The Road Less Traveled
    A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
M. Scott Peck, M.D.

World Views and Religion

- As we grow in discipline, love, and life experience, our understanding of the world also grows
- Among humans, great variety in our understanding of what life is all about
    - This understanding is religion
- Everyone has a religion
    - Sean: Where religion is simply our understanding of the universe and our place in it, rather than some organized set of beliefs or practices
    - Most people have a tendency to define religion too narrowly
- Everyone has implicit or explicit set of beliefs about essential nature of the world

- Sooner or later in therapy, therapist will come to recognize how patient views world
    - World view of patients always an essential part of their problems
    - Correction of world view is necessary for their cure
- Usually, world view is not completely conscious

- What determines someone's world view?
    - We tend to believe what people around us believe
    - Most basic culture in which we develop is the culture of our family
    - Parents are its "culture leaders"
    - Most significant aspect of family culture is: how they behave towards each other
    - Not what parents say, but
    - The unique world that they create for us by their behavior
- Our first notion of God's nature is a simple extrapolation of our parents' natures

- To develop world view that is realistic
    - We must constantly revise and extend our understanding to include new knowledge of the larger world
- Religion of most adults is product of transference
    - Most of us operate from narrower frame of reference than what we are capable of
    - Fail to transcend influence of our parents' culture

- We have vastly different views about nature of reality
    - Everyone believes his own world view to be correct, since it is based on microcosm of our personal experience
    - Most of us not fully aware of our own world views
    - Much less aware of uniqueness of experience from which views are derived

Everyone has a religion, in that everyone has some particular view of the world and its purpose.  This world view is generally a product of the culture of or families or friends, and many people are not conscious of it, and do not extend their view beyond what they grew up with.