Making the 21st Century the Century of the Mind, Mental Existence and Mental Development

What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we understand and manage existence and development. It defines and governs how we understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we deal with the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, with problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions.

We consciously exist and act in the mind and mental existence. It is where we experience, become aware, and where we must consider and understand the conditions of existence, the world around us, and how to deal with them. The mind and mental existence is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions.
Problems and difficulties, limits and shortcomings, failures, errors and mistakes in what we do and we engage in have their roots and beginning in the mind and mental existence, and it is where answers and solutions must start.

To address the problems and difficulties we face around the world today -- persisting and growing environmental, cultural, religious, political, social, economic and mental health problems, difficulties and crises, conflict and confrontation -- we need to go beyond instant relief, short and medium-term measures controlling symptoms and consequences, managing from crises to crises. We must deal with the underlying causes and developments. The problems and difficulties we face are the results and consequences of human action. They are the results and consequences of what we do and we engage in, how we understand and manage our existence and development. More specifically, they are the results and consequences of what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, which lies behind how we understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. The problems and difficulties are the results and consequences of how we understand and manage what takes place and what we do in the mind, problems and difficulties, limits, shortcomings, failures, errors and mistakes understanding and managing the mind and mental existence.

Traditionally the mind and mental existence have been understood as the human spirit or soul, our connection to a supernatural-spiritual world. The mind and mental existence are managed through appeals and offerings to supernatural spirits, forces and gods for favours and protection from evil forces and temptations. In psychology and psychiatry the mind and mental existence are understood from the outside, through observing, deducing and concluding from outward behaviour and actions about what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence. Mental problems and difficulties are address through psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatric medication and drugs. In science, the "sciences of the mind" -- cognitive science, neuroscience, behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology -- the mind and mental existence are understood through the study of the physical-biological roots and foundation, the genetic-neurological systems and processes, behind the mind, mental existence and mental faculties, their development, structure and workings.

Today, we have yet to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside, as the place where we consciously exist and act. The place where we experience, become aware and must consider and understand the conditions of existence, the world around us, and how to deal with them. The place where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. We have yet to understand and manage the mind and mental existence as the place where problems, difficulties and crises, conflict and confrontation have their roots and beginnings, and where the answers and solutions must start.

Addressing the problems and difficulties we face today around the world requires making the 21st Century the Century of the mind, mental existence and mental development. Not the scientific study of the physical-biological roots and foundation, the genetic-neurological systems and processes behind the mind, mental existence and mental faculties, but understanding and managing the mind, mental existence and mental development from the inside. Understanding and managing them from the inside as the place where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware, and must consider and understand the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It requires establishing the necessary internal mental conditions for a sustainable, secure and peaceful future.

The answers and solutions require changing, correcting and improving how traditionally and today we understand and manage human existence and development. We understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions from the top down and from the outside in, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and dissociated way in the abstract. We understand and manage them from the human-created socio-cultural, political, economic, scientific and technological level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage existence and development, ourselves, the mind and mental existence through understanding and managing the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices.

We divide and separate an integrated, related and interacting reality into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, each defined and governed by different and competing assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices. Moreover, we try to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance, through rearranging, controlling and directing the world around us, nature and the natural environment. In doing so, we contradict, conflict with and fall short of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence, causing persisting and growing problems and difficulties, conflict and confrontation.

To address the problems we face we need to understand and manage human existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. First, we must understand and manage existence and development at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence. Moreover, we must understand and manage them from the inside, beginning with understanding and managing the mind and mental existence. It is where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware, and where we must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them.

We must start with understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside, because it is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and action. It is the place where problems and difficulties, limits and shortcomings, failures, errors and mistakes in what we do and what we engage in have their roots and beginnings, and where the answers and solutions must start. We need to establish the necessary internal mental conditions to understand and manage existence and development, understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways.

Understanding the Mind, Mental Existence and Mental Faculties, How to Manage, Develop and Use Them

Physical-Biological Roots and Foundation

Understanding the mind, mental existence and mental faculties, how to manage, develop and use them we need to distinguish and differentiate between different elements. First, we need to distinguish and differentiate between the physical-biological roots and foundation of the mind and mental existence on the one hand, and our experience of them on the other. We also need to distinguish and differentiate between the physical-biological roots and foundation, and what takes place, what enters and what we do in the mind and mental existence. And we do act in the mind and mental existence, we are conscious and aware of it.

In considering the physical-biological roots and foundation of the mind, mental existence and mental faculties we need to distinguish and differentiate between them in general, and the physical-biological systems and processes, the sense organs and the nervous system, through which we experience and become aware in the mind of the conditions of existence and the world around us. The systems and processes that translate what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence in to physical actions, the nervous system and the muscular system. We need to distinguish and differentiate between the neurological roots and foundation of our mental faculties, and the neurological developments that result from developing, exercising and practicing our mental faculties, our natural mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, and engaging in the required mental work and effort.

Within this context, limits, due to ailment, illness, malfunction or disease, in sense organs or nervous system may influence or limit sensory inputs or experiential information that enters the mind and awareness. Limits in the physical-biological systems and processes that translate what takes place in the mind and mental existence, mental behaviour and actions into physical actions, the nervous system or muscular system, may limit our ability to act out choices, decisions, aims, goals or objectives, our planning and organizing. Limits in the neurological foundation may limit our mental faculties, our natural mental potential. Limits in neurological development, on the other hand, are the result of failing to develop, exercise and practice our mental faculties, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, whatever their limits may be.

However, limits, whether due to ailment, illness, malfunction, disease or accident, in either the physical-biological foundation, systems or processes do not explain or govern what we do in the mind and mental existence, the mental behaviour and actions in which we engage, and the mental work or effort we invest. They do not explain or govern what, within the physical-biological limits, we do in the mind, whether we develop and exercise our mental faculties to their limits, how and for what purpose we use them. They do not explain or govern the effort we make to develop, exercise and practice our mental faculties, whatever their limits. What we do in the mind and mental existence, the mental behaviour and actions in which we engage, the mental work and effort we invest are defined and governed by the choices and decisions we make.

What Takes Place and What We Do in the Mind and Mental Existence

Although the mind and mental existence are rooted in our physical-biological existence, understanding our physical-biological existence and development, systems and processes is not the same as understanding our experience of the mind and mental existence. It does not give us an understanding of what takes place or what we do in the mind and mental existence, our role and responsibility in them. To understand our experience of the mind and mental existence, what takes place, what enters and what we do in the mind and mental existence we need to understand the mind and mental existence from the inside, as reflected in our experience.

Elements of Mind and Mental Existence

Considering and understanding the mind and mental existence, what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, we need to distinguish and differentiate between the mind, mental existence, mental needs and mental faculties. In considering and understanding what takes place in the mind and mental existence we need to distinguish and differentiate between what enters the mind, and what we do in the mind and mental existence. We need to distinguish between natural mental processes, and our own mental behaviour and actions. We must differentiate between the role of nature, which lies beyond our control, and the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.

Mind

The mind is where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and where we must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. The mind is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. What takes place and what we do in the mind defines and governs how we understand, manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. The mind is where problems and difficulties, limits and shortcomings, errors and mistakes in understanding, behaviour and actions, in what we do and what we engage in have their roots and beginnings and where answers and solutions must start.

Mental Existence

Mental existence consists of what takes place and what we do in the mind. The experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings, thoughts, ideas and recollections that enter the mind and awareness and how we deal with them. The images, pictures and conceptual structures we create in the mind. How we meet our mental needs, and how we develop and use our mental faculties.

Natural Mental Processes versus What We Do in the Mind

We experience and become aware of the conditions of existence, our own mental and physical existence and the world around us through the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness via our sense organs and the nervous system. Perceptions, sensations and feelings entering the mind and awareness are natural mental processes that lie beyond our control. How we deal with, respond and adjust to them, the sense we make of them is what we do. It is individually our role and responsibility to consider and make sense of what enters the mind and our awareness. Considering and making sense of the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them, and how to deal with them.

Experience, Perceptions, Sensations and Feelings

In considering and dealing with what enters the mind and awareness we need to distinguish and differentiate between perceptions of the world around us, sensations of the conditions of our own physical existence and feelings about mental conditions and states of mind. We also need to distinguish and differentiate between perceptions, sensations and feelings per se, and their changing contents. What changes is their contents, not perceptions, sensations and feelings entering the mind and awareness.

Primary and Secondary Experiences

Moreover, we need to distinguish and differentiate between primary and secondary experience. Perceptions about the world around us, sensations about our own physical existence and feelings about the conditions of our mental existence are primary experiences. How we feel about them, our first impressions and instant reactions are secondary experiences. Primary experiences are information about the conditions of existence, our own mental and physical existence and the world around us. Secondary experiences are the experience of our instant response, first impressions, instant thoughts, ideas and reactions regarding the demands primary experiences make on us mentally, the challenge or threat they pose to the established state of mind, the established mental order.

Experience versus Conditions that Lie behind Them

Next, we must distinguish and differentiate between what enters the mind and awareness -- perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas, and the sense we make of them, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them, the mental images, pictures and conceptual structures we establish in the mind about them. The perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter our mind do not on their own form clear and detailed images or pictures in the mind about the conditions that lie behind them. They do not order and arrange themselves in meaningful or constructive ways in the mind and awareness. They do not impress themselves fully in all their details on our awareness. Becoming aware of the details and specifics of our experiences, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind is our role and responsibility, requiring individual mental work and effort. It is our role and responsibility to be aware of everything that enters the mind, to bring everything that enters the mind into our awareness. It is also our role and responsibility to make sense of our experience, ordering and arranging them, considering and making sense of them, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them, forming clear images and pictures about them in the mind.

Within this context we need to distinguish and differentiate between accounts of others, the mental pictures and conceptual structures they form about their experience of the conditions of their existence, and our own experiences, the perceptions, sensations and feelings of the conditions of our existence that enter our mind and awareness. The interpretation of others of their experience of the conditions of their existence is not an interpretation or understanding of our experience of the conditions of our existence, our own mental and physical existence and the world around us, or how to deal with them. We can compare and contrast our own experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings, our interpretations and understanding of them with those of others. Identify common ground and differences, and consider the reasons and causes behind differences.
However, we cannot take the interpretation and understanding of others of their experience as an understanding of our experiences of the conditions of our existence and the world around us. Although as human beings we share the same fundamental conditions, demands and challenges of existence, we individually experience them at different times, under different circumstances, posing different demands and challenges, requiring individual, not general or collective understanding.

Mental Needs

The mental needs, which we must meet inside the mind through individual mental work and effort, include the need for a sense of self, the individual human self, a sense of mental order and stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty, security and confidence.In addition, we have a need for recognition and relevance, and a need to interact, connect, communicate and cooperate, mentally and physically with other human beings.

We need a sense of the self, the individual human self, to establish a sense of who and what we are. To distinguish and differentiate ourselves individually from others and the world around us, as well as to understand the role and responsibility in our existence and development, that are individually ours to understand and manage, and what lies beyond our role and responsibility.

We exist in and as part of a constantly unfolding, changing and transforming world. Everything within and around us changes constantly. The conditions, demands and challenges, our experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings constantly change. Moreover, our experience fragments an integrated, connected and interacting world. We experience the conditions of existence and the world around us through separate and disconnected perceptions, sensations and feelings, which do not on their own form comprehensive images or pictures in our mind. It is not possible to make necessary choices and decisions, decide on appropriate aims, goals and objectives, understand the required behaviour and action within constant disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity. It requires establishing a sense of order and stability, clarity of mind and understanding about the conditions of existence, the world around us, and how to deal with them. In addition, it requires establishing a sense of certainty, security and confidence about our ability to deal with the conditions, demands and challenges, change and changing conditions of existence and the world around us, without knowing before hand what they will be.

We have a need to be recognized by others to confirm for us our understanding of ourselves, who and what we are, and that we are a member of a species of human beings and we do not exist alone by ourselves. We also have a need to be relevant, to play a role and contribute to the life of others to give meaning to our existence beyond just managing our own existence and development. Moreover, we need to connect, communicate and cooperate, mentally and physically with others, because by our nature we depend and must interact with each other to meet some of our basic needs, such as for example the need for recognition and relevance, as well as to procreate and ensure the survival of the species.

Mental Faculties

In considering our mental faculties, we need to distinguish and differentiate between mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, mental behaviour and action, and mental work and effort. Mental powers and abilities are our natural mental potential, which we must develop in order to use them. They are the mental powers and abilities that are required to understand, manage and deal with the conditions of existence, our own mental and physical existence and the world around us. Our natural mental powers and abilities we need to translate into necessary and appropriate mental skills and practices. The mental skills and practices necessary to understand and manage our role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence. Mental behaviour and action are how we respond and deal with what takes place in the mind and mental existence and the steps we take. Mental work and effort are the work and effort that are required and in which we must engage to understand and manage our mind and mental existence.

Mental Powers and Abilities

Our natural mental potential, mental powers and abilities include the power and ability to be mentally alert, active and engaged. Paying attention, being aware and considering what takes place and what we do in the mind and awareness. Being mentally alert, active and engaged contrasts with being absent minded and mentally passive, not paying attention and ignoring what takes place, what enters and what we do the mind and awareness. Being preoccupied with doubt, confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, abstractions, fantasies, idle speculation and wishful thinking.

The mental power and ability to direct, focus and concentrate the mind and attention on what enters and what we do in the mind, experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings, thoughts and ideas, how we deal with them and the conditions that lie behind them. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them. Directing, focusing and concentrating the mind and attention differs from not paying attention, aimlessly drifting through the mind, pursuing whatever comes to mind, losing focus and direction. Jumping from issue to issue, from experience to experience, from thought to thought, getting ahead of oneself, the clarity of one's mind and understanding and jumping to conclusions.

The mental power and ability to exercise mental discipline and mental flexibility, the mental discipline to keep the mind and attention, focus and concentration on what we do and what we are engaged in. The mental flexibility to change focus and concentration on demand, when necessary and required, directing, focusing and concentrating the mind and attention on different issues, experience, jobs, tasks, plans or projects. Mental discipline and mental flexibility contrast with not being able to keep the mind and attention, focus and concentration on a given issue for any length of time, not being able to redirect the mind and attention, focus and concentration when necessary and required. Quickly loosing focus, direction and concentration, getting lost in the mind, heading off on unrelated tangents and jumping to conclusions.

We possess the mental power and ability to visualize, or see, and to form clear and detail images, pictures and conceptual structures in the mind. Visualize, see, and form images and pictures in the mind about what enters the mind and awareness and the conditions that lie behind them. Putting together and connecting the elements, details and specifics of our experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings, what we deduce and conclude from them about the conditions that lie behind them to form clear and detailed images and pictures in the mind. Moreover, connect mental images and pictures to form larger conceptual structures in the mind about the conditions of existence and the world around us. Visualizing, seeing, and creating images, pictures and conceptual structures in the mind differs from considering only information details and specifics that enter the mind and awareness, in a disconnected way. It differs from focusing and concentrating on information details and specifics, and language constructs and expecting them to engage us and create images and pictures in our mind.

The mental power and ability to reason -- deduce and conclude from our experience about what lies beyond our experience. Considering issues and experiences systematically and consistently, step-by-step, with each step arising from the preceding step and leading to the next step. Consider them in ways to always be able at each point to trace back one's steps to the beginning. Deducing and concluding from the given, the self-evident and obvious to uncover the hidden, the less than obvious and self-evident, without loosing contact with the given. To reason contrast with jumping from issue to issue, experience to experience, connecting and relating elements, details and specifics in random and arbitrary ways, with little concern for details and specifics, connections and relations between them.

We also possess the mental power and ability to recall and recollect from memory, recall and recollect what is stored in our memory back into the mind and awareness. Everything that takes place, that enters and we do in the mind and mental existence is stored in memory. It is a natural mental process, which lies beyond our control. We have the mental power and ability to recall, recollect and bring back into the mind and awareness what is store in memory. The degree to which we will be able to recall and recollect what is stored in memory depends on the extent to which we mentally processed what takes place, what enters and what we do in the mind. It depends on the extent to which what enters the mind we bring into our awareness, and considered it. If we consider what takes place, what enters and what we do in the mind, at some length, in depth and detail, we integrated it into a clear mental picture or larger conceptual structure before they slipped into memory it will be easy to recall, recollect and bring them back into mind and awareness. If we fail to pay attention and consider what enters and what we do in the mind, if we allow them to slip unprocessed into memory, it will be more difficult to recall them from memory.

Mental Skills and Practices

The mental skills and practices we need to develop include the skill and practice to consider and make sense of the experience, perceptions, sensations and feelings, thoughts and ideas that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them, and how to deal with them. Consider them at some length, in depth and detail, beginning with the obvious and self-evident to uncover the less than obvious and self-evident. Deduce and conclude from our experience about what lies beyond our experience, natural forces, processes and development. The mental skill and practice to make informed and considered choices and decisions, define necessary aims, goals and objectives, consider, plan, organize and manage required behaviour and actions. Deal with, respond and adjust to change, changing experiences and conditions, in our own mental and physical existence and in the world around us, before they develop into larger problems and difficulties. The mental skill and practice to meet our mental needs in the mind through individual mental work and effort, and develop, exercise and practice our mental faculties. We need to develop the mental skill and practice to engage in a process of continuous conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, correcting and improving the understanding, the mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, mental work and effort on which we rely, how we develop and use them in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsider, update, correct and improve the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.

Mental Behaviour and Actions, Work and Effort

Mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort are how we respond and deal with what takes place, what enters and what we do in the mind and mental existence, the steps we take and the effort we make.

Dealing with the Environment: Establishing the Necessary Conditions for a Sustainable, Secure and Peaceful Future

Although conventional efforts and measures dealing with environmental problems and the ecological crisis are necessary, they are not sufficient. They do not deal with the fundamentals of the problems and crisis. They do not address the causes and developments that lie behind the environmental problems and crisis we face today. The conventional approach consists of managing from crisis to crisis, controlling only symptoms and consequences. Conventional efforts and measures deal with environmental problems and the ecological crisis only at the socio-cultural level in political, economic, scientific and technological terms. They do not address the human causes and developments behind the problems and crisis. The natural environment is not the problem, we are. The problem is the way we understand and manage human existence and development. Environmental problems, difficulties and crises are the results and consequences of our actions, of how we understand and manage our existence and development. Conventional measures controlling symptoms and consequences need to provide the time for the long-term development and change to address the causes behind the environmental crisis, the time required to change the way we understand and manage human affairs, our existence and development. On their own conventional measures only buy time for a way of understanding and managing existence and development that is not sustainable.

The way we traditionally and today understand and manage human existence and development contradicts, conflicts with and falls short of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence, causing persisting and growing problems and difficulties for the natural environment, as well as for the individual, societies and the human species. It is leading to changes in nature, natural processes and developments that in the long-term will render the natural environment of the Earth uninhabitable for human beings.

Essentially, we meet non-material mental needs in material ways, exploiting and consuming natural material resources beyond actual human material needs. And we try to create in the world around us, in socio-cultural and physical-material terms, what by nature we must establish individually in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort. We try to establish a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty, security and confidence not individually in the mind and mental existence, but externally in the world around us. Attempting to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. In the process we interfere with nature, natural forces, processes and developments and we degrade the natural environment beyond what is required to understand and manage human existence.

The problem is, we fail to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. We fail to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside as the place where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It is the place where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. The mind and mental existence is where we make choices and decisions, where we define goals and objectives, where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. The mind and mental existence is the place where problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes have their roots and beginnings and where answers and solutions need to start.

Dealing with persisting and growing environmental problems, addressing the underlying causes and developments, and creating the necessary conditions for a sustainable, secure and peaceful future requires changing the way we understand and manage human existence and development. It requires understanding and managing existence and development in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways. Understanding and managing existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions, everything in life we face and we have to deal with, we do and we engage in, at the level and within the context of understanding and managing in the first instance the mind and mental existence.

It requires changing how traditionally we understand and manage existence and development. Understanding and managing them from the top down and from the inside out, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and disconnected way in the abstract. Traditionally we understand and manage human affairs, our existence and development from the human-created socio-cultural level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices, to understand and manage ourselves individually, the mind and mental existence. We divide and separate a connected, integrated and interacting reality and conditions of existence into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study, and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, defined and governed by different, competing and conflicting assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices.

Instead, we need to understand and manage ourselves, our existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. We must understand and manage human existence and development at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence, that lie behind and that are reflected in our experience, the experience of every human being. Moreover, we need to understand and manage them from within the mind and mental existence. Understanding and managing in the first instance the mind and mental existence, where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and individually take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we need to consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. It is where problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes have their roots and beginnings and where answers and solutions must start.

Understanding and managing existence and development in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways requires understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside as reflected in individual experience. Meeting non-material mental needs in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, not externally in material ways. It requires establishing and maintaining a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty, security and confidence individually in the mind and mental existence. Not trying to meet them externally, in socio-cultural and physical-material ways through creating the ideal external conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. Understanding and managing existence and development in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways involves establishing, in everything we do and we engage in, first the necessary internal mental conditions, clarity of mind and understanding, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, others and the world around us.

Establishing the necessary conditions for a sustainable future requires developing the necessary conceptual foundation and mental capacity. Developing, exercising and practicing the understanding, the natural human mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices required to understand and manage human existence and development from the inside out and from the ground up, in their essence, in depth and detail, in an integrated way, not from the top down and from the outside in, in a fragmented way in the abstract. To understand and manage human affairs, our existence and development in ways that do not contradict, conflict with or fall short of the natural conditions of existence, within the natural parameters, the boundaries and limits of human existence set by nature.

Creating the necessary conditions for a sustainable, secure and peaceful future requires making the 21st Century the Century of the mind, mental existence and mental development. Not the scientific study of the mind as a natural phenomena or just another human organ, but understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside as the place where we consciously exist and act, where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do.

De-Stigmatizing Mental Problems and Demystifying the Mind and Mental Existence

The Institute for Human Conceptual and Mental Development (IHCMD) has developed a free public service website, Mental Problems / Problems of the Mind (http://www.ihcmd.org/mentalproblems), to deal with mental problems, improve mental conditions and states of mind. The objective of the website is to de-stigmatize mental problems and demystify the mind, mental existence and mental development through active individual mental engagement, individual mental work and effort understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. The purpose of the website is to help, guide and direct the individual to deal with mental problems and difficulties, understand and manage the mind and mental existence, establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, establish clarity of mind and understanding from the inside.

The website provides a different approach, view and understanding of dealing with mental problems, the mind and mental existence that go beyond the traditional approach of psychology and psychiatry. The approach goes beyond the traditional approach of treatment from the outside by experts and specialists, psychologists and psychiatrists, through psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatric medication. Instead, it involves individually understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside through active individual mental engagement, individual mental work and effort. The approach goes beyond instant relief and treatment of symptoms and consequences to address deeper-rooted causes and developments, changing what we do in the mind and mental existence, mental behaviour and actions. It involves dealing with mental conditions, demands and challenges, mental problems and difficulties when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger mental problems requiring outside help, treatment by experts and specialists. The approach consists of understanding and managing the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.

The website provides information and resources to deal with mental problems and difficulties, improve mental conditions and states of mind, mental performance, mental behaviour and actions, mental work and effort, mental effectiveness, efficiency and confidence through active individual mental engagement understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. Mental problems – mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression – are discussed in terms of individual experiences and feelings of them, the nature and causes behind them, the results and consequences of them, and the answers and solutions to them. Mental problems are dealt with through a set of different but related steps, exercises and practices: considering and dealing with daily mental problems and difficulties; considering past mental problems; and establishing a clear picture and understanding of the mind and mental existence – nature, conditions, needs, demands and challenges, our role and responsibility in them.

Improving mental conditions and states of mind, mental performance, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort, mental effectiveness, efficiency and confidence are discussed in terms of daily managing the mind and mental existence, making understanding and managing mental problems, the mind and mental existence part of daily life, daily work and effort. Dealing with mental conditions, needs, demands, challenges and difficulties before they develop into larger problems and crises. Establishing and maintaining the necessary internal mental conditions in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other and the world around us. Considering and making sense of what enters the mind and awareness – experience, perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. Developing, exercising and practicing the natural mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices and engaging in the required mental work and effort.

Engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving individual understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving whenever necessary and required the understanding, the mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practice, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.

The Real Causes Behind the Global Financial Crisis

The current global financial crisis started in the United States with the sub-prime mortgage crisis and spread around the world, affecting financial institutions and banks globally. It led to financial institutions and banks around the world running out of money to meet their financial obligations. Governments stepped in with huge rescue packages running in the billions to save financial institutions and banks from bankruptcy. Guaranteeing savings deposits to prevent a run on banks, people withdrawing their savings and deepening the banks’ cash crisis, securing inter-bank loans to prevent the financial system from collapsing, and taking a stake in or nationalizing banks and financial institutions in return for limits on executive salaries and bonus package and curb high risk investment schemes. In addition, efforts are under way to revamp the international financial system, updating the Breton Woods institutions, and tighten up financial market rules and regulations and account practices.

Nature of the Crisis

The sub-prime mortgage crisis consisted of mortgages being sold to people not in a position to repay them. They were sold to people who lacked the necessary long-term, stable income to pay back the mortgages they took on. People who lacked any assets and who did not have sufficient income to pay even the monthly interests on their mortgages. The results were growing mortgage defaults and foreclosures. In turn which led to a drop in real estate prices, a loss in the value of repossessed houses, and a loss of value of the equity behind the mortgages.

How did the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States lead to the global financial crisis, pushing banks and financial institutions around the world close to insolvency?

The sub-prime mortgages were securitized, translated into financial securities, asset-backed securities, which were sold around the world. Translating debts into securities that are sold as investments is a long established practice in the financial sector, selling rights to future cash flows, in this case mortgage payments, to raise capital for further investment. In addition to mortgages, car loans and credit card loans or debts are routinely securitized, translated into investment products that are sold at the market to raise capital for further loans and investments. Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) are the principle institutions in the United States to expand the secondary market for securitized mortgages to raise capital for expanding mortgage demands. The securitized sub-prime mortgages were bundled together with other securities into investment products that were sold around the world to institutional investors looking to increase profits.

Banks and financial institutions moreover tend to operate on leverage, borrowing money to invest in the financial market, in securities to increase their profits. They leverage or borrow beyond their capital or equity, leaving them over-extended. Many banks and financial institutions to increase their profits had debt loads many times larger than their assets or capital. Goldman Sachs, for example, used about $40 billion of equity or capital as the foundation for $1.1 trillion in investment, while Merrill Lynch, the most leveraged, had $1 trillion of investment on around $30 billion of capital. In addition, to increase their profits financial institutions engage in risky investment schemes and strategies, such as margin buying, short-selling, derivatives, hedge-funds, etc. When a crisis hits anywhere in the system and they cannot realize a profit on their investments, banks and financial institutions find themselves short of money to meet their financial obligations.

In addition to these practices massive funds are taken out of the system at every point, commission fees to sell sub-prime mortgages, fees for the initial mortgage loans, fees for the securitization of the sub-prime mortgages, transaction fees, and financial management fees, as well as large salaries bonuses for executives and traders of the financial institutions and banks. When the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit financial institutions and banks that had invested in securities, which included securitized sub-prime mortgages, found themselves in a cash crisis, pushing them to the edge of insolvency and bankruptcy.

The problem was everyone from sub-prime mortgage holders to banks and financial institutions overextended themselves financially. Committing themselves financially beyond their means and abilities, to a point where they could no longer meet their financial obligations. Speculating on doubtful future income. The growing rate of defaults by sub-prime mortgage holders, foreclosure on their houses and the subsequent drop in real estate prices rippled through the whole financial system hitting everyone, including financial institutions and banks that were heavily overextended. It deflated the value of investment assets leading to a cash crisis, insufficient cash flows to meet financial obligations.

Causes behind the Crisis

The causes behind the crisis it is suggested lie in unregulated financial and monetary markets, an out of date monetary and financial system and institutions. Financial and monetary market rules and regulations, accounting practices and an international financial system that are out of date in a globalizing world. A financial system, market rules and regulations that do not reflect a changing world of globalization, global financial flows, trade and exchange, and increasingly high-risk investment strategies and activities by financial institutions and banks.

At bottom what lies behind sub-prime mortgages and high risk financial investments strategies and practices, the perception is, is greed, an excessive desire to acquire or possess more in material-financial wealth, goods and values than one needs or deserves, leading to corruption and fraud. Questionable and fraudulent investment activities, cutthroat competition, so the argument, is driven by unrestrained and out of control greed for ever-higher profits.

Greed, the urge to acquire and possess more in material-financial wealth then one needs, is viewed as part of human nature. Something we cannot really control or do much about, beyond trying to control it through rules, regulations, morals and ethics, external rules and regulations and a set of moral and ethical standards by which to live. In reality, while greed is part of our nature, we are not driven by nature to act on greed, an urge to acquire more in material-financial goods and wealth than we need. Although greed is something we are capable of, it does not explain why we act on it. We are not driven by nature to do so. The question is why do we act on greed? What lies behind and drives the urge to acquire and possess more in material-financial goods and wealth then we need? This is where the real causes, as well as the answers and solutions to the global financial crisis lie.

The urge to acquire and possess more than we require must be driven by some unfulfilled natural or basic needs. The question is, what unfulfilled needs do we try to meet through acquiring and possessing more in material-financial resources, goods and wealth than we need, and why are we unable or fail to meet them? The answer lies in how we understand and manage human existence and development. Specifically, it lies in how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. It lies in how we understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us. The mind and mental existence is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what individually we do and engage in. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we understand the conditions, demands and challenges of our existence and the world around us and how we deal with them. It defines and governs how we conduct ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment.

The answer to what drives us to act on greed lies in failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage the role and responsibility in our mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage. As a result we try to meet non-material mental needs that we must meet in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, externally through the possession, accumulation and consumption of material-financial resources, goods and values. The consequences are growing unmet mental needs, leading to a never satisfied, growing and accelerating urge for material-financial wealth, resources, goods and values.

Traditionally we understand and manage existence and development from the top down and from the outside in, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and dissociated way in the abstract. We understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions, everything we face and we have to deal with, we do and we engage in, from the human-created socio-cultural, political, economic, scientific and technological level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices, to understand and manage ourselves, the mind and mental existence. We divide and separate an integrated, related and interacting reality into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, each defined and governed by different and competing assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices.

We fail to establish the necessary internal mental conditions before engaging and dealing with external conditions and the world around us. Instead, we try to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. We try collectively to create externally in the world around us what by nature we must establish individually in the mind and mental existence.

We fail to establish a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty and security internally in the mind and mental existence where we are in charge and in control. Instead we try to establish them externally in the world around us. We do not deal with feelings of disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety and frustration where they occur, in the mind and mental existence, but externally in the world around us. We try to deal with them through managing, controlling and directing the world around us and the accumulation, possession, control and consumption of socio-cultural positions, roles, functions, power and prestige, and material-financial wealth, resources, goods and values. In the process we meet non-material mental needs in socio-cultural and material-financial terms, instead of meeting them in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort.

The causes and developments behind the global financial crisis are the same causes and developments that lie behind the environmental, cultural, political and social problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations, as well as growing mental health problems we face today. Failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside, and trying to meet non-material mental needs in socio-cultural and material-financial terms. Leading to competition, conflict and confrontation over different and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, convention and practices, different ways of understanding and managing existence and development, different ways of understanding the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. Leading to competition, conflict and confrontation, within and across societies, over the possession, control, accumulation and consumption of natural resources and material-financial goods, values and wealth. Leading to cultural, social and political problems, difficulties and crisis, conflicts and confrontations.

Mental health problems in turn are the results of failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. Failing to understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us. Failing to understand and manage where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. Failing to establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, leading to persisting and growing mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression.

The environmental problems, difficulties and crisis we face are the result of exploiting natural material resources and interfering in nature and the natural environment beyond what is required to manage and sustain human existence. They are the result of meeting non-material mental needs in material ways and trying to create externally in the world around us what we must establish and maintain in the mind and mental existence. They are the result of failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what we do and we engage in. Failing to meet non-material mental needs in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, we exploit natural resources beyond actual human material needs. Failing to establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, we interfere in nature, natural forces, processes and developments and we degrade the natural environment trying to rearrange, control and direct the world around us, nature and the natural environment. Trying to create the ideal external conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance, to control, overcome and move beyond the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence we must deal with in the mind and mental existence.

The causes and developments behind the global financial crisis also lie behind the resurgence of religion, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and religious-cultural conflicts and confrontations. The promise of the Enlightenment, science and the scientific approach leading to improvements in the human condition and human affairs through a better understanding and control of the natural world, nature and the natural environment, did not materialize. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century we experience growing cultural, religious, political, social, economic and environmental problems, difficulties, crises and instability. The perception is the answers and solutions to the human condition and improving human affairs do not lie in science. Instead, we need to return to religion, the only other alternative. The problems and difficulties we face today are seen to be the result and consequences of disconnecting science from religion. While science can tell us about the material world, its structure and workings, natural forces, processes and developments, so the argument, it cannot explain the purpose and direction of life and or tell us how to behave and act.

In reality, the problems, difficulties, conflicts and confrontations, crises and instabilities in human affairs lie in the failure to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, our role and responsibility in them. The failure to improve the human condition does not lie in science or disconnecting science from religion. It lies in failing to understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and where we must consider the conditions of existence. It lies in failing to understand and manage where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. Be actively engaged and take responsibility for the beliefs, views and understanding we develop, on which we rely and how we develop them. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, and the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them. The problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts, confrontations and instabilities lie in trying to meet non-material mental needs in physical-material ways, and creating externally in the world around us, in socio-cultural and physical-material terms what we must establish and maintain individually in the mind and mental existence. With an expanding global human population it leads to growing cultural, political, social and economic competition, conflict and confrontation, problems, difficulties and crises. It leads to growing environmental problems and difficulties, and accelerated exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, growing interference in and degradation of the natural environment.

Direction of the Answers and Solutions to the Crisis

The answers and solutions to the global financial crisis lie in changing how we understand and manage existence and development, particularly how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. Changing how traditionally we understand and manage human existence and development, how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence also is the direction of the answers and solutions addressing the cultural, religious, political, social, economic and environmental problems, conflicts and confrontations we face.

The answers and solutions to the global financial crisis require more than instant relief and measures to control symptoms and consequences. They require addressing the underlying causes and developments. Particularly if the answers and solutions of today are not to become the causes of the problems, difficulties and crisis of tomorrow, as has always been the case in the past, as evidenced by the bust and boom cycles of the past that can be traced far back into history. The answers and solutions also require more then instant relief and measures controlling symptoms and consequences if we are to get beyond just managing crisis, moving from crisis to crisis, always waiting until problems and difficulties develop into crisis before taking action.

The instant relief of the financial rescue packages, bailing out financial institutions and banks, guaranteeing bank deposits and inter-bank loans were necessary. Overhauling the global financial system, and tightening up financial market regulations and accounting practices to control the symptoms and consequences are also necessary. However, these measures and steps need to take place within the larger context and they must contribute to long-term development and change addressing the causes and developments behind the global financial crisis. We need to deal with the problem of greed, what lies behind trying to acquire and possess more in material-financial wealth then we need, trying to meet unfulfilled mental needs in material-financial terms.

The answers and solutions require changing how we understand and manage human existence and development, particularly how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. We need to understand and manage existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive way, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. We must understand and manage them at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence. And we must understand and manage them from within the mind and mental existence.

We must understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and consider the conditions of existence and how to deal with them. We need to understand and manage where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what we do and we engage in, our behaviour and actions. We need to understand and manage from the inside where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions.

It involves establishing the necessary internal mental conditions, in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other, with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Considering and making sense of our experience, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. Establishing and maintaining a sense of the human self, a sense of order and stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty and security where consciously we exist and act, in the mind and mental existence, about the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. Meeting mental needs in the mind through individual mental work and effort. Dealing with change and changing conditions, demands and challenges in the mind and mental existence when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger problems and difficulties.

It requires engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, change, correcting and improving individual understanding, mental powers and ability, mental skills and practices, mental work and effort, in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, changing, correcting and improving whenever necessary or required the understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them, the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behavior and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.

Changing how we understand and manage existence and development, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside requires education and training in conceptual and mental development and growth. Developing individually the necessary conceptual foundation and mental capacity. Developing the knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence. Developing, exercising and practicing the natural mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices, and engaging in the mental work and effort necessary to understand and manage the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.

Saving the Mind and Mental Existence from Science and Liberating them from Religion

Mental problems are the most serious and fundamental issue we face today. They affect all of us, and they affect everything we do and we engage in. Mental problems affect how we understand and manage existence and development. They affect how individually we manage and conduct ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Mental problems are at the root of all the problems we face today -- cultural, religious, political, social, economic-financial and environmental problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations.

How we understand and manage ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment are defined and governed by what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence, by our mental behaviour and actions. Mental problems, problems and difficulties in mental behaviour and actions lead to problems in physical behaviour and actions, in how we conduct ourselves, relate and interact with each other and the world around us, causing problems and difficulties for the individual, for others, society, nature and the natural environment. The traditional approach of psychology, psychiatry and psychiatric medication has not been able to get at the roots of the problem, beyond treating symptoms and consequences, leading to dependence and addiction. Neither has religion, the religious view and approach of dealing with the mind and mental existence been able to address the issue.

Mental problems in their essence are difficulties understanding and managing the mind and mental existence. They are difficulties understanding and managing the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage. The difficulties are not rooted in repressed memories or the biological foundation of the mind and mental existence, the neurological structure and workings of the brain, or our genetic make up. Neither are they rooted in evil forces impressing themselves on, or infesting our mind. The difficulties lie in the intangible, elusive and non-material nature, demands and challenges of the mind and mental existence, and our role and responsibility in them. They are not as self-evident and obvious, and they are not as easily understood and managed as our physical existence and reality. They require more focus and concentration, mental work and effort. The difficulties moreover lie in acting at the level of feelings and emotions, first impressions and instant reactions, and not acting at the level of clarity of mind and understanding, about our experience, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. (For a detailed discussion of mental problems, nature and causes, results and consequences, and how to deal with them, go to http://www.ihcmd.org/mentalproblems, a free public service website dealing with mental problems through active individual engagement, individual mental work and effort, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside.)

What is required is a different approach, an approach that addresses the roots of the problem. De-stigmatizing mental problems and demystifying the mind and mental existence through active individual engagement, individual mental work and effort, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. Understanding and managing from the inside what takes place, what we do and what we need to do in the mind and mental existence. We need to save the mind and mental existence from science and liberate them from religion. Science is reducing the mind and mental existence to a biological information-processing mechanism, the neurological structure and workings of the brain or the human genetic makeup and genetic evolution. Religion views the mind and mental existence as the human sole and spirit, our connection to a supernatural-spiritual world.

We need to understand and manage the mind and mental existence as the place where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and where we must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. The mind and mental existence is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. Problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes, success and failure have their roots and beginnings in the mind and mental existence, and it is where answers and solutions must start. (For a more detailed discussion of the mind and mental existence, how to understand and manage them from the inside, go to http://www.ihcmd.org/mentalexistence.htm. You find a lecture presentation, Inside the Mind: Understanding and Managing the Mind and Mental Existence from the Inside, available both in PowerPoint and Acrobat PDF format.)

What is required are education, study and training in conceptual and mental development and growth. Developing at the level of the individual with every individual the conceptual foundation and mental capacity to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. Developing, exercising and practicing the necessary understanding, the natural mental faculties and potential, the natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices, and engage in the required mental work and effort. Establishing the necessary internal mental conditions, clarity of mind and understanding, in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other, the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Dealing with, responding and adjusting to change, changing conditions, demands and challenges when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger problems and difficulties. Engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, correcting, expanding and improving individual understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, expanding and improving whenever necessary and required the understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, expanding and improving the mental behaviour and actions, mental work and effort in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them. (For a discussion of education and training in conceptual and mental development you can go to http://www.ihcmd.org/studyandtraining.htm. You will find a lecture presentation, Education and Training in Conceptual and Mental Development: Education and Training for a Sustainable Future, both in PowerPoint and Acrobat PDF format.)

Beyond Evolution versus Creation, Science versus Religion

There is much debate about science versus religion, evolution versus creation, whether evolution or creation should be taught in schools. It is the wrong debate and a false dichotomy. The fundamental issue or question of our time is not science or religion, evolution or creation. The real issue is to understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, the mind and mental existence. The real dichotomy is between science and religion on the one hand, and understanding and managing the mind and mental existence as the place where consciously we exist and act on the other. The issue is saving the mind and mental existence from science and liberating them from religion.

The mind and mental existence is where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence, the world around us and how to deal with them. It is where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. The mind and mental existence is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. It is in the mind and mental existence where we decide and govern how individually we understand, manage and conduct ourselves, how we relate and interact with each other, with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes have their roots and beginnings in the mind and mental existence, and it is where answers and solutions must start and where change must begin.

It is a mute point whether we human beings are the product of creation or evolution. Either way we do not come with a manufacture's warranty. There will be no recall for a faulty product. There is no exchange for anything we do not like about ourselves or the world around us. The issue and question is how we manage what we have, how we manage ourselves within existing reality, regardless of how this reality came about, whether the result of creation or evolution.

The problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations we face today as individuals, as societies and as a species are the results and consequences of what we do, how we understand and manage ourselves. They are the results and consequences of failings, errors and mistakes we make in understanding and managing ourselves within existing reality. They are the results and consequences of contradicting, conflicting with and falling short of the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us.

When we fail, make errors or mistakes, when we behave and act in harmful, counterproductive and destructive ways it is not the result of evil, evil forces or the devil, neither is it the result of selfish genes or faulty neurological wirings or workings of the brain forcing our hand. It is the result of failing to do the best with what we have, understanding and managing ourselves in meaningful, constructive and beneficial ways within existing and changing reality. It is the result of behaving and acting, understanding and managing ourselves in ways that contradicts, conflicts with and falls short of the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us. It is the result of failing to understand and manage the role and responsibility in our existence and development that are individually ours to understand and manage. Failing to understand and manage in the first instance where consciously we exist and act, where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility, the mind and mental existence.

For millennia as a species we have been looking for someone or something externally beyond ourselves, beyond where consciously we exist and act, to take responsibility for what we do and what we fail to do in the mind and mental existence. The problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations we face are the results and consequences of abrogating responsibility for ourselves, for what we do and engage in, our behaviour and actions, for how we understand and manage ourselves within the reality, the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us. Trying to change the reality of the conditions, demands and challenges of our existence instead of managing ourselves within them.

The socio-cultural, political, economic-financial and human development problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations of today are not the results of a failure of the promise of the Enlightenment to materialize, nor are they the consequences of disconnecting science from religion. They are the results and consequences of failing to take responsibility for ourselves, for what we do, for our behaviour and actions, for how we understand and manage ourselves. They are the results and consequences of failing to understand and manage where consciously we exist and act. Failing to be in charge, take control, be actively engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence.

The promise of the Enlightenment was only about better, more detailed knowledge and understanding and the ability to manage and manipulate the reality of our existence, the world around us, nature and the natural environment. It was to create the ideal external conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. It was not about understanding and managing where consciously we exist and act, the mind and mental existence. Reconnecting science and religion also does not lead to an understanding of the mind and mental existence.

Neither science nor religion offers a way to understand and manage the mind and mental existence. Knowledge and understanding of a supernatural-spiritual world does not provide an understanding of the mind and mental existence or how to manage them. Knowledge and understanding of the structure and workings of nature, natural forces, processes and developments also do not provide an understanding of what takes place, what we do and need to do, what we must establish, develop and maintain in the mind and mental existence and how to manage them. The mind and mental existence need to be understood and managed from the inside, from where we consciously exist and act, as reflected in our experience.

Within this context, whether we are the product of evolution or creation is a mute and rather irrelevant point. The debate about whether we should teach evolution, creation or a combination of both in our schools misses the point of what is required in education and training. What is missing in education and training is developing in the individual the knowledge and understanding, the abilities, skills and practices to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, where we consciously exist and act, where we are in charge and in control, where we experience and become aware of the conditions of existence, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility.