A CIVILISED BEGINNING
(the Human Social Journey)
To find out more about the book or to contact the author, please visit:
www.vividpublishing.com.au/acivilisedbeginning
Copyright © 2016 Hamid Soltani
ISBN: 978-1-925515-10-7 (eBook)
Published by Vivid Publishing
P.O. Box 948, Fremantle Western Australia 6959
www.vividpublishing.com.au
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Book cover image by Simon King
Cover design by Amir Aligorgi
The Human Social Journey
This is a book about the journey of human awakening and is dedicated to humanity. It describes what is glaringly wrong with our current crumbling civilisation, what the root causes of our social failings are, how to prepare and reinvent ourselves as a free race for a better civilised world of existence. Finally it offers ways to go about achieving a sustainable, harmonious existence.
The Author
Hamid Soltani is the founder of Soltani Therapy. His main professional focus encompasses topics such as the human and social consciousness, systems dynamics, human intelligence, psychosomatics and psychotherapy. Hamid is a practicing life coach, clinical hypnotherapist and a management consultant in cultural change and transformation.
Hamid has pioneered a set of perspectives and body of knowledge on the concept of ‘what and who we are’ and ‘why and how’ we interact with life the way we do. His work is also about our experiences in life and how we are privileged to consciously change them as we please to create different experiences and realities. This work is called Soltani Therapy.
Hamid holds a fundamental view that most things in life are possible as long as we can first imagine them. His work is about the art of authentic knowing and he welcomes the opportunity to share his findings with audiences as far and as wide as possible.
Resist digesting lies
When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs and beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.
—Michael Ende
The truth is messy. It’s raw and uncomfortable. You can’t blame people for preferring lies.
—Holly Black
There is beauty in truth, even if it’s painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don’t teach anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one’s character, one’s mind, one’s heart or one’s soul.
—José N. Harris
Your dignity can be mocked, abused, compromised, toyed with, lowered and even badmouthed, but it can never be taken from you. You have the power today to reset your boundaries, restore your image, start fresh with renewed values and rebuild what has happened to you in the past.
—Shannon L. Alder
The worst part about being lied to is knowing you weren’t worth the truth.
—Jean-Paul Sartre
Acknowledgement
To my beautiful wife Jan, who I depended heavily on while I was writing this book. She is the dearest thing in my life and her presence makes my life shine ever so brightly.
My beautiful late mother Sarvenaz who was my deep inspiration in life. Her love and compassion for humanity strongly influenced me in my general outlook on life, prepared me for my clinical work to help others and in my publications. I owe her immensely with every ounce of my being.
My larger family members who constantly challenge the status quo and always are preoccupied with the esoteric side of life for the sake of greater knowing and social contribution.
My dear friends who are always there to hear my points of view with care, patience and wise introjection.
My sweet and patient dog Zeus who played a major role in maintaining my sanity by periodically dragging me away from writing to play ball with him. Thank you my beautiful dog.
My challenges as a writer
The hardest challenge for me when I first thought of writing this book was how I should go about structuring my accumulated thoughts, knowledge and wisdom in order to successfully reach my readers with my intended messages. I also had to think about how I should give my audience real value and do it without either scaring them off with too much information and facts or losing them altogether in the unintended gaps as my story unravel? The following summary points highlight some of the challenges and solutions I had to apply while I was writing this book.
The concepts discussed in this book relate to life complexities, esoteric and abstract nature of reality – the forces that shape us that we are all subjected to, the ones that bring our joys and struggles in our daily lives. The question for me was how I should effectively sequence these intriguing concepts and make them easy to grasp and palatable to my deserving readers. Knowing that too much science can be blinding and too little substantiation of the presented facts on the other hand, can also take away from the credibility of the story and do injustice to its findings. I chose the middle ground and diligently tried to stay focused, logical and tell my story as simply as I can to those who are ready and wish to hear it.
My ideas and the topics in this book have been evolving over many years of my hunger, dedication and search for meaningful questions & answers to life and the universe and also by:
As the true nature of reality is highly speculative, and with each ideological camp tightly subscribing to its own subjective definitions of what reality is, it often represents yet another interesting challenge for a genuine writer who wishes to effectively communicate his or her stories to a diverse mix and wide ranging audience. Can a human idea with one set of definitions and meanings attract and interest others holding a different set of meanings and definitions for the same idea? How can a person communicate to another person who embraces contrasting views, beliefs and interpretations of the topic in question? The solution I applied to this challenge was to allow my sense of sincerity, authenticity and integrity of my art to permeate and speak in my general writing. I allowed factors such as inclusivity of a diverse range of views and respect of all ideologies for what they represent.
I believe there is a common unspoken language accessible to all who wish to consciously tune to it. It is found when you are centred and deeply aligned. In spite of different individual ideologies, people at this frequency somehow get deeply connected to one another and lose themselves in an undifferentiating sea of oneness, call it ‘trust’ if you wish. This language allows their fears and persistent resistance to new perspectives to subside and openness for new experiences and possibilities to flourish.
This language is the expression of our authentic love and passion for life, its mystery and the unravelling of imagined future experiences. It allows us to realise and experience great and inspiring qualities both in ourselves and others.
The aim of this book is to reveal to curious readers, what life means from a wider perspective of the systemic universe and how we may come to the realisation that out of all potential options and choices, we are able to consciously choose the most relevant, inspiring and empowering possibilities for ourselves in life. In order to achieve such objectives in writing this book, to the best of my ability, I have included concepts that are as truthful and validated by a number of scientific & social communities and somehow elegantly lined up with the main theme of ancient wisdom and practices.
My main purpose in life is to reach out and help people who want to be helped with what I know and am capable of delivering. This book is an example of this and my intention is to help and make a difference to those people I can reach. While we are on the subject of helping, I need to mention, this also created another challenge for me how I should provide help to another person and in what situation the help can effectively be received by the recipient. For me to address this, I also had to first question ‘who needs help, who wants help and how help can be given.
We often hear or come across people who appear to be in need of help. They could be physically or mentally in trouble or pain. Some may ask for help and others keep their sufferings to themselves. People who are experiencing traumas often have some definitive views or clarity in their minds about:
The problem here is – 1) the actual diagnosis of the nature of human problems, and 2) the subsequent application of real solutions can be highly challenging for the following reasons.
How does anyone know the exact nature of their current pains or problems? How does anyone distinguish between the symptoms and the actual root causes? If we don’t know the exact nature of our problem, our corresponding solution to our misdiagnosed problem becomes a futile exercise.
To know the real issues causing individual sufferings is the first important step towards the end-to-end process of successful self-healing. Without an accurate identification of the root causes, at best, we can only tamper with things we don’t clearly understand and at worst, we can do an untold amount of damage. As previously mentioned, the sufferers often project in their minds what they perceive causing their issues. Therefore in the majority of cases, the sufferer’s subjective perspective on the exact nature of their problems could be the first serious hurdle towards an effective healing process.
Who Needs Help?
In accordance with our common caring human nature, I am sure you agree that whoever is having a bad experience or is suffering should immediately qualify for help and be given help in the best possible way. This concept is a given and not in question here. However, the potential problem arises when a person in need of help, places terms and conditions on how they may receive help and in what quantities, especially when they may not have enough wisdom to make sense of the problem and solution in the first place. Through their subjective biases, they may deny alternative views. The person with such an approach often eliminates new potentials and fruitful possibilities in their lives. This behaviour occurs mainly due to their deeper fixations and subsequent rejections of any proposed alternative solutions to their problems.
Therefore, based on the Cybernetics Ashby’s law of Requisite Variety, there were two options available to me for pleasing my audience, I could either:
So I decided to focus my writing on readers with greater personal interest and burning passion for discovering their essence of being and their position within this great mystery called life. In all sincerity, you – the deserving reader – would enjoy this book if your level of current perspectives and beliefs are somewhat aligned to the main thrust of this book. For those of you I may have failed to reach, deeply touch or have disappointed in any way, please accept my apology.
Finally, even though I enjoy documenting my views and concepts, I admit that I am not an artful literary writer, perhaps you should think of me as a story teller with a passion to share his accumulated perspectives with others. In my view; in the end, the message is what matters and those who are meant to see and understand them will do so at this point in time.
Hamid Soltani
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE HUMAN SOCIAL JOURNEY IN LIFE
Stating the Obvious
Our Natural Beginning
Our Natural Ending
Evolution of knowledge through generations
Application of human knowledge for the creation of our social structures
Why do we Need Social Organisation?
Social concept of ‘Us and them’
Influencing factors for choosing the inner circle members
How to address our social dilemmas?
3. WHAT INNATE POTENTIAL CHILDREN POSSESS
Some facts at the initial stage of a child’s life
4. HOW WE ARE SHAPED AT HOME WITHIN THE FAMILY CONTEXT
Some facts about the parent’s teaching role within the family context:
Parents teach children ‘how not to miss out on meeting their needs in life’
Children’s perspective
5. HOW WE ARE SHAPED AND MOULDED AT SCHOOL
Some facts about the learning experience within the school context:
Teachers teach children ‘how not to miss out on meeting their needs in life’
Children’s Perspective
6. APPLICATION OF OUR ACQUIRED LEARNING IN A SOCIAL/COMMUNITY CONTEXT
Entering the work force
Competitiveness & mistakes
Contradiction and confusion
We question our abilities rather than question the rules
Disillusionment
Some facts about us, now grown up, to act as a parent within our own family context
Our experiences of adulthood
7. HOW MUCH OF CHILDREN’S INNATE POTENTIAL IS LOST THROUGH THEIR SOCIAL CONDITIONING?
The summary of sense of loss we may experience
8. BITTER AND DISILLUSIONED GROWN UP PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
Socially Unconscious & Lured Group
Conscious and socially questioning Group
9. WHY OUR WORLD IS THE WAY IT IS – CRUEL AND IGNORANT?
The Root Causes of Our Systemic Social failings
Fact 1 – Mass Human Fatality
Fact 2 – Displaced and Homeless People
Fact 3 – Large Scale Fear for Survival
Fact 4 – Lack of Education
Fact 5 – Disproportional Global Wealth Distribution
Fact 6 – Deliberate Large Scale World Imbalances & Demise
Fact 7 – War Money Making Machines
Fact 8 – Blaming the Innocents
Fact 9 – Legitimising Arms Sales through Manufactured Wars
10. HOW SHOULD WE VIEW OUR SOCIAL POSITION & POTENTIAL?
A dream world of existence
What are our legitimate human/social rights and how to use them
Recognise your potential and exercise your rights
11. UNDERSTANDING OUR INNER FORCES PRIOR TO EMBARKING ON CHANGING THE BIGGER WORLD?
Human Potential & Possibilities
Who are we – the Concept of ‘I’?
What does that ‘I’ represent?
So where should we start exploring this ‘I’?
The Scope and Focus of ‘I’
What does this ‘I’ directly control?
What does this ‘I’ not directly control?
How should the ‘I’ see its roles?
What is the purpose of ‘I’ in this world?
Micro’s Ignorance of Macro’s Context & Purpose
Macro Conscious Ignorance of the Micro’s Intelligence
Quality of life Within the Systemic & Changing World
What is important to us?
Peace of mind
Encountering the absence of Peace of mind
World of Change
Micro & Macrocosms
Can we have Peace of mind?
Quality of intelligence
What do we mean by human intelligence?
Why do we need to pay attentions to our intelligence?
What fuels and controls our intelligence?
Quality of Beliefs
What is a belief?
12. UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF OUR BELIEFS IN SHAPING OUR WORLD PARADIGM
Why can’t we consciously be happy and who is really in charge of our happiness?
Do we become cerebrally limited by the intensity of our beliefs?
Which beliefs should we question?
Consequences of blindly accepting our beliefs
How can we end our daily struggles for being negative?
Your true prosperity lies in the mastery of your subconscious mind
Misconception about our Conscious Objectivity
Shortfalls of Logically Structured therapies
How to look for Solutions
Conscious living tips
How to Change Beliefs
Human Potential for Change
Incentives to Change Beliefs
Follow the process of the Soltani Therapy Circle of Change
13. DEFINING THE VISION FOR A NEW INTELLIGENT WORLD
Preparation and mind-set adjustments
Entertaining the Idea of personal and social Freedom
Changing our deceptive perception of being innately barbaric
Watch for subliminal Social messages
Stretch our vision and explore new possibilities
How can we create a holistic and nurturing social structure for humanity?
What are the steps for reinventing ourselves for the better?
Defining What Civilised Human social Existence means
The definition of a new set of world-wide human Principles & Practices
14. ORGANIC IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW SOCIAL PARADIGM
The greatest Challenge for us to Overcome
Understanding the Self-Serving class methods of manipulation
How to minimise the global influence of the Self-Serving class
Establishing a New Peaceful Human Movement
Creation of the Global Human Assembly
Creation of the Global Scientific Assembly
Creation of the Global Social and Artistic Assembly
The Future Role of our Governing Bodies
Phase-1 Constitutional Changes
Phase-2 Governments Reshaping Themselves to Deliver Value
Phase-3 Birth of a World Government
15. THE FINAL CHAPTER
What do we know for a fact about the concept of self?
What do we know for a fact about our outer world?
Self-healing tips
Social healing tips
Final Conclusion
1.
Introduction
Whichever way we may look, we can’t escape from the fact that there are some fundamental and glaring flaws in how we collectively live in this world. We instinctively and intelligently know that what we socially witness somehow doesn’t add up or make direct sense to how we expect it to be.
Most of the population of the world (all mums and dads in this world) innately and naturally would love to live and raise their children in an inspiring and nurturing world of unity and yet, somehow they find themselves living in a divided world of chaos, suffering and turmoil. WHY?
We generally dislike and don’t regard human cruelties as the plausible civilised option as we diligently try hard to avoid such nastiness as best as we can. Yet, somehow we live in a world that it is quite normal and totally legitimate for a large scale world-wide arms industry to officially exist and to legally flourish with no limits, generating trillions of dollars for a handful of people in the world. On a daily basis, we shudder in horror as we witness how such hideous destructive arms are routinely used in barbaric wars everywhere around the world. How can such brutal contradiction continue to exist in our world?
We generally would like to experience personal freedom and expect our human values and rights to be respected by others. Yet collectively and internationally we witness our human rights and values to be systemically abused and compromised often by our own officials. How is this possible and why is it socially tolerated?
We are benevolent at heart and do not like to see massive disparity between have and have not, yet a small minority in this world are allowed to enjoy the majority of the generated wealth while many are starved and homeless. Why does our official system allow such inequalities to exist?
We may not admit openly, but deeply we all somehow feel connected to nature and respect our prized mother earth. We instinctively appreciate the preciousness and finite significance of our natural resources, yet on a daily basis we witness our fragile environment to be systemically ignored and ruthlessly destroyed simply for greed and no social advancement for our humanity. If it is not the masses, then who endorses and gives the green light for the systemic vandalism and destruction of our precious planet Earth?
Deep down we don’t quite understand why humanity has been so systemically deprived and not given the opportunity to live in a cleverly designed civilised world? Our global social designers have had plenty of opportunities through thousands of years of human evolution and easy access to the greatest scientific solutions available, They could intentionally and competently design, develop and deliver a civilised social structure that all of us can enjoy and prosper. Yet, our organised governing bodies have mysteriously failed to deliver such a civilised social platform. They somehow find it easier to land a space craft on a moving asteroid or develop amazingly complex weaponry than create a cohesive and functioning social world for their citizens. WHY?
Just remember the above mentioned failed global practices and injustices have existed for the entire history of humanity and are not just recent emerging phenomena. In equal proportion and intensity, so do the cries of innocent people throughout the world for justice and fairness also go back throughout our entire human history. The overall result of our social make up and the systemic structure has resulted in massive social, political and environmental crises.
The experiences of recent years have brought us closer to become more concerned about the future health of our global social system. Our young people by and large don’t trust official establishments anymore and are generally disillusioned about their future opportunities for jobs, housing and welfare. Our senior citizens are nervous with the current state of global financial institutions and question their prospects of living in a world of peace and stability. The glaring gap between rich and poor has increased exponentially. The threat of barbaric wars across the globe has become our nightmarish reality and our social and economic concerns for refugees and globally displaced innocent people are the greatest humanitarian challenge for our international community.
The world is having a nervous breakdown. People are irritable, aggressive, tense, and anxious. Neurosis is on the march. It is galloping ahead at full speed and no one seems to know what is going on or why. Above all, no one seems to know how to stop this inexorable march to destruction. Year after year there is more illness, more suicide, more violence, more alcoholism and drug addiction. The world is coming apart at the seams. Valium is the glue holding it together.
—Dr Arthur Janov
As a race, we are at the end of our tether and truly cannot continue to live in our current global social chaos, put up with our avoidable social pressures and endure to suffer more by serving and supporting the system that by design perpetuates our daily agonies. What have we done as a race to deserve such cruel treatment and what has happened to our brilliant human intelligence and ingenuity to show us the way forward?
Some of us in the west may say that life isn’t that bad and question what all this fuss is about. It is true that on the surface, some of us may have it easier. We may have a job at present, have holidays every now and then and our life may not be in immediate danger today. However, since we are all systemically connected and subjected to the laws of cause and effect, whatever we may have right now is not necessarily going to be sustainable as we face the future, especially when we are serving the system that exists at the mercy of many disadvantaged people in this world. Therefore it does not matter where we live or how prosperous we may feel at present, we need to be conscious and socially participate in this global systemic world or we all going to pay for it one way or another through the systemic laws that we cannot escape from.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
—Plato
The official explanations for our current social dilemmas often and conveniently point fingers at the symptoms or the innocents. For example, greedy and cruel human nature is often blamed for our current social crises or sometimes officials blame a bunch of disorganised ignorant war mongers wearing black pyjamas in the desert who for some magical reasons have become so miraculously organised, wealthy and powerful overnight.
The truth is that there has never ever been a plausible official explanation given to the masses that can intelligently enlighten them of the true nature and the root causes of why the world is the way it is – dysfunctional and cruel.
This book is aimed to enlighten those who are interested in knowing the truth about how humanity is currently positioned in our global social landscape, how they generally experience world events around them, what fuels the current social chaos and how it can be effectively changed to create a world of sustainable prosperity for all.
In the search for the truth, this book diligently examines our human journey in life, starting from birth and explores how we unconsciously become socially conditioned as we go through our learning experiences. It explains how, as newly born infants, we bring many wonderful innate qualities into life that are well worthy of careful preservation and intelligent nurturing. It reveals that through the course of our family and school education process, some of these cherished qualities become adversely impacted and sometimes lost altogether. In addition, we carefully examine how our life-lasting mental views are formed as we go through the process of learning and growing up.
The findings also reveal the main root causes of our social failing and unmask some of the quandaries we are confronted with as a race. We learn that our current social demise is totally avoidable and it is not happening by accident or due to organic accumulation of a series of innocent mistakes. It argues that our diabolical social problems are deliberately manufactured and engineered in order to create the chaotic social system we currently experience.
In order to search for real and lasting answers, this book takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery. It suggests that as we explore the nature of our human essence and understand our inner mental composition and beliefs, we slowly begin to develop our wisdom and become appropriately equipped to tackle a much larger task of changing the wider world.
We discover that our true freedom must begin within the confinement of our own mind and once we can create harmony and resolve our internal fights, then we can confidently project outwards and consciously reduce the external noise, create lasting peace with life and collectively prosper.
Finally and more inspirationally, this book explores what it means to be civilised and it offers potential solutions for how, as a deserving human race, we can reorganise ourselves and reclaim our place in history. It proposes a new social/political architecture using peaceful and intelligent activities that are especially designed to cut through challenging social and political odds. It inspires people on how to become united and how to courageously demand their human rights and values from their respective authorities in a civilised and organised fashion.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, however, to the best of my ability, I projected conscious objectivity and stayed with the obvious and self-explanatory facts that should not be disputed by an average reader.
My reason for writing this book gradually evolved as I began to see clearer through the jigsaw puzzle of our social confusions, joined the dots between undisputed facts and also felt morally obliged to help raise awareness as a way of positively contributing to my fragile global society.