world.  These truths shape what you see and the way you understand.

Let us look for a moment at a central "truth" within the Christian paradigm: the doctrine of original sin. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Original sin may be taken to mean: (1) the sin that Adam committed; (2) a consequence of this first sin, the hereditary stain with which we are born on account of our origin or descent from Adam. Harent, S 1911. New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia 2001 [online][URL]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm#I

The short version of the story of Original Sin goes like this:

When Adam, tempted by Eve, ate from the forbidden tree, according to this doctrine, God became angry and directed punishment onto him; that punishment continued on Adam's descendants until the coming of Jesus.  Jesus' death on the cross absolved the generations after him from their forefather's sin. 

If we "lay out " through the use of a framework some of the premises, assumptions and the logic that hold together this "piece" of the paradigm, we may glimpse the sometimes startling possible conclusions that the internal logic reveals.

Laying out these premises in table form forces us to examine them closely and what they imply. If we believe literally (or fundamentally) the story of the fall of man, one might see how the elements of the story can influence our ideas about God, Jesus, women or sin, among other things. We can live a long time with our faith in these ideas unshaken; that they are real and true.

Like other mental models discussed in this series of essays, the primary functions of the paradigm are to structure or "represent" portions of our reality so that they might be understood and explained, and provide a basis and process for solving problems posed by that reality.

But more than any other mental model or conceptual tool discussed, once a paradigm is created, it limit's one's perspective. It screens out or limits new views. The paradigm creates a way of thinking and knowing which individuals use to filter and adjust data, information and new ideas. Therefore, information which agrees with the paradigm is more likely to be assimilated (taken in) than that which does not agree (Pisapia, 2003).

We usually have several paradigms or more accurately, paradigms within paradigms. Remember that our paradigms encompass large portions of our reality and some of those paradigms overlap.  For example most of us have a religious or philosophical paradigm that provides a particular focus on reality. We consider ourselves Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, Animists, Idealists, Realists, Pragmatists, Existentialists, Humanists and everything in between. We may also have ethnic or national identity paradigms causing us to think and act American, European, African, Asian, etc. We may also have gender paradigms, occupational paradigms, political and economic paradigms -- all major mental models that structure major portions of our reality, causing us to see and think about the world as a "man" or a "woman," a "teacher" or an "engineer", a "democrat" or a "republican", "capitalist" or "socialist."

Our Paradigms

Everything we think, feel or do is shaped by our paradigms including how we perceive and interpret our selves and our reality. According to Largent and Breton:

Paradigms begin with a general organizing theory, one that is able to connect theories, assumptions, and observations about various phenomena; one that explains how reality works, what works in reality and why this theory is better than any other theory. This theory becomes the initial "lens" through which we look.  Referring to the paradigm graphic above, the beliefs, values and attitudes or characteristic cultural thought [and behavior] of a particular culture in that example is the general organizing theory. There are several other paradigms contained in the larger cultural paradigm -- a religious paradigm, a gender paradigm and an occupational paradigm. One can see that all of our paradigms influence to a greater or lesser extent each other. For example, through culture we learn what beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors are acceptable.  We learn how to determine what is true or false, how to solve problems, how to treat people, how to appropriately express our feelings and emotions, how to behave generally. If we are presented our religious/philosophical knowledge and understanding at the same time we are assimilating cultural knowledge, they may be considered one and the same. We learn our gender beliefs, values, attitudes and roles within this same context. Later, when we are employed in an occupation, we learn how to think, act and solve problems in our employment roles. Each of these paradigms may be considered "lenses" which draw into focus certain aspects of reality. 

Let us look at the example of Sarah, an African American teacher, and examine in part the core beliefs which make up several of her respective paradigms:

Sarah is an American, which means she was born in the United States of America, in San Francisco California. She was brought up to believe, even as a small child, in the following American values:

Overlaid upon these cultural/national identity/ethnic core beliefs (contained in this paradigm) are her religious beliefs.  She was raised and continues to espouse the Unitarian Universalist religion and as such believes:

• Each person, because of her/his humanity inherently has dignity and worth.
• Each person seek his/her unique spiritual path, based upon their personal life experience, the use of reason and meditation, the findings of science and her/his fundamental beliefs concerning deity, humanity, and the rest of the universe.
• The prime function of a clergyperson and congregation is to help the individual members to grow spiritually.
• All the great religions of the world, and their sacred texts, have worth.
• There should be no barrier to membership, such as compulsory adherence to a creed.
  Their lives, their congregations and association are governed by the concepts of democracy, religious freedom and religious tolerance.
• Much of their effort should be directed towards civil rights, achieving equality of treatment for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. They have played a major role in these battles for equal rights, in spite of their relatively small numbers. (adapted from Robinson, B.A.Unitarian Universalism [online][URL]http://www.religioustolerance.org/u-u2.htm

She is a feminist and as a feminist she believes that men and women should be equal politically, economically and socially.

As a teacher, she combines feminist and constructivist values  and believes strongly:

• That women have opportunities to come to know each other as people, speak honestly, take risks, and support each other in the classroom, feminist values of communication, community, equality, and mutual nurturance are reinforced.
• that hierarchical authority with participatory decision-making must be replaced. This does not imply structurelessness, but structure that is democratic.
• A classroom based on cooperative norms is desirable from both feminist and educational perspectives.
• In both intellectual and emotional capabilities. There is a need to change the overly rational premises of male-dominated social relations and institutions and to incorporate priorities appreciative of human needs and feelings.
• in taking action to transform institutions and values. (adapted from Feminist Principles of Classroom Interaction, 1993 [online][URL]http://www.greens.org/s-r/05/05-16.html
• Multiple perspectives and representations of concepts and content are presented and encouraged.
• Goals and objectives are derived by the student or in negotiation with the teacher or system.
• Teachers serve in the role of guides, monitors, coaches, tutors and facilitators.
• Activities, opportunities, tools and environments are provided to encourage metacognition, self-analysis -regulation, -reflection & -awareness.
• The student plays a central role in mediating and controlling learning.
  Learning situations, environments, skills, content and tasks are relevant, realistic, authentic and represent the natural complexities of the 'real world'.
• Primary sources of data are used in order to ensure authenticity and real-world complexity.
  Knowledge construction and not reproduction is emphasized.
• This construction takes place in individual contexts and through social negotiation, collaboration and experience.
• The learner's previous knowledge constructions, beliefs and attitudes are considered in the knowledge construction process.
• Problem-solving, higher-order thinking skills and deep understanding are emphasized.
• Errors provide the opportunity for insight into students' previous knowledge constructions.
• Exploration is a favoured approach in order to encourage students to seek knowledge independently and to manage the pursuit of their goals.
• Learners are provided with the opportunity for apprenticeship learning in which there is an increasing complexity of tasks, skills and knowledge acquisition.
• Knowledge complexity is reflected in an emphasis on conceptual interrelatedness and interdisciplinary learning.
• Collaborative and cooperative learning are favoured in order to expose the learner to alternative viewpoints.
• Scaffolding is facilitated to help students perform just beyond the limits of their ability.
• Assessment is authentic and interwoven with teaching. Adapted from Murphy, Elizabeth, 1997, [online] [URL] http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~elmurphy/emurphy/cle3.html

Such are the beliefs and values that inform Sarah's attitudes and behaviors toward the events that transpire in the arenas of her citizenship, her ethnicity, her gender and her profession. As we have said earlier  these beliefs and values are linked by an internal logic that imposes upon what is perceived. However, should certain circumstances or events happen in our lives to cause us to question our beliefs; when those premises or articles of faith no longer make sense or provide satisfactory explanations for what we experience, we are "ripe" for paradigm change or a paradigm shift.

PARADIGM CHANGE/ PARADIGM SHIFT

There comes a time in the life of the paradigm when its ability to satisfactorily explain phenomena begins to diminish. Other phenomena comes to light that is not easily explained or cannot be explained at all.  New explanations drawn from different theories or theoretical orientations are resisted or even squashed.  Van Gelder relates what Kuhn had to say when this time in the life of the scientific paradigm is reached:

In such periods, ...he [Kuhn] maintained, scientists tend to resist research that might signal the development of a new paradigm, like the work of the astronomer Aristarchus, who theorized in the third century B.C. that the planets revolve around the Sun. But, Professor Kuhn said, situations arose that the paradigm could not account for or that contradicted it.  And then, he said, a revolutionary would appear, a Lavoisier or an Einstein, often a young scientist not indoctrinated in the accepted theories, and sweep the old paradigm away.

These revolutions, he said, came only after long periods of tradition-bound normal science. "Frameworks must be lived with and explored before they can be broken," Professor Kuhn said.  The new paradigm cannot build on the one that precedes it, he maintained. It can only supplant it. The two, he said, were "incommensurable.
Emory University College of Education (2000)[online][URL]http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/kuhnobit.html

The history of science is not the only place we can look to find evidence of paradigm change. The history of man is an ongoing tale of shifting perspectives, points of view, frames of reference and paradigms.  Another  way of looking at paradigm change over time is to look at phylogenic [...the evolutionary development and history of a species ] human development and the inventions that caused man to make significant "evolutionary adaptations for species preservation."

Let us explore briefly the kinds of inventions or discoveries that dramatically changed the paradigms of genus Homo and then transformed his/her way of life.

Homo Habilis and His Tools
http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/museum/hominid/first_human/habilis/other_information/habilis.jpg

About 1.8 million years ago, the hominid Homo Habilis  made stone tools and weapons.  These were not terribly sophisticated tools. probably their use was discovered by accident. Anthropologists have given these tools names that suggest their use.

Joan Halifax (1979), reproduces an account of ancient man as told by the Iglulik Eskimos:

"In the earliest times, men lived in the dark and had no animals to hunt. They were poor, ignorant people, far inferior to those living nowadays. They travelled about in search of food, they lived on journeys as we do now, but in a very different way. When they halted and camped, they worked at the soil with picks of a kind we no longer know. They got their food from the earth. They lived on the soil. They knew nothing of all the game we now have, and therefore had no need to be ever on guard against all those perils that arise from the fact that we, hunting animals as we do, live by slaying their souls... " Halifax, J., 1979 in Evans, 2004 [online][URL]http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_habilis.htm

Imagine how human life changed when with the use of tools more sophisticated than digging sticks, man could now look at his world from the perspective or paradigm of a hunter. Those animals to which he had been indifferent or fearful now became necessary. He could change his diet to red meat and increase his protein intake, he could make clothes from the skins of the animals he had killed after scraping them clean.    According to Laurence Evans:

Homo habilis made tools from rocks suitable for the production of one tool or another and some tools required more time to make than others. There is even some evidence that apparently simpler tools made with different materials was an advance. A sharp, clean edge could be made in a minute through the removal of a single flake while other materials flaked differently and took 5 to 7 minutes to prepare for use. Actual use of stone age tools showed the advantage of using a heavy tool to effectively skin an animal such as a zebra. Also, it requires a person of a suitable size to yield the tool! Flakes from tools also served to disjoint a carcass, cut sinews or scrape the skin. The tool kit of a hunter could thus be simple and light, consisting of a "hammerstone" and some large tools. Such efficient simplicity would be necessary for a mobile hunter. Evans, L., 2004, [online][URL] http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_habilis.htm

Homo Erectus
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/erectus/images/erectus-tools.jpeg

For Homo Erectus, the hominid who represents the next evolutionary period of early man, tool making became even more sophisticated. This hominid species produced hand-axes in addition to sharp-edged flakes. These tools were the first to show fairly complex and conscious design. Not only were tool designs more complex, but the manufacture of these tools required greater skill. Hunting ability also improved and H. erectus began to hunt larger game.

Sanderson Beck
http://www.san.beck.org/graphics2/San03-1.jpg

Sanderson Beck describes the change in paradigm from primitive to more sophisticated hunter and the attendant advancements, social and physiological, brought about by that change:

Successful hunting requires patience, sensitivity of perception, communication, and group cooperation. Homo erectus was the first primate to share food regularly with other adults. Hunting surely alienated Homos from other large animals, as the act of brutal killing selected individuals with this aggressive instinct. Yet the complex planning and teamwork involved in hunting also stimulated and selected intelligence if not compassion for other animals.

As the brains became larger, the infants developed more slowly, requiring up to five years of parental care. Primate evolution had also moved away from litters of offspring and toward single births so that now it is rare for a woman to have more than one child at a time. This allowed for greater prenatal growth and more special care from the mother after birth. As the infants required more care from the mother, the mothers needed more protection and help from a reliable male. As the males went off bonding together as hunting parties, the females were able to gather plants locally and prepare food, bonding with their children and each other at home.
Beck, S, 2002 [online][URL]http://www.san.beck.org/EC2-Prehistoric.html

Amazing what improved tools, a little hunting and a diet of red meat can bring about!  But there is more:

Homo erectus is the only mammal in which the estrus period of procreation has completely disappeared, so that the female is not preoccupied by periods of intensive male sexual attention, which would be disastrous for the infants, but instead is attractive to the male at any time. Also the erect posture allows humans to copulate face to face. Thus the sexual act becomes less mechanical, quick and instinctive, and more likely to be an emotional experience. As the brain and intelligence increased, thought, feelings, and choice became more available to early humans. In other words, voluntary control of these instincts developed so that the individual could choose the partner and the time and place for sexual intercourse. As personal preference became more meaningful, male-female relationships could become more enduring. Also as sexual activity could be chosen for its pleasurable qualities, homosexuality became possible.

The ability to plan and think and restrain oneself while hunting prey affected other activities as well. Inhibitions and prohibitions regarding sex developed for social reasons, as dominant males expressed jealousy and prevented promiscuous relationships. Concern that the young become socially mature as well as sexually mature before producing children may have led to incest taboos and delayed mating until the male was ready to provide for a family. As different groups hunted in competition with each other, ways to avoid violent and deadly conflicts between groups may have developed such as mating with members of other groups to develop emotional ties. Beck, S, 2002 [online][URL]http://www.san.beck.org/EC2-Prehistoric.html

Homo erectus may have been the first species of hominid to use and control fire. This milestone in human development occurred 1 to l.5 million years ago. Whether the use of fire was opportunistic e.g. taking advantage of fires started naturally or actually conrolling fire through the use of a hearth or primitive fire places is  controversial. Control of fire may have enabled humans to move out of Africa and into colder climates in Europe and Asia, but the significance of fire in the life of the human was far more than cooked meals and the ability to survive in colder climates. Again, a change in perspective, a change in paradigm, a change in reality-- a transformation. Beck continues:

The first use of fire seems to coincide with the movement of early humans north into Europe and China. Fire could be obtained first from lightning strikes or burning oil from the ground and could be carefully kept burning. Eventually means were developed to light fires. Fire gave humans more independence and made them considerably more threatening to other animals. With fire they could scare large predators out of caves and take them over for homes. Fire gave them light as well as warmth so that they could socialize and communicate more at night. Fire also assisted tool-making by sharpening spear points and so on. Cooking improved the taste and eased the digestion of many foods, especially starches. Softer foods put less strain on the jaw muscles which gradually decreased along with the molar teeth. These changes accompanied a thinning of the skull bones, allowing for the selection of still larger brains. By 300,000 years ago Homo sapiens was hunting game as big as elephants and beginning to emerge with an average brain size of about 1,100 cubic centimeters, and by about 100,000 years ago the current average of 1,450 was reached.

Certainly the use of fire made humans more domestic as they patiently prepared or waited for the cooked meals in their warm homes. As hunters developed signals into better communication and returned to the family hearth, the urge to share their experiences with their families must have stimulated the development of language and storytelling. The women surely also invented terms or verbal expressions to indicate objects and activities. With small teeth and an agile tongue many different sounds could be made and distinguished by their excellent hearing. As memory increased, older members of the families were valued for what they could tell of the past and earlier traditions. Knowledge and skills could be passed on from one generation to another. Fire is also a powerful symbol and could have been used in various rituals at night to enhance social cohesion and pass on traditions of hunting and other important activities.  Beck, S, 2002 [online][URL]http://www.san.beck.org/EC2-Prehistoric.html

From simple tools to talk, and in between hunting, control of fire, improved diet, increases in brain size and capacity, group cohesion and the birth of culture.  Think of the differences in perspective, point of view, or paradigms between " men [who] lived in the dark and had no animals to hunt" and  men and women who lived in communities with fire to light up their nights and cook their food, who could talk to each other and pass on their collective knowledge to their children.

http://web.mit.edu/kirason/www/cartoons/talking.jpg

Donald P. Ryan asserts that while tool-making was an extremely important benchmark in the separation of paleohumans from their more ape-like "cousins", it was not the signature event:

...the signature event that separated the emergence of palaeohumans from their anthropoid progenitors was not tool-making but a rudimentary oral communication that replaced the hoots and gestures still used by lower primates.  The transfer of more complex information, ideas and concepts from one individual to another, or to a group, was the single most advantageous evolutionary adaptation for species preservation.
Ryan, D.P. 2004,[online][URL] http://www.historian.net/hxwrite.htm

Donald P. Ryan
http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/

Regular tool-using in hominids probably evolved before vocal language. In relatively simple contexts the use of gestures may have been a better way to make oneself understood than hoots or grunts. According to Gordon W. Hewes (1999):

It is speculated that with increasing manual preoccupations [...tool-making and gesturing] proto-speech developed out of mouth-gestures patterned after hand gestures and combined with vocalizations. Now the development of more abstract conceptual thinking was possible...Hewes, Gordon W. 2002, A history of the study of language origins and the gestural primacy hypothesis, [online][URL] http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/hbook/hewes.htm

Stanley Ambrose (2001) suggests a close relationship between the use of complex tools, the planning of complex tasks and the use of grammatical language:

"The ordering of sequences and the hierarchical assembly of the same components into different configurations makes tools of different functions and makes phrases of different meanings."

"Gathering the components for composite tools (stone inserts, handles, binding materials) requires planning and coordinating different tasks before a tool is assembled. "The part of the frontal lobe that we now use for planning complex tasks may have coevolved with composite tool-making around 300,000 years ago."

"As makers of single-component tools, we progressed at a remarkably slow pace between 2.5 and 0.3 million years ago. But "with the appearance of composite tools, near-modern brain size anatomy and perhaps of grammatical language 300,000 years ago, the pace quickened exponentially. We became long-range planners and grammatical speakers. Composite tools made us what we are today." (From "Expert proposes new ideas about technology and evolution". March 1, 2001. [URL] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-03/UoIa-Epni-0103101.php

With tools, hunting, communication skills and increasing domestication, modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens, the most successful of all species of homo, left Africa in several waves from 150,000 to 80,000 years ago and peopled the rest of the world. 

About 15,000 BCE people living in the Mediterranean region that is now known as Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan (the Ancient Levant) had an "elaborate" technology that enabled them to utilize grain at a site archaeologists call Ain Gev,  Wheat and barley grew wild in the Levant and Iraq, near the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Genus Homo living in this area was very familiar with these plants. Though still hunter-gatherers, the people at Ain Gev used flint and wood sickles to harvest grain and grindstones to turn it into flour.

Between 10,000 and 9,000  there is evidence of  the beginnings of sea travel, early agriculture and cave paintings in Zawi Chemi Shanidar, located in the Zagros Mountains by the Zab River of northern Iraq. The inhabitants of this settlement appear to have been nomads who established this "village" as a seasonal site in their hunt for food.  There is evidence that the people hunted and herded animals (sheep, goats, pigs and deer) and ground grain on grinding stones. 
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/euro4.htm

Around 8,000 BCE in the fertile Crescent and what is now known as Turkey, the species Homo stopped living off the land by opportunisitcally gathering edible nuts, berries and plants where they could find them and by killing and eating wild animals and began "taking wild grasses and using the seeds for food and planting for the next years food. These seeds are now known as cereals and make up a large percentage of the worlds food supply. http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/story-of-farming.htm. 

The earliest farming communities of species Homo are thought to be Qalat Jarmo in the foothills of the Zagros mountains in northern Iraq, Zawi Chemi Shanidar also in the Zagros Mountains by the Zab River of northern Iraq, Tell Abu Hureyra, an ancient village on the Euphrates River in Syria about 20 milles from Alleppo, the city of Jericho, located on the western edge of the Jordan valley in the area now called the "West Bank" and about six miles north of the Dead Sea and Catal Huyuk in modern Turkey.  Qalat Jarmo :

...was known as the oldest known agricultural community in the world, dating back to 7000 BC. It is also one of the oldest Neolithic village sites to be excavated. It was first found in 1940's by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities, which later recommended the site to Robert Braidwood of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He had been asking about ancient villages in the Middle East for a study he was conducting. Under the Oriental Institute, Braidwood excavated the site at different times from March 1948 until June of 1955. He wanted to find out more about the origin of food production. The Jarmo archeological site was one of the first means of documentation for the way of life of civilization's first farmers and herders.

There were approximately 100 to 150 people who lived in the village. Twenty permanent mud-walled houses, with stone foundations, tauf walls, and reed bedding, housed the residents of Jarmo. The people reaped their grain with stone sickles, stored their food in stone bowls, and possessed domesticated goats, sheep, and dogs. They also grew emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, and lentils. In addition to their agriculture, they also foraged for wild plants such as the field pea, acorns, pistachio nuts, and wild wheat. The later levels of settlement contained evidence of domesticated pigs and clay pottery. Since many of their tools were made of obsidian from beds 300 miles away, a primitive form of commerce must have existed. Bone tools, especially awls, were abundant from the site. Carefully made bone spoons and beads were also found.

Braidwood said, after he was unable to excavate the site any further due to political reasons, that Jarmo as a settlement was an social and economical example for future Mesopotamian cultures that would arise around 4000 BC. It was also the first site in the Near East in which interdisciplinary field archeology was used to discover the origins of food production. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/middle_east/jarmosite.html

Jarmo, Iraq
http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Qalat_Jarmo.html

From the Time Machine website we learn about Tell Abu Hureyra:

The earliest occupation of the village was in 9000 BC. A very large amount of seeds and grains were found, including large quantities of wheat and some grains of barley and rye; there were also plants from the pea family, like lentils and vetches, and a wide range of other edible fruits, nuts and seeds (unlike most plant material, seeds and grains do not rot quickly) . It appears that at least the wheat was being grown, while the rest likely represent gatherings from wild plants. The presence of both cereals and peas suggests that these early farmers might already have discovered that if these two types of crops are grown in rotation soil fertility is renewed (members of the pea family add nitrogen to the soil). Most of the meat food came from gazelle and onager and it is possible that these animals were being either selectively hunted or perhaps herded. The 7000 BC settlement covered 15 hectares, a very large town, and larger than any other recorded site of this period (even Catal Huyuk). Houses were rectangular and walls were plastered, and some of the plaster has traces of painting. http://www.edunetconnect.com/TimeMachine/westasia-10000.php

http://www.edunetconnect.com/TimeMachine/contentimages/scan5.gif

According to Eric Rhymer:

The roots of farming began in the areas of present day Turkey and the Middle East about 10,000 years ago. Two of the earliest settlements are known as Catal Hüyük and Jericho. Catal Hüyük had, by 6000 B.C., more then 1000 houses...

http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Catal_Hoyuk.html
http://www.smm.org/catal/mysteries/first_city/

Jericho, like many early cities, was located around a consistent water source, a spring which produced over 1000 gallons of water every minute. Jericho consisted of about eight to ten acres on which it is estimated that two to three thousand people lived. These people were supported by farming of wheat, barley, peas, and lentils... http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/story-of-farming.htm. 

The people credited with inventing the "farms of Jericho" are the Natufians. The Natufian culture existed in the area known in antiquity as the Ancient Levant.  Farming began when genus Homo was forced to rely more heavily on cultivated cereals. This apparently happened between 12000 and 11000 BCE at the end of the Ice Age when a drought enveloped the Levant. According to one theory, the Natufians, seeing the destruction of their natural fields, decided that they should start planting grains instead of harvesting wild cerals. By clearing ground and planting seeds obtained from elsewhere, they began to practice agriculture. Kurt Holden gives this account:

At the time of the climate change, the Natufians had developed the flint sickles and stone mortars and pestles needed to harvest and process wild grains and, based upon the seashell badges of rank found in their tombs, had a developed social structure.

They built stone houses and... it was they who exploited a genetic mutation that occurred within the area's wild einkorn wheat as they began to plant and harvest it. In the wild, most of the wheat stalks shed their grains separately, which made them difficult to collect. Just over 10,000 years ago, however, a mutation had occurred that caused grains in a tiny percentage of the wheat to become fatter and stick more tenaciously to the stalk. The Natufians apparently saved for replanting a portion of the seeds they harvested, and, because the intact heads were less likely to be lost in the fields and more likely to be collected by the Natufians, each year an increasing percentage of the wheat planted was of the new and more nutritious variety. http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0993/9309081.htm

With farming came the domestication of animals. There is evidence in several of the early farming communities of domesticated animals. In Zawi Chemi Shanidar (Iraq, 9,000 B.C.) there is evidence of the herded gazelle and onager. In Jarmo, (Iraq) there is evidence of domestic goats, sheep and dogs.  Around 8500 B.C.E sheep, goats, pigs and dogs in several places throughtout the Levant. Cattle became a viable part of the agricultural system around 6500 B.C.E. From domesticated animals came much needed and regular supplies of protein, hides and wool for clothing, and manure to fertilize farmlands.

http://www.auburn.edu/~hameswe/Horsemen.jpg

Horses, as a means of transportation and not just food, were probably domesticated around 4000BCE. According to the International Museum of the Horse website:

Around 4000 BC farmers evidently kept horses for meat, and possibly milked the mares. Excavations of refuse remains show that the horse became progressively more important in the economy of these primitive farmers...

It was probably during herding that the necessity arose to jump on one horse's back to follow others. An agile man on a small horse needed no saddle, but some kind of control was essential. This may at first have been no more than a rope around the jaw, or some sort of hackamore. But antler cheekpieces, which served as toggles to soft mouthpieces (of rope, rawhide, or sinew), have been found at sites of the earliest domesticated horse on the steppes north of the Black Sea. Until recently, it was considered that in this region the horse was long used only for casual and primitive riding. Evidence now suggests that these people may have been much more accomplished horsemen, and that their equestrian abilities might have led to their emergence as nomadic herdsmen far earlier than originally thought...

While it had long been accepted that humans harnessed horses prior to riding them, new archeological research in Eurasia now may push the date for the first horseback riding back to approximately 4,000 BC Excavations from Dereivka in the Ukrainian steppes have unearthed horse teeth from this period which show possible signs of bit wear. This would mean that man became mounted shortly after domestication - some 3,000 years prior to significant horseback riding in the "civilized" Near East. As these people had no written language, were nomadic, and utilized materials which have not survived, little more is known of their early riding efforts. It would be more than 3,000 years before their legacy, the mounted Sythian cavalry, would make their presence felt in the "civilized" world around 670 BC. http://www.imh.org/imh/kyhpl1b.html

Coinciding with the planting and the harvesting of crops such as wheat was the establishment of permanent settlements. Jericho, a farming community, is thought to be one of the oldest cities in the world.

It was not until man began to plant and harvest crops that large permanent settlements could be established, like at Jericho.

http://www.bibleplaces.com/images/Jericho_Neolithic_tower_45-01tb_wr.jpg
http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/magazines/images/212wall_sketch.jpg

We find many of the early civilizations began along major river systems. For example Egyptians settled along the Nile River, Harappa culture along the Indus, Chinese Empire along the Huang River and the Mesopotamian Countries along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The river systems provided these early civilizations with a consistent source of silt from the yearly floods and water for the crops. The silt is like a natural fertilizer, bringing new minerals to enrich the crop depleted soil. http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/story-of-farming.htm

Egyptian Hieroglyphics
http://www.kottke.org/plus/photos/200105europe/hieroglyphics.jpg

As genus Homo continued to improve his/her communication skills, and as more frequent speech and improved memory led to the development of the ability to abstract, it soon (in developmental terms) became necessary to preserve thoughts, ideas, dreams and visions. The advancement of farming and the rise of cities compelled  Genus Homo to keep track of fields, crop revenues and taxes. The ability to abstract, farm and live in communities called forth yet another shift in perspective -- those changes brought about  as a result of the invention of writing.  According to Ryan :

The transfer of more complex information, ideas and concepts from one individual to another, or to a group, was the single most advantageous evolutionary adaptation for species preservation.  As long ago as 25,000-30,000 years BP, humans were painting pictures on cave walls.  Whether these pictures were telling a "story" or represented some type of "spirit house" or ritual exercise is not known.

Counting Tokens
http://www.historian.net/hxwrite.htm

The advent of a writing system, however, seems to coincide with the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to more permanent agrarian encampments when it became necessary to count one's property, whether it be parcels of land, animals or measures of grain or to transfer that property to another individual or another settlement.  We see the first evidence for this with incised "counting tokens" about 9,000 years ago in the neolithic fertile crescent.

Around 4100-3800 BCE, the tokens began to be symbols that could be impressed or inscribed in clay to represent a record of land, grain or cattle and a written language was beginning to develop.  One of the earliest examples was found in the excavations of Uruk in Mesopotamia at a level representing the time of the crystallization of the Sumerian culture. http://www.historian.net/hxwrite.htm

Mesopotamian Tablets with Semi-Pictographic Writing
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/MediumWriting.jpg

The transformation of genus Homo from a hunter to a farmer and then to a city dweller; from a nomad to a property owner made necessary the invention of writing. Writing preserved and standardized culture and tradition and enabled its broad transmission. Writing created the knowledge explosion allow it to double and redoubled itself at an ever expanding rate. Writing recorded, categorized and kept account of man's worldly goods.  Sue Tomlinson (1998) succinctly summarizes the advantages of writing:

• We notice differences over time. There was no history before people wrote things.
• We do not waste much brain power merely remembering details; we can use those details in higher order reasoning.
• We are not limited to our own experiences in order to gain knowledge. We don't have to rediscover knowledge in every generation, nor do we have to have personal contact with people who have specialized knowledge that we need.
• We are capable of ruling ourselves in democracies now that knowledge is not entirely dependent on social class.
• We can build on the knowledge of others to create new technology which revolutionizes our lifestyles in much less than a generation. The poorest among us, even those living in the most squalid conditions, have comforts better, in many respects, than the richest king of the Middle Ages. http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/language/history.htm

http://www.150.si.edu/siarch/handbook/hbpics/99cata.jpg
http://www.150.si.edu/siarch/handbook/hbpics/106cor.jpg

The dugout and "skin boat" preceded the invention of the wheel and made transportation by water possible. Genus Homo living near large bodies of water quickly found ways to cross bodies of water without getting wet and to transport their goods. Historians cannot agree on when the dugout was invented, but there are claims that there is evidence of dugouts as early as 40,000 years ago. The domestication the horse, cattle, sheep and goats provided some forms of overland transport of people and goods from about 5000 -- 4000  BCE. But the invention of the wheel pushed mankind another leap ahead. 

According to Esther Mitchell (2002):

Archaeologists believe that the very first step toward man-made transportation began in either Mesopotamia or Asia, sometime around 4000-3500 BC, with the invention of the wheel. By this point, man had long since domesticated the horse, and was using it to help him till the soil and plant crops. But the invention of the wheel would eventually make man's ability to transport his crops from one place to another less awkward, and birth the idea of trade and exchange. The invention of the wheel would lead to the development of mass transportation, as man put his new invention to practical uses.

The next logical evolutionary step from the wheel was the invention of the cart and chariot. The two-wheel chariot found its birthplace in Sumeria, and is believed to be the worlds first form of wheeled transportation. Built around 3500 BC, this chariot increased the speed of travel over land, and eventually led to the four-wheeled cart, which took the burden of carrying supplies and equipment off of the shoulders of the common man. http://mnmn.essortment.com/transportationh_rgly.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004203/science/aryan.gif?tqskip1=1

Simple hand tools and weapons, spoken language, farming, the domestication of animals, city-dwelling and the building of cities, writing and the creation of scrolls and books, horseback-riding, chariots, boats, organized warfare and the printing press changed our world and the way we see and think about it profoundly.  Each of these changes made possible the panoply of human invention that led to modern space exploration, the microchip, the digital revolution, the birth control pill, cloning, the internet and the deconstruction of the human genome -- just a few examples of the events and inventions that are changing our lives as we speak.  Inventions, successful adaptations that further species preservation, the experience of natural and man-made disasters, the challenges of interpersonal interactions all conspire to bring about changes in the way we see and think about our world. And from those experiences, we build the resultant knowledge, understanding and behaviorial change into the way we view our world -- into our paradigms. (See website: http://www.knowledgecontext.org/activities/timeline.htm)

Plato writing in the "Republic" is credited with the expression "necessity is the mother of invention."  Necessity, the state or fact of being in need, causes man to invent things to satisfy or fulfill his needs. This has certainly been borne out in our brief examination of human invention.  But necessity is not the only factor causing genus Homo to solve problems.

Jean Piaget suggested many years ago that man delights in solving problems, especially through cognition. Howard Gardner built on that insight and reframed a definition of intelligence that is transforming the way we look at human achievement.  According to Gardner:

"Intelligence is a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture." http://www.increasingintelligence.com/defs.html

"Biopsychological" means mind-body in today's parlance.  Intelligence, then, is mind-body information processing. To what end? Why, to solve problems and to create things the culture deems valuable. Gardner's reframing of the construct intelligence transformed the construct.  If genius is popularly construed to be extraordinary intelligence, and intelligence is measured or indicated by the ability to solve problems and/or create culturally valuable products, then the door to the high-end of exceptionality is kicked open to allow a much larger sample of genius to come in. Genius is not narrowly defined by high levels of mental abstraction, but emotional competence and physical ability as well. Now the linguist, poet, novelist, the athlete, plastic artist and musician, the preacher, motivational speaker, socialite and guru can share the pedestal with the theoretical astrophysicist, mathematician and engineer.

If we can believe Piaget and Gardner, mankind's search for happiness is rooted in the pursuit of pleasure -- not the temporal and temporary pleasures gained from self-indulgence, sensuality and the accumulation of wealth, but the biopsychological pleasures derived from problem-solving, creation and re-creation. If necessity and/or the pursuit of pleasure drives man to invention, it follows that the same drives man to re-invention.

What is reinvention? Let us review what we said about reinvention in the essay, Transformation: Creating Context, part 1.  In this essay, we said that reinventing ourselves begins with transforming our self-concepts and raising our self-esteem. We also said that we take our life experiences and transmute "these base metals into gold."  This means that in the process of examining our life experiences, we can learn the truth about who and what we are and what we are capable of being, doing, knowing and achieving. Toward what purpose? Toward the choice of happiness. 

The misfortune in our lives and/or what we have been told about ourselves in our interactions with others are no longer the most significant shapers of our self-concepts. When we purposefully work to overcome the guilt, worry, stress, loneliness and fear of rejection that are residue of negative self-concepts and low self-esteem, we can change our self-descriptions and revise our summary formulations of our status.  Given new inputs or experiences, we can reinvent ourselves over and over again.
http://faculty.mdc.edu/jmcnair/EDG2701%20All%20Classes/New%20Essay2a.htm

Marilyn Ferguson
http://www.muscaria.com/host/sept/fergus.jpg

The Personal Paradigm Shift

Marilyn Ferguson (1980/87) popularized the term personal paradigm shift. She suggests that when given new information, inputs and experiences, the perspectives of individuals can change and bring about new experiences at a personal level. The individual must, of course, choose to change these perspectives. Often a transforming event, emotional experience or an emergent process forces us to re-examine what we think is real; provides us cues or keys to find information in our realities that we overlooked or were unaware. Ferguson explains:

As experienced by an indivdual, the paradigm shift might be compared to the discovery of the "hidden" pictures in childrens magazines.  You look at a sketch that appears to be [...a picture of Johnny Appleseed walking through the countryside ...]The someone asks you to look more closely --to look for something you had no reason to believe was there.  Suddenly, you see camouflagaed objects in the scene....

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/apples.htm

Nobody can talk you into seeing the hidden pictures.  You are not persuaded that the objects are there.  Either you see them or you don't.  But once you have seen them, they are plainly there whenever you look at the drawing. You wonder how you missed the before. (Ferguson, M., The Aquarian Conspiracy,p.30, 1980/87)

This same point is made when we look at various optical illusions:

Most of you are familiar with these images (called figure-ground and ambiguous figure illusions) and can see the profiles of the two faces conforming to the side contours of the vase in the first image and the shifting view of the young lady and old lady in the second. Once you have seen them, you will know how to look for them when presented the image again and again.

Once you locate the hidden pictures in your personal reality and recognize how the perspectives can shift or change you cannot experience that reality in the same way.  Ferguson continues:

Growing up, we experienced  minor paradigm shifts -- insights into the principles of geometry, for instance, or a game, or a sudden broadening of our political or religious beliefs. Each insight enlarged the context, brought a fresh way of perceiving connections...

Deep inner shifts may occur in response to disciplined contemplation, grave illness, wilderness treks, peak emotions, creative effort, spiritual exercises controlled breathing, techniques for "inhibiting" thought, psychedelics, movement, isolation, music, hypnosis, meditation, reverie and in the wake of intense intellectural struggle...(Ferguson, IBID p.30-31)

Personal paradigm shifts precede reinvention. The personal paradigm shift creates the context in which personal reinvention occurs. Imagine your self image as an ambiguous reversible figure.  Suppose you believe yourself to be the "old crone" in the second image because that is exactly the way you have "seen" yourself.  You feel like an old crone and you act like one.  Your life reflects and reinforces these self perceptions and the feelings which accompany them.  Even the people in your life for the most part support this image of yourself. You are miserable and unhappy. Suddenly, by accident or through deliberate "self work" e.g. a peak emotional experience, a spiritual awakening, therapy or a religious conversion, your perspective shifts and you get a glimpse of yourself as the beautiful young maiden. To the extent that you can "fix" this new image in your awareness so that it can be seen each time you look at yourself, you can believe you are that image; you can change your self perception, e.g. how you "see" and feel about who you are and what you can do. 

Changing the way we perceive ourselves and then changing the beliefs we hold about ourselves constitutes a personal paradigm shift and is positioned at the beginning of the process of reinvention. Another way of saying this is that reinvention or personal transformation cannot begin without a personal paradigm shift.

Reinvention, as a type of personal transformation, follows the four stages of transformation described by Ferguson. These are:

• an entry point to the process
• exploration
• integration
• conspiracy

Stage one or the entry point of the typical process of personal transformation is marked by an awakening to the need to change. As we examine ourselves, we might get a glimpse of a new personal  potential, or become aware of problematic or dysfunctional behavior. We might be dissatisfied with our notions of who and what we are and think that we can be so much more. We may hate our job or the the way our relationship is going. We make a decision to do something about this. And then something happens! Ferguson explains:

The first stage is preliminary, almost happenstance: an entry point. In most cases, the entry point can only be identified in retrospect. Entry can be triggered by anything that shakes up the old understanding of the world, the old priorities. Sometimes it is a token investment, made out of boredom, curiosity, or desperation -- a ten-dollar book, a hundred-dollar mantra, a university extension course. For a great many, the trigger has been a spontaneous mystical or psychic experience, as hard to explain as it is to deny. Or the intense alternative reality generated by a psychedelic drug. Ferguson, 1980/87, p. 89

The reference to the psychedelic drug is a reality than cannot be skirted.  Many people beginning in the 1960's when the drug culture left the underworld for the mainstream "turned on, tuned in and dropped out." Drugs, especially psychedelic agents like LSD, Mescaline, pscilocybin, became ways in which typical "left-brain, status quo Americans" experienced altered perceptions and adventures in creativity. It also led to unpreceented substance abuse and addiction.  It is important to point out the role of psychedelic drugs as one of many triggers to transformation.  However, hindsight tells us that "sartori" [seeing one's own true nature (enlightenment)] induced by ingesting psychedelic drugs is too much to assimilate into our day-to-day realities and more than likely places us on the slippery slope to addiction. 

Stage two of the process of  reinvention/personal transformation is called exploration. This stage is characterized initially by feelings of discomfort, panic and fear, as we begin to look, feel, and act differently; to stretch ourselves, our abilities and our environment. We experience new ways of being and thinking and have the desire to transform. We are looking for "something."

We look for the "guru", teacher or mentor who most closely resembles the "Me I want to be" glimpsed in the process of self-examination; in that moment of shifting insight when the "old hag" shifted into the "beautiful young maiden." We look for the "way" or the "path" we must travel to make this new self a reality.

Warily or enthusiastically, having sensed that there is something worth finding, the individual sets out to look for it. The first serious step, however small, is empowering and significant. The quest, as one spiritual teacher put it, is the transformation.

This exploration is the "deliberate letting" psychologist Eugene Gendlin describes. This letting permits the inner knowledge to come forward. It is an intentional release, as when we deliberately relax our grip on something. The grip is the contraction of our consciousness, our psychic spasm, which must be loosened before anything can change.

The psychotechnologies [meditation, therapy, atrology, tarot, est, dianetics, mind control, eckankar, etc. - author] are designed to free that tight hold so that we might become buoyant, the way a lifeguard detaches the panicky grip of a drowning person so that he might be rescued.

Ironically, we go after transformative experiences in the only way we know how: as consumers, competitors, still operating from the values of the old paradigm. We may compare our experiences to others, wonder if we're "doing it right," getting there fast enough, making progress. We may be trying to replicate one particularly rewarding or moving experience. During this phase some individuals try many techniques and teachers, like comparison shoppers. In an age of supersonic travel and satellite communication, we tend to expect instant gratification, instant feedback, instant news. The process of transformation may be simmering underground like a geyser, but we cannot see it and are impatient for action.

Some fall at first into pendulum change. The initial method, e.g., Transcendental Meditation, running, est, Rolfing, is seen as the panacea for the world's ills. All other systems are dismissed.

In this false dawn of certainty, there is often eager proselytizing. The would-be evangelists quickly learn that no single system works for everyone. And the methods themselves -- by repeated focusing on awareness -- eventually lead to the realization that there will be no ultimate answers. Ferguson, 1980/87, p. 92

Stage three of this process is called integration. In this stage the conflicts between new beliefs and old patterns of thinking and behavior work themselves out. we are like new selves in our old skins. Committed to our new beliefs, we start to think and behave in ways that reflect those beliefs. Like countries wherein old or traditional institutions coexist with modern institutions, so do our old and new ways of thinking and behaving coexist until the new, sustained by new beliefs, deliberately and methodically replaces the old. We start to look within ourselves for the guidance we sought from our gurus and mentors. We begin to customize the practices and information learned in our exploratory period to our own needs and aspirations, taking what we can use and leaving the rest. We explore new subjects, new knowledge and technologies to create a better "fit" for our new selves.

A different kind of work is undertaken in this period-more reflective than the busy seeking of the exploration stage. Just as a paradigm shift in science is followed by a moppmig-up operation, a pulling together of loose strands into the new framework, so those who undergo personal transformation have a left-brain need to know. Intuition has leaped ahead of understanding. What really happened? The individual experiments, refines, tests ideas, shakes them down, sharpens, expands.

Many explore subjects they had no former interest in or aptitude for in an attempt to learn something about shifts in conscious experience. They may look into philosophy, quantum physics, music, semantics, brain research, psychology. From time to time, the neophyte "scientist" draws back for a period of assimilation. The opening has been immense. Everything matters.

Ironically, while there is less need now for extemal validation or justification, self-questioning may reach the level of inquisition. Usually the individual emerges from such reevaluation with a new strength and sureness, grounded in purpose. Ferguson, 1980/87, p. 93

In stage four, conspiracy, we become conspirators.  Ours is a conspiracy to facilitate transformation. We look for people like ourselves to spread our message of transformation. We talk about our experiences, our respective transformations so that others may identify and join us. We recognize that transformation cannot be imposed, but if we offer up our personal examples along with the methods we used to reinvent ourselves, others may "borrow" from us or at least take hope from our experiences.

If the mind can heal and transform, why can't minds join to heal and transform society? Ferguson, 1980/87, p. 93.

Reinvention of self and society is the "why" of transformation. Ferguson gives us a dramatic glimpse of what a transformed life might look like:

In the transformative process we become the artists and scientists of our own lives. Enhanced awareness promotes in all of us the traits that abound in the creative person: Whole-seeing. Fresh, childlike perceptions. Playfulness, a sense of flow. Risk-taking. The ability to focus attention in a relaxed way, to become lost in the object of contemplation. The ability to deal with many complex ideas at the same time. Willingness to diverge from the prevailing view. Access to preconscious material. Seeing what is there rather than what is expected or conditioned.

The transformed self has new tools, gifts, sensibilities. Like an artist, it spies pattern; it finds meaning and its own, inescapable originality. "Every life," said Hesse, "stands beneath its own star."Like a good scientist, the transformed self experiments speculates, invents, and relishes the unexpected. Having done field work in the psychotechnologies, the self is a folk psychologist.

Awake now to the imprint of culture on itself, it attempts to understand diversity with the curiosity and interest of an anthropologist. The practices of other cultures suggest endless human possibilities.

The transformed self is a sociologist, too-a student of the bonds of community and conspiracy. Like the physicist, it accepts ultimate uncertainty as a fact of life, it senses a realm beyond linear time and blocked-out space. Like a molecular biologist, it is awed by nature's capacity for renewal, change, and ever-higher order.

The transformed self is an architect, designing its own environment. It is a visionary, imagining alternative futures.

Like a poet, it reaches for original metaphorical truths deep in language. It is a sculptor, liberating its own form from the rock of custom. With heightened attention and flexibility, it becomes a playwright and is its own repertory company: clown, monk, athlete, heroine, sage, child.

It is a diarist, an autobiographer. Sifting through the shards of its past, it is an archaeologist. It is composer, instrument and music.(Ferguson, 136-7)

As transformed individuals, we derive pleasure from all of these new attributes of transformed selfhood.  We recognize that these new attributes are the result of deliberate choices we have made.  We recognize that even happiness for us is a choice.

Accepting that happiness is a choice, or that we are not victims is one of the great gifts of personal transformation. Phillip Ziegler (1990) in his inspired book" The Skeptic's Guide to the Twelve Steps," provides this remarkable example of the contrast between those of us who are "at effect" of life and those of who have experienced  a paradigm shift at a personal level:

...I happened to turn on the television to watch the news. A reporter was introducing a story about severe rains causing extensive flood damage in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. A camera panned across several houses sitting like boulders in the middle of a river. Cars stood in water up to the bottom of their windows as the news crew, filming from a rowboat, floated through the center of a small community devastated by a swollen river. A middle-aged couple suddenly appeared on the screen. They were extremely upset, yelling at the camera that the government should have done something sooner and brought in pumps or dredges. They announced their intention to sue the government as soon as possible. More shouting could be heard as the television camera began surveying the tragic loss this couple had suffered. Swirling, muddy water filled their living room to a height of about four feet. Chairs, tables, and a sofa floated in the dark water, while fingers of brown wetness crept up the walls. The man and woman continued to angrily heap blame for their woes on "the government." A final close-up photo of the man and woman revealed their understandable rage, fear, and confusion.

The picture on the screen changed. An elderly black man was sitting behind the wheel of an old pickup truck that was partially submerged in the river. Behind him stood his house, destroyed by the flood. As the camera moved in for a dose-up of his face, I saw an extraordinary warmth and peacefulness in his eyes; he radiated a calm presence. In my professional work, I have seen many people in a state of shock shortly after a tragic event. They have a look of not being present; they appear lost and confused. But shock was not what appeared on this man's face. It was something very different. I stared at his face as the newsperson began questioning him.

The interviewer asked him how much he had lost. 'Just about everything I own," came the man's reply. The newsperson, obviously curious about this fellow, pressed on with his questions, asking how he was managing to cope with such a tragedy. The old man looked directly into the camera. He smiled and began explaining that while it was hard to lose all of his possessions, he considered them all as gifts from God in the first place. He added that he was grateful to God for allowing him to have had a house and his possessions and that he believed God would take care of him in the future. Since God had always taken care of him in the past, he expected God would help guide him through these current hard times. I was transfixed by the peace I saw in this man's face, and I could not get him out of my mind as the news program moved on to other stories....Ziegler, 1990 p71-2

Earlier in this essay, we asserted that the point of the personal paradigm shift  and the larger process of personal transformation was to be happy. A simple but effective definition of "being happy" means achieving inner peace and acceptance. What is inner peace? Like many of the "states" achievable by psychotechnology, inner peace is best described by a set of observable characteristics or behaviors. Bohdipaksa (2000-2003), founder of Wildmind Buddhist Meditation lists the following "symptoms" of inner peace on the organization's website:

• A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
• An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
• A loss of interest in judging other people.
• A loss of interest in judging self.
• A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
• A loss of interest in conflict.
• A loss of ability to worry (this is a very serious symptom).
• Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
• Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
• Frequent attacks of smiling.
• An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
• An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it. http://www.wildmind.org/meditation/background/symptoms.html

We can choose to think and act spontaneeously. We can choose live in the moment and enjoy each moment. We can choose to refrain from judging other people and ourselves. We can choose to refrain from interpreting the actions of others and engaging them in conflict. We can choose not to worry, etc. We can make these choices if we have the courage and willingness to do so.

The second of the two general states that comprise our simple definition of happiness is acceptance. What is acceptance? Most members of Alcoholic Anonymous and/or other twelve step programs which use the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" as their textbook for recovery are familiar with the pronouncements of the AA physician who on page 449 of the "Big Book" stated:

When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes. (Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition (1976) p. 449 )

Viktor Frankl 1904-1997
http://www.geocities.com/~webwinds/frankl/frankl.htm

Most successful recovering people understand that the secret to acceptance is contained in that last sentence. The key to acceptance is concentrating and working "on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes. According to psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl:

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. http://www.wisdomquotes.com/000234.html

Frankl, Auschwitz detainee #119,104 and author of "Man's Search for Meaning", tells us in the story of his incarceration and survival in two concentration camps [Theresienstadt (in Bohemia) and in Auschwitz] that one can transcend adversity by choosing what to attend to and by choosing what to do. There is no better example of acceptance.

http://www.son-rise.org/images/srcat2000_26-bears.jpg

Is happiness a choice? Barry Neil Kaufman certainly thinks so. In his best-selling book, "Happiness is a Choice" (2000), Kaufman shares this anecdote about a woman, nearing middle age, who is in the throes of a personal paradigm shift.

She had just celebrated her thirty-seventh birthday. She came, she said, to work on anger and forgiveness. Her mother had conceived her after being raped by an acquaintance. Wounded and meek, the woman never filed any charges. Now the child of that act of violence wanted to make peace with what she called "the unthinkable."

Her own successful marriage, her delight in her two sons, and the enjoyment of a developing sales career had been dimmed by the gnawing anger she directed at phantom images of a man she had never seen. Initially, she considered her intense emotions as a cross of outrage she would bear the rest of her life. Then, she held on to the bitterness to protect herself and those she loved from such "subhuman" behavior as the rape of her mother. Finally, exhausted by pain, she wanted to somehow move beyond her narrow view and come to a new understanding.

"This man has never seen me, though he knows I exist. He is old now, riddled with cancer. I have even located where he lives; I know his exact address. At first, when I found him I thought about cursing him or beating him with my fists. Oh, God, I want out of this misery and all I do is get myself deeper in. Instead of practicing peacefulness, I practice rage!"

No one would fault this woman for her wrath. Some might even see justice in a finger-pointing confrontation with her "father." However, she knew she had been twice the victim: first, of a stranger's violence toward her mother and then of her own emotional violence toward herself. The first violence had passed years before; the second continued simmering inside.

While exploring these issues, she came to a crucial awareness. "If I continue to see him as terrible, I will never let go. Never! I really have to look at this person differently for my own salvation." She shook her head and sighed. "Okay. This will probably sound stupid, but the man's a human being isn't he?" She smiled. "I know, Bears, you won't give me the answers; I have to find them myself. Okay, then yes, I agree with myself; he's a human being. Violent, probably miserable, but still human like you and me.".

"What does it mean to you to call him human?" I asked.

"It means he's fallible. And it means I don't have to hate him forever. If I could just figure out how to let go of this anger, well, then I'd be free and at peace with myself."

"How do you think you can let go of it?"

Her eyes closed as she covered her face with her hands. In a muffled voice, she said "I know how to do it, I really do. Forgiving him would be letting go." With those words she began to cry. In subsequent sessions and in dialogues with her own husband, she formulated a plan of action which would change her life.

Two weeks later, she flew to a remote Midwestern city, rented a car, and drove hundreds of miles to a small rural village. She telephoned this man's younger daughter, the product of an eventual marriage, and introduced herself without referring directly to the rape. The other woman hesitated, then refused to invite her to the old man's home. She announced that she would come anyway; they could turn her away at his door if they wanted.

Old paint peeled off the side of the house. Shutters hung askew beside blackened windows. As she walked along a dirt path to the front door, she saw the woman who must have spoken with her on the phone standing on the porch with her arms crossed.

"I won't stop you," the woman, declared coldly, then stepped aside while maintaining her obvious vigil.

After she knocked on the door several times, a man's voice told her to enter. One small lamp cast its dim light over the room. An old man, his shoulders hunched into his chest, sat quietly in a wooden chair. The deep lines on his face seemed chiseled by a crude and unforgiving knife. His reddened eyes peered at her uncomfortably. When he gestured for her to sit, his physical pain became apparent.

"I know who you are," he said in a whisper.

She couldn't talk. He was just a man, old and dying, nothing like the phantoms that had whirled in her mind. She struggled to find her voice. She had rehearsed the words hundreds of times on the plane. It's just a decision, she told herself.

Finally, in a whisper that matched his, she said: "I forgive you. I really do."

He nodded his head several times and then looked away. In a voice more audible, he said, "I'm sorry."

She rose to her feet. Just a human being, she thought, like me. Then she surprised herself by putting her arms around him. She had truly forgiven him. His words of apology had no meaning for her now; it was her new vision that had made her whole. http://www.option.org/hiac/ch02a.html

Imagine the weight of that "cross of outrage."  How suffocating her "protective" bitterness.  So much so that the misery of her accumulated anger and antipathy became more unacceptable and unbearable than doing the "unthinkable" --  forgiving the rapist who had fathered her.  So often when we are "sick and tired of being sick and tired", we find ourselves able to "glimpse" something new about ourselves or an oppressive or distressing situation.  It is at this point when the shift occurs. If we can fix this new image in our minds so that it and not the older image comes up when we think about those circumstances, we can act on it and act differently.  For the woman, the simple insight that her "father" was "a human being. Violent, probably miserable, but still human ... " helped her see another course of action, "a plan ... which would change her life. "

We would be remiss if we did not point out the efficacy of forgiveness in the transformed life. Choosing to forgive someone, however, is not evidenced by a mere statement of intention, but by an intense process of self-examination of the "ambiguous figures" of our real and imagined resentments and emotional pain. It is evidenced by our choosing to look at the people and events that we believe caused that pain and those resentments differently. We have to "reframe" them, both persons and events. And we have to look at our part in all that has happened to us and take responsibility for the same. If we do this, we set in motion a process of emotional healing.

If we still want the person we say we are forgiving to hurt as we have hurt,, if we still believe that that person is the cause of all the wrong in our lives, we cannot forgive. If we believe that we hold some measure of power over that person by not forgiving or if we believe that the injury done to us defines who we are, we cannot forgive. If when we see that person in our mind's eye, we still feel the residual anger and hatred that we felt as a result of that person's initial actions, we cannot forgive.

Forgiveness cannot happen without some measure of inner peace and acceptance. The choices we make to create and sustain those "symptoms" of inner peace mentioned earlier, create a context in which healing can happen. Our willingness to choose what we will pay attention and what we will do speeds the healing process.

Forgiveness cannot happen until the emotional hurts and wounds have healed. Forgiveness has been described as the gift that comes as a result of healing. In the above example, the woman's personal paradigm shift, her willingness to see her father as a fallible human who like the rest of us made some mistakes and her choice to do something about the pain and the anger that was the by product of her emotional wounds, healed her. Once healed, she could forgive. She could also choose to be happy.

Let us review, briefly,what we have learned about paradigms and paradigm shifts.

• Paradigms are the most powerful form of mental models.
• A paradigm represents a well articulated, shared view of events or phenomena
• A paradigm is a "lens" through which we view large chunks of our reality and whose properties influence what we believe to be real and true.
• A paradigm is an approximation of reality
• The paradigm has an internal logic and a set of assumptions that imposes itself on what is perceived.
• The primary functions of the paradigm are to structure or "represent" portions of our reality so that they might be understood and explained, and provide a basis and process for solving problems posed by that reality.
• Everything we think, feel or do is shaped by our paradigms including how we perceive and interpret ourselves and our reality.
• Once a paradigm is created, it limit's our perspective. It screens out or limits new views.
• The paradigm creates a way of thinking and knowing which individuals use to filter and adjust data, information and new ideas.
• We usually have several paradigms or paradigms within paradigms.
• It takes a great deal of effort to change a paradigm.
• Changes in paradigms usually occur when one paradigm is replaced by another.
• Inventions, successful adaptations that further species preservation, the experience of natural and man-made disasters, the challenges of interpersonal interactions all conspire to bring about changes in the way we see and think about our world. And from those experiences, we build the resultant knowledge, understanding and behaviorial change into our paradigms.
• When circumstances or events happen in our lives to cause us to question our beliefs; when those beliefs and perspectives no longer make sense or provide satisfactory explanations for what we experience, we are likely to experience a paradigm shift or paradigm change.
• Personal paradigm shifts occur in response to a felt need to change our life.
• Personal paradigm shifts occur when we change the way we view ourselves and the beliefs we hold about our selves   and others.
• Personal paradigm shifts precede reinvention
• Reinvention is nothing more than personal transformation
• Reinvention of self and society is the purpose of personal transformation

The ability to shift and change our paradigms is an essential characteristic of the multiculturally aware and conscious person. Paradigm shifts are prerequisite to personal transformation. For this individual the process of transformation is like the periodic visit of an old friend who brings gifts and news of wonders from afar.  The multiculturally aware and conscious individual reinvents himself/herself often and as is required. S/he has acquired and developed the psychotechnology needed to realize inner peace and chooses to use it to that end.  S/he has developed a loving relationship with Self. S/he can, indeed, choose to be happy.

Essays 1 through 9 in this series have attempted to deal with the process of transformation generally and personal transformation in particular.  Essays 11 through 20 will address the " stuff of transformation" and how the above-mentioned process works on that "stuff."

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