Our old friend Brian Lambert sent me this essay for publication. He contributed a number of great pieces previously.
ORIGINAL THINKING
Original thinking is the greatest anarchy against prevailing sentiments.
Being in a collective of constant self congratulating agreement may be a sign that original thinking is scarce.
The original thinker always clashes with fixed ideas; including their own; especially their own.
Anger and ad hominem attacks may be proof that original thinking is threatening the prevailing tides. Original thinkers welcome criticism with curiosity, not anger. For the original thinker does not mind being wrong. Acceptance of being wrong is the recognition of more original thought. Finding truth; not being right, is the holy grail of original thought.
Original thought is an intuitional soul quality supported by an independent and vibrant discriminating intelligence.
Original thinking is always an enemy of rigid psychological antiques, cultists and unreasonable emotional belief systems.
Having the capacity to be wrong or recognizing self created flaws, the original thinker is constantly upgrading, revamping and perfecting perceptions of absolute and relative truth. This constant upgrading and change is threatening to stagnant cult type minds whose rigidity has no room for questions and transforming self enquiry. Cultists are satisfied with stagnation of knowledge as they worship their dogmas and consider them absolute.
Knowledge is ever evolving through original thinking. Knowledge is ever new in understanding as it evolves. It’s fresh and inspiring, never stagnant. Cultists love their mental boxes. Original thinkers prefer hot air balloons.
Brian Lambert
Nice post Brian. If you allow me, I found it very Zen. To be an original thinker is a daily practice. One must accept Life without putting resistance and do so by trying to be continuously in the present moment.
Only in this way can one truly see what is happening and act accordingly, without having the head in the box of fixed ‘certainties’ that he has created to feel right.
Original Thinkers do not require other people to believe “certain truths” or to have observed “certain ‘realities’ ” in order to give those other truths and realities serious and honest consideration
…this requires great humility from anyone.
OMG! It’s Junior Soprano – in the FLESH!
Or maybe it’s just his twin brother?
CULT MIND CLICHE;
“I THOUGHT I WAS WRONG ONCE BUT I WAS MISTAKEN”
Excellent post Mike , one sentence ” Cultists love their mental boxes” sums up all.
From Socrates (400BC ) this War is on.
Today the torch bearer includes: Mental Health professionals ( Psychiatrist and psychologist like Steve Hanson)
University scholars ( Dr Kent University of Calgary , Touretzky of Carnegie University, Dr Jim Beverly of Tyndale University ) ,
journalists and authors ( Richard Behr , Tony Ortega , Paulet Cooper , Russell Miller, , Lawrence Wright ) and
individuals who were victims like yourself, Jon Atach , Chris Sheldon, Tory Magoo , Mark Bunker , Jessie Prince and Mark Headley and last but not yet least the University Youth of Europe and North America who started Anonymous movement.
If we look closely, we see one thing common, Universities were the Hub of free thinkers be it Scholars or students or Alimni.
With out being philosophical let me make it more simple to understood.
Universities gives us tools to analyze thoughts , beliefs and behavior known as Research .
We ourselves in our daily activities do similar activity. For example comparing flyers of various supermarkets for price matching or to buy car , visiting car show rooms and doing test drives ,
It’s so important that all.the main stream religion started Universities . We find Universities established by Jews ,Christians ,Muslims, Hindus ,Buddhists and Sikhs around the world. That’s why they evolved and survived over 3000 years.
If you want to see cultist scared to death, mention the word University.
So what so unique about University Research . It has two components Secondary Research and Primary research .
Secondary Research is done by going through already published literatures. The data, assumptions and findings are compared to draw conclusion . This all done by maintaining objectivity , the best example is the research done by Lawerence Wright for report on Scientology published in NewYorker magazine in 2011, mentioned in his interview
Primary Researh is one step.ahead , when a universtiy scholar do Research by interviews, visiting places, gathering data span over different time zone and geography..
University Research are more extensive supported by mathematical models to maintain objectivity and impartiality.
Now you know ,what Cults do not want to know.They are the by product of obsession of previous decades, like cold War era, and dies few decades later with on going evolutions in Social ,political and economic sphere.
Original thinking has to be both self-critical and accepting of criticism, or else it risks being just the sort of contrarianism that hardens into positionality and ossifies into belief, such as drives pseudo-science and conspiracy theories.
So I would guess I would add, if not implicit in openness to critique, that it should also be humble – and, especially, non-egotistical if you want to see it more in a humanistic or spiritual vein.
“The original thinker always clashes with fixed ideas; including their own; especially their own.”
“For the original thinker does not mind being wrong. Acceptance of being wrong is the recognition of more original thought. Finding truth; not being right, is the holy grail of original thought.”
Brian, I wanted to elaborate on a couple of points that I don’t necessarily think are in contradiction. Looking at Hubbard’s Scientology, and the current outbreak of pseudo-science and conspiracy theorizing, I think watching out for lack of humility, and excessive ego involvement, is an important check and balance both for thinkers, and for those considering thoughts others are promoting.
And, I meant to say originally, thanks for your thoughtful contributions.
I agree with all you say. I commented above to you because, in my mind, accepting being wrong is the essence of humility. So I felt that area was addressed.
But hey, we can always wave a happy flag for humility for sure. Humility is probably one of the most important human and spiritual characteristics.
The horrors of the world with blood thirsty egomaniacs certainly exits in the absence of humility.
Thank you for spotlighting this beautiful virtue. We can never get enough of it.
Sharing a link to an essay released this month (Oct. 2021) titled “Truth vs. Reality,” a fine companion to Brian Lambert’s wise words in “Original Thinking”.
https://jeffrey-spencer.medium.com/truth-vs-reality-603a220b9971
Original thinking is like water finding itself trickle where gravity naturally opens up avenues for it.