ABSTRACT
Religion was the mechanism which facilitated growth and development in individuals. In the West, this occurred predominantly through Christianity. However, it has been scientifically researched, and it did meet what Ken Wilber calls the "three aspects of scientific inquiry" or the "three strands of all valid knowing": Instrumental injunction is the actual practice of doing the methodology or inquiry. Direct apprehension is the direct experience or the apprehension of data that is brought about by the injunction. Communal confirmation is where the data or experiences are checked by a community of people who have completed the injunction and the apprehensive strands. The dogmatic belief system became primary, which brought with it the suppression of personal concrete experience. But the evolving human spirit defies dogma, and a few centuries it finds expression in a new developing field: psychology. And the human spirit flourished within this new eclectic discipline; it was open, inquisitive and explorative.
