If we can wake up now, if we can move out of our slumber and attachment to a worldview that is both boring us and destroying the planet, there is much beauty that awaits. – Matthew Fox
Belief in the inherently sacred nature of existence is one of humankind’s ancient and enduring notions. Western culture’s wholesale embrace of a secular-scientific worldview undermined such venerable beliefs and resulted in a profoundly consequential disconnection from our primal spiritual roots. Though rendered invisible by the materialistic status quo, rediscovery of a sacralised view of life offers a uniquely potent antidote to pervasive loss of human meaning, purpose, and identity.
Sacred Wisdom
Human beings collectively once acknowledged the existence of a domain more significant than the everyday physical world. “Until the rise of modern science”, notes Huston Smith, “all peoples of the world believed not only in this world, but also in another world, which, although invisible, is more real and more important than this one.” Religious and wisdom traditions acknowledge both the material world and another realm which encompasses, complements, and transcends manifest existence, giving both it and human life their true meaning and value.
Venerable wisdom traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam agree unequivocally that the cosmos is in essence divine, transcendent, and purposeful, and that true fulfilment comes from realizing and honouring the “inner” or “higher” self, soul, or spirit which is the core and foundation of human identity and existence.
Such notions were an integral part of the Western worldview long before the advent of Christianity.
Revered Greek philosopher Socrates regarded the soul as our true self and reflection of the inner divine: “the soul of man, which more than all else that is human partakes of the divine, reigns manifestly within us.”
Christianity maintains that God created human beings in His own image and likeness and endowed them with an immortal soul. Numerous Biblical texts urge human beings to regard care of their soul as more important than the pursuit of material wealth: “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.” (Mark 8:36).
Odyssey of the Soul
All religious and spiritual traditions teach that faithful devotion to a Path, Way, or Quest is essential if we are to achieve our life’s true aim and purpose, variously conceptualised as salvation, enlightenment, liberation, self-realisation, or some similar transcendental goal.
People who see themselves as pilgrims or wayfarers engaged in a spiritually instructive “odyssey of the soul” feel their true goal surpasses worldly preoccupations and material concerns. Not content with merely existing, they recognise the innate urge that impels human beings to reach for more.
Though they had provided a reassuring explanatory framework and clear moral guidelines to countless generations, influence of these venerable notions waned dramatically with the Scientific Revolution and its rigorously secular-materialist worldview.
Flat Earth
The authority of traditional Christian teaching was profoundly shaken by the eighteenth century Enlightenment which emphasised the primacy of the rational intellect, reason, and the scientific method over religious faith or divine revelation. With science proclaimed the only legitimate source of knowledge, metaphysical and spiritual considerations were no longer seen as necessary to human progress.
Traditional wisdom conceives reality as a complex three-dimensional structure with a vertical dimension clearly delineated.
As well as accommodating higher and lower levels of existence (sacred and profane), the vertical dimension also encompasses higher and lower values (good and bad), higher and lower realms (heaven and earth), higher and lower beings (gods and humans), and higher and lower levels or states of consciousness (expansive and contracted).
In its quest to construct a totally objective account of reality, Western science from its inception confined itself to studying phenomena available to scrutiny via the physical senses (things that can be counted, measured, and weighed) and amenable to mathematically precise quantitative measurement (less and more).
These changes led to radical contraction of the traditional Western worldview, a revision with epic cultural consequences for it entailed the “disappearance – or violent expulsion – from scientific thought of all considerations based on value, perfection, harmony, meaning, and aim, because these concepts, from now on merely subjective, cannot have a place.”
Since it was incapable of incorporating qualitative notions such as higher and lower, better and worse, good and bad, Western science chose to ignore them, focusing instead on the horizontal dimension of existence, an impersonal realm of value-free facts and figures. In time all notion of value was excluded from consideration.
So powerful and ubiquitous is the scientific-materialist paradigm the vast majority of Westerners absorb its premises as if by osmosis, heedless of the subliminal boundaries it imposes on their outlook and limits it places on their beliefs about themselves and the nature of reality.
Metaphysical Homelessness
As secularization gathered pace – a process more extensive in the West than elsewhere – human beings gradually lost their sense of a divine presence and purpose in their lives until all that remained was a scientifically-sanctioned account of reality “crudely denuded of spirit.”
Traditional holistic conceptions of human nature as reflecting integral union of body, mind and soul were gradually eroded. “A modern neurobiologist sees no need for the religious concept of a soul to explain the behaviour of humans”, declared Nobel prize winning biophysicist Francis Crick. Collective internalisation of such unprecedented notions gradually gave rise to what some have termed the secularisation of consciousness.
Whereas organised religions once espoused spiritual and metaphysical beliefs shared by entire communities, religious belief became an increasingly private concern. Notions once considered self-evident – such as existence of an immortal soul – came to be seen as entirely subjective beliefs reflecting personal choice and “religious preference”.
While many regard advent of a “post-religious” era as a sign of Western culture’s progress and maturity, its human consequences have been mixed. We inherited a soulless cosmos without any ultimate meaning and with it a discomforting sense (often unconscious) of metaphysical disorientation and alienation – a condition likened to being “unwedded to the universe.”
No Direction Home
Who are we as human beings? What is the truth in which and for which we exist? What is to guide our living? Traditional wisdom maintains we cannot even begin to answer these vital questions without correct understanding of the “higher” and “lower” dimensions of human nature and of existence as a whole.
In sharp contrast to the West’s scientific materialism, Eastern wisdom accepts the existence of a higher reality which transcends ordinary human experience, is impossible to name, describe, or perceive with the physical senses, and is not amenable to intellectual or scientific analysis.
Modern scientific and philosophical maps lacking a vertical dimension are of very little use as navigational aids: “the maps ceased to be of any help to people in the awesome task of picking their way through life.”
The notion of a journey implies some destination toward which we aim and purposefully move. Traditional wisdom maintains our true goal as human beings lies on a plane above and beyond this mortal realm. But if no such goal exists – if there is really nothing “higher” to aim for – the idea of human life as a journey of spiritual discovery and unfoldment is rendered meaningless.
Losing the Soul
Unlike their predecessors, modern Westerners must navigate an uncharted realm, a desacralised world in which, renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell stresses, “One does not know towards what one moves. One does not know by what one is propelled.”
When human life loses any higher meaning, we are left to choose our own goals and values. In this milieu hedonism has become a surrogate “religion” for many, its blunt credo: “Enjoy yourself while you can, YOLO.” (You only live once.)
Qualified guides capable of providing teaching, instruction, and wise counsel are held in high esteem in traditional cultures where they act as custodians of sacred knowledge and esoteric lore and revered supervisors of ritually-sanctioned rites of passage and initiation. Absence from modern life of learned mentors and meaningful initiatory rituals has left us incapable of understanding or navigating the various stages of our often perilous human journey.
Traditional wisdom recognises and values dimensions beyond ordinary awareness, understanding, or control which we must acknowledge to attain true and lasting mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Ignoring these has robbed humankind of its foundation and dignity. Jung likened the malaise currently afflicting Western civilisation to the malign condition shamanic and indigenous cultures attribute to “loss of soul”.
Double Bind
Attempts to account for our human identity and reason for living are riven with ambiguity. The dominant view tells us human life is the chance result of blind evolutionary processes. In sharp contrast, Judaeo-Christian and other religious traditions teach that humans were created in the image of God, possess an immortal soul, and have been gifted with a unique and noble role in creation.
Even if sentimentally appealing, such claims are so at odds with the hedonism and secularism of modern life many no longer find them remotely credible. And so we remain deeply divided, as philosopher Blaise Pascal long ago recognised:
“Is it not clearer than day that we feel within ourselves the indelible marks of excellence, and is it not equally true we constantly experience the effects of our deplorable condition?”
Attempts to avoid or alleviate this fundamental contradiction help sustain many of the pathologies and metapathologies endemic to the West. What now passes for “normality”, claimed Maslow, is “a state of mild and chronic psychopathology and fearfulness, of stunting and crippling and immaturity which we don’t notice because most others have this same disease that we have.” This kind of shallow, anxiety-ridden existence often serves as a defence against the ultimate questions of life.
A Vast Unknown
Our modern Western worldview is based almost exclusively on what can be perceived by the physical senses and comprehended by the rational intellect. In stark contrast to this constricted view, human life is a cornucopia of novelty and wonder, the enigma of consciousness enabling the endlessly flowing abundance of an inner world of subjective experience.
A far broader, deeper, more inclusive paradigm is needed to encompass the whole of existence, including the complex, subtle, multi-faceted realm of living human experience.
Huston Smith offers an encouraging reminder: many modern dilemmas are a direct result of our peculiar cultural conditioning: “We have been drawn into this alienating outlook, not because it is true, but by historical choice or accident” and, in particular, “by the way Western civilization has responded to its invention of science.”
Maslow was hopeful the unsatisfactoriness of our diminished state could provoke a belated “call to fundamentals” and necessary realisation: “There’s no place else to turn but inward, to the self, as the locus of values.” Such a turning within might allow us to at last find a deeper, truer, more secure foundation for our identity and existence.
Metanoia
Given the parlous state of human affairs, many share the opinion “faith in modern man’s omnipotence is wearing thin”. As Ernst Schumacher explains, “Even if all the ‘new’ problems were solved by technological fixes, the state of futility, disorder, and corruption would remain. It existed before the present crises became acute, and it will not go away by itself.”
Western culture’s predicament is directly related to its allegiance to a worldview constrained by its lack of a vertical dimension. The secular-materialist paradigm has “with implacable logic, separated man from those Higher Levels that alone can maintain his humanity”.
Throughout history religion has been one of humankind’s principal means of affirming and connecting with dimensions and truths beyond the level of mundane existence. Schumacher believes religion – in one or other of its many guises – still has a vital function to serve in contemporary human life:
“It may conceivably be possible to live without churches; but it is not possible to live without religion, that is, without systematic work to keep in contact with, and develop toward, Higher Levels than those of ‘ordinary life’ with all its pleasure or pain, sensation, gratification, refinement or crudity.”
“The modern experiment to live without religion has failed, and once we have understood this, we know what our ‘postmodern’ tasks really are.”
There is little hope of finding an effective cure until we understand the true nature of the illness that afflicts us: “Only if we know that we have actually descended into infernal regions where nothing awaits us but ‘the cold death of society and the extinguishing of all civilised relations’, can we summon the courage and imagination needed for a ‘turning around’, a metanoia. This leads to seeing the world in a new light.”
Recognise the Deeper Voice
A Harvard University academic and leading philosopher of his day, William James was instrumental in psychology’s transition from its former status as a branch of philosophy to that of independent discipline (hence his reputation as its American “father”).
An intense spiritual crisis James experienced as a young man galvanised his innate curiosity about the role of religious belief and experience in human life. In 1902 he published The Varieties of Religious Experience, a ground-breaking exploration universally regarded a true classic. Subtitled A Study In Human Nature, it drew on the testimony of numerous individuals in an exhaustive examination of religious, spiritual, and metaphysical phenomena.
James was deeply moved by the variety of testimonies he studied. In these human documents, he said, “I recognise the deeper voice. Something tells me: – ‘thither lies truth’ – and I am sure it is not old theistic prejudices of infancy.”
Intensive study of religious experience convinced James human beings have an intuitive awareness of a realm beyond the range of ordinary physical perception:
“It is as if there were in human consciousness a sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of what we may call ‘something there’, more deep and more general than any of the special and particular ‘senses’ by which the current psychology supposes existent realities to be originally revealed.”
Interestingly, his meticulous study led him to conclusions in harmony with primal tradition and Eastern spirituality: “The further limits of our being plunge, it seems to me, into an altogether other dimension of existence from the sensible and merely ‘understandable’ world.” Whether this other dimension be called mystical or supernatural, “we belong to it in a more intimate sense than that in which we belong to the visible world.”
A truly living religion, James concluded, was not confined to dogma and ritual but was instead a heartfelt expression of a person’s attitude “whatever it might be, towards what he felt to be the primal truth”. In the sincere practice of such a living religion, “we can experience union with something larger than ourselves and in that union find our greatest peace.”
Eye of the Soul
Through history there have been many who, despite being thoroughly schooled in the Western scientific-materialist tradition, eventually espoused views markedly at odds with the cultural status quo, thereby highlighting the extent to which our understanding and experience of “reality” is largely determined by the perceptual faculties we rely upon.
Traditional wisdom maintains human beings have at their disposal three “eyes” for acquiring knowledge: an eye of flesh provides empirical knowledge of the physical world of matter, space, and time; the eye of reason utilises powers of the rational mind and intellect to elucidate concepts, ideas, images, philosophical and psychological insights; the eye of contemplation, surpasses the limits of physical and mental faculties to apprehend transcendental realities and spiritual truths.
All religious and wisdom traditions acknowledge a perceptual faculty, sometimes referred to colloquially as a “third eye”, that transcends the reach of body and mind.
“It is only ‘of the Spirit’ that the higher knowledge is born. It is the eye of Spirit, not the eye of sense, that beholds the eternal things; but what it sees is not a mere insecure, half-woven fabric of ‘convictions’, but the adamantine certainty of the eternal truth itself.”
Long before the rise of scientific materialism Christian faithful were routinely urged to devote themselves to cultivating inner faculties of spiritual insight and discernment. To Saint Augustine there was no higher human calling: “Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.”
A truly comprehensive paradigm would acknowledge, value, and accommodate phenomena lying beyond the range of ordinary physical sense perception and rational/intellectual comprehension. While utilising eyes of flesh and reason it would welcome and incorporate essential facets of reality visible only to the eye of contemplation.
Invisible Text
Steeped in the outlook and assumptions of the conventional scientific-materialist world view, acclaimed journalist and author Arthur Koestler would surely seem a highly unlikely candidate for the transformative epiphany he experienced in his early thirties. Nevertheless, within the space of a few minutes his entire outlook was dramatically transformed into one strikingly in accord with the “primal” worldview characteristic of pre-modern and traditional cultures.
Imprisoned in Seville while a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War, during an extended period of solitary confinement and under threat of summary execution Koestler’s world was suddenly illumined as a blissful revelatory wave swept over him: “But this evaporated at once, leaving in its wake only a wordless essence, a fragrance of eternity, a quiver of the arrow in the blue.”
“I must have stood there for some minutes, entranced, with a wordless awareness ‘this is perfect – perfect’; until I noticed some slight mental discomfort nagging at the back of my mind – some trivial circumstance that marred the perfection of the moment. Then I remembered the nature of the irrelevant annoyance: I was in prison and might be shot. But this was immediately answered by a feeling whose verbal translation would be: ‘So what? Is that all? Have you got nothing more serious to worry about?”
“Then I was floating on my back in a river of peace, under bridges of silence. It came from nowhere and flowed nowhere. There was no river and no ‘I’. The ‘I’ had ceased to exist.”
For a few timeless moments Koestler’s conscious self seemed to merge with the kind of “wider self” William James alluded to.
Far from a dissociative flight from reality into a dreamy escapist reverie, Koestler insisted this spontaneous experience was charged with an utterly convincing sense of authenticity: “Its primary mark is the sensation that this state is more real than any other one has experienced before – that for the first time the veil has fallen and one is in touch with ‘real reality’, the hidden order of things, the X-ray texture of the world, normally obscured by layers of irrelevancy.”
Koestler was certain his mind had opened to a profound realisation: the episode “filled me with a direct certainty that a higher order of reality existed, and that it alone invested existence with meaning.” So affecting was this unbidden revelation he devoted the rest of his life to studying its implications for a comprehensive understanding of reality.
Recommended Reading
- E.F. Schumacher A Guide for the Perplexed
- Huston Smith Beyond the Postmodern Mind: The Place of Meaning in a Global Civilisation
- Mircea Eliade The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion
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