In August 2019, Gregg Henriques significantly changed the trajectory of my life.

At midlife I became interested in philosophy and psychology in an effort to help resolve a serious personal crisis triggered by the complete collapse of my Christian worldview. From time to time I would pick up a copy of the Psychology Today magazine from newsstands. When the internet arrived, I began to regularly surf the Psychology Today website which I had bookmarked.

There is a massive amount of information on the Psychology Today website. I have no memory of how I stumbled upon Henriques but his articles resonated with me. By 2019 I was reading every article he published on the Psychology Today website.

On August 29, 2019 Henriques posted The Digital Identity Problem which introduced me to the idea of a meta-crisis. I followed all the links in his article which introduced me to John Vervaeke, Jordan Hall and Daniel Schmactenberger. I began listening to Emerge podcasts.

The Henriques article also had a link to Can You See the Elephant Sun God? An Open Letter for a Vision of Humanity in the 21st Century link.That long article had many more links, some of which I explored. Two links soon became important sources of content for me - Rebel Wisdom and Peter Limberg.

The Peter Limberg connection eventually led me to Emergent Commons which I joined in July, 2021. I discovered that Gregg Henriques was also a member of Emergent Commons, although he was not active. And I felt a connection between the Henriques Elephant Sun God and the Emergent Commons elephant logo. All of this felt very special to me, and still does. Perhaps someday I will write an essay about what feels special as distinguished from what is special in an objective sense.

I was delighted to discover that a group was meeting at Emergent Commons discussing The Elusive I videos. I had found my tribe, some people interested in John Vervaeke and Gregg Henriques in dialogos. I watched all thirteen videos in the series.

This is the first part of a series on the nature and function of the self which I will be doing with Gregg Henriques and Christopher Mastropietro. In this episode we dialogue about the problematic nature of the self and what that might imply.

Somewhere in this journey I joined the TOK-SOCIETY-L, a listserve group led by Henriques. I am very seldom active at TOK but it feels like a special place with many amazing members. Three other members of Emergent Commons are also members there, and this strengthens my sense of connection with these people. One of the topics of discussion for the last few months has been the book Henriques was writing.

A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology: Addressing the Enlightenment Gap by Gregg Henriques was published on December 10, 2022. It is a book of academic psychology and it is expensive, too expensive for me. I would probably not read it but I would like to have it as a reference book.

A New Synthesis presents a paradigm shift. This is a book which should become part of the required reading of every student of psychology at every educational institution worldwide. Yes, I believe it is that important. But paradigm shifts do not come quickly or easily. There will be a lot of resistance in the academic community. It will be fascinating to see what actually happens in coming years. Perhaps A New Synthesis will disappear into obscurity, but I hope not.

On December 12th Henriques published a Summary of A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology on Medium. This I read and the article is perfect for my needs. This is one lens that I see through to make sense of the world at this time.

I maintain my own personal list of the top ten people who I have grown to highly trust and in whose work I have a high degree of interest. Gregg Henriques, John Vervaeke, Daniel Schmactenberger and Peter Limberg are on that list. Each of them have impacted my life in very positive ways since I discovered them back in 2019. 

And it is meaningful to me to be able to share this incredible journey of discovery with the growing number of friends I have at Emergent Commons.

Thank you, Gregg, and best wishes for the success of your book.