Draft:Opticism

I am a philosophical consultant, and, as a philosophical consultant, I use critical inquiry and logical analysis to help you gain clarity on who vs what you are.The aim is to help people deal with life in an effective manner. I have developed a new type of philosophy to live by. I have decided to name it “Opticism,“ a combination of optic, relating to the eye or vision, and optimism, a hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.

   	The “Optic.“ In the new world of a “woke” generation, I have a simple question: What does that even mean? In my new philosophy, the emphasis is placed on clarity through inquiry and analysis with objective thinking. Another term used today is enlightenment. I am not exactly sure what most people mean by enlightenment, but the best definition I ever heard was: “The ability to see things clearly without judgment. It is when you go into a dark room and turn on the light,” hence “enlightenment.”  
  The “optimism” is really all about the conscious intention to seek out the positive in situations. It is going to be hard for some people, but with consistency and due diligence, it can become a very valuable tool in the development of better mental health.      
   Another very powerful element in this new form of philosophy is helping people to realize that they have a choice in every decision that they make. I am also an “ Empowerment Consultant.” Empowerment means having power and control over your decisions and choices in life. Unfortunately, because of the way we spontaneously react to many situations, we don't realize there is always a choice. I teach my clients the difference between reactions and responses. I  explain to my clients about the scene in The Matrix with the blue or red pill. My new philosophy is like taking the red pill. I help them to know the differences between who and what they are.   
  	In my practice of philosophy, I use meditation, R.E.B.T. (Rational Emotional Behavior Therapy,) mindfulness and deep breathing exercises, to name a few. Also, there is power in questioning your own belief system. I challenge my clients to question and find the origins of their habitual behaviors and beliefs. 

In helping my clients with low self-esteem, I assist them to be able to distinguish between who and what they are. This is determined by space and time. An example is that, if I were born in 1850, the who I was would be a slave; in 1900 -1960, I would be negro or colored; in 1970 -2023, I would be African American, a Black man or whatever society wants to label me. The who is relative to space (country) or time (year). The what is more complicated; it is determined by your energy and memory. This is when I get to use my knowledge of quantum physics. I explain to my clients that what they are is made up of pure quantum energy, and the energy has awareness and memory. This is the difference between who they are and what they are. This seems to help them do significantly better when they have another way to view their existence, through a clearer lens of what they are.

    The ways my philosophy and practice help people are clarity, self awareness, confidence and control..This is shown through a better control of their minds and thoughts. Again, the key to happiness and better control of the mind is to be aware of the origins of one’s beliefs and habitual behavior. In a better state of mind, a person makes better decisions in life.  Also with clarity comes confidence, less stress and less anxiety. While practicing mindful meditation, one is able to be mentally in the here and the now. When people think about the past, it can cause depression, and when they worry about the future, it can cause anxiety. Understandinding that the mind wanders all the time in these different dimensions is paramount, but the key is to be aware and to use the tools and techniques to deal with these thoughts.  
	A couple of months ago. I had a conversation with my friends.  During our discussion, I had mentioned that there is a prominent Philadelphia psychotherapist that stated if we're going to take our streets back, there are going to be some certain young Black men on the corners that would have to be killed.  I was utterly appalled by this suggestion, but my one friend, who lives near Philadelphia, said, unfortunately, the therapist might be right. That might be the answer. He asked me, what would I do? This was our conversation a few months ago, and I really put deep thought into what would I do? 

Albert Einstein said that you can't fix the problems with the same thinking that created them. At that point, I decided that I was going to use something that I use in my practice. I am a philosophical consultant, and I have developed techniques in philosophy called opticism . I developed this new tool a few years ago, and I have been using it in my own personal practice. I thought about things on a different level to see if it could be used on a larger scale. I have used this consulting practice for the past three years, and I have an extremely high success rate. But I will explain in detail a little later. First, I think it is important to explain Metaphysics. Metaphysics gives us a new sense of perspective by which to deal with the world. In the very real sense, it introduces us to a new dimension of reality. Someone once said, “If you change the way you look at something, the thing that you're looking at changes.” In this sense, the power of metaphysics is absolutely the power of changing your perception and the power of changing your perspective. It’s the power of changing your position. I do believe that opticism would be a powerful tool or technique to help people see things clearly, objectively, and correctly. It is important to state that, by seeing the world correctly and understanding this clarity, you don't see the world as it is. You see the world as you are, with your natural biases, through your personal experiences in life, and through your emotions and your belief systems. “How can seeing things differently be effective in my life?” tou might ask. Before I give the example, a little explanation. In the world of neuroscience, every thought that you have has a corresponding release of a chemical. Your very perception of certain situations can release chemicals that can heal the body, stress the mind, cause relaxation, anxiety, peace, depression or fear. This is all dependent on your perception of your environment. Another fascinating aspect is the fact that your belief systems also dictate your body and brain chemistry. I tell my clients it is very important to be aware of the origins of their belief systems, because they affect the quality of your life. Now, getting back to examples of how changing your perspective on something can be positive. In our society, we must understand the difference between humans’ invention and nature’s creation. What I mean to say is that there are things created by our thoughts, ideas, imaginations, and beliefs. These include cultures, religions, societies, countries, languages and belief systems. They all come out of human minds. Nature’s creations will come from the creator of the universe. No matter how much we, as humans, try to understand this natural creative force, we simply can’t. But, to the best of our knowledge, we have developed many sciences to try to understand. We use mathematics to predict probabilities. We create medicines to aid in the nature’s healing process, and we use labels to describe and sometimes miss inform humans about nature’s gifts. The labels I am referring to are depression, anxiety, and stress, to name a few. The power of changing the way we look at things is to realize that the demonization of these gifts from nature is the problem. New research is finally realizing that stress, anxiety, and depression are all just warning signals to the mind that there is something wrong, and, for survival, something needs to change. They are all your body’s natural warning systems in full effect, given to you for your ultimate survival. Just like the amazing system of vomiting gets poisons out of your body. Research shows that, during depression, the body goes to a natural fatigue state, and while in this state, you are supposed to prepare for a move out of the environment that is causing you to feel unhappy. While in this state of fatigue, your mind should be thinking of solutions to change your environment. In anxiety or stress, it is all about fight or flight, the preparation for the battle: the battle for success at work or the fear of not passing an exam. That anxiety, stress, or fear is why you are on time for work, or you study all night to pass. Unfortunately, humans’ beliefs have turned gifts from nature into sicknesses and have devolved medicines to treat the effects, not the causes. Again, this is just a very small example of how changing your belief systems or your perception of a situation or your environment can have a positive change on your life. In opticism, it is also about empowerment. The ultimate power is the self-realization that power is ignited by simply trying. By putting in consistent effort with intention, empowerment is also the realization that the choice is totally up to you. This is my very humble attempt to help the city of Philadelphia and all over the country, if possible, by introducing the world of Metaphysics, and helping people create a personal philosophy, as well as the introduction of opticism, I can have a positive effect. Another way that octicism can be helpful is it gives you a much greater sense of control over your emotions by questioning the origins of your belief systems and reevaluating and reconstructing them using logic and critical and rational thinking. One of my clients made a few statements about his job being difficult because he was the only African American at his place of employment. He asked me why I never seemed bothered by always being around white people all the time. My simple answer was I am not African American. He then asked me, “Well, what are you then?” I simply said I am an entity created by a deity. I believe that one of the most important realizations for me was he didn’t realize that he was a choice in the matter. Opticism helps you to be aware that there is always a choice for you to make, and that is true empowerment it’s ability to change your perspective, or world view, on any situation. I always have my clients go home and do their research on certain trigger words or beliefs, so they come up with their own conclusions. A small example is I know America is a White man, and Africa is probably a White man. But Africa is such an ambiguous word that I could not know the true origins exactly. As stated several times earlier, be aware of the origins of your belief systems and understand the difference between man’s inventions and nature’s creations. Your belief systems are the lenses through which you see the world, and many beliefs we have can affect our quality of life by giving us a very narrow or blurred vision. The ability to see things clearly and objectively is a very powerful tool. In America, we have certain belief systems that are very harmful to most of us. We tend to value people according by their social or economical status, religion, culture, gender, age, and physical structure. With your personal beliefs, you tend to judge others and, more importantly, you judge yourself with these belief standards. I truly understand why my client felt it to be difficult to go to work, not because of what was going on at work but because pf what was going on inside his head. I made him aware of the choice that was there to continue to believe he was merely an African American or to accept the fact he is much more than labels created by man’s invention. Again culture, race, religions are all man’s inventions, but they are the main reasons for death, destruction, and hate since the beginning of time. After a few sessions with this client, he realized that the power is in making the choice/decision based in critical, rational, clear thinking. It is important to realize you have the power. I often tell people that power is not in the Nike symbol; the power comes from the people who purchase the shoes. If the nation decided not to buy, the sneaker company would go out of business. The entertainers, actors, athletes, and all-around performers don’t have any power over us. We give them our energy, the fuel that empowers them. When you change the way you look at something, the thing you look at changes. When my client simply changed the way he looked at himself, his entire life changed. My dream is to implement opticism into the school systems in America. I think our children should be taught, at an early age, the process of actually thinking, not just learning, memorizing, regurgitating what was memorized to get a good grade on what they learned, whether what they learned was correct or not. For example, the Kennedy assassination: In 1963, they believed there was a lone gunman. In 1978-1979, it was theorized that there was more than one shooter. In 1973, I got an A plus in history class because I could regurgitate memorized information. I get up at 2:40 every morning and go to my job. I am a delivery truck driver currently. I also have a private practice in which my services are completely free. I am listed in Psychology Today under William McNeal. On my profile page, I have a sliding scale listed, but when people contact me, I tell them that their charge is to either start doing some volunteer work or just go out and do random a acts of kindness for strangers. How hard would it be to set up some places in Philadelphia where people could just come to talk to someone when life feels overwhelming? And ask around for some volunteers to simply be there to just listen, without any cost to the individual. Maybe use these places for the training of other professional therapists, councilors, philosophical consultants, clergy members, and doctors that can do a few hours of volunteer work. This is my passion in my work. I currently can’t accept any more clients at this time. I would love to be able to help people on a full-time basis with no charge to them. This is my answer to the question what I would do about the boys on the streets of Philadelphia. If given the opportunity, I would try to introduce to them opticism.

Written by Dr. William McNeal Edited by Vincent M. De