Decades of dedicated research in psychology have discovered some interesting insights:
1. A large range of external behaviour is learnt phenomena, something we pick up through imitation and continue by habit and positive (and sometimes negative) reinforcements.
2. External behaviour can be changed. This is one of the most useful observations. So what is learnt can be unlearnt, even re-learnt.
3. A host of factors, environmental, parental, social, cultural and other significant influences, go into the moulding of our psychological lives. Even genetics, heredity and the biological basis of the brain, provide a nurturing ground for our patterns of thought, feelings and actions. Yet they do not explain many things.
4. Our conscious thoughts and impulses are often controlled and regulated by unconscious forces and motives.
There is a need, however, to expand the scope of these discoveries to take the frontiers of psychology beyond a mere extrapolation from animal experiments to future possibilities. Thus, with regard to learning and conditioning, we have to question whether learning is the process of an individual’s lifetime or extends beyond it. Is the mind of a newborn truly a blank page or is it a ground with already sown seeds of consciousness? So too with regard to behavioural change. We have to discover whether behaviour can be manipulated exclusively through external methods or are there more powerful ways and means inside us to change ourselves? Do we have untapped faculties and resources that can radically change us in a deep and lasting way? We also have to question the bias towards genetics and biology in interpreting our behaviour. Are they a cause or merely an effect of deeper patterns, a means chosen and used by a deeper consciousness within us for certain immediate purposes? Finally, are these unconscious forces only a repository of our animal instincts or the luminous visitations of a growing god?
Man is covertly linked to the whole creation. Hiding behind his facade, as base and support, is the body of the entire earth. What is however not yet recognised and understood by psychologists is that man’s unconscious holds in itself not only the atavism of the past, the influences of his physical and psychological environment, but also his future, that enters from the open doors of the Beyond. His thoughts, feelings and actions are not only pushed by the lingering beasts and phantom ghosts of his earthly subconscient past, but also inspired and initiated by an emerging evolutionary future. Man is not just a humanised beast but also a chained god. The supreme and most significant contribution of a Future Psychology would be to teach man the means and methods not only to master the beast in him but also free the imprisoned god. The old psychology served as a bridge between man’s past and present. The new psychology will serve as a bridge between man’s actual present and his future potential.
