In a world that seems to spin faster and fracture deeper each day, a growing number of people across Latin America are turning to an unlikely source for understanding: an Australian biologist.
Jeremy Griffith, founder of the non-profit World Transformation Movement (WTM), believes the mystery of human behaviour — our capacity for both compassion and cruelty — can finally be explained through biology. His theory – described by acclaimed scientists as nothing less than “the holy grail of insight we have sought for the psychological rehabilitation of the human race” (psychiatrist Professor Harry Prosen) and “the necessary breakthrough in the critical issue of needing to understand ourselves” (primatologist Professor David Chivers) – argues that the emotional turbulence of our species stems from an ancient conflict between two parts of our biology: instincts and the intellect.
The Science of Inner Conflict
Griffith’s central premise is that the turmoil driving so much of human behaviour doesn’t stem from an innate flaw in our nature, but from a long-standing clash between our conscious intellect and our instinctive self that began when we first became a thinking species some two million years ago.
As he explains, once early humans developed a fully conscious mind, it naturally began to question, reason, and experiment with how to live. But our older, instinctive self – finely tuned by genetic programming over millennia – couldn’t comprehend this new, knowledge-seeking behaviour and reacted as though it were a betrayal of its guidance. This misunderstanding between instinct and intellect, he argues, created a deep inner conflict that left humans feeling condemned and insecure. In trying to defend ourselves against that sense of criticism, we became psychologically defensive, angry, and alienated – the state Griffith defines as the human condition.
Significantly, however, he goes on to emphasise the good news this discovery makes possible – that “Now that we have found the real defence for ourselves all those artificial defences are obsoleted, no longer necessary – and the whole human race is transformed!”
A Warm Latin Welcome
What’s striking about the growth of the WTM in South America isn’t just its reach — it’s the tone. Rather than the detached curiosity often found in scientific discourse, the Latin response has been profoundly human.
Members describe the work not as a belief system, but as a framework that helps people live more authentically and empathically. They liken it to the cessation of saudade – that uniquely Portuguese sense of melancholy, of longing for wholeness; because finally understanding and optimism can supplant hopelessness. On this point, Griffith often cites Carl Jung who was known to emphasise that “wholeness for humans depends on the ability to own their own shadow” because, according to Griffith, Jung intuitively recognised that “only the redeeming understanding of our dark, human-condition-stricken, upset state could free us from that terrible condition”.
And so across the continent, small volunteer-run WTM Centres are forming, where the common thread of conversation is relief and excitement at finding a biological basis for the complexity of being human.
The WTM Rio Centre (one of dozens established around the world) is led by Fabiana Hargreaves da Costa, who was drawn to the possibility that understanding human behaviour biologically could bring peace to ourselves, our relationships, and our world.
Fabiana describes discovering Griffith’s work as a revelation: “I have just been blown away by the explanation power of this information. I can now look at myself, my habits, my patterns, my true package of behaviour with all the patience in the world because now I’m grounded, and I know that everywhere I look and decide to explore and work on will be with grace, with love and compassion because I truly know that I am good, and everyone around me is good too. Our fundamental worth has been biologically established. This is the path to joy and freedom that everyone is looking for, that is the real deal.”
At WTM Buenos Aires, Sebastián Cillo considers Griffith’s work to be “the most important information in the world…it really makes possible a deep transformation in our minds – everything is more peaceful and you start to perceive things and people and politics and everything with much more coherence and much more optimism.”
At WTM Colombia, Carlos Fernando Cruz Blanco (who’s also a scientist) says the explanation has also given him “more peace, more calmness and more hope…the more people that connect to the information presented, the better it will be for the whole world.”
A Latin Beat to a Global Dialogue
The World Transformation Movement may have begun on the other side of the world, but its heart beats strongly in Latin America. Its message – that self-understanding could now form the foundation of peace – feels particularly at home in a region that has long endured political upheaval and inequality but also an effervescent optimism for a better future.
As the WTM continues to grow in Brazil and across South America, its ideas are igniting a question that feels uniquely timely: If understanding ourselves is the missing piece, what kind of world could we build next?
