A New Model of Development

Among the living beings on our planet, man possesses a unique capacity for conscious development. This capacity is for the most part imperfectly developed but is an integral part of our complex and evolving neurological makeup. The Dimon Institute is dedicated to understanding the complex structure of the human organism and to teaching individuals how to develop the capacity for conscious awareness and control or body and mind.

Our Western approach to mind and body, harking back to Plato and Descartes, broadly conceives of two categories of growth and development — physical and mental. The two elements, taken together, are thought to constitute full and complete development. All action, however, is performed by means of a complex organism in which mental and physical elements—brain and muscle—operate as part of a total system whose workings are largely instinctive or unconscious.

The working of this system is fundamental to all learning and performance, yet this subject is virtually ignored among psychologists and educators. The vast majority of time in school and other learning environments is spent focusing on what we must do or understand, with almost no attention given to the process of how we do this. Learning is treated as distinct from the self, as if the act of mastering information or learning a new skill can somehow take place independently of the mind and body as the central agent from which all mental or physical activity emanates.

But the way the mind and body function is pivotal to all learning and accomplishment. As an instrument of thought and action, the human body is capable of a level of refinement almost beyond our imaginings; yet attention to this aspect of development is haphazard at best. To ensure reliable development and the fullest achievement of our conscious potential, education should be concerned not with specific performance per se but with control over oneself as the basis for any particular activity or skill in which one might engage. It is the goal of the Dimon Institute to establish the study of this subject as a foundation for learning, and to model the teaching of this subject for future educators as a new principle in educational development.