The Process of Becoming Your True Self

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The Process of Becoming Your True Self

• Dr. Rodney H. Clarken
• Northern Michigan University

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The process of becoming your true self is

• a model of human development based on an
  integration of knowledge from psychology,
  philosophy and religion.

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It identifies knowing, loving and willing

• as the three basic human capacities and describes
  how they are developed through the body, mind and
  soul.

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It views the body, mind and soul

• as the three basic natures of human beings, that
  develop in hierarchical stages in an individual
  from embryo to adult (ontogeny) just as they did
  in the evolutionary development of human life
  (phylogeny) through the stages of mineral,
  vegetable, animal (body), human (mind) and beyond
  (soul).

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• Mineral
• Vegetable

• Know

• self

• True Self

• Love

• Will

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Your true self the beginning

• You are here
• .
• We all start of as a one-celled microscopic
  organism, invisible to the human eye. That is
  your true self at the initial stage of your
  development, containing all your future
  potentialities.

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The process of becoming

• How do we
• get from here .
• To here

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From the humble beginning

• of a one-celled being, we progress hierarchically
  through all the kingdoms and stages of
  development that we did in evolution
• Mineral
• Vegetable
• Animal
• Human

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Stages of Material Development
Matter
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These are the same stages

• that the world has gone through evolutionarily
  over millions of years
• First, there was matter that formed into
  minerals, that over time created the right
  conditions for the evolution of plants, that were
  followed by animals, which set the stage for
  humans.

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Hierarchy of material creation
Time
Relative abundance of realm
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The human being is the latest

• and highest realm of creation, incorporating in
  itself the qualities and attributes of the
  earlier and lower creations mineral, vegetable
  animal
• These physical developments that took billions of
  years to accomplish in evolution, we pass through
  in nine months within the womb

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Human nature

• The human being combines all the lower levels of
  creation of mineral, vegetable and animal in its
  body, and shares their qualities.
• Humans add the element of mind, based in a more
  evolved brain, and have the capacity to transcend
  them all with its soul.

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Human Nature
Mineral
Each higher level encompasses and transcends the
lower
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Stages of human development

• The body, mind and soul each go through a
  mineral, vegetable, animal and human stage of
  development in the process of your realizing
  their full potential.
• The true self is your soul endowed with full
  spiritual powers.
• We will briefly explore each of these.

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The stages of the body 1. mineral

• We start off as one-celled organisms made up of
  atoms and molecules held together like the atoms
  and molecules of a mineral.
• Our one-cell divides into two, each successive
  cell follows a similar pattern, then the cells
  begin differentiating into different body parts
  and integrating into patterns, like a mineral
  crystal.
• We do not lose the mineral qualities of cohesion
  of our body until we die, when the atoms and
  molecules break apart returning again to simple
  matter.

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The vegetable stage of body

• The fetus implants itself on the wall of the
  uterus and draws nourishment from the host mother
  through an umbilical cord. If uprooted, we die.
• We grow from the one-celled seed, augmenting in
  size, qualities and development until at birth we
  have billions of cells and the organs to move to
  the animal stage. This vegetative quality cause
  us physical growth throughout our lives.

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The animal stage of body

• Adds the animal qualities of sensation and
  movement.
• In the womb, the senses and capacities common to
  animals are being developed, but not yet actively
  used.
• At birth the physical body, which humans share in
  common with animals, is able to begin developing
  its sensorimotor capacities.

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The human stage of the body

• What distinguishes humans from animals is reason,
  which physically depends on the developed brain
  which has evolved over eons.
• Understanding the physical brain can help us to
  understand the more abstract and higher mind and
  its role in the body.

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Man finds himself in the predicament that Nature
has

• endowed him essentially with three brains which,
  despite great differences in structure, must
  function together and communicate with one
  another. The oldest of these brains is basically
  reptilian. The second has been inherited from
  lower mammals, and the third is a later mammalian
  development, which, in its culmination in
  primates, has made man peculiarly man. (MacLean,
  quoted in Koestler, Ghost in the machine, pp.
  277-78)

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The Triune Brain
Reptilian brain (brain stem)
oldest Paleomammalian brain (limbic system)
later Neomammalian brain (neocortex) latest
Based on MacLean
http//www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_m
aclean.html
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The reptilian brain

• As infants, we operate primarily from the oldest
  part of our triune brains, the brain stem, which
  roughly corresponds to the reptilian brain. It
  controls internal functions, instinctive drives,
  reflexes, sleep, arousal and impulses
• As we master and transcend some of these internal
  primitive activities and forces, we advance to
  higher animal functions

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The paleomammalian brain

• We move to the higher more evolved limbic system,
  the second oldest part of the brain, which
  processes information in such a way that it
  becomes experienced as feelings and emotions,
  which become the guiding force for behavior.
  (Jantsch, Self-organizing universe, p. 167)
• Very similar in organization, chemistry and
  function to the paleomammalian brain of horses,
  dogs and cats, and intimately connected to the
  brain stems visceral and emotional functions

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The neomammalian brain

• The neocortex constitutes the latest and highest
  stage in evolution of the brain. It encompasses
  the limbic system and the brain stem.
• It is what distinguishes humans from animals
  physiologically.
• It is the seat of thought and most voluntary
  movements mother of invention and father of
  abstract thought.

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Three brains in one

• Reptilian brain stem controls muscles, balance
  and autonomic functions, such as breathing and
  heartbeat is active, even in deep sleep
• Paleomammalian limbic system concerned with
  emotions and instincts, feeding, fighting,
  fleeing, and sexual behavior
• Neomammalian neocortex comprises higher
  cognitive functions which distinguish humans from
  animals

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The triune brain as body, heart and mind

• Body, brain stem, part of ourselves the regulates
  systems in our body. Perceives itself in the
  lower belly, the area of its major biological
  functioning (i.e., hunger, sex)
• Heart, limbic system, the part of ourselves that
  feels emotions. Perceives itself in the chest,
  the area of its primary responsibility and
  sensory awareness.
• Mind, neocortex, the part of ourselves we most
  often think of as who we are. Perceives itself in
  the head, the are that forms judgments, handles
  short term memory and does abstractions

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Triune brain and the three basic human capacities

• Body to will, centered in brain stem
• Heart to love, centered in limbic system
• Mind to know, centered in neocortex

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The knowing, loving and willing process of
becoming true self
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Each of the triune brains thinks differently

• Body thinks in gestalt sequences of body
  sensations body consciousness
• Heart thinks in sequences of feelings emotional
  consciousness
• Mind thinks in sequences of words, concepts,
  thoughts, logic, etc. mental consciousness

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Human Nature Triune Brain
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The brain-mind connection

• The brain is the physical organ that is the seat
  of the subjective mind, but the conscious mind is
  different and distinct from the objective brain.
• First person (I) subjective mind (conscious
  experience) reciprocally interacts with third
  person (it) objective brain (neurological
  systems).
• The brain is in the body and the body is in the
  mind.
• Next, we will look briefly at one aspect of the
  stages of the mind using Piagets cognitive model.

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Stages of the mind 1. mineral

• The initial mineral stage of the mind is the
  bonding in simple patterns of the elements of
  sensations, perceptions, impulses, images, etc.
  into a coherent mental representation.
• The mind is primarily sensorimotor and takes as
  its object the sensorimotor realm. Its general
  self-sense is material and physical.

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Vegetable stage of the mind

• Here the mind grows and can reproduce mental
  material. It is at the preoperational stage where
  it can use language and symbols to grow, and
  memory and imagination to reproduce, but only in
  a non logical and non reversible way. The mind
  does not grasp other points of view or
  perspectives. It has not developed its animal
  sensibilities.

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Animal stage of the mind

• The animal stage of mind can sense and move with
  and within the mind without the need of material
  senses and movement. Here the mind can see and
  hear for itself, without physical eyes or ears.
  This is the concrete operational stage where the
  mind can conserve and can logically and
  systematically manipulate symbols related to
  concrete objects.

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Human stage of the mind

• The mental mind, where the mind can think about
  itself and reflect upon and represent non
  material (abstract) reality. This stage is
  represented by formal operations logical
  manipulation of symbols related to abstract
  concepts. It takes as it object the world of
  thought and is creative, constructive and
  systematic.

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Soul stage of the mind

• When the mind reaches the soul stage, the mind
  transcends itself and is illumined by the soul
  which lead to higher authentic, autonomous,
  unified, visionary and intuitive thinking. The
  mind becomes post logical, rational, personal,
  verbal, etc., no longer limited by those mental
  constructs.

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What is the soul?

• \Soul\ The animating and vital principle in
  humankind credited with the faculties of thought,
  action and emotion and conceived as forming an
  immaterial entity distinguished from but
  temporally coexistent with the body. Dictionary

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an animating and vital principle

• Energy courage spirit fervor affection, or
  any other noble manifestation of the heart or
  moral nature inherent power or goodness.
  Definition 4 of soul from Webster's Revised
  Unabridged Dictionary
• The soul is like the sun which illumines,
  sustains and is reflected in the body and mind.

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faculties of thought, action and emotion

• Thought (Mind) Knowing, Thinking Understanding
  TRUTH
• Action (Body) Willing, Doing Justice GOOD
• Emotion (Heart) Loving, Feeling Unity BEAUTY

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an immaterial entity

• \Immate"rial\ 1. Not consisting of matter
  incorporeal spiritual
• \Spir"itual\ 1. Consisting of spirit not
  material incorporeal 2. Of or pertaining to the
  intellectual and higher endowments of the mind
  mental intellectual. 3. Of or pertaining to the
  moral feelings or states of the soul, as
  distinguished from the external actions reaching
  and affecting the spirits. 4. Of or pertaining to
  the soul or its affections as influenced by the
  Spirit

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distinguished from but temporally coexistent
with the body

• The soul is different and distinct from the body,
  but associated with the body for the limited time
  of its life
• The body is like a horse and the soul is like the
  rider. At one level we identify with and care for
  the body as it is the vehicle for the soul, our
  true identity, which exists after the body dies.

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The soul is like an embryo

• As an immaterial entity it is hard to comprehend.
  We can use material metaphors to help us
  understand what it is and how it works
• The development of the embryo is analogous to the
  development of the soul. As the embryo develops
  all the physical attributes for this world, the
  soul develops spiritual attributes for the next.

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The womb of this world

• Just as the body develops all of it physical
  capacities while in the womb of its mother, the
  soul develops its spiritual capacities while in
  the womb of this world. The human body serves as
  the placenta to the soul, taking in and filtering
  the nourishment of the world so that the soul can
  develop the spiritual qualities and
  characteristics needed in the next realm.

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Stages of the soul

• The stages the soul go through can be compared to
  the stages the embryo goes through mineral to
  vegetable to animal to human.
• Though the soul is a non material entity, we can
  compare the spiritual development of the soul to
  the material development of the body.

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Mineral stage of the soul

• At conception, the soul comes into being. It
  might be compared to the simple one-celled
  organism of the body. It has all of the
  capacities inherent in it, but they have yet to
  be developed. Initially the soul in the mineral
  stage can be conceived of as the cohesion of
  atoms and molecules of spirit and virtues binding
  together to make a new entity, a unique spiritual
  identity, just as the body is a unique physical
  identity.

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Vegetable stage of soul

• As interpreted by the Scholastics, the
  vegetative soul was common to plants, animals,
  and humans the sensitive soul was common to
  animals and humans and the rational soul was
  found only in humans. Vegetable love is thus a
  love that grows, takes nourishment, and
  reproduces, although slowly. The American
  Heritage Dictionary

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Animal stage of soul

• At this stage the human soul adds the capacity of
  sensation to the earlier mineral spirit of
  cohesion and the vegetable spirit of growth and
  reproduction we see, hear and feel with our
  soul, in a similar way that we can first see,
  hear and feel with our physical senses, then
  later with our mental.

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Human stage of the soul

• The soul at this stage can reason and think for
  itself, transcending the knowledge from the
  physical and mental realms. It uses but is not
  bond by the body and mind as in earlier stages.
  This is the mental stage of the soul, the
  rational soul, that can imagine, discover and
  comprehend the mysteries of this material world
  and advance civilization.

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Soul stage of the soul

• The soul can differentiate and integrate all
  experiences from all the stages from mineral to
  soul and can witness reality from a level of
  knowing, loving and willing that transcends the
  material and mental realms. Here we receive the
  heavenly illumination understand spiritual
  reality comprehend the mysteries of eternal life
  and come to know, love and obey God.

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Spirit stage of the soul

• The soul can transcended itself merging with the
  Great Holy Spirit, freeing itself of all
  physical, mental and spiritual attachments, such
  as attachment to the virtues and names of the
  Divine Creator, rather than to the Ultimate
  Infinite Essence that transcends all limitations
  and divisions.

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How do negotiate these stages?

• Using our knowing, loving and willing capacities
  through our body, minds and souls.
• The following figures and charts will present
  some correlates of these to help us understand
  how we might use them to further the process of
  becoming our true selves.

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• Mineral
• Vegetable

• Know

• self

• True Self

• Love

• Will

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• Knowing

• Truth

• Head

• Understanding

• Science

mind
body
soul
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Table 2. Some correlates of knowing, loving and
willing
Know Love Will
Consultation/ Investigation Compassion/ Caring Creation/ Construction
Think Feel Do
Authenticity Altruism Autonomy
Truth Beauty Good
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Understanding Unity Justice
Head Heart Hand
Cognitive Affective Conative
Mind Soul Body
Reason Compassion Courage
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Logic/ Epistemology Aesthetics/ Axiology Ethics/ Ontology
Objective (It) Subjective (I) Intersubjective (We)
Science Arts Morals
Agency-preservation Eros-transcendence Communion-adaptation
Differentiate Integrate Transcend
Pure Reason Aesthetic Judgment Practical Reason
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Table 2 Some correlates of body, mind and soul
Nature Body Mind Soul
World Physical Mental Spiritual
Kingdom/ Realm Animal Human Divine
Food Nutrition Knowledge Virtues
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Symbol Hand Head Heart
Reality/ Spirit Objective Subjective Transcendental
Language Pre Verbal- Body, Cries Verbal-Words Post Verbal-Deeds
Logic Pre Logical (magic) Logical (reason) Trans Logical (inspiration)
Reason Pre Rational (drives) Rational (empirical) Post Rational (certitude)
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Perspective 1st, person, Pre conventional 2-3rd person, conventional 4th and on post conventional
Source Nature Science Religion
Identity Pre Personal (physical, emotional) Personal (ego, ethnic) Transpersonal (universal, transcendental)
Conscious-ness Sub-Conscious Self- Conscious Super-Conscious
Sphere Biosphere Noosphere Theosphere
Self Center Bio centric Ego?World centric Theo centric
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• Know

• self

• True Self

• Love

• Will

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References

• This presentation has drawn from the works of
  Bahaullah, Abdul-Baha and Ken Wilber. I refer
  you to their writings for more breadth, depth and
  clarity on these topics.

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Contact information

• Dr. Rodney H. Clarken
• Director of Field Experiences and Professor,
  School of Education, Northern Michigan
  University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette,
  MI 49855-5348
• Tel [phone] (secretary), 227-1881 (office),
  226-2079 (home), Fax [phone]
• Website with info on courses, papers, Baha'i and
  China and this presentation http//www-instruct.n
  mu.edu/education/rclarken