Virtual Gorillas - an Introduction:
The reader is invited to slip on a virtual reality head set and become
part of a guerilla family to experience the world through the eyes of a
primate. Underlying this book is the philosophy that by and large humanity
is no longer primarily in the search for truth, but that our most pressing
need has been turned into a search for understanding and communication,
a search for the other. For this a compassionate eye is needed. The philosophy
of Transcendental Perspectivism, introduced in this book, provides a new
foundation for compassionate living.
Transcendental Perspectivism,
New Enlightenment
A. Why Perspectivism
1. THE VOODOO CONNECTION
An analysis of current trends shows
that TP is a new and compassionate way of theorizing about contemporary
life. This integrative philosophy emerges as a positive beginning out of
the postmodern confusion. It is practiced today in many areas by people
who have grown tired of confusion and suicidal decay, but who are at the
same time not willing to simply return to conservative dogmatism.
TP is present especially in the
academic enterprise. Numerous new beginnings can be observed. Perspectivist
philosophy is found in approaches to anthropology, in social research,
especially in feminist practice, and even in the sciences. It is also prevalent
in many areas of daily life. TP is defined as a rational and emotional,
even a passionate identification with other perspectives without the complete
or permanent loss of one's own perspective. It is Shamanism coming to philosophical
cognition.
2. The Sacred Wheel
Under the influence of TP a new spiritual
personality is emerging. This new person is involved in ecumenism, interfaith
dialogue and cross-cultural communication. He or she lives personally through
this dialogue, moving from spoke to spoke of the sacred wheel.
Multi-culturalism and multiple worldviews
can no longer be expressions of mere political correctness. A compassionate
multi-cultural and multi-religious stance is essential to the survival
of the human race on this globe. TP is a new philosophy that makes such
compassionate integration possible and inevitable. The author develops
the philosophical and scientific foundation to support such a claim. Using
the recent Parliament of World Religions in Chicago as a starting point
the new paradigm of TP is shown in action.
What is the role of religions in
the creation of the future? A renewed attitude toward spirituality and
personal involvement is needed to conquer the prevailing negativism. The
future cosmic personality will have an active experience of connectedness
with the universe and will be able to appreciate the best of all religions.
3. Perspectives From the Edge of Chaos
The mechanistic view of the universe
that ruled classical science was based on the primacy of order over chaos,
an idea that originated with the Greeks. The Newtonian worldview left its
marks on sociology and psychology. Eventually even human beings were considered
mechanical devices. Chaos Theory, a new scientific theory that was only
fully developed during the last part of the twentieth century, inspired
reinterpretations and new avenues in many sciences. Research into chaotic
systems convincingly showed that in nature chaos often appears as a transitional
phase between an old and a new order. Whenever natural systems encounter
an excess of order, that may lead to sterility and a lack of adaptation,
these system move themselves toward the edge of chaos.
The discovery of the Science of
Chaos adds a new dimension to Perspectivism. It suddenly makes sense to
trust in the value of chaos. Disorder may at times be considered a friend
rather than an enemy. Civilizations that have lived in harmony with chaos
have done much well in their interaction with nature. What is the historical
place of chaos? Why did Western civilization see chaos as a negative force?
There is scientific evidence today showing that natural evolution is the
harmonious interplay between order and chaos. Chaos is rediscovered as
a principle of creativity. Accepting a positive role for chaos may lead
to an environmentally more sound philosophy and a new cooperative way of
life.
B. THE HUMAN PERSPECTIVE
4. The Qest for Happiness: PERSPECTIVIST ETHICS,
A WAY OUT OF THE CONFUSION?
Academic thinking often lacks empathy
with living traditions. Conceptualizations turn living beings into mere
objectivity. This dilemma at the root of the knowing mind has been called
the dialectic of enlightenment, which some philosophers blame as the reason
of the current confusion in ethics. This chapter investigates how Perspectivism
can lead out of the moral confusion that has been caused by cultural relativism
and rampant ethical egoism.
From the field of counseling the
concept of bracketing is introduced. Bracketing as an ethical dimension
of Perspectivism means the temporarily putting aside of one's self interest
for the sake of communication with the other. Using bracketing is a central
quality of perspectivist ethics that leads to a happier life, because it
avoids using others as mere instruments for one's own happiness.
This chapter is proposes a minimal
course for ethics and shows how perspectivist ethics can assist us in learning
new respect for each other and for the natural world around us? Perspectivist
ethics relies on practice more than on theoretical schemes.
5. THE CHALICE and the Blade
A PARTNERSHIP WAY
In The Chalice and the Blade
Riane Eisler developed a vision of a world that is organized in a partnership
way. Under the dominator system men and women were socialized from childhood
on to accept domination as the natural law. This chapter develops some
of the principles on which a partnership society can be based. Some of
these are recoveries from earlier societies; others have to be created
to work in a modern technological context.
In early societies such as the Minoans
the life-giving power of women played an important part. The social structures
of these societies were characterized by linking rather than by ranking.
In their religious worship they celebrated the Mother Goddess as the source
of life. While it may be naive to fall back into the irrationalities of
a "barbaric" age, some of the qualities of those times can be recovered
in order to lead humanity to a more egalitarian future.
The fall/redemption
ideology is analyzed in the light of new discoveries about ancient egalitarian
societies. Are human beings by nature bad? Is domination a necessity? Some
rules for Partnership living.
6. The Year the Horses Came
The Roots of Domination
How and why in western culture did the
separation of the mind from the body originate? This is the key to the
understanding of our relationship with the physical world and our own sexuality.
This chapter begins by describing the roots of domination from its origins
in the Aryan reverence for male gods in the sky. This new hierarchical
religion replaced a thousand-year-old tradition of the celebration of life
in the form of female goddesses connected with the earth. A life-centered
culture with a great reverence for the physical world and for sexuality
was displaced by a dominator culture that focused on death and a distant
paradise in heaven. This ideological model eventually lead to the degradation
of the physical world and to the exclusion of our deepest connection with
it, human sexuality, from the sacred rituals.
Secular and popular culture now
fills the slack that modern monotheistic religions fail to address.
7. "Chasing Amy"
OUR SEXUAL SELF
Sexuality and sexual expression
is most deeply connected to our ability to empathize with the Other. The
lack of compassion experienced by so many children in our society is the
cause for the breakdown of our moral and social fabric. The movie "Chasing
Amy" mourns the lack of compassion in our relationships. What if men and
women really are very different in their expectations, especially in matters
of sex? Socio-biologists and socio-psychologists have accumulated a large
body of evidence to support this idea. Unfortunately a dominator society
tends to reinforce the natural tendency to toughness and callousness in
males. Much depends on family and community structures that foster compassion,
in girls, but more importantly in boys. Schools, too, must take on the
task of teaching emotional intelligence. Herein lies the solution to teen
pregnancies, teen suicides, children shooting children and all the other
ills that plague our own lives and more those of our children.
8. Men are from Mars, Women are from . . .
What, if any, are the natural difference
between male and female? What is the role of the environment? How can we
improve our communication skills and be a better partner? Some thoughts
on the communication between the sexes. Nature versus nurture, who is right?
9. Healing the Body and the Mind
Some of the most advanced professionals
in medical research have investigated the connection and interaction between
mind and body in the process of healing. For many the difference between
mind and body has all but disappeared. As western medicine came in touch
with medical practices in eastern cultures it became more and more evident
that the mind played a large part in harmonizing and healing the body.
Newest research supports the idea
that consciousness is not only located in the human brain, but is present
in all cells of the human body, and in all living things. This new emphasis
on the interplay of mind and matter in the healing profession puts a new
importance on research in ancient healing practices and magical powers
that treat mind and body as a whole.
10. Mission or Mssion Impossible:
Rediscovering Community?
From ancient times on human beings followed
an instinct to gather in groups and form organizations. Aristotle saw the
trend to live in communities as one of the essential characteristics of
man. Is there a deeper meaning in this human tendency than simply a sense
of security and efficiency? Is community perhaps no longer needed in a
world in which functions of security and efficiency are taken over by machines
and computers? Some futurists predict the opposite.
Scientifically the question remains
why evolution at times seems to level off at a certain plateaus, but then
seems to spur on in irregular strides to reach a new plateau. Is civilizational
development headed toward a new plateau? Is there some recognizable goal
at the end of the development? Is there a discernible structure according
to which civilization is progressing or is there just continuous but ultimately
meaningless transformation? Could the forming of communities be one of
the most basic impulses in nature?
C. From the Perspective of Animals
11. Animals, Our Teachers and Healers, our Brothers and Sisters
While from early on Western man was
convinced of his superiority over the animal world, at the end of the twentieth
century a new sensitivity toward animals as brothers and sisters is slowly
but surely taking hold. A new sensitivity toward animals as brothers and
sisters is slowly but surely taking hold. This is, for example, expressed
by our attitudes toward the reintroduction of the Wolf in the great National
Parks of the American West. Research into the behavior and the mind of
animals has taken on new, perspectivist dimensions. New scientific tools
made it possible to communicate with animals in a previously unheard of
way. Researchers have learned how to use specific tools of animal communication
to relate to animals, rather than imposing on them our human tools. By
observing and describing animal behavior from their perspective, ethology,
the study of animal behavior, assumes an increasingly more perspectivist
view.
A new look of our ancient history
suggests that at the dawn of humanity early humans indeed learned a lot
from their animal brothers and sisters. When scientific biology observes
animal behavior and especially animal social structures, it may be against
the traditional scientific paradigm to describe such behavior in human
terms. But what if early people had imitated animal behavior in a much
more extensive manner than has been assumed until now? In this chapter
we are asked to consider the question, how much if anything have humans
learned and how much can they still learn from animals.
D. INANIMATE NATURE
12. Where does Mind Originate
PLOTTING OUT A NEW SCIENCE OF AWARENESS
With all its superb achievements mechanistic
science was unable to solve the riddles of the mind. This chapter continues
the search for mind as a product of the material world. Mechanistic science
thought of the world as a giant machine in which everything would eventually
be predictable. Quantum physics in contrast suggests the essential unpredictability
of the universe. It does not seem necessary any longer to conceive of mind
as essentially different from nature. The most puzzling aspects of mind
and mental qualities, non-algorithmic and self-organizing as they are,
do not need to be seen as elements of a different, transcendent world,
but can be understood as inherent characteristics of the natural world.
13. Quantum Animism
Quantum particles behave
in a strange way. The quintessential wholeness of the quantum world seems
to correspond with the commonplace experience of the unity of our mind.
Based on these speculations the scientist Nick Herbert developed the concept
of quantum animism. Quantum animism is the notion that behind every physical
process lies an invisible mental experience. Whitehead called the assumption
of materialists and dualists that the physical world is actual and devoid
of experiences a "vacuous actuality." Quantum physics has shown the falsity
of this assumption. Panexperientialism, panpsychism or quantum animism,
whatever the name, the idea that there is some inner awareness present
at all levels is gaining momentum and finds scientific support.
D. INFINITY: THE SUPERPERSPECTIVE
OF THE ABSOLUTE
14. Nouminal and Mystical Experiences
Since ancient times human
beings have fancied to assume the perspective of the Absolute. Such experiences
have generally been called mystical. The German poet Goethe saw the world
beautified through a reflection of divine beauty within the world of objects.
In aesthetic re-creation, in art, this world itself becomes divine.
Humanness is part
of nature and therefore does not necessarily need divine intervention to
harmonize with nature. Practical mysticism is capable of reaching and meeting
the divine in poetic union with nature. To facilitate such numinous
experiences architects in the Middle Ages built gigantic cathedrals that
defied gravity and poked high into the sky. Often asceticism or drugs facilitate
such experiences. Many people, even today, report mystical experiences.
15. Holotropic States of Consciousness -
Two Case Histories
This chapter reports two case studies
of actual mystical encounters, the first one experienced by the author,
the second one reported to the author by a Danish industrialist.
This is supported by recent psychological
research into the frontiers of human consciousness. In the work of psychologists
such as Stanislav Grof it becomes clear that progressive study into non-ordinary
states of consciousness reveal a rich spiritual world beyond the phenomenological
world of mere things. Becoming familiar with this world sheds a new light
on a number of psychological phenomena that until now had baffled scientists.
Getting in touch with perinatal experiences that are often at the center
of holotropic mystical encounters is an essential part of the Third Enlightenment,
which puts us in touch with our physical existence as spiritual.
16. Transcendental Mediation and Nowtime
The Experience of Emptiness
Mystical journeys into
one's Self can be a shattering and devastating experience. The Living Theatre
intended to use the experience of a blow in the stomach as a cathartic
element. In meditation one can experience the original oneness of mind
and body. The non-duality that the Buddhists encounter on their journey
into the Self consists of an experience of "emptiness," or purity of consciousness.
It can be felt as liberation. From this arises the perception that this
emptiness is the underlying nature of things that things are without permanent
substance. When people encounter nothingness, they often associate it with
something completely unpleasant, a lack of feeling, of initiative, or meaning.
The Void encountered by the mystic is primordial emptiness of cosmic proportions
and relevance. It has to be experienced to be understood.
E. BREAKING NEW GROUND
PRINCIPLES AND TRENDS OF TRANSCENDENTAL PERSPECTIVISM
17. Pleasure and Pain
Are we a Generation OF VAMPIRES?
The natural world is both, compassionate
and selfish, competitive and cooperative. Vampires are immortal beings
who have lost the ability to feel. Social Darwinism established Vampire
existence as the norm. Capitalism became the system of choice for institutionalized
selfishness.
Western education generally teaches
that animals are brute, dumb and compassionless creatures. Do human beings
need to be vampires?
In nature there is a delicate balance
of selfish and unselfish, competitive and cooperative behavior. On the
long run cooperative behavior must (and will) outweigh selfish behavior.
Individuals seem to have an urge within them that inspires to become part
of a larger whole. In the experimental laboratory of nature, when the individual
does not find what he/she expected from the community, he drops out again
and tries a different combination. In this delicate interplay the gauge
of individual satisfaction is pleasure and pain. If this gauge is disturbed
or non-existent, then all community creation is in danger.
18. Travel in Safety
The Perspective of Evil
It has been a tradition in mysticism
and in literature for quite some time now to venture into the mind of evil.
More recently scientists have been trying to understand what makes a mind
evil. Inspired by consciousness expanding exercises and increased experimentation
with mind alternating substances, evidence for human encounters with absolute
isolation and with what the psychologist Stanislav Grof calls the evil
Demiourg principle, accumulate. This chapter explores the perspectivist
possibilities and limits of such experiences.
When undertaking a trip into the
Void guides are needed. The encounter with the shadow side of existence
can take a culture-bound form of specific deities, exemplified by Satan,
Lucifer, Ahriman, Hades, Lilith, Moloch, Kali or Coatlicue. The evil God,
reversal of the good God, is sometimes encountered in such trips. The experience
of total separation can result in desperation and suicide. Healing, especially
deep psychological healing, works best in community.
19. SACRED PLEASURE
RE-EVALUATING CULTURAL PRIORITIES
Pain and pleasure are present at all
levels of life and play a supreme role in the evolution of life. The dominator
system has sacralized pain. Modern society has become a pain-focused society.
Much energy is spent to alleviate pain, mostly unsuccessfully, because
our chemical remedies very seldom cure the source of the pain. Western
culture nearly completely eliminated pleasure as an important tool of learning.
Pleasure and pain have become the cynical tools of an "enlightened" elite
to control, manipulate and exploit the masses, while education itself,
which could bring this enlightenment to the people, teaches them that pleasure
and pain are to be overcome if one wants to succeed in a rational world.
As a result of social and institutional
oppression, which is ever present in post-industrial society, there is
an overabundance of pain, physical pain, neuroses of all kinds, mental,
psychic pain. Modern society has become a pain-focused society
20. Life Control and SELF-EMPOWERMENT.
Can Perspectivist Techniques REVERSE THE Course of SELF-DESTRUCTION?
Techniques for subliminal manipulation
are a vital and necessary link to promote good education and true empowerment.
The early empowerment movement was strongly influenced by cognitive psychology.
Modern empowerment uses subliminal techniques, visualization and suggestion.
Learning is tagged to a pleasurable marker. The advertising industry uses
this already very efficiently to sell product. Because of efficiency and
sophistication the political process, in the past informed by academic
discourse, has gotten completely under the spell of advertising. This produces
wide spread cynicism. Education must learn from the empowerment movement.
21. The E3 Revolution: Entertainment, Education, Empowerment
Perspectivist epistemology suggests
that the whole body is involved in the process of learning. In Western
civilization work is presented as serious, hard, and uncompromising, while
fun is the reward one gets for work well done. Neurolinguistic programming
informs that learning happens more effectively when tagged onto an emotion.
"Motion is emotion." is one of Tony Robbins' golden rules. Traditional
learning is focused on training the mind only. Anthony Robbins' empowerment
strategy reconnects body and mind.
22. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The Third ENLIGHTENMENT
Emotional survival must become a constitutive
part of all sectors of our lives. In schools with a self-science curriculum
classes in cooperation and conflict resolution are taught. The human "machine''
is a smart machine, one that continuously learns, not only in one life
time, but over hundreds of thousands of years. Our body is a complex system
of conscious cells making continuous decisions that affect our well-being.
Fundamental ethical stances in life stem from underlying emotional capacities.
The root of altruism lies in empathy. This is the ability to read emotions
in others. The Third Enlightenment will include full scientific knowledge
of us as emotional beings
23. Multiple Intelligences - The Perspectivist Brain
In Western societies a uniform view
of the mind merged with the uniform results of IQ testing. IQ testing,
according to Howard Gardner, reinforced the uniformity principle in public
education. Gardner found that by nature different children come equipped
with different kinds of intelligences. Gardner distinguished between seven
different intelligences, which have equal claims. A future school, according
to Gardner, must be an individual-centered school. It must be geared to
optimal understanding and development of each student’s cognitive profile.
24. In Memoriam Easter Islands - Whither Humanity
Easter Island today is one of the world's
most barren, isolated and inaccessible islands. It was once a paradise.
The story of Easter Island serves as a grim reminder of the state of the
earth. It reveals a slow but steady decline that was accompanied by a constant
use of the island's resources without a thought of replenishing them. With
no plan for escape the civilization on Easter had condemned itself to slow
extinction. The doomsday clock is ticking and every new nuclear explosion,
every missed treaty to prevent global warming, any selfish use of the scarce
rain forests brings us one second closer to experience Easter Island's
fate.
25. Talking to Heaven -
The Communicating Universe
Modern science tells a story of an unresponsive,
accidental universe. Most world religions encourage dialogue with God,
dead ancestors, saints or avatar. Modern children of science lack such
communication. But even at the forefront of science new emphasis has been
placed on securing a scientific base for the possibilities of communication
with the universe. Astrophysicist Gribbins promotes the idea of a living
universe. A cosmic community one day may connect our ancestors, the World
Wide Web and a community of searchers and meditators.
This final chapter sums up the essential features of Transcendental
Perspectivism. To speak of a cosmic consciousness makes only sense if in
some way the whole universe is able to communicate and respond. What scientific
evidence is their today that suggests that the universe is actually alive?
An analysis of John Gribbin's book In the Beginning brings the reader
to the edge of what we actually know about the character of the living
universe.