In a world where headlines seem to grow darker by the day – wars, political division, mental health struggles, and social tension – some voices are asking a different question: what if the answers to our most persistent problems aren’t just social or political, but biological?
That’s the bold premise driving the World Transformation Movement (WTM), an international nonprofit founded in Australia and now spreading across the globe, including right here in Pennsylvania. At its core is the work of Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith, whose landmark theory offers what he describes as a long-sought scientific explanation for the human condition – the deep psychological conflict that has shaped our behavior since the dawn of consciousness.
The Core Idea: Instinct vs. Intellect
Griffith’s insight into human nature is elegantly simple – and startlingly profound. As Henry David Thoreau once put it, “Simplify, simplify.” In Griffith’s work, the complexity of human behavior collapses into one clear truth: much of our struggle stems from a biological clash that began some two million years ago.
Long before humans developed complex thought, life was instinctive. Our ancestors moved through the world guided by finely tuned instincts honed over eons of evolution –survival was straightforward, predictable, and dependable. Then, the human brain evolved its association cortex, giving birth to consciousness: the capacity to think, reason, and wonder independently.
This new freedom of mind was an advancement – but, according to Griffith, it came at a cost. Conscious thought naturally collided with rigid instinct. While instincts demanded obedience to survival rules, consciousness sought exploration, experimentation, and understanding. The tension between these two forces created a new kind of inner friction: a tug-of-war between what we felt compelled to do and what our reasoning told us we could do.
Griffith illustrates this with a memorable analogy: imagine a migratory stork suddenly gaining self-awareness. It decides, on a whim, to test a new flight path. Its instincts, however, remain programmed to follow the old route, reacting as if the stork has done something wrong. The stork feels judged, and bewildered by that judgment. The ensuing feelings of confusion, hurt and insecurity manifested in defensive and divisive behaviors.
This, Griffith says, is the story of humanity: our intellect challenged instinct, leaving us burdened with a lingering sense of guilt, shame, and insecurity. These unresolved feelings expressed outwardly as anger, egocentricity, and alienation – behaviors that now seem baked into human society. But Griffith’s work reframes them not as flaws, but as evidence of a misunderstanding between two halves of our biology.
For many, that realization is deeply personal. It reframes human behavior not as something broken, but as something misunderstood – and, at last, redeemable. To quote Griffith from his latest book, The Human Condition:
“Now that we have the real defence for our corrupted condition all those artificial defences of anger, egocentricity and alienation are obviously no longer needed; they are obsoleted and can end – the result of which is the great transformation of the human race from living with the agony and horror of the human condition to living free of it!”
Griffith’s theory has not gone unnoticed by the scientific world. Among his most passionate supporters was the late Dr Harry Prosen, a former President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin, who called Griffith’s work “the holy grail of insight we need for the psychological rehabilitation of our species.”
Over the years, Griffith’s ideas have drawn praise from more than a hundred academics and thinkers, including distinguished international scientists – such as ecologist Professor Stuart Hurlbert of San Diego State University; biological anthropologist Professor David Chivers of Cambridge University; and psychologist Professor Scott Churchill of the University of Dallas –who see in his biological framework a bridge between psychology and developmental biology.
Their endorsements reflect a growing recognition that understanding ourselves biologically may be the missing link in addressing everything from mental health to global conflict.
The World Transformation Movement is offering more than a theory on paper.
To inform the world of Griffith’s treatise, it provides all of his publications free of charge, has a proactive social media presence (most notably its Facebook Group that has over 80,000 members at time of publication), and has inspired the development of a network of volunteer-run Centers that span the world.
In Philadelphia, the WTM Center was established to help those with curious minds make sense of human behavior and the seeming madness of the world in which we live.
Founder Gerry St Onge: “I found myself increasingly aware and concerned about what was happening in the world; that we seem to be careening out of control. On that journey I sought out individuals who had come up with some answers. And in those answers, I found some amazing pockets of wisdom. But no one was able to put the whole thing together until I discovered the work of Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith. So examine the information on the website and read his books. It will change your life. I am experiencing more calm and more peace and more clarity than I ever have.”
Across the state in Pittsburgh, founder Higinio Mendoza, Jr., echoes this sentiment:
“Understanding of the human condition is so profoundly needed in our society, for our children and many generations to come. When all seemed lost, this opens the door to freedom and gives humanity hope, guidance and a better tomorrow. This will change lives, society, and the world as we know it. Yes, indeed!”
And in East Stroudsburg, founder Veronica Ciccosanti Pistilli celebrates the way Griffith’s work integrates modern science with deep compassion:
“Many biologists and psychologists, sociologists, academic researchers speak of the pieces of a universal understanding, which addresses our human turmoil, but Jeremy Griffith has put all this research together into a complete and compassionate understanding. And with this appreciation of ourselves and our species, we can move forward, all of us together, to save ourselves and our home, this planet!”
In the end, the World Transformation Movement’s message is about both science and hope. By grounding our behavior in biology rather than blame, Griffith’s explanation reframes what it means to be human – turning centuries of guilt and confusion into a story of courage and progress.
For a movement built on understanding rather than ideology, the goal is simple yet radical: to replace judgment with compassion, confusion with clarity, and despair with purpose. The World Transformation Movement argues that humanity’s greatest breakthrough may not come from new technology or politics, but from the rediscovery of what we have been all along – a deeply loving, cooperative species capable of transforming itself through understanding.
