Full history of rejection of
Jeremy Griffith’s treatise

 

The following is a history of efforts to seek support for—and the subsequent rejections, vilification and lack of acknowledgment of—Jeremy Griffith’s biological explanations for the human condition, for the origins of our moral soul and conscious mind, and for the truth of the integrative meaning of existence.

 

Overview

The second bullet point below describes how in 1975 Jeremy Griffith wrote to Dr Edward de Bono, the famous propagator of the need for ‘lateral thinking’. It’s not mentioned in that bullet point, but in his 5 March 1975 letter to de Bono Jeremy refers to de Bono’s comment that ‘often the pupil who is not considered bright will be the best thinker’ (The Australian, 3 March 1975). This comment had great resonance for Jeremy basically because his human-condition-confronting mind had always struggled in exams that tested a person’s ability to remember endless, human-condition-avoiding, superficial information. For a truthful, holistic mind, truthless, mechanistic thinking is an anathema (see FAQ 1.10 for more explanation of the limitations of mechanistic science). And as all the rejections that are going to be described in this chronology reveal, the reverse also applies: for human-condition-avoiding, truthless, mechanistic science, Jeremy’s human-condition-confronting, truthful, holistic thinking has been an anathema, something to be denied recognition of. While Christ said ‘the truth will set you free’ (John 8:32), mechanistic science hasn’t wanted to be confronted by the truth—which is why you will see, at the end of this long history of unrelenting efforts by Jeremy, the WTM, and a select few supporters, to have Jeremy’s human-race-saving understandings of the human condition recognised, that he and the WTM have finally been able to begin building significant support by taking his explanation of the human condition to the general public through a massive worldwide online advertising campaign.

The following then is the chronological history of Jeremy and his supporters’ unrelenting efforts to gain support for Jeremy’s human-race-saving understandings of the human condition.

 

Chronological history of the search for support

 

  • In 1975 Jeremy began writing about the human condition, and by 1983 had developed the central explanation which remains at the core of his presentations. Since that time, and despite the support of a handful of key scientists, the scientific establishment has failed to respond.

 

  • In 1975 Jeremy sent his explanation for ethics titled The Duality Problem and the Precise Origin of Morality to biologists Dr Ronald Strahan and Professor Charles Birch, and the famous author, inventor and originator of the term ‘lateral thinking’, Dr Edward de Bono. Dr de Bono replied warmly but basically took no further interest. Professor Birch AM (1918-2009), the eminent Australian biologist and later winner of the Templeton Prize, had been Jeremy’s biology professor at Sydney University and was one of the few scientists to support Jeremy up until his death. Dr Strahan AM (1922-2010) was a renowned Australian biologist (former director of Taronga Park Zoo, the Australian Museum’s first Research Fellow and Executive Officer of the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife), and was a long-time friend of Jeremy’s (in 1972 he wrote a commendation of Jeremy’s six-year search for the Tasmanian Tiger which was published with an article written by Jeremy about the search in Natural History journal (the American Museum of Natural History’s journal, Vol. LXXXI, No.10, Dec. 1972). While Dr Strahan valiantly tried to help, Jeremy’s teleological approach was far too confronting for him and over time he began to dissociate himself from, and even protest Jeremy’s work.

 

Despite this, Dr Strahan told Jeremy the right place in the world to publish critically important scientific breakthroughs was Nature magazine in London, and he helped Jeremy edit his 1983 submission to the journal (see below). When Jeremy was trying to find other biologists to share his ideas with, Dr Strahan suggested Professor (Samuel) Anthony Barnett and rang Professor Barnett to arrange a meeting (see below).

 

  • In 1981 Jeremy presented a paper titled The Biological Roots of Altruism at The Sydney University Society for Religious Studies, but it resulted in no response.

 

  • In January 1983 following a suggestion by Dr Strahan, Jeremy met with zoologist, author and broadcaster Professor Anthony Barnett, head of the biology faculty at Australian National University in Canberra. At that time Professor Barnett was presenting a weekly radio program called the Biological Images of Man. In the program he warned listeners that scientific theories, such as the selfish-gene-emphasising theory of Sociobiology, were not necessarily correct. Impressed by this warning about the limitations of mechanistic science, and other comments that effectively acknowledged the need for science to be more holistic (a rare admission in those days), Jeremy met with Professor Barnett. Unfortunately Jeremy’s efforts to have Professor Barnett consider his explanations of the human condition failed. As soon as Jeremy took the discussion into the realm of the human condition by pointing out that resistance to holism occurs for the good reason that holism confronts humans with their lack of compliance with holism—that humans are divisively rather than integratively behaved—Professor Barnett became agitated. When Jeremy persevered the dialogue became heated. Finally Professor Barnett ended the meeting with this outburst: ‘Listen, you are being very arrogant in thinking you can answer questions on this scale; in all written history there are only two or three people who have been able to think on this scale about the human condition, so I’m not about to believe you’re another of them’ (in a recorded interview with Jeremy Griffith, 15 Jan. 1983). As Professor Harry Prosen later said about this remark in his Introduction to Jeremy’s 2016 book FREEDOM, given how difficult it has been for anyone to confront the human condition, it was ‘no wonder’ Professor Barnett made that comment about Jeremy’s work.

 

  • In November 1983 Jeremy wrote to Britain’s most famous naturalist and wildlife documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough, and evolutionary biologist Professor Stephen Jay Gould, presenting these insights, but received no real response.

 

  • In December 1983 the full synthesis of Jeremy’s ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition—including the explanation of our moral soul and the explanation of the origin of our fully conscious mind—was completed, and Jeremy travelled to England to personally submit an 8,000 word summary of this all-problems-of-the-human-race-solving breakthrough synthesis to John Maddox (their reference G-12057 JM/​MS). John Maddox (1925-2009), later Sir John Maddox, was the then editor of Nature magazine, which at the time was considered the world’s leading science journal. Jeremy responsibly took the answers that save the world to the person in the world in charge of the search for it—but he initially refused to even see Jeremy! It was only after Jeremy wrote an offended letter of protest saying he had come ‘half way around the world to see you’ and Maddox had made him feel like ‘a piece of mud that had been scraped off on your doorstep’ that Maddox granted Jeremy an audience. However, when Jeremy began the meeting by trying to convince him of the foundation truth of Integrative Meaning, Maddox became animated in his denial of it, saying to Jeremy twice that the concept of Integrative Meaning arising from negative entropy ‘is wrong’ (from audio recording of the 15 Dec. 1983 meeting), terminating the meeting soon after. Jeremy also personally submitted his synthesis to Colin Tudge, the then Features Editor of New Scientist magazine. Both Maddox and Tudge declined to publish the article.

 

  • In 1988, 800 copies of Jeremy’s first book Free: The End of the Human Condition, which contains all the insights currently being presented in FREEDOM, were sent as part of a first-rate publicity package to virtually every relevant journal and scientist in the world for review, including Richard Wrangham and 70 other key primatologists. Commendations were received from pre-eminent philosopher Sir Laurens van der Post, archaeologist, geologist and prehistorian Professor Henry de Lumley, conservationist Dr Ian Player and renowned humanist Professor John Wren-Lewis, but apart from Sir Laurens’s support, which included an appeal to his publishers to publish Free, and Professor Wren-Lewis becoming a strong supporter of the ideas, and a number of excellent book reviews, there was no real response.

 

Part of the cover letter that accompanied the copy of Free sent to primatologists stated: ‘I think you might find the work of special interest. The book interprets our human development in terms of what was happening to us psychologically as a species. In so doing many insights become accessible such as the prime mover in human development of “love-indoctrination” or nurturing. The concept accounts for so many aspects of our development such as our neoteny, why it was the primates that developed consciousness, why and when we learnt to walk upright and the role of matriarchy in our past. Love-indoctrination and material relating to the pygmy chimps [bonobos] is introduced on page 46 and in full later on page 138.’ Part of the letter that accompanied copies of Free that was sent to anthropology journals and other relevant organisations stated: ‘A book of this nature should be particularly accountable to anthropologists, and it is. The illustrations between pp84-94 summarise this relevance. But consider also the explanation of the prime mover of human development (pp19&139), the speed of human development (p142), aggression (pp9&45&102), sex (p46), spasmodic evolution (p155), when we learnt to walk upright (p146), when we lost our body hair (p141), neoteny (p48), our concept of beauty (p141), hunting and meat eating (p45), the advent of language (p165), IQ development and stabilisation (p61), when we left Africa (pp44&168), racism (pp130&76), stages of matriarchy and patriarchy (p148) and, vitally, straight line development rather than branching evolution (p19).’

 

  • In 1989 Professor John Wren-Lewis personally presented Free to 10 science journals including Nature, New Scientist and Endeavour, none of which responded.

 

  • Also in 1989 a booklet summarising the explanation of the human condition titled Reconciliation was circulated to 600 scientists (again including Richard Wrangham), scientific journals and other relevant parties, to little response.

 

  • In 1991 over 1,000 copies of Jeremy’s second book, Beyond The Human Condition, with first-rate publicity packages, were circulated to scientists, journals, universities, relevant institutions and media. The media release was boldly titled ‘The Book of Our Time: Human Nature Explained at Last’ and said, ‘Introducing a biological idea as revolutionary and potentially controversial as Charles Darwin’s natural selection’. Beyond reiterated the importance of self-selection for less aggressive males, for example, ‘females were first to self-select for integrativeness by favouring integrative rather than competitive and aggressive mates’ (p.142). As part of this launch Jeremy met with and received supportive commendations from several notable scientists, including biologists Professor Charles Birch and Professor John Morton, anthropologist Professor Colin Groves, Professor John Wren-Lewis, and physicist Professor Paul Davies (whose secretary suggested Jeremy contact journalist Deirdre Macken, who was writing the article Science Friction (published in Good Weekend mag. 16 Nov. 1991), which he did—unfortunately her deadline prevented her from including Jeremy’s work in the story). Courses at both Australian National University and Sydney University included Beyond as a prescribed text for 1992, however there was little response from the scientific establishment overall.

 

  • In 1992 Jeremy and his partner Annie Williams travelled to Africa to launch Beyond at the National Museum of Kenya; and they gave over 70 copies of Beyond to eminent scientists and influential people, with many of whom they held meetings, including palaeontologist Dr Meave Leakey, anthropologist and primatologist Dr Shirley Strum, zoologist and elephant conservationist Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton, conservationist and writer Dr Cynthia Moss, ethologist and conservationist Dr Joyce Poole, zoologist Dr Mark Stanley-Price, primatologist Dr Ros Aveling, archaeologist and primatologist Dr Simiyu Wandibba, biologist and lion conservationist Dr Pieter Kat, conservationist Dr Kathy Alexander, zoologist Dr Kay Holekamp, world renowned wildlife filmmaker Alan Root, great ape conservationist Annette Lanjouw, and award winning African wildlife filmmaker Simon Trevor. Anthropologist Professor Phillip Tobias invited Jeremy to give a lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand, but unfortunately due to timing problems the lecture didn’t go ahead. Dr Strum invited Jeremy to visit her group of study baboons in Northern Kenya and report back to her, which he did with a written report; and he was also invited to spend time with Dr Susanne Abildgaard Anderson at the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre in Burundi, which he did. Although many of these scientists were enthusiastic about these insights, no lasting support eventuated.

 

  • Also in 1992 Professor John Wren-Lewis, a former president of the British Association for Humanistic Psychology and one of the few scientists who had been supportive of Jeremy’s work (he had provided this commendation for use on the back cover of Beyond: ‘At the core of Jeremy Griffith’s argument lies a brilliantly original insight into the basic nature of human conflict’, and had even become a director of the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood—now the WTM), published a paper in which he plagiarised Jeremy’s work, claiming the insights were his own! Redress was achieved and Wren-Lewis ceased his involvement.

 

  • In 1993 Jeremy travelled to England and the USA to promote these insights and made enquiries about a possible publisher and/​or distributor for Beyond in the UK and the USA. In total 76 first-rate publicity packages with copies of Beyond were sent to all the leading literary agents and publishers in the world but all declined to represent or publish the book, with one publisher revealingly saying, ‘I find your theories fascinating, but I also find your arguments elusively receding from my mind as soon as I stop reading them. I can understand that this is totally a failing on my part’ (Marianne Velmans, Doubleday Publishing, UK). Whilst in the UK Jeremy, along with Tim Macartney-Snape, AM OAM, met with Sir Laurens van der Post at his home in Chelsea, London; after which Jeremy returned to Australia via the USA where he met with anthropologist Professor Adrienne Zihlman. During this stop in the USA, Jeremy also tried to meet with author and scientist Professor Donna Haraway, who, given the short notice, was unable to meet because of other commitments, and wildlife photographer Frans Lanting, who was interstate.

 

  • In 1995 two highly defamatory publications—an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Four Corners television program; and a full-page The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper article—were made about Jeremy, his work and its supporters which resulted in the then biggest defamation case in Australia’s history, against the two biggest, left-wing (dogmatic, pseudo-idealistic, dishonest, ‘let’s pretend there’s no human condition and the world should just be ideal’) media organisations in Australia, including its public national broadcaster. In 2010, after 15 long years, Jeremy and his supporters were vindicated. A detailed description of the legal action and our eventual stunning victory can be read in the Persecution of the WTM for Exposing the Human Condition essay, however in summary, ultimately both publications were completely discredited by a series of public apologies and official rulings that found what was said was ‘inaccurate’, ‘partial’, ‘unbalanced’, ‘untrue’, lacked ‘fairness’, not produced ‘in good faith’ and was ‘not justified’, with the ABC being ordered to pay almost $1.5 million in damages and costs. It was clearly, as The Bulletin magazine summarised, a ‘hatchet job’.

 

In relation to the ABC television program, one of the defamatory meanings it conveyed was that Jeremy’s work was of such a poor standard that it had no support at all from the scientific community, and the program included criticism of Jeremy’s work from mammologist Tim Flannery. The program’s producers also interviewed anthropologist Professor Colin Groves, who had provided a commendation for Beyond in 1991 but changed his position when he was misinformed by the program’s producer, the fundamentalist minister of the Uniting Church Reverend David Millikan, that Jeremy was acting like the leader of a socially destructive organisation. In the subsequent interview, Professor Groves was highly critical of Jeremy, although that material was not included in the final broadcast.

 

The following is a brief description of the legal action:

 

In 1998 the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), Australia’s then official media watchdog, found the Four Corners program to be ‘inaccurate, unbalanced and partial’ and took the unprecedented step of recommending to the ABC that it would be ‘appropriate to apologise’ to the FHA/​WTM. At the time this was the strongest ruling ever made by the ABA against the public broadcaster.

 

When the ABC refused to apologise, defamation actions were taken against the ABC and the Herald and in 2003 and 2005 respectively both reports were found to be defamatory by NSW Supreme Court juries.

 

In 2007 a trial was held to determine defences and damages from the defamatory broadcast, during which Flannery, Groves and anthropologist Professor Maciej Henneberg gave evidence against Jeremy’s work. Thankfully there were a number of leading scientists who were prepared to come to Australia and defend Jeremy’s work (biological anthropologist Walter Hartwig, psychologist Scott Churchill, psychiatrist Harry Prosen and cognitive scientist and philosopher Lieutenant Colonel Dr William Casebeer).

 

In 2008 the trial judge ruled that lack of support for Jeremy’s work was due to it being of a poor standard; but in relation to the other highly defamatory meanings the program conveyed, ordered a payout of almost $1.5 million in damages and costs to Tim Macartney-Snape for the loss and damage caused by the broadcast. Findings by the Court included that what was said was ‘untrue’, lacked ‘fairness’ and was not produced in ‘good faith’.

 

However, after appealing the decision, in 2010 the NSW Court of Appeal recognised the unorthodox nature of Jeremy’s explanation of the human condition and unanimously overturned the lower Court’s decision about his work, ruling that the lower Court did ‘not adequately consider’ ‘the nature and scale of its subject matter’, in particular ‘that the work was a grand narrative explanation from a holistic approach, involving teleological elements’ (paras 89-91). Justice David Hodgson, who wrote the leading judgment (and had himself written books about consciousness) also found other important submissions ‘were not adequately considered by the primary judge’ (para 90) that could account for Jeremy’s work ‘not attracting support’ from ‘the scientific community’. Those submissions were that Beyond ‘makes very strong claims’, ‘crosses disciplines and even entire fields of endeavour’ and can make ‘those who take the trouble to grapple with it uncomfortable’ because it ‘involves reflections on subject-matter including the purpose of human existence which may, of its nature, cause an adverse reaction as it touches upon issues which some would regard as threatening to their ideals, values or even world views’ (paras 20, 88-90). Incidentally, Justice Hodgson was a Rhodes Scholar who, according to a former Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, was ‘one of the finest judges who ever graced a court in this country’ (www.wtmsources.com/​256) and who ‘from an early age…​had been fascinated by what went on inside the [human] head’ and had written a number of books on the study of ‘consciousness’, and was said to be ‘blessed with flawless logic’ and to ‘fit the description of Plato’s “philosopher king”’ (Obituary, The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 Sep. 2012; see www.wtmsources.com/​184).

 

Essentially, what the program said about Jeremy’s work was found by this unanimous Court of Appeal ruling to be ‘not justified’, and it recognised Jeremy’s work as being a variety of science that is heretical rather than the equivalent of meaningless non-science—that it is a scientific ‘grand narrative explanation’ of human behaviour ‘from a holistic approach, involving teleological elements’—is of the utmost significance because it leaves the door open to the possibility that his treatise, while being unpalatable to conventional scientists, is ground-breaking science of crucial importance to the future of the human race, which is what we’ve always maintained it is.

 

In relation to the other 1995 defamatory publication, in 2009 The Sydney Morning Herald published the following apology: ‘On 22 April 1995, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article by Reverend Doctor David Millikan which implied that the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood [World Transformation Movement] placed demands on its members which tore families apart. The Herald withdraws such inference and apologises to the Foundation [WTM] for the harm caused by the publication.’

 

  • In 2002 Jeremy’s third book A Species In Denial was completed, and in an attempt to have the book published, 70 copies of the manuscript were sent to the world’s leading literary agents, and another 70 copies to the major international publishers, but all declined to represent or publish the book. While one found it ‘far too dense and in parts incomprehensible’ (Gail Winston, Executive Editor, HarperCollins, USA, 12 Jun. 2002), and another was ‘not convinced that there is a cohesive argument there’ (Tim Whiting, Commissioning Editor, Time Warner Books, UK, 25 Jun. 2002), others found it presented ‘a formidable work synthesizing philosophical, historical, religious, scientific and cultural currents’ (Anne Jump, Andrew Wylie, UK, 26 Mar. 2002), and was ‘extraordinarily rich and well researched’ (Roland Philipps, Publishing Director, Hodder & Stoughton, UK, 1 Jun. 2002), and ‘an original and carefully conceived idea and the writing is clear and accomplished’ (Sebastian Godwin, David Godwin Associates, UK, 15 Apr. 2002). The extraordinary range of contradictory comments strongly suggests that it was not the merit of the book that was the problem but that publishers and literary agents were variously confronted by the content. The comment that the material is ‘far too dense and in parts incomprehensible’ is a classic ‘deaf effect’ response.

 

  • In 2003 a further 800 copies of A Species In Denial, with first-rate publicity packages, were circulated to scientists, journals, universities, relevant institutions and media, once again containing explanation of the origins of human morality, for example, ‘It was through nurturing, the process of love-indoctrination and the accompanying self-selection of cooperativeness or selflessness, that humans were able to develop an instinctive orientation to behaving unconditionally selflessly and as a result become an utterly integrated cooperative, selfless, loving species’ (p.110). Despite a foreword by Professor Charles Birch, a commendation by Professor John Morton, and becoming a bestseller in Australia and New Zealand where it sold more than 10,000 copies, the scientific community all but failed to respond.

 

  • In 2004 WTM Publishing and Communications began distributing 2,500 copies of The Human Condition Documentary Proposal (a 76-page written synopsis and DVD video presenting these ideas illustrated with chimpanzee and bonobo footage) to scientists, scientific publications and organisations, philanthropic organisations, filmmakers and eminent figures. This proposal again contained all the insights presented in Jeremy’s work, especially his ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition, but also the importance of nurturing and the love-indoctrination process in the development of unconditionally selfless, moral instincts in humans. For example, the four Parts of the proposal were titled ‘God: The Question of God, Meaning and Purpose – and the Human Condition’, ‘Soul: The Question of the Existence of Moral Instincts in Humans – and the Human Condition’ (which posed—and answered—the questions, ‘How could a species selfishly driven only by the need to survive create notions of selfless morality? How does the ‘selfish gene’ theory reconcile with evidence of good in humans? How could a selfish motor create within us a sense of caring, selfless concern for others?’ (p.15)), ‘Consciousness: The Question of Consciousness, What Is It and How did it Emerge – and the Human Condition’ (which concluded, ‘In summary, the processes of nurturing love-indoctrination and the selection by females of non-aggressive, cooperative males as mates not only gave us our moral, instinctive orientation to behaving cooperatively—our soul—it also liberated consciousness in our forebears’ (p.61)), and ‘The Human Condition: The Question of How to Reconcile and Ameliorate Our Estranged, Alienated Human Condition’.

 

While the proposal received over 100 commendations from leading scientists and thinkers, including physicists Professor Stephen Hawking and Nobel Laureate Professor Charles Townes, and engaged Professor Harry Prosen’s ongoing support of these explanations, it did not produce any substantial long-term interest from the scientific community. Some feedback to the proposal revealed just how confronting some scientists find the significance nurturing has played in the development of unconditionally selfless moral instincts in humans, such as ‘Instincts for Self Preservation, Maternal Care and Altruism are basically impossible…​There are such approaches occasionally represented in IJP [International Journal of Primatology], but I hope it is rare’ and ‘the soul is part of our human imagination…​morality is linked to selfishness…​pure altruism does not exist…​nurturing is all about selfishness…​bonobos are an exception in this world. Chimpanzees are more of a model about human origins’.

 

Relevantly, copies (and follow-up emails) were sent to all three authors of the Self-Domestication Hypothesis discussed in FREEDOM: Brian Hare, Victoria Wobber (who was a student under Hare at the time) and Richard Wrangham (who supervised Hare’s PhD); Animal Behaviour journal, the publisher of their paper; and Scientific American and Discover magazines, both of which ran detailed publicity stories on the Self-Domestication Hypothesis in 2012. Animal Behaviour Managing Editor, Dr Angela Turner, replied saying, ‘the Executive Editors and Presidents of the societies are the people you need to contact about this matter. I see from your email that you have sent this appeal to them already so I suggest you await a reply from them’, and Scientific American Editor in Chief, Dr John Rennie, replied saying, ‘Thank you for your offer to contribute to Scientific American. I regret to say that the piece you propose is not suited to our somewhat limited editorial needs.’ While Discover, Wobber and Wrangham did not reply at all, Hare, and his then communication coordinator, now wife and fellow primate researcher Vanessa Woods, did respond, saying, ‘Brian is interested in participating’, then subsequently Hare himself responded saying, ‘I too share your enthusiasm for sharing with others the importance of research on human evolution’, and in a further communiqué, ‘good luck with the project!’

 

In addition, the documentary proposal was sent to all those primatologists listed in FREEDOM who endorse the Social Ecological Model explanation of bonobo cooperation, as well as every relevant journal and organisation, including International Journal of Primatology, American Journal of Primatology, Folia Primatologica, Primates, Evolution and Human Behavior, Human Nature, Science, Nature, Animal Behaviour, Scientific American, Discover Magazine, American Anthropological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Jane Goodall Institute, Leakey Foundation, Wenner-Grenn Foundation, Smithsonian, MacArthur Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Carnegie Institution, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Nuffield Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

  • In 2005 Jeremy submitted a proposal to present a symposium, titled ‘The Citadel Of The Darwinian Revolution—The Biology Of Our Human Condition—At Last Explained’, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in February 2006 Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities, however the proposal was rejected by the Program Committee who stated that it was ‘Not appropriate…Needs extensive revision…Unclear how it will be integrated with other views.’

 

  • Also in 2005 Jeremy submitted an abstract of a paper titled ‘Nurturing as the Prime Mover in Primate Development and Human Origins’ for presentation at the International Primatological Society’s (IPS) 2006 Congress in Uganda (view the IPS submission and subsequent correspondence), but it was rejected on the grounds that ‘Both reviewers felt this abstract presents no data nor a testable hypothesis and is therefore inappropriate for this congress.’ This is the absurd rebuttal that was also used against Darwin’s theory of natural selection when the geologist and bishop Adam Sedgwick, amongst others, said that it was ‘based upon assumptions which can neither be proved nor disproved’ (Sedgwick in a letter to Darwin, 24 Nov. 1859). Despite Jeremy pointing out that his nurturing, love-indoctrination explanation for humans’ moral instincts ‘contains a great deal of supportive evidence in the form of many summaries of data-supported studies of bonobos and other primates by leading primatologists’, and ‘is an entirely testable, validatable hypothesis, as the evidence just described about bonobos shows’, and submitting this protest to the President and 38 members of the IPS Congress Committee (who were all either Officers of the IPS (including Richard Wrangham in his capacity as President of the IPS), or Editorial Board members of the International Journal of Primatology), the rejection was upheld!

 

  • In 2006, in a similar demonstration of intolerance of the nurturing explanation of both humans’ and bonobos’ moral nature, author Jo Sandin was unable to include reference to Jeremy’s nurturing explanation for human and bonobo moral behaviour in her 2007 book about the bonobos at the Milwaukee County Zoo, Bonobos: Encounters in Empathy. In Chapter 5 of her book Sandin did manage to include oblique references to the love-indoctrination explanation, but despite the request of Professor Harry Prosen who is highly respected at the Zoo for being such an effective psychiatric consultant for all their social animals, and despite wanting to herself, Sandin was unable to include the following comment that Harry asked be added at the end of Chapter 5 of her book: ‘In summary, to the fascinating and indeed fundamental question for biologists of how the extraordinary empathy and even altruism we are observing amongst bonobos developed, our observations point to nurturing, maternalism and associated matriarchy as key influences. Certainly our observations do appear to be confirming of the nurturing explanation for empathy and true altruism that was first put forward by the American philosopher John Fiske in 1874 and, more recently, by Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith in his various books, in particular in Part 2 of his 2004 Human Condition Documentary Proposal.’ Jeremy’s work was mentioned in the concluding chapter of Sandin’s book, but the key reference to ‘the nurturing explanation for empathy and altruism’ wasn’t included.

 

  • In 2006 Jeremy’s book The Great Exodus: From the horror and darkness of the human condition was published online. Despite a publicity campaign, including personal emails to many of the scientists who had responded positively to the documentary proposal, including self-domestication hypothesis author Brian Hare, and a condensed version of the book being included as a chapter in the book Living a Life of Value by Jason Merchey, there was no response from the scientific community.

 

  • By 2008 it had become apparent that presenting the biology of the human condition alone, as the documentary proposal had done, is not enough—the problem of confronting the human condition has to be addressed, as does the problem of coping with the exposure of our less-than-ideal condition that understanding of the human condition brings. To cover these additional aspects, in 2008 the World Transformation Movement began production of the Main Videos and video library on the breakthrough understanding of the human condition and the transformed life for humans that it makes possible. Despite becoming available on our website in 2009, and in the highly accessible format of video, there has been little response from the scientific establishment to the Main Videos.

 

  • In 2009 Freedom Expanded, written by Jeremy, was published online, but has not yet generated any real response from the scientific community.

 

 

  • In 2012 the paper ‘The self-domestication hypothesis: evolution of bonobo psychology is due to selection against aggression’ (Animal Behaviour, 2012, Vol.83, No.3) was published by anthropologists Richard Wrangham, Brian Hare and Victoria Wobber—all of whom, as documented above, were made aware of Jeremy’s love-indoctrination explanation for the origins of our and the bonobos’ moral instincts—in which no acknowledgment or even mention of Jeremy’s synthesis was made, despite the paper acknowledging the work of many other researchers in a detailed section on ‘evolutionary explanations for reduced aggressiveness in bonobos relative to that in chimpanzees’. Worse, it would appear that since they were each informed of Jeremy’s synthesis, what they have done is take virtually all the elements from Jeremy’s synthesis—such as the bonobos’ ability to throw light on our origins, and specifically the origins of our morality; that their social groups are much more stable than those of chimpanzees; the role of females in taming male aggression; the liberation of consciousness; the role of self-selection; the neotenising, juvenilisation process; the use of the domestication of dogs and foxes as an illustration of the neotenising, juvenilisation process; the significance of ideal ecological conditions; the use of sex as a device to reduce tension; the reduced dimorphism between the sexes; the reliance of males on their mothers for social standing; the lack of aggression between groups of bonobos; the lack of routine hunting by bonobos, etc, etc—and, leaving out anything to do with nurturing, presented it as ‘A new hypothesis’ (Ed Yong, ‘Tame Theory: Did Bonobos Domesticate Themselves? A new hypothesis holds that natural selection produced the chimpanzee’s nicer cousin in much the same way that humans bred dogs from wolves’, Scientific American, 25 Jan. 2012). While it is extremely irresponsible to ignore and reject world-saving insights into the human condition, it is so, so much worse to actually take those insights and wantonly subvert or misappropriate the truth they contain. If that is indeed the case, and we believe there is no other plausible interpretation, then that is the very greatest of crimes against humanity.

 

  • In 2014, despite the explanation of the human condition that is presented in Jeremy’s books being the fulfilment of the core vision of Geelong Grammar School of cultivating the sensitivity needed to achieve that specific, all-important-if-there-is-to-be-a-future-for-the-human-race task, the school chose not to include an essay on Jeremy’s life’s work that was commissioned by its publishers for possible inclusion in its Corio anniversary book 100 Exceptional Stories which ‘celebrates the lives of 100 exceptional past students’—see www.humancondition.com/​100-exceptional-stories.

 

  • From July to September in 2014 a special edition of Jeremy’s book FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition that was orientated to scientists (it was even given its own title that focused on the very serious plight of the world: IS IT TO BE Terminal Alienation or Transformation For The Human Race?) was sent to 930 leading science organisations, scientists and science commentators in the English-speaking world, including the scientists involved with the main so-called ‘Brain Initiatives’ being established at the time. But despite each copy being accompanied by a personal appeal for support for the book’s insights from Professor Harry Prosen, and Jeremy undertaking two trips to the US and UK to discuss the book with interested scientists and commentators, while there were a few positive responses from individual scientists, our publishers are still waiting for appreciative responses from the scientific establishment.

 

  • Renamed for official publication, FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition was launched in June 2016 at the Royal Geographical Society in London with a keynote speech from Sir Bob Geldof. In preparation for the launch, publicists were retained in North America and the UK. Through their efforts, along with WTM Publishing & Communications’ outreach in the Southern Hemisphere, FREEDOM was sent to over 700 targeted thought leaders and book reviewers/features editors between September 2015 and July 2016.

 

The launch of FREEDOM was supported by a large advertising campaign, which included prominent advertisements in all the major newspapers in the English-speaking world—including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today in the US; The Globe and Mail in Canada; The Times, The Telegraph, The Economist and The Spectator in the UK; The Australian and major state newspapers in Australia; and The New Zealand Herald in New Zealand. Online advertising, with an equally substantial budget to the print campaign, was also carried out in those regions.

 

Despite the huge amount of effort and cost put into FREEDOM’s launch the resulting publicity was sparse, consisting of guest articles by Jeremy in The Irish Times and I-magazine; a very short and superficial but positive review in The Sun newspaper in the UK; an article in New Zealand’s Stuff.co.nz, which was syndicated in print across five regional papers: The Southland Times, The Manawatu Standard, Taranaki Daily News, The Timaru Herald and The Waikato Times; a review in Kirkus Reviews; and reviews in the US’s Midwest Review and its sister site, Small Press Watch.

 

  • From May to July 2019 Jeremy’s article ‘A letter to Millennials’, in which he explained the dangers inherent in the left-wing of politics, was sent to 20 of Australia’s leading right-wing journalists for publication. Despite interested responses from several high-profile journalists, the article was never published.

 

  • In June 2020, the acclaimed British actor and broadcaster, Craig Conway, interviewed Jeremy on British radio about his explanation of the human condition. In this interview Jeremy gave such a succinct presentation of his treatise and its ramifications that it became referred to as THE Interview, and in 2020 was made the feature at the top of the WTM’s home page at www.HumanCondition.com—where it rapidly began attracting great interest and support from the general public, which has continued ever since.

 

  • From March 2021 to July 2021 Professor Harry Prosen emailed over 4,200 thought leaders, journalists, commentators and news outlets around the world to inform them of THE Interview. Professor Prosen’s message explained that ‘I think you will agree we have reached a point in the human journey where we urgently need the breakthrough reconciling, redeeming and rehabilitating insight into the human condition. Well, incredible as it is, an interview with the Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith presenting that world-saving insight, together with praise for his work from scientists like the late Stephen Hawking, can be viewed at www.humancondition.com. Please will you help me bring this critical understanding of the human condition to the attention of the world by watching the interview, then, if astonishingly impressed, as I’m certain you will be, promoting Griffith’s work.’ Professor Prosen received numerous responses, but no significant follow through resulted.

 

  • From April 2021 to July 2021 Professor Harry Prosen organised for articles he had written about FREEDOM to be sent to over 300 magazines, newspapers and publishers around the English-speaking world. Despite significant purported interest, this effort resulted in two reviews being published in The Montréal Review, a prestigious international online magazine whose contributors include Pulitzer Prize winners, thought leaders and opinion makers, world-class journalists and academics. The first review was titled ‘The Psychological Rehabilitation Of The Human Race Through Understanding The Human Condition’, which appeared in the July/August 2021 issue; and the article’s sequel, ‘Leaving Plato’s Cave’, which appeared in the September/​October 2021 issue. Given Professor Prosen was a Canadian by birth it was highly fitting that his endorsement of Jeremy’s work now appears in one of Canada’s most respected journals.

 

  • In April 2022 Tim Macartney-Snape, AM OAM, sent hardcopies of THE Interview and Jeremy’s book about the danger of the left-wing, Death by Dogma, to over 130 editors, magazines, newspapers and publishers around the world. Tim’s cover letter explained that ‘The rise of support for left-wing ideology, group-think, and the censoring of opposing views are all dire warnings that the very real and present danger facing the human race is not environmental or pathogenic catastrophe but a descent into nihilism and the prospect of tyrannical rule – the end play scenario for the human condition. I’ve been a long-standing supporter of Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith’s breakthrough explanation of the human condition which precisely predicts this and offers the only solution that gives us a path out of this predicament…I very much hope that you can make the effort to look at this material because the human condition is the underlying problem in all human affairs that had to be solved for all this madness to be effectively addressed.’ But despite this entreaty nothing has yet resulted.

 

  • In 2020 the WTM began extensive advertising of THE Interview to the general public around the world on the internet. This advertising has continued to build a base of real interest and global support from the general public for Jeremy’s treatise. Indeed, it has been so successful that the WTM’s Facebook Group, which was established in October 2020, now at the end of 2023 has over 55,000 members. This online advertising has also resulted in (by the end of 2023) the formation of almost 70 WTM Centres around the world.

 

Basically, it is through the general public that the WTM is finally building a significant base of support for Jeremy’s human-race-saving understandings of the human condition. This support is so enthusiastic and growing so steadily that the WTM believes it won’t be long before the scientific community will finally have to properly study and then recognise the importance of Jeremy’s breakthrough synthesis.

 

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