A Holistic Worldview

The “consciousness precedes matter” perspective has difficulty penetrating our minds, as it is contrary to ‘consensus’, or ‘generally shared’ reality. I am so glad we have been given the job of seeing that it happens! Our own body has developed over countless generations to correspond to the material world – at the same time molding that world to suit it. So our own body is rooted in a particular relationship with the physical world. The fact that its direction is based on survival rather than on understanding indicates that it is grossly erroneous, retaining the vulnerabilities (such as ignorance) of an immature creature. A creature desperate to survive – let those in more secure circumstances seek to understand.

If the developmental task of humans as a species is to go beyond common sense realism, this is indeed a big leap. 

Even if it appears unlikely that humans will make this change of worldview in the foreseeable future, there are still parts of the holistic worldview that are likely to be adopted soon, and even they are revolutionary. 

Such as recognition that the material organism is only a small part of our complete being. Consciousness goes far beyond the organism. You and I include all that has made us – physically, and more important, mentally. For example, our dreams may have a role in our destiny that humans have not yet discovered. Not many are familiar with their dream world. Is that because it is unimportant, or because we are ignorant? 

So at this time, humans are living in a common sense realism world that makes less and less sense every year as science and technology advance. And yet we do not even have candidates for a replacement. Only a few specialists appear to realise that a revised worldview is needed. There does not seem to be a widely-known worldview that will fit the current techno-science global community. A worldview adequate for the sci-tech, global community, requires a far more conscious use of the mind than humans have ever imagined, other than for rare ‘enlightened’ beings, or mystic contemplators.

Surely nothing that came before the Industrial Age is capable of providing the energy, the inspiration, to empower a worldview that corresponds to the radically changed circumstances in which humans are now living. Agricultural-based religions cannot satisfy the needs of the post-industrial soul. Regarding the Industrial Revolution, historian Peter N. Stearns (2013, p.6) says that “the only previous development comparable in terms of sheer magnitude was the Neolithic revolution” – the change from hunter-gatherer societies to settled agricultural societies and civilizations after the last Ice Age. And now we are engaged in a computer-artificial intelligence revolution that appears will be as great or greater than the Industrial Revolution.

Commonsense realism is inadequate for this world, but all human institutions are built upon it. That is – education, economics, medicine, law, government, religion, and the popular culture. We can do better.

Those who want to help build a global society that is based more on reality than on power relations must be ‘bilingual’ or ‘biworldview’, able to operate in the current common sense reality, as well as primarily functioning in the world of consciousness and its quite different messages. Material reality, being dependent on consciousness, is of less interest, although it is useful as well. It’s just incomplete, and not fundamental. 

☼  In coming posts, we’ll talk about creating ‘biworldviewism’.