Publications:
David Monheit,
Author / photographer
“ There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so”, observes Hamlet, who further adds that “there are more things in heaven and earth.. than are dreamt of in … philosophy”. The poetic wisdom of Hamlet describes two facts that are fundamental to the human experience; whatever reality is believed is dependent on the mind, and yet the mind itself is capable of recognizing but a miniscule piece of the universe.
The universe does not speak; it is. It is a reality that has no absolute ontological existence, meaning, or purpose. It contains no innate principles, categories, philosophies, or explanations. What it does provide are the phenomena—the substrate for the human mind to create them. All the multifarious traditions, practices, myths, and explanations, past and present, which together are human civilization, represent the range of interpretations that have so far occurred to the human brain. Despite their dissimilarities of form and content, they are all related to the fundamental need for man to create a coherency and meaning in a world that inherently lacks them.
From its inception, the mind has sought to allay the helplessness and fear in a world pervaded by terrifying , mysterious and unrelenting forces. It appears that there are many truths, but no “Truth.” “Reality” is a convenient hypothesis, constructed from selected observations, subjectively arranged by the mind. Which is to say that throughout the history of our species different minds have created different realities, each and every one fervently believed. The two books offered here provide a doorway for a unique look at Truths and Realities. Both books are based on the assumption that the metaphysical mind is an aspect of the physical brain, which itself is a particular expression of universal principles which connect us to the cosmos.
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Reality stems from the mind and the mind constructs its reality based on specific schema which recognize and organize certain information while ignoring other data. This results in coherent, plausible, but incomplete conceptions of reality. There have been two principle schemata of modern civilization: one associated with the West, originating in Greece and the other originating in the East, associated with India and China. This book first discusses the brain and the mind, and then elucidates in detail how the cultures of the West and East, using different parts and potentials of the brain, developed minds which have created different realities.
The axiomatic convictions of West and East are demonstrated and illuminated in the discussion of the history, practice, and perspective of psychoanalysis and martial arts. While inherently interesting in their own right, these practices provide tangible evidence of the abstract, metaphysical, generally unrecognized axioms which determine our lives.
Issac’s Children; The Myth of Judaism and the Evolution of the Mind
explores the unconscious origins of Judaism, its beliefs and rituals, from a secular mythical and psychological perspective. Shedding light on its fervent beliefs and rituals, Judaism is deeply explored, not only as a unique religion, but in its pivotal role in the evolution of the collective mind. In so doing, Judaism is seen as the vanguard of a revolutionary new way of thinking that sought to supplant the older mode that had determined the reality for humans to that time. In order to do so, it is necessary to first recognize the importance and the workings of the unconscious mind and their relationship to myth.
Using the concepts of identity, narrative, and dogma, the Torah is recognized as reflecting, not only the particular tribal history and rituals of the Israelites, but the evolution and development of both the collective and individual mind. Hidden with the Torah are the hidden remnants of the tortuous emergence of our modern way of thinking and our current state of consciousness.
The book also sheds light on the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is having a tremendous influence that threateningly extends far beyond the principal combatants. The conflict has multiple layers, but today’s military and political leaders seem only aware of the more superficial. The general ignorance of the fundamental causes of this conflict precludes any possibility of a resolution. The origins of the contemporary conflict are 3000 years old, buried deep within the unconscious, irrational mind. The contemporary animosity between Israel and the Palestinians began as a battle between the Bronze Age feminine/goddess fertility religion of the Canaanites and the emerging masculine/god martial religion of the Israelites; each are associated with different parts of the brain and mind. A discussion of the emergence of Christianity from Judaism offers a compelling explanation for the two-thousand-year-old, virulent Christian anti-Semitism. Antisemitism is discovered to have a powerful psychological cause, the very existence of Jews threatening the fundamental foundation of Pauline faith.
