Thomas Lombardo, PhD, is director of the Center for Future Consciousness in Glendale, Arizona. He is author of Future Consciousness: The Path To Purposeful Evolution; The Evolution of Future Consciousness; Wisdom, Consciousness, and the Future; and Mind Flight: A Journey Into The Future. He is also writing a four volume series, titled Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future. The first volume will be published in 2018.

Here he discusses many of the great villains of science fiction literature: Darth Vader and the evil emperor, The Mule, Alien, and the many reptilian and insectoid creatures. He notes that in almost every case, there is some ambiguity about who is really evil. The discussion turns to historical situations of evil: slavery and the civil war, Nazi Germany and the holocaust. The paradox is that, although sometimes evil must be totally destroyed, in so doing one takes on the qualities of evil onesself.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness exploration.

(Recorded on November 2, 2017)

Published on March 22, 2018