How to navigate academia in the present day– viewpoint diversity 101
In a recent VIP-Q&A after one of your talks, I got to ask you a question regarding graduate school applications, and how you would respond to a request for a “diversity statement” if you were applying in this day and age. You gave a contemplative response, and it was great to have a quick back and forth with you; but I wanted to push back a bit more and see how you would feel about it a month later. Your response to my question was essentially that I should not falsify myself in order to fit in to a program or mentor. That I should “write the thing, see how you feel, and maybe apply to 20 schools instead of six.” This is all great advice, and of course I should not falsify myself. However, it does seem that academia is shooting itself in the foot by putting forth these ideological litmus tests, ensuring that their 80-ish percent left-ish skew will increase to total hegemony. Now, I am not saying that I should outright lie about how I feel, dropping a bunch of DEI buzzwords to show that I am a good-thinking liberal. But given that classical liberals are almost entirely unrepresented in the social sciences, to what degree should I “keep my head down” in my 10 year pursuit of a Ph.D? I can imagine that leading to censoring myself when looking for a faculty position, acquiring tenure, etc. You mentioned that it just might not be a good career choice, and fair enough– but it kills me to see the social sciences only asking a small subset of the questions that they should be asking; because they are actually not a diverse subset of the population (no real-world experience). So I guess my question was a proxy for a more general question, which is: I haven’t given up on the institutions yet, and think I could affect positive change from within given my exceptionally unique background. I contemplated it for a decade, and I’m here now. How would you act if you were in my shoes? What do you think about pursuing the "viewpoint diversity" line of argument?
The problem of perception
In part of your last Joe Rogan conversation, you addressed the truth of the Bible. Joe asked what you meant by "the precondition for the manifestation of truth." But just before that, you said, "I think that this is not only literally the case, factually, I think it can't be any other way. It's the only way we can solve the problem of perception." Would you please say more about solving the problem of perception?
Jung's Ideas on Educational Psychology
I teach life span classes at the University of Wyoming. We study many ed psych theorists, including Jung, but his work focused mainly on adulthood. How in your view did Jung influence ed psych generally and more specifically on the K-12 crowd of children?
The "heavens" opened to me. What now?
I had an inexplicable experience about six months ago while I was in knee-deep in your biblical series. It was not of this earth and lasted for a few hours, yet it felt like only one. My pupils became fully dilated though I was completely sober. At first, I was sure it was God, but then I began to doubt myself after some time passed. Why has this not happened to anyone else? I scoured the internet, but nothing. The only logical explanation I could conceive was that this was a bi-polar manic episode. A few months later I came across one of your podcasts where you described a similar experience. You said that the "heavens" opened to you while you were absorbed creating a work of art. If this isn’t an isolated incident, then what was it? Understandably I've been left with a million questions! I’m sure that it’s impossible to have a definitive answer, but can you shed some insight? Do you know of anyone else that this has happened to? Has there been any research about this? Can you recommend any authors? Is this what prompted you to want to enter the field of psychology? I’m sure the bible has some answers but it’s a vast ocean. I was hoping that there might be some answers uncovered within the past few centuries. I’m 95th percentile in trait openness, that might be useful information to add.
What is mental illness
How can we determine what mental illness is? I guess the idea is that, if an individual is suffering, then it requires some attention in one way or another. And, fair enough. But when does pain become illness? It seems so strange to me that arbitrary people decide arbitrary rules about human existence and call that medicine. I hang out with people who have been diagnosed with BPD, whatever that means, because I like them and I feel I am like them. But I get annoyed when they talk about their "illness" because it doesn't make any sense to me. I'm aware this kind of medical self-deprecation existed in the past. Did we learn anything? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the topic. Respectfully. Caroline