TRIBALISM

                                                                                  TRIBALISM

 

Early humanoid versions of ourselves had certain features that certainly favored our survival and advantage in our ever changing early environment. Our movement out of trees onto the savanna grasslands, our bi-pedal, up right posture, homo habilis’ ability to fashion tools, and the development of our frontal lobes all greatly contributed to our evolution. But our rapidly developing skills in being social animals, including language and organizing into bands, family units and tribes, and our ability to read and respond intelligently to social/emotional cues stands out as a hallmark of our advancement up to this day.

 

                                                        

 

Tribalism had a very adaptive effect in human evolution. Humans are social animals, and ill-equipped to live on their own. Tribalism and social bonding helped to keep individuals committed to the group, even when personal relations frayed. This kept individuals from wandering off or joining other groups. It also led to bullying when a tribal member was unwilling to conform to the politics of the collective.

 

Socially, divisions between groups fostered specialized interactions with others, based on association: altruism, kin-selectivity, and violence. Thus, groups with a strong sense of unity and identity benefited from kin selection behavior such as common property and shared resources. The tendency of members to unite against an outside tribe and the ability to act violently and prejudicially against that outside tribe likely boosted the chances of survival in genocidal conflicts.

 

But our modern world, compared to the early survival mode of homo sapiens, lends itself to a complexity and sophistication, both positively and negatively, whereby our primal, tribal way of being poses a huge threat on many fronts.

 

 

My ongoing contention is that our human sophisticated skills and intelligence of reading and responding intelligently to systems of human social/emotional cuing is rapidly fading, and being displaced by virtual cuing systems such as electronic media. This is comparable to trying to live on virtual food, or having virtual sex, or playing a video game of guitar hero and really believing that you are making music!

 

                                                   

 

I am interested in what I feel threatens or impairs our well-being, so this article will focus on the phenomenon of tribalism.

 

Our modern world is becoming more and more tribal, meaning fragmented factions that organize and identify with their in group to such an extent that they insulate and close themselves off to any influence other than their own self-reinforcing views and ideologies. In biology, this is called disease, because at a cellular level, certain cells become imbalanced as far as how they regulate their homeostatic environment. This means the cell becomes damaged as to what it allows in, and what it gets rid of, the supreme example of this, from a medical perspective, we call cancer.

 

Facebook and Twitter are examples of technological Tribalism, and we can see how much recruitment for malicious groups such as ISIS are engendered by these tribal media. Modern social media seem innocent and encouraging of self-expression, but we are duped into believing that we are not adversely affected by yet another tribal entity-the corporate mind!

 

                                                          

 

As always, we want to start with our inner world. So we want to look at the ways we have warring factions within ourselves. This inner conflict manifests in terms of projection, which is the phenomenon of seeing something in others that is a red hot chili pepper issue within oneself. This happens mostly on an unconscious level, which makes it particularly pernicious. A good example of this is the inner prejudice that we all feel on some level, that we may have a huge reaction against when we see it in others. This is because we have not owned and integrated that part of ourselves. This is a so called monkey on our back that can become a real chip on our shoulder!

 

                                                        

 

Another mode of tribalism is reverse racism. There is a good example of reverse racism on YouTube. It shows a man dressed in Arab garb, with a loaded back pack walking up to white people in public and putting his backpack near them and then watching them run. This is supposed to draw attention to how stereotypical it is for white people to see Arab/Muslims as terrorists, but it is ill conceived, because in fact, many Muslim’s have walked into public places and blown themselves and others up, so our fears over the stereotype are warranted.

 

It’s not unlike showing people in KKK hoods/sheets walking up to Black people with a burning cross and watching their reactions. Or having someone dressed as a Nazi walk into a Synagogue. All this is pointing to what I’m calling tribalism which is a perpetuation of Us/Them mentality.

 

At the same time, there is a time and place for Us/Them mentality. When 911 happened, most the world drew together in compassionate solidarity against the atrocity of terror.

 

During WWII the world drew together to combat the terror of the Nazis. These days, the world is drawing together to fight ISIS, these are all examples of Us/Them, Win/Lose consciousness that is appropriate. There will never be a coming together and “working out our differences” with a group like ISIS. Muslims will always have to police themselves for their culture that engenders terrorism.

 

My generation of Baby Boomers have a very naïve idealism that believes we will one day be able to live as one, but this doesn’t mean we can’t achieve a higher and higher level of solidarity, and begin to see tribalism in all its nefarious guises.

 

                                                           The Many Faces of Tribalism 

 

Imperialism is defined as; "an unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another.” This is a kind of tribalism, based on perceived ‘divine right,’ meaning God is on our side, and it is purely a rationalization for conquering and subjugating people.

 

                                          

 

Dynasty is also a form of tribalism, we use the term dynasty to denote a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. We will also use the term dynasty colloquially in referring to a sports team that overpowers and dominates opponents for some length of time, like the Green Bay Packer dynasty with Vince Lombardi.

 

 

Empires are dynastic and tribal in their efforts to dominate and suppress any competition. The British East India Company is a good example, as is the Oil industry that has suppressed alternative forms of fuel. The colonial empires of Britain, Spain, Portugal, China, U.S. are supreme examples of the negative effects of imperial systems that continue to this day using capitalistic propaganda whereby ends justifies means are used. Everything the U.S. did in the Banana Republics of South and Central America are examples of how imperialistic this country has been. The reopening of Cuba is a step in the right direction, we can credit Obama with.

 

Chauvinism is another example of exaggerated patriotism and a belligerent belief in national superiority and glory.

According to legend, French soldier Nicolas Chauvin was badly wounded in the Napoleonic wars. He received a pension for his injuries but it was not enough to live on. After Napoleon abdicated, Chauvin was a fanatical Bonapartist despite the unpopularity of this view in Bourbon Restoration France. His single-minded blind devotion to his cause, despite neglect by his faction and harassment by its enemies, started the use of the term.

 

                                                                     

 

In psychology, we use the term Napoleonic complex to denote someone who overcompensates for feelings of inferiority by trying to control/conquer others, Hitler, and any other fascist dictator can be viewed in this light.

 

Chauvinism has extended from its original use to include fanatical devotion and undue partiality to any group or cause to which one belongs, especially when such partisanship includes prejudice against or hostility toward outsiders or rival groups and persists even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Chauvinism got a big boost in the feminist 60’s with the coining of the term male chauvinist pig.

 

                                                 

 

If you consider rabid sports fans, the term chauvinism is applicable, and is certainly an example of tribalism. Sports fans have gone so far as to kill other sports fans in their fanatical blood lust. When people feel exceptionally happy when their team wins, or exceptionally sad/mad when their team loses, it is a sign of immature tribal consciousness. Our society breeds this into us as the movie Talladega Nights highlight when Rickie Bobbie quotes his dad saying; “If you’re not first, your last!”

 

                                                          

 

Chauvinism is not unlike jingoism, Jingoism also refers to a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country, club, team, religion, science, etc. as superior to others.

 

 

We can see certain characteristics such as egoistic and impulsive qualities in tribalism, as in the sociopsychology of a riot or a crowd of fans at a sporting event. There is the feeling of the world as a jungle, and it is survival of the fittest, and might makes right, as well as avoiding shame, getting respect, and taking what you consider to be rightfully yours.

 

We would see this kind of consciousness in rebellious youth, Feudal kingdoms, and the stage of development called the “terrible twos.”

 

                                                          

 

Other qualities include a blind allegiance to authority as in the Nazis, a sense of ultimate truth and the calling/justification to banish/destroy all who would oppose. There is also a strong sense of purpose and manifest destiny as with the Puritans.

 

                                                                    Alternatives To Tribalism

 

The opposite of tribalism would be a world view that sees the world as a chaotic organism forged by differences and change. It would have values of flexibility, solution oriented, and self-responsibility as its highest priorities. It would have integrative structures, systems thinking, and “Third Way” politics as guiding models of solving problems.

 

 

Tribalism may refer, in popular cultural terms, to a way of thinking or behaving in which people are more loyal to their tribe than to their friends, their country, or any other social group.

 

We see much of this type of tribal social organization in Jane Goodall’s study of chimpanzees, and the study of primate behavior is very helpful. In stark contrast to the chimpanzees, is the non-violent, alternative ways demonstrated by the Bonobo apes. These great apes are complex beings with profound intelligence, emotional expression, and sensitivity. The most unusual and compelling feature of bonobos is their society–matriarchal, egalitarian, and peaceful. Bonobos are also well-known for their creative and abundant sexual activity. Their gentle and amorous nature has led some people to call them the “Make Love, Not War” primate.

 

                                                              

 

                       

                                                      Republicans and Autoimmune Disease
                                 

                                                             

                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

Let’s close our discussion of Tribalism with the Republican Party. The current GOP represents an autoimmune, dense mass, not unlike a malignant tumor composed of selfish cells and genetic code, programmed to self-destruct and take the rest of the organism with it. The biological parallels of a body attacking itself are striking, these include symptoms such as inflammation as seen in rheumatoid arthritis. Just as inflammation in the body is disease producing, so to on a sociological level, that which is incendiary and inflammatory produces dis-ease among the populace (Think Trump). The GOP is a flame throwing machinery, burning itself in its inflammatory recklessness.

 

The GOP is a level of consciousness that is tribal, factional, fragmented, divided, and at war with itself. Just as autoimmune disease attacks the body, so to the GOP is attacking itself and self-destructing.

 

We have seen a particularly epidemic rise of autoimmune diseases in women over the last 50 years, diseases such as lupus, celiac sprue (reaction to gluten), pernicious anemia, psoriasis, chronic fatigue syndrome, inflammatory bowel, Addison’s disease, and type 1 diabetes. Just as we have seen the rampant destruction of Mother Earth and her sensitive ecological immunity to protect herself has resulted in horrendous weather changes on our planet. Do you think the two are related?! 

 

What does this have to do with Republicans? EVERYTHING! The tribal consciousness that engenders hatred of feminine values is the singular most pernicious threat to our species, this is because, at the core of feminine values is the creation, protection, and nurturance of life. That which is opposed to the creative aspects of life is obviously a threat.

 

For the Republicans, Feminine values have been replaced by warring tribes: Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science. Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior. Market fundamentalists convinced the "free market" can do no wrong. Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism.  Billionaires craving even more of the nation's wealth than they already own. And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald, and are becoming convinced the greatest threats to their wellbeing are Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans.

Each of these tribes has its own separate political organization, its own distinct sources of campaign funding, its own unique ideology - and its own candidate. What's left is a lifeless shell called the Republican Party.

 

I truly believe, hope, and pray this Tribe will not prevail!!

On Being A Scientific Mystic

                                           On Being a Scientific Mystic

                          “Yes, you can call it that,” Einstein replied calmly. “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.”

It is useful to keep in mind our working definition of mysticism as "a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions and contexts."  If we juxtapose this with a working definition of science as; "a systematic enterprise that creates, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe," we get quite a nice pair of bookends that, although they are not reducible to one another, are certainly compatible and complementary in a synergistic way.

 From the earliest beginnings of human exploration and observation of nature and our attendant recordings, abstractions, and numerical and scientific formulations of what we observe, feel, intuit, and imagine, human beings have had a mystical orientation to the world. That is to say, we have encountered, and engaged the mystery of the universe with awe and curiosity, just as a child in a state of wonder with their first encounter of a flower, a dog, rain, and snow.

From their beginnings in Sumer (now Iraq) around 3500 BC, the Mesopotamian peoples began to attempt to record some observations of the world with extremely thorough numerical data. The observations of the heavens, and cycles of seasons were important as we began to have the ability to store food and build city/states in which large numbers of people co-habitated.  Astronomy and astrology were considered to be the same thing, as evidenced by the practice of this science in Babylonia by priests. Healers were also priests, and healing was set in the context of sacred temples that required divine intervention.  People were looking for omens and ways to divine the future, or as a scientist would say, make predictions. As certain groups of proto-scientists moved away from superstitions and blind belief, they still carried with them the skills of imagination, dreaming, intuiting, and using senses above and beyond their 5 ordinary senses.

Ancient Egypt necessitated an understanding of surveying land to protect and optimize farmland which was flooded annually by the Nile river, this greatly advanced geometry, architecture and medicine, which was mandated partly due to their religious mythology that involved mummification. 

We can see a parallel process with religious ritual and scientific advancement, the two aspects of life were not separate or mutually exclusive as they have become. Egypt was also the center of alchemical research which was the proto science of modern chemistry, but as C.G. Jung wrote;

“The real mystery does not behave mysteriously or secretively; it speaks a secret language, it adumbrates itself by a variety of images which all indicate its true nature. I am not speaking of a secret personally guarded by someone, with a content known to its possessor, but of a mystery, a matter or circumstance which is “secret,” i.e., known only through vague hints but essentially unknown. The real nature of matter was unknown to the alchemist: he knew it only in hints. In seeking to explore it he projected the unconscious into the darkness of matter in order to illuminate it. In order to explain the mystery of matter he projected yet another mystery - his own psychic background -into what was to be explained: Obscurum per obscurius, ignotum per ignotius! This procedure was not, of course, intentional; it was an involuntary occurrence.” 
― C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

The Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was a phonetic writing system, served as the basis for the Egyptian Phoenician alphabet from which the later Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets were derived. The city of Alexandria retained preeminence with its library, which literally held all extant knowledge in the world, and which was damaged by fire when it fell under Roman rule, being completely destroyed before 642. With it a huge amount of antique literature and knowledge was lost, this is equivalent to our modern library of congress being wiped out overnight with no back up of stored knowledge.

The real burgeoning of what we understand as scientific thought came about in classical antiquity with the Greeks in around the 6^th century B.C. There we see what would become “natural philosophers” with the likes of people like Thales who postulated that there was an originating principle of nature and the nature of matter was that of water.

                                                  

This is not unlike Laozi, the Mystical Chinese Taoist philosopher who formulated the Tao as; "the primordial essence or fundamental nature of the Universe." In the foundational text of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching, Laozi explains that; "Tao is not a 'name' for a 'thing' but the underlying natural order of the Universe whose ultimate essence is difficult to circumscribe due to it being non conceptual yet evident in one's being of aliveness. The Tao is "eternally nameless”  and to be distinguished from the countless 'named' things which are considered to be its manifestations, the reality of life before its descriptions of it." (Dao De Jing-32. Laozi)

Plato (428-348 BC), was strongly influenced by the mystical group of mathematicians (the Pythagoreans, who believed the universe was made of numbers). Plato generalized the notion of eternal mathematical truths to a wider scope of Forms or Ideas, or archetypes that included not only mathematics but the Forms of every object or quality. To Plato, these Forms or Ideas exist in an immortal, transcendent realm, outside space and time.

                                                             

Plato used the Greek word nous to signify the rational, immortal part of the soul through which the Forms could be known. As ancient philosophy progressed, the terms logos and nous were used to signify mind, reason, intellect, organizing principle, word, speech, thought, wisdom and meaning. In the Hebrew bible, when it says; “In the beginning was the Word,” it’s referring to the principle of Logos/Nous.

                                                    

The Greeks also gave us the concepts of Ethos-guiding beliefs or ideals, from which we get our symbol of justice as a blind woman with balanced scales, Eros-Romantic Love and the vitality of life, and Thanatos-the idea of death and dissolution.

The Platonic ideas were incorporated in religious thought as well as science. The founding fathers of modern science, Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Kepler and Newton, were all essentially Platonists or Pythagoreans, which means they were mystically oriented believing they could find the mathematical patterns underlying the natural world, the eternal mathematical Ideas that underlie all physical reality. Galileo expressed it as; “The universe is a book written in the mathematical language.”

Einstein’s general theory of relativity is firmly in this tradition, and Arthur Eddington, who provided the first evidence in favor of the theory, concluded that it pointed to the idea that “The stuff of the world is mind stuff. The mind stuff is not spread out in space and time: these are part of the cyclic scheme ultimately derived out of it.”

All this points to the mystical idea that consciousness itself is the substratum of reality. The physicist James Jeans also adopted a Platonic perspective; “The universe can be best pictured….as consisting of pure thought, the thought of what, for want of a wider word, we must describe as a mathematical thinker.”

For his entire life, as he delved into the mysteries of the cosmos, Albert Einstein harbored a belief in, and reverence for, the harmony and beauty of what he called the mind of God as it was expressed in the creation of the universe and its laws.

Anomolisa-Our Modern Tragedy

                               Anomolisa-Our Modern Tragedy

I have said for many years, that film represents our highest medium of consciousness and our greatest hope of evolution out of the dangerous precipice we are teetering on as modern, “civilized” human beings. The new film Anomolisa, by Charlie Kaufman, in my view, is a brilliant display of our tragic angst we are numbly living, as well as a way out.

Kaufman’s other films include; Being Johon Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

If you haven’t seen Anomolisa, I suggest you go see it and come back and read this, otherwise I will utterly ruin it for you!

My take on the movie, is that it represents our modern day tragedy, living in our perpetual mid-life crisis mode, whether or not you’re middle aged. The movie shows how comfortable, affluent, smart, and secure we all are in all our techno- sophistication, and how utterly empty and miserable so many are in the midst of our opulence.

The protagonist Michael Stone, is the archetypal, frumpy, drinking, smoking, and ‘successful’ business executive on a road trip to Cincinnati, to give a lecture based on his best selling book about “great customer service.”

Just as he is a ‘successful’ businessman, author, husband, and father, he’s also a ‘functional’ alcoholic, smoker, crap eating, not exercising, and living close to a heart attack life style, robot, which is oxymoronic. That is to say, you should not be considered ‘functional’ or ‘successful’ if you’re doing those things, but in our oxymoronic society, you are seen as a rock star, and given all kinds of status and strokes. In fact, Michael Stone should have quotes around him ‘living’ and being ‘human,’ and one of Kaufman’s brilliant devices is that this character is an animated figure who seems hyper realistic in his artificiality.

Another brilliant device Kaufman uses, is to have all the characters in the movie (except one), have the same voice. The taxi driver, hotel clerks, bar tender, and women in the movie, have the same voice, with just minor inflections. This points to how homogeneously boring we are in our pluralistic, drone/clone modern age. Everyone is so busy having an opinion, expressing themselves, networking, being innovative and entrepreneurial, and rebelling, that we have lost ourselves and blended into a soup of sameness. Facebook and Twitter are supreme examples of people thinking they are making unique expressions and having their voice heard, but they are merely being mined and trolled by the corporations as potential marketing prey. It’s the same scenario from the movie Matrix of people living virtual lives, but really only being used for their energy like an every ready AA battery.

When Michael Stone arrives in Cincinnati, he is alone in his hotel room and faced with himself and his despair, so he calls up an old flame, and tries to reignite this relationship. This is an example of another running theme through the movie; how everyone’s looking to love and be loved. Michael walked out on the woman 11 years ago, and now he wants to get together with her to have a drink. You can imagine how this goes, Kaufman is brilliant in that he doesn’t let his plastic characters or the audience off the hook with the pain and suffering of this all too human and common scenario, he poignantly walks us through every detail of how utterly miserable and desperate our misplaced seeking of pseudo love is.

Another instance of misplaced love is when Michael gets called down to the hotel’s human service office where an adulating fan makes a pass at him, and Michael runs away in repulsion, only to act out his own desperate attempt to connect with someone by randomly knocking on hotel guest’s rooms.

He knocks on the door where 2 women, who also happen to have read Michael’s book, have come to Cincinnati for his lecture the following day. One of the women, named Lisa, actually has a voice of her own and Michael is immediately attracted to her. She is the only character in the movie that has her own unique voice. Michael gets caught in a classic Anima projection, whereby he is able to see his own feminine, soul/self fully in Lisa. He projects all his tenderness, wounding, and simple, innocent love onto her, because he cannot claim it for himself. He charms her and tells her she is unique, he tells her she is an anomaly among people, he calls her Anomolisa.

She is quite shy, simple, pure, and has a disfiguring scare on her face which she conceals with her hair. Michael loves everything about her, takes her to his room to have sex, and in the morning he announces he’s leaving his wife and son to be with Anomolisa. She is taken aback, but she is also desperate for love so she agrees.

You know where it goes from here, he starts noticing that she hits her teeth with her fork, and chews with her mouth open, he starts criticizing her and trying to control her. Kaufman encapsulates the story of 90% of relationships in a simple breakfast scene!

Michael goes on to deliver his speech, but he realizes in the midst that he is a complete hypocrite, that although he’s considered an expert on human service he doesn’t know the first thing about being human and treating someone else with genuine kindness and real love. He has just been going through the motions of living, but he is an empty, mechanical, and desperate figurine, pretending to live a human life.

He ends up returning to his wife and son, purely out of his default habits, not knowing anything else. He brings his son a mechanical Japanese sex toy robot that he bought in an adult toy store. He is oblivious to how inappropriate and potentially harmful this could be to his young son. This mechanical robot represents Michael, living shallow, with mechanized gears, and moving with predictable automation and soulless pretense.

Michael’s wife has orchestrated a surprise party for him, all his friends with plastic plated faces are there, drinking their cocktails, speaking with the same voice.

On Being A Mystical Scientist

                                On Being a Mystical Scientist

 

The 21^st century is calling for a particular kind of person and mind, this is because the intensity, demands, and pace of life, coupled with the relationship man is developing with his technology, warrant a person and mind that can simultaneously be rational as well as intuitive, a mind that is logical and empirical, and one that sees, feels, and senses beyond the senses, one that has mystical apperception.

 

There is an artistic, aesthetic aspect to science, a craft to the practice and visions of such highly technical professions as surgeons, psychotherapists, architects and engineers. I’ll never forget my work as a surgical assistant, working within the craft, technique and artistry of cardiovascular, orthopedic, plastic, ENT, and several other specialties of the surgical arena.

 

 

The hands and instincts of some of the surgeons was pure artistry, their diagnostic skills of assessing and intervening in the moment of a surgical crisis, was akin to watching a Picasso choose which color and brush stroke to use from some deep wellspring of intuitive imagination. They were certainly not thinking rationally and planning their next move, these were times of pure mystical knowing. Of course their years of education and training go into moments like that, but at those spontaneous moments, there is no time or means to recall something they read in a book!

 

 

Conversely, an artist has to learn the science and theory behind their craft, they must spend years (the usual number is 10 to be exact), in painstaking discipline of technique, science, and practical application of their creative medium. Only then is there hope of true mastery in the sense of a fusion between technique and the creative, spontaneous impulse that is the mark of an original master.

 

In our times, science and technology have moved exponentially toward a unifying approach and methodology that combines cross disciplinary domains and synthesizes fields and practices that, in the bygone era of extreme specialization and compartmentalization, now converge, cross-pollinate, and beg, borrow, and steal from anything and anyone that will add to greater understanding and control of our world.

 

There is a current case up for ethical consideration in which a baby will be conceived in vivo with DNA from 3 different people; a father’s sperm, a mother’s egg, and another mother who has specific DNA that will compensate for the egg mother’s defective DNA. To say the least, this is raising some eyebrows! The science of how to pull off such a feat is a good example of 2 or more disciplines working in tandem, i.e. genetics, biology, biomedical ethics, and engineering.

 

 

Scientists in Germany have switched on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power. Scientists pushed the button Wednesday to inject a tiny amount of hydrogen into the Wendelstein 7-X device at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald.

A massive microwave array then heated up the hydrogen, turning it into a super-hot gas known as plasma similar to that found in the sun.

The Greifswald device won't generate energy but instead tests a technology that may be used to hold plasma in place in future reactors.

Advocates acknowledge that nuclear fusion is probably many decades away, but argue it could replace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear fission reactors.

 

 

This type of science requires the vision of a mystic to be able to harness the power of the Sun. It is not unlike Einstein’s day dreaming mystical imagination about light:

Einstein, at the age of 16, imagined chasing after a beam of light. “.a paradox upon which I had already hit at the age of sixteen: If I pursue a beam of light with the velocity c (velocity of light in a vacuum), I should observe such a beam of light as an electromagnetic field at rest though spatially oscillating. There seems to be no such thing, however, neither on the basis of experience nor according to Maxwell's equations. From the very beginning it appeared to me intuitively clear that, judged from the standpoint of such an observer, everything would have to happen according to the same laws as for an observer who, relative to the earth, was at rest. For how should the first observer know or be able to determine, that he is in a state of fast uniform motion? One sees in this paradox the germ of the special relativity theory is already contained."

 

Granted this is the day dream of a consummate genius, but it is a day dream non-the-less, and it points to how science is inundated with imagination, spirituality, creativity, spontaneity, and the intuition that are hallmarks of the mystics. Indeed, all the major physicists of the quantum/relativity revolution in science such as Einstein, Eddington, Bohr, Planck, Heisenberg and Pauli were avowed mystics!

 

How can this be that the hardest of the hard sciences engender a mystical perspective? I believe it is because both mystics and scientists are interested in the nature of reality and the practical, unmediated experience of how to contact and bring into expression that reality into every day human life.

 

 

Scientists create models, theory, technique, and technology whereby they get closer and closer to the essential nature of nature. Similarly, ‘mysticism’ can be thought of as a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions. Both science and mysticism are interested in the unity of nature, the unity of human experience. Both science and mysticism use extra sensory means; scientists use tools that extend their senses objectively, mystics use contemplative tools such as meditation, and prayer that extend their senses subjectively.

 

 

Modern physicists are interested in a theory of everything that incorporates the 4 known physical forces of strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity. They are trying to marry Quantum Field Theory with Relativity Theory, this is termed a “Grand Unified Theory.” Mystics transcend traditional religion (often at their own peril), by contacting the unifying principles beneath all religions.

 

Both science and mysticism deal with the unknown. Scientists endeavor to unlock the mysteries of nature, mystics make contact with the mystery of the divine. The word mysticism is derived from the Greek word μυω, meaning "to conceal."

 

We are called, on in these times, to look for ways to unify, be it political, social, technological, spiritual, or scientific. This is because we are reaching heights of fragmentation, compartmentalization, and polarity that warrant grave concern for our species, the phenomenon of terrorism is the best example.

 

I’ve always tried to be a synthesizer, and my creative contribution is in large part, to be able to help bring seemingly disparate fields of thought and experience into alignment and correlative balance. This is not to say that related things can be reduced to each other, science cannot be reduced to spirit or vice versa, matter is not reducible to energy, but there sure the hell is a STRONG correlation as in E=MC2!

 

Objectivity exists, subjectivity exists, there are individual and collective aspects of both, but they are not reducible to one another. This is Ken Wilber’s great contribution to our times, and I believe it warrants a Nobel Prize/Academy Award etc…it’s a huge contribution that has not caught on near to the extent that it should.

 

So bring your mystical self to bear on your science, and be scientific in your approach to spirit, don’t practice blind faith, that leads to violence!