Copy of Alternative Paradigms in Healing Ecosystem Health

Alternative Paradigms in Healing Ecosystem Health- Human Health Washington DC 2002 Thomas Maxwell University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics A Global Crisis       Resource depletion, biodiversity loss Pollution, global climate change Inequity, poverty, overpopulation Crime, ethnic conflict Social decay Hopelessness & despair A Crisis of Being and Perception    Outdated, inadequate worldviews Fragmentation & compartmentalization Reductionism, positivism, materialism, relativism    Flatland cosmology Deconstruction of Tradition Disenchantment, dehumanization, nihilism   Mechanization, commodification Severed felt connection with nature and divinity  Alienation from nature state and ground of being All Sickness is Home Sickness  Ordinary Human condition       Alienation from Origin, true Self Emptiness: “God-shaped hole” Substitutes and addictions:  Sex, power, money, thrills, drugs, TV, “new toys”, etc. Consumerism, materialism, etc. Environmental destruction, psychological malaise. Human & ecosystem disease. Ecosystem Health- Human Health  Reductionism shattered unity  The “whole” is no longer meaningful Healing = replacing broken parts Specific cause Controlling symptoms = curing disease Ineffective at promoting health  Organisms = machines     Effective at fixing breakdowns   Crisis in ecosystem & human health care Balanced Thinking  Left brain thinking        Right brain thinking       Analysis Reductionism Relativity, Diversity Logic, Rationality Deduction Disciplinary Synthesis Holism Unity, Universality Intuition, Creativity Induction Trans-disciplinary A Cultural Transition “There are good reasons for suggesting the modern age has ended. Many things indicate that we are going through a transition period, when it seems that something is on the way out and something else is painfully being born. It is as if something were crumbling, decaying and exhausting itself, while something else, still indistinct, were arising from the rubble.” -Vaclav Havel Cognitive Evolution The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavioral systems to newer, higher order systems as man’s existential problems change. - Clare Graves Each newly emergent behavioral system constitutes a worldspace, a package of values, perceptual filters, cognitive maps, etc. which determine the human’s interface with the world. Systems Theory of Cognitive Evolution   Emergent process marked by the progressive subordination of older systems to newer, higher order systems vMemes emerge holarchically   Higher level vMemes embrace lower level vMemes Adds its own more encompassing pattern.  Evolutionary Progression      Increasing integration and internalization Deeper identity and wider perspective Expanded sense of self Increasing relative autonomy Decreasing egocentrism  Each development discloses a new “worldspace” The many become one and are increased by one. -- Alfred North Whitehead WorldSpaces and Culture Worldspace Archaic Magical Mythical Cultural form Hunter/gatherer Hunter/gatherer Agricultural Identification Family Tribe State/empire Rational/egoic Relational Integral Techno/Industrial Informational ? Nation Humanity All sentient beings Holistic ? Universal/cosmic Relational Worldspace  Values      Communitarian values & networking Personal relationships & human bonding Ecological sensitivity & sustainability Personal feelings & caring Cultural relativity & egalitarianism Relational Worldspace  Distains     Hierarchy & patriarchy Greed, dogma, divisiveness Cold rationality Universality, authoritarianism, fundamentalism Integral Worldspace  Values        Wholeness & healing fragmentation Transcendent universals- unity in diversity Transdisciplinary thinking & transrational insight Hierarchical cosmos & stages of consciousness Developing human potential Personal transformation & spiritual awakening Service to humanity -Gebser, “Ever Present Origin” Pre-1960 Subculture Distribution Traditionals Moderns Cultural Creatives CC- Integral Current Subculture Distribution Traditionals Moderns Cultural Creatives CC- Integral Emerging Integral Themes in Science     Synthesis vs Analysis Interdisciplinary Research Complexity Theory New Holistic Paradigms   Quantum Mechanics Ecology  Consciousness studies Emerging Integral Scientific Worldview  Quantum mechanical description of nature      Fundamentally holistic character Particles are abstractions from unbroken wholeness Fundamental process lie outside space-time Science described waves on ocean of reality Consciousness brings universe into being Consciousness collapses wave function  Objects manifest from transcendent possibility domain  Space-time, matter & energy are emergent phenomena  Limits of Science         Study of relations between measurements Gains rigor & precision within limited domain Reveals a “shadow world of symbols” (Eddington) Excludes quality, essence, meaning, purpose. “Not yet in touch with ultimate reality” (Jeans) Phenomena reduced to epiphenomena (Frankl) Leaves out all that is “near and dear” (Schroedinger) Hopelessly inadequate as a worldview. The Skeleton of Science What we are dragging to light as the basis of all phenomena is a scheme of symbols connected by mathematical equations… A skeleton scheme of symbols proclaims its own hollowness. It can benay it cries out to be- filled with something that shall transform it from skeleton to substance, from plan to execution, from symbols to an interpretation of the symbols. - Sir Arthur Eddington Transcending Science Physics most strongly insists that its methods do not penetrate behind the symbolism. Surely then that mental and spiritual nature of ourselves, known in our minds by an intimate contact transcending the methods of physics, supplies just that interpretation of the symbols which science is admittedly unable to give. - Sir Arthur Eddington Limits of Scientific Materialism  Materialism is reflection of scientific method      All knowledge based on physical measurements Reveals (exclusively) the physical aspect of phenomena Methodological Naturalism Scientism claims that this worldview IS reality. Ontological Naturalism: Philosophy, not science!  Founders endorsed sophisticated worldviews   Multi-level cosmos Importance of inner experience Subtle perceptions  Spiritual experience  The Mystical Experience The most beautiful emotion that we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger … is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms- this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center to true religiousness. - Albert Einstein Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge The integration of opposites, including a synthesis embracing both rational understanding and the mystical experience of unity, is the mythos of our current age. - Physicist & Noble Laureate Wolfgang Pauli Levels of Significance   Every observation can be interpreted at multiple levels of significance. Each level of significance: Internally consistent, factual, logical, objective.  Gives no evidence of higher levels.   Lower levels of significance: No factual error.  Feigns complete understanding.  True significance is missed.  Impoverished view of reality.  Levels/Qualities of Consciousness    Continuum of states of consciousness  Gross/ordinary -> Subtle/contemplative Multiple levels of significance Reality emerges as a cross section:   Human consciousness Transcendent possibility domain   Each level brings forth a world Multiple levels of reality  Gross (physical) -> Subtle (nonphysical) Subtle Levels of Mind It is important to note that these levels of subtle mind are not theoretical; instead they are delineated rather precisely on the basis of actual experience, and they merit respectful attention by anyone who claims to rely on empirical science… An understanding of these levels of subtle mind requires a sustained, disciplined, and well-informed meditation practice. In a sense, these phenomena are open only to those who are willing to carry out the experiments, as it were. That some form of special training is needed for firsthand experience of new realm of phenomena is not surprising… But in traditional science, such phenomena remain hidden from view, since most scientists still avoid any disciplined study of their own experience, whether through meditation or other introspective methods. -- Francisco Varela Attributes of Subtle Experience       Essentially the same in different cultures Direct, nonconceptual experience Beyond words, concepts and dualities Transverbal, transrational, and nondual Developed through meditation/contemplation Not shaped by language, concepts, cultural forms  "The real transcends, surrounds, and overflows our miserable categories"  Fleshes out the skeleton of scientific theory  Provides an interpretation (at a higher level of significance) for the “empty symbols” of science. Levels of Being and Knowing     Spectrum of consciousness Codification of direct experiential reality Consensually validated Essentially universal Levels of Selfhood and Reality in the Perennia Sofia Generalized Empirical Method  3-stage knowledge validation method  Injunction   Do this Recipe for creating an experience Immediate apprehension Experience brought forth by injunction  Apprehension    Communal verification  Community of reviewers has completed previous stages -Ken Wilber, Eye to Eye Science, Religion and Beauty  Both science and religion/spirituality:   Search for the universal unitary principle Guided by perception of beauty The harmony of proportions (Pythagoras) “The eternal splendor of the One shining through the material phenomena” (Plotinus) - Werner Heisenberg, Science and the Beautiful  Two definitions of beauty   Integral Science     Aka “Sacred Science” Applies Generalized Empirical Method  Utilizes subtle states of consciousness Multiple levels of being and knowing Unitive   Search for the universal unitary principle- Ultimate Reality All knowledge is related to the whole Application: structure change in consciousness Seeks harmony with the One  Dedicated to inner transformation   Nested Holarchy of Integral Sciences Perceptions of Subtle Mind     An all pervading spiritual nature which permeates the universe. A numenous presence underlying, enfolding, and shining through the forms of the cosmos. A creative presence in which we “live and move and have our being”. Translucent splendor of the One shining through the material phenomena Integral Worldview  “A timeless and incorporeal One became the ground as well as the dynamic source of the existence of a temporal and material and extremely multiple and variegated universe” -Sri Aurobindo.  Humans are capable of ever present, evident, and conscious connection with the ground of Being. Integral Worldview “Not only did the eternal One produce all the forms of the cosmos, but in so doing it manifested properties of its own nature which add to its glory. The existence of the world of phenomena was the very consummation of the perfection of the One” - Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being "Human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.” - Huxley, Perennial Philosophy An awakened vision of the cosmos: “Matter reveals itself to the realizing thought and to the subtilised senses as the figure and body of Spirit, Spirit in its self-formative extension. Spirit reveals itself through the same consenting agents as the soul, the truth, the essence of Matter. Both admit and confess each as divine, real, and essentially one. Mind and life are disclosed in that illumination as at once figures and instruments of the Supreme Conscious Being by which It extends and houses Itself in material form and in that form unveils Itself to Its multiple centers of consciousness. Mind attains its self-fulfillment when it becomes a pure mirror of the Truth of Being which expresses itself in the symbols of the universe; Life, when it consciously lends its energies to the perfect self-figuration of the Divine in ever-new forms and activities of the universal existence”. -Sri Aurobindo, Life Divine The Spiritual Significance of Nature  Nature (and humanity) are viewed as   Focus for divine manifestation Mirror of divine attributes  Recollection of Origin Reveals order, harmony, beauty of Cosmos.   Medium for the revelation of uncreated beauty    Reflection of the splendor of the One Expression of the creativity activity of the Source Human is Regent of natural world.   Responsibility- wise stewardship Protection of Nature is a spiritual duty. The Spiritual Significance of Nature Nature reverberates with that spiritual presence that constitutes both the goal of human life and the very substance of what constitutes the human state. -Seyyed Hossein Nasr Conscious Evolution   Evolution is the progressive self-manifestation of spirit in the forms and entities of the material universe The divine existence strives toward self-realization through progressively refined forms of material substance      Progressive awakening of the involved spiritual essence Universal levels Balance between the creative self-expression of the spiritual reality and the constraints imposed by its manifestation in and envelopment by a nescient material substance Each new level represents a greater potential -a more complete accommodation- for the awakening and expression of the implicate spiritual consciousness Transcendent One is “the universal object of desire, that which draws all souls toward itself”: “the pull of the future”, the evolutionary attractor. Evolution and Human Potential   Spiritual awakening is conscious participation in the Divine unfolding Humanity partakes in the “Divine nature”. “the Universe is discovering and recreating itself as it evolves through the course of our human lives. Thus our conscious participation in creating the future could be seen as an extension of the self-organizing activity of the universe”. -Pir Vilayat Inayat Kahn “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” -St. Paul Spiritual Transformation  Ordinary state    Driven by need satisfaction  Power, pleasure, security, material goods, etc. Happiness & peace result from satisfying needs. Suffering arises from unsatisfied desires. Peace & contentment are ordinary state. Shares in suffering of mankind. Primary drives are spiritual awakening and service.  Awakened state    Universal Environmental Ethic  Expansion of sense of self in cognitive development     Matter/life gBody Mind g Thoughts, humanity Soul g All sentient beings Spirit g Cosmos  Metaphysical ground of ethics:    Recognize in another: oneself in own true being Unity with Origin All-pervading radiance of Spirit Deep Ecology Care flows naturally if the “self” is widened and deepened so that protection of free Nature is felt and conceived as protection of ourselves… Just as we need no morals to make us breathe… [so] if your “self” in the wide sense embraces another being, you need no moral exhortation to show care… You care for yourself without feeling any moral pressure to do it… If reality is like it is experienced by the ecological self, our behavior naturally and beautifully follows norms of strict environmental ethics. -Arne Naess Universal Compassion  Realization   All sentient beings are expression of one true Self, one universal Soul expression of a universal compassion which transcends and outshines all previous egocentric, sociocentric, or anthropocentric forms “This is the profound fruition of the decentering thrust of evolution- a compassion which breathes the common air and beats the common blood of a Heart and Body that is one in all beings… universal compassion through universal identity with the commonwealth of all beings: that I would see in an Other my own Self” -Ken Wilber Chinese Philosophy      Unified system: Tao Complementarity : Ying & Yang Mutual interdependence Dynamic cyclic patterns of transformation  Symphony of interweaving processes Juncture between heaven and earth Fusion of cosmic and terrestrial Human being is microcosm of nature    Health is balance and harmony Energetics  All energy emerges from one universal source  Brahman, Tao, void, Allah, Godhead  All things are manifestations of energy  Matter is an expression of energy Depends on polar relationships All things are in this sense living  Movement of energy is basis of all life.   Qi     Animating force of nature Creative or formative principle of life Immaterial with observable manifestations Multiple sciences of Qi  Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Feng Shui, Chinese medicine. Five Phase Theory Health and Disease  Health   Ability to maintain integrity and equilibrium while responding to challenges A harmonic pattern of relationships Manifestation of an unstable process A pattern of disharmonious relationships Rooted in a multiplicity of factors  Disease    Resolving Integrality “The way out of the dead end of the deficient rational structure of consciousness is the way of personal participation in, and cooperation with, the emergent mode of consciousness… Either we will be disintegrated and dispersed, or we must resolve and effect integrality” - Gebser, “The Ever Present Origin”