Comments on THE Interview

What people discover is Jeremy Griffith’s work actually reconciles science and religion by bringing biological understanding to pre-scientific concepts. In fact, it presents the fulfilment of a time that all religions looked forward to when we could actually explain ourselves, see FAQ 6.3 ‘Does this undermine religion/God’.

Yes, the ultimate ‘power’ is truthful understanding of ourselves. At last we can understand we have been driven by a deep insecurity about our fundamental goodness or worth and so now that our goodness is biologically established we no longer have to behave insecurely and selfishly and can legitimately return to a selfless way of living.

    We don’t know if you have looked at any of Jeremy Griffith’s books Clyde but he does use many wonderful quotes from Jean Liedloff’s book The Continuum Concept about the importance of caring for infants such as in his definitive book FREEDOM par. 977. In this interview and FREEDOM Jeremy explains the importance of nurturing in the maturation of humanity and in our own lives but the huge significance of his work is that it explains how our inability to nurture came about. We can now understand it has been humanity’s necessary preoccupation with finding knowledge that has compromised our ability to nurture and now that preoccupation ends we can safely acknowledge the absolute importance of nurturing in the development of children instead of having to live in denial of such an obvious truth – see chapter 8:16C of FREEDOM (which includes par. 977) titled ‘The dire consequences of terminal levels of alienation destroying our ability to nurture our children’. We’d also recommend chapter 6:13 of FREEDOM titled ‘Nurturing now becomes a priority’ as there Jeremy explains that “now that we have found that very good reason why parents have been unable to nurture their children with anything like the unconditional love children instinctively expect and need, it is no longer necessary to deny the importance of nurturing both in the maturation of our species and in our own lives. Yes, with the arrival of understanding the terrible guilt that parents have felt for not being able to adequately nurture their offspring departs. Parents can now understand that their inability to adequately love their offspring is not their fault, but the product of the ever-accumulating levels of upset in the human race as a whole that resulted from our species’ heroic 2-million-year search for knowledge, specifically for self-knowledge, understanding of why we conscious humans are good and not bad. So yes, we can finally now admit the importance of nurturing and turn our attention back to the nurturing of our offspring—in fact, it now becomes a matter of great urgency that we do both these things.” The issue of the importance of nurturing in our lives is an example of how our ability to heal depended on having this core mystery of our conflicted human condition biologically understood.     Capitalism and the cut-throat tactics employed to dominate and maintain personal power are also symptoms of the human condition. So with the explanation THE Interview presents we can now understand the reason for why humans’ competitive and power-hungry behaviour, along with our inability to adequately nurture our offspring, became an unavoidable, indeed necessary, part of human life. Proving we were better than someone else gave us validation and reinforcement to counter the deep insecurity we felt about having to become self-corrupted. And so competition, sustained by the incentives of materialism and capitalism, are what maintained humanity’s heroic search for knowledge, ultimately for self-knowledge. With our goodness and worth established through understanding, we will no longer need to be constantly preoccupied with proving our goodness and worth through artificial forms of reinforcement, such as through winning power, fame, fortune and glory, and this ability to finally love ourselves will give us the freedom and generosity to properly help others and “cooperatively share” and savour the “calm unity” this will bring the world. You may find these links helpful, FAQ 1.5 ‘What is this important to my life?’ and FAQ 1.40 ‘How can you hope to transform the world? — In particular, how are you going to change the behaviour of the rich and powerful? / How are you going to reach the bastions of power? / Won’t the greedy and power-hungry simply ignore this?’

I am stunned. Will take some time to digest.

    Hi Ted, THE Interview actually explains why we are capable of the contradictory behaviour you describe. What Jeremy Griffith explains is that all humans are born with “loving and nurturing” instincts (not savage animal instincts) but now variously suffer from a psychosis due to the human condition caused by the conscious mind’s necessary search for knowledge. What is so important about this is that it finally explains the real reason for why our “agressive frustrated combative” behaviour became an unavoidable, indeed necessary, part of human life and by so doing establishes our fundamental goodness. So as a species, we became angry, egocentric and alienated, or in a word ‘upset’ so all humans suffer, to varying degrees, from the human condition, to quote Jeremy in Part 2 “everyone is naturally variously psychologically upset from their different encounters with humanity’s battle to find knowledge”. As the highly respected psychiatrist Professor Harry Prosen, a former President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, wrote: “the beauty of Griffith’s treatise is that the healing starts at the macro level of the universal human condition; the healing of the shame and blame that the whole human race has suffered from…It brings the greater context and love to all human psychosis and suffering, and then, from under the umbrella of that safe position, everyone can gradually work inwards to their particular experience of all the imperfections in human life that have now, finally, been made sense of.” (FAQ 1.34).     In terms of your second point while great care has been taken to present the information as quickly and simply as possible (which is done in Part 1), explanation of the human condition can be initially difficult to access. This is because it has been the most terrifying of subjects to face as it is the issue of whether we are fundamentally good or bad as a species, and we have necessarily lived in almost total denial of it (FAQ 1.16 ‘Why do I find this material impenetrably dense, repetitive, tedious and boring?’ explains this initial ‘deaf effect’). Also our FAQ 1.3 presents a very brief summary of the key ‘instinct vs intellect’ concept: essentially, when we humans developed a conscious mind some 2 million years ago, a battle unavoidably developed between it and our already established instincts. The result of this conflict between our instinct and intellect was that we became psychologically defensive, angry, alienated and egocentric – the upset state we refer to as the human condition. But now that we can explain and understand this conflict, all those insecure, defensive behaviours are obsoleted, brought to an end, and we free ourselves from the human condition.     Jeremy’s objective is to stop human suffering and the work of the WTM is a scientific pursuit and was not created for profit, so all of our information and materials (including books, videos and podcasts) are provided absolutely free of charge on our homepage HumanCondition.com (no email required). Also, here on our homepage, are the outstanding commendations Jeremy’s work has received from leading thinkers and scientists.

    Thank you for your comment Marci. What started the human condition was our inability to explain why we had to defy and become estranged from our all-loving and sensitive instinctive self, see FAQ 1.3. As Jeremy Griffith says in Part 2 of this interview our “fully conscious brain appeared some 2 million years ago, for almost all of the 2 million years we have been conscious we have had no ability to explain and understand why we corrupted our original innocent instinctive self or soul. And without that redeeming explanation the only way we could cope with the astronomical guilt of having destroyed ‘Eden’, has been to deny we ever lived in a cooperative and loving innocent state. Certainly the result of this clash between our instinct and intellect caused us to feel guilty and insecure which made us become psychologically defensive, angry, alienated and egocentric, what Jeremy terms ‘upset’. Jeremy continues: “The Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that Moses wrote so long ago in about 1,500 BC actually perfectly describes the psychologically upsetting battle that emerged between our instincts and conscious intellect... [but] You see, not knowing how naturally selected instincts differ from cause and effect-operating consciousness, this story of Adam and Eve becoming conscious could only conclude that the angry, egocentric and alienated condition that emerged when we became conscious was a bad, evil, sinful state, but this scientific presentation says, ‘No, no, that pre-scientific story got it wrong’. Adam and Eve are actually not just good but the heroes of the whole story of life on Earth... all the time we were good and not bad but we couldn’t explain why, but now at last through the benefit of science, we can.”     With regard to religious doctrine of original sin, with the human condition explained we can understand the more upset people became, the more they needed to try to obey the ‘Godly’ ideals of life that religions taught, but the problem was such condemnation of upset behaviour could be extremely terrorising and oppressive. Obviously what was desperately missing was reconciling understanding of our upset behaviour and the Godly ideals; reconciling understanding of the human condition in fact — which is exactly what Jeremy presents us with. So no longer does anybody have to be terrorised by religious dogma, but, we suggest the more one appreciates this biological explanation the more they will appreciate the significant role played by religion as the custodian of the ideal state and as a means of solace for those exhausted by the corrupting journey. In fact, Jeremy considers the Bible to be a repository of extremely rare denial-free truth, containing all the truth about human life albeit from a pre-science view, see FAQ 6.3 about understanding religion.

Ready to hear it

Yes, this biological understanding the human condition brings love and compassion to the ‘dark’ side of ourselves, explaining that despite all appearances to the contrary, all humans are ‘good’.

    Obviously the main thing that will effect the human condition is solving it! Which is what Jeremy Griffith has done with his ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of it. What Jeremy has done is provide the scientific answer to the great question of why, when the universal ideals are to be loving, cooperative and selfless, we are so angry, competitive and selfish. This is of great importance because having found the good reason that we had to defy our instincts means all our defensive, ‘bad’ behaviours (our anger, egocentricity and alienation) are now redundant. There couldn’t be a bigger breakthrough.     However, it is true that AI appears likely to have a large impact on our lives in the near future. We recommend Jeremy’s book AI & Aliens: The Truthful Analysis. In it he writes, "When we consider how extremely psychotic we humans now are, the risk of rogue states and psychopathic leaders and individuals using sophisticated technology like AI to do something terminally destructive of the human race is very real! Giving us mad, ego-crazed humans super powers is ridiculously irresponsible! Lunatics (which is what we humans now are) are the last people we should be wanting to give superweapons like super-smart AI to! The world is not ready to be entrusted with such power, and the only way to change that situation is to recognise the human-race-transforming ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition that is presented in FREEDOM because it alone will end the extreme psychosis of humans and bring us back from the brink of self-destruction."

Hi David, Jeremy Griffith’s work opens up a new way of thinking so it takes a little time to fully absorb this new paradigm – and the human condition does present the ultimate paradox where what appeared to be ‘bad’ turns out to be ‘good’! The biological ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition allows us to understand the real merits and liabilities of both the left and right wing. His work identifies that the problem of the right-wing is its destructiveness, however, through its support of egocentricity and selfishness, it does encourage the search for knowledge to continue. However the left wing’s insistence on ideal behaviour had the effect of oppressing and thus regressing, not ‘progressing’, the all-important search for knowledge. Most importantly, this understanding brings a profound understanding to both sides which ultimately will bring an end to the whole ugly business of politics. This is fully explained in our FAQs about politics.

Peri-Ann, you can immediately access free electronic copies of Jeremy Griffith’s definitive book FREEDOM (along with his other key books, including THE Interview) to read, listen to or download here on our homepage. You can also download free Kindle versions from Amazon. (Otherwise you can purchase hard copies from Amazon or other good bookstores.)

You will not be disappointed. Everyone should know that while THE Interview is stand-alone, we do recommend everyone should read FREEDOM, which is Jeremy Griffith’s definitive presentation of this redeeming, reconciling and rehabilitating explanation of the human condition.

Please take your time Paterna. This is a new paradigm, so there is a lot to take in. We recommend watching THE Interview again, and then the three other introductory videos on our homepage: The Great Guilt, The Great Transformation, and Sermon On The Beach. Then there are the other 16 Main Videos, which explore and emphasise different aspects of the ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation. That is a good place to start Paterna, and of course there is Jeremy’s definitive book FREEDOM. So there is a host of good material Paterna.

    It is true that Buddhism and other religions contain all manner of truths about human life, but it is all from a pre-scientific view. Ultimately we needed to find the scientific explanation for why when the universal ideals are to be loving, cooperative and selfless are we so angry, competitive and selfish. Answering this question required finding the clarifying difference between the way the intellect and instincts work, and that is the great biological breakthrough Jeremy presents in THE Interview and his book FREEDOM. What Jeremy is putting forward is that for there to be a fundamental change in our human situation we had to understand the human condition – humans’ capacity for good and evil – from a biological perspective.     With regard to getting these reconciling understandings to politicians, it is just a matter of getting them into the mainstream, which is underway as you can see from the outstanding commendations Jeremy’s work has received from thought leaders on our homepage. You might be interested in our FAQs on Politics, which explain how this understanding at last brings a profound understanding to both the left and right wing, which ultimately will bring an end to the whole ugly business of politics.

No, not just another theory. You can know that Jeremy Griffith has at last got to the bottom of the human condition and found the redeeming explanation of it, because as he explains in paragraph 73 of FREEDOM, the ultimate test of any hypothesis is how accountable it is of our own lives – as the greatest of all physicists, Albert Einstein, once said that ‘truth is what stands the test of experience’. And so you can know that this is the breakthrough explanation of the human condition because once you understand the explanation and begin to apply it, you will discover it is so able to make sense of human behaviour it makes it transparent. This transparency of ourselves and our world—for example, the exposure of all our falseness—that this understanding of the human condition brings, is the ultimate ‘test of experience’ that confirms that the understanding being presented here is the long-sought explanation of the human condition. In this particular scientific study—the biological analysis of the human condition—we humans are the subjects, which means we can experience, feel and know the truthfulness or otherwise of the explanations being put forward. And so, fantastic a claim as it may seem, you will find that what is being presented here is the long-sought-after, desperately needed, psychosis-addressing-and-resolving, human race-transforming explanation of the human condition.

Phenomenal....bravo Sir. Thank you. Finally a laymen’s blueprint of humanity

Yes there is a lot to take in Valerie, and so everybody does need to listen more than once. In fact, we still listen to THE Interview, and each time seemingly learn more! We will email you this information, but with regard to the books you refer to, the transcript of THE Interview, with all the book names and their authors that Jeremy Griffith refers to, is included below the video player. If you are referring to Jeremy Griffith’s own works, they are all listed and freely available on our Homepage at www.humancondition.com.

The real issue here is the difference between a more literal fundamentalist interpretation of scripture and our more biological, science-based interpretation. If you prefer the more literal interpretation then we respect your right to do that, as we hope you’ll respect our right to a science-based interpretation. For those interested, we recommend our FAQs on Religion.

That’s wonderful! To help progress your interest here are our recommended next steps. Everything we offer is totally free and there is no registration required: • Subscribe to our Mailing List where you will receive one email per week, occasional News Flashes, and notifications for our Live Events. • Watch the Main Videos where Jeremy Griffith (& others) talk you through the explanation of the human condition. • Read the Key Books by Jeremy Griffith. • Join and participate in our Facebook Group to learn about this amazing, human-condition-resolved new world. • And, if your interest continues to grow, you can help this critical new science by sharing it!

This “quest” is for humanity to have understanding of itself. That understanding has at last been found, so the task now is to bring that understanding to everybody, but that is not a “quest” so much as humanity responding to the power of rational explanation. The following is a relevent passage from Part 3 of Jeremy Griffith’s book Transform Your Life: “We are rational creatures, and so when all the logic points to there being only one response we can make, namely the human-condition-resolved, upset-obsoleted, transformed new way of living, then that is the response the human race has to take. No revolution dogmatically, and even physically, imposed upon us by others, as has pretty much been the case with revolutions in the past, just a peaceful revolution through the power of logic, knowledge, understanding — the great ‘revolution of the mind’ that W.B. Yeats, yearned for.”

Thanks for that Ronnie. Yes, people do find that profound works illustrate and support the biological explanation of the human condition that is presented here. It is important to point out though, that while there have been thinkers throughout history who have identified or alluded to the elements of instinct and intellect involved in creating the human condition, it was only through finding the clarifying difference between the way the intellect and instincts work that the human condition could ever actually be solved. What Jeremy has done is provide the scientific answer to the great question of why, when the universal ideals are to be loving, cooperative and selfless, we are so angry, competitive and selfish. This is of great importance because having found the good reason that we had to defy our instincts means all our defensive, ‘bad’ behaviours (our anger, egocentricity and alienation) are now redundant. There couldn’t be a bigger breakthrough.

Whilst religious dogma could be stifling of the necessary search for knowledge, we suggest that the more you appreciate this biological explanation of the human condition the more you will appreciate the significant role played by religion as the custodian of the ideal state and as a means of solace for those exhausted by the corrupting journey. In fact, Jeremy considers the Bible to be a repository of extremely rare denial-free truth, containing all the truth about human life albeit from a pre-science view.

Interesting- keep sending updates

It is true that idealistic movements throughout history were actually all false starts to a human-condition-free world because the upsetting battle to find knowledge, ultimately self-knowledge, the psychologically relieving understanding of why we are good and not bad, still had to be completed. By solving the insecurity about our self-worth at its source, it brings an end to all the terrible, and seemingly overwhelmingly problems that surround us – indeed it is the only way to bring an end to all the symptoms of our psychologically upset condition. By explaining the very good reason why our intellect had to defy our instincts (which is that genes can orientate but nerves need to understand), all our defensive behaviours of anger, egocentricity and alienation are now redundant; they can stop. This has never been the case in the history of humanity, up until this point.

While it takes some time to digest, we suggest that what is unique about Jeremy Griffith’s work is that he has answered the essential question of why, when the universal ideals are to be integrative are we so disintegrative? Our endeavours in philosophy, psychology and biology have failed, until now, to provide a truthful, real, fully accountable, genuinely clarifying explanation. Answering this question required finding the clarifying difference between the way the intellect and instincts work, and that is the great biological breakthrough Jeremy presents here. It is this insight into the psychological origin of our divisive behaviour that is unique about Jeremy Griffith’s work; and most significantly, this understanding means that that psychologically upset state can be ameliorated, because a psychosis can be healed through understanding.

Hi Grace, Jeremy Griffith’s explanation of the human condition doesn’t actually contradict a belief in God or Christianity so it makes sense that you found THE Interview helped you understand the human condition which is wonderful. In fact, Jeremy considers the Bible to be a repository of extremely rare denial-free truth about human life albeit from that pre-scientific view. Ultimately we needed to find the scientific explanation for why when the universal ideals are to be loving, cooperative and selfless are we so angry, competitive and selfish. Answering this question required finding the clarifying difference between the way the intellect and instincts work, and that is the great biological breakthrough Jeremy presents. Although this is science, it is based on a Godly nature in the sense of recognising, like all the great religions do, that we humans once lived in a pre-human-condition-afflicted state of original innocence where we were perfectly instinctively orientated to the cooperative, selfless, loving, ‘Godly’ ideals of life; ‘God’ being explained in as being the integrative meaning of life. Now we have the biological explanation for our divisive or ‘unGodly’ behaviour it changes how we view ourselves and our behaviour will change naturally as a result so we will no longer need to impose an ‘obedience to the ideals’ (see FAQ 1.5 ‘Why is understanding the human condition important to my life?’). You might be interested in our FAQs about religion, especially FAQ 6.2 ‘What is God?’ and FAQ 6.3 ‘Does this undermine religion/God?’

Its GOOD. I’ve started at the end, and now am looking forward to the middle

We certainly respect people’s religious views, but feel it is important to mention for readers that Jeremy Griffith’s work doesn’t contradict a belief in God or religion. It simply brings biological understanding to all those pre-scientific concepts. For example, Jeremy considers the Bible to be a repository of extremely rare denial-free truth, containing all the truth about human life albeit from a pre-science view. Importantly, this scientific understanding doesn’t make humanity more egocentric; more of a “God unto yourself”. By establishing humanity’s self-worth at its core, it removes the need for defensive, egocentricity, and at last allows humanity to become truly selfless.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Michael. What THE Interview introduces is a new scientific paradigm based on confronting, rather than the historic practice of avoiding, the issue of the human condition so it can require some digestion to fully grasp its significance. However without explanation of the human condition real therapy has not been possible. For instance, Professor Harry Prosen (former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association) has said “I have no doubt Jeremy Griffith’s biological explanation of the human condition is the holy grail of insight we have sought for the psychological rehabilitation of the human race”. You may find our FAQ 1.6 ‘Why does understanding of the human condition solve everything?’ helpful as it explains to solve the world’s problems we need to address and fix the underlying issue responsible for these problems, the human condition – our corrupted, psychologically upset state. Only the psychosis-addressing-and-solving, real explanation of the human condition can stop our suffering and rehabilitate us and our world, and this is precisely what Jeremy has delivered, see FAQ 1.3 for a summary of what THE Interview presents.

That’s wonderful Angelina! To help progress your interest here are our recommended next steps. Everything we offer is totally free and there is no registration required. Happy exploring! • Subscribe to our Mailing List where you will receive one email per week, occasional News Flashes, and notifications for our Live Events. • Watch the Main Videos where Jeremy Griffith (& others) talk you through the explanation of the human condition. • Read the Key Books by Jeremy Griffith. • Join and participate in our Facebook Group to learn about this amazing, human-condition-resolved new world. • And, if your interest continues to grow, you can help this critical new science by sharing it!

We certainly respect people’s views Hernan but we suggest you look deeper as while Buddha and other prophets spoke truthfully about human life, it is all from a pre-scientific view. To stop the disintegration of society and the destruction of our world that is happening everywhere we look we need a non-abstract, non-mystical, completely rational and thus understandable, scientific, biological explanation of human behaviour and that is precisely what Jeremy Griffith presents in this interview. You might find our FAQ 1.13 ‘Is this idea new’ helpful which explains while elements of the human condition have been recognised by various thinkers throughout history, solving it required finding the clarifying explanation of the nature of that conflict, because only that could bring reconciling and transforming peace to our conflicted and divided selves, which is what Jeremy has done, and what is unique about his work. (We wanted to mention for those non-English speakers THE Interview, and other WTM publications, have been translated into many languages including Spanish which you can freely access HERE on our website.)

It is true that in order to encourage people to adhere to the integrative, ‘Godly’, cooperative ideals of life, religions sought to restrain ‘upset’ behaviour by making people fearful of behaving in an overly angry, egocentric and alienated way. In this sense, people did have to ‘bow down to religion’. However, it is also true, as you intimate, that religions contain all manner of truths and profound understanding about human life, albeit from a pre-scientific view. Yes, ultimately it was not enough to know that ‘God loves us’, we needed to find the scientific explanation for why we are fundamentally good — answer the age-old question of why when the universal ideals are to be loving, cooperative and selfless are we so angry, competitive and selfish. Answering this question required finding the clarifying difference between the way the intellect and instincts work, and that is the great biological breakthrough Jeremy Griffith presents here. You might be interested in our FAQs about religion, especially FAQ 6.3 which addresses the question, ‘How can you reconcile the explanation of the human condition that defends the upset state with religious teachings that condemn upset?’

Yes, as THE Interview explains, the story of Adam and Eve is a pre-scientific metaphor for the emergence of consciousness and its clash with our pre-established, cooperative loving instincts, resulting in humans becoming psychologically upset or ‘sinful’ or ‘evil’. However, significantly we can now understand, from scientific first principles, that ‘Adam and Eve’ were ‘good’ to search for knowledge, not bad or ‘evil’; we humans are actually the absolute heroes of the whole story! It establishes that we are good and not bad after all. What THE Interview presents fundamentally lifts the ‘burden of guilt’ from the human race and allows us to forgive ourselves and others and finally end our psychologically troubled human condition—it couldn’t be a bigger breakthrough.

All of Jeremy Griffith’s books, including his definitive book FREEDOM, are freely available on our homepage here to read online, print and download. You can also purchase hardcopies and download free Kindle versions from Amazon.

At the heart of Jeremy Griffith’s ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition is the revelation that all our astonishingly selfish and brutal behaviour, especially on the part of men, has been an unavoidable consequence of humans’ necessary search for self-knowledge. Now we have understanding of our human-condition-psychosis (which is shared by all humans), women are finally able to reason and see that what men have been doing on this planet has been actually the most meaningful and heroic job of all, which is defy our instincts criticism of the all-important search for knowledge. This insight finally allows a real reconciliation between men and women. As molecular biologist Dr Anna Fitzgerald says in her commendation of Jeremy’s work: “because Griffith’s work establishes the equal worth or goodness of all humans we can now understand the different roles that men and women have traditionally played in the human journey and this is actually the unlocking point, this is what brings about deep empathy for each other, it heals the divide.” You can watch/read this presentation titled ‘This is the real liberation of women’ in Video/Freedom Essay 9.

Jeremy Griffith’s work doesn’t ignore, exclude or contradict a belief in God. It simply brings biological understanding to this pre-scientific concept, with ‘God’ being explained as being the personification of negative entropy driven integrative meaning of life; see Freedom Essay 23. We also think you might find our FAQs about religion of interest, especially FAQs ‘What is God’ and ‘Does this understanding undermine religion’.

Interested to know if you hve better idea than Torah. Waiting to hear what you know. Thank you.

Hi Neal - there’s no need to wait! You can immediately access a copy on our homepage! You will see an image of FREEDOM with the text ‘Free Copy’ so click on that to access your free electronic copy to read, listen to or download. You can also download free Kindle versions from Amazon. If you are particularly after a hardcopy of Jeremy Griffith’s books they are available to purchase from Amazon and other good bookstores.