This month, I would like to continue the philosophical explorations of some of our recent presenters. Whereas we have rightly celebrated -as Matt Aldredge argued last May-- the Enlightenment's rise of individualism over the dogmas of authority, as well as the separation of religion and government, numerous others (particularly Robert Kuisis, Ken Foldes, Wafa Hallam, James Haigney, Scott Von, Mark Wilson, and Evelyn and Paul Moschetta) have intimated, if not detailed, a deep sense of loss in the modern era. The rise of the secular, they collectively suggest, has stripped life of its spiritual possibilities.
Secular materialists seem to describe a reality that is devoid of meaning and have - in a few short centuries - left us a civilization that is alienated from the rest of nature and in a state of environmental and existential crises. These consequences have led many to vilify or outright dismiss science and its philosophical materialist underpinnings. Curiously, however, Science is often held up by many of its detractors as a kind of gold standard to legitimize all sorts of theories that try to go beyond the limits of materialism in describing more spiritually meaningful realities. There are, for example, those who will borrow principles from quantum mechanics to describe phenomena such as love, human connectivity, and consciousness. The inconsistency may be inadvertent, yet it perpetuates the unnecessarily contentious and confusing relationship between the two modes of thinking, idealism and materialism.
My aim is perhaps too ambitious for my talents. I will attempt to deconstruct scientific materialism in order to pay it its due, to circumscribe its limits, and to suggest where its findings may dovetail with idealist and spiritual worldviews. A starting point will be in analyzing the "I" in "I am." Here, Science, Buddhism, and various other Eastern schools have come to similar (although not necessarily the same) conclusions about consciousness. I propose that ultimately we consider a nondualistic approach, which asks us to reevaluate the false division between the material and the spiritual. Rather than the "either or" inherent to specific schools and ideologies, reality is perhaps more readily understood within an inclusive process of "and, and, and," where, by acknowledging the limits of each individual's human consciousness, we allow for a wondrous and awes-inspiring reality that is likely cognitively unimaginable, yet still within the possibilities of awareness.
Producer: Carleton Schade
Carleton's interests include cosmology, consciousness, earth systems, futurism, meditation and literature. He is currently involved in two futuristic projects - one a book entitled Dieback: the Science and Soul of the Coming Collapse, and the second, a website Radical Mind Shift. He's found passion in traveling, teaching, and writing; comfort and love as a householder and friend; and peace through meditation and yoga.