Transcript of Sophie Paradis’s
WTM Ottawa Centre video
(To learn more about Sophie, see www.wtmottawa.com)
Hi! My name is Sophie. I am 27 years old [in the year 2020] and I originally come from a small town about an hour east of Ottawa, Canada’s Capital.
Just to start off with a little bit of information about myself. I grew up speaking three languages, English, German and French; I lived and studied in Ottawa for three years; I have a Bachelor of International Business from Carlton University in Ottawa, and went on to obtain a Master of Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; and I now work as the Head of Key Account Service for a company that offers a multitude of different business services for international companies ranging from things like product management to IT solutions; and I am very thrilled to be opening a World Transformation Movement Centre in Ottawa and to have this opportunity to talk to you about my motivations for opening a WTM Centre, and also why I with the utmost certainty know that Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith’s ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation for the human condition is key to ending all the suffering in the world.
I came across Jeremy’s explanation for the human condition about three and a half years ago somewhat incidentally. At the time, my fiancé, Gerald, and his best friend, had just finished reading Jeremy’s book FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, and I would listen in to their enthusiastic conversations regarding the explanation, and how it made sense of the world and human behaviour.
I have to admit that initially I found it quite difficult to comprehend what they were talking about, which is an issue Jeremy addresses, namely called the ‘deaf effect’. At the time I was not necessarily looking for any answers to help me better grasp why us humans are the way we are—why we are capable of being so selfish, egocentric and destructive rather than behaving cooperatively, lovingly and selflessly? I wasn’t necessarily looking for any answers to help me better understand our contradictory behaviour.
With time, however, I began to slowly make sense of their discussions as well as understand why I had avoided these types of questions, and the topic of the human condition, essentially for the large majority of my life. With a little bit of perseverance, patience and support I was at last starting to break through the deaf effect and finally starting to grasp the explanation. Simultaneously I had the added benefit of witnessing the incredible relief and happiness the explanation brought to Gerald’s life. Watching him on a daily basis become more secure in himself and in these understandings was incredibly inspiring. It was a mixture of these two occurrences that sparked my motivation to continue persevering with Jeremy’s explanation and have a look at Jeremy’s book FREEDOM for myself.
It was then while reading FREEDOM that it became glaringly obvious to me that the human condition is in fact the underlying problem in all of human affairs. FREEDOM explains in an unbelievably compassionate and accountable way why we humans are the way we are, and while doing so, it establishes the goodness of every human on this planet at a fundamental level. So for the first time in my life I could make sense of the world, and human behaviour, including my own.
As you can imagine, on a personal level, finally being able to compassionately understand all the turmoil occurring around me in the world, as well as within myself, has been incredibly relieving. What is far more relieving and exciting however, is that with the true explanation of the human condition finally found, we are finally equipped to solve all the world’s problems at its source and save the world!
Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to take a look at Jeremy Griffith‘s biological explanation of the human condition for themselves. I must mention that on humancondition.com you will find plenty of videos, essays and podcasts which delve into Jeremy‘s explanation of the human condition, as well as Jeremy’s book FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, and a shorter summary thereof, entitled Transform Your Life And Save The World, which are all freely available to enjoy.
A French version of this video, as well as in the future, further French content, will be made available on the WTM Ottawa page; and if you would like to get in contact with the Ottawa Centre, contact information can be found on the Contact webpage. I very much look forward to hearing from you.