“Once we accept that knowledge is tentative, and that we are probably going to improve our knowledge in important ways when we learn more about the world, we are less likely to reject new information that conflicts with our present ideas. The attitude of expectancy will allow us to apply insights gained at one level of generality to other levels. No particular kind of knowledge will have such authority that it will automatically exclude certain possibilities in another field of knowledge.”
He goes further with this concept in one of his books, highlighting a quote by Keith Jarrett…
“People expect beautiful melodies. But I already know the melodies. So does everybody else. Rather than look for more beautiful melodies, everyone’s purpose should be to find blind spots.”
~Keith Jarrett
And then Peat discusses it, weaving into the talk one of my most prominent personal beliefs – that when the work you do is meaningful and you are passionate about it, you don’t need distractions from it with mindless entertainment (except for 80's movies). The worst possible life is having nothing meaningful to do at all – which is, often to their downfall when they do obtain it, the ideal of many hopeful retirees and worshipers of neo-liberal financial excesses. But overall the point of the following quote is very similar to the most prized advice that I offer to people in my personal life, which is to find out what you love to do more than anything in the world, and figure out how to support yourself doing it.
“Our present lives are usually divided between routine work and entertainment. The entertainment is supposed to enliven us, to help us recover from the deadening effects of routine work. Some people put great energy and concentration into their hobbies, because they find the activity intrinsically interesting. Such intrinsic value and interest is what should be demanded of our work. But for many people, free time is routinized too. To them, Jarrett’s suggestion sounds like nothing but hard work. This is where the whole person has been affected by a certain approach to work, and work is seen as something to avoid – the idle rich seem to have found the only satisfactory life.”
Nothing strikes a chord with me in terms of high-quality longevity, and maximizing the regenerative potential of your body and mind to keep growing and producing new tissues into old age more than this simple Peat quote…
“A person’s vitality is drawn forward by meaningful work, that is, we grow to meet the demands of an important opportunity.”
And I will openly admit that Peat’s great philosophy about life, health, science, and its pollution by commercial interests makes me take his work more seriously. After all, I share many of these sentiments, and can see with absolute clarity the joint efforts by industry, media, medical organizations, educational institutions, and even the health and fitness industry itself in the perpetuation of simple-minded theories, myths, blatant mis-information, and distractions.
“A scientific attitude is of great importance, but we must recognize that science has absolutely nothing to do with the ‘consensus of the authorities.’ You are less likely to do the wrong thing if you believe that ‘the authorities are always wrong,’ because then you will begin to question their assumptions, evaluate their evidence, and examine their reasoning.”
“When you start looking for ulterior motives, you might conclude that your physician is greedy, that your chemistry professor has a contract with the rubber company that makes ice cream, and that food producers are so pleased with their profits that they don’t care about the increasing numbers of deformed and mentally retarded babies, or the increasing rate of cancer and diabetes. If you do this, then you are probably involved in a demystification of the world. Eating good food can alter your consciousness; so can thinking about how we’re going to get it.”
Involved in a demystification of the world… Priceless.
And we all know Ray, who wrote many a book on women’s hormones, fertility, and health issues, loves the ladies, and Ladies Love Cool Ray (LL Cool Ray)…
“The ideas in this book have been described by some as the physiological side of women’s liberation, but of course there are political implications here too: why should we give privileged status to a profession which commits millions of unnecessary hysterectomies or which waits until the last quarter of the twentieth century to determine whether surgery is the best treatment for acute appendicitis (it isn’t), or to the drug companies which fabricate their ‘safety and effectiveness studies’ out of thin air, and then hire academic shills to promote their products, or to the food industry which adulterates and degrades our foods with the false excuse that this is required for economical mass distribution? Instead of giving them a privileged status, their criminal acts should be recognized and treated as such.”
Anyway, quotes like this don’t spill out from the mind of a pea-brained health guru with a relentless hard-on for self-promotion and no substance to back it up. Ray has put a very respectable amount of high-quality thought into the conclusions that he has come to in his cumulative experiences as a scientist, researcher, and health advisor. As well-educated and skeptical critics, we will move forward and discuss many of the stances he has come to take over the years…
…while also being immature jackasses that picture Ray, naked except for a large bejeweled sombrero, with a bowl of Jello, painting nude women. Speaking of which, if Grassfed Mom still has that creepy Peat quote about a penis being a “warm dream” that I sent you, please post it in the comments. It’s unbelievable.
Speaking of sombreros, you know Ray is clubbin’ tonight for Cinco de Mayo with that thing!
“Jello shots young college-aged, progesterone-filled, well-lubricated vixens!”
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy my free eBook on How to Raise Your Metabolism
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