Five Barriers to Human Flourishing
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Five Barriers to Human Flourishing
The Five Barriers to Human Flourishing are the five barriers that prevent Human Flourishing and the actuation and Full Realization of Human Potential. The five barriers are financial, cognitive, emotional, neurological, and psychological.[1] These barriers are not natural or inevitable but are the result of Toxic Socialization, systemic trauma, and the structural design of institutions under the extant Regime of Accumulation
Concept Map
Key Terms
- Harmonic Social Structure
- Symbiotic Planetary Knowledge System
- Planetary Steward
- Planetary Healing
- Human Potential
- Human Flourishing
- Five Barriers to Human Flourishing
- Seven Essential Needs
- Seven Components of Human Development
- Socialization
- Human Development Framework
Related LP Terms
Five Barriers to Human Flourishing >
Non-LP Related Terms
The Five Barriers
- Financial barriers to study are barriers caused by the inability to pay for access to education and training.
- These reinforce economic inequality and maintain elite control over knowledge.
- PEM removes these barriers by promoting free or low-cost access, community-driven Learning Hubs, and open educational resources like the SpiritWiki.
- Cognitive barriers are things like bias, misconception, and confusion that make it hard to think about and understand concepts and ideas.
- This confusion is caused by Agents of Socialization (schools, media, religion) that distort understanding and fragment awareness in the interests of the Accumulating Class.[2]
- PEM resolves this through conceptually coherent, clear, and logically structured content and problem-posing education that restores critical thinking.
- Emotional barriers are caused by emotions that block a person from learning. These include emotions like self-doubt, fear, anxiety, self-deprecation, or even anger. These emotions arise from many different places. For example, a Catholic who has experienced religious indoctrination and abuse might reject all forms of religion and "religious" discourse as abusive. A child whose self-image has not been nurtured, or that that has been constantly told they are stupid may not feel worthy or competent to study and learn.
- Neurological barriers are barriers to study caused by bodily systems damaged by Toxic Socialization.
- Psychological barriers include things damaged to the Bodily Ego, Misalignment and Disjuncture (both of which cause anxiety, shame, guilt and other Blocking Emotions). Damage, misalignment, and disjuncture all make it hard to properly connect the Spiritual Ego and Bodily Ego. teachings.
Each barrier functions to weaken, fragment, and disempower the individual, making it difficult or impossible for people to heal, connect, grow, or fulfill their purpose. These barriers are embedded and reinforced by social systems, particularly the capitalist-industrial education model, which is built not to nurture human beings, but to sort, control, and condition them for compliance and productivity.
The Pathfinder Educational Model
The Pathfinder Educational Model is designed explicitly to identify, address, and remove these Five Barriers. PEM frames education not as a content delivery system but as a healing-centered, human development framework that prioritizes the learner’s well-being, empowerment, and reconnection.
Within the PEM:
- Barriers are understood as systemic damage to essential aspects of human development.
- Education is restructured as a supportive, minimally invasive, needs-satisfying process.
- The Seven Essential Needs of learners are actively supported to counter the effects of these barriers.
- Tools like Healing-Centered Pedagogy, Minimally Invasive Education, and the Lightning Path Curriculum work together to enable individuals to reclaim agency, intelligence, and connection.
Notes
Without addressing these Five Barriers, education systems cannot foster human flourishing. Instead, they reproduce a society of disconnected, traumatized, and disempowered individuals. Recognizing and removing these barriers is essential for:
- Achieving authentic learning and transformation
- Reclaiming human dignity and agency
- Facilitating planetary healing and collective transformation.
Related LP Content and Courses
Citation and Legal
Treat the SpiritWiki as an open-access online monograph or structured textbook. You may freely use information in the SpiritWiki; however, attribution, citation, and/or direct linking are ethically required.
Footnotes
- ↑ Mike Sosteric and Tristan Sosteric, The Pathfinder Model (PEM) of Education 2025, https://athabascau.academia.edu/DrS/Pathfinder-Educational-Model-(PEM).
- ↑ Cognitive barriers are a particular problem when it comes to introducing "spiritual" ideas outside of certain established boxes and heavily reinforced guarded boundaries.