Speaking of Fred Burks, he has a nice five-minute short of Peter Russell discussing paradigm shifts which deserves mention, especially since we will be faced with so many paradigm shifts in the near future.
Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, one of my favorite books, defined a paradigm as “the accepted theories, values and scientific practices within which a particular field of science operates.”
Kuhn was a history of science teacher who read all the introductory science histories available and noticed that, although one era’s scientific theories were often completely overturned by the next, each era claimed that it had reached the pinnacle of scientific achievenment, the “final” word of scientific truth.
How could they have reached a pinnacle if they were so soon overturned?
Kuhn called this tendency to magnify the science of one era over that of its predecessors “temporocentrism.”
The process by which paradigms shift Kuhn described as:
(1) The existing paradigm encounters an anomaly (an inexplicable observation).
(2) Initially the anomaly is ignored or rejected.
(3) People try to explain the anomaly within the existing paradigm.
(4) A new paradigm is proposed in which the anomaly is resolved.
(5) The establishment rejects the new paradigm, often ridiculing is proponents.
(6) The new paradigm finally gains acceptance as it accounts for new observations.
Arthur Schopenhauer was even more ascerbic about the process of paradigm shifts, observing that “every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized.”
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is opposed.
Third, it is regarded as self-evident.
I have heard Schopenhauer’s remarks cited as a warning to proponents of new paradigms that they will never receive recognition for their work because people will switch from rejecting their paradigm to saying that it was all along perfectly obvious. This tendency has become known as the self-serving bias.
But Max Planck topped even Schopenhauer when he observed that “a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die.”
How very true.
So this is what we can or may expect as we adduce new paradigms – or rather accept more of what the Galactic Federation and Spiritual Hierarchy tell us is the truth – as events connected with 2012 accelerate.
A wise friend of mine once said that we can work miracles if only we do not need to take credit for them ourselves.
The video is at https://personalgrowthcourses.net/video/russell_peter_paradigm_shift2.
Namaste,
Steve