The future science and education of ideas begins with the understanding that every behavior is caused by an initial thought.  Thought is the source of human action.  Thoughts are forms that have dimensions, laws, causes and effects, behave in an environment, and interact in the invisible and visible realms.  Cooperation across the fields of behavioral and cognitive psychology, philosophy, and meditation will advance the science and education of thought.  In the future, cognitive psychology will understand human learning as the growth in development of the conscious registration of thought, and human behavior will be understood as the conscious application of thought. 

Only very few humans have an understanding of the nature of thought; a few can consciously create thoughts; a few more can manipulate thoughts; a few more can respond to thoughts clearly; many react emotionally to thoughts; and most knowingly or unknowingly ignore thought all together – though unconsciously live within their everyday effects. 

We do not express “thoughtfulness” at birth.  We respond to the perception of Reality of our family members or childhood caretakers.  This is a secondhand response to thought.  As we progress through school, in every nation, the system compels every student to manipulate a set of thoughts.  We are gradually given more and more responsibility for manipulating thoughts through mental exercises, experimentation, memory, and communication.  We identify and manipulate thoughts, defining them as something different from actions or feelings.  As we enter adulthood, we are urged, both internally and externally, to apply those thoughts in a form of service to the community and our families.  Generally, the human race passes on thoughts from generation to generation, perpetuating the present condition of humanity.  Young adults learn to understand thoughts that control the present condition of humanity. 

As we mature, we reconsider thoughts we were compelled to manipulate.  Are they right or wrong, useful or useless, harmful or harmless, relevant or irrelevant, important or insignificant?  We reject some thoughts, and seek out new ones.  This process changes our perception of Reality.  The initial questioning of long-held perceptions indicates that we understand the relationship between thoughts and our perception of Reality.  The rejection of some thoughts, and the adoption of others, changes the content of our perception.  In effect, we are choosing (consciously or unconsciously) which thoughts will condition our perception, and consequently our behavior. 

We use thoughts as frameworks to experience hidden Reality.  Thoughts that frame our understanding of human relationships cause us to behave toward each other along certain lines.  Thoughts are useful as mediators with Reality, and can be used to access aspects of Reality not accessed before.  As we gain wisdom through actual experience, and a measure of facility with Reality itself; we no longer need the form of that thought.  We internalize the experience of Reality that the thought conveyed to a consciousness wholly unfamiliar with that Reality.  In other words, if we brood upon a thought intensely and continuously, it transforms from an “external” object orbiting our consciousness to an integral part of our identity.

For example, prior to the 1900’s, the thought of a community of nations was practically nonexistent to humanity in general.  After the World Wars, the thought of a family of nations took root out of necessity.  The experience of a family of nations awaited expression.  We began to undergo the experience of a global community when the League of Nations, and then the United Nations, took form.  Because of the invaluable work of the U.N., few now reject the thought of a global community.  Most accept it as a part of Reality of life on Earth.  By now, most nations have experienced at least the thought of a family of nations.  They recognize it as a fact of existence on this planet, as a part of their perception of Reality.  They no longer need to mull over the thought of a global community; we are a global community.  We now experiment with thoughts for right relationships within the global community.  The fact of global relationship is beyond controversy, although we have yet to fully realize right global relationships.

Early humanity was similar to the young children of today.  A spark of individuality and intelligence were present, but we mainly reacted to instinctual urges.  We had minimal conscious awareness to use thought to develop a consciousness of Reality.  When a handful of humans began to develop a relationship with Reality through the use of thought, they found that the remainder of humanity had not yet developed that faculty.  So, they interacted with Reality through thought, and then conveyed their experience in the form of a recognizable symbol to others, such as oral stories, schools, and writings.  Those who did not experience the thought for themselves, substituted the experience of others for Reality itself.  A hierarchy emerged in humanity between those rich in thought and poor in thought, creating new relationships in the human family.  Some relationships aided those poor in thought to develop facility with thought – a mentor relationship evolved.  The relationship of leader and subject emerged – those rich and relatively skilled in the use of thought, either for beneficent or selfish ends, directed the poor in thought into the creation of small communities through cooperative projects - the seeds of future civilizations and cultures.
           
Presently, some of humanity is at a place where they can identify a thought and use it as a framework to approach Reality.  More and more people will develop facility with thought, using it to interact with Reality; eventually developing their own relationship with Reality.  Groups of ideologues continue to grow.  People flock together around a core thought and less around a core personality as this trend continues.  These groups of ideologues deepen humanity’s understanding of various realms of Reality.  We have discriminated, categorized, concretized, and isolated aspects of Reality.  This narrow investigation of thought has rightly and beneficently extended our understanding of the details of Reality.

Using thought to investigate the details of Reality will continue to serve a useful purpose.  However, if Humanity is to come to the full flower of its spiritual purpose, those who are skilled thinkers must begin to integrate the details of Reality into ever widening contexts.  This mental activity goes beyond collecting, categorizing, and comparing details.  Contextualizing details within the whole refers to synthetic thinking; using thought to recognize each detail as an incomplete, interdependent part of a unified Reality.

Synthesis will lead to right, loving, and intelligent application of thoughts.  If applied on a mass scale, we could salvage many human problems.  The warring of schools of thought is ignorance of the nature of space.  We are not only observing and investigating Reality through the use of thoughts.  We are living in Reality – the same Reality. 

A truer vision of Reality will emerge as humanity synthesizes, fills in the gaps, between schools of thought. 

This can take place across apparently opposite fields of endeavor.  Religion and science are a prime example.  They appear diametrically opposed in several ways – the unseen and the seen, faith and proof, internal and external observation, mysticism and experimentation, aspiration and technology, prayer and machination.  Meditation upon the Christian phrase that “faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen,” indicates far more areas of overlap between the two fields.