Current Openings #7: The Knowledge Problem

Aviv Shahar with David Price Francis

January 19, 2023

Most of us would probably agree that our brains and minds are restless: continually consuming (unless we’re asleep) vast amounts of data and information from limitless sources, sometimes of dubious quality, a behavior that is often the direct result of how we programmed ourselves to think. They usually run on automatic pilot, craving a high-calorie diet of constant stimulation.

We know our body and physical systems will suffer from a diet too rich in the wrong kinds of calories and energy. So too our brain, mind, and higher faculties can’t function near their natural capacity and ability on a diet of ‘junk food’ — knowledge with potent energetic content that can supercharge the brain, but leave the rest of our systems deprived of real mental and spiritual nourishment.

Our freedom of choice as human beings means we are free to fill our minds with toxic and self-destructive patterns and programs, or the knowledge and awareness that feed our natural intelligence and connections to greater universal possibilities. But how do we improve our mental diet?

In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore the seven types of natural knowledge that nourish our mental activity and support change and personal growth. Among their insights:

  • Unless we are able to source knowledge within ourselves, we are not going to be very good at loving and caring and being compassionate with other people.
  • Only humans have a knowledge problem. Squirrels don't. Cats don’t say “What's going to happen when I die?” Everything else in the planetary program is full and complete.
  • There are addictions to foods that are bad for us physically, and similarly to ‘foods’ bad for our mental diet, like when we get addicted to provocative headlines created to actually hijack our brains.
  • Many may say that you cannot think of anything original, so why try? That’s an abdication of the capacity to live into the fullness of our humaneness as a source of new discovery.
  • We have privileged the telescope and microscope over and above the ‘energy scopes’ of ourselves and our natural technology, sometimes with detrimental results.
  • You can’t find character-forming knowledge in any app online. How is a young person to realize this unless they are guided to discover their passion and build a character?

This conversation builds on concepts and insights first explored in The Human Predicament and Planetary Program and The Addiction Trap. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

By being trained away from the natural ways of knowing we were incarcerated and programmed. We can use this word. We were programmed by a modern and postmodern conditioning that is largely disembodied and is largely separated from natural alignments. If we look carefully at the main thrust, the main effort of our education and learning, it's centered on where you will find a job that will make you a lot of money.

Aviv Shahar

David Price Francis

David Price Francis

David Price Francis helps individuals, couples, and groups understand and improve the quality of energy in their personal lives and relationships using techniques and strategies that he has successfully developed in private practice working with clients for over forty years. He is the author of Go With The Glow: From Psychological Pain to Spiritual HappinessPartners in Passion: How To Positively Transform the Energies in all Your RelationshipsThe Tales of Dr. Woo: A Journey into Truth; and a 10-part online course, “The Human Aura: A Practical Introduction To Your Personal Energy Field.” 

Visit: EnergyWorlds

Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar

Aviv is the Founder of Aviv Consulting, helping leaders unleash strategic innovation, and is the author of Create New Futures: How Leaders Produce Breakthroughs and Transform the World Through Conversation.

Visit: Aviv Consulting