The term “nexialism” was coined in 1950 by A.E. Van Vogt in his science fiction novel, “The Voyage of the Space Beagle.” In that book, Van Vogt created a protagonist, Dr. Elliott Grosvenor, who was the first graduate of “the Nexial Foundation.” Trained in integrated science and thought, Grosvenor was able to see the connection between many aspects of a problem that other specialists could not see because of their narrow training. In this Star Trek like adventure, Grosvenor provides indispensible skills to save the ship and the future of humanity. Perhaps truer to life, the book also explores the interpersonal dimensions of scientific rivalry, fear, and skepticism that results.
Van Vogt’s vision of a new “science-of-all-sciences” undoubtedly stemmed from his fascination with the work of Alfred Korzybski in “general semantics,” which has been carried on since 1938 by the Institute of General Semantics.
Van Vogt referred to “The General Semantics Institute” in his popular “Null-A” (“non-Aristotelian”) science fiction books. There was a strong relationship in Van Vogt’s mind between general semantics and its offspring, “nexialism.” Nexialism is thinking and acting holistically and practically; that is, using both general semantics and logical structures to solve problems and gain understanding. According to Van Vogt: “Nexialism is the science of joining in an orderly fashion the knowledge of one field of learning with that of other fields. It provides techniques for speeding up the processes of absorbing knowledge and of using effectively what has been learned.” In our interpretation at the Nexial Institute, this goes beyond traditional 20th Century science, to integrate science and other modes of understanding. It is surprising that such a simple concept is so little practiced today, nor are there widely recognized methods for its development. The Nexial Institute begins a collaborative investigation into integral views of nature, and practices of integrated understanding. But beyond the pages of science fiction, we know that such a vision cannot be achieved by science alone. Perhaps it will someday realize Van Vogt’s vision of a Foundation for the education of a new breed of scientists, who are also humanists and spiritualists — the first true “nexialists.”