Guenther Pohlmann Society Meeting, July 30, 2010

      On July 30, 2010, our group read together a portion of a monograph by Guenther P. Pohlmann MD entitled The Nature of Our Religiosity, An Array of My Thoughts.  We read two sections: The Layered Backgrounds of My Own Ontogeny and Observations and Reflections on Our Spiritual Nature.

     Guenther opened his monograph with the following quote that many of us can identify with: "As we get older, the diversely distributed, yet purposeful nature of our minds seems to take on the hsape of an edifice."  And Guenther's monograph is in itself an edifice.

     In the first chapter which we read today, Guenther outlines some of his biographical upbringing and the affect of the Nazi regime on his childhood leading to the question "Where was God in all of this?" (referring of course to World War II and its brutalities and atrocities. Then, "What are, and where lie the roots of good and evil?"  Discussion ensued of both of these questions. Particularly it was the otherness, the differentness of Jews and their unrelatedness and inability to integrate into generall society that might have contributed to the severe degrees of antisemitism to the point of slaughter and attempted extermination of the Jewish people. There were no doubt other contributing factors. Yes there was the "otherness", but also the Jewish people in Europe took over money management because in early Christianity, usury was disallowed. Someone had to take over this need, and the Jews did and became very successful at it. This prompted jealousy and a group of haves (the Jews) and have nots. It was commented that in Germany itself, there was an attempt to blame the Treaty of Verseilles ending World War I by taking everything away from Germany. That Treaty was mainly formulated by many Jews sitting on the authoring committee. In addition, as Guenther recognized, the Jews in Western Europe particularly strongly maintained their community and religious practices, keeping others out and diminishing their ability to integrate with the society at large.

     Guenther discusses how the military machine and strong military leadership coupled with the view that each side has God with them serves to inspire the soldier and even the civilian populace to fight to the end and allow all sorts of brutality in the name of this holy cause. Guenther questions whether the Buddhist world of the mid 20th century including China was somehow more peace loving because of the nature of Buddhism, or because of the nature of the society that brought forth Buddhist principles. Some discussion in the group did consider an evolution of society that could become more peaceful without the need for war and militarism.

     The second short chapter that we read on Our Spiritual Nature questions who is a spiritual person? These two short paragraphs are quite loaded with meaning and complexity. Guenther believes that the difference between faith and knowledge. "Firm beliefs, anchored down more in the limbic and affective regions of our minds become equivalent to firm knowledge in our cognitive regions and spread as such into our awareness."

     Indeed, Guenther is very heavy reading. He was an amazing intellect!