I. Critical Reassessment of Knowledge
Some of the concepts and “facts” that were and are still taught in formal education through schools and universities should be reassessed rigorously because they are intrinsically false. Let us take but a few instances of these falsehoods: inert matter, empty space, speed of light, loss of memory, and Darwin’s evolutionism.

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Balla, Bonaventure. 2022. “The Quest for Truth in the Twenty-First Century: A Reflection on the Ideal Epistemological Paradigm.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 11 (3): 13-31. https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-6Ao.
🔹 The PDF of the article gives specific page numbers.
Editor’s Note: Bonaventure Balla’s “The Quest for Truth in the Twenty-First Century: A Reflection on the Ideal Epistemological Paradigm” is presented in two parts. Please find below Part II. Please refer to Part I. The PDF of the entire article is linked above in the Article Citation.
Inert matter is not factually inert, that is, exempt of life, vitality, and motion. Matter is condensed energy and vice versa. The best illustration of this notion is in Einstein’s equation: E= MC2, which means matter (M) with appropriate speed (C = celerity, speed of light) can be converted into an astounding amount of energy (E) and vice versa. The fission of the nucleus of an atom (atomic mass-protons and neutrons) of uranium can release a tremendous amount of energy likely to destroy a whole city. Likewise, when the sub-atomic particles of rocks or stones are entangled, they exchange energy and produce electricity or fire. If one constantly rubs two pieces of stones (matter), one against the other, at some point they will exchange their photons and generate electricity/fire (energy).
Empty space is not really empty. Indeed, it is full of energy and motion. Real scientists have demystified (and demythified) the very idea of empty space. For instance, Dr. Hal Puthoff, a brilliant scientist/theoretical, experimental physicist, and university professor, who also collaborated with NASA, states : “So-called empty space isn’t really empty at all. It is actually full of energy. So, instead of being an empty lot, it’s more like the froth at the base of a waterfall” (Unacknowledged ,62). Regarding zero-point energy that can be found in so-called empty space, quantum physicists assert: ‘‘The amount of energy in a cubic meter of space/time was ten to the 26th power joules per cubic meter. (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00). That’s enough energy in a coffee cup to boil all the oceans of the Earth completely away into ocean.’’ (62) Brian Greene, another reliable scientist and physicist, and many others concur on demystifying this false notion.
The speed of light was known as the fastest thing in the universe. Einstein himself believed that nothing could exceed it, but nowadays convincing bona fide researchers acknowledge that Einstein was wrong because there are objects and energies endowed with a superluminal speed. Dr. George Sudarshan, a respected researcher from the University of Austin, has found that sub-atomic particles called “tachyons” travel much faster than the speed of light. We are also cognizant that the speed of thought exceeds the speed of light. We can mentally teleport ourselves trillions of light years to an extremely far galaxy and be there right away with our thought. Since everything is relative, the speed of light can even be very slow. If a supercivilization needs to travel from Andromeda, our next-door neighbor galaxy, to the Milky Way, it will take 2.5 million light years to get here, that is, 2.5 million years if travelling at the speed of light. This can prove to be extremely slow. Therefore, they will need a few options: travelling excessively faster than the speed of light; creating a wormhole, a space-time short cut; distorting spacetime continuum around the spaceship with their mastery of gravity by creating a space-drive and arrive here expeditiously.
Memory loss is another false notion that has been spread through formal education. Memory, the faculty of remembering information (knowledge), can never be lost. Humans always have this faculty as well as the information embedded by it. The laws of modern physics tell us that information can never be lost. It is somewhere there, hidden in our cerebral circumvolutions and, more precisely, in the myriad cells of our hippocampus (the brain organ that controls memory), but we just do not know how to retrieve it. Still, we can retrieve it through associations because of the process of remembering functions through associations. If we associate an object X with an object Y that we forgot, then that association will trigger the remembrance of Y if it is performed meticulously. Those who teach foreign languages are cognizant that one of the best ways to memorize new words is to use associations, that is, based on specific contexts (semantic field theory), not in isolation or in a vacuum. Additionally, matter houses information because matter is endowed with memory. A gift called psychometry, or vibroturgy, can measure the ability for certain people endowed with this faculty (psychometry) to attune with matter, that is, to be in harmonic frequency resonance or vibratory frequency with matter. Then, they become able to read it just the way we read a book. When they match the frequency of their brainwaves with those of matter, then they just decrypt or download all information contained in that piece of matter with their brain (the best computer). Einstein even testified to it when he stated, “Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” That is the principle of harmonic frequency resonance in physics. Therefore, a new docimology of traditional/formal education is necessary to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

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Darwin’s evolutionism is another misconception enhanced by our formal education. It posits that man as a species stems from the ape after a complex and gradual evolutionary process. If that theory is correct, a woman will first have a little monkey, then the monkey will gradually change into a little baby boy or girl. Another case scenario is that the foetus will, ab initio, be a monkey foetus, then overtime become a human foetus. None of these case scenarios happens though. Monkeys continue to be monkeys and humans continue to be humans. Additionally, one of the laws of Nature that provides our existence with logic, coherence, and rationality postulates: Natura non facit saltum, which means “Nature does not make any jump.” De facto, when we reflect on the phenotype of both beings, the anatomy and physiology of man and that of the monkey, we realize that there is a big gap, just as there are differences. Such differences do not occur in Nature. If they do, that means Nature has no preestablished order, no coherence, let alone harmony. Therefore, Nature is not smart; it is disorganized since it has no intrinsic order and logic. It would follow, then, that God Himself has no sense of harmony, let alone logic because He is, essentially, Nature (Deus sive Natura/ “God or Nature”). It can thus be inferred that man and monkey are very different and that is why both of them follows their own respective paradigm of evolution with no cross link (men continue to be men, and monkeys continue to be monkeys) Consequently, these considerations show that evolutionism does not withstand scrutiny.
If we consider the immensity of the universe composed of trillions of galaxies, it becomes quite clear that we are not alone in it. Drake’s equation (Drake is a scientist and astronomer who developed an equation to calculate and find the number of planets likely to be inhabited in our galaxy and he found millions in our galaxy alone) has confirmed that God is far from being a lazy entity! Similarly, it becomes plausible that there are other types of humans in the universe; they might be similar to us, morphologically and physiologically (other beings existing in the universe might also be dissimilar to us because diversity is one of the laws of the universe). It also becomes plausible that we, as human species, stem from other planets or galaxies, all over the universe. This theory called “panspermia” literally means “seed everywhere/all over.” The Greek prefix pan means “all/everywhere,” and the Latin root semen/sperm refers to “seed.” This theory was developed by an eminent scientist, Dr. Francis Crick, Nobel Prize Laureate for Biology, outlined in chapter 13 of his book Life Itself, Its Origin and Nature. It falls within the category of macroevolutionary progress, which requires completely new genes that differ from known predecessors by dozens to hundreds of essential nucleotides. In what is known as Strong Panspermia, the new genes must have been supplied from elsewhere—space. It is certainly the best testimony of our genesis because evolutionism does not provide us with the solution for our origin as a species. It is but one of these clichés passed down to us by formal education or educational systems and woven into our academic curricula in a kind of incoherent noetic ritualistic conditioning.
II. Prohibition of Epistemic Imperialism, or Bullyism
When individuals become celebrities in the realms of the sciences, arts, or any other field, the aura of authority built around them by the other “experts” and media usually contributes to deify them. It becomes extremely difficult to challenge some of their ideas even if these ideas go against sheer logic, truth and commonsense. Accordingly, an exceptionally brilliant mind who has the misfortune of being unknown will never be validated as long as his/her research does not have the blessing of the celebrities and the parochialism of “experts.” This phenomenon is truly epistemic bullyism and can be a lethal flaw to progress and the advancement of knowledge. The epistemic graveyard is sometimes full of victims of epistemic bullyism. Einstein barely escaped from it. Indeed, his papers on relativity were so powerful and sophisticated that the “authorities” of his time could not understand them. Moreover, he was unknown. These “authorities” believed that his papers were only the work of an intellectual charlatan, a pseudo-scientist treating himself with concepts woven into a very weird form of physics and using a proto-Sumerian language. Consequently, his papers were rejected, and he could not even find any job at universities. As a result, he was unemployed for a long time. Subsequently, he received the Nobel Prize for Physics, not for his work on relativity, his magnum opus, but for his much less refined work: The Photoelectric Effect.
It took many years for the mainstream physicists to vindicate his work on relativity. In the nineteenth century, another victim of epistemic imperialism, among many others, was a young French mathematician, Evariste Galois, a prodigy who conceived an eminently fascinating theory to solve problems in the field of mathematics called “Group Theory.” It was so sophisticated that the “authorities” of the French Academy of Sciences could not understand it. Therefore, Galois was not admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique, a very prestigious institution of higher education in France. It was fifteen years after his death that the mainstream cenacle of mathematicians finally acknowledged the exceptional genius of his theory. As these examples suggest, epistemic bullyism is a real threat to the advancement of knowledge.
III. Respect for Every Epistemic Area
Some researchers look at others from other fields condescendingly and contemptuously. For instance, some consider poetry and poets useless. They have not yet understood that every epistemic area can contribute to the quest for truth. It can be found intuitively, discursively, or both. Genuine, bona fide poets are close to nature stricto sensu as a biosphere, and lato sensu as the manifestation of the “Isness”, God. They are endowed with the ability to attune with Nature as the Isness, God. Through this medium, they become the channel by means of which the Isness reveals Himself. Accordingly, they acquire the ability to decrypt the truth intuitively instead of discursively, that is, through mediation, logic, or reasoning. What will take six months or six years to a mathematician or physicist to understand and comprehend by using long reasoning, analysis and experimentation might take but a few seconds or minutes for a poet/poetess to understand. Why? Because he/she has a direct and outstanding connection with Nature, the divine intuition which is precisely the best form of knowledge and acquisition of the truth.
Plato regarded intuition as the fourth and most refined stage of a process called “dialectic ascension.” It is the direct illumination of the soul by/with the Idea, that is, the truth, the absolute Essence. In Book 7 of The Republic, he taxonomizes the steps necessary for the acquisition of knowledge and truth. Step I is the simple sensitive impressions (the least perfect form of knowledge). Step II is the preestablished opinions (orthodox knowledge), step III is the discursive thought or discursion (through logic, reasoning, usually a lengthy and arduous endeavor-endless mathematical equations or scientific analysis), and step IV is intuitive thought or intuition, which is the enlightenment or direct illumination with the perfect Essence. It is the paroxysmal form of knowledge beaming and stemming straight from the Absolute, without any mediation whatsoever.
One of the most tangible cases of this exceptional connection with the Isness can be found through a phenomenon and faculty called “synesthesia,” the ability to hear colors, taste shapes, see sounds, letters, and number in color (color grapheme synesthesia). Poets have been experiencing and being cognizant of this faculty for eons through intuition. It was only in the last quarter of the twentieth century, though, that scientists started understanding the true nature of synesthesia. In The World As I See It, Einstein confessed that he discovered his famous equation: E=MC2 intuitively. We can surmise that, just like real poets, he attuned himself with the Absolute to come up with this equation. Besides, emotion is inherently associated with poetry and creative imagination. It is not by sheer randomness that the etymology of the word “poetry” is “creation.”
The word “poetry” stems from the Greek verb ποιέω, poiein, which means “to create,” that is, to use one’s imagination to conceive and materialize something. Einstein once said, “Logic can take you from point A to point B, but imagination can take you everywhere.” It follows that if poets can use imagination, it will therefore take them to the source of everything: the Isness, which will enable them to understand and decrypt/solve mysteries intuitively.
Moreover, reliable contemporary studies also show that poetry can help treat or alleviate the suffering of patients with certain brain traumas because when they read or do poetry, they are then involved in an innovative, unique, and fascinating kind of activity that harnesses their brains. According to credible research, when put into music, poetry can lead to miracles by triggering recoveries. Throughout the years, researchers have used functional MRI and other advanced diagnostic tools, such as Positron Emission Tomography (P.E.T.) to dissect how the human brain reacts to poetry. They have found that the brain is hardwired for poetry. It seems to recognize the different rhymes and rhythms that poets use and distinguish them from normal writing or speech.
Researchers have discovered also that pondering poetic images along with the multifaceted meanings in poems stimulates different parts of the brain, parts that help us to decipher our everyday reality. Research suggests that reading or listening to poetry is useful for numerous things besides simply arousing our emotions and elevating our souls. The mental skills we exercise when we struggle to understand the plot of a movie, the mystery around an investigation or when we figure out the odds for winning a game are the same skills that help us navigate unpredictable occurrences and make better choices in our daily lives. These mental skills are flexible thinking and the ability to contemplate multiple meanings.
If people read poetry and became accustomed to contemplating hidden meaning, analyzing its linguistic clues, their ability to think with more alertness about what they experience would be noticeably enhanced. Besides, certain Renaissance, symbolist (Baudelaire’s, Mallarme’s), and Negro-African poems (Cesaire’s Return to my Native Land) are endowed with algorithmic patterns, which factually challenges and harnesses our brains when we read and try to decrypt them. Research also shows that poetry stimulates the brain in the same way as music does. It is triggered by the amygdalae, a brain structure of the limbic system that oversees emotion. It is prone to send you into a meta-reflective, memory-enabling state, particularly when reading poems that you love and are familiar with. Poetry also lights up the areas of the brain that concern memory and switch on when you are relaxing. This state is called the “poetry trance” and is close to the level of the mind in a deep form of meditation that elevates the brain to Delta waves area.
Finally, poetry can be viewed in different ways, but it is fundamentally an outstanding form of language, quasi-supernatural because of its ethereal origin, density, and its eminently refined formalism. Linguists characterize it as a meta-language, a language that transcends common language (“meta” in Greek means “beyond”), subsequently formalized by linguists and poets as well. True, bona fide poets can use the power of words to change the world and bridge the gap between the signifier (s) and the signified (s). That was the goal of symbolism as a poetic school inspired by the concepts from Cratylus, one of Plato’s teachers. He believed that such a goal can be achieved through a special type of language. Precisely, poetry is that language. It is apt to subsume such power since it also bears music and prosody (rhythm, sound, intonation). With these, we return to physics and frequency because sounds have vibratory frequencies. It follows that a meticulous choice of words (collision of words/poetic shocks) having specific types of sounds and frequencies can generate miracles. The best illustration of this power can be found in that of mantras.
Let us remember Tesla’s reflection: “If you need to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” Most sacred texts (Bible, Koran, Upanishads, Vedas, etc.) emphasize the power of words or the word. God used it to create the world. Genesis starts with “Ad principium verbum erat.” (“In the beginning there was the word”). De facto, poets more than any other experts prove to be the very ones who can tap into the power of the words to produce amazing effects, to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and progress. It follows that every epistemic area deserves respect, validation, and recognition.
IV. Heuristic Humility Buttressed by Open-Mindedness
There are two types of researchers.
Type I refers to all those who are confined to the gospel according to textbook X outside of which there is no salvation. These researchers can never contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Their field is psittacism, that is, the flawless and maniac memorization of textbook X concepts with the inability to think by themselves to find their own way. These lyrical parrots would be intellectually destroyed if they were driven away from their little epistemic comfort zone. They strongly believe that knowledge is limited to textbook X, the alpha and omega of any quest for truth.
Type II stands for all those who have the audacity to think outside the box by using the most scientific faculty to solve enigmas: imagination. Tesla and Einstein were among this type. In The World As I See It, the latter confessed: “Imagination is more important than knowledge […] Logic can take you from point A to point B, but imagination will take you everywhere.” Thus, we should encourage all the researchers who belong to type II because they are the real builders of the future, the golden age of knowledge. These researchers are also humble and open-minded, fully aware that we have not discovered everything yet, and continue to learn. Knowledge itself is constantly evolving, complying with a natura naturans perspective. Accordingly, when they are confronted with a new scientific theory, a new epistemological obstacle, they do not sweep it away from the noetic academic rug. They just adopt a posture that Egyptian and Greek scientists and thinkers used to call “epochê,” that is, the suspension of the judgment.
This posture is strategic, provisional, and lucid. It galvanizes a good researcher’s epistemological curiosity and can be summarized thusly:
Never deny or accept blindly, but keep your mind open and continue to search until you find whether a new theory is valid or not.
That posture is the very essence of heuristic humility and open-mindedness. We cannot claim to know everything. That is why we need to be open-minded and humble. Heuristic humility can even be a sign of genius since it coerces us to continue to search and come up with brilliant findings. As Einstein observed: “The genius is limited while human stupidity is unlimited. There are two infinities: the universe and human stupidity, but human stupidity … I am not sure, it might even be more infinite than the universe.”
V. Funding Research
Funding is the last pillar of the transdisciplinary approach in the twenty-first century. We live in a world where funds are indispensable to many projects. Research is one of them. Money has been unquestionably emblematic of power and can open many doors. Still, we strongly believe that it should be used to serve noble ideals rather than be limited to purely materialistic needs. On our planet a few individuals are extremely wealthy and constitute an island of quasi-incommensurable assets within a vast ocean of poverty and misery. One of them can have a cornucopia of assets superior to that of several countries combined. All of us and especially those who are wealthy should subscribe to the philosophy of service to others (STO), a Promethean ethics (soulfulness and selflessness) rather than that of the service to self (STS), a Faustian ethics (soullessness and selfishness). Precisely, within a Promethean framework, it would be enthralling if the wealthy were willing to assist mankind by funding research so that our civilization can evolve from its present status to status I.
All these considerations attest to the fact that the division within the community of researchers has prevented mankind from materializing the type of progress it deserves. Apart from a few exceptions, most researchers have been functioning from their little separate epistemic field. It follows that their epistemological paradigm was monistic and did not come to fruition because the approach taken was irrelevant. In the twenty-first century we need a synergy of researchers given that each area of knowledge can bring an eminently significant contribution to the whole body of research. This does not mean that each researcher must know everything but should, at least, be a bit acquainted with other disciplines and work with other researchers in symbiosis, in harmonious teams.
A college of experts committed to creating a unique future for the greater good is what we need in the twenty-first century. It can thus be inferred that epistemic unity through a transdisciplinary approach of knowledge is the ideal epistemological paradigm for our quest for truth. More and more minds are being driven by this paradigm, which undergirds the fact that we are on the right path despite the crises that affect Terra. One of the most powerful illustrations of this paradigm can be found in an eminently fascinating technique called “Holographic Regenerating Medical Bed” with a holographic projector overhead. It is an enthralling symbiosis already existing on our planet. It is a form of therapy involving genetics, cellular biology, physics, cymatics, and technology conceived to regenerate and regrow an amputated limb. Therapists use a blood sample to get your genetic code. A computer reads your DNA and forms a complete 3D copy of your body, with a very high cellular resolution, a perfect blueprint of your body. This computer is connected to a projector which looks like a camera with a big lens. This high resolution 3D copy of your body is projected onto your amputated limb. Water, biological materials, basic proteins, amino acids are piped in to dramatically speed up the healing. Through a physics principle called dominant harmonic frequency resonance, your cells, fluids, and biological materials conform molecularly to this 3D holographic projection. All this occurs as they are being piped in. Over time, molecules and cells reorganize themselves very fast and completely regrow the missing limb in four to five days! This is not science-fiction, but science fact!
A former USMC SS captain gives an account of this medical technique on his website (see “Holographic Regenerating Medical Bed”). Another outstanding illustration of the transdisciplinary approach of knowledge has been attested to in France with Dr. Montagnier’s case. As a matter of fact, Dr. Montagnier, a scientist and Nobel Prize Laureate for Medicine, has been working in a team composed of a mathematician, Dr. Perron (DNA sequencing, mathematical analysis) and a university physicist (stationary waves and domains of coherence). Their insightful symbiosis enables them to bridge gaps between biology, mathematics, and physics or, precisely, find out the latent connections between these fields.
Dr. Montagnier has discovered a means by which one can perform DNA teleportation through water. He has found out that that water has memory (can carry the genetic code of a patient), which creates the possibility of healing with waves and frequencies instead of having recourse to surgery (form of therapy that gives good results but may also lead to tragic accidents and deaths usually due to cases of iatrogenesis[1]). Additionally, through “repeated sequences of DNA”, they have found a “redundant message” that needs to be decrypted. The genius who will decrypt it will provide the solution regarding how to help regenerate organs, make a liver, heart, etc … Consequently, adopting the transdisciplinary paradigm of knowledge is a noble decision since it will factually enable us to sublimate nature by harvesting happiness and eradicating misery and poverty on earth. Then, we will walk on our planet but dine in the stars and soar sub specie aeternitatis.
❧ Part I: “The Quest for Truth in the Twenty-First Century.”
Bonaventure Balla—ballaomg@hotmail.com, Assistant Professor at Norfolk State University—holds a Ph.D. in French, Francophone Literature, and Semiotics from Michigan State University. He also holds an MA in French and an MA in English. He won several international awards of poetry in France for three consecutive years (2013, 2014, 2015), won the Distinguished Faculty Award of Scholarship as the best researcher in the College of Liberal Arts at Norfolk State University, for the academic year 2020-2021. He is the author of eight (8) books, two (2) of which were published in the US (Odes for Black Diamonds; Symbolism, Synesthesia, and Semiotics, Multidisciplinary Approach), four (4) in France (Euphorie et Dysphorie, Aimé Cesaire et les Jardins d’Espoir, Aimé Césaire et les Porteurs de Lumière, Espoir Cosmique), one (1) in Belgium (Astres et Désastres), one (1) in the UK (Candles of Light, will be published soon), and the ninth (9th) is at the final stage of its completion (The Keys of Translation “Science”). He has been serving as a Professional Translator (English -French-Spanish) for twenty-nine years. He also specializes in neuroscience of language/poetry (how the brain generates language and poetry), and epistemology.
References
Crick, Francis. Life Itself, its Origin and Nature. New York. Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Einstein, Albert. The World As I See It. New York. Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2001.
Green, Brian. The Elegant Universe. New York. Norton and Company, 2012.
Greer, Stephen. Unacknowledged. L.L.C. West Palm Beach. A & M Publishing, 2017.
Hobbs, Angie. Plato’s Republic. Penguin Books Ltd, 2019.
Kaku, Michio. Beyond Einstein. New York. Anchor Books Edition, 1995.
Kaku, Michio. Hyperspace. New York. First Anchor Books Edition, 1994.
Lipton, Bruce. The Biology of Belief. New York. Hay House, 2016.
Pais, Abraham. Subtle Is the Lord…Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
1 Iatrogenesis: stems from the Greek “iatros” meaning “healer”, and the word “genesis”: “origin”. The word “iatrogenesis” refers to a death or accident caused by the doctor, not by the disease itself. The Biology of Belief, a cogent book written by a brilliant researcher, Dr. Bruce Lipton, substantiates the recurrent pattern of iatrogenic deaths in the US. In it he says: “When a healing profession works in agreement with science and nature, then it becomes a benefit to the patient; when it does not, it becomes detrimental to him/her.” He adds numbers: “seven hundred and eighty-four thousand people die every year (784000) not from the disease, but from the treatment of the disease’’ (#1), followed by cardiovascular diseases (#2), and cancer (#3). (Lipton Bruce, 7). It may be due to several causes:
• Side effects of possible drug interactions;
• Medical errors;
• Extreme negligence;
• Use of contaminated instruments;
• Anxiety or annoyance in the patient, physician or treatment provider in relation to medical procedures or treatments;
• Unnecessary medical treatment resulting from a physician’s decision; we can add this:
lack of creative imagination resulting from the inability to think outside the box (inability to think beyond what was taught by textbooks and professors at medical schools as if textbooks and professors had a monopoly of the absolute);
• Reductionism: inability to consider the patient as a complex and sophisticated whole, that is, matter (Newtonian mechanics) and energy (Quantum mechanics: frequency, waves, vibration, and soul), but only as matter, object that can be broken into bits and pieces (Newtonian mechanics) and a merchandise through which one makes a lot of money;
• Soullessness of certain physicians in their unwillingness to regard patients as human beings entitled to dignity, respect, and attention even if they do not have medical coverage, attitude leading to recklessness and contempt in the way they treat them as if some were precious merchandises because they have medical coverage, and other were not because they do not have it.
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