Positive Cognitive Dissonance

I was on the phone last night with my sister.  She was mentioning a friend’s son dropped out of medical school after the first 2 years.  Most likely because he was so smart he could see the severe flaws in our conventional medical system.  I thought about the numerous medical students I’ve mentored in my 23 years at our medical school.  Keeping several of them from dropping out!  Most of them get connected to me because of my interest in non-conventional medicine.

That is why I am the self-proclaimed heretic. 

I told her to get me in contact with him.  Perhaps a conversation about the larger range of possible practice of medicine would be helpful.  I so dislike smart students dropping out because they don’t like our medical system. 

I want them in our system so they can help to shepherd much needed changes! 

Or, maybe he would rather be a naturopath…    

I also told her to have him look at my blog, and start from the beginning, since it might be helpful for him to see other ways of thinking. 

She then informs me she never heard about my blog! 

I know I sent her a link early in 2013 when I wrote something about our childhood.  But, she never read it. 

Interesting!

That gave me a chance to go back to my first entry, where I proposed some initial questions:

1-Can we hold 2 ideas that seem to be complete opposites?

2-Is there actually more truth contained, when we hold 2 seemingly opposing ideas?

3-How do we become more comfortable with holding 2 seemingly estranged ideas at the same time?

4-How can holding opposing views help us evolve as humans, maybe also so that our social systems evolve with us?

5-How can considerations of the science and ideas at the edges of what is known, help us to better understand our world, and help us to grow as individuals and societies?

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/introduction-and-confessions.html

I carry around blog ideas in my iPhone and the title of this entry was one of them.  I awoke at 2 am and didn’t want to sit and meditate.  I felt the need to write.  I saw my iPhone entry and remembered my first blog entry. 

Cognitive dissonance is usually thought of as a negative experience:  “…cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.”     

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Of course we see this in everyday life.   The example given in the above Wiki entry is, “Not wanting to get intoxicated while out, then consuming six tequila shots.” 

I like the better example of a conservative lawmaker fighting for independence from government interference, and then passing laws governing reproductive freedom, or same gender marriage!    

Perhaps, we should also examine the liberal cognitive dissonance thinking of wanting the social freedoms of reproductive choice and same gender marriage, and then wanting to severely restrict gun ownership due to irrational fears (Oh, you are such a Liberal Heretic!). 

Positive cognitive dissonance concerns the paradoxes that point toward higher truth. 

Here is an interesting entry into conventional paradox. 

http://westgatehouse.com/paradox.html

I blogged about how something we might consider to be ugly, compared to what we consider beautiful, can be transcended by a third higher consideration that everything has intrinsic Beauty. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-beauties.html

A Koan is a traditional Zen method of contemplating a paradox that can lead to enlightenment. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2014/02/first-agony-then-ecstasy-and-then.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2014/03/increasing-complexity-of-civilization.html

I love these 5 Koans:

Who is dragging this corpse about?

What is this?

What is it?

What was the original face before my father and mother were born?

Who am I?

http://www.hsuyun.org/index.php/essays/209-chuanzhi-articles/759-huatoupractice.html

We are slowly evolving as a civilization. 

Perhaps much more slowly than we would like to see…   

Perhaps this medical student drop-out is better off away from the severe conventional thinking that plagues our medical system. 

I tend to disagree. 

Likely for this medical student it is difficult to see more clearly than the vast majority of people in his school. 

Perhaps it is helpful to understand that a person on a lower scale of development cannot see above their current level of thinking. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

 

There are people who work in conventional medicine who do see more clearly and function at a higher level of consciousness.  Often we are hidden.  Find us in the Healer’s Art electives and the complementary and alternative medicine electives at your medical school. 

Practice Positive Cognitive Dissonance. 

Contemplate the paradox of practicing within conventional medicine while holding a higher evolved view of what is true and real. 

Your presence is needed. 

Join me in evolving current medical practice to a higher level.

We need you!

Namaste.