There is a new science on the horizon that will change the world. This one won’t make a longer-lasting battery or a flying car, but it will fundamentally change the life of everyone who takes advantage of it. This new science is a practical system, based on universal truth and simple human experience of how best to live one’s life. Unfortunately, every time a new science is in the process of being discovered, it brings with it skepticism, suspicion, and even down-right hate. There will be those who spend a lifetime trying to debunk this new science. There will be those who simply dismiss it. The most dramatic reaction will come from religious organizations; because every time a new science answers a few more questions, religious organizations feel threatened. The Catholic Church was not happy when Galileo claimed that the sun was the center of our solar system. Like every science before it, there will be those who hope that it will be capable of answering all their questions. Many people hoped that chemistry would bring with it the key to immortality. At the end of the day, this new science is what it is, and it is enough to change the world.
This brings up the question: what makes a science a science? Throughout human history, we as a species have debated up and down about why certain things do the things they do. Sometimes we debate great questions like “What is the best way to live one’s life?” Sometimes we just want to know why a mountain is coming out of the ground, puffing smoke and leaking liquid rock. We, as people, feel a powerful need to give these things an explanation; so we turn to the most knowledgeable among us and ask why the earth itself seems to be splitting, sending out fire upon us. This knowledgeable person, not wishing to lose his or her status as the person turned to in situations such as this, would offer an explanation. Throughout the years, the explanation is what has changed…not the status of the person turned to. Years ago we would have been told by the most knowledgeable and enlightened among us that “the gods are angry…” a spiritual explanation of volcanoes. Nowadays when we ask the most knowledgeable and enlightened among us, they respond that “the land itself is floating on liquid rock and moves. Sometimes some of this liquid rock slips out…” a scientific explanation of volcanoes based on plate tectonics.
What, then, is the fundamental difference between what we are told nowadays and what we were told only a few hundred years ago? How does a scientist know anything more than a shaman; and seeing as how we do not have ample time to study both the flow of continents and the tempers of the gods, along with a thousand other topics, in whom or what should we put our trust?
The answer is: reliable and predictable results, based on observation, that have been time-tested and peer-reviewed. We believe that a theory is true if it can help us make accurate predictions of the future. Measurable results are what we are after. In order for something to be true in science it needs to be repeatedly observed.
What is this new science? It actually doesn’t have a name yet. If it did, it would be old news. This science is some kind of “Practical Philosophy,” and for the lack of any other name, maybe that’s what we should call it. Practical Philosophy is the study of why people do the things they do, and how we can apply that information to our own lives. It focuses on how common-sense concepts can be used universally to the benefit of the individual and society as a whole. It tries to answer some of philosophy’s greatest questions (e.g. “What is the best way to live one’s life?”) in a very real, practical and systematic way, by actually putting each of these concepts to the test in the lives of countless individuals.
This book isn’t the first hint of this science. Self help books like “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey and “Getting Things Done” by David Allen all dabble in this science. Large group-awareness seminars like “Avatar,” “Life Spring” and “PSI” sometimes get pretty close to making a science out of what they teach. Ancient books (sometimes from Asia) have been as close to making these concepts a science as you could ever get. Even videos claiming to know some sort of secret have touched upon this new science. Their contributions are insightful but not complete, not organized. This book is a collection of their ideas, organized and distilled. This is the beginning of the formation of the Periodic Table of Human Success .