The Ecology of Consciousness - Part 1
James V. Hardt, Ph.D.
Biocybernaut Institute
This is a 5 part series
By drawing analogies from the ecology of biological systems
we can establish some principles of the Ecology of Consciousness.
Survivability is a basic requirement of biological
ecosystems which is seen to depend, in part, on a multiplicity of
life-forms. In a meadow there may be six or seven different kinds of
grasses. If a mutation of a leaf mildew were suddenly to overcome the defenses
of one of the varieties of grass, the meadow would not become barren because
the other grasses, which were resistant to the mildew would fill in the
ecological niches vacated by the vulnerable variety.
It is obvious from a study of the structure of
consciousness that there are different modes of awareness which can grow
in the meadows of the mind. However since Descartes', "Cogito ergo sum,"
the rational mode of consciousness has occupied a special (preeminent)
position in Western cultures, - almost to the exclusion of other modes of
knowing. Husserl, through phenomenology, has attempted to restore intuitive
modes of knowing to prominence, but until recently the rational mind has
been the focus of most of Western education and has been the reigning force in
the dominant scientific-technological world view.
Just one form of consciousness has flourished in the
meadows of the mind; and it's dominance has been reflected in the monocultures
of modern agricultural fields. Instead of the stabilizing multiplicity of
natural ecosystems, Western agriculture has promoted uniformity. Vast
fields of single crop species are maintained at a huge cost: plowing,
cultivating, and spraying with plant and animal poisons to suppress all
life-forms but the chosen crop.
In this disruption of the safety mechanisms of natural
ecosystems we are threatened with disaster, just as in the cultural suppression
of the non-rational forms of consciousness and the encouragement of a
monoculture of the mind we are also threatened with cultural
disaster. Only with a rational mind cut off from the guidance of feeling and
intuition could Herman Kahn write his horrific yet eminently logical book,
On Thermonuclear War.
Agriculture has also carried monoculture to fantastic
extremes. Not only is the attempt made to clear vast areas of all life-forms
other than the chosen crop, but the chosen crop is hybridized to produce
millions of virtually genetically identical plants of that crop. With such a
catastrophic decrease in variability, disaster arrived. In 1970 a mutated
variety of corn blight took advantage of the fact that a vast majority of all
the corn planted in America had been standardized to have cells containing the
T-type cytoplasm. When the corn blight mutated to attack T-type cytoplasm, the
food supply of much of the world was threatened. Fortunately the mistake was
quickly recognized and the weather cooperated to keep the moisture dependent
blight confined to about 10% of the corn crop. Government and private research
facilities were quickly given the task of reinstituting and maintaining the
variability of the gene pools of important crops.
Science magazine began to publicize the dangers of
shrinking gene pools and published an article by Bonnell and Selander (1974) on
"Elephant seals: Genetic variation and near extinction," which concluded
"... that the northern elephant seal, now lacking a pool of (genetic)
variability with which to adapt to changing conditions, is especially
vulnerable to environmental modification." The danger to our genetically
restricted food crops was seen as so grave, that even before President Richard
Nixon's opening to Communist China, there were hastily organized agricultural
exchanges with the People's Republic of China aimed at expanding the gene pools
of important crops.
Regrettably, no government agency has been similarly
concerned with the homogeneity of consciousness perpetrated by the rational
world view of the dominant culture. In fact the near catastrophe in agriculture
may be seen as a consequence of rational farming methods in a rational
social, political, and economic climate in a rational culture created by
rational minds.
There are really two issues here: dominance of the
ecosystems of consciousness by the rational mind, and the issue of the
innate competence of the rational mode compared to the other modes of
knowing. It is one level of danger to depend upon a monoculture of the
mind, but it is a greater danger if the chosen monoculture is not the best and
most competent example of the many modes of consciousness.
We are joined by more than Deikman (1966a, b, c) and Blewett
(1969) in believing that the mystical mode of knowing draws man closer to
absolute truth than do the intellectual and rational modes. Ideally, for an
ecology of consciousness, all modes should have an harmonious representation in
the fields and forests of the mind. John of Ruysbroeck was a 14th century
Flemish mystic who is an example of mystical-intellectual balance. Evelyn
Underhill (1974 has commented upon his wonderful mental harmony:
... Ruysbroeck was one of the few mystics who
have known how to make full use of a strong and disciplined intellect, without
ever permitting it to encroach on the proper domain of spiritual intuition. An
orderly and reasoned view of the universe is the ground plan upon which the
results of ... intuitions are set out: yet we are never allowed to forget the
merely provisional character of the best intellectual concepts where we are
dealing with ultimate truth. Ultimate truth he says, is not accessible to the
human reasons: 'the What-ness of God' we can never know. Yet this need not
discourage us from exploring and describing as well as we can, those rich
regions ... which await us beyond the ramparts of the sensual world.... He was
... almost as well equipped on the intellectual (as on the contemplative) side:
and hence was enabled to interpret to others, in language ... something at
least of the adventure of his spirit in the fathomless Ocean of
God.
If we are to join in such adventures, we must have practice
in setting aside the "merely provisional ... intellectual concepts" and we
must, as Freud said, "... take the trouble to suppress (the) critical faculty."
Freud was no friend of mysticism, but he knew that a whole inner world would
open to our observations if rational (i.e. ratio, - meaning comparison and
evaluation) processes were suspended. We have seen how such suspension can lead
to ego dissolution.
Continue to Part 2 
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