One of the clichéd statements from modern environmentalists and spiritual gurus is that ‘we are all connected.’ But, ‘what if’ we all are? Most of our modern world is run on a scientific-materialistic paradigm (a theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that all being and processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results of matter) that stipulates how everything is separate. But that was never all the case for most of religious history. This separateness idea is a direct consequence of the medieval Renaissance as people began a new away of thinking that broke away from the dogmatism and religious requirements of the Christian Church. I believe we are in a Nova Renascentia (see earlier posts, e.g. A New Beginning – Part 2: Nova Renascentia (New Renaissance {January 2021}) and the main difference is that we are moving into a new kind of spirituality {see my posts June -November 2021}). What is clear from cutting edge quantum physicists is that the universe is comprised of a singular energy, and that energy is pure consciousness. Unfortunately, our mainstream views of consciousness are still rooted in the medieval paradigm and Descartes style thinking where “I think and therefore I am” dominates the understanding of what we perceive consciousness to be. What if, for a moment, we take a broader look at newer ideas of consciousness and think of what a Nova Renascentia might bring us.
Separateness dictates competition, while connection emphasizes collaboration. In biology we focus on life in Darwinian competition and hence as individuals competing for survival, with occasional variations for symbiosis and commensalism. But that is all predicated on the scientific-materialism we are programed to think explains our world. What if, we are wrong and the natural world is really all connected in wonderful and subtle ways we humans seem blind, until recently. We talk about intelligence and intellect and conflate the two as synonymous. Yet, our human intellect has brought the world to the brink of ecological collapse. Does nature offer a different perspective from a naturally intelligent focus, and what if we can simply observe and learn how to live harmoniously with everything where we understand it really is all connected.
Western scientists have long been constrained by materialism unlike eastern scientists that were willing to think esoterically more outside the box. One exception in the USA was Cytogeneticist, Barbara McClintock, who asked the most profound question, “What does a cell know about itself?” And it is here that we see the huge divide between Intellect and intelligence. As humans we are self-aware and can think independently. We have created an incredible technological culture in which we now stand on the threshold of moving into transhumanism, which will complete our separateness. Indeed, we are aware of our existence and mortality, but does that make us intelligent? I think most of us can agree that we are smarter intellectually than a mouse and certainly more than a bacterium, but are we more intelligent than them? After all bacteria have thrived for billions of years and rodents for tens of millions of years. Modern humans were doing Ok for a couple of hundred thousand years and then in the last few millennia, and certainly for the last two centuries, exhibited intellectual behaviors that have taken us to the edge of the abyss.
There is a natural intelligence that is now only slowly being realized by scientists in all disciplines. This is evidenced by the growing popularity of books like ‘Gaia’ by James Lovelock; ‘What a Plant Knows’ by Daniel Chamovitz; ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wollebehn; Evelyn Fox Keller’s ‘A Feeling for the Organism’ and her biography of Barbara McClintock; or ‘Acquiring Genomes’ by Lynn Margulis; that demonstrate the innate intelligence of the natural world that is infinitely responsive, cooperative and self-directing. Nature clearly demonstrates a consciousness that is intelligent but not as we understand it from a human awareness perspective. Part of the problem is recognizing that consciousness can be both sub-conscious and unconscious. Indeed, humans outside of their endless mind-chatter live unconsciously. Not only do humans live unconsciously with the innate intelligence of their body, but much of the time with their programming by acquired belief structures.
Think about it. Do not need to consciously perform any bodily functions, they simple happen. You can influence your body’s autonomous physiologic and metabolic processes through its beliefs and meditation (e.g., Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) – see earlier post, PERSONAL SOVEREIGNTY – Breaking Past the Control {October 2018}), but most of the time your body works independent of your mindless thinking. Your body does far more on its own than your brain does for your body, yet we persist in thinking ‘I think, therefore I must be’ hubris. Unlike humans, nothing living in the natural world destroys its environment (possibly higher invasive species monopolizing a system might do but, but quickly die off ). Humans do it for concepts like money using their intellect, but nature lives, thrives and is controlled by the natural currency of energy and its transfer through the trophic levels (see earlier post, Economics and Energetics of farming 1 – a reality check on the food system {July 2018}).
It’s not that nature is omniscient (knows all) but it exhibits a unique ability to work with the natural systems to transform them as needed. In essence all species, and that includes humans, display intelligence (the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills inherent within the ecological system in which it exists), but only humans use their intellect to ignore natural intelligence and wisdom. In that respect, nature is much smarter than current humanity is as a whole. Our ancestors lived within the natural world and thrived for millennia, and many indigenous humans still do, but if modern humanity is to thrive it needs to re-learn to listen to its innate natural intelligence and not the hubris of its intellect.
Our attempts at biomimicry (see earlier post, Biomimicry 1 – Learning from Nature – BioEngineering a New World {August 2018}) are admirable but they are still rooted within our intellect – we reverse engineer natural systems using our current technology without fully understanding the potential of the system in which they occur.
When I was first in college, biology was, and still is, dominated by several dogma’s, such as Darwin’s theory of evolution, germ-line theory, unidirectionality of genetic information (DNA -Protein), one gene – one protein, etc., despite decades of research to show that these theories do not hold up under modern research scrutiny. Consciousness, long thought to be a component produced by the brain, is now shown to be the underlying mechanism for life, the universe, and indeed, everything. Once we can truly recognize that simple concept, we can start to use it to co-create the universe as we want instead of being victims to those that would keep the concept hidden to control us.
To Be Continued ……………
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