The Great Guilt that causes the Deaf Effect

by Jeremy Griffith

As biologist Jeremy Griffith explains in THE Interview (which psychiatrist Professor Harry Prosen described as "the most important interview of all time"), while we humans lacked the explanation for our 2-million-year corrupted human condition we had no choice but to deny that our distant ape ancestors lived in a state of cooperative and loving innocence. But with the good reason for our corrupted condition now finally found, our species' original state of innocence can at last be admitted - and what that honesty finally allows us to see is the immense guilt and shame we humans have been carrying for corrupting our original instinctive self or soul. While it's all-relieving to have this 'Great Burden of Guilt' finally lifted, having it suddenly revealed is so exposing that the mind of many will initially refuse to take in or 'hear' what's being talked about. It will suffer from a 'Deaf Effect', which is what this booklet and its video presentation is all about overcoming.

74 pages, Paperback

Published August 20, 2022

About the author

Jeremy Griffith (1945-) is an Australian biologist who has dedicated his life to bringing fully accountable, biological understanding to the dilemma of the human condition–the underlying issue in all human life of our species’ extraordinary capacity for what has been called ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

Reviews

[Connor FitzGerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This booklet goes where no one else has ever gone. In it, biologist Jeremy Griffith explains humanity's great guilt over having destroyed our original state of cooperative, loving innocence. This guilt is so powerful that we don't even acknowledge that we have it, and yet it drives every aspect of our lives. But in this booklet it is explained that this guilt was the product of our conscious mind's absolutely necessary experiments in self management, during which it had to defy our pre-established instinctive self. So this is a redeeming understanding that Griffith is presenting, but this historic fear we have of the whole issue of having destroyed paradise explains why people still find it very difficult to 'hear' any discussion of the subject - hence the 'deaf effect' in the title.

[Sam Belfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

The booklet, ‘The Great Guilt that causes the Deaf Effect’, by Jeremy Griffith, is an authentially fascinating, unique and compelling read.

For starters Griffith, a biologist, defines the human condition in a very novel and particular way. Ordinarily, in my view, the term ‘human condition’ is used in a broad, amorphous fashion ranging from the practical aspects of human behaviour and life, to the more religious and philosophical engaging issues of the meaning of life and morality.

In the ‘The Great Guilt’, Griffith posits that: our pre-fully conscious ancestors were guided by selfless, cooperative and loving instincts (of which our ‘soul’, morality, conscience is a manifestation); when our fully conscious mind (the ability to understand cause and effect and manage our lives from a basis of understanding cause and effect) emerged it wrested management from our instincts; at this point we became psychologically upset — competitive, aggressive and selfish.

In the ‘The Great Guilt’ Griffith defines the human condition as the immense guilt and shame we feel at behaving contrary to our loving instincts, for having corrupted our soul so to speak. Griffith pin points this guilt as the root psychological cause for our resistance to engaging with discussion of the human condition — a defensive mental reaction he terms the ‘deaf effect’ to protect us from we anticipate will be insoluble, confronting and depressing thoughts. This ‘deaf effect’ thus preventing human’s accessing the hugely relieving and much-needed therapeutic benefit of honest and direct discussion of our condition. For me this booklet makes tangible, brings to life, allows us to resonate, connect with, feel this shame and guilt.

One portion that I found particularly moving was Griffith’s analysis of the Neolithic archaeological site in South Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, Göbekli Tepe. What I was struck by was how Griffith points out that it is only if and when we acknowledge that our species was originally innocent (selfless, cooperative and loving) can we begin to empathise and connect with the psychological predicament of the residents of Göbekli Tepe and therefore understand what motivated them to build and decorate the immense stone structures. The booklet is worth the read for this analysis alone.

Helpfully, the booklet includes people attesting to the reality of the ‘deaf effect’ and experiencing it in themselves and working through this resistance. It also includes really honest and enlightening illustrations of how insecure we are about what the human condition really is by way of including quotes and artwork from the likes of Descartes, van der Post, Jung, Goya, Bacon, R.D. Laing and van Gogh.

[Hodei Cia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all familiar with the feeling of guilt. For having misbehaved as children and having received punishment from our parents. Or for having been selfish and having hurt someone who did not deserve it, when we were older.
But these feelings are but a small manifestation of the enormous guilt that each and every person feels for having corrupted our once ideal cooperative and loving world in which our species originated. It is the greatest Guilt. The guilt of having destroyed paradise and having corrupted our selfless, sensitive and loving instincts. It is a guilt so great that it is completely blocked inside our unconscious, and that often prevents us from accessing the knowledge that the biologist Jeremy Griffith presents in his works (deaf effect), in which he explains, through his theory of instinct vs. intellect, that we had good reasons to corrupt that instinctive soul, and that we are not horrible monsters after all, but that we are good, not just good, but the heroes of the history of the Earth.
The good news is that with perseverance you can overcome this deaf effect to access the greatest gift that is capable of putting an end to all the pain and all the crises that exist on Earth today.

[Tess W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first watched 'The Great Guilt' video and there was so much to absorb I was incredibly happy to find the book version because I wanted - needed - to revisit so much of it. Griffith has written a lot about the 'Deaf Effect' in his earlier works but this all-encompassing, collective Guilt - THE GREAT GUILT - I don’t think has been as clearly described and it is fascinating.
The idea that we as a species carry this innate guilt and shame about who we are, how far we’ve strayed from our paradisiacal past and the great burden of guilt we now carry in our present human-condition selves as a result. It has to be at the very cutting edge of where the current psychological thinking is at. All the self help books that offer tools to cope with the world really need to be underpinned with this greater psychological burden that blankets us as a species and how we can now emerge from that shame and guilt into a most enlightened, free, happy species that Griffith describes so brilliantly in this little book: "we have been immensely, immensely lonely—feeling that we were just garbage on Earth and that everybody and everything hated us. It’s hard for us to see our situation because we are now so practiced at denial... solving the human condition, explaining why we are good and not bad, opens up a whole new world of truth... the dawn of enlightenment has arrived; the sun is finally coming up to drain away all the darkness from our lives!"

[Karen Boon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional read that delves deeply into the subject of the human condition, and explains why there is an initial deaf effect that prevents readers from understanding the most glorious of all gifts humans can be given, which is (biological) self understanding of ourselves and our behaviour. After overcoming the deaf effect this understanding of the human condition is deeply profound and moving, and will liberate all of humanity from the horror, guilt, shame and loneliness of what we have suffered from, but also worked towards gaining an understanding of, for two million years as a species. It’s just such a wonderful and important presentation that I can’t recommend this read highly enough.

[Nick Rule · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeremy Griffiths life’s work to bring the vitally important understanding of the human condition into the forefront of our understanding of ourselves has been an arduous task. If the human race is to have a future we need to understand ourselves and what is driving our behaviour and ultimately discover what we can do about it.
But without that compassionate and redeeming understanding it has been almost impossible for humans to go near the subject of the human condition.
Jeremy Griffith’s book ‘The Great Guilt’ gives great guidance on how to overcome that fear. And in short explains that with the compassionate explanation for the human condition it no longer needs to be feared and it is safe to explore and understand this greatest of all gifts that makes complete sense of what it is to be human.

[Amelia Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and eye-opening read. It dives deep into the real reason we struggle to hear and absorb honest explanations of human behavior. What stood out to me most was the section on ancient history. It was fascinating and brought so much context to our modern psychological blocks. Griffith connects the dots in a way that’s both confronting and incredibly enlightening. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the deeper layers of human nature and where our resistance to truth really comes from.

[Mateo Alvarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the description of the Gobleke Tepe monuments and their meaning fascinating. And it's true, I believe, that there is great resistance to going into our deeper psychology for fear of what we will find there, describing the reason for this being our destruction of innocence in our forebears is credible at the very least.

Even if your jury is out on Griffith (I'm working my way through his books) I think most people if they took the time would find this presentation of great intellectual interest, and, as others have said, it carries within it a deeply sensitive vein of truth.