How can we integrate all the different dimensions of life?

1. Value systems: survival, tribal, power, truth, pragmatism, pluralism, systemic and holistic

2. Masculine and feminine

3. Left and right; liberal and conservative

4. Individualist, patriotic, pluralistic and global

5. Mind, body and spirit

6. Right and left brain

7. Gut, heart, brain and mind

8. Reason, experience

9. Individual and group

10. Faith, science and doubt

11. Truth, scepticism and complexity

12. Objective and subjective

13. Wisdom, judgement, instinct, intuition and reason, logic and empiricism

14. The conscious, unconscious, semi-conscious

15. The socially acceptable and the taboo

Put simply, we used to think in one dimension, black or white, true and false, good and bad. Then we viewed complexity through a diversity of perspectives and shades of grey. Now, our task is to integrate the best, most useful and most constructive strands of each of those dimension for tackling any particular task or situation. Our own personal preferred values and world views arise from our upbringing, culture, education, influences and life experiences. As a result, we make many false distinctions. In psychiatry, we make the distinction between mind, body and spirit and the social world. In reality, those boundaries don’t exist. In politics we divide ourselves into left and right, liberal and conservative. Some of us use our minds and our logic more than we use our intuition, heart and gut feelings. We are both individuals and groups. Faith and science are not as distinct as we like to think. Science rests upon assumptions in which we have faith. Religion uses evidence, reason and doubt. We can only find truth if we use doubt and scepticism wisely. If we have no doubt or scepticism, we can’t possibly find the truth. If we believe the truth absolutely, we have lost our doubt and scepticism. We can’t be purely objective because we are subjective. We can’t be purely subjective because we are partly objective. Logic alone is stupid. Judgement and emotion without reason is blind. Science without wisdom is not science. We present who we say we are to the world while we hide those parts of ourselves of which we are ashamed, embarrassed or unconscious.