Negotiating a Tumultuous World

We live in an ever-changing world where uncertainty seems to be increasing. We have major conflicts playing out in Ukraine and the Middle East. Western countries are facing cultural stress largely due to the burgeoning rates of migration of Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa. Our culture is also challenged by the left […]

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Our Undue Expectations of Happiness

Malcolm Fraser was a pretty uninspiring Prime Minister. Most of us remember him for two things. Firstly he was once discovered wandering around in the foyer of a hotel in the USA in his underpants! Secondly, and somewhat more profound, he once proclaimed that, “Life wasn’t meant to be easy.” Whether he was aware of […]

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Some Home Economics Fundamentals

My interest was piqued recently when reading the letters to the Editor in The Australian newspaper when someone wrote: The two must haves for young families today, a home and childcare are being kept out of reach of ordinary young Australians by unreasonable profit margins. The writer (rightfully) bemoaned the fact that a socialist government […]

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Time on Our Hands

As I have often written, time is such a difficult subject, but nonetheless a fascinating one. But in this essay I want to direct my reader’s attention to another fascinating issue about time. It is the notion of the benefit of “Spare Time”. The traditional Protestant ethic would suggest that having spare time is surely […]

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Why Are Things The Way They Are?


One of the most fundamental questions that science or philosophy can pose is, “Why are things as they are.” The answer that science would give us is that there exist immutable laws that shape the universe. These laws are uniformly applied throughout the universe and are invariant over time. But that avoids the question that […]

December 29, 2010

The Gnostics


There has always been a certain mystery surrounding the Gnostics. Modern novels such as Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” and films such as “The Matrix” have drawn on some of the mystical beliefs of Gnosticism. My essay this week will try to throw a little light on the little known and seemingly greatly misunderstood, Gnostics. […]

December 20, 2010

Blind Faith


We have been told many times in popular songs and popular literature that “love is blind”. This phenomenon is easy enough to understand. Our hormones dispose to become so attached to our idealization of our beloved that rationality is pushed aside. It is only when relationships really mature that we realize that we can love […]

December 16, 2010

Where Are We Headed


Predicting the future is an activity fraught with danger. And lacking the confidence of Nostradamus, I won’t even try. But I can at least give you some thoughts about various areas of human endeavour that I believe need to be tracked very closely. But even there I am in a quandary. For many issues extrapolating […]

December 10, 2010

A Dream of Brahman


In the beginning there was Brahman. In the end, which might have been perceived differently but was essentially still the same, there was Brahman too. And all there was, is and ever will be is Brahman or manifestations of Brahman. Brahman thought, “Here I am – everything, all-encompassing, all-pervasive, with no end and nothing unknown. […]

November 28, 2010

How We Perceive the World


“Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based on our perceptions. What we perceive depends on what we look for. What we look for depends on what we think. What we think depends on what we perceive. What we perceive […]

November 16, 2010

A Little More Time


You have no doubt often heard someone say, “Are you finished yet?” And the rejoinder comes, “No, not just yet. Just give me a little more time.” What could we possibly mean by this? If you asked for a little more water, a little more bread, a little more sympathy or even a little more […]

November 9, 2010

Is Depression a Biological Adaptation?


October, for some reason, has been designated depression and anxiety month. I have done a few interviews trying to promote my new book, “Yu, The Dragon Tamer.” Although the book is about mental illness, it has little to do about depression. But, because, I suppose, interviewers have to attach their interviews to various fashionable “hooks” […]

November 1, 2010

A TRI-PARTITE MODEL OF HUMANITY


What we are about to propose here, is a third model of humanity. This model is distinct from the other two models, the Determinist model and the Rationalist/ Humanist model. (This model was developed by Dr Phil Harker and first articulated as part of his PhD thesis.) In common with all physical life on the […]

October 27, 2010

Coming to Grips with Stress


There seems to be an epidemic of stress. More and more individuals are claiming to be suffering from it. Organisations are going to great lengths to try and insulate themselves from stress claims which are becoming costlier and costlier. Overall, as a result, our society is paying a great price, from the dysfunction in organisations […]

October 20, 2010