The Third Field: A Declaration of Independence
Silvia Hartmann
November 2025
Introduction to “The Third Field: A Declaration of Independence”
For too long, human spirituality has been excluded from the dominant scientific paradigm, Paradigm 5.
The Third Field in the Body, Mind, Spirit triad has not been allowed to enter scientific discourse or even scientific endeavour at any level. This has directly resulted in a swirling chaos of ill defined epistemology; lack of regulation; denigration of its practitioners and the impossibility to collect data, to analyse it, to discuss it or to publish it. This primordial soup itself has created many problems, which are then used actively and in bad faith under Paradigm 5 to demonize, marginalise and extinguish any efforts made to create a field of scientific study which could begin to organise the chaos in the first place.
In this document, we will be reviewing the critiques, rebuttals and refutations used to prevent the establishment of the Third Field as an essential scientific field of enquiry.
Paradigm 6 in Overview
Paradigm 6 proposes the following conceptual framework:
- There exists a Great Creative Order which is outside the ability of homo sapiens to comprehend.
- Within this Great Creative Order, we find the Human Centric Multiverse, which is what homo sapiens can comprehend.
- There exists a dynamic force, the product of the Great Creative Order, which binds the multiverse.
- Homo Sapiens is directly connected to this dynamic force through their living energy bodies (the “spirit” in the Body, Mind, Spirit triad).
- The living energy body communicates its states through emotions, energy movements which directly result in physical sensations.
- Emotions are the sixth sense which informs us of that which we cannot see, hear, touch, scent or taste.
- By adding the information from this sixth sense to the information from the other five, a paradigm shift occurs, which unlocks a new level of exploration of the Human Centric Multiverse.
- Homo sapiens itself must be the first priority under the new paradigm, because homo sapiens is the lens through which homo sapiens views its Human Centric Multiverse.
- Endecology, the study of optimal functioning, must set the new benchmarks for body, mind and spirit, so that new systems can be developed which prioritize the Health, Wealth and Happiness of homo sapiens.
- Paradigm 6 is presented as a conceptual framework and pre-supposes a future Paradigm 7, which may replace Paradigm 6 once more information about the Human Centric Multiverse has been assembled.
In order to evolve, homo sapiens has to understand itself first of all.
The Third Field Manifesto
The Purpose Of Science
Science is there to help humanity evolve. Science itself is not the centre; the human beings who are doing science on behalf of humanity are the centre. The one question that must be asked of all science is, “How does this aid in the evolution of humanity?” Placing humanity itself at the centre of the enquiry is the only way forward for the evolution of humanity.
The Human Centric Universe & The Human Factor
Human beings can only ever study the Universe from the human perspective - even when technology expands the ability to see further than the human senses naturally allow. The primary, and in fact, only possible way to study the universe is through the metaphorical lens of being human.
In order to do clean science, we need to understand how human beings function in body, mind and spirit first of all, and above all else. Without this understanding, which is the foundation of how to evaluate any hypothesis, any experiment, any result in the first place, it is impossible to advance science itself beyond the current state.
The Third Field
At this time, there is a missing field of scientific enquiry, which causes irresolvable problems in the first order mission, which is to understand how human beings function.
The Third Field in the body, mind, spirit triad is needed, not only to provide a structure for the collection of information, but also to create interdisciplinary bridges across the sciences which seek to discover the essential facts relating to human beings.
Definitions
- Energy: The Third Field acknowledges the existence of the "invisible something," generally referred to as "energy" in the English language, as either a reality of the universe, or a useful conceptual framework that works with the structural design of human beings.
- The Energy System: The Third Field states further that each human being has a body, a mind, and an energy system. In order to be able to conceptualise this energy system, we offer the metaphor of this invisible energy system being an energy body, which functions much like the physical body, but consists of and processes energy instead.
- The Living Energy Body: Although the Third Field acknowledges the existence of ancient maps and systems which tried to describe the energy system throughout the history of mankind, we start without these maps. Instead, as a modern scientific field, we observe and record the measurable effects the living energy body produces.
- The Sixth Sense: The Third Field proposes that emotions are feedback from the living energy body, and constitute the sixth sense as a natural feedback device to inform human beings of that which cannot be seen, heard, physically felt, scented or tasted.
Instruments
- The Modern Energy Chart & The SUE Scale: We begin the Third Field at its inception with The Modern Energy Chart (Hartmann, 1993/2009, objective) and the SUE Scale (Hartmann, 2009, Subjective Units of Experience) as a measurement for emotions, which are the result of underlying energy states.
- Anecdotal Evidence -> Reports Of Lived Experience (ROLE): The Third Field holds that unbiased research into lived experience is not only non-negotiable as a primary tool for Third Field Science, but indeed holds the key to discovering the meta-patterns which will not only serve but advance all of humanity.
- Clarity Of Concepts, Language & Metaphor: It is of the essence for the Third Field to begin untangling the inordinate linguistic confusion that has arisen by trying to combine a plethora of ancient metaphors and similes to the energy system.
- The Scientific Method + 1: The Scientific Method - observe, hypothesize, test, analyse, conclude - gains a sixth step in the Third Field, as it is human centric by design. The Scientific Method of the Third Field is thereby as follows: Observe, hypothesize, test, analyse, conclude and apply.
A Game Of Paradigms: The Battle Of Logic
For 150 years, the empire of Paradigm 5, where humans have only five senses, emotions, most notably love, have been entirely excluded from the idea of science itself, has ruled supreme.
The previous Paradigm 4 had been in charge for a thousand years, built on the empire of the church; but it was now under attack by a new way of thinking, scientific rationalism, Paradigm 5.
These wars of the paradigm empires are not played out on the battlefields in blood and bone; these are philosophies which have a far greater impact on the lives of all the citizens than the physical empires ever could. As is the case with the physical empires, in the game of paradigms there are special moments, decisive battles where one side wins, and another loses.
Here is the moment where Paradigm 5 defeated Paradigm 4 and began its rule of empire:
- The Book: On the Origin of Species (1859): This was the intellectual bomb that shattered the old paradigm's foundation. Before this, science could describe nature, but it still required a Divine Creator to explain why it was the way it was.
- The Battle: The 1860 Oxford Evolution Debate: Just months after Darwin's book was published, the two paradigms met in a public showdown. Bishop Wilberforce (P4) vs Thomas Henry Huxley (P5). Huxley famously stated he would rather be descended from an ape than from a man who used his great gifts to "introduce ridicule into a grave scientific discussion."
Huxley didn't just win; he reframed the rules of the war. He declared that scientific logic was now the sacred battleground. From that moment, the old paradigm's authority was broken, and P5 began its takeover of institutions, education, and the public's "default" sense of reality.
The Return to the Sacred Battleground of Logic
In this document, I wish to return to this very battleground of logic, and as the representative of Paradigm 6, will highlight that Paradigm 5 has lost its logic, has hardened into dogma, and in so doing, structurally betrayed scientific rationalism itself.
For 150 years, Paradigm 5 science has used its great gifts to "introduce ridicule into a grave scientific discussion."
The experience of human spirituality and all its consequences should be the gravest scientific discussions there could possibly be. Paradigm 6 brings spirituality into science and although this will break Paradigm 5's dogma and societal stranglehold, by giving Third Field practitioners a legitimate place to be, it breaks neither love, nor logic, but instead, brings them back together where they have always belonged.
Right here is the battleground of real logic, so let the battle begin.
The Recurring Logical Fallacies
In our systematic deconstruction of the arguments leveled against the Third Field, we find a set of predictable patterns. The same logical fallacies appear repeatedly:
- The Strawman Argument: Misrepresenting or exaggerating an opponent's position to make it easier to attack. (e.g., "The Third Field is trying to prove the existence of ghosts.")
- The Category Error: Confusing a concept with a different category of concept. (e.g., Confusing Religion "the map" with Spirituality "the territory").
- The Catch-22 (Circular Reasoning): A paradoxical loop. (e.g., "There is no data because we won't allow a field to collect data.")
- Confusing Correlation with Generation: Assuming because two events occur together, one caused the other. (e.g., "Brain activity correlates with experience, therefore the brain generates the experience.")
- The False Dichotomy: Presenting two options as the only two options. (e.g., "Medicine OR Energy Work.")
The Top Ten Critiques
1. The "Lack of Empirical Evidence" Objection
Spirituality often relies on personal experiences or ancient texts, but science demands reproducible, measurable data. No controlled studies have consistently demonstrated supernatural phenomena like souls or divine intervention. (E.g., meta-analyses of prayer studies found no effect beyond placebo.)
The objection that the "Third Field" lacks empirical evidence is based on a foundational misunderstanding.
- The "Strawman" Fallacy: We aren't studying "Souls" in a religious sense. The goal is to empirically study the human energy body as an integrated system measuring physiological state, mental performance, and emotional state.
- The "Catch-22" of Reproducibility: You cannot demand decades of peer-reviewed data from a discipline that has not been permitted to form. The "lack of evidence" is a symptom of systemic academic neglect.
- Personal Experience is the Starting Point: Pain is subjective, yet we study it. Under Paradigm 6, the "sixth sense" (emotions) is treated as a valid data stream quantifiable via the SUE Scale.
- Deconstructing the "Placebo" Dismissal: The "placebo effect" is not "nothing." It is a powerful, observable phenomenon where a person's state creates real physiological change. The Third Field aims to understand the mechanism of this effect.
2. The Falsifiability Issue
Many spiritual claims (e.g., "God works in mysterious ways") are unfalsifiable. Karl Popper's criterion for science requires testable hypotheses; spirituality often fails this.
- The Category Error: "God works in mysterious ways" is religious dogma, not a scientific hypothesis of the Third Field. We aren't testing dogma.
- The Third Field Proposes Falsifiable Hypotheses: Example Hypothesis: "A group of subjects using EMO Energy In Motion to shift from -5 to +5 on the SUE Scale will demonstrate statistically significant improvement in creative problem-solving." This is 100% testable and falsifiable.
- The Catch-22: It is intellectually dishonest to use the unscientific, pre-paradigm chaos of "spirituality research" to prevent a new, scientific field from establishing clear definitions.
3. Naturalistic Explanations Suffice
Phenomena once attributed to spirits now have mechanistic explanations via physics/neuroscience. Occam's razor favors simpler, evidence-based models.
- The "Supernatural" Strawman: We propose the human energy body is a natural system. It is not supernatural.
- The "God of the Gaps" Fallacy in Reverse: Just because we found a physical explanation for lightning doesn't mean "consciousness" is purely physical. Explaining NDEs via hypoxia ignores the complex content and life-altering consequences (Star States).
- Occam's Razor Favors the Complete Explanation: A model that ignores the most significant part of the data (subjective experience) is not "simpler," it is reality reduced.
4. Cognitive and Neurological Reductionism
Spiritual experiences correlate with brain activity (e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy, God helmet). fMRI studies suggest these are neural events, not external entities.
- The Fallacy: Confusing Correlation with Generation: Every human experience correlates with brain activity. The brain is the interface, not necessarily the generator. Finding the hardware doesn't disprove the signal.
- The "External Entities" Strawman: The Third Field is not primarily about "ghosts." It is about the internal human energy body.
- A New Interpretation: Stimulation of the temporal lobe (God Helmet) makes it more likely to pick up a signal. This supports the idea of the brain as a receiver/interface for the Third Field.
5. Evolutionary Origins of Belief
Spirituality likely evolved as a byproduct of agency detection and social cohesion. No need for actual spirits.
- The Core Error: Conflating Sociology (Religion) with Spirituality (The Energy Body).
- The "Evolutionary Origins" Fallacy: "Love" evolved for pair-bonding; that doesn't make the experience of love an illusion. The fact that the 6th sense was adaptive is evidence for its existence as a real sense.
- The Strawman: Again, we are not studying "actual spirits," but the human energy system.
6. Epistemological Relativism
Spiritual experiences are subjective, unverifiable, and cannot be vetted like lab experiments.
- Dogmatic Scientism: Paradigm 5 rejects Reports of Lived Experience (ROLE) because they threaten its model. This is a philosophical commitment, not empiricism.
- False Dichotomy: Subjectivity is foundational to psychology and medicine (e.g., pain).
- A Priori Exclusion: The Third Field provides the verification method through aggregation of ROLEs and standardized metrics like the SUE Scale.
7. Inconsistency Across Cultures and History
Thousands of contradictory spiritual systems exist (polytheism vs monotheism), undermining claims of universal truth.
- Confusing the Map with the Territory: Religions are the maps; the Energy Body is the territory. The maps differ; the territory is universal.
- Science vs. Humanities: The Third Field applies the scientific method (convergence) to a topic previously left to the humanities (divergence).
- The Hypothesis: We hypothesize that underneath the cultural layer, "Star States" (peak experiences) share a core convergence of reported emotional phenomena.
8. Violation of Physical Laws
Claims like miracles or astral projection contradict conservation of energy. James Randi's challenge found zero verified paranormal events.
- The "Paranormal Circus" Strawman: We are not talking about spoon-bending. We are talking about the human energy body and emotional states.
- Absurd Misapplication of Physics: Thermodynamics applies to closed systems; humans are open systems.
- Using "Information Theory" to Block Data: Emotions are information. The SUE Scale quantifies this. The Third Field is entirely about information theory.
9. Placebo and Psychological Effects
Benefits of spirituality (meditation) are real but attributable to psychology (stress reduction), not metaphysics.
- The "Stripped-Down" Evidence: Mindfulness is a Third Field technique stripped of context. The fact that it works even when damaged is evidence for the underlying system.
- "Psychology" is a Label, Not an Explanation: Saying it works via "stress reduction" describes the outcome, not the mechanism. The Third Field provides the mechanism: restoring energetic coherence.
- The "Cosmic Energy" Strawman: We are studying the tangible functioning of the human energy body, not vague "cosmic" forces.
10. "We Can't Measure It, Therefore It Isn't Real"
No evidence for an "energy body" has been found, and no instrument exists to prove it.
- The Hubris of the Instrument: bacteria existed before microscopes. Dark matter exists though unmeasured.
- The Catch-22: Paradigm 5 refuses to fund the field, so no instruments are developed, which is then used as proof the field shouldn't exist.
- The Quantum Precedent: We study things by their effects. The effects of the energy body (state, behavior, physiology) are measurable.
“Imagine a universe where everything that homo sapiens with its current technology cannot measure, winks out of existence. What would remain?”
Second Level Academic Critiques
1. The Redundancy Objection: “Old Wine in New Bottles”
The Third Field is just a rebrand of affective neuroscience or positive psychology. The SUE Scale is just a Likert scale.
Refutation: Existing fields study the effects (shadows) of the energy system, not the system itself. The Third Field provides the missing mechanism (the energy body) and unique instruments (MEC, SUE, ROLE) that treat emotions as structural data, not just mood.
2. “The Proprietary Dogma Objection”
This is a proprietary closed system resembling a cult-like structure. Paradigm 6 is dogma.
Refutation: Founders are structural catalysts, not cult leaders. Paradigm 6 is a framework, not a belief system. Falsifiability is built in. Standardization of tools (like SUE Scale) is scientific necessity, not proprietary control. In fact, Paradigm 5 is the closed system that acts dogmatically.
3. “The Ethical & Safety Objection”
Energy techniques are untested and unregulated. Processing trauma without a licensed psychologist is dangerous.
Refutation: This argument implodes: if energy isn't real, it can't be dangerous. If it is dangerous, it must be real. The Third Field is a distinct domain from psychology; it works with the energy body using built-in safety measurement (SUE Scale). Inaction (ignoring the energy body) is the greater risk.
4. “The Core Conceptual Objection Against The Sixth Sense”
Emotion is not a "sense." Senses are input channels for external data.
Refutation: This is a philosophical dispute on axioms. Paradigm 6 defines a sense as any mechanism receiving data. Emotions provide data about energetic states (e.g., sensing danger despite a smiling face). This definition is scientifically useful and testable.
Ad Hominem Attacks On Third Field Practitioners
1. “Belief in Energy Means You Must Be Stupid”
Studies (Pennycook et al.) show those with spiritual beliefs score lower on analytical reasoning.
The Pennycook study used a "New Age Bullshit Generator" and measured impulse inhibition, not intelligence. It is intellectually dishonest. Furthermore, the majority of Nobel Laureates in Physics and Medicine held spiritual or religious views. Paradigm 5’s definition of intelligence is too small; it only measures intelligence at "emotional zero," ignoring emergent properties of high-energy states.
2. “If you believe in energy, you are mentally ill.”
Correlations found between spiritual belief and schizotypal traits (magical thinking).
This pathologizes metaphor, intuition, and altered states. "Magical thinking" is often symbolic cognition, a feature of high intelligence. Sanity is behavioral, not belief-based. The Third Field distinguishes between breakdown and breakthrough by measuring State.
3. “Energy work is the domain of fraudsters and manipulators.”
Alternative healing is full of deceptive marketing and lack of oversight.
No Paradigm = No Field = No Oversight. The "lack of oversight" is caused by Paradigm 5's refusal to acknowledge the field. To accuse all practitioners of fraud erases cultural traditions. Placebo works; we should study it, not dismiss it.
4. “Practitioners Are Motivated by Narcissism”
Public displays of spiritual authority correlate with narcissism.
This collapses distinct ontologies into a caricature. Visibility does not equal narcissism. Ritual is not performance. This is a convenient attack to erase the argument by erasing the creator.
5. “If you believe in energy, you can't be a scientist.”
No serious scientist accepts undetectable energy fields.
This commits the No-True-Scotsman fallacy. Many scientists do. Science is not just physics (e.g., Psychology studies the non-physical). We study things by their effects (like Dark Matter).
6. “You're just stealing ideas from other cultures.”
Modern energy practices are culturally appropriative (stealing from Indigenous/Eastern traditions).
The Third Field is original, built from first principles (1993), not extracted. It does not use Sanskrit or feathers. It honors other lineages by building its own sovereign lineage rather than colonizing others.
7. “You must be emotionally unstable to believe in energy.”
Heightened sensitivity equals instability.
Sensitivity is a feature, not a flaw; it is signal fidelity. The Third Field provides tools for emotional mastery (regulation), not just expression.
8. “If you're hanging with other energy believers, you must be in a cult.”
Energy groups have high-control environments and charismatic leaders.
Tribal dynamics are human constants (politics, academia, tech). The Third Field restores agency through self-regulation tools. Charisma is not coercion. The Third Field is designed for continuity beyond the founder.
9. “If you make a living from spirituality, you're just a grifter.”
Spirituality shouldn't be monetized.
Survival is not sin. Paradigm 5 science is also commercial (pharma, grants, wages). When a field is denied public funding, commerce is the only way to survive. "If you are working to improve the condition of society... you deserve to be paid."
10. “If you work with energy, you are endangering the public.”
Unregulated energy healing delays medical treatment.
False Dichotomy. Energy work is not a substitute for medicine; it works on the Energy Body (distinct domain). Pseudoscience is a slur used to prevent the building of proper science.
Ad Hominem Case Study: Deconstructing the "Founder Attack"
The "Founder Attack" is a political maneuver to poison the well. In the case of the Third Field, the founder (Silvia Hartmann) is targeted to dismiss the field.
- 1. The "Messiah Complex" Accusation: Naming a systemic omission (lack of love/energy in science) is not grandiosity; it is stewardship.
- 2. The "Trauma-Driven" Accusation: The "trauma" was a breakthrough of clarity. The Third Field is an architectural answer to a civic wound.
- 3. The "Anti-Institutional Rebel" Accusation: The Third Field was not created in opposition to institutions, but in response to their refusal to engage with data.
- 4. The "Intellectual Elitist" Accusation: The Third Field democratizes knowledge by placing axioms at the base, accessible to all.
- 5. The "Cult of Personality" Accusation: The system is decentralized; the founder is not the public face of the Guild of Energists.
- 6. The "Artist as Anti-Scientist" Accusation: This relies on the false dichotomy that separates logic from creativity. Art (MEA) is a research methodology for high-energy states.
Conclusion: The Sovereign Field
We have systematically deconstructed the critiques. They are not scientific defenses but political defenses of a flailing dogma.
This "Declaration of Independence" was written for you—the practitioner. You are no longer required to apologize for your experiences. You are armed with the coherence of a logic that does not buckle. You are more sovereign.
The time for seeking approval from a system designed to deny your existence is over. The Third Field is a distinct, co-equal, and essential field of human inquiry.
We are no longer defending our right to exist. We are now, united and with purpose, continuing the real work to build the infrastructure of this new science, in order to finally provide homo sapiens with a more complete and logical understanding of itself.
