20. The non-falsifiable situation

We can understand from our now ever accumulating collection of examples of very serious, knowledge-denying denials that there exists an unacknowledged but all-too real border line—in fact a ‘fifty feet of solid concrete’ wall, as Laing so accurately described it—at the edge of the realm where the issue of the human condition resides beyond which nobody is supposed to venture, and behind which everyone lives and all but a handful of books in recorded history (in particular the great/ denial-free religious texts) have been written from. The biblical story of David and Goliath accurately describes the predicament. In this story virtually the whole of humanity’s army is besieged at that edge of that terrifying realm over which presides a monster/ Goliath, namely the terrifying issue of the human condition. Nobody but the exceptionally fearless/ innocent/ prophetic—metaphorically a child/ David—can venture into that horrifying realm. Now, at last, with the human condition explained as a result of the discoveries of science—that is, with Goliath slain—that terrifying realm can be ventured out into with safety and relative ease, as this book does, line after line. However, such writing understandably causes psychological fear and Page 99 of
PDF Version horror in those not yet familiar with the redeeming explanation of the human condition. As was mentioned in Section 8, when the mind of upset humans tries to read material coming from ‘beyond the pale’ of that border line that no one is supposed to cross, it virtually shuts down; it goes deaf to what is being said, it can’t take in or digest the words. In the case of the great religious texts, they were relatively readable because the meanings of their words weren’t clear. Written in pre-scientific times their authors were only able to use abstract expressions, such as ‘God’ for integrative meaning, ‘soul’ for our cooperative instinctive self, ‘evil’ for our upset state of our human condition, and this abstractness protected the reader from being overly confronted with the truth contained in what was being said. As was emphasised in Section 8, this deaf effect that reading science-based denial-free explanations causes can be overcome but it requires patient re-reading of the material for the psychological fear to gradually subside. Initially the human-condition-afflicted mind won’t let what is being said in, in effect it demands, indeed begs and even screams, for all the material to be represented to conform with the old evasive denial-complying rules. It is so important however that this response be resisted and the denial-free approach and presentation be stuck to because it is only the denial-free presentation that can ultimately liberate humanity from its historic diseased, human-condition-afflicted state.

At this point it is appropriate to address the problem of the ‘non-falsifiable situation’. In talking about denial of the issue of the human condition being a factor in science, the situation unavoidably occurs where those who oppose or disagree with a concept that is being put forward can be dismissed as suffering from the denial. For example, I do assert that reading this book amounts to an alienation test: the more alienated the reader the more their mind will resist the truth that is being presented. In support of this Christ’s words can be cited when he said, ‘everyone who does evil [has become upset] hates the light [the human-condition-confronting truth], and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed’ (John 3:20), and Plato’s words can also be cited when he said, ‘if he [the cave prisoner] were forcibly dragged up the steep and rocky ascent [out of the cave]…into the sunlight…he would much object…his eyes would be so overwhelmed by the brightness…he would turn back and take refuge in the things which he could see’ (Plato The Republic, tr. H.D.P. Lee, 1955, p.280 of 405). But where does this leave those who disagree with the concepts being put forward? Once you propose that alienation is almost universal then the situation exists where people who disagree with what you are putting forward can feel they are going to be dismissed as being alienated, evasive and ‘in denial’, leaving them no way to disprove or falsify the explanation being put forward.

The first point to consider is that the dilemma of the human condition that produced denial and its alienation in humans, and with it this conundrum, is not an invention. It is not a ploy to defeat criticism, it is simply the unavoidable characteristic of any situation where denial occurs.

Secondly, and more importantly, the problem only exists at the superficial level because the ideas being put forward can be tested as true or otherwise. These are not untestable hypotheses that must be accepted on faith. For example, the nurturing explanation for human origins can easily be established by scientific investigation. Much evidence, such as the behaviour of bonobos, has already been put forward. Existence of our denial of the issue of the human condition itself can similarly easily be established by scientific investigation. Many references to and descriptions of this denial have already been quoted as initial evidence of its occurrence. Indeed, as was explained in Section 7 and 8, since we humans are the subject of this particular study, each person can experience and thus know the truth or otherwise of the explanations being put forward. Once the explanations are presented and applied, as is done in this book, you will discover they Page 100 of
PDF Version are able to make such sense of human behaviour that your own and everyone else’s situation—indeed the whole human situation in the world today—becomes transparent. The popular Irish author J.G. Ballard said in an interview that ‘All of my writing is a quest to find what the hell is going on’ (The Weekend Australian, 9 Sept. 2006); well, what is presented in this book finally reveals ‘what the hell is going on’ in the world, and to realise that, as readers of these explanations have with patience been able to do, and will continue to do in increasing numbers, is witness to the extremely penetrating truth of what is being presented. In the following description of Plato’s cave allegory, which appears in the 1996 Encarta Encyclopedia under the entry for ‘Plato’, Plato emphasises that once the prisoners manage to ‘struggle free’ of the cave, they recognise that ‘the only things they have seen heretofore are shadows and appearances’, not ‘the real world’ at all. It is exactly this new-found transparency that confirms that this understanding is the long sought after explanation of the human condition. The full quote about this phenomena, as it appears in Encarta, reads: ‘The myth of the cave describes individuals chained deep within the recesses of a cave. Bound so that vision is restricted, they cannot see one another. The only thing visible is the wall of the cave upon which appear shadows cast by models or statues of animals and objects that are passed before a brightly burning fire. Breaking free, one of the individuals escapes from the cave into the light of day. With the aid of the sun [living free of denial of integrative meaning], that person sees for the first time the real world and returns to the cave with the message that the only things they have seen heretofore are shadows and appearances and that the real world awaits them if they are willing to struggle free of their bonds. The shadowy environment of the cave symbolizes for Plato the physical world of appearances. Escape into the sun-filled setting outside the cave symbolizes the transition to the real world, the world of full and perfect being, the world of Forms, which is the proper object of knowledge.’ (Again, as noted earlier, there is a chapter in A Species In Denial, titled ‘Deciphering Plato’s Cave Allegory’, that is dedicated to presenting a detailed analysis of this allegory.)

As was emphasised in Section 8, as the subjects of this biological analysis of the human condition it is not difficult for us to know the truthfulness or otherwise of the analysis—as the subjects of the analysis that is easy to know because we can experience its confronting truthfulness and, once we get over that, discover the transparency of the world around us that that truthfulness creates for us. The difficulty however lies in accepting that truthfulness. In fact what becomes the problem for most adults who are able to persevere in reading this book and by so doing begin to take in or ‘hear’ the understandings being presented is the transparency of themselves that the truthfulness of the understandings brings. Encountering the naked truth about ourselves—dignifying and relieving of our upset as that truth is—cannot help but be a shock. What is being introduced is the arrival of the real ‘future shock’, ‘culture shock’, ‘brave new world’, ‘tectonic paradigm shift’, ‘gestalt switch’, ‘turning point’, ‘renaissance’, ‘revolution’ or ‘sea change’ humanity has long anticipated would one day arrive. How we can cope with that shock is the main subject of this book, the answer to which will be given in the latter part of the book. There is in fact an easy and immensely satisfying and exciting way to cope with the arrival of the truth about ourselves.