There is a common misconception in many parts of the world that society is improving. “Hey, we don’t draw and quarter people in the public square anymore,” goes that common wisdom. “We’ve got central heating and watch on demand.”

Yes, we do. We’ve also got very sophisticated killing machines, and for all our vaunted technological forensic wizardry there are still some disturbingly unanswered questions about 9-11.

I could make a strong case for us not advancing much at all in some fundamental aspects of what it means to be human – especially if we compare ourselves to the first humans described in the folklore of all peoples in earth.

Development of society from misery to relative abundance for all is more than a misconception – it’s wrong in a fundamental sense because we come hard-wired for peace and justice and goodness, and the hows and whys we act against that basic programming deserve more consideration. “We’re good but choose to act bad” is very different from “we’re bad but we’re getting better.”

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Way back in English Lit class at Reynolds High School in my hometown of Victoria, I remember Mrs. Kent waxing rhapsodically about Milton‘s Paradise Lost, and asking us if we believed in paradise regained.

I, with my thoughts on the basketball game that night against arch-rivals, Oak Bay, thought she was a bit loopy. But something must have got through for I’ve found myself not infrequently since reflecting on that very question.

I have never felt completely comfortable in society as it’s been elaborated, and yearned not only for something better, but for how I might play a part in improving it. And it is this, of course, that’s led me to Brazil and the profound work of Dr. Norberto Keppe.

Because, I’m happy to report, there is in this science of psycho-socio pathology, both a sublime analysis of how we painted ourselves into such a tight corner, and a therapy to help us get out. If we apply Keppe’s findings, we have a chance.

Paradise Now and the Universal Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.

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Welcome to Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head. Martin Luther King foretold of a promised land. Thoreau wrote of a transcendent time when wise men would ennoble the population. Thomas More dreamed his utopia. Lennon imagined all the people living life in peace.

The dream of a better society doesn’t easily vacate the human heart. In all ages, from all continents, come dreamers with their inner vision turned outward or upward, hopeful of a time when all men and women would be free. And this vision has been sanctified in documents and constitutions and even poetry.

Mystics and prophets and artists have convoked and lamented. And we should ask, “Why?”  Why does this impossible dream persist? Perhaps because we, all of us, know, in our quiet moments, in the deepest parts of our souls, that it’s not impossible. That, as Blake wrote, we should “live in eternity’s sunrise.”

Hope for a better society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.

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Any who’ve listened to this program for any length of time will know that I’m not much for relativity. As in, relative truth. Although that’s a new stance for me, picked up over my 11 years of work at Norberto Keppe‘s International Society of Analytical Trilogy in Brazil.

“I have my truth, and you have yours,” is a pretty common point of view from the New Age Movement, which seeks validation from the proposals of quantum physics that there’s an unlimited offering of possibilities before us, and it’s our choice that determines which one becomes reality.

It’s an enticing idea: I am a co-creator of the Universe and therefore essential to its evolution.

Except that this idea disappears in the spotlight of Keppean metaphysics that proclaims that we are complete beings, not becomings at all. That we are, not that we are on the way.

This holds true for society as well. Society has an essential and perfect nature that we have degraded considerably. Although now, we have a science to help us return to the natural state.

Healthy Communities and Society’s Immune System, today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.

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When analyzing the crises in society, it is customary to lay blame on a wide array of doorsteps. There’s corporate malfeasance, of course, and political ineptitude and general aptitude, to name a few. And back of them all is the corrupting influence of money and greed.

And that’s about as far as we normally get. A few of the more strident truth seekers draw a bigger circle and follow the trail to the secret organizations pulling the levers and flipping the switches from high level strategy sessions behind the scenes.

But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone point the finger at the dominance of mathematics as a crucial flaw in our philosophical underpinnings. That’s exactly what Norberto Keppe does in his magnificent work. Reading Keppe’s book, Sociopathology, will be a slap in the face to calculus geeks and binary nerds of any nationality. And a breath of fresh air to any of us who need our cell phone calculators to divide up the lunch bill.

This is a complex analysis Keppe embarks on, and we’ll launch off on the initial forays into the territory today.

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We who spend our lives in so-called First World countries have little idea how we got that way. We grow up in the lap of relative luxury and are not stimulated to question the luck of the birth lottery that had us being born where we were.

And as we grow up in that protected crucible, we seldom stop to question the system that gives us relative everything while millions more in other less privileged parts of our globe go without. Far from questioning, actually – we scramble frantically to carve out our little corner of paradise whee we can hunker down with families and fireplaces and frequent flyer miles in isolation so complete we rarely think about those little details like social injustice or economic imperialism.

In spite of giving a nod to the global imbalance through our sophisticated recycling programs, financial support to Third World charities and wholesome bike lanes, we don’t want to rock the boat that much. In fact, it’s safe to say the blame for our world’s social crises can be partly laid at out feet.

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I remember the day it fully dawned on me that the path society was on was a dead end. I was on the train from Rhinebeck, NY to Toronto – a beautiful but tedious journey with only vestiges of the former romance of train travel to keep me company. I was settled in with snacks and bottled water and ample reading material to fill the long 10 hours or so ahead of me.

My book of choice at that time was Norberto Keppe‘s Liberation of the People: The Pathology of Power, and I felt myself changing as I read.

Or maybe it wasn’t a change as much as a recognition. T.S. Eliot spoke about how at the end of all our exploring we would arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time – and that perhaps comes closer to how I felt. It was like a recognition in Keppe’s writing of something I also knew to be true but had forgotten.

Keppe’s great book does that – reawakens our idealism and gives us a glimpse of the new society that’s possible. And all this can happen because Keppe helps disinvert us and get us back on track.

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We have some essential consciousness on our program today about what’s necessary to create a true society. Something idealists have strived to create for centuries, with little success.

I showed Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job documentary to some friends on the weekend. And watched their heads nod knowingly. These are pretty astute analysts down here of the social situation. They’re students and teachers with me of Dr. Norberto Keppe’s scientific studies into the psycho-social causes of our life-threatening problems on the planet. They were not surprised at the facts really, but they were very impressed at how Ferguson put all the complexity into a coherent package. This is well done.

Down here in Brazil, we receive the TNT channel in our cable TV package, and I’m flabbergasted at how many times the Harry Potter or Jason Bourne blockbusters are run. They repeat constantly. I think Inside Job should be on that kind of rotation.

But I also think Dr. Keppe’s TV shows should get more airing, too. Not sure if you even knew about his TV shows, but we have a number of excerpts on our site for you to see really remarkable new media. With considerable philosophical, theological and scientific teeth. Because in all the brilliance displayed in Inside Job, I still think it suffers from a lack of understanding of the science of psycho-socio pathology that Keppe brings. I feel most social activism falls into this trap actually. And this is the science we expose in our show. We’ll do that again today.

Consciousness to Transform Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.

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Normally we see a person with serious problems we recommend professional help. After all, we go to the gym to keep our bodies toned, we go to the driving range. Why wouldn’t we do something to address those psychological glitches that pop up in all of us?

But what do we do when our whole society is showing signs of breakdown?

Keppe’s Analytical Trilogy goes to the root of the problem, which is always something deep inside us, hidden from view. This is true deep psychology, often helping us see clearly for the first time long-standing issues that have been blocking us from achieving what we feel we have the potential to achieve. And who doesn’t feel that? And after Norberto Keppe himself, Dr. Claudia Pacheco is the best in the world at helping people at this deep level. So this radio program will be very cool. To have a chance to listen to her weekly will be a great opportunity to address some of the core issues of human beings … and you’ll be able to call in personally with individual questions and issues.

One of the applications of Keppe’s work is in the area of social psychology – analyzing the society as we would a person’s neurosis. And why not? The corporation’s been given the same rights as a human being through some decision of Congress way back along the way. As the Federal Reserve – a mostly private institution – was created by Congress back in the early 1900s, even though they had no constitutional basis to do so. So why wouldn’t we hold society’s systems up to scrutiny?

In fact, we must. I noticed in the N.Y. Times earlier this week that European and North American political leaders admit they may not be willing to fulfill their commitments to cap harmful carbon emissions or phase out polluting factories because of the slumping economy. A European Commission spokeswoman said, “Investing in reducing emissions is more difficult to do in times of economic downturn.”

This is simply hard to believe, isn’t it? How in 2008 can we make decisions based on profits over the environment? Hard to believe unless you understand about Inversion, Keppe’s seminal psychological discovery. Keppe says in his beautiful book, Glorification, “Inversion, sickness, is the act of rejecting life, labeling it as bad; it is the attitude of denying truth, “seeing” it as negative; it is the wish to alter reality, “believing” it to be harmful – all because of the great envy, the enormous envy, we feel toward the Creator. We want to take His place by substituting what is fictitious for what is real, and we are assailed by the most terrible anxiety. If we were thankful for what is good we would be happy, but we constantly destroy all that is sound in ourselves because it was not created by any decision of our own.”

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