The Future Of Science And Materialism
Dear Reader,
My most recent two posts have dwelt on the place of science in our world. This is my third and last posting on this specific topic.
Many years ago I read the acclaimed book The Heart Of Philosophy (1982) by Jacob Needleman (bn. 1934), a Professor of Philosophy with a difference. I have always been interested in what he has to say about thought and the role of philosophy, for what I wanted was a living philosophy, and I found plenty of life in his work.
His inclusion of 'Heart' in the book's title is very appropriate. I have read more of his work and followed some of his videos on Youtube with great interest.
In 2012, the following question about the role of science was put to Needleman as part of a long interview. The question sought an answer on the developing claims of science in its entry into what was appearing to be a new dimension:
Some representatives of modern psychology, within its humanistic and transpersonal orientations, might argue that the “new” approaches within modern science like quantum theory are somehow directing us to the underlying Truth of the spiritual traditions. This position overlooks the fact that this so-called new paradigm, while it is more inclusive of the metaphysical nature of reality, it is also a byproduct of the same scientism of the Enlightenment which axiomatically divorced itself from the Sacred. What are your thoughts on this precarious situation?
(This question was prompted by what Needleman had written elsewhere, stating that:“[B]ecause the instrumental nature of religious forms was forgotten, the science of psychology suddenly appeared as something new").
After a little laughter, Needleman replied: "Every question like this requires a couple of days[!]" He continued:
Two things to start with. Chemistry, physics, genetics, biology, geology, those sciences are all in such flux, there is so much new data arising out of all the new observational technologies in all fields of science, that they’re just loaded with data, information that can’t yet be easily interpreted.
They’re trying to incorporate it in the old paradigm and often they’re having to bend over backwards to get to it — and it’s all more and more fragmented. Fascinating fragments of truth, of observations, of information, of data are coming out that no one dreamt of. But what’s really out there in the life of reality nobody has any real idea of anymore.
So there needs to be some understanding of what science is bringing, it needs a real new paradigm, it probably needs to be rooted in the ancient truths, but maybe it can no longer be rooted in the ancient language. Maybe the ancient truths need another language now, because it’s very difficult to look at the mythic and the symbolic language that has been used in the past and to try to force into it what’s being found in this vast and unbelievably interesting and wild world of new data, new information, new techniques.
It’s a world that could be considered to be going down very rapidly, or else it represents a new possibility. You could call it Kali-Yuga [the fourth great age of time in Indian tradition and which produces the least spiritual adherence], but you can almost hear—I might be a little romantic now—but you can almost hear the earth praying for something to come and bring all of this material together so that it can be useful, rather than fragmented and leading to all kinds of egoism, to war, to the degeneration of education, destruction of children, of childhood, of marriage, of sexuality, and all the rest of it.
So can you actually accept the cosmological systems of the discoveries of modern science, which are vast, and at the same time look at the cosmology of the traditions, of Islamic cosmology, of Kabbalah? There have been some very interesting attempts, but I do not think that they can fit into each other quite like that, and you are quite right, it’s unprecedented, the great ideas are everywhere now in addition to the toxic ideas; they occupy the same shelf in the paperback section in the bookstore. So the ideas are there now of course, but most modern people cannot read the traditionalists very well ...
In response to the issue of whether there is a teaching, a master who could help guide the way, Needleman said:
Now that would lead to the general question of, “How do you recognize a master, a teacher, a guru?” I hear that from students all the time. There are so many “gurus,” and some of them are really good, they’re interesting, and some are charlatans and some of them are self-deceived or frauds. How do you recognize the authentic spiritual teachers?—because there are fake Sufis, there are fake Christians, there are fake Gurdjieffians—there are fake everything! And they all say “I’m the one.”
You can’t recognize a teacher by their “robes”; they all have robes. You can’t recognize them even by their writings, some of them write very well. So you can’t be external only. What are the marks of the Buddha? Broad shoulders? That’s all symbolic. So the question becomes what in myself could recognize a teacher? And the real question is really two questions: “How seriously do I wish to know, how seriously do I feel the need for truth, spiritual truth?”,and “How do I examine this teacher impartially?”
A professor of mine once said to me, “We have to be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains fall out.” So we have to be critical as well as open-minded, open-minded without being gullible, critical without being cynical. That’s up to us.
He went on:
... the bottom line is the aim of a spiritual path is not ideas, ideas alone are not going to do it. They will help only up to a point in preparing the mind and the feelings. But surely the ultimate aim of spiritual work is what could be called “the creation of people,” people who are actually able to live what the spiritual teachings are speaking of. It’s real people, fully human beings that are needed.
I can have all the doctrinal teachings of, say, Sufism or Buddhism, in my mind and not be able to live it. But if, with help, we start living it, an influence can come through us and might even help some of us modern people who in a way are suffering from a psycho-spiritual affliction that neither we nor many psychotherapists know we really have.
It’s all about what [teachers] Gurdjieff, and possibly Guénon as well, called 'being', the being of a fully human man or woman. That’s what matters. If you meet a person of developed being, of real presence, you feel something in their presence, it makes you quiet; in their presence, even if only for a moment, you become yourself, closer to the Self you are meant to be. That’s what we need: real people.
... If I meet a truly conscious human being, I cannot help but sense their being, which includes a mysterious level of objective love and understanding calling out from within them to us, far beyond insistence on ideas and allegiance to form and doctrine.
Despite his spiritually-orientated philosophy, I doubt that Needleman is much cognisant of Eastern spiritual developments other than Sufism and Buddhism. There is a general tendency in the West to think of Eastern thought as something 'other worldly' and not of practical interest apart from those groups (Sufism and Buddhism) that have more visibly filtered into the West. Nevertheless, there have been some real happenings - mainly in India - over the past few hundred years, almost in parallel with the materialistic philosophy in science that has tended to predominate in the West these last 400 years.
There has been, therefore, the emergence of significant teachers in India, probably the most outstanding of which has been Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who left his mortal coil in 2011, but whose work is even now very ably being carried forward. Sri Sathya Sai Baba ('Sai' or 'Swami') was indeed what Needleman spoke of as a 'developed presence', one who enabled a person "to become yourself, closer to the Self you are meant to be".
The work of 'Sai' began in 1940. It was very timely - the Second World War was very much developing and soon after that ceased then the Cold War developed. That era (particularly the later 1950s, 1960s and 1970s) caused a reaction in the West amongst young people to the scourge of two world wars and to the Cold War. Alternative ways of living were sought, but it was a splintered development with no real leadership.
In the early 1980s there was suddenly a swing to greater materialism in western governments - in both the UK and the USA - under the leadership of Thatcher and Reagan. We were told theirs was a "special relationship".
By the early 1990s we had seen the fall of Rumania, East Germany (bringing the unification of Germany) and, most noticeably, the break up of the Soviet Union, with many of the former satellite countries wanting partnership with the fast materially developing West.
The West called it a triumph for democracy, but the truth really was that materialism and rampant pillaging of planet Earth was then seen by many in positions of power to be the pervading and truthful policy to follow on a grand scale. Anything to take people away from the hippy culture and the beginnings of a "people's revolution" in the 1960s and 70s that contained seeds of spirituality - as well as being an attack on Communism.
Despite published warnings in the 1960s and 1970s of there being limits to economic growth, the rich countries (pressured by big business) embarked on a materialistic crusade that enticed many developing countries into their fold. Any notion of spiritual wisdom was forgotten except amongst a minority.
The result has been the crises that have been particularly noteworthy since the beginning of the 21st c.
'Sai', in India, guided his devotees to be spiritually vigilant against the developing materialistic and egotistically-based tide that existed then and from which all the world has suffered. His caution has been greatly vindicated: that caution is slowly bringing about a return to wisdom.
What went on before the 1980s had been on equally grotesque lines, of course, but the 1960s and 1970s saw people stop to think for a while. But they were stopped in their tracks before anything meaningful gained ground - apart from the work of 'Sai', over which no one has been able to gain control.
There have been profound critics of 'Sai', but close examination of his works show much purity in thought and accomplishment. Dr. Keith Critchlow's involvement in the very beautiful Super Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthy, India, is both a story and accomplishment worth reading about. No poor patient is turned away. Much else could be told.
Western science now seems to be so obscure that young people do not want to train as science teachers anymore. They presumably do not find life in it to make it meaningful. They certainly do not find the universal love in it that can change the world for the better. Science and technology and the related thinking of governments have produced the situation we have today.
It is who we are - our essential loving nature - that is the most critical issue for us to find an escape route from the awful situations that have developed, exacerbated by vastly increasing media pressures and indoctrination over the past 30 years.
Though we are not yet too conscious of it as a people, materialistic science and its influence has had its day. Until quite recently, many considered that we lived in a world that was there to provide ease and comfort; that discomfort of any kind was to be avoided as “wrong.” This has also been a false view. We have long known that what we like is not necessarily good for us, but we have all too frequently chosen to do what we liked. Let us, for example, consider what we have done to the environment under the illusion that it was 'OK' to plunder. And it's still going on.
There are various practical examples of what wisdom teaching can bring. As a simple example, we in the West have become more dependent on our health services - which are often at a bursting point or are unaffordable - but sometimes we are reminded that prevention is better than cure. Quite a number of people have taken note of that advice, but often after the event of a health failure.
Though medicine and the need to heal will always be there, the advice of prevention is almost fundamental in the wisdom teaching; after discovering our identity it is the awakening of conscience. It is the awareness that life is a valuable thing and that for it to work properly it needs to be cared for. Being flippant for a moment, it took me a long time to discard Mars bars! But I did, eventually, in the 1980s, though a widening girth and a 'kick' from my wife made me do it.
That is a simple illustration. The wisdom teaching reveals far more as to why a certain attitude is needed to properly fulfil our lives, in peace and in a manner that is man's birthright and sustainable for the world. The world needs peace. As the late Walter Starcke (a wise American) once said:
We will find peace and harmony when, despite all appearances, treaties, and boundaries, the Spirit of Love permeates our hearts and until how we relate to each other becomes more important than the results of individual gain.
To achieve that necessary ideal, change is firstly and voluntarily required at the individual level. Our soul must be engaged in this task. We cannot change simply because someone else tells us to.
Thank you for reading this.
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