PASADENA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/10/10 -- Consciousness brings certain benefits. But there is a downside to having a sense of self that arises from an inner monologue and a capacity to wonder, contemplate, plan, and imagine the meaning of life. In a new Vision article titled "Prove All Things," contributor Dan Cloer reviews three recent books that speak to this problem of human beliefs, purpose and potential: The Passionate Mind Revisited, by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad; Biocentrism, from Robert Lanza and Bob Berman; and Karen Armstrong's The Case for God.

"Each provides food for thought on the problem of belief and purpose and how one then constructs his arc of life," writes Cloer. "Whether from philosophy and ideas, science or religion, each book addresses transcendent questions about the meaning of life and the purpose of human existence."

The Vision book review "Prove All Things" explores the basic challenge put forward by each book: the challenge of examining one's preconceived notions and beliefs and finding paths to a more contented and satisfied life both individually and in community. As Kramer and Alstad remark, "Our problems involve the nature and problems of being human, and unless there is a real change in people's minds and hearts, there is no real change at all." Cloer notes that "this is a true and useful message, and it forms the core of the new book." The problem of re-evaluation and change, however, can only be solved when given proper context.

The article asks, "How does one weigh his options without some checkpoints?"

"In the view of these authors," Cloer continues, "we are not asking ourselves the right questions, having already been programmed with the wrong answers by pre-conditioned values, second-hand beliefs, outmoded worldviews, and ideas from the past absorbed especially during childhood."

Purpose and meaning, these writers conclude, is a matter of mental programming. In some ways we discover what we expect or are told to find. "From very different perspectives each has correctly sensed the need for new modes of seeing the world and our place in it. As they suggest, a major shift in perceiving who we are and what we are meant to be is very difficult. We are individually and collectively burdened with many second-hand teachings," Vision concludes.

Cloer suggests, however, that the meaning of life and human purpose is more than a matter of human experience alone or the generational repackaging of historical myths. "These distract us from proving and accepting the simplicity of the message," notes Vision. That message is spiritually discerned and can bring new beliefs and perspectives to the mind, and a deeper understanding to one's action in the world. http://www.vision.org

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