Happiness Part I of III

The Announcement -

This Sunday (1/23) and the next (1/30) "Exploring Thought Provoking, 
Stimulating, and Challenging Questions" will delve into "Happiness".  Are you 
"Happy"?  Would more money make you happier?  How much more?  Is "Happiness" 
fleeting?  Does it come and go or can you just stay in it?  Why is it that what 
makes us "Happy" today can make us sad tomorrow?  How does pleasure fit in with 
"Happiness" and how does age fit in? What about gender?

It's a desire we all share - To lead a rich, fulfilling, and happy life.  We 
search for "Happiness".  It even has a history that can be summarized as follows 
- 

Happiness= Luck (Homeric)
Happiness=Virtue (Classical)
Happiness=Heaven (Medieval)
Happiness=Pleasure (Enlightenment)
Happiness=A Warm Puppy (Contemporary)

Some countries have developed a Gross National Happiness Index that is used to 
formulate policy.  Scientists, Clinicians, Sages, and Self-Help Gurus are all 
trying to help us find it.  It just may be in the Cook Room, 11:30 AM.

Your Hosts,

Bob Evans, Diane Mace Kinner, Mike Metcalf

Happiness Part 1 - Some Highlights

We approached "Happiness" by viewing the first half of Dr. Daniel Gilbert's documentary "Rethinking Happiness".  Dr. Gilbert is a Social Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.  He is an author and has won numerous awards for his research and teaching.  Dr. Gilbert makes the point, early on, that the human life is an emotional roller coaster with "ups-and-downs".  He emphasized that, for the past few decades and on a global scale, science has brought its discipline to study these "ups-and-downs" so as to understand not only the psychological state we call "Happiness" but how it is attained and retained. 

We'll define "Happiness" as a psychological and emotional state characterized by a freedom from suffering, a contentment with a sense of well being, joy, prosperity, and pleasure. Science has found that 'Happy People" have better health, better relationships, better sex lives, better careers, and better just about everything else.  In addition, scientific studies have found that "Married People" are, on average, happier than other people.  Parents are no happier than non-parents and are often less happy.  Researchers have determined there are three basic sources of happiness: genetics including our temperament and personality (50%); life circumstances such as wealth and health (10%); and our own choices (40%).  Scientists believe each of us has a "Happiness Set Point".  This is a state of "Happiness" we naturally revert to over time after experiencing the inevitable "ups-and-downs" of life.  This "Set Point" is different for each individual.

Dr. Gilbert presented a series of "Case Studies".  The first was concerned with "Money and Happiness".  He chose John Falcon as his subject.  John was a struggling performance artist living in one of the poorest boroughs of NYC and one paycheck from homelessness when he won $45,000,000 in the New York Sate Lottery.  Needless to say, everything changed for John.  In the course of reviewing John's case, he said something that impacted and stayed with us - "Being happy takes work.  You have to work at it."   This reminded me of something I heard a rather wealthy person once say - "You know, the real benefit of having lots of money is that you can be miserable, comfortably."  Here's the bottom line on money:  Coming out of poverty, additional money increases "Happiness".  However, if you already have lots of money then more money will not make you any happier.  It makes a difference where one starts from.  Every dollar attained buys a little less "Happiness" than the preceding one.  In addition, money must be spent properly.  Studies of "Lottery Winners" reveals this generally means sharing the wealth with family, friends, and community.  Due to "Hedonic Adaptation", the buying of "Stuff" to increase "Happiness" just leads to the buying of more "Stuff" and, in the end, doesn't increase "Happiness".  

The next two case studies involved "Resilience".  This is the human capacity to withstand traumatic and stressful experiences.  People who are resilient draw on strengths in themselves, their relationships, and their communities to help them overcome adversity. Resilient people often find meaning even in times of trouble and gain confidence from overcoming adversity. In this way, resilience can contribute to a deeply satisfying life.  The lesson here is clear - "Never Give Up!".  The second case study about an Air Force Pilot shot down over North Vietnam and imprisoned, tortured, and finally released after seven years was most instructive.  This individual endured the ordeal and emerged whole.  Dr. Gilbert mentioned that studies involving imprisoned individuals from this era revealed that their imprisonment experiences were of such value to them that they would not trade them for relative peace.  It was their belief that what they learned about themselves, during the imprisoned experience, was invaluable and enhanced their remaining years.

Two other case studies were introduced and will be concluded in next week's program.  Their purpose was to illustrate the stress and anxiety impact upon "Happiness" and how to successfully manage it.  The first involves an individual experiencing unemployment and the second cancer.  

To conclude Part I, we watched an interview with "Dr. Phil" and an overview of the "Self Help Industry".  Dr. Phil is in the entertainment business.  He uses the therapist's couch to entertain a television audience.  His advice and assistance is valuable to those on his couch but must not be generalized.  Dr. Phil cautioned about generalizing his advice.  He said the viewing audience could take a point or two for discussion with their therapist but to get more than that out of his show would be too much.  The "Self Help Industry" focuses on arranging our thinking to improve our lives.  Dr. Gilbert pointed out that almost all of this advice (95%) is scientifically untested.  Some of the many books in this marketplace are good and others are quite bad.  It's a "Buyer-Beware" situation at the moment until science can catch up to it.  Despite this fact, approximately 75% of those who successfully change without professional help do so through "Self Help" and on their own.  It is a major pathway for human development and growth.  

Welcome Fellow Explorers

Welcome to the "Exploring Thought Provoking, Stimulating, and Challenging Questions" Blog.  I hope you find it informative, fun, and interesting.  

The purpose of this Blog is to enable folks to participate in our "Sunday After Services Discussion Series" without having to attend the group meeting. Many people, for various reasons, cannot attend "Sunday After Services" yet are very interested in the topics and our discussions.  Toward that end, this Blog will present both information and opinion on the topics we explore.  Comments are encouraged.

Dogs

The Announcement:

This Sunday (1/16) "Exploring Thought Provoking, Stimulating, and Challenging Questions" will discuss "Dogs". Are they just tamed wild animals?  What makes our relationship with them so special? Are they a substitute for Friends or are they, in fact, Friends? Have they evolved some new kind of intelligence? What about language? Do you understand when a Dog speaks to you?

There are more pet dogs than babies in the world. We treat them as though they were fellow human beings with all the thoughts, feelings, and emotions we extend to a loved one. We share our lives, homes, and even our beds with them. Science has turned its attention to "Dogs" and their relationships to us. The findings are truly amazing

A Few Highlights:

They are called our "Best Friend".  Their love and devotion to us is unconditional.  Unsurprisingly we, in return, love and care for them.  

Scientific Research tells us that they read our emotional state the same way we humans read each others.  They perform the same eye movements when looking at a human face as we do.  They read us emotionally and react accordingly.  The pair bonding hormone Oxytocin that facilitates mother - newborn bonding is also released both in humans and dogs when interacting.  This suggests an evolutionary connection.  Release of this hormone also reduces stress and anxiety and is sometimes referred to as the "Love Hormone".  The health benefits of dog ownership are well documented.

Dogs are a domesticated form of the Grey Wolf evolving over a 15,000 year period.  They are 99.8 % identical in their DNA to Grey Wolves.  Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated and fit perfectly in Hunter - Gatherer Societies. Without them, the transition to Agricultural Societies would have been impossible.  Our Civilization would never have been possible without the Dog.

Dogs think more like us than any other animal even our nearest relative the Chimpanzee.  Dogs respond to our eye and hand movements.  They understand our words and some have been known to have a vocabulary of over 300 words.  Barking is an evolutionary development in Dogs for their communication with humans.  They even have the abstract ability to understand the meaning of symbols.

The stories shared during the discussion period revealed how deeply connected we are with Dogs.  They are our companions and we not only care about their well being but are willing to part with considerable time and treasure to assure that well being.  It would be hard to overestimate their importance to us.

The Axial Age

Lay Led Service Presentation 8/15/2010 -

During certain rare intervals in history, there have been major advances in the world's political, philosophical, and religious systems - Major Changes, enabled by technological achievement, that dominated thinking in the following centuries and millennia. Such was the period known as the Axial Age from 800 BCE to 200 BCE. The Axial Centers that I will talk about today were in present day Greece, the Middle East, India, and China. These centers had the largest and most enduring influence on us. 

There were other Axial Centers notably in the 500 Nations of the Americas like the Aztec, Inca, and the Maya as well as in Africa like the Egyptians or in Europe like the Celts but because of historical events, notably conquest, colonization, and proselytizing, their influence is less.

To set the stage, I'm going to take us on a whirlwind History Tour from 10,000 BCE to the start of the Axial Age in 800 BCE. To help us along, there are 2 Handouts in the Order of Service - A Map and a Timeline (see end of Post).

In 10,000 BCE, modern humans lived by gathering fruit and catching small animals and the world's population was around 3M. Gradually, we improved our technology and changed to formalized Hunting. Our theories explaining nature, fire, and death were based on observation and straight forward. They were earth based coupled with rituals. 

In 8,000 BCE, we had our first Major Technological Advance and changed from Hunting to Agriculture and Animal Breeding and the earth's population almost doubles. Over the next 4000 years, Dogs were domesticated in the British Isles, Goats in Greece, and Horses in Europe. Fishing moved from the shore to the sea in boats. The wheel was invented by the Sumerians radically changing transportation, warfare, and industry.

Between 4000 and 3500 BCE, the number of people required to raise food was reduced permitting some to become priests, artisans, scholars, and merchants. The world's population reaches 100M. Thus began, the World's 2nd Major Advance - The building of Urban Civilizations and the rise and fall of empires, dynasties, kings, queens, despots, dictators, and governments that continues to this day. 

During these early times and prior to the Axial Age, leadership was usually by a priestly ruling class and religion was built around rituals and a deity ruled by a priest-king. Slowly, over time, people began exploring different concepts of religion and ethics. The agricultural surpluses, trade between states, and the subsequent exchange of ideas produced societies with broader perspectives and world-views than those that came before.

In 1700 BCE in what is now Israel, Abraham makes a Covenant with Yahweh and monotheistic Judaism is founded. 200 Years later, Aryan nomads from the Eurasian steppes push into the Indian subcontinent mingling with the Indus Valley people to eventually form Hinduism and subsequently Buddhism and Janism. 

In China, the Shang Dynasty with their theology arises whereby heaven and earth are continuous realms and the divine is composed of a heavenly court paralleled by the earthly court. It is during this time that the Chinese Concepts of Virtue and Compassion first appear.

In 1275 BCE, Moses leads his people out of Egypt after 3 centuries of oppression and receives the 10 Commandments. 

By the start of The Axial Age in 800 BCE, philosophers, sages, and moralists began preaching new values and views of life championing Spiritual Freedom, Independence of the Individual, and Unity of Humankind and the Universe. They questioned the meaning and purpose of Human Existence. Is there a Creator? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is the meaning of it all? When attempts were made to answer these questions rationally, the Axial Age was born.

Leading the way was Zoroastor, a prophet and philosopher from what is now modern day Iran. He proposed that there was a single supreme good God juxtaposed by a Spirit of Evil (who we now call Satan). The resulting Cosmic Conflict involved the entire universe and humanity. Zoroastrian Legends offer the concept of the Soul to be judged after death and that of a virgin birthed savior who will raise the dead and judge everyone in one final judgement.

In present day Israel, the Axial Age saw the prophets Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. They stressed the moral and ethical imperatives inherent in monotheism which formed the basis of Judaism and later became the cornerstones of Christianity.

In Greece, the Axial Age was more philosophical than spiritual. On the spiritual side, it saw the emergence of Homer and an expression of Greek Mythology explaining the origins of the world and detailing the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other mythological creatures. 

On the philosophical side, sages developed ideas like Parmenides who founded "The Philosophy of Being" arguing that reality is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, and unchanging. He held that the world of appearances is false and deceitful. In stark contrast, Hericlitus presented "The Philosophy of Becoming" whereby all things are always in change. Democritus elaborates further saying that all change is a merely an aggregation or separation of parts and that nothing which exists can be reduced to nothing and nothing can come out of nothing. He says all matter is composed of tiny particles he calls "Atoms". 

Later in the Greek Axial Age, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle create a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing ethics, morality, aesthetics, logic, science, politics and metaphysics which formed the basis for our Western Tradition.

In India, 2 scriptures, the ancient Vedas and the Upanishads, merged to form what is now Hinduism. It reflected the search for the ultimate truth and meaning of life. As a result and outgrowths from this merger, Buddhism and Janism emerged. Buddhism sought relief from the endless suffering of reincarnations while Janism taught the achievement of liberation through non-harming.

In China, individual thinkers arose, Confucius and Lao Tso, who gave birth to Confucianism and Taoism respectively. Confucianism's goal was to promote social harmony by every individual knowing, respecting, and conforming to their place in society and playing their part well. Such individual behavior was considered as Virtue. Taoism, an alternative to the Confucianism perspective, offers the practitioner peace, a life of ease, and a freedom from calculation and self-centered desires.

Looking back from our perch nearly 3000 years hence we can say the Greeks looked Outward, the Hindus and Hebrews looked Upward, and the Chinese looked Inward.

The Axial Age philosophers did not create their ethic in idyllic circumstances. Each tradition developed in societies that were torn apart by violence and warfare as never before in history - The Persian Wars, The Peloponnesian Wars, the Campaigns of Alexander The Great and numerous Civil Wars and Conflicts were ever present. Indeed, the catalyst of religious change was an outright rejection of the aggression and violence the sages witnessed all around them. When they looked for the causes of violence in the Psyche, they permeated an interior world - An undiscovered realm of human experience.

For these Axial sages, it was not what you believed but how you behaved that was relevant. A person's theist beliefs were a matter of total indifference to them. they would say it was immature, unrealistic, and even perverse to look for absolute certainty in theism. Religion was about "Doing Things". "Doing Things" that changed the individual at a profound level. To them, morality was the heart of the spiritual life. Indeed, the only way to experience Transcendence was to live a compassionate life. 

To these sages, religion was Empathy and Compassion. They preached the abandonment of egotism, greed, violence, and unkindness. Not only was it wrong to kill another human being, one must not speak a hostile word or make an irritable gesture. Further, one's charity and benevolence must not be confined to one's own people but extended to the entire world. The respect for the sacred rights of all beings, not orthodox beliefs, was paramount. They saw this as the way to save the world.

The Axial Age closed with the relative stabilization of dynasties and empires in the 2nd Century and laid the foundations for Christianity and Islam hundreds of years later.

The Earth is 4.5B years of age and is roughly half way through its' life cycle. Homo Sapiens have been dancing on this planet for roughly 200K years. If we do not destroy ourselves, and yes that is a really BIG IF, we have billions of years to go. In 1964, a Russian Scientist by the name of Nikoai Kardshev proposed a scale for measuring a civilizations technological advancement. The scale has 4 designated categories - Type I, II, III, and IV. In general, a Type I civilization has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet, Type II of its Solar System, Type III of its Galaxy, and Type IV of the Universe. The human civilization, as of 2010, is currently somewhere around 0.72, with calculations showing we will reach Type I status around 2100 and Type II status around Year 11,200. By all measure, at this point in time humanity is a mere infant. Ahead of us, Science will master Matter and Life. 

As Carl Sagan once put it, "At anything like our current technological progress, the civilizations that exist on earth millions of years in our future, will be as much beyond us as we are today beyond a monkey?" The Timeless Questions -  Where did I come from? Is there a Creator? Who am I? Where am I going? What is the meaning of it all? will be asked over and over again. Furthermore, the blending of Quantum Mechanics, Computer Technology, Nanotechnology, and Biotechnology will enable us to merge with the machine to the point where it will be difficult to distinguish one from the other. Couple this with Virtual Reality and a new question will have to answered. Namely, What does it mean to be human? 

Indeed, Dr. Rich Terrell of the Jet Propulsion Lab theorizes that because the universe is quantized or comprised of a fixed number of tiny particles all we are and all we see is computable. Our reality could simply be a Computer Simulation. This sounds totally absurd but Dr. Terrell argues all it would take is enough computing and programming power, which is presently doubling every 13 months, and therefore we will probably be capable of this simulation in a few million years. Furthermore, he says who better than to do accomplish this simulation....than our future selves.

Technological Achievement and Spiritual Development are curiously intertwined and travel together. Where do they go from our present? We can only speculate. In addition, we can ask ourselves are we in an Axial Age now and will there be other Axial Ages in the future?