The Power of Paradigms
Of all the ways that people are enslaved by the bondage of abuse, none are as powerful as the thoughts and ideas that shape the way we think. Our physical reality is filtered by our minds, and if we cannot perceive hope, we will become paralyzed and unable to function.
Religion influences mankind in many ways, but perhaps its most powerful (and subtle) effect is to create a structured (and bounded) framework for viewing our lives and our world. This is essentially the definition of a paradigm, and the reason why people of different religions (and of the same religion) engage in bitter disputes. Their paradigms conflict with one another.
People who suffer from spiritual abuse, as well as their abusers, are both victims of a faulty paradigm. Their warped understanding of God, the Scriptures, and the Church not only justifies the abuse, but also imprisons them. The only way to break free from this cycle of suffering is to adopt (or create) a new paradigm. However, this process is extremely painful and costly, because it requires the person to endure a complete mental breakdown as he moves from one paradigm to another.
This is why abuse of all varieties is often handed down from generation to generation, because the same paradigm remains in force. Hence, the greatest power we can enlist against the evil forces of abuse is education, for it is through the open-minded consideration of new alternatives that the light of knowledge can eliminate the darkness of ignorance.
To better illustrate the power of paradigms, we will share excerpts from a presentation made by John C. Harrison, Program Director of the National Stuttering Project, at the First World Congress on Fluency Disorders. The Congress was sponsored by the International Fluency Association and held in Munich, Germany on August 1-5, 1994.
Although his application of this concept was to the field of speech therapy, his comments about paradigms are just as relevant to overcoming spiritual abuse. As a matter of fact, all of the greatest scientific advances in the history of mankind (in any academic field of study) that together have improved the potential quality of life available to our human species, have resulted from the adoption of new paradigms. Thomas Kuhn first popularized this incredible epiphany in 1962 in his book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.”
John Harrison proceeds:
“A paradigm is a model or a pattern. It's a shared set of assumptions that have to do with how we perceive the world. Paradigms are very helpful because they allow us to develop expectations about what will probably occur based on these assumptions. But when data falls outside our paradigm, we find it hard to see and accept. This is called the PARADIGM EFFECT. And when the paradigm effect is so strong that we are prevented from actually seeing what is under our very noses, we are said to be suffering from PARADIGM PARALYSIS.
In his book "Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future," Joel Barker describes how the person who develops a new paradigm is often an outsider. Someone who really doesn't understand the prevailing paradigm in all its subtleties ... and sometimes doesn't understand it at all. The PARADIGM SHIFTER, because he or she is not imbued with the prevailing beliefs, is able to see the situation with a fresh eye.
As Eastern philosophers will tell you, one can arrive at major truths simply by observing. I'm reminded of something that Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, wrote some years ago ... and I'm paraphrasing now. She said -- there's a tendency among people in her field to be too quick to relate what they see to what they already know. But to really make the creative breakthroughs, you can't work this way. You need to observe with a blank mind. Without expectations. That's the kind of observing that can lead to a new paradigm.”
