(p. 55): "Myths and religious themes emerge in groups...when people feel abandoned and unprotected."

RESPONSE: It seems to me critical that we keep the foregoing in mind. We need to recognize that many of the self-destructive and socially destructive religious ideas and practices come out of feelings of abandonment and lack of protection. The foregoing will help to clarify what changes need to be made in society and social ideas to help people feel more connected and therefore less frightened and vulnerable.

(p. 55): "Utopian thought makes a number of assumptions that contradict other viewpoints....It proposes, for example, that human relationships need not be contingent on competitive, win-or-lose assumptions, but rather that cooperation is natural and that any interpersonal tensions can be eliminated through social structural patterns or re-education....that is, what people want to do is the same as what they have to do."

(p. 56): "...that conflict between values and practical realities need not exist; that a single, harmonious value-based way of life is practical."

"Whereas [Charles Horton] Cooley proposed that a person gains full humanity only through complete identification with a primary group, Freud indicated that mature human development requires separation of egos, independence of the self from the group. Because that group is an agent of repression for the ego, in Freudian thought there is an inherent and irreconcilable conflict between the individual and society. Only weak individuals exist solely through collective impulses. In short, Freud believed that strong emotional ties, similarity of life circumstances, and absence of private property -- all of which characterize the commune as well as the primal horde -- produce a uniformity of individual mental acts that he deplored: 'The dwindling of the conscious individual personality, the focusing of thoughts and feelings into a common direction, the predominance of the affective side of the mind and of unconscious psychical life, the tendency to the immediate carrying out of intentions as they emerge -- all this corresponds to a state of regression to a primitive mental activity.'"

RESPONSE: I would say that one of the serious deficiencies of Freudian theory is its focus on the individual and its failure to see the societal dimension of therapy and the good life. Freud believed that the group is an agent of repression of the ego. It may frequently happen, but it need not happen. The group can just as well be an agent of liberation for an ego. It may help an "I" recognize its personal power and ability to draw strength and sustenance from the group and exist as a unit of infinite value. To work for one's fullest development and maximum achievement hardly seems likely from those who see society as their enemy rather than their friend.

I am in total agreement with Cooley. I feel that many of today's problems come out of the core concepts of Western society developed by seminal thinkers such as Freud, Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, etc. Their concepts produce a chasm between the individual and society that is inconsistent with the idea of Wise Persons and a Wise Community. But of course a Wise Person is not limited by their involvement with the group. Rather this involvement sets them free. They are fully developed and empowered to use all their positive talents. It is through these processses that the individual achieves their "Wisdom" Potential.

(p. 56): "If utopian theories were fully tenable, then many more viable and longer-lasting utopian communities would be found than has been the case in the United States. Only a few dozen American communes have survived more than two or three years. The experiences of the few successful ones indicate the kind of social organizations that are important to implementing a utopian dream, as well as the limitations to utopian theory inherent in these very practices."

(p. 57): "The dream of utopia must be compared with the realities of creating viable utopian communities."

(p. 62): "This period [the 1840s]...offered an essentially secular and optimistic culture. The feeling prevailed that the perfect society could be founded on earth and within the context of an established political order."

(p. 63): "Building viable utopian communities has proven to be difficult: translating the utopian dream into reality is fraught with issues that in time may even distort the original vision."

RESPONSE: "Utopia" starts with a "true vision" that needs to be implemented. It is not testable, or presented as a hypothesis. Wise Community and Wise Person must be seen as theoretical, testable, and able to be revised with experience. The goal is to find out how to build societies made up of people who display/show the characteristics necessary to develop and maintain a SFLIHM; i.e., individuals who utilize their "Wisdom" Potential.

The foregoing will not be easy because we are working with several theoretical concepts. Attempting to clarify where the problem lies when things don't work will not be easy. However, to the degree that we can remember that we are involved in a dynamic process without absolute answers and known outcomes the more likely we are to maintain the necessary flexibility. This will permit us to develop the visions that will allow us to continue this process to help more and more individuals achieve a SFLIHM.

(p. 64): "The Shakers, Amana, and Oneida, along with Harmony (1804-1904), Zoar (1817-1898), and Jerusalem (1788-1821), are among nine 'successful' nineteenth century utopian communities, lasting thirty-three years or more. They can be contrasted with twenty-one 'unsuccessful' groups lasting less than sixteen years, including Brook Farms, New Harmony, and other Owenite and Fourierite ventures. The differences between the success of these thirty groups lie in how strongly they build commitment."

"The primary issue with which a utopian community must cope in order to have the strength and solidarity to endure is its human organization....The idealized version of communal life must be meshed with the reality of the work to be done in a community...."

"The organizational problems with which utopian communities must grapple break down into several categories:"

"How to get the work done, but without coercion."

"How to ensure that decisions are made, but to everyone's satisfaction."

"How to build close, fulfilling relationships, but without exclusiveness."

"How to choose and socialize new members."

"How to include a degree of autonomy, individual uniqueness, and even deviance."

"How to ensure agreement and shared perception around community functioning and values."

(p. 65): "These issues can be summarized as one of commitment; that is they reflect how members become committed to the community's work, to its values, and to each other, and how much of their former independence they are willing to suspend in the interests of the group. Committed members work hard, participate actively, derive love and affection from the communal group, and believe strongly in what the group stands for."

RESPONSE: And of course in the proper context the foregoing is an key aspect of a Wise Community. This is the core of the concept that there is no essential incompatibility between a Wise Person and A Wise Community. But a Science of Religion and a Religion of Wisdom would measure success in terms of how many persons achieve a SFLIHM, not only in how long the CPASR lasts.

(p. 66): "A person is committed to a group or to a relationship when they are fully invested in it, so that the maintenance of their own internal being requires behavior that supports the social order. A committed person is loyal and involved; they have a sense of belonging, a feeling that the group is an extension of themselves and they are an extension of the group. Through commitment, person and group are inextricably linked."

"Commitment...refers to the willingness of people to do what will help maintain the group because it provides what they need....they are committed to the degree that they perceive no conflict between its requirements and their own needs...."

RESPONSE: But this congruency and compatibility can only truly exist when there are Wise Persons and a Wise Community. Otherwise the beliefs of the members will cause behavior that is destructive, or at least painful and harmful to other members of the community. In a Not-Yet-Wise Community the rules, expectations, and education are such that all are harmed rather than helped, by the community.

(p. 67): "[Commitment] forms the connection between self-interest and group interest."

"To determine the links between person and system that forge the bonds of commitment, one must first distinguish the three major aspects of a social system that involve commitment: retention of members, group cohesiveness, and social control. (continuance, cohesion, and control)"

(p. 68): "...a person orients themself to a social system instrumentally [rewards and costs of participating], affectively [emotional attachment to people], and morally [how compelling are the norms and beliefs]."

(p. 71): "The clearer and more defined a group becomes to a person, the easier it is for them to concentrate their commitment there."

"...to develop maximum commitment in its members, a group must form a unity or a whole, coherent and sharply differentiated from its environment...."

(p. 72): "Community is based in part on the desire for strong relations within a collectivity, for intense emotional feeling among all members, for comradeship and sharing."

(p. 75): "In long-lived communes of the nineteenth century, group life was organized in such a way as to support the six commitment-building processes."

"Every aspect of group life has implications for commitment, including property, work, boundaries, recruitment, intimate relationships, group contact, leadership, and ideology."

RESPONSE: Certainly, commitment to a Wise Community is related to every aspect of Community life and everything about the individual. This is why the individual is the only worthy focus for ultimate concern. Their ability to maintain such a commitment depends on their becoming a Wise Person. And this cannot happen without tremendous effort for a good many persons.

(p. 76): Six commitment-building processes:

1. Sacrifice (p. 76): "...asks members to give up something as a price of membership." "The more it 'costs' a person to do something, the more 'valuable' they will consider it." Abstinence, austerity.

(p. 70): "The person must give up something as well as get something in order to be committed to a community; communes, like all other social systems, have their costs of membership."

2. Investment (p. 80): "The process of investment provides the individual with a stake in the fate of the community...leaving it would be costly." Irreversibility.

3. Renunciation (p. 82): "...relinquishing of relationships that are potentially disruptive to group cohesion, thereby heightening the relationship of individual to group." "...community discourages relationships both outside the group and with internal subgroups...." "...institutionally complete -- residential, familial, political, economic, religious, cultural...." Renunciation of: The outside world, the couple, the family.

(p. 73): "...commitment is aided by renunciation...and communion.... Renunciation involves giving up competing relationships outside the communal group and individualistic, exclusive attachments within...."

RESPONSE: It is clear that a Wise Community differs in many ways from a commune. First, its commitment is to all of humanity, not just to those living together. Its goal is to impact all persons not just a worthy few. Second, it is committed to the belief that the individual human being is the only worthy focus for ultimate concern. The survival, growth, and development of the group is seen as growing out of the well being of each of its members and dependent upon them for justification.

4. Communion (p. 91): "We are all comrades under the skin -- one family.... The feeling of brotherhood and comradeship encompassed by communion are essential to the determination to continue the group even in the face of obstacles and disagreements." Communion -- feeling of brotherhood and comradeship. Homogeneity -- common religious background, similar social or educational status, or common ethnic or national origin.

Communal sharing -- joint ownership of all property. Communal work -- Job rotation can be extremely effective as a communion mechanism, for it increases the area of the individual's responsibility to the group....

(p. 73) "Communion involves bringing members into meaningful contact with the collective whole, so they experience the fact of oneness with the group...."

RESPONSE: How property ownership and work would play out is hard to predict. But these are areas of importance and must be addressed. Nevertheless, achieving meaningful contact with one's fellow humans is the essential goal which all others must support. And this must be done so as to promote development in each individual to become a Wise Person.

5. Mortification (p. 103): "...provide a new identity for the person that is based on the power and meaningfulness of group membership...." Mortification -- humiliation. Confession and mutual criticism. Sanctions.

(p. 74): Mortification -- "submission of private states to social control, the exchanging of a former identity for one defined and formulated by the community."

RESPONSE: In a Wise Community this issue would be seen very differently. Social control would come out of the wisdom and education of all members. It would arise from the realization that creating and maintaining a Wise Community is the highest goal any person can achieve. Therefore, living without secrets, without envy, without feelings of superiority are core values for a Wise Person.

Learning how to achieve a SFLIHM -- as it has been discovered through the efforts of a Science of Religion -- would allow one to live the best life possible. This is the best way to live not because one's community says so, but because the evidence of study and one's own life support these answers.

6. Transcendence (p. 111): "...requires...the experience of great power and meaning residing in the community."

(p. 74): Transcendence -- attaches decision-making prerogatives to group, surrendering and submitting to something beyond oneself.

(p. 111): Transcendence -- satisfies the individual's need for meaning. Institutionalized awe through ideology -- Successful communities need shared beliefs. Institutionalized awe: Through power and leadership -- had charismatic leaders who stood aloof from the members. Decision making processes were non-participatory for general organizational decisions.

(p. 120): Mystery. Guidance. Ideological Conversion: "Agreement, shared belief, and common purpose are indispensable to the creation of transcendence."

(p. 123): Tradition. "can serve as a transcendence-facilitating mechanism."

RESPONSE: I would guess that there are other ways to approach this issue that are more in tune with a Science of Religion and a Religion of Wisdom. I could see levels of membership (See, VOLUME I, "Organizing for a Wise Community.") serving this function.

This leads to the recognition that a Wise Community has structures and part of this structure would be the Center for Practical Applications of the Science of Religion (CPASR). It would be in these groups where the core experience of community with all its essential ties, support, assistance, resources could be established.

(p. 188): "Without sacrifice and investment, there is a high turnover of members. Without renunciation and communion, there is little group cohesion ....without mortification and transcendence, a community lacks any social control or the ability to establish order."

RESPONSE: Although a CPASR is different from a commune, the same basic principles apply. My suggestion of levels of membership is designed to achieve the foregoing.

(p. 132): "Perhaps the common subjection of members to the guidance and ultimate authority of the leader, overwhelming all other differences, may in part help to create the equality of brotherhood."

RESPONSE: For me the above is in direct conflict with the prime goal of a Wise Community. Leadership like all other elements of a Wise Community must support the personal power of each person. But recognizing the Wise Person as a leader to be trusted even with one's life would also be part of the CPASR. Also, the essence of comradeship is trust and this would be the core of a Wise Community. Total trust and openness, total disclosure and understanding. I think the foregoing must allow all active participants a sense of infinite well-being and connectedness.

(p. 98): "The work which would have seemed drudgery under other conditions was hardly felt to be so by those earnest workers in their enthusiasm, as the spirit of unity, the strong feature of group labor, lightened the burden." Regularized group contact, ritual, the persecution experience and social vaccination.

RESPONSE: And group solidarity and joint effort would be essential to a Wise Community. Lacking these it is not in fact a Wise Community.

(p. 100): Shaker spiritual celebration: spiritual garments (imaginary), lively dance, shouting, giving of "spiritual gifts," ceremonial "washing," Singing, etc., etc., etc.

(p. 109): "According to a woman who grew up in Amana, 'seating position was such an important social index that it provided the only punishment, spiritual or civil, that was needed in these colonies.'"

RESPONSE: Rather a strong argument for community since current society can't get similar results with 20 year prison terms, and threats of the death penalty.

(p. 129): "Martin Buber has written about the psychic benefits of community. He indicated that only a comprehensive community, one that touches the individual in every aspect of their life, can give a sense of complete affirmation as a person and of belonging to some greater, all-embracing structure. Only the full cooperative, amalgamated production and consumption and asking a person's total commitment, can offer such rewards."

RESPONSE: And for me that is what a Wise Community is all about. How can it be achieved? There is the question. And since a Wise Community is committed to bringing a SFLIHM to each member of the society the focus is on helping the individual rather than exploiting them in some way.

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