Eduliberation
The Great Art of Living
By Matthew P. Holbert
Philosophea.com
Contents
A Preface on Children 3
Table 1. (Schema Map of Eduliberation)
The great art of life and living is thus described:
For Children
UNIVIUM (Sensorimotor) 8
Music & Linguistics (Aesthetics)
BIVIUM (Phantasmic Emotional) 13
Fractal Geometry (Vision)
Art (Expression)
*TRIVIUM* (Ego) (Concrete Operational) 19
Ingestion (Grammar)
Digestion (Logic)
Expression (Rhetoric)
*QUADRIVIUM* (Other) (Formal Operational) 21
Number (Math)
Number in Space (Geometry)
Number in Time (Music)
Number in Space and Time (Astronomy)
YOUNG ADULT EDUCATION (Practical/Informal) 26
For Adults
PENTIVIUM(Ego&Other)(Post-FormalOp.) 27
Purification(Therapy)
Consolidation(Study)
Exertion(Application)
Balance(Union)
Play(Causation/Flow)
HEXIVIUM 34
A Preface on Children
THERE really is only one way to change the world when it comes right down to it. As long as we treat children as subhuman, as property, just as this patriarchal paradigm has done with women and slaves, we will not accomplish anything; the cycle of victimization and trauma will continue. The only way to end the perpetual cycle of hurt people hurting other people down the line is to be the parent, guardian, friend, and family member that does not abuse or allow harm to come to children, and this includes institutional harms that can come about through situational forces and cultural norms. As Fredrick Douglas said, “It is easier to build strong children than it is to heal broken men.” In other words, it is better to raise children to be psychologically sound than to simply subject them to cruel or unusual systems of indoctrination, and deal with the abhorrent behavior that they exhibit later on down the road.
Four in five Americans believe it is alright to spank their children. If we are to have a brighter future, with a better world order rooted in individual sovereignty and implied trust, first we need to treat our children the same way we want to be treated by the rest of the world: stop spanking them and start healing them. Perhaps children have been the scapegoat for all of our frustrations about the world, enacting violence upon them for having been acted upon by the world in similarly cruel and obscene ways. Nonetheless, this kind of scapegoating only ensures that the world will continue to be cruel and obscene--because the way the world treats us is only a reflection, ultimately, of the way we treat our most vulnerable members.
Similarly, using the premise of fracticality (the quality of being fractal or subdivided), the big picture is in every one of its parts, we can understand how we treat our children is how the world treats us and how we ultimately treat each other. It all starts with children, and every creature perceived as less than human, receiving less compassion. Children, however, are so impressionable, that when they are treated in certain ways, they then learn to think that this is the way you treat others.
Therefore, if we really want to change the world, and if we really want to see a better society, we must start with how we treat our youth. If you think of yourself as a good person, and despise the condition of the world as it is, you will want to change it, but the conventional methods of fighting against evil and disorder with governments, nonprofits, and organized movements only address the symptoms of a traumatized and victimized population and not the cause. To really heal and and revitalize our society, first we have to look at the cultural norms of how we treat our women and children and do so with a critical, alive eye.
Cultural norms have been at the root of humanity’s disorder since things began. In other words, we have always treated each other poorly, and it is only recently that we have begun to consider that maybe, just maybe, if we treat each other well the world will be a better place. To be sure, we are living in the best of times, because humanity came from a place of misery and barbarism, and it has been a struggle to make baby steps towards common sense levels of decency for certain segments of the population. But there is still much work to be done, even for those segments which we think of as liberated; and if we really want to change the world, the most important segment to consider, the segment which has been largely ignored by western and developed nations, has to be the children.
Indeed, what we are proposing with this chapter is an entirely different cultural narrative which recognizes children as equally protected and equally sovereign beings as adults. If we want people to stop being property of the state, we need children to stop being property of their parents, because the family dynamic directly reflects the governing dynamic. This is not to say that children should be the property of the state, or of themselves, but that human life is not property of anything or anyone whatsoever, that each of us, from birth, are free and born with inalienable rights of life, liberty, non-violence and property among others.
If we really want a better world, it starts with educating our children and people instead of beating them into submission through coercion and compulsion. By integrating humanity, instead of dividing it into various segments to be dominated, we ensure that future populations will not be so foolish as to go to war, plunder the earth senselessly and without forethought, or think it is right to commit violence upon women, children, or defenseless animals for fun.
First Premises
So fundamental to civilization, education could be considered the root of all human endeavor. Where education flourishes, civilization lives long and prospers. However, as C.S. Lewis said, “When training beats education, civilization dies”. The issue at hand is not whether education has been turned into training—because the work of John Taylor Ghatto and Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt has established quite well the history of degeneration—but how we might stop this continuing trend before it’s too late? Today, training has so obviously replaced education that it has become the single greatest problem in our day and age, and such a threat to our safety and happiness cannot be taken lightly—this is our collective future we are talking about: it is our individual and collective responsibility, and duty to demand and create serious improvements and updates in education. Since we no longer have an industrial society as we had in the 20th century, our 19th century education model, much like our antiquated transit systems, is fundamentally outdated and in need of radical upgrade.
Moreover, this threat does not come about innocently, or without intent; our leadership has deliberately dumbed down the populations of America and around the world for over 100 years; due in part to John Dewey's philosophy about industrial, utilitarian education, 'school' has nothing more to do with education than it does with the ecology; it's first cause, result and purpose has been the exacerbation of greed, and the elitist hunger for power reflected in the average person through memes. The acculturation of people to this system has resulted in a gradual decline of education into an economic driver of human resources rather than an engine of enlightenment and true education. This has been shown to be the case via John Taylor Ghatto's, Underground History of American Education and the whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt's, Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, and it represents the complete lack of imagination of our average person and our leadership.
Therefore, we must liberate (or more accurately educate) ourselves and future generations in the interest of evolving education practices towards world-centric, empathy oriented systems; expanding enlightenment, protecting society from the perils of so called progress (another word for corporate sponsored experimentations in collectivism) via the plutocratic government of aristocratic interests: tyranny of the lowest New World Order. For these reasons and more, self-education, or autodidactic education, stands as the greatest threat to the status quo and their interests.
And what are their interests? Clearly it would not be in the best interest of the wealthy elite to be surrounded by an over educated, well rounded public, capable of making their own mind and decisions, and more importantly capable of making their own widgets, or questioning the legitimacy of their debt; for this reason, and with many quotes and historical facts and experience to support the notion, it is in the interest of those aristocrats to see to it that the masses are just smart enough to work the machines or serve fast food, but too stupid to see how badly they are “getting taken advantage of” (or I prefer the vernacular: “getting bent over and fucked in the ass” as this depicts the severity of the relationship clearly and adequately). In plain words, it is in their best interest to enslave the working population as Marx warned. How do they do this? By making us all believe that it can't be done—through propaganda and controlled education—and that we are “sane” or “normal” only if we are in love with our slavery. This may be done without malicious intent, in fact it may well be done sheerly out of the self-interest of those modern despots without their knowing of the overall implications, but I highly doubt the farmer does not know he is going to slaughter his cattle. Nonetheless, the tide of modern ignorance must be turned, and it is through education that we shall turn this planetary prison into a vital playground.
In order to remove the ancient and cyclical influence of aristocracy, which so many republics have suffered in the past, we must instill the influence of world-centric perspectives through providing context. The author will describe in this chapter a miracle of our era of thinking (due in part to the fact that it takes into consideration the whole life, context, and development of the individual): an education schema which actually teaches relevant information from which students will be able to build a contextual understanding of reality, how its various aspects connect and interact in an interdependent world-centric, integral perspective, and one that begins at birth and ends at death.
At present, the model which teaches a series of arbitrary tests claims itself superior and world class because of how “common” it is, due in part to its collectivist agenda—in addition to its intellectual, academic speculations, rooted in opinion rather than science. But if we are to take seriously the process of our organic education, a first premise is that of open-minded skepticism. Therefore, while this idea may or may not appeal to the reader, it is important to understand that these ideas are intended to inspire the readership, and impel us into the discussion of active imagination: planting the seeds of positive creation—against stratification and dehumanization—towards humanization, towards a balance between technology and pre-modern techniques: meditation, and receptivity to the esoteric definition of enlightenment.
To begin with, the cultural roots of our views on education are inevitably an issue which must be understood; before any dialogue or description can be made, this pivotal subject must be intensely considered and inquired upon. (For insights and further inquiry into this subject, we suggest reading the book Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv, and Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.)
The dilemma we face with education seems most often to be a matter of chicken before the egg: is our declining culture a product of a failing education system, or is our failing education system the product of a declining culture? Clearly it was education that brought us out of the dark ages and into the state of enlightenment, and clearly it is the promise of education which has brought us into the information age; but if education is improving, what explains the clear cultural degradation that has taken place between the 19th and 21st century. Perhaps in contrast to common knowledge, as technology increases, dependence upon technology results in lower intelligence; just as specialization has resulted in compartmentalization, perhaps as culture and its effects ossify, maladaptive thinking emerges in the face of chaotic complexity, stifling the process of evolution . Either way, both culture and education act to reinforce one another indefinitely in a perpetual feedback loop: the more we fail in education, the more our culture fails, and the more our culture fails, the more our education will fail—the cycle is perpetual and dismal if we cannot fix our ways of thinking and work our way out of the feedback loop.
Some will say this is a false premise, that either our education is the best it has ever been (according to a highly limited historical understanding), or that our culture is no more in decline than it has ever been, and that we are on a comeback (a perspective brought about largely by cognitive dissonance and media lies). Both of these perspectives have their head firmly planted in the sand, and fail to recognize the empirical context of human intelligence and thought throughout history, as well as its overall potential.
The fact is that, while people are exposed to more information than ever, they are rarely if ever given a comprehensive context to go with it. The cause of this lack of context is simple: control. The more detached and alienated someone is, the more manipulable they are; and for this reason people have been divided and (though subtly) enslaved to such specious notions as central banks taxing them, class powers lording over them, racial and sexual differences dividing them, and many other conflicts described in the previous chapter. The desired effect of this lack of context is compartmentalization, because people who are compartmentalized are better at specialization, but simultaneously they are less capable of critical thinking. Critical thinking can be, and often is, a hindrance to the assembly line and all that it stands for, which is why we need it so desperately in our time.
Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between our culture and our education system, and consider that relationship as we move forward; building on the need for context, we can begin changing how we think of educational systems, and the cultural mode of modern life. Our first priority is to create an educational system which is comprehensive, world centric, and holistic in its approach, having the entire spectrum of human development in mind. To do this work, and make this change in our time, our preconceived notions must be laid down and let go of as we enter a new and exotic territory. By doing so, we leave room to heal from the mental wounds of limiting cultures and ideologies, and make progress within ourselves towards higher consciousness in our own lives, and by example we leave room for our posterity to do the same.
So to begin with, forget everything they told you in school! Forget everything that you have seen on television; forget, as well, everything your parents told you. As we proceed, the reader and the speaker must be on the same page of understanding (that is under-standing, to stand under the structure of our systems, seeing the hidden workings of that system, and gaining true, unfiltered knowledge about that subject). By humbling ourselves to a state of admitted ignorance or exploratory agnosticism, and by relaxing the ego (a function of the accumulated knowledge about oneself and the world), we may have the optimal conditions for learning: Open-minded skepticism.
(It should also be pointed out that, because the United States has the legacy of trendsetter since the revolution in 1776, we will be focusing our discussion upon that system and culture throughout the next few chapters; our hope is that, with enough awareness and dissent, the paradigm may be changed in the United States, altered into a more perfect state which reflects natural humanity, rather than a synthetic human nature imposed upon them by a tyrannical central government.)
Invoking The Phoenix
With our awareness guiding us, and our ego out of the picture (under control, not eliminated in any way) we can begin to change our lives by changing perspectives, and by changing our perspectives we can then see a change in our choices, choices which impact the lives of others—directly or indirectly. Therefore, changing our lives and the lives of others is as simple as changing the first premises and fundamental ways of being that our conventions convey to us, and our governments try to convince us is normal: learning new, becoming new.
In Greece, the term Paideia was used to mean a form of education, where the student, having been through the program, would fundamentally be changed by his learning; the change would often be so great that the neophyte which existed prior to that learned knowledge would no longer exist as he was, and was instantly replaced (in spirit) with the more wise version of himself. In this sense, Paideia represents a death and rebirth—much like the phoenix of legend. To embrace the everlasting phoenix of death and rebirth in a spiral of developing consciousness, the highest quality of an emancipated mind must be educed through the art of life: education.
Our education paradigm begins with the invocation of the power of the phoenix, and embrace of the concept of Paideia (death through rebirth). It is necessary to understand that it will not take effort per se, but a calm and steady mindset, empty of the erroneous and second-hand notions of the past to internalize this principle.
Having said this, it is the advice of the speaker that the reader calm their mind, take a breath or two, and reach a state of relaxation before proceeding: The nature of the following subject is not be taken with a grain of salt. Education derives from the ancient Greek educo, meaning to bring up or draw out—to draw out the inner talents and abilities of the neophyte. To properly draw out the best in someone, it is necessary first to learn how best to ingest and digest information.
Because education is so vital, the need for common understanding is vital, and for this reason the art of listening is most vital. Listening is most fundamental to learning, and to be a good listener, I must not be, but only presence; attention must be the only presence, therefore, the ego must not be present, that is dominant, in the psyche of the student. Listening requires no-self, and in being and not being, we see more clearly without a filter; it is after we listen that we can then digest information, discern whether it is true or not, and turn what we have learned through intuition, rational thought, and contemplation into an applicable expression of rhetoric. Of course the ego is necessary in this process, but if we allow ego to dominate this process, the entire effort is for naught.
Therefore, it is important to understand that what we know, and the power of our knowledge and understanding is limited in correspondence to our inner lexicon—our inner dictionary which tells us what to say and what we can say (grammar); we are limited in our power to express effectively (rhetoric) and inner processing authority (logic) in the degree to which we are limited in our vocabulary. In ancient times, the best way to create an inner lexicon was the classical liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium. The Quadrivium, a creation of Pythagoras, and the Trivium, a creation of Aristotle, represent the classical model of education, and their model has been proven through history to liberate those who study their subjects.
However, what classical models may be seriously lacking is an education schema that corresponds with infancy or early childhood, as well as later adulthood. Only through shedding light on and considering factual information which we have learned through modern scientific research, as well as wisdom we have gained through centuries of trial and error, could we possibly imagine taking education seriously: What would education look like? How would it correspond to our individual lives? And what are the cultural and universal implications? Answers to these questions and more follow below.
Chapter I. Univium: Infant Education
In describing a new approach to life, a process which we call the great art of living, our approach must be comprehensive, and consequentially must begin pre-conception—following through to conception, birth, and then infancy. Because life starts at the intersection of two adults of the opposite sex through sexual intercourse (as we know it in the beginning of the 21st century), it is important to first acknowledged the immense importance adults play in creating the future population. To address this reality we will explore an adult education called the Pentivium below, but for now it will suffice to explore the merits of infant education through the Univium, but in order to do so, the existence of adult life, and therefore the Pentivium is integral.
Such a world starts with birth, and with birth starts the process of education, both for the parents and the new life. An infant brain is far more malleable than an adult brain, a phenomena known as neural plasticity (Huttenlocher 2009). Therefore, it stands to reason that we should start linguistic and numerical education at that early stage through lingual nannies and classical or complex cultural music, in addition to whatever environments the parents create for themselves and their children. The factor of home environments makes the Pentivium and parenting that much more important and integral to the formative years of the Univium.
Starting with two conscious adults at stage three of the Pentivium, that of exertion, they may begin to engage in sexual intercourse with the intent of making a life, of incarnating consciousness, what the author calls making love (because life and consciousness are manifestations of and conduits for love, which is the generative force countering entropy). It is, therefore, the mission of these neophytes and parents to devote their lives to aiding that life to be far greater than the sum of their parts—that is Love that child—and a new generation emerges, influenced by an emerging culture of love and co-creation.
This love, in a society which revolves around education, community, permaculture, and information, has no boundary; in this alternative paradigm we are exploring together, industry and economy have been localized and decentralized along with the power of governments worldwide (for this is the only way such a form of education—or paradigm in general—could exist). By reducing the parasitic forces worldwide, and replacing them with meritocratic systems of democracy, a far more viable order to the human will shall reduce the reliance upon governments and their corporations for survival, thus freeing up the psychic energy of people, from worrying about paying bills to involving their energies into rearing their ken, and developing themselves.
Before conception, and after into gestation, it is crucial to recognize the importance of epigenetics (i.e. The idea is that our environment affects our gene makeup, and so our genes are transferred over to our children with certain genotypes and phenotypes that pertain to our parents and their parents and so on, emphasizing healthy diet and stress response levels) and this is especially important in respect to females because they transfer the most viable genetic information. However, because our environment has a direct impact on our genetics as we live, and before we have children, it is important to recognize that if we change our environment, we also change the genetic environment of our infants and children to be. By taking their environment into consideration by taking our environment into consideration, we can now begin to inform ourselves as to the best approach for enhancing their early lives and our lives significantly.
The first and most real step for us to take, is stepping back from the economic world we live in, and recognizing economic reality: rooted in ecology, prudence, and conservation, wherein the people are driven to improve the environment, to live and thrive, to husband the earth, and to act and produce free of debt—rather than to feed a market of industries hell bent on progress traps and resource exploitation. With this in mind, a child's gestation truly starts with their parents’ proper diet and homeostasis both mentally and physically. To lower stress levels and increase nutrient levels in both sexes, we merge permaculture principles with a basic income system, first deriving from taxing corporations, ending foreign war, and taxing speculation as well as land rent, complemented by an incentives based luxury system which we will explore later in chapter 3. However, the phase we have just described is somewhat of an intermediary, or overlapping phase of the Univum, a genesis point that must be covered, because in order to describe the process of life, context is essential.
The Univium is primarily an aesthetic, a chosen pattern to life which permanently alters its meaning and context. To go from a primarily industrial to a primarily information-based society means to improve upon the environment while boosting connectivity and interactivity, dissolving the boundaries which define the previous model, and improving technology to work beyond fossil fuels; integrating the best and most of all previous attempts, yet going beyond them into a fractal holographic landscape that transcends the box, and demystifies the forest. By demystify, the author means to make regular so that it is everywhere, including in one's heart, therefore to demystify the forest, one must cultivate the world so that everywhere is the forest; consequentially to demystify god in this way, we must first begin at the birth of every Christ that ever lived, and ever shall be—by changing our immediate environment.
The environment created through practice of the Univium, while the parents are neophytes of the Pentivium will look much like having a nanny who speaks Spanish cradle them for two to three hours a day; exposing the infant to complex music like classical (or intelligent dance music, e.g. Shpongle, Marconi Union, et al); and exposing them to geometric shapes such as fractals, platonic solids, and pictures of life, matter, and the universe. The purpose is not to directly teach them anything, but rather to allow the aesthetic to do the job better than any human teacher ever could.
In this stage, it is important to recognize infants are rooted in the Sensorimotor stage of their conscious development. Because the infant is incapable of distinguishing the inside from the outside, their environment and temperament in this beginning phase is highly important to their development later on. For this reason the parents at this stage are immensely important, and so is the cultural environment in which they will find meaning.
As two students, through sexual unity, produce a new student of Life, so too the infant hemispheres of the brain begin to develop and out of that union slowly begins to grow a new student of mind; the infant's growing qualia (ie. their sentient consciousness, or identity as a person) constitutes a new culture. With every generation, a new revolution of thought is possible, all it takes is the previous generation committing to such a trying endeavor. However, all that is truly trying is the present paradigm itself, and the debt attached to everything within it, to commit to the author’s alternative paradigm means to turn your back on all that previous mess, and approach sanity, peacefulness, and playfulness. Doing so, we approach a new possibility, a new life—a brighter future.
In accordance with this new life, this new student of life will begin at home, or at a midwifery center, in which the infants will be birthed with care. The greatest gift midwives can give to early life is care during birth—hospitals do not bring care to birth, all they bring is harsh sterility. Doing so, we ensure the first moments of a baby's life are calm, and inviting, rather than intensely traumatic. The closer to nature we can get with regards to the aesthetic and not the reality of nature, the better it is for our children's early life experiences, which have been shown, countless times and thus established in developmental psychology, to impact them later on; the further we get from nature, and the closer we get to the scientific, synthetic process of birth, the more traumatic it is for our prehistoric brains, tuned to the frequency of the forest, not the bright, sterile office that is hospital space.
Further, it is important that mothers be in a positive relationship with not only their midwives, but also their lingual nannies. What could be more important than really knowing the people who are involved in handling and educating your children? Creating the kind of community, upon which all of education rests is vital to a thriving civilization, and as the saying goes: it takes a village. The reason that is even a saying tells us it is a collectively agreed upon sound logic that indeed a village, or a variety of integrated individuals living in community is an optimal condition for educating children. They and we can learn from everyone around us, the whole world becomes a source of learning, and the boundaries of the education facility dissolve into an interactive and permacultural environment.
As we all know, infants and young children learn faster and better than their adult counterparts. However, maybe this is not true, maybe we have just been going about education the wrong way, perhaps our approach to education is what stifles the majority of us, and perhaps this is the only difference between geniuses and the rest of us: they just never lose their curiosity through indoctrination. According to new research in neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, the brain is constantly changing, but especially in bilinguals (Gaser and Schlaug 2003), and musicians (Mechelli et al., 2004, Wan and Schlaug 2013)
The Univium is the first stage of a developmental process of learning, developed by the present author, using the stages of cognitive development (Piaget 1990) to guide the process of education, is an untested, but scientifically verifiable concept. In a nutshell, the process begins at six months after birth at the latest (Kuhl, Williams, Lacerda, Stevens, Lindblom 1992), with a new language provided by a nanny who speaks a second language (a service provided free to the public). In the United States, this second language daycare service would be particularly available, and would grant any society that is culturally diverse an advantage (Kuhl et al 2003).
Learning the ins and outs of community life, a vital realization comes to the fore: people in community quickly become like family. But more to the point, our family does not end at the nuclear, blood ties, but branches outward—beyond the tribes, nations, religions and whatever boundaries we may create—towards the stars. If we can allow ourselves to go there, a boundless world exists, in which our unity creates a planet in homeostasis: Gaia, the planetary organism, mothership earth, &c. Learning about the ways in which we are all diverse but connected, rather than the ways in which we are all different and separate, could have no other outcome than greater compassion and willingness to cooperate rather than compete for resources.
Imagine a world that took education seriously, that put education, and not politics or economics at the top of its priorities; imagine a world that put ecology before economy, and which took the duty of stewardship seriously; and finally, imagine a world that took its process of assembly seriously, and did not have a media which bombarded its audience with mindless entertainments: beer and circuses, bread and football. Allow yourself a moment to seriously imagine such a world, what growing up in that world would mean to you, and how everything would be structured.
When the children are placed in the care of their linguistic nanny, they are being taken care of by a person who speaks another language than the parents, and who has been given a background check by and registered with a local initiative created to provide this service. But more importantly, the nanny is someone who the parents have a relationship with and respect for. Depending upon the location and design of the operation, this kind of education could be provided at one's home, or at the nanny's home, or at a facility designed to house that service—maybe all three, the point is the parents are in good relationship with the nanny or nannies they send their child to. The point of this service is to focus on stimulating the linguistic centers of the brain while they are the most receptive (or sponge-like). Making sure the infant is exposed also to complex music while they are being spoken to could be of equal importance in the promotion of neuroplasticity, particularly songs like Weightless by Marconi Union, known for its relaxing tones, or classical songs that are soft in tone.
Furthermore, those individuals providing the service would be considered members of the education system, and would be paid well for their service—and what women (particularly older) would not want to cradle a baby and speak to it for extended periods of time—and get paid to do so? Certainly there will be no shortage of applicants for this occupation. This kind of occupation serves another purpose, however, which is to make an otherwise criticized and belittled demographic of the population (minorities and aliens as we call them) an integral aspect of our society, and of civilization, giving them both a reason to be respected and to have a meaningful purpose in our community (I am thinking of the Spanish speaking population when I say this, but the opportunity should not be limited to any one language or demographic). Moreover, a hidden, but equally beneficial aspect of this service is that of multiculturalism—extending the empathic bonds beyond the restrictive nuclear family unit which resembles the tribe or kingdom in microcosm.
For this reason, the aesthetic here chosen is one that drowns out the exterior world, leaving us with the caring voice of the nanny and the infant's growing neuronal connections in both left and right hemispheres. By having a regular sensory experience in a language other than the cultural language where the baby is from, she or he may learn a second language effortlessly through love; and similarly, complex music develops the structure-oriented centers of the brain and has the potential of unlocking a key in neural-plasticity: synergy, a function of the brains fractal structure which allows us to have a more educable and flexible mind throughout life. By starting life with such an aesthetic experience, we are increasing the likelihood of neural plasticity occurring in infancy by a synergy of environmental factors—in response to an infant’s expressions of internal feeling; and by gradually increasing and diversifying the level of stimulus to coincide with the students aptitude and willingness to learn, a student may well retain that neural plasticity for their entire life, being what we would call a genius today.
Moreover, as a child grows, so too does the intensity of the stimulus they are to receive, according to what will best encourage their “flow” (Csíkszentmihályi 1996). Accordingly, at infancy the children will be stimulated by classical, as well as cultural music and eventually, geometric shapes. The means by which this stimulus is carried out may vary, but for children above the age of six or seven years of age, time tested methods could include the seven classical liberal arts: grammar, logic, rhetoric, math, geometry, music, and astronomy. And were we to refine these arts, refining these subjects with the razor's edge of what we now know about reality (i.e. physics, chemistry, psychology, ecology, and so forth) a new renaissance may be the result.
Chapter II. Bivium: Early Childhood Education
Starting at an average age of three years, the Bivium (early education) would constitute a gradual intensification of the stimulus regarding fractals and art. As this stage begins to intensify, learning must depend less on the environment created by parents and teachers, as the young begin to create their own environments: from an intrinsic desire to learn, and from the community itself.
As the young are exposed to fractals over the course of three years, they will begin to understand how things interconnect, simply by recognizing the patterns apparent in living systems and the cosmos. At this phantasmic, emotional stage, the young are less likely to absorb concrete information as in later stages, but their emotional and intuitive perspectives, though not post-rational, do evince a kind of innocence which resembles post-rational thinking, and it is this impulsiveness and irrationality which will fuel their art and expression at this early age. Other methods of promoting emotional intelligence, such as induction, must need be employed as well, in order to balance the intellectual forces which will inevitably surround them.
Just as the Univium has bisecting aspects in regards to the Pentivium, through adults and infants, so too the Bivium has intersecting aspects in the Trivium, Quadrivium, and Pentivium. Because all of these are gradually encountered, as their facilitated stimulus increases, they are all related to the initial core experiences which are established in the Bivium stage—lasting from three to five years old, but interacting and integral to the process of human development as a whole—but also from the perspective of a parent engaged in the Pentivium.
Parents of two-to-three year-old children need to be playing a more dominant role in modeling a good example, and less that of a an authority, because the sovereigns of the future must know no authority, nor corporal punishment; being both unnecessary, cruel and unusual in a society which is designed to cultivate discipline through self-control and self-mastery. This is by no means a way of pussifying them, so to speak; but to teach them principles of non-aggression, to guide them in ways of consciousness expansion, and create an interior environment which is constantly expanding and transcending, a parent must be less a tyrant and more of a teacher. Guided by their own intuition, the exterior environment would be altered selectively to fit the most engaging activities for the child, other than specific subjects like grammar or arithmetic. Further, to grow the child's emotional intelligence, which is of vital importance, parents in the Pentivuim will be encouraged, while performing mindfulness meditation, to allow their children to participate by watching or meditating.
Imagine that these rigid lessons are merely a means to instill the knowledge of the world, in a sense to domesticate the student, but in no way to break or stifle their curiosity; doing so, students will benefit from worldly knowledge early on, so they can learn to demystify such knowledge later on. Indeed depending upon a child's level of development and self-determination, she or he may want to simply be home schooled; and public school, fundamentally, must be a choice on the part of the parents and the students. However, the point of having free public education is to ensure universal access to knowledge.
In order to perpetuate the child's innate curiosity, however, unstructured play in nature for forty-five minutes each day for recess must be a universal characteristic of Eduliberation. Studies have shown that doing so is integral towards a child's growth and development of self-efficacy, and the book Last Child in the Woods (2005) by Richard Louv makes this point clear. (However, for more information on unstructured play in nature Google: An Investigation of Unstructured Play in Nature and its Effect on Children’s Self-Efficacy (Paul E. Starling)).
To merely play in nature each day would limit the potential of our prospective students. For that reason, several recesses throughout the day—consisting of practical but fun activities such as: art, meditation, martial arts, gardening, unstructured music, yoga, dance, and so forth--could act to replace many of the trivial activities children are put through in early age: PE, sports activities, and so on.
One might ask, how will we be able to fit all of these kinds of activities into one day? By having one primary subject per day, broken up by several recesses of this sort, we can do what the speaker has described. Further, when the students have one subject and one teacher for the entire day, their focus has not been divided and thrown about like a ragdoll as in the current paradigm; and by having several practical recesses, the children’s jovial love for life can be indulged while instilling discipline and a sense of purpose and self-confidence. This could also prepare the students for having workdays which are every other day, as we will discuss later in chapter 3.
The schema of public education goes thus: One subject for a term lasting from four to six months; that one subject starting with grammar is to be broken up by four to five recesses, including a breakfast and lunch. Students can choose their recesses at will, but be encouraged to engage in all of them over the course of the term; these recesses would include meditation, unstructured play in nature, gardening, music, art, yoga, and martial arts.
Continuity is of the greatest importance, however, so if the student chooses to continue their recess they will be given the prerogative to do so, but only in a reasonable manner (five minutes or so). If a child is acting childishly, and wants only to goof off demonstrably, they will be allowed to play in nature in order to expend that extra energy in the way that they prefer, but when they settle down they will be guided back to the classroom; but if a child is deep in meditation, or has shown an adept ability in whatever recess they are engaged in, they may be allowed to follow their flow instead of the flow of the mass. This is only right, and constitutes a dramatic shift from bureaucratic structuralism to a more balanced system of meritocratic orientation and individual sovereignty.
Additionally, it is the author’s opinion that the use of a child psychologist in this early process, for the purpose of mediation between teacher and student, would be invaluable to developing the mind of the child. In the Univium, focus was upon the brain, and now we gradually transition into developing the heart, in preparation for developing the mind during the process of the Trivium and Quadrivium.
Understand also that though childhood education is primarily focused on developing the mind, it is still constrained by the limitations of a still underdeveloped brain. It is at this stage between infancy and adolescence that the student must be engaged at all levels: physical stimulus interaction with the brain (by proper diet and exercise) and interpretive interaction with the mind (by addressing children with respect—as though they are adults—rather than disregarding them because they are not as experienced as an adult). [This is not to say that we should curse at, and expect adulthood out of, children.]
Not treating children as adults is a mistake. First, because the child will not grow to learn what being an adult means if all she or he knows is being treated as a child; without a sense of maturity, and without a sense of mutual respect a child will likely grow to be both dependent and fearful of authority figures, resulting in either pitiful attempts to rebel, or still more pitiful conformity to the majority. Also, because the child will develop without a sense of mutual respect, she or he will not likely mature as quickly as a child who has had respect, unconditional positive regard and understanding. With this practice in place, emotional intelligence is conveyed through example.
Thus alludes to a most important subject in childhood education, and that is a child’s sense of love. Some would say you cannot educate someone how to love, and that it is not possible for a teacher to make every student love them, but that is not what is being expressed here. Rather, by showing unconditional positive regard for the students, the teacher, along with a child psychologist to accompany the teacher in this journey, will act to cultivate a reciprocal response from the child, thus developing the sense of love which is so imperative in all times and in all regions of the world—for love speaks all languages.
The cultivation of love and positive regard towards others is a safeguard against moral insanity (i.e. prevents and safeguards society against psychopathy). The educational process, as a practical force, is a microcosmic representation of a macrocosmic society—that is, schools are like a little society. By reducing the overall tendency towards psychopathy in children in a microcosm, the tendency for psychopaths to dominate is equally reduced in adults in a macrocosm, the effect is a more secure society, a more happy society, and a more natural best fit to the praxis of a developing civilization.
More important than the actual subjects of the Trivium will be the three-quarters to an hour-long recesses which will make education not only easier to digest, but fun for the students to learn in general. By having practical recesses that do not resemble the more tedious subjects (such as grammar), learning can be as various and comprehensive as it can be without stress or overexertion into one single direction; in other words, we are promoting Flow, or completely focused motivation (more commonly known as being in the zone).
Having recesses that educate the students is another way to enhance the educational experience, as well as a way to employ more people in education, creating the village we were talking about earlier. Each recess facilitator will be bringing their expertise as a contributing member of the society in which they live: gardeners, chefs, martial artists, &c. In contributing to the education system, and as gardeners, chefs, and martial arts teachers , they are reciprocated for, in and of the education system by the community..
With recesses like gardening, culinary art, and martial arts, education can begin to subtly teach discipline, as well as self-control and other life skills. Other eastern practices, such as meditation, yoga, and acupuncture could easily replace many of the classes which currently serve as physical education today. However, agriculture and unstructured play in nature could improve student’s willingness to explore and appreciate the ecology and the world, and give a hands-on approach to learning, and be a resource for foodstuffs in the cafeteria. The possibilities are endless when recesses are redefined and reapplied as education.
Chapter III. Trivium: Childhood Education
Childhood education (average age 5-6) will begin with grammar; taught in multiple languages, one language per day--where at first students will be exposed to two languages, and gradually work their way up to three and four; this method of linguistic education uses the already existing neural plasticity of the developing brain, and its capacity for learning new languages as a tool for enhancing its success. This subject will utilize what the children have already learned subconsciously through the Univium and Bivium (essentially how to think, and not what) including but not limited to linguistics and mathematics, as a steppingstone for more involved learning as the Trivium progresses to logic and rhetoric. Having one language, and subject per day, will ensure memory consolidation through continuity. The point of this kind of education is internalization and understanding through concentrated effort by the teacher, something that can only be achieved without the time constraints of a scheduled curriculum.
By having one subject per day, the necessary time can be spent in devotion to that subject; with just one additional language to start, a constant rhythm of learning one language and then the other, and then another can begin— so we will learn something in English on Monday, then learn the same thing in Spanish on Tuesday, and return to English for a new lesson on Wednesday. By having alternating subjects every other day, we may bypass the tendency to fall into familiar routines; this will become more important as the intelligence and efficacy of the students develops. In this way, not only will students be more challenged, but they will be less bored with the subjects they are learning.
Not only will a first grade teacher observe and guide the classroom, but a child psychologist, teacher’s aides, and student aides will assist the teacher and the student to clarify points, and act as a catalyst for communication and mutual understanding in the classroom. The child psychologist’s role will also be to recognize and address the needs of children who have special needs, learning challenges, or are in the autistic spectrum.
In combination, the education of the student and the internalization of the information being taught is more effectively secured—this way—than in the traditional model of one teacher per class. Individuals in the classroom itself are more capable of determining the direction of future courses—rather than a bureaucratic, top down approach as we see today. Many teachers and textbooks on learning (for instance Motivating Students to Learn by Jere Brophy, 2010) will say that other than changing the system entirely, the way we teach is restricted, and that because optimal conditions are “difficult to establish in classrooms,” teachers should be more disposed to work with what they are given than to reinvent the wheel. Indeed, because of the limitations inherent in the current education paradigm, it is our obligation to future generations to remove the factors which limit our ability to educate effectively. With more aides, such as teacher aides (i.e. adult students learning to become a teacher), student aides (young adult students with an interest in teaching), and a community oriented environment where parents are encouraged to spend their extra time to help educate—and be educated—those old limitations of compulsory curriculum, depressing student to teacher ratios (20-1 or 30-1), public embarrassment, and finally grading systems, can be redesigned, reduced, or removed; more children will be willing to learn, and encouraged to grow along their own best path, rather than what the current, conventional society's economy wants them to be.
Grammar will be taught according to the Trivium. This lesson will be the only subject of the first grade classes; with every graduation an additional subject will be introduced. However, the first year of education in grammar will be taught multilingually as a foundation for the later study of logic, as we will discuss next.
Both logic and grammar will be taught once students are prepared, and both the psychologist and the teacher will evaluate the preparedness of each student individually, as well as make a family assessment to determine the best method of teaching. Once a student has mastered grammar they will graduate to logic. However, both subjects will alternate throughout the week in one subject per-day intervals, gradually reducing emphasis on grammar as it is mastered, and focusing on logic until it is also mastered. Once a student has mastered logic, a third subject will be added in tandem to grammar and logic.
Rhetoric will be taught in order for students to functionally express themselves to others. The art of communicating ideas, rhetoric, in this stage of education, is fundamental to the process of a student’s ability to think critically; and further, to be able to recognize logical fallacies as well as being able to decipher the world around them, both logic and rhetoric are essential. By being educated in the Trivium and Quadrivium alone the advantages are great for an individual to develop critically. And as younger generations are educated in critical thought—the better prepared they will be to encounter their world, and in proportion to how complex the world will become in the future.
Once a generation of children has been educated in the Trivium, they will reflect the values and intensity of mind which was revered in the enlightenment era, both in intelligence and virtue. However, once a child has developed past the stage of Trivium education, not only will they have matured past the trivial qualities of a map such as language, but they will have graduated from understanding and mastering the ego to understanding and mastering the other: from the fundamental to the instrumental. Adolescence is the next stage in a child’s physiological development (ages six for females and ten for males), and the beginning of a new curriculum, and a new stage of their growth as individuals, from fundamental to instrumental, their progression will be gradual but undeniable.
Chapter IV. Quadrivium: Adolescent Education
A gradual increase of what would be an otherwise ever-present, quintessential aspect of life (geometry), will come greatly into focus through education in the Quadrivium at the age of about ten through fourteen. Improved by what we know about the universe since the Quadrivium was first created. We have an opportunity to bring this classical education schema up to date, exposing our adolescents to the razor's edge of knowledge much earlier, both through video and video games, and through hands on experience; rather than waste time, we can initiate adolescents into an understanding of the immensity and complexity of the universe at an early age.
In accordance with this advancement of vital contextual information (grammar, logic, rhetoric, math, geometry, music, astronomy), late in the Quadrivium, students will be additionally introduced to the hermetic principles: mentality, polarity, rhythm, vibration, correspondence, gender, and causality. An immense vista of contextual learning will be encountered in this four year span, but all with the gradualness and wiggle room that a level one civilization requires of its education, where individuals are recognized as sovereign. In other words, time can be taken to address the abilities and needs of every student due to a less structured and more malleable method of educating.
Towards the very end of the Quadrivium, less and less the responsibility of learning will be placed upon the student, and less and less upon the teacher. The final two terms will be the stages that acclimatize the students to this trend. However, as the intensity of the subjects increase, so too does the intensity and complexity of the recesses. The recesses of the Quadrivium would consist of the same general subjects, but in more depth and intensity: from gardening to farming to hydroponics, from art to design to architecture, from culinary art to health, from meditation to martial arts to acupuncture, from music to composition to theory, from physics to electronics to engineering; all of the prospective recesses evolve to become more practical.
It is at this point that a turning point occurs in the education of youth, namely that the primary subject becomes less “practical” or terrestrial and more conceptual and extraterrestrial; presented in such a way—the incredible beauty and immensity of the universe being exposed to them— the study of the Quadrivium and all that it implies will become their primary subject, and would take the place of the subject most anticipated, naturally because we are all born curious about the nature of reality; simultaneously, the recesses become less impractical and more practical as the students near young adulthood.
At the stage of young adulthood, from 14 through 18 years old, the students will be given free rein to study whatever interests them. Teachers, more like librarians, would act as facilitators to their learning, rather than authorities. Given the authority over their own lives that is granted to adults, a mutual respect can be developed between the student and their learning process, so that a constant desire to learn may also be developed. Without the constraints of a Prussian model, the single file framework of antiquated education can be done away with finally, leaving only the most essential element of lasting intelligence: a willingness to learn.
Once a student has been through the Quadrivium, they no longer face a structured education program, but rather face a vast world of information, all of which is placed at their fingertips. Homeschooling, but with a twist: the home is without boundary, and the schooling is entirely autodidactic. Nonetheless, centers for autodidactic learning, as well as education in technical fields such as engineering, acupuncture, architecture, hydroponics, theory and so on. The point of young adult education would be to make the student self-sufficient, capable of independence, and appreciative of what that entails.
To graduate, every student must go through three of the five subjects, where drivers education, included in engineering, is a mandatory subject for all. At least to begin with, drivers education should be taken as an important subject, but when cars become driverless, this subject shall become irrelevant. Nevertheless, while it is a relevant subject today, driver's’ education is a subject worth mentioning. As a graduation requirement, this aspect of education is integral in keeping average students involved in education: in order to get their license and drive with maturity after graduation they will have to pass from this course.
In addition to practical courses, students will be encouraged to find a particular subject of interest, and devote their time to studying that particular thing of interest. Because learning has no boundaries, and education no location in space or time, it is important to understand that, unlike formal education as we know it, where we have class at school and homework at home, the pattern may be reversed, and even done away with entirely by simply having autodidactic homework for academic information, and an edifice devoted to practical, technical information, which also comes from both the parents and the community.
As we transition from the Quadrivium to early adult education, the subject matter becomes more about creating an empowered individual on an existential, physical, objective basis, but even this is not sufficient to produce individuals possessing self-mastery. To know thy self, one must experience the world, and explore their individual consciousness. As the young adult becomes an adult, graduating from formal education into a state of becoming and intense learning, the Pentivium becomes the next holy mountain to climb.
To prepare students for the Pentivium, they will have been educated in all of the world’s religions during the latter years of the Quadrivium, and early parts of young adulthood (the age of reason). World religions and world philosophies will be exposed to them through video documentaries and reading source materials for themselves. If, for no other purpose, this practice would bring a more world-centric view of culture, and at the very best this will cultivate a sense of unity between all religions and cultures, and will ensure that the future is more peaceful, compassionate, and understanding than in our primitive past.
Chapter V. Asperger Syndrome and the Merits of Childhood Psychologists in the Classroom.
It has come to my attention while writing this section on education that I have not devoted enough of my attention to the comprehensive view of education, for instance the subject of special needs comes to mind. As the coming evolution of consciousness changes the narrative from selfishness to empathy, the subject of the less capable bears more relevance.
Dealing with reality means addressing the entire spectrum of human life, individually. For this reason, a flexible, tailored, individualized system of education can take shape, and with it the foundations of a level one civilization. Having child psychologists in the classroom increases the potency of the abilities of the teacher, teacher's aides, and student aides, to educe the innate talents and abilities of individual students, and recognize special needs students early on (above or below average or on the autistic spectrum, along with other “disorders” which characterize modern civilization).
A more intense first language program would naturally be applied to those on the autistic spectrum in the early years—and emphasis on that language resurfacing as needed. The goal of language education for special needs students must naturally be a more gradual and consistent program as compared to the average neurotypical student’s curriculum. Nonetheless an intensive and gradual increase in the complexity of the stimulus is essential for neural plasticity and connectivity, even promoting what science has called neurogenesis (Ming and Song, 2011).
By separating other needs children from the average students during their primary lesson, but allowing them to participate in the recesses, ensures that they will get attention though not at the expense of the lesson, while also socializing them and preparing them for the real world. Doing so also allows the average neurotypical students to have time to interact with the more fragile minded children, allowing them an unstructured place to interact and bond.
As we have stated above, focusing on discipline early allows us to educate without a rigid curriculum, the education of children and adolescence can be individualized, tailored to their every need, rather than their need conforming to the will of the crowd, or the authority of the teacher. Too many lives have been impeded by this very fact than we would ever admit. Without authoritarianism, culture and community flourish, just as without bureaucracy and paperwork happiness and the desire for liberty increases. Education, without a rigid curriculum based on an academic speculation, is better for everyone, whereas school, with its rigid curriculum based on flawed science, corrupted by an economic agenda, has produced worlds of poverty, and a universe of ignorance.
Replacing the rigid authority of the teacher with a council of wise individuals produces a sense of equality, friendship, and reveals the skills of conflict resolution, innately—just by observing these skills in adults in the room, students will, perhaps unconsciously, recognize and apply them. By being disciplined from an early age and encouraging the students to speak their mind while respecting the time to speak and when not to speak, an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect can grow into legitimate relationships of authentic purpose. Moreover, this may enhance the ability to socialize children with Asperger Syndrome, especially when a child psychologist, or other psychologist is there to mediate and aid in the process.
To aid in this process, the children of like mind will have been differentiated and educated in a cohort style since early childhood, normalizing them to abnormal consciousness gives the necessary experience to recognize mental divergence or cognitive deficiency, increasing the boundaries of one's own self-identification and worldly understanding. However, by adolescence their talents and abilities will have been differentiated to the point where their teachers would be of varying importance to their learning from dependent to semi-dependent to independent. However, students with Asperger Syndrome (AS), and those on the autistic spectrum—or those with so called learning disabilities—would be in their own way differentiated on a spectrum of stimulus and socialization, with their primary focus being on boosting the neural plasticity, and practical life functionality of the individual: again, depending upon the severity and particularities which have differentiated them along a spectrum that is being formulated as we speak by countless professionals, all thanks to the antiquated Prussian model.
Nonetheless, the motivation to live and evolve impels us toward a brighter future: a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. To not be content with things as they are, and to move forwards into the darkness of the unknown, to step out into the world of becoming and be sacrificed upon the altar of experimentation and intuition, to test the fates and transform from a measly worm into a butterfly! This we can accomplish, and greater things: the products of a level one civilization; with all life cherished and cultivated with the most and best means possible of educating them, no thing is impossible, including lifting the symptoms of AS, making the lives of those with autism as stimulating as possible, yet as relaxing as possible.
To turn the disability into ability, we must first address the immediate culture of our minds, and process the fact that we are destroying life itself, we are killing ourselves in an indirect way when we allow psychopathic behavior to go unnoticed or just not addressing it, which is the same thing as being guilty of the crime yourself. For this reason, child psychologists in the classroom are also important for not only the classroom, but for society. The point would not be to punish the more psychopathic children, but to give them the appropriate therapy or alternative living environments they need to become sane again. The same would apply to children with mental disorders and mental illness: they would receive special care, and be put into environments that are therapeutic. A more tailored and case specific regimen makes sense for a smaller cohort of children in all cases. No less human, and therefore no less important in the planetary context, the treatment and integration of these children into the various practical recesses could be essential to their emotional and social growth.
Chapter VI. Young Adult Education
Having graduated from the Quadrivium, and thus imparted with a general understanding of the world around them, students become more and more trusted to educate themselves, and to study what most holds their interest, the gradual trend of responsibility to learn will have shifted from the teacher to the student; until the young adult is his or her own teacher, and rather than having full (seven hour) days of school, their time is cut in half. Rather than practical recesses, their activities outside of academic study are shifted also, towards more technical subjects as we describe below.
By the time the students reach young adulthood, they will be given courses on architecture, hydroponics, electricity, plumbing, carpentry, and mechanics (really whatever the people decide is most practical). The purpose of these courses, being to instill self-sufficiency and independence, the graduating requirement of all students will be to pass their drivers course (assuming that people are still driving at this time), which will act as a certificate of their graduation. However, graduating and getting a driver’s license is not the same as requesting and earning citizenship (as we will discuss in the final chapter).
Young adults will also be given opportunities to teach the younger generations as student teachers, to serve their community with fellow students, and receive introductory experiences to being participants in their society in various ways: political, environmental, economic, and spiritual.
The purpose of this kind of education has not been to ensure that those coming out of it are functional workers, but rather as beneficial members of a community and society—functional workers are a pleasant side effect, but are not the foundational goal.
[An experiment of this kind cannot come without some degree of controversy. However, given the track record of the current public education paradigm, we are not going to get any improvements from it any time soon. Let us remember Einstein’s famous quote that, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Therefore, given the current failure of our education, as a system despite the efforts of individuals, we must reinvent the wheel of our mind, and think in brand new ways to solve the problems that our world faces.]
Chapter VII. Pentivium: Adult Education
Indeed, the next step in changing our way of thinking is with regards to adult education. Once one has reached adulthood, and requested and earned citizenship, they may desire to enter into a free adult education academy called the Pentivium. The Pentivium, as you may already glean from the name, is composed of five subjects, which complement the subjects of the Trivium and Quadrivium of the classical liberal arts. It will please the reader that all of these subjects are plant and or consciousness oriented, rooted in fractal equality—a concept used by the author to describe the balance inherent in natural inequalities, which give rise to the beauty inherent in all varieties.
Separate from college, this program does not include specific subjects or compartmentalized views, but rather depends upon the community, and would act as a community-building forum in places like the city and suburb. The academy facility may be old malls, repurposed, and would be a perfect fit for green revolutions everywhere. How poignant, you might be thinking, how ironic, that the infrastructure that once perpetuated the consumerist, materialist view, now should be the edifice for its ultimate destruction, and the vector for a new, green paradigm.
The Pentivium starts with purification. Through meditation and medicinal therapy and study, the neophyte explores their own individuated consciousness, and dispels the illusory boundaries within themselves. (By medicine the author means plants, not synthetic chemicals, though the choice to do or not do any of that is the individuals; and while not entirely necessary, the process of purification can take substantially longer without the aid of our plant brethren.) What studies from prestigious colleges have shown, is that mystical or transpersonal experiences are possible with pharmacological tools, which have been shown to create authentic spiritual experiences. Tools, chemicals found in plants, today are considered dangerous “drugs”, rather than potential keys to their own self-discovery.
The purification process will also go hand in hand with the local organic economy, in which the participants have access to locally grown organic food, which they themselves have cultivated. Using re-purposed malls as the space, people could transform their landscape as a practitioner of the Pentivium. A full spectrum purification can then take place, therefore, in which diet and exercise are aiding aspects of the mental and spiritual purification. Mental and physical, diet and exercise, acting synergistically to magnify the process of self-mastery, a full spectrum of deconditioning can take place—in which the attempts of the world to bog one down with nonsense and false notions of who we are may be loosened enough to leave room for a more rational, caring, and self-empowered individual.
As we progress, the purification process takes place within the individual; their mind has expanded to be open to new ideas; without fear, ego, or formal belief systems the individual can now be introduced to esoteric concepts, which will further aid their endless process of purification. We may call this a consolidation, because it is an act of collecting one’s thoughts, and a re-examination of one’s reality according to occult—or what were previously hidden—texts, and what could be considered a divine (experiential) study of the sacred.
This could be anything from reading ancient texts, or modern texts devoted to their analysis, meditating on natural forms, to spending time in an isolation tank, even skydiving, depending upon the person’s temperament and general character—all of these may be applicable, or none of them. Everyone has different definitions of the profound, but that is exactly what one is seeking in this stage of the Pentivium. (Nonetheless, it is vitally important to read non-fiction, to study beyond history and the mainstream. When we do this, suddenly a can of worms the size of planet money explodes, taking with it the prohibition of spirituality and sanity vs satanism (ego worship).)
The third stage could be considered a form of exertion. Exertion can be explained in two ways, both in the process of sharing with others what she or he has learned, the neophyte has the opportunity to exert their learned knowledge; but exertion can also be expressed in learning the practice of self-healing—a practice of thought alteration is key to what the author calls “magik,” but really there is nothing magical or unrealistic about what quantum physics calls quantum entanglement. By practicing intent, critical thought control, and using the tools expressed in the previous stages of the Pentivium, the neophyte can begin to change their reality by changing their thoughts, perspectives and choices. At this stage, each of those involved may begin to have a positive, demonstrable effect on the planetary organism's healing process.
Sexuality will also play a pivotal role in certain neophyte's exertion of their spiritual path through connection and deepening love. In this process, the neophytes may decide to make love, and in so doing create a life. This, then, is the stage in which the Pentivium connects back to the Univium. The Univium is an aesthetic, to which the exertion stage necessarily has a direct connection, because not only will the neophytes be responsible for creating an environment that is conducive to the healthy growth of the infant, body and mind, but also of the proper inner environment of their own body in order to promote proper epigenetic conditions for future generations. Today it must be recognized that we are born swimming in a chemical bath, and this has epigenetic consequences for our future generations; if we are to solve this problem, it first must be recognized and mended accordingly.
At this stage, parents may also seek to have a direct, participatory role in their child's education, and they will be encouraged to do so: The education facilities in our alternative paradigm will not be exclusive and centralized as they are today, and because the working day of most people will be significantly shortened, the available time to spend involved at the education facility will be expanded, and parents will be justly compensated for this contribution as well. One step closer to homeostasis and conscious evolution, we continue to the next stage.
Through experiencing exertion, at the fourth stage of the Pentivium one comes into one’s self, and begins to exhibit a union in their body, mind, and spirit. This union, coming into balance, represents a state of mastery. Few who enter the Pentivium will reach this stage of mastery, but the benefits of such an evolution are greater than the bliss of ignorance, and the imbalanced disharmony, confusion, and chaos that otherwise plague human existence. This mastery will only further aid the neophyte in their relationship to others, their chosen field of collegiate study (assuming they go to college), and their overall appreciation of the world at large.
To become a master of one’s realm represents a total shift in personal ownership and responsibility. However, as we proceed, the fifth and final stage of the Pentivium is simply play. At this stage, one’s development has reached a nexus point, from the domestication of the Trivium and Quadrivium to complete freedom as an experienced adult—completely capable of virtually anything they put themselves to. The student has reached a point of knowledge and understanding for mastery of his or her realm: Purification, consolidation, exertion, union and balance have resulted in the transformation of the individual from a person with an ego to a character with a connection to the Cosmos. All that is left for them is to carry on, searching out complex experiences which create the flow state, a state in which the exhilaration of taking on tasks that require complex skills, stretching them in new directions, and recognizing and mastering new challenges is its own reward. According to Csikszentmihalyi, “Every human being has this creative urge as his or her birthright.” (The Evolving Self, pg. 175)
The reason the author has chosen to use the term play for this final stage is because of the inherent openness and fresh experimental curiosity engendered by the nested processes of the Pentivium, Quadrivium, Trivium, Bivium, and Univium. In combination these liberal arts have the potential to emancipate humanity from the survival mode, which has restrained it, into becoming the new center of human activity; in addition, any time we change education, we are developing an altogether new culture. More and more as automation replaces human labor; forms of deep play (self-empowerment and enlightenment), as in the Pentivium (a balance between consolidation and exertion), the rhythm of life becomes just as important as hard work to individual happiness. Further, when the education system employs farmers, and utilizes the land with economy (conservation and thrift) the fallacy of scarcity (one of the big myths of our time) can finally be lifted.
Widening the scope of education beyond the boundaries of the schoolhouse, the true schoolhouse must come to be the world, our true family the world also; only then can our species evolve past its arbitrary limitations, and come to inherit its divine role as co-creators with the sacred source—in other words, applying consciousness to the process of evolution. Indeed, only by having this implied trust through reciprocation can we evolve past the money paradigm, and act synergistically as a global consciousness to create what the author calls a planetary organism. This, and not the United Nations, is the solution to global warming, the poverty rampant in a depreciated world, and dictatorial governments bent on our indoctrination.
The fundamental purpose of the final stage, and the underlying importance of the liberal arts is causation and flow. Being our own first cause, we can liberate ourselves from our genes, our culture, and finally our selves; rather than being someone else's puppet to be caused upon and witnessing and bearing responsibility only to the apparent effects in our life; you are now at the helm of your own destiny, and truly capable of making your own decisions! This is not like in Scientology, where the cost of enlightenment is mental health and a depleted bank account; first, because it does not cost anything, and second because there is a point where you can achieve actual self-mastery through real effort, and actual expansion of consciousness through the action of non-action. The state of self-mastery is an easily verifiable stage of awareness which merely takes a dialogue with a self-mastered individual (or Guru) to test for. Nonetheless, we can see how causation and flow have vital importance to the evolution of the human species, as both of these challenge the individual into seeking more complex experiences, and “deeper” states and stages of consciousness.
The “great art of living” that the author has described may not be for everyone, but that can be said about enlightenment in general. Nonetheless, this program, and its potential to create community and enlightenment should be pondered and considered—before our materialistic, bread and circuses, beer and football culture retards and regresses into confusion and ignorance, making the vast majority of us entranced, under absolute tyranny, while dragging the rest of us along with them. (Some may think it is already too late, but that is flat wrong given the revolutionary spirit happening right now.)
Closing
To improve our standards of education, first we must examine the past and recognize what methods, standards, and practices actually worked, and thus we can start to develop a new education paradigm for the future, one that will water the seeds of enlightenment. Indeed, with the great advancements of technology our advancement of wisdom has been stunted, and though using the methods of ancient Greece may seem backwards, it is in reality the current model of education that is retarding us all, and has been gradually for the past hundred years. So for us to move forward, we have to recognize that these tools (the Trivium and Quadrivium) were withheld from the public, not for their betterment, but in order to better control them.
Your ignorance is the bliss of more fortunate men; for their interest is your ignorance: their bliss is indulged on your back. Your bliss, your authentic bliss, is to play life, to play the role of an original character in the world, to be a hero, and to be loved, connected to, to be challenged, and to be complex. These moments cannot come about in this world as it is. All one can get out of this life, in the world as it is, is strife, because they have not been taught how to access their more quintessential aspects: shadow, consciousness, ego, id, unconsciousness, and flow.
By focusing, not just on the students, but also on the education of the parents, and integration of them into the education paradigm, as we will discuss in the following chapter on economics, a far more evolved education, one rooted in society, in relationships, rather than statistics—rooted in the territory, rather than the map. A self-adjusting feedback loop between student and teacher-staff corresponds to the innately fractal structure of learning—similar to that of the brain—and, therefore, thought. The implications are that once this kind of education begins, it actually begins the life of a new culture, planting the seeds for a new civilization.
What is important to know about this process is that each stage transcends and includes the previous stage or stages. The Univium, being an aesthetic, characteristic of complexity, and the Bivium being an expansion of imagination within the previously created environment, are simply extensions of the mind, and aesthetics are a device into the mind; what follows (both the Trivium and Quadrivium) are integral disciplines that ultimately flow into the ability of the neophyte to evolve through flow as they set and pursue new goals and challenges. Such a transformation of the education meme requires a critical mass of human psychic energy being focused from all over the (world) cosmos—to converge and begin the process of installing their more perfect model. Therefore, before the critical mass has taken place, not only should there be a design for organizing the new consciousness, but a way to ensure that such a stage of development may be maintained and further developed in perpetuity—preventing or reversing entropy.
The Hexivium is the six step process of liberation (see Table 2. pg. 210 ), which we will discuss in the final chapter, but for now it will suffice to say that one must have been through the Pentivium, or at least be in the third stage, balance or mastery in the stage of exertion, in order to participate in the Hexivium. This key, which ties this entire book together, is worth reading through to the end of the book to find out about, because this book itself is a product of the Pentivium, but only hints at the potential of the reader to create their own Hexivium! In the meantime, when we are not reading or gardening or selling our soul, we should be giving these ideas life, by practicing the Trivium and Quadrivium, both as individuals and as an education system, the Pentivium, as well as the Univium and Bivium, in the process of homeschooling and/or group/community schooling of our children. Lets face it, our government is not here to provide us with useful, liberating, or empowering education.
The purpose of this one’s education is to unlock and develop the hidden potential of the human brain, mind, and ultimately spirit, especially those with special needs and handicaps. It can be said that a society is only as good as how it treats its least fortunate and least able, and what it does to help elevate those people instead of treating them as a burden, seeing them as an opportunity for change instead of a limitation on “progress”. Thus the great way of life and living: the univium, bivium, trivium, quadrivium, pentivium, hexivium, are original understanding: natural principles of the brain, the mind, the spirit, and society, and work irrespective of the designs that genes or memes have created.
As we will see in the next chapter, the implications of adult education spill over into the economy and vice versa. As thought-changing consciousness is drawn towards the interior and less upon the surface, a completely new culture starts to emerge, a culture we have seen glimpses of in the past: a world-centric culture which continues to impel itself into the realm of reality. This new culture is rooted in the emotions, but can be allowed to flourish in its intellect without fear or ego; entertaining without accepting the ideas taught in a bygone era, nor the selfishness and obfuscation of a powerful elite.
Anything but a fractal, holistic, synergistic, and empathic approach to this human endeavor shall prove to be futile. Therefore, as we proceed, it must be recognized that the author has been describing an altogether unrecognizable approach to human organization, but this unfamiliar form is made indurate by the pervious flow and flexibility of a growing, infinite consciousness, and spirit of evolution.
[Note: The geometry of this process implies further shapes and concepts. In other words, the Hexivium and Septivium may encompass those needed stages for a world civilization to emerge.]
Using modern science, and proven facts of prenatal and early infant-into-childhood development, the current author has created the Univium and Bivium, a process of enhancing neural connectivity and plasticity, and early consciousness expansion respectively, for children from birth to... Using the knowledge of the ancients creatively, he has conceptualized the Pentivium, which is an extension to the Trivium and Quadrivium. But also conceptualized, the Hexivium is a plan of action for the actualization and realization of our own goals and greatest happiness. This chapter will be devoted to the exploration of the schema expressed in Table 1., and the merits of the praxis up to the Hexivium; the Hexivium will be discussed in the final chapter regarding culture.
Table 2.
HEXIVIUM (WorldCentric/VisionLogic)
Strategy(Configuration)
Organization(Formation)
Education(Actualization)
Synergy(Mastermind)
Dissemination(Communication)
Manifestation (Transcendence) (Early Psychic)
Chapter IX. The Hexivium
The Hexivium is a method of world-centric transformation, in congruence with the Pentivium. In our times, it is a physical, mental, and spiritual matter of human life to be subjected to the powers and wills of sycophants and parasites, elites and psychopaths; to protect ourselves (and yourself) from this kind of criminality and tyranny, not only mental fortitude, but action is necessary. The Hexivium is an action plan for world liberation. We use the word “world liberation” because this concept is world-centric, meaning that if any part of the world is still oppressed, the ultimate goal of this system has not been manifest. The point being, not to achieve perfection—recognizing that true perfection is impossible—but rather, in spite of this truth, pursuing perfection (i.e., world liberation and individual sovereignty) anyway.
A transformation of alchemical proportions requires us to embrace post-conventional perspectives, and recognize the powers that be for the criminals that they are. Recognizing that they are not stupid, we must become aware and smarter (both as individuals and as an aggregate) than the status quo. Further, rather than fighting them, and playing their game, the methods of transformation must be to create a more perfect order, which makes the old model obsolete.
By first strategizing with other players of life (practitioners of the Pentivium who have achieved balance), original characters that have been liberated from the mental shackles of modern culture and society have a unique capacity for causing change and doing so in a flow state; such that, doing so at the expense of social approval, conventional values, and preserving the passive peace is of no consequence to them. However, without strategy, as Gene Sharp contends in his book From Dictatorship to Democracy, the game of power and control is already lost before it is played. Rebellion worsens the situation, ignorance worsens the situation, and denial worsens the situation.
The power and potential of the Pentivium, in regards to studying the economic, political, and cultural systems that have created the world in which we live, is the true value of this concept in our time. Having connections with like minded individuals, all exploring and sharing their understandings about the world in which they live, establish the conditions for a Mastermind Alliance (or Fellowship Cell as described by Csikszentmihalyi in The Evolving Self). It is when we become organized around the power of knowledge that we can actualize the Mastermind potential, as was conceptualized by Napoleon Hill, in his book Think and Grow Rich, where he defines the term as such: “The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony."
Through strategy and organization, the next inevitable step towards cultural evolution is education. By educating ourselves and the people inside as well as outside of the mastermind alliance, a group takes on the power of knowledge, and uses it for the greater good. Only by educating people about reality will they ever be empowered, and in effect liberated. However, simply educating people will never get them closer to freedom without synergy, wherein new members are brought in and connected into the strategic plan, and brought in to the mastermind group concept, preferably creating their own cells.
By repeating this process, the participants are creating new networks, and in doing so create a platform for more potent dissemination into the public realm. Actions that can be taken at this point would be: reaching out to community organizations (such as churches, labor unions, and government officials), having proficient members run for political office, and creating media, entertainment, and organizing community events and attracting further community involvement. A powerful and effective method of bringing about synergy is education—establishing new education memes must constitute the greatest effort in the course of the Hexivium. By establishing Pentivium academies, using old malls as the edifice, would be one of the biggest steps that such a community organization can make.
Once a group has been successful in changing their local community, shedding light on systemic corruption, inadequacy, and obsolescence, the final stage is transcendence, or manifestation. By achieving renown for being movers and shakers, the Hexivium group has dismantled the pyramid-like power structure of the status quo through non-violent action; in the process, replacing it with a circular-shaped egalitarian structure in their community.
By integrating the practices of the Pentivium into this process, we are also integrating the principle of flow into these activities. In the context of flow, the challenge of changing the world to be more harmonious and fulfilling for all human beings is not only fun, it is exhilarating, and a source of authentic ecstasy. In other words, not only can we change the world, but we can have fun while doing it!
