Bill Harvey
The Human Effectiveness Institute
November 20, 2021
I. Requirements of a Complete Psychology
In physics, a Complete Physics would be one in which a single overarching theory reconciles space, time, matter, energy, consciousness, quantum theory, and relativity.
In psychology, a Complete Psychology would need to explain the relationships among:
- Consciousness – qualia, subjective experience
- If they exist, what are Freud’s id, ego, and superego? Can we each experience them?
- How Consciousness fits into the Complete Physics
- Brain – electromagnetism and chemistry related to qualia
- Behavior – predictions confirmed to substantiate theory
- Motivations – deduced from content consumed per Research Measurement Technologies RMT method (explained in III below)
- Verbal Statements – attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, mindsets, etc.
- States Of Consciousness – sleep state, waking state, Observer state/meditation, peak experience, Flow state, spiritual experience
- Jung’s Four Functions of Consciousness: thinking, feeling, perception and intuition
- Behaviors of Consciousness – sleep, association of memories, imagination, empathy, prayer, potentially telepathy, potentially precognition, introspection, meditation, concentration, contemplation, metacognition, metaprogramming oneself by metacognition
II. Overview of Development of the Field
We have been thinking primitively about all of these subjects since before language, and much more since then. The earliest writings on Earth were time-binding songs before there was written language, and focused on ideas about the self and its possible origin (the Vedas) combining psychology and philosophy.
Greek philosophy demystified these ideas into the foundational epistemological ways of present-day science.
All the sciences including psychology made excellent progress since the Renaissance, despite some detours, and general avoidance of the topic of consciousness except among psychologists. Even some psychologists defined the voices in the head as being an epiphenomenon which only assumed that it was in control of the actions of the body, but was really just along for the ride (predeterminism having been around for thousands of years).
Since Freud and Jung, psychology and neuroscience have both been fruitful, producing Maslow and Csikszentmihalyi. The latter’s work has been focused on the psychologies of success rather than upon the psychologies of illness.
III. The Human Effectiveness Institute
The founder of The Human Effectiveness Institute (THEI) was self-taught. In the sense that he (Bill Harvey) was metacognitive from a very early age. He realized that he wasn’t in full control of his actions and constantly studied himself. He intuited possible solutions to gain better control of himself and tested them. At age 30 he codified the rules he had given himself until then. The book MIND MAGIC went on to become used by 34 universities and by two branches of the US military.
The purpose of THEI is to improve human decision making by investigating how decisions are made at the most granular level, and how the internal processes can be improved.
In parallel, Harvey is an innovator in the media industry, and one of his innovations produced a genome of human motivations which THEI has incorporated (see I.6 above).
IV. Experimental Phase
RMT’s psychological taxonomy has been validated by four well-known independent research companies (Nielsen, Simmons, Neustar, 605). RMT is predictive of the outcomes of advertising campaigns, and is predictive of the cancellation vs. renewal of television series.
The success of RMT’s contribution to the framework of a Complete Psychology to come, as proven by experimentation, led back to the idea of conducting experiments to measure the effects of the book MIND MAGIC, which had always been a long-range goal (see I.5 above).
THEI is now proposing to collaborate with universities to conduct these experiments and to co-publish the findings. Csikszentmihalyi’s classic case study with the University of Chicago hockey team is the model. The outcome measures may be win ratios, student grades, or whatever the school recommends in each specific case.
Read a more complete description of the proposed test.
Please email us for further information. [bill@humaneffectivenessinstitute.org]
