About: The Theory
Neuroscience cannot directly illuminate human thought processes; it merely illuminates the machinery creating thought processes. Neither can personal experience; we think, but we don’t have full access to the inner workings of our minds. One can’t directly study thought processes. One must triangulate from other disciplines.
I have finally decoded the human mind. By studying commonalities among psychological, religious, cultural, ethical, and political phenomena, I have isolated The Five Categories: The five lowest common denominators of human experience. Religions, societies, thinkers, and disciplines have consistently promoted reflections of The Five Categories. Consider The Big Five Personality Traits, by far the most scientifically accepted model of personality. Consider The Five Moral Foundations, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, The Five Pillars of Islam, and The Five Constants of Confucian Ethics. Each of these popular theories reduces a mind-based subject to its most fundamental components; each identifies five.
In this unifying theory of the humanities, I define The Five Categories and map the connections between the humanities. I then define the core ethical problems humans face. Ethics is a natural subject on which to elaborate this theory — minds express themselves via behavior, and ethics study behavior; also, The Five Categories finally provide something tangible around which to organize the core ethical problems.
About Lore and War: The Novel
Morris is shaken from a fugue when he learns his mother might be dying. But before he can get home, an alien named Voss kidnaps him and tells him he must first do a job: Write humanity’s entry in an encyclopedia of alien civilizations. For research, Morris and Voss create temporary worlds based on human religions and mythologies.
Some worlds they visit are primitive, while others are incredibly advanced. Each is full of individuals teeming with hopes, dreams, traumas, and dangerous obsessions. Though each world brings unique mysteries and perils, wherever Morris goes he finds himself haunted by the same few problems, tangled in the locals’ fleeting lives, pestered by deja vu, and wondering why nothing is ever as simple as it seems…
The theory and the novel each approach the subject of human mental processes from multiple angles; together, they provide a comprehensive understanding.
About: The Author
In 2014, Dylan Ensz took a World Religions course and was fascinated by the similarities between different religions. He devised a two-book premise where a character visits a series of worlds based on religions then constructs a model of human understanding. Over the next eight years, Dylan immersed himself in these worlds, and discovered that the pattern he’d noticed was fundamental not just to religions, but to the workings of the mind itself. In the process, he also discovered himself.
Dylan has a degree from South Dakota State University, where he studied philosophy, sociology, professional writing, and interdisciplinary studies. He lives in Sioux, Falls, South Dakota with his wife and two cats. He enjoys Community, The Venture Bros, Love Dog by TV on the Radio, Redlettermedia, Tastosis, and friendship.
