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'''The Premodern Paradigm'''

'''The Premodern Paradigm'''

Wilber describes at some length how the four quadrants evolved through the history of culture.  Back in premodern, or prerational times, all four quadrants were undifferentiated.  In other words, there was a magical thinking that inner beliefs directly influenced outer manifestations.  For example, I may believe that I can cause you pain by sticking pins in a doll.  Or I may pray for rain and when it finally does rain I see the prayer and the rain as cause and effect.  Alchemists believed that lead could become gold so they kept experimenting, expecting gold to appear.  Premodern thinking did not end in modern times—it persists everywhere.  To give a familiar example, many Protestant Christians believe that inner faith is given directly from God and is accompanied by a corresponding external object—the Bible—which also comes directly from the mind of God.  The Bible is thus literally the Word of God and once internalized, can be invoked to produce God’s miracle-working power.  I have known more than a few people who believed that Bible quotes can be used much like spells and incantations to manipulate reality and change circumstances, not unlike a voodoo doll!

Wilber describes at some length how the four quadrants evolved through the history of culture.  Back in premodern, or prerational times, all four quadrants were undifferentiated.  In other words, there was a magical sort of thinking that one's inner state (UL) directly influenced outer events (UR).  For example, there is the belief that sticking pins in a doll will cause someone else to feel pain.  Or one may pray for rain and when rain finally comes (maybe weeks later) one then claims that the prayer was responsible.  Alchemists believed that lead could become gold so they kept experimenting, expecting gold eventually to appear.  Premodern thinking did not end in modern times—it persists everywhere.  To give a familiar example, one may "believe in the Bible" and based on that belief, attempt to change or manipulate one's circumstances by quoting from the Bible.   

'''The Modern Paradigm'''

'''The Modern Paradigm'''

The Enlightenment and the scientific revolution led to modern times with a powerful new way of understanding the right hand side (the objective side) of reality, the result being that the entire left hand side (subjective) became demoted, unreal, or unimportant at best.  One example is modern medical practice.  When you are sick the doctor is not concerned with your inner consciousness but rather with the mechanics and chemistry of your body (UR).  He or she likely does not even want to talk to you other than possibly to ask where it hurts.  Typically you will be given a pill which is a chemical designed to alter your body chemistry.  This is a radical right-hand approach to reality which assumes that the LH side is immaterial to the cause and cure of your symptoms.  A right-hand approach to religion can be seen in studies where researchers have gone to prayer meetings and connected electrodes to participants’ brains (UR).  They discovered that certain brain waves (UR) activate during prayer (UL) and that endorphins (UR) are released in the brain (UR), thus creating the feeling of having a religious experience (UL). They conclude therefore that nothing is happening except chemistry (UR).  So the modern paradigm involves promoting the right hand side to the status of being verifiably real, while the left hand side is merely delusional in terms of knowing any real truth.   

The Enlightenment and the scientific revolution led to modern times with a powerful new way of understanding the right hand side of reality.  This new understanding was basically that objective (RH) reality simply obeys laws of nature and is completely independent of what we may believe.  A good example is modern medical practice.  When you are sick the doctor is not concerned with your inner consciousness but rather with the mechanics and chemistry of your body (UR).  He or she likely does not even want to talk to you other than possibly to ask where it hurts.  Typically you will be given a pill which is a chemical designed to alter your body chemistry.  This is a radical right-hand approach to reality which assumes that the LH side is immaterial to the cause and cure of your symptoms.  A right-hand approach to religion can be seen in studies where researchers have gone to prayer meetings and connected electrodes to participants’ brains (UR).  They discovered that certain brain waves (UR) activate during prayer (UL) and that endorphins (UR) are released in the brain (UR), thus creating the feeling of having a religious experience (UL). They conclude therefore that nothing is happening except chemistry (UR).  So the modern paradigm involves promoting the right hand side to the status of being verifiably real, while the left hand side is merely delusional in terms of knowing any real truth.   

Let's use the Bible again as another example of how the right hand approach can be applied to faith.  German scholars came along in the late 19th century and said "the Bible is an historical artifact that can be examined with the same critical scrutiny as a rock, a viral disease, or Shakespeare's Hamlet."  They ignored what faith had to say about the Bible and studied it purely on its own terms.  It subsequently proved to be an ordinary classifiable human document and a product of its times.  Scholars could only conclude that if God did have any influence over the Bible it was indirect at best.  So the Germans, for the first time, began to examine only the right-hand side of faith (the Bible in this case) and found that it was completely independent of the left-hand side (inner belief) and could thus be treated as a separate object of study.  As a result, some Christians ("conservatives") merely denounced this scholarship, and others ("liberals") agreed with the critics but then compartmentalized faith itself in the LH side where it would be immune from further RH critical scrutiny.   

Let's use the Bible again as another example of how the right hand approach can be applied to faith.  German scholars came along in the late 19th century and said "the Bible is an historical artifact that can be examined with the same critical scrutiny as a rock, a viral disease, or Shakespeare's Hamlet."  They ignored what faith had to say about the Bible and studied it purely on its own terms.  It subsequently proved to be an ordinary classifiable human document and a product of its times.  Scholars could only conclude that if God did have any influence over the Bible it was indirect at best.  So the Germans, for the first time, began to examine only the right-hand side of faith (the Bible in this case) and found that it was completely independent of the left-hand side (inner belief) and could thus be treated as a separate object of study.  As a result, some Christians ("conservatives") merely denounced this scholarship, and others ("liberals") agreed with the critics but then compartmentalized faith itself in the LH side where it would be immune from further RH critical scrutiny.