Forward: Unitariology in the Age of Homo Pandimensionalis

The year 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Martha Rogers’ An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing. Over the past 50 years there has been an exponential growth in Rogerian scholarship. As early as 1964, Rogers stated, “Nursing’s concern with man in his entirety, his humanness, and his continuity with nature” (Rogers, 1964, p. 34) and the “need for an underlining philosophy of the nature of man in his oneness” (p. 35) are essential to nursing science. In her definition of nursing science, a person is indivisible and interacts with the environment and possesses “unique integrity and wholeness” (Rogers, 1964, p. 37). Significantly, a person “is an expression of the life process, a dynamic becoming” (Rogers, 1964, p. 37), a unitary process. Phillips (2019) pointed out the importance in examining how Rogers use of the term “unitary” evolved. Rogers used the word unitary when she stated: “The principles of homeodynamics postulate a way of perceiving unitary man” (Rogers, 1970, p. 102). In 1986, in a chapter she retitled the science to the “Science of Unitary Human Beings” (Rogers, 1986) which was published in a seminal work “Explorations on Martha Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Being” by Violet Malinski. Nursing, Rogers (1990) wrote “is the study of unitary, irreducible, indivisible human and environmental fields” (Rogers, 1990a, p. 6).

This organic, ever evolving text, focuses on unitarology. Unitariology arises from Rogers’ science of unitary human beings. Phillips (2015) states Rogers’ identification of pandimensionality opened vistas of awareness whereby new knowledge could be created rather than following a beclouded timeline of traditional thinking. Some of these new frontiers, like the idea of unitariology, deserve exploration to continue the creation of knowledge pertinent to Rogers’ science. This wiki text in essence is the study of the science of unitary human beings, a science that describes the nature and focus of nursing. John Phillips, the leading scholar in Rogerian Science, has continued to advance Rogerian science through his brilliant work and in 2015 he proposed new terminology that lays a foundation for the generation a new Rogerian scholarship. Phillips proposed the term unitariology is the study of unitary phenomena revealing truth of the universe and humankind. An alternate definition is proposed here, unitariology is the study unitary phenomena revealing knowledge of Homo pandimensionalis wellbecoming and the universe. (Butcher, 2020). The term “reality” has been changed to “knowledge” because there is no “reality,” rather we can come together understand the dynamic multiverse by apprehending knowledge about the nature of nursing and the universe. Persons are pandimensional, and Phillips proposed the homo pandimensionalis is an evolutionary emergent, and I propose that we, homo pandimensionalis, have already emerged. Another key change in the definition of unitariology, is the inclusion of the goal of nursing care, wellbecoming, which Phillips (2015) states involves people’s pattern and its manifestations, one’s rhythms of life, and transcendence. Wellbecoming is defined as “participating in one’s changing pattern and its manifestations for the betterment of rhythms of living and for transcending as energyspirit”(p. 45).

Hopefully, this wiki text will enlighten and deepen understanding of the science of unitary human beings. There are chapters that provide an in depth understanding of the postulates and principle of the science of unitary human beings; as well as descriptions of theories derived from the SUHB that are used to guide research and practice. The Rogerian practice method is described so one can understand how nursing care is revolutionized by the practice of unitariology. Approaches to studying unitary human beings, including research methods and interments to measure concepts conceptualized within the science of unitary human beings are included in this text. While the text is meant to be a comprehensive rendition of the SUHB, learners and scholars need to go to the original sources of the content to gain a fuller understanding of the SUHB. This text is only a beginning a new age, the age of homo pandimensionalis.

Howard Butcher