In Search of Paradigm 3

This article is post #3 in an ongoing series called “In Search of Paradigm 3.” It is based off the original article found here. (Part 2 was here)

I will undoubtedly turn many people away today because of this concept right here:

Cognitive dissonance. “is the excessive mental stress and discomfort^[1] experienced by an individual who (1) holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time or (2) is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. This stress and discomfort may also arise within an individual who holds a belief and performs a contradictory action or reaction.”

Paradigms and Cleavers

Are you perfect?

Seriously, are you PERFECT?

Half the readers answer, “No” because they find what they perceive as an imperfection about their physical, emotional, mental or spiritual bodies. These are realists, true and authentic through and through, never scapegoating or trying to escape reality. They are necessary for humanity’s survival.

…and the other 50% say, “Yes, I am perfect” because they know that God created them perfectly without blemish and/or they are strong believers/experiencers that whatever they concentrate on becomes reality. They know that their thoughts, words, actions, beliefs, emotions, and so on, intermingle to determine what their reality ultimately becomes. These are strong, bold, creators, necessary for humanity’s survival.

[The music stops] Wait a second, both camps are necessary for our survival? Indeed.

…but the two paradigms can’t even read each other’s explanations!

Try to read both paradigms below IN FULL. You’ll probably notice very quickly which paradigm you resonate with by the how quickly you look away from the juxtaposed view. Give it a go…

Paradigm 1

Paradigm 1 is made up of realists. They see life clearly without judgment. There’s no “should” statements or “I wish” or “it has to be” associated with these seemingly helpless creatures. They simply see life as it really is. More importantly, they FEEL life as it really is.

They feel the pain and sorrow of a world gone mad. They see forests being chopped down and birds falling from the sky. They feel how utterly helpless they are to do anything about it. They feel like melting away and escaping from it all, because sometimes it’s just pure misery.

Sometimes it comes through in physical pain…”I just can’t take it anymore.” Sometimes it’s through empathy and feeling too deeply the pains of others. The realists sometimes ask, “When does all of this end, already?”

But other times, they almost get overwhelmed when life goes well for them. They almost pass out from glee, “What did I do to deserve this?!”

Paradigm 2

Paradigm 2 is made up of people with strong responsibility. They hold themselves to a standard well above par. They know that the world will NEVER change unless they do something about it.

These people have focus, and they can drown out undesirable crap like it’s gone out of style…”Stay focused on the positive, self.” In the face of bad events, they don’t have to look the other way because they can’t even see the bad. “Life is so good” or “God is so loving” or “But look at all the beauty around us.”

This grouping is very action oriented because they have to be in order to help humanity survive. These people have a knack for knowing what should be done in any moment. They just inherently know what the world should look like because they already have the vision in their minds.

The Top Dog

Which view is better, paradigm 1 or 2?

If we were 100% Paradigm 1, we would look somewhat like dead fish floating down the river of life. Nothing to do, but everything to experience. “Oh well, a MERS virus is going to kill me, oh well.”

So, what is so important about Paradigm 1? In order to survive, you first need to know your threats and you need to know them accurately. Paradigm 1 is where that awareness comes from. If a seemingly mundane illness is actually very deadly, it’s the Paradigm 1 awareness that will warn you.

Paradigm 2 comes in for taking care of the problem. Here’s why it’s important for both camps working in harmony. A Paradigm 2 person will see a symptom and go after that symptom. Basically, Paradigm 2 is so fixated on what SHOULD BE, that they tend to ignore the true underlying cause. They work symptomatically to resolve problems because they don’t want to know if there’s really a deadly disease in there. Ignorance is bliss for Paradigm 2.

I’m certainly not asking everyone become a Paradigm 1 person…that would be catastrophic. A purely Paradigm 1 person will have the knowledge of a problem, but not have any sort of willpower to do anything about it. That is also a dangerous place to be: not willing to do anything about the problems that you see.

But Paradigm 1 cannot do anything because they are primarily pacifists, merely here to experience life. So, that’s why we need at least some Paradigm 2 in us. But Paradigm 2 can’t see life clearly because they are so busy envisioning a better world.

The need for both

If you haven’t already guessed, I’m a proponent of both. We need to see life clearly first without judgment. This is largely based in Eastern thought. Mindfulness is a great way to foster pure awareness. It’s an invaluable trait to be able to see life clearly without any sort of agenda behind it.

Paradoxically, suffering can best be dissipated by being MORE MINDFUL of the suffering. By recognizing it for what it is, the suffering dissolves.

But this is not a popular view from Paradigm 2, who loves to disassociate from their pain and suffering. Ultimately it fails because treating life symptomatically never changes the root causes. If the root cause is still in tact, the problem still exits. The best way out is through…not around.

On the flip side, not all suffering can be dissipated with pure awareness. Eastern theology would gravely disagree with me, but this is where the Western greatness really comes in. Sometimes, we need to ACT in order to resolve life’s toughest problems.

Paradigm 2 is all about taking responsibility for one’s actions, thoughts, etc. Because we create our world regardless of whether we like it or not, we MUST take FULL responsibility for ALL of what we feed our minds and take strict inventory of our inner beliefs, thoughts, reactions, etc. We ARE responsible for our reality. But knowing what’s really wrong is CRITICAL here.

Do you recognize just how contradictory that last sentence really is? Basically, there’s uncontrollable factors that make up our reality, AND we control our reality….all at the same time. HUH?!

The most potent combination: Paradigm 3

Combining both juxtaposed paradigms is the true key to keeping humanity alive and pushing us straight into the world we really wanted all along. For example, just harmonizing to a higher frequency has its place in this plane, but it apparently isn’t doing much good against humanity’s incessant need for profit and greed (symptoms include the economic system still in tact which is tearing apart rain forests, exploiting slave labor in the East, purposefully propagating disease and poverty for personal gain, and also controlling the minds of the masses by illegitimate and blatantly false news feeds).

The most potent combination of the two juxtaposed paradigms comes from real, unadulterated awareness of humanity’s true condition (paradigm 1’s awareness) and also a strong focus on how to improve it (paradigm 2’s power and strength).

We need both. We need mindful awareness (Eastern traditions) and the power and fortitude to create change (Western traditions).

*** The mind programming is so pervasive in today’s society that all they have to do is push you into just one of the two convincing paradigms TO RENDER YOU USELESS! ****

Cognitive dissonance will prevent most of us from enacting this POWERFUL combination.

The next post in this series will take this even further. First off, how do we know when to be in paradigm 1 versus paradigm 2? We could try to be in both at the same time, but this dilutes the effectiveness. We’ll answer these problems tomorrow, and perhaps we’ll even get into how dreams come into the picture (and THAT is the most fun of all).

Of the 3 people that made it to the end of this post, God bless you! Now let’s go change the world, yes?

Part 4 will be posted here when it’s published.

Copyright © 2014 Chris McCleary