Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the World Transformation Movement?
Established in Sydney, Australia, in 1983, the World Transformation Movement (WTM) is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to transforming the human race by addressing the root cause of all human conflict and suffering: the human condition. The WTM in particular promotes Australian biologist and author Jeremy Griffith’s breakthrough biological explanation of the human condition, which reveals how the clash between our instincts and intellect led to our species’ angry, egocentric and alienated behavior. This understanding has been described by Professor Harry Prosen, a past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, as the “holy grail of insight” required for the psychological rehabilitation of humanity. Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 3.1.
2. Who is Jeremy Griffith?
Jeremy Griffith is an Australian biologist who has dedicated his life to developing a biologically grounded explanation of the underlying issue in all human affairs of the human condition. Raised on a sheep station in rural New South Wales, he was educated at Geelong Grammar School, conducted the most thorough investigation into the fate of the Tasmanian Tiger, and later completed a Bachelor of Science in zoology at the University of Sydney. In 1983, Griffith established a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and amelioration of the human condition, now called the World Transformation Movement (WTM). He is the author of several books, including FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, which presents his comprehensive — and world-transforming-and-saving — account of human behavior. Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 2.1.
3. What is biologist Jeremy Griffith’s ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition?
In his ‘Instinct vs Intellect’ explanation of the human condition, biologist Jeremy Griffith — the founder of the World Transformation Movement — explains that the human condition emerged some two million years ago when our newly conscious intellect came into conflict with our older, instinctive drives. Our intellect needs to question and experiment, whereas instincts, shaped by countless generations of natural selection, are rigid strategies that resist such experimentation. This resistance left the intellect feeling unfairly criticized, which in turn produced guilt, insecurity and, ultimately, the defensive behaviors of anger, ego and alienation. Griffith asserts that by understanding this clash, those insecure behaviors are obsoleted, providing a pathway to the resolution of conflict and suffering in our lives and thus the world. Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 1.3.
4. What scientific support does Jeremy Griffith’s explanation of the human condition have?
Despite the reluctance many have to discussion of the human condition, biologist Jeremy Griffith’s ‘Instinct vs Intellect’ explanation of it — which is advanced through the World Transformation Movement — has received support from leading scientists such as Professor Harry Prosen (a past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association), Professor Stuart Hurlbert (a noted ecologist from San Diego State University), Professor Charles Birch (a Templeton prize-winning biologist) and Professor David Chivers (a past President of the Primate Society of Great Britain). Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 1.7.
5. Is this idea original or new? / How does biologist Jeremy Griffith’s ‘instinct vs intellect’ explanation of the human condition differ from other theories that recognise these elements?
Many thinkers through history have acknowledged a tension between our instincts and our conscious intellect, but Jeremy Griffith has explained why this conflict arose in the first place. He argues that when consciousness emerged, it inevitably challenged our older, gene-based instincts, creating the psychological war within us that we call the human condition. As Jeremy explains, even contemporary thinkers who recognized the instinct-vs-intellect divide never took the crucial next step of actually explaining the conflict. What is unique about Griffith’s synthesis is that he resolves this conflict by clarifying the fundamental difference between the two learning systems: gene-based instincts can only orientate behavior, whereas the nerve-based intellect is capable of insight, understanding cause and effect. This biological explanation, he argues, finally makes sense of our inner conflict and provides the basis for genuine psychological reconciliation and relief — the breakthrough the WTM presents as original. Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 1.13.
6. Aren’t some people just born psychopathic, or even ‘evil’? / How does this explanation rehabilitate people capable of ‘evil’ behaviour? / Does this condone ‘evil’ behaviour?
Jeremy Griffith explains that what we call ‘evil’ — cruelty, violence, depravity — is not the result of an inherently ‘evil’ human nature, but a product of a deeply upset psychological state. According to Griffith, when humans developed a conscious mind some two million years ago, it clashed with our instinctive, loving, cooperative and unconditionally selfless orientation, creating insecurity, guilt, and the angry, egocentric and alienated state that is our ‘human condition’. In the extreme, this produces people who are capable of what we have described as ‘evil’. Griffith maintains that truly understanding this root cause of our ‘good-and-evil’ divide has a redeeming, healing effect. It can dissolve the guilt, shame and defensive aggression that once fuelled such destructive behavior. Of course, this breakthrough explanation doesn’t condone or sanction the horrendous atrocities humans can commit rather, through bringing compassionate understanding to the source of humans’ upset behavior, it gives us the power to ameliorate and thus subside and ultimately eliminate it. Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 1.38.
7. Why aren’t Jeremy Griffith’s insights mainstream?
Jeremy Griffith’s ideas are not mainstream for three main reasons. First, his work directly addresses the psychological reality of the human condition, which challenges the mechanistic, human-condition-avoiding, denial-based approach of conventional science. As a result, his theories have often been dismissed as heretical and even persecuted. Second, his explanation presents such a profound analysis that many struggle to absorb it, a difficulty known in the WTM as the ‘Deaf Effect’. Other readers find the material too confronting and react with hostility. Third, Griffith’s explanations come from outside conventional frameworks that avoid the full view of the human condition. But as Einstein noted, ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’ — so, as the WTM states, Griffith’s understandings have necessarily not been mainstream. Read more in the WTM’s FAQ 1.14.