The Human Journey Project

The Sufi Teaching Story For thousands of years, the Sufis have been using carefully constructed "teaching stories" to stimulate and stabilize an expanded consciousness.

An article by the late Afghan writer Idries Shah on the original purpose and little-known technical craft of storytelling for awakening human consciousness. bit.ly/3VjPebe

Given the unreliability of economic forecasts, is there a way to make our predictions in economics a little more accurate, or, at the very least, more useful? bit.ly/43kWt5Z

The Teaching Story - A Unique Literary Form In some cultures, traditional stories or “fairy tales” have several functions spanning entertainment to the refinement of perception.

In some cultures, especially those of the Middle East, stories or ‘fairy tales’ have several functions. Beyond providing entertainment, inculcating morals, and passing on culture, they also provide the basis for more advanced instruction later in life. bit.ly/4oRprCH

Our Dollar, Your Problem An American economist explains why the primacy of the US dollar has endured, while its future remains untenable owing to the debt crisis.

In OUR DOLLAR, YOUR PROBLEM Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University professor and former chief economist at the IMF, explains why the primacy of the US dollar has endured for so long, while its future remains highly untenable. bit.ly/3LmLtPf

A meta-story is a special kind of narrative. It conveys overarching insights and a bigger picture beyond the explicit tale presented. The most impactful meta-stories accustom the reader's mind to an alternate consciousness: one that is illogical, incongruous, and timeless. bit.ly/3uEYCvg

A Greek Island’s First Settlers Weren’t Human An archaeological dig on Naxos is overturning our assumptions about who Neanderthals were — and how they differed from Homo sapiens

New discoveries on the Greek island of Naxos, long thought to be uninhabited until around 7,000 years ago, is rewriting assumptions about human and Neanderthal migration, navigation and life in the Aegean. bit.ly/3W4pyhW

Can we move beyond the common human tendency to think in largely dualistic terms? The wellbeing of our societies, and even their survival, may in part, depend on it. bit.ly/3RZneWK

Although the subject of pronouns are today most associated with that strange identity fixation of the culture wars, for linguists their more normal use hold keys to understanding concealed aspects of our psychology and social relations. bit.ly/46Tmr1h

The Science of Storytelling Humans are hardwired for stories, which have served as diverse functions as encoding survival information to cultivating higher perception.

“Stories are actually a form of technology. They are tools that were designed by our ancestors to alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, kindle creativity, spark courage and meet a variety of other psychological challenges of being human.” bit.ly/3IvGgQo

For much of human history, storytelling was a spoken art. But millennia of dynamic and ever-evolving oral storytelling eventually succumbed, in different times and places, to the new tool of writing. That rendered the spoken storytelling experience as static and fixed in time. bit.ly/49o5QCJ

Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn. But in a rapidly changing world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to question our assumptions, rethink our beliefs, and change our minds. bit.ly/46K1CFJ

The Future of Batteries…and the Future of Energy Batteries help to power the clean energy transition. But the current technology, along with several other challenges, has them falling short.

Batteries power the clean energy transition, but current technology is falling short. Breakthroughs in chemistry, design, and policy will decide how quickly better batteries arrive, and how much they reshape our energy future. bit.ly/42eoLyn

For most of human history, stories were spoken or sung, playing a vital role in the transmission of cultural, historical, and mythological knowledge, while providing a primary means of entertainment, education, and preserving the collective memory of the community bit.ly/4bHR6QP

What is it about stories that enables them to work as they do? To understand where stories come from, and why they are crucial to human life, we need to travel back at least 500,000 to long before the birth of our own species. bit.ly/4bHwcS2

Perception of Colors—and the Words We Use to Describe Them How different language communities describe and classify colors reveals the small differences in how they perceive the world around them.

The way in which different cultures describe and classify colors reveals differences in how they perceive the world. It also might help us better understand and navigate the increasingly polarized nature of our conversations, globally, into the future. bit.ly/4hwhsXB

In ‘The Teachers of Gurdjieff’, author Rafael Lefort traverses the Middle East and Central Asia in a quest to uncover the legacy of a famous early 20th century mystic. What he finds instead is a lot of commentary about the real meaning, and methodology, of spirituality. bit.ly/4aHMQ2f

Social media is engineering amnesia

Why you can remember a book you read last year but can't remember what you saw on social media yesterday.

In his book ‘The Righteous Mind’ social psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows how the moral judgements that determine our contending politics arise not from reason, but from gut feelings. He also explains why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. bit.ly/3RdQZUU

Decades after Ornstein and Ehrlich published ‘New World New Mind,’ arguing the need for “conscious evolution”—for humanity to deliberately up its game—are there any indications we are heeding their call? Or is it simply: new world, same mind? humanjourney.us/.../new-worl...

In Fluke, political scientist Brian Klaas explores the phenomenon of random chance and the outsize impact it has on shaping the future. Our latest review by @melraff.bsky.social bit.ly/4eNiKOd

Proto-Indo-European: The World's Parent Language One parent language, Proto-Indo-European, likely spawned many tongues spoken by 3 billion people. But the evidence is inferred, not direct.

There is consensus that one common parent language spawned all tongues in the Indo-European language group—spoken by over 3 billion people. But that parent language, Proto-Indo-European, is known more through inference than direct evidence. The latest post from our Field Notes blog. bit.ly/407YIIf

Desalination and the Global Water Crisis: A Complicated Solution Port Stanvac Desalination Plant under construction, South Australia. Source: Wikimedia Commons Freshwater reserves are shrinking while climate pressures rise, and desalination is gaining ground as a p...

Desalination is gaining ground as a potential long-term strategy to address shrinking freshwater reserves. It’s important to examine the capabilities, limitations, and impacts of this high-tech process—and the factors that will shape its viability as a global solution.

Looking Up, Looking Out Exploring wider contexts alters our perceptions and reframes, more healthily, how we view ourselves in respect to the bigger picture.

David Sobel MD suggests that exploring wider contexts not only alters our perceptions in general, but also reframes more healthily how we regard ourselves in respect to the bigger picture.

What AI Can't and Shouldn't Replace As AI use grows, so too does the idea of the robots "taking over”. But its dangers may lie more in its impact on our minds and culture.

As artificial intelligence grows in leaps and bounds, so too does the idea that “the robots are taking over”. But as Ella Jane Mortensen writes, the dangers of AI may lie as much in their impact on our minds and culture. Our latest from the Field Notes. bit.ly/4n0CyRY