Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Recovery from alcohol addiction through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

Cocaine Anonymous (CA) Recovery from cocaine addiction through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

Crystal Meth Anonymous Recovery from crystal meth addiction through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

Dual Recovery Anonymous Recovery from joint chemical dependence & emotional/psychiatric illness through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

Marijuana Anonymous Recovery from marijuana addiction through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

Narcotics Anonymous (NA) Recovery from drug addiction through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

SMART Recovery 4-Point Program helps people recover from all types of addictive behaviors by teaching how to change self-defeating thinking, emotions, & actions.

Al-Anon Family Groups Helps family and friends recover from the effects of someone else's drinking through a 12-step program including regular attendance at group meetings.

Nar-Anon Helps family and friends of addicts recover from the effects of living with an addicted relative or friend.

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SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

Self Help

Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas

Welcome to the Lehigh County Online Self Help Center.

This site provides answers to some commonly asked questions concerning legal procedures in Pennsylvania. This site does not provide legal advice. This site is designed to help you find information, work better with an attorney and represent yourself in some legal matters. The forms provided here are specific to Lehigh County. If you represent yourself, you are called a "pro se" or "self-represented" litigant.

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General Instructions For Pro Se Parties

There are complex rules of law that everyone who comes to court must follow. You must follow these rules even though you are not a lawyer because the rules exist to provide an orderly process to reach a fair conclusion. Click here

Expungement of Record

Expungement of Record is the process by which the record of a criminal conviction is destroyed or sealed. Only certain types of charges may be expunged.

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Filing for Child Custody

Forms and instructions for filing for child custody are available both in person and on line. Select and complete the forms you need from this website, and take them to Family Court Administration, Room 325 between 12:15 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. daily. You will be a given date and time for a mediation or conciliation conference before filing your papers with the Clerk of Judicial Records.

Get Child Custody Self Help

Filing for Divorce

Name Change

Name change in Pennsylvania is a judicial procedure which allows an individual to assume a name other than the name given at birth or adoption.

Get Name Change Self Help

Disclaimer The forms and instructions that are available from this website are not a substitute for professional legal advice. Court employees cannot give you legal advice or help you fill out /complete the forms. It is your responsibility to read and complete the forms and to take required steps to file and serve the documents. If you decide to use these forms in an actual action, be prepared to spend appropriate time gathering information, completing forms and following the Rules of Court. The Court assumes no responsibility for the use of these forms and accepts no liability for actions taken by using these documents, including reliance on the instructions and/or contents. To obtain legal advice and to insure the proper use of this material, you should contact a lawyer.

If you want to obtain the service of an attorney, but do not know whom to contact, you should visit the Lehigh Bar Association's Lawyer Referral Service website.

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Self Help :: Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas

Chapter 1: Understandings about Self-Help What is psychological self-help? What will this book do for you? Finding what you need in this book Finding other self-help books and Internet sites Understandings between You, the Reader, and Me, the Author

Understanding 1: We, as humans, primarily learn to be the way we are; therefore, at any point in life, we can learn to be different. But, it may not be easy to change.

Understanding 2: Self-help is a relatively new, still-to-be-proven approach, involving a few well tested methods, but many methods are unproven. Research supporting self-help approaches is accumulating.

Understanding 3: I prefer to be honest with you about the effectiveness of self-help methods. I'm not going to "talk up" a method or try to "sell" you a product; I'm trying to get you to learn and to think for yourself. Also, I don't want to deceive you

Understanding 4: Any therapist or self-help method may do harm. Reading and self-help seem to rarely do damage. Note: pessimism and the fear of trying to help yourself, resulting in your doing nothing, cause much more harm than any self-help method.

Understanding 5: It may be difficult to measure changes in your adjustment, but you should try. Objective measurement is necessary for honest evaluation. Every self-helper should try to be his/her own researcher.

Understanding 6: Honestly looking at ourselves and changing may be stressful, but we need to do it.

Understanding 7: Do not hesitate to work on your most serious, meaningful, and intimate problems.

Understanding 8: Becoming a good self-helper will probably require a lot of time and effort. You should prepare for problems in advance. It is a life-long task.

Understanding 9: Don't wait for magical solutions. DO SOMETHING to help yourself. Be strong! Confront any resistance to change and challenge all your defeatist attitudes. Learn to believe you can change things.

Understanding 10: This book does not prepare you to be a therapist. Help others, but don't take control and "treat" others.

Understanding 11: If your problem(s) could be caused by physical-chemical factors, see a physician first.

Understanding 12: When your problems are severe and/or your self help efforts are ineffective, seek professional help immediately.

Understanding 13: This book cannot meet all your needs.

Understandings for groups and classes: Be clear about the purposes of your group, know how you can contribute, maintain confidentiality, and help others feel safe. Be sure you understand the reasons for the requirements of your group.

The Psycho-Social Educational Approach The publishing business and self-help books Why is it so hard to find the information you need? The neglect of prevention by books and institutions Why should self-help psychology be given away? How can it be? A brief review of the idea of self-control Our attitude towards "self-help" will influence the future of humanity Summary

Excerpt from:
Psychological Self-Help: Contents

Being Your Own Best Friend

Self-help doesnt have to mean lonely years spent with library books telling you what youre doing wrong with your life. Self-help is ultimately about making strong, sensible changes and proving yourself with the support you need to see those changes through. Self-help can, therefore, include a network of counselors, information providers, medical professionals, coaches, and more.

The soul of self-help is the decision to take charge of your own life, your own treatments, and your own goals and outcomes. In a world where many drift along, pointing at this influence and that as explanation for their lack of satisfaction with life, a very few determine to take back control, and captain their own life into satisfying adventures and desired safe harbors. This attitude is at the core of the self-help movement: adult responsibility, adult engagement, and adult process applied to life itself.

Self-help can be pursued in many ways, but its always a dynamic, involved process in which the patient refuses a passive role. Rather than being worked upon, the self-realized individual works upon herself with the aid of professional allies.

Finding allies to work with can be a challenge. It requires having planned far enough ahead to at least choose one prepared ally as a starting point. In many cases, the first ally will be a doctor, a civil servant, a member of the religious clergy or an agent of a sound professional referral agency. Any of these can then help provide information on available professionals, useful areas of expertise, and best practices.

Once you have a basic team of allies in place, you can begin setting basic goals. Dont go overboard: a to-do list more than about six lines long is likely to overwhelm, especially in the first stages of a major life-restructuring. Its better to choose one, or possibly two long-term goals, no more, and to then determine a path to that goal, from supportive ways to think to necessary ways to behave. Good allies will have suggestions for method and technique, and for timing within your lifes long arcs, but will allow the patient to choose the goals and accept or reject certain techniques.

The advantage of providing yourself with professionals, either as information sources or as actual allies, lies in the effect technique can have on self-help outcome. Working alone from a book all techniques seem equally valid, presented by equally prepared and impassioned advocates. A trained and informed professional, whether a care giver or an educator, can help sort out the techniques and methods most suited to your personal circumstance in ways you cant. Together you and those you have chosen for your team will put together a system of best practices tailored to you, your life, and your goals, with support built in, regular rewards and check points, and time to evaluate your progress.

Whats certain is that only by actually getting under way, and seeing your project through to a resolution, will you accomplish the things you set out to do. This is the follow-through stage of your self-help campaign, and in the end its the aspect your chosen friends and allies can only observe, not control. Self-help takes many forms, but the follow-through is of necessity self-oriented, self-sustained, and self-rewarding.

Remember, the central element of self-help isnt isolation, but self-motivation and control. Dont feel shy about building a team of supporting players! Just remember that youre living your life, and they can help, but they cant take over.

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Self-Help Being Your Own Best Friend Choosing Goals

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In clear language, Eckhart explains the process of entering the miraculous state of presence that is always available to us. We are lost, he says, in the maze of our own compulsive thoughts.

on Drama vs. the Now

From guidance about stress and career to insights into the nature of the ego and the delusion of time, here is a far-reaching session that documents the vision of this modern spiritual teacher, and the truth he brings.

Finding Your Life Purpose (DVD) Eckhart Tolle

If youve been searching in vain to find your true purpose in life, Echkhart Tolle has some straightforward advice: stop struggling. For the primary purpose of every human being is simply to be fully engaged in this moment, aligned with the natural flow of reality itself. On Finding Your Life Purpose, the bestselling author of A New Earth, invites viewers to discover the two-fold intention of our human incarnation: first, to free yourself from thought-based reality and its inherent dissatisfaction; and, second, to express in your own way the grand vision that universal consciousness has for your life. Amazon.com Books review

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Eckhart Tolle on Being Yourself - Zen Moments | Zen Moments

*see note under Schopenhauer's philosophy 1. THE AFFIRMATION OF LIFE

The two key insights (in my opinion) to all Nietzsche

(A) Life is terrible and tragic [just like Schopenhauer said]

(B) The superior person realizes this and has the strength to say "yes" to life [unlike Schopenhauer, who advocated the resistance and the denial of life ("eluding" Being by retreating into our non-being). Schopenhauer was decadent and weak-willed!].

In The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche maintains that the Greeks knew well that life is terrible, inexplicable and dangerous yet didnt surrender to pessimism by turning their backs on it. Instead, they "transmuted" the world and human life through art. Their culture [Culture itself!] is a unity of two "attitudes"the forces of life (Dionysian) and the love of form and beauty (Apollonian).

Dionysian (stronger one): "stream of life itself", breaks all barriers and ignores all restraints. Affirms and embraces existence in all its darkness and horror, producing tragedy and music.

Apollonian: light, measure, restraint, the principle of individuation. Creates an ideal world of form and beauty, producing the Olympian mythology, epic and plastic arts.

Nietzsche believed that the German culture characterized by domination of knowledge and science had exposed itself to the revenge of the Dionysian or vital forces.

2. WILL TO POWER

In his decadence, Schopenhauer saw the world as meaningless and purposeless Will to Existence or Will to live. He had failed to see the sense of joy and vitality that is achieve when the superior person faces the meaningless world and clear-sightedly imposes his own values on it. The superior person neither shrinks from the struggle of life, nor struggles blindly, but wills to live deliberately and consciously. Nietzsche calls this sense of joy and vitality accompanying the imposition of values on a meaningless world tragic optimism. It is belies the "reality" that the world is not Will to Existence, but Will to Power.

"This world is the Will to Powerand nothing else! And you yourselves too are this Will to Powerand nothing else!"

The world is not illusion (see below, #6), so the Will to Power is not some underlying, transcendent metaphysical unity [like Schopenhauers Infinite Will] but the actual process of becoming in the world. Will to Power is the intelligible character of this processhowever it is not the "truth" about the world. Will to Power must be understood not as new metaphysical doctrine about reality but a way of looking at the world, perhaps a "hypothesis."

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche notes that logical method compels the look for a principle of explanation: "A living thing desires above all to vent its strengthlife as such is will to power: self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent consequences of it" (13).

"Granted finally that one succeeded in explaining our entire instinctual life as the development and ramification of one basic form of willas the will to power, as my theory; granted that one could trace all organic functions back to this will to power and could also find in it the solution to the problem of procreation and nourishmentthey are one problemone would have acquired the right to define all efficient force unequivocally as: will to power. The world seen from within, the world described and defined according to its `intelligible characterit would be `will to power and nothing else." (36)

3. CRITIQUE OF MORALITY

There are two "moralities" Master-morality or aristocratic morality: good/bad = noble/despicable. Applied to men, not actions. Values are created out of the "abundance" of the noble human beings life and strength and imposed upon the world by will to power.

Slave-morality or herd-morality: Good/evil = what is useful to the society of the weak/what threatens or harms the herd. Born of resentment "becoming creative."

From the point of view of the higher human being, co-existence is possible, if the herd was content to keep its values to itself. But it isntit tries to impose its values universally, and succeeded in Christianity.

For Neitzsche, the universal, absolute moral system should be rejected and replaced with graduation of rank among different types of morality. In Beyond Good and Evil he advocates rising above the herd-morality which favors mediocrity and prevents higher development. Nietzsche does not advocate immorality [even though he referred to himself as an "immoralist"people who reject morality will destroy themselves. The higher individual respects values and needs self-restraint. This individual goes beyond good and evil as these terms are understood in the morality of resentment. The higher individual integrates human nature in all its aspects as an expression of strength.

4. GOD IS DEAD

The concept of God is hostile to life (remember we are supposed to affirm life, see #1)

For Nietzsche, some great men have been believers. But now, when the existence of God is no longer taken for granted by most people, freedom, strength and independence demand aethism. Nietzsches own rejection of God proved his inner strength to himself. He was able to live without God.

Implications of the Death of God according to Nietzsche:

5. SUPERMAN.

Ubermensch or superman [Zarathustra] is not superior in breeding or endowment, but in power and strength. The superman confronts all the possible terrors and wretchedness of life and still joyously affirms it. In Thus Spake Zarathustra Nietzsche proclaims, "Not `humanity but Superman is the goal." "Man is something that must be surpassed; man is a bridge and not a goal."

Superman is not inevitable, the result of some determined process. It is more a myth, a goal for the will: "Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: Superman is to be the meaning of the earth." Superman cannot come unless superior individuals have the courage to transvalue all values.

Nietzsche never gives a clear description of Supermanhow could he, he does not exist! He describes him as "the Roman Caesar with Christs soul," as Goethe and Napoleon in one, the Epicurean god appearing on earth. Superman or Zarathustra would be the highest possible development and integration of intellectual power, strength of character and will, independence, passion, taste, and physique. He would be highly-cultured, skilful in all bodily accomplishments, tolerant out of strength, regarding nothing as forbidden unless it is weakness ("virtue" or "vice"). He is the man who has become fully free and independent and affirms life and the universe. [Perhaps he would be everything that the ever sick and torment Nietszche wanted to be? And could a woman be a superman?]

6. CRITIQUE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS

There is no deep reality, no underlying objective and unchanging reality. According to Nietzsche, this is a lie because life is meaningless, and what you see is what you get. We must rely on sense and common sense as most useful means to understand the world. This doesn't give a "correct" view, however, because there is no such thingeven the view that life is really meaningless isnt true, if this is understood as a metaphysical account of reality! So common sense merely supplies the perspective by which we live. "The apparant world is the only one: the "real world" is merely a lie." Twilight Ch 3 Ap2

A problem. In the words of Arthur C. Danto: "How are we to understand a theory when the structure of our understanding itself is called in question by that theory? And when we have succeeded in understanding it, in our terms, it would automatically follow that we had misunderstood it, for our own terms are the wrong ones" ("Nietzsche" in A Critical History of Western Philosophy, Edited by D.J. OConnor).

A kind of resolution: "Even if on his own view of truth, his theories necessarily assume the character of myth, these myths were intimately associated with value-judgments which Nietzsche asserted with passion. And it is perhaps these value-judgments more than anything else which have been the source of his great influence." Frederick Coppleston, History of Philosophy: Fichte to Nietzsche

It fits with Nietzsches emphasis on strength that philosophy itself is another test for the superior man; like belief in God, he must test himself to see if he is strong enough to live without it.

7. ETERNAL RECURRENCE

In Ecce Homo, Nietzsche asserts that the point of Thus Spake Zarathustra was not Superman, but the doctrine of "eternal recurrence." Eternal recurrence is the highest form of "yea-saying" that can be attained. (See #1). The idea is that life, even in its smallest details, will recur innumerable times. This dismaying and oppressive notion is a (guess!) a further test of strength for the Ubermensch. The world-approving man is the one who wishes to have life in all its misery and terribleness play over again and again, and who will cry "Encore" each time. This would be the ultimate liberation. "Oh, how should I not be ardent for eternity and for the marriage-ring of ringsthe ring of the return?"

But this is more than a test of strength for Nietzsche. In the worlds of Frederick Coppleston, the doctrine of eternal recurrence "fills a gap in his philosophy. It confers on the flux of Becoming the semblance of Being, and it does so without introducing any Being which transcends the universe." According to Nietzsche, if you say that the universe never repeats itself but constantly creates new forms, this displays a yearning after the idea of God. The world must be enclosed upon itself if transcendence is to be banished.

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Nietzsche's Philosophy - Carroll College

by Adrian Calderone

Mr. Adrian Calderone provides a thorough explanation of transhumanism, which attempts to free mankind from its biological limitations by employing such methods as genetic engineering. Calderone traces its foundations back to secular humanism the modern religion of the Western world.

Homiletic & Pastoral Review

28 31 & 41 43

Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, June 2008

The political philosopher Francis Fukuyama called it the world's most dangerous idea.1 He was talking about transhumanism.

Just what is transhumanism and why is it so dangerous?

Like many other ideas, it can imply different things to different people. But generally, transhumanism refers to an attempt to free humanity from its biological limitations. Today, transhumanists advocate the use of various types of rapidly developing technology, especially bioengineering, to accomplish this purpose. Some transhumanists imagine the creation of a new type of human being. That is, a human being with biological features so far removed from natural human biology as to warrant classification as "post-human."

Transhumanists hold firmly to Darwinian materialism. We know that Darwinian evolution is predicated upon the assumptions of random variation and natural selection. But suppose, through genetic engineering, we can create our own genetic variations perhaps with inheritable traits. The transhumanists hope to achieve an artificial, human-guided evolution, at least on the level of microevolution, as well as the creation of "post humans."

Ask a person what he considers to be the most dangerous thing in the world and most probably the answer would be atomic weapons they can eradicate several hundred thousand human beings in a flash. But with transhumanism, you can displace nature with technology and subvert natural human biology.

Sir Julian Huxley is credited with coining the term transhumanism in 1957.2 He wrote:

As we shall see later, use of the term transhumanism predates Sir Julian Huxley by several centuries. Nevertheless, we can credit Sir Julian with putting the name to a modern movement that seeks to modify human beings through technological manipulation in order to transcend human biology. The technology can include genetic engineering and interfaces between the human body and machines.

One definition offered by the World Transhumanist Association3 is this:

Transhumanists see it as an ethical imperative to use technology to transcend physical barriers to human potentials, and to proceed with their project of humanly guided evolution.

What has happened in the past century is the development of science and technology at a pace so fast and in so many different specialties that one scarcely has the opportunity to understand one development before it is made obsolete by another development.

There are four areas especially in which we've seen such rapid advancement in the past twenty to thirty years: biotechnology, information technology, wireless technology and nanotechnology.

In biotechnology we see the genetic manipulation of life. In information technology we see the ever-expanding reach of digital information processing to the point where hardly any household in the developed world is without some type of personal computer. Artificial Intelligence (AI) enables computers to "learn" from experience and modify their own operational procedures without human intervention.

As for wireless, the Internet is accessible without land lines or physical hook-ups. Everywhere you turn there is someone talking on a cell phone. Nanotechnology deals with the manufacture and use of very small particles, which can include simple materials or even tiny machines with interacting parts machines, for example, that can be introduced into the human body to cut away arterial plaque or perform operations on a submicroscopic level. We still don't know all of the potentials of nanotechnology. Keep in mind, also, that these technologies can be merged.

These technologies enable us to do things inconceivable even a few decades ago. These new potentials present new dimensions of ethical dilemmas.

Suppose you can insert portions of the genetic material of one type of being into the genetic material of another type of being. In fact, this has been done. Who would have thought to introduce the genes of fireflies into a tobacco plant to create a plant that glows in the dark? Yet this was done over twenty years ago. The cloning of animals, transgenic plants and a host of other developments are historical events, not futuristic speculations. A U.S. patent application is on file detailing the creation of an artificial life form.4

Genetic engineering enables us to use living organisms bacteria for example as miniature drug factories to manufacture pharmaceuticals that otherwise could not be produced. Genetically modified viruses can be used to introduce modified DNA into target organisms.

But suppose one merges portions of human genetic material with portions of the genetic material of an animal an animal, say, with the genetic instructions for growth of human organs, or humans with animal features. What have we produced? And suppose that the chimerical being we've created can reproduce itself. What is the moral status of such beings? What is one to think about the deliberate creation of "subhuman beings" or "superhuman beings" through genetic engineering? We believe that the human soul does not arise from matter but that God creates and infuses a rational soul into a human being at conception. This is clear enough from human procreation. But what of the prospect of artificially assembling DNA, inserting that DNA into a cell, and letting that cell grow into an organism? How close do we have to be to the DNA characteristic of human beings for the organism to be considered human? Suppose a gorilla body can be combined with a human brain. Does God implant a human soul into it? How do we know unless we let the organism grow and see if it matures into a rational being? Does the possibility of salvation apply to homo artificialis as it does to homo Sapiens?

Yet genetic engineering can have legitimate therapeutic purposes, for example, to overcome naturally occurring genetic abnormalities, or to provide new cancer therapies.5 Genetic engineering and other technologies also might be used to enhance the genetic potential of healthy people, for example, to increase lifespan.

There is also now the possibility of implanting computer chips in the human brain. Neural implants, human-computer interfaces these are concepts that just a few years ago were the subjects of science fiction. Today, they are the subjects of U.S. patents.6 One should also consider the possibility of wireless communication between a neural computer implant and some remote control center. How do Catholic moral principles apply to such things? Until now, we've not had to think about a coherent moral position in the face of such possibilities. That's changed.

It's not only personal morality that needs to be addressed. We also have to think about social and political effects. One of the criticisms of all this genetic enhancement is that it will be available only to the wealthy. Will we have society stratified into classes of the "genetically enhanced" and the "genetically deprived"? What new weapons will be unleashed upon us in future wars?

As I stated earlier, Sir Julian was not the first person to conceive of a process of transhumanization. Let's go back several centuries. Before there was a Julian Huxley there was a Dante Alighieri. Dante expressed the idea of transhumanization in Canto I of Paradiso, written sometime in the early 1300s. Dante wrote, "Transhumanizing cannot be signified in words therefore let the example suffice him for whom grace reserves the experience."

Transhumanization is something ineffable, something beyond the ability of words to encompass. It can only be experienced, and that is a matter of grace. One can also refer to the Epistles, where St. Paul often talks about being a new creation in Christ and being sons of God through faith in Christ.7

Transhumanization is not a concept alien to Christianity. Quite the contrary, it is our Christian hope. But in Christianity transhumanization is a matter of God's grace. Although we can begin the process of transhumanization in this life by living in the state of God's grace, completion of the process is meant for a future life, an eternal life, of intimacy with God. In our present life in this world, grace does not destroy or change human nature, but works through human nature and perfects it. Through grace we are transformed into images of Christ. But we must await our resurrection for final transformation in the world to come. In the journey of our lives we must take as our companions the Christian virtues of patience and perseverance.

How, then, did we get from Christian transhumanization to biological transhumanism?

I want to offer a very cursory review of certain philosophical developments that have led up to secular humanism, which has become the de facto religion of the Western world. Transhumanism is an extension of secular humanism. If we use the image of a tree, secular humanism is the trunk, transhumanism one of the branches and the roots are planted in the soil of unbelief. This unbelief is not just ordinary atheist materialism. That's been around for millennia. Rather, it is something just a few centuries old. It is not so much a non-God view as it is an anti-God view. More particularly, it is an anti-Christianity percolating through modern culture.

First, let's turn to the Enlightenment, which is a foundation of modern secular humanism. The Enlightenment embraced a turning away from religion in general and Christianity in particular. The Enlightenment thinkers weren't all atheists. Many were deists who believed in a creator, but one not personally involved with creation on an ongoing basis.

However, the question arises: if you don't put your trust in a God who takes a personal interest in the world, then in what do you put your trust? Throughout history there runs the theme of salvation and the hope of it. In what do we place our trust? Where is our hope?

The Enlightenment thinker places his trust in the human potential to remake society by human reasoning and human will.8 The basis for hope is science and technology. Remember that the Enlightenment period of the 1700s was also a period of the rapid growth of scientific discovery. It must have been intoxicating. Here was the way to truth in the scientific method. One aspect, then, of the Enlightenment is positivism, a philosophy based upon sense experience and relying only on scientific observations for knowledge about the external world. Concomitantly, Enlightenment thought rejects tradition, the supernatural and revelation.

Now, social order cannot be achieved without values. So, where do values come from? The scientific method doesn't provide values, only data. Also, for some time philosophy in Europe had been turning inward, away from the objectively knowable external world into the subjective operations of the mind. Eventually, there came from this a subjectivity with respect to values, or moral relativism.

A post-Enlightenment philosopher, Nietzsche, saw inherent weaknesses in Enlightenment liberalism. But, instead of turning back to the pre-modern, common sense philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas, he followed the thread of modern philosophy to a logical end point. God is dead. What's more, according to Nietzsche, we killed him. God and religion became our enemies by limiting our freedom. In the end there is nothing but will to power. We are what we will to be.

The twentieth century atheistic philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was very influential in promoting existentialism.9 He was not an optimistic person. The concluding observation in one of his plays was, "Hell is other people." Sartre defined existentialism by asserting the principle that existence precedes essence. This was the reversal of centuries of philosophical understanding that held that essence was first. This may seem like an academic issue of concern only to ivory tower philosophers, perhaps arguing over the matter at two o'clock in the morning in some cafe. But ideas have consequences, and one of the consequences of this idea is the slaughter of millions of unborn children each year.

Pro-lifers, for example, argue that the fertilized human ovum is, from the moment of conception, in essence, a human being. The attributes and powers we normally associate with fully developed humans a nervous system, the ability to move and think, self awareness, etc. are present in the human embryo as potentialities that, in the course of natural development, unfold or outwardly express themselves. In an ontological ordering essence precedes existence.

The pro-choice position, at least among some, is that an unborn child does not have the attributes and powers of a human being and is therefore not morally equivalent to a human being. In other words, existence precedes essence.

The dictum that existence precedes essence means that there is no human nature. According to Sartre, we invent and make ourselves. Sartre, like Aquinas, held that there can be no human nature unless there is a God who designs it. But Sartre took his atheism to its logical conclusion and denied the objective existence of human nature. If we do not believe that there is a human nature created by God, there is no level of dehumanization to which we cannot fall in our headlong rush to engineer human evolution.

We are running up against a wall of misconceptions, prejudices, faulty valuations and linguistic confusions firmly cemented together by existentialism. It takes great ingenuity and effort to render a population oblivious to common sense and reality. But our educational institutions, mass media and public officials have proven up to the task.

Modern humanism, founded upon Enlightenment thought and modified by the influence of Nietzsche and Sartre, has several important features.

Add to these features of secularism the powers given to us by technology, and the result is transhumanism. Transhumanism is the new face of eugenics, with this difference: in the older conception of eugenics human biological reproduction is limited by law or social pressure to those deemed to have the physical and intellectual qualifications defined by the ruling elite. It is like breeding horses or dogs. But the biology of reproduction remains natural. With transhumanism the biology is engineered.

The Church has begun to deal with transhumanism. The 2002 document of the International Theological Commission entitled Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God addresses some of the issues I have mentioned. This document warns against mankind usurping the role of God. "Neither science nor technology are ends in themselves; what is technically possible is not necessarily also reasonable or ethical."11 The document also deals with cloning, germ line genetic engineering, enhancement genetic engineering and therapeutic interventions.12

But there is an ethical labyrinth to journey through that becomes ever more complex. In trying to help students find their way through complex philosophical ideas, one philosophy teacher used the metaphor of the golden string given by Ariadne to Theseus to find his way through the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur.'13

What's our golden thread? How do we find our way through the ethical labyrinth of transhumanism? It has to be the fundamental principles derived from our religion. What does it mean to be a human person? What is our mission and destiny as human beings? If you exclude God from consideration there is no way through the labyrinth, even for well-meaning secularist philosophers such as Fukuyama who do see the dangers ahead.

Through it all we have to remember that the world has lost sight of something precious a vision seen only through the eyes of faith the vision of something supernatural and eternal.14 There will always be a little flame of faith shining in the wilderness of this world. The spirits of darkness are afraid of it and try to snuff it out, because as long as it shines there is the potential for the world to catch fire and for the grace of God to illuminate everything. As Catholics we have to keep this vision always in sight for ourselves and continually present it to the world.

End Notes

Mr. Adrian Calderone graduated from Manhatten College with B. Ch. E. and M. E. degrees in chemical engineering. He spent more than three years living and traveling in Asia. Having earned his Juris Doctorate from New York Law School, he now practices intellectual property law. He and his wife Jo live in Brooklyn, New York and have three daughters. His last article in HPR appeared in October 2007.

Ignatius Press

This item 8384 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org

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Library : Transhumanism | Catholic Culture

Self-improvement is not easy. With the explosion of self-help books and the self-help movement, many believe that self-improvement is impossible; that it is really a type of scam that people fall for. These individuals would have you believe that any kind of self-improvement is beyond the average person and that there is no real way to change the basic self.

But the need for self-improvement is an inherent need within all of us. Self-improvement is possible, its just that most people are not willing to make the decisions required to truly change and grow as individuals. I believe that many assume that in order to improve the self you need to fight against the current, that you must make a great effort of will or else change is will not happen. In this site you will find that this is not the case, that in order to better yourself, all you need to do is to create an achievable goal and follow the natural inclinations of the self.

As a species we are continually growing. Most of this growth has been achieved through unconscious processes. We grow and develop without the need for us to consciously think about this growth and development. But things have changed!

The human species has begun to take conscious control of its evolution and self growth. The self-improvement movement represents that innate need inside all of us to grow as individuals and to expand our capabilities.

Future Evolution = Conscious Evolution = Self-Improvement

Self-improvement is achievable, it requires:

In this site you will discover how to understand your true desires, so that you can discover your real motivations and discover the path that will bring you the most joy.

Through personal self-improvement, we begin to grow, develop, and evolve. As we grow and develop as individuals, we also participate in the growth and development of our species. We are all together in this, the self-improvement revolution is that innate drive within all of us to begin to take conscious control of our evolution.

I recommend that you bookmark this site, browse around in The Best of JohnKreiter.com section, and use the Search box at the top of the site to find particular information using keywords.

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John Kreiter | Self-Improvement and Interesting Knowledge

Helping People Get to Know Themselves

Veer erik degraaf

Telling your story helps people get to know you.

Developing self-awareness is important for better relationships and for a more fulfilling life, both in the workplace and at home.

With a good understanding of how we relate to others, we can adjust our behavior so that we deal with them positively. By understanding what upsets us, we can improve our self-control. And by understanding our weaknesses, we can learn how to manage them, and reach our goals despite them.

However, it's difficult to be objective when we think about ourselves, and how others actually see us can be quite different from what we think they see.

There are ways in which people can develop self-awareness on their own. However, coaching can be a better way of helping people view their own actions and reactions objectively, so it's useful for helping people to build self-awareness.

In this article we'll look at six approaches that you can use to help others build this self-awareness.

Some of the approaches we describe are useful generally within the workplace, while others are only really appropriate in situations where the person you're coaching has a very close and trusting relationship with you. Choose the approach that suits the situation.

As with all types of coaching, feedback is important. But feedback - even very accurate feedback - can be nothing more than interesting information, unless it causes the person being coached to change his or her perspective in quite a fundamental way. Do what you can to support these changes in perspective.

Psychometric tests are useful for giving people an objective view of how they behave, and how they compare in outlook with others. The answers they give categorize them by the personality traits or preferences they show, and then provide some commentary on these.

Of course, none of these tools captures the richness and uniqueness of an individual person. But they can point out the similarities and differences between people.

One useful personality model, the Big Five or OCEAN model, looks at five main features of human personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. This tool can help people understand more about themselves and others. Tests like this one can give people a great insight into their behavior and performance in the workplace.

Another popular test, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI) is useful for understanding our preferences for interacting with others, how we like to receive information, and how we make decisions.

Other psychometric tests can be used for other purposes, and it's worth exploring the full range of these to understand what you can do with them.

Once the people you're coaching have taken these tests, you can explore what the test results mean, and help them think about what have learned about themselves, and the way they interact with other people.

It's important that you, as the coach, are familiar with these tools before you use them with people in your team.

We often discover new things about ourselves when we're in unusual situations, or facing new challenges. Our reactions or responses to new environments, new people, or new demands can help us understand how we deal with some of the more familiar aspects of our lives. However, rather than waiting for new experiences to arrive, it can be really valuable to look for them proactively.

We can do this for ourselves by taking different types of vacations, or experimenting with new hobbies, for example. We may find hidden talents, or things about ourselves that we didn't know about - particularly when the new activities are stimulating and energizing.

One way of doing this in the workplace is to encourage people to explore unfamiliar roles or situations. The advantage of using coaching in these situations is that you can help the person you're coaching explore which new roles to try, and you can then help them analyze the experience afterward.

As a coach, the key is to help interpret the experience, and ensure that any learning from it passes back into the coachee's day-to-day life.

There's a big difference between reading a rsum, and meeting a candidate at a job interview. Likewise, it can be very revealing to hear someone's life story first hand.

An experienced coach who listens to someone talk about their life will see and hear so much more than simple facts. These stories can reveal whether people really understand who they are, and why their lives have turned out in the way they have.

Do they understand the impact of the way they were raised, and the influence of their friends and family on the decisions they've made so far? What types of emotional journey have they taken? Is their life full of joy, or weighed down with deep fears or anger? To what extent do their past experiences affect their current experiences? Do they accept themselves for who they are, or do they fight against this, and have a false self-perception?

Whatever the content of the story, a coach's questions and feedback often make the difference between a story that's just told, and a story that's really heard and understood - by the person being coached as much as by the coach.

It's often said that to write well, you have to write every day. By writing down your thoughts and feelings on a daily basis, you build fluency - particularly, emotional fluency. This habit also captures the mood of the moment - when reviewed at a later date, the collection of writing can help the writer understand the range of emotions he or she has experienced.

For the creative writer, this is an exercise of skill and fantasy building. But for people who write about their experiences and feelings, this regular writing improves their self-awareness.

In coaching, a coachee's daily journal is great resource to use. The journals can often be an excellent prompt for discussion during your coaching conversations.

We all play many roles in life. To some, we are colleagues; to others, we may be family or friends. Describing the role each of us plays - at work, within our family group, across our circle of friends, or in our local community - builds a picture of how we see ourselves relative to others.

In coaching, the way the person being coached perceives his or her role can help you understand their underlying motivation for achieving tasks and goals. It can also help explain why coachee's may fail to make progress towards their goals and objectives. If you have issues with people in these areas, take your time to explore their understanding of their roles - this may provide a great opportunity to help people improve their performance.

The very best coaches are careful to tell the people they're coaching precisely the truth they need, at precisely the time they need it. When they do this, they are the perfect "mirror" for coachees to see themselves as they really are.

To do this well, coaches need to invest time and attention in understanding how people see their lives, what they're sensitive about, what energizes them, and what makes them lose energy. Within a safe and trusted coaching relationship, coachees should expect that, when asked, their coach will tell them honestly what they've seen and heard.

As well as providing this valuable feedback, the coach's role here is to help the people they're coaching to be honest and straightforward when observing their own behaviors and actions.

With high levels of self-awareness, we can find a the right direction in life, and we can build better relationships with other people. Coaching is great for helping your people build this self-awareness.

As a coach you can help the people you're coaching interpret and understand information about themselves, and there are six main approaches you can use to do this. These include examining feedback, analyzing outcomes from psychometric tests, learning from new experiences, and considering people's life stories.

Try using these approaches with your people - you'll be surprised by how powerful they can be!

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Coaching to Develop Self-Awareness - From MindTools.com

SAN ANTONIO (July 11, 2016) San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan today announced that he will retire after 19 seasons with the organization. Since drafting Duncan, the Spurs won five championships and posted a 1,072-438 regular season record, giving the team a .710 winning percentage, which is the best 19-year stretch in NBA history and was the best in all of the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB over the last 19 years.

Originally selected by the Spurs as the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft, Duncan helped San Antonio reach the playoffs in each of his 19 seasons and became the only player in league history to start and win a title in three different decades. The Silver and Black won at least 50 games the last 17 seasons, the longest streak in league history, and posted at least a .600 winning percentage in each of Duncans 19 seasons, an all-time record for most consecutive seasons with a .600 win percentage in the four major U.S. sports.

The 40-year-old Duncan comes off of a season in which he led the NBA in Defensive RPM (5.41) and became just the third player in league history to reach 1,000 career wins, as well as the only player to reach 1,000 wins with one team. He helped the Spurs to a franchise-best 67-15 record and also became one of two players in NBA history to record at least 26,000 points, 15,000 rebounds and 3,000 blocks in his career (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

Duncan totaled 15 All-NBA Team selections (tied for most all-time) and 15 NBA All-Defensive Team honors (most all-time), garnering both honors in the same season 15 times, the most in league history. The 1998 Rookie of the Year was named NBA MVP twice (2002, 2003) and NBA Finals MVP three times (1999, 2003 and 2005).

In his NBA career, the 15-time All-Star appeared in a total of 1,392 games and averaged 19.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.17 blocks in 34.0 minutes. He shot .506 (10,285-20,334) from the floor and .696 (5,896-8,468) from the free throw line.

The Wake Forest graduate is the Spurs all-time NBA leader in total points (26,496), rebounds (15,091), blocked shots (3,020), minutes (47,368) and games played (1,392), as well as third in assists (4,225). In NBA history, Duncan is fifth all-time in double-doubles (841) and blocks, sixth in rebounding and 14th in scoring.

As the only player in NBA history to play over 9,000 career minutes in the playoffs, Duncan ranks first all-time in postseason double-doubles (164) and blocks (568), third in rebounds (2,859) and sixth in points (5,172). For his career, Duncan appeared in 251 postseason contests (second all-time) and averaged 20.6 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 37.3 minutes while shooting .501 (1,975-3,939) from the field.

Along with teammates Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, Duncan is part of the NBA record for most wins by a trio in both the regular season (575) and postseason (126). Duncan and Gregg Popovich have the most wins by a player-coach duo in NBA history (1,001) and the Spurs forward finishes his career in San Antonio as one of just three players in NBA history, along with John Stockton and Kobe Bryant, to spend 19 seasons with one franchise.

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TIM DUNCAN ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT | San Antonio Spurs