Foreword

We are the Scionics Institute. Our continuing decades-long mission has been to create a universally applicable philosophical system or conceptual framework which is fully consistent with reality and reason. We call such consistency with reality and reason “empiricorationalism,” and we call the universally applicable empiricorational system we are developing “Scionics.” Scionics may be thought of as a general- or universal-scope scientific approach for understanding and relating to life and existence.

If you don’t already understand why it is more desirable to have an approach for living which is empiricorationally (or scientifically) justified than one which isn’t, then this book probably isn’t going to be very beneficial for you. If, on the other hand, you see the value in the empiricorational (or scientific) grounding of beliefs, then it may be of great value for you to continue.

A common misconception is that a scientific approach to life would entail a rejection of that which makes us human, sacrificing such things as love, art, and the like on the altar of reason and reality. It is just the opposite, however, which is actually true. A truly general or universal scientific approach to life serves as a powerful tool for enhancing the understanding, integration, and actualization of our emotional, psychological, spiritual, intellectual, and all other aspects of human nature.

Due to the historical tension and even antagonism which has existed between science and religion, as well as the mystical, non-empiricorational (or simply anti-scientific) character of so much of religion, it would be natural to expect that Scionics would reject essentially all forms of religious beliefs and practices.

This is, in fact, exactly what the Scionics Institute actually did during the early decades of its existence. Three major developments within Scionics, however, ultimately forced a very subtle but important modification to this otherwise essentially anti-religious stance, driving Scionics into the realm of the traditionally spiritual and religious.

The first major development came from an empiricorational survey of the beliefs and practices of a great number of the world’s religions. As might be expected, essentially all of them were initially rejected as fundamentally and irreconcilably mystical, or non-empiricorational. After some time, however, a powerful core subset of empiricorationally justified beliefs and practices were found to be contained within Buddhism, and particularly Zen Buddhism, despite the large amount of mysticism which Buddhism also contains. This empiricorational core particularly relates to (1) meditative practices, and (2) a reason- and reality-accepting approach towards existence.

The Scionics Institute began to integrate the empiricorational core of Buddhism with Scionics. In doing so, the Institute began to recognize that, while retaining its adherence to empiricorationalism, Scionics had begun to transcend the usual distinctions between the secular and the spiritual. It eventually began to operate in a dual capacity, as it (1) continued in its primary mandated task of integrating empiricorational knowledge, and (2) founded “Scio-Buddhism” as a distinct Scio-Spiritual path within the larger empiricorational framework of Scionics.

The second major development which modified the initial anti-religious stance of the Scionics Institute involved the empiricorational integration of various fundamental facts of reality which could be seen as having traditionally metaphysical or theological implications, while nonetheless remaining fully grounded in and consistent with reason and reality. This integration is outlined in our publication, “Matheism and Psychonics: The Ultimate Foundation and Cause of All Reality.” Matheism is founded upon the simple fact that the truths of mathematics are true everywhere, eternally. They cannot not be true. The truths of mathematics are uncreated, unchangeable, eternal, and omnipresent.

The ancient Greeks used the term “Logos” to refer to logic and reasoning. In its most universal sense, it can also refer to the entire collection of mathematical and logical truths. To avoid confusion with other uses of the term which have also come into widespread use, however, Scionics has adopted the term “Mathos” to refer specifically to the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable set of mathematical truths.

“Matheism” is the position that the ultimate metaphysical foundation of the Cosmos is the Mathos. Just as there was never a time when the Mathos came into being, there was also never a time when the Cosmos came into being. The Cosmos and the Mathos are infinite and eternal, without need of any Creator external to themselves. They have simply always existed, with the Mathos existing eternally unchanging, and the Cosmos existing eternally changing.

Such qualities as being infinite, eternal, and the like, are often traditionally considered to be aspects of the Divine, Spiritual, and Transcendent. Thus, both the Mathos and the Cosmos have aspects of the Divine. In the very real sense that we are of the Mathos and the Cosmos, we are also of the Divine.

Thou art Divine.

The third major development in the ecclesial evolution of Scionics occurred some time after the Institute began the empiricorational integration of human psychology into Scionics. This psychological integration took place, as was intended, only after it had completed the more foundational integration of philosophy and physics.

Much of the psychology of humans is similar to that of other animals. The primary distinction between human and animal minds, however, is the vast and open-ended human capacity for conceptual and symbolic thought. The empiricorational integration of human psychology as human psychology thus requires (1) an empiricorational understanding of how this conceptual and symbolic capacity actually operates within the human mind, and (2) a recognition of its permeation and manifestation throughout so much of human life.

This eventually led to an investigation into the role of symbolic thought as manifested within various religious or spiritual traditions. Spirituality often involves symbolically coming to terms with, and seeking meaning within, the deepest truths, mysteries, and ideals of human existence. Formalized religion involves the formal codification of the symbolic framework of spirituality, by some external authority such as a priest, rabbi, book, or the like. There is nothing wrong with formalized spiritual symbolic codification, per se: the problem, however, arises when such codification proceeds non-empiricorationally. A fairly high degree of non-empiricorationality is unavoidable in the case of essentially all traditional formalized religions, due to the non-empiricorational nature of human understanding at the time when the beliefs of such religions were codified. This non-empiricorationality was further magnified over time as various human religious authorities (such as priests, rabbis, etc.) promulgated additional non-empiricorational beliefs intended to increase their own political power and financial wealth, or the power and wealth of the religious organizations they represented.

Nonetheless, even while traditional religions certainly do contain a high degree of non-empiricorationality, they obviously must also contain at least some degree of both empiricorationality and perceived (and even some real) value for their adherents, or they would have no adherents at all. The empiricorational integration of psychology led the Scionics Institute to recognize the many significant empiricorational and beneficial symbols often deeply hidden within various traditional religious frameworks. This has already led to the inception of Scio-Judaism and Scio-Christianity (in addition to the Scio-Buddhism which the Institute had already developed) and will ultimately lead to the creation of other forms of Scio-Spirituality, each of which can be viewed as a particular manifestation of a more generally or universally applicable Scionism. (The Scio-Buddhism mentioned earlier was developed before psychology became integrated into Scionics. This is because the empiricorational core of Buddhism isn’t really that obscure in the first place; recognizing it therefore did not require significant psychological analysis or insight.)

One can be fully committed to empiricorationalism and Scionics without necessarily embracing any particular Scio-Spiritual path. This should proceed according to one’s own empiricorational authority, and the value which the individual derives from that path. The entire symbolic framework encompassing all Scio-Spirituality is actually available from within Scionics itself, without necessitating any overt Scio-Spiritual practice. The Scio-Spiritual practices are available to all but required of none.

Your Spirituality is your choice. It is wise to base this choice on Knowledge and Love.