03/15/2026
โฆ ๐ช๐ต๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ต๐ผ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐น๐? โฆ
Around 1920, the Harvard Psychology Department threw out introspection as a reliable tool for studying consciousness. They argued that it was capricious and a risk to the mental health of the subjects. All reports based on introspection were invalidated by the declaration, "People only see what they expect to see." And Harvardโs fail-safe argument was, if you really studied consciousness by introspection, the only thing you would see would be consciousness introspecting on itself. (Existence as an observing spirit was still considered a derangement.)
๐๏ธCopthorn McDonald, a writer and independent scholar, notes that after rejecting introspection, โPsychologists turned almost exclusively to studying behavior, and describing it in terms of stimulus and response. Consciousness was totally bypassed as a subject.โ
1๏ธโฃThere were two principle arguments for rejecting introspection. The first argument was that when looking inward you only see what you expect to see, (anyone who has had a dream in which something unexpected happened, will see that the statement โpeople only see what they expect to seeโ is not true.)
2๏ธโฃThe second argument was that it was capricious and a risk to the mental health of the subjects. (This was probably true for people who lacked self-control and were not trained in how the mind operated, but to generations of meditators, and spiritual seekers, it was just an amusing superstition.)
๐ขThe fact is, nullifying introspection as a reliable source of knowledge about consciousness was a big league, ivy league mistake. It would not be corrected for fifty years.
๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฎ๐๐๐ค๐ก๐ค๐๐๐จ๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐ค๐ช๐ก๐, ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐จ๐๐ค๐ช๐ก๐, ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐ค๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฆ๐ช๐๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ง๐ค๐จ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ ๐จ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ช๐ก๐ ๐ง๐๐จ๐ช๐ก๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐ช๐ง๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐.
But they dropped the ball and went down a different path โ a behaviorist path of rewarded and punished behaviors. Psychology ceased to be about consciousness...
๐กIn the 1960โs, a human potential movement began to grow, and its preferred method of research was looking inward. Their message was a one-hundred-eighty degree flip from the idea that introspection was a risk to mental health. The new message was,๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐ช๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐ค๐ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช๐ง ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐จ๐ฃ๐๐จ๐จ, ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ง, ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ง, ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ช๐๐๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ช๐ก ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐๐๐ค๐ข๐. There were not many people who disagreed with that.
๐ซLooking inward, learning about your own consciousness, is variously called meditation, introspection, or self-examination. Today, notably in the Avatarยฎ Training, there are ๐๐ก๐ช๐๐ฅ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐ข๐๐ฅ๐จ, ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ก๐ก๐จ, ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ข๐๐ ๐ ๐จ๐๐ก๐-๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ค๐ฎ๐๐๐ก๐, ๐๐ฃ๐ก๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐.
๐ ๐๐น๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ท๐ข๐ต๐ข๐ณ ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ข๐ค๐บ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ธ๐ธ.๐ข๐ท๐ข๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ.๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ
โข โข โข โข
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