HUMAN
KNOWLEDGE AND DEEP INTELLIGENCE:
TRANSITION TO CONNECTEDNESS
Andrew Seaton
INTRODUCTION
We
live in an era of stark and increasing alienation of humankind from ourselves,
each other, and the natural world. Around the globe we are being confronted with
the human and technological consequences of grossly inadequate assumptions
about human knowing and functioning. The way we conceive, teach and apply
knowledge in many disciplines and fields of endeavour
overshadows intuition. It overshadows direct experience, spiritual
connectedness, and the perception and wisdom of the heart.
We
tend to assume that having defined things, we know what they are. We do not.
Most of us live in a world deadened by mental abstraction, and no longer sense
the aliveness of the universe. Modes of human functioning beyond
the cognitive and conceptual are largely ignored. The history of the adoption
of new policies and strategies, of new models of organization and development,
of educational reform agendas, and of new ‘knowledge’, shows that, by
themselves, these things are not helpful. They have not led to the achievement
of more creative and dynamic organisations. They have
not led to more productive and equitable economies, more sustainable
relationships with Nature, or more sane, humane and evolutionary societies.
However,
author’s doctoral
research confirmed that a different way
of ‘being’ is possible for humanity. My thesis synthesised
a ‘Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change’ from a wide variety of research,
theories, and experiences regarding human intelligence, consciousness and
experience. There is an old Indian story of three blind men who were led to an
elephant. They reached out to touch it and told what they thought it was. One
touched the elephant’s side, and said it was like a wall. A second touched the
tail, and said, no, it’s like a strong rope. The third man touched a leg, and
said, no, you are both wrong, it’s like a tree trunk. Each individual’s
perspective is to some extent unique. However, the thesis looked at many
theories of knowledge, learning and intelligence, and instead of looking for
what was unique in each view, the author looked for what was similar or
complementary.
The
study found
that the philosophical and, more importantly, the experiential foundations of
human knowing and functioning affirm an extended image and experience of
ourselves as deeply connected to the dynamic intelligence underlying the
natural world. They affirm our positive role in the co-creation of our reality,
and open the way to solving humanity’s pervasive economic, social and
psychological problems.
THE
LIMITATIONS OF ‘HUMAN KNOWLEDGE’
It
is only our discriminative intellect that defines and categorises
elements of reality as though they were discrete or separate. Our definitions
of many things are mutually exclusive, only because we have defined them that
way. Defining something is not the same as knowing what it is. Words, concepts
and definitions are not only constructed by each individual, but they are
merely constructions (see, for example, Glasersfeld
1995). Our ‘human knowledge’ is an interpretation of reality, an abstraction, a
fabrication, an illusion, maya.
It may be helpful in limited contexts to categorise
and define things, but it is a mistake to let the definition dominate our
perception and experience of the world.
We
tend not to see things freshly, as they are, here and now. We tend to
‘see’ through our memory, through our definitions, through our expectations,
through our judgements. Ordinary human perception is
selective. You and I can look at a scene, or experience an environment for an
hour, and come away having ‘perceived’ them very differently. Our perception is
selective in two senses (see, for example, Glasersfeld
1995, pp. 10-11, 115-116). First, we attend to some things and not others,
because they are more relevant to our interests or our fears. Secondly, what we
do selectively attend to, we then interpret. In ordinary perception we
do not perceive things as they are, but as we interpret them, and a large
element of this interpretation is that we perceive things as we expect to
perceive them, or want to perceive them. If you tell me that John Smith is
a horrible person, when I meet him for the first time I am much more likely to
‘perceive’ him critically, than if you had told me he was the most loving,
kind and intelligent person you had ever met.
Our
mental ‘furniture’ can powerfully affect and limit what we ‘see’. There is a
story of the natives of central America, who could not
perceive
So
there is a third, important sense in which human perception is selective, and
that is that our dominant thoughts and intents influence our behaviour and our
environment. We create what we expect. In some famous research by
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968), two teachers came to a new school where they did
not know the children. One was given a class of high achieving kids and the
other a class of low achieving kids. But they were told the opposite. The
teacher with the high achievers was told they were strugglers, and not to
expect too much in the way of academic achievement. The other teacher was told
the opposite. After one semester, one year and two years, the students were
tested. The low achievers showed great achievement, the high achievers did
relatively poor. This phenomenon is widely known as the self-fulfilling prophecy, and in education circles as the Pygmalion Effect.
Rosenthal also found that the maze performance of rats is influenced by what
their keepers are told about their maze performance ability (Rosenthal &
Lawson 1964). Increasingly, scientists are reporting findings that human
consciousness influences the world around us in profound ways. For example,
Pert (1997; 2004) explains that our state of consciousness powerfully
influences the cellular functioning within our body. So powerful is this
influence that a person with multiple personalities ‘can be near-sighted in one
state and far-sighted in another, or allergic to cats in one state, and not
allergic to them in another’ (Pert, 2004). Quantum physicist, Goswami (1995), explains that it no longer makes sense to
think of the world as being ‘out there’, independent of our experience. Our
consciousness is involved in choosing from among the quantum possibilities
within and around us to bring about our actual experience. And Japanese
scientist, Emoto (2004), has found that human thought
or intent affects the structure of water molecules (and, of course, most of the
natural world, including human beings, is mostly water).
Our
habitual, conditioned mental and emotional functioning alienates the individual
from him or herself, from others and from the natural world. It may sometimes
be helpful to think about and do things in standard or routine ways, but the
key is not to be bound by the routines. Everybody has sensings,
intuitions, dreams, ideals of the ways things are or
can be for themselves or for the world. However, in most people these get
swamped by the dominance of a head and a family, institutional and/or cultural
environment cluttered with concepts, definitions, expectations, judgements, emotions, and cultural assumptions that block
out what they know in their ”heart of hearts”, in the depths of their
soul. “Most people are other people”, said Oscar Wilde. Conditioning blocks us
off from sensitivity to our inner world, and to the freshness of experience of
the world through which we live. It also leads us to unwittingly create
realities of experience out of conditioned frames of mind (conscious or
unconscious) that do not reflect the intents and wisdom of our inner core. Fromm (1976) refers to this alienated mode of being as the having
mode, the most common mode of human functioning in modern society, one which
concentrates on material possession, acquisitiveness, consumption, image, power and aggression.
DEEP
INTELLIGENCE
Despite
the almost universal experience of separateness brought about by our
almost exclusive focus on rational processes in schooling, separateness is
not the ultimate reality. Despite the claims of the so-called “European
Enlightenment”, the faculty of reason is not the highest faculty in man. Buhner [2004] refers to this period as the “Endarkenment”. Human beings have within us, all of what it
takes to manifest now a very different kind of experience, a different ‘way’ of
being in the world, one consistent with the Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and
Change. Fromm (1976) refers to this mode of human
functioning as the being mode, an unalienated,
authentic mode, which is based on love, identity, autonomy and critical reason,
on the pleasure of sharing, on the satisfaction of contributing, and on
purposeful and productive, rather than wasteful activity. For civilisation to make a transition from the having to
the being mode, we must learn to play the instrument of our whole human
‘being’, and herein lies the essential role of education.
There
is not a variety of intelligences, despite some popular views to the contrary.
Certainly, however, the old notion of IQ is grossly inadequate. It ignores the
existence and significance of a variety of intimately connected human
faculties. Human intelligence is the combined functioning of all our faculties
that seeks to ensure our survival and the satisfaction of our expectations and
intentions. To express this more complete notion of human intelligence, the term Deep Intelligence has been
used, which means our ability to prosper through
conscious and intentional coordination of the inner and outer faculties of our
being with the inner and outer qualities of the world through which we live.
Educational
experiences can be provided that help people to detach from abstract
concepts and programmed patterns of thinking and emotion, and help them to
perceive things freshly and more deeply, and to sense the bubbling up of
intuitions and inner yearnings. Such experiences help people to begin
to find, and to express, and to create in their lives those realities that
are more deeply satisfying to them, that are more sustainable and
life-supporting.
As
we begin to live more ‘consciously’, all things begin to work in continuity
with each other, in a form of unity, in a dynamic and sustainable relationship.
However, choice plays a crucial role in such conscious, ‘mindful’ living.
Choice and fully conscious functioning require that each of us knows our ‘self’
deeply and fully, including all our selfish impulses, all our emotions,
reaction patterns, and conditioning, as well as our ‘inner’ perceptions,
intuitions and soul urges.
Human
beings behave any way we must so that our perception, or experience, matches what
we physiologically or psychologically believe we should, or would like to
experience (Powers 1973; 1998). In a very real way, we individually and
collectively create our own reality. However, there may be differences between
the formulations of what we think or feel we should experience that arise from
different areas of our body-mind-soul system. Various patterns of emotion, for
example, are built around past experiences and instinctual fears and drives
that constitute the subconscious mind, which modern science shows is ‘located’
throughout the body (Pert 1997; 2004). There are also a variety of patterns of
thought, belief and emotion associated with the laws and mores of those around
us – our community, our parents, close friends, relatives and associates. Those
thoughts and beliefs include some we have been socialised
into, and some we have consciously adopted or formulated for ourselves. Some of
the concepts, beliefs and judgements operating on
this ‘level’ explicitly serve the purpose of over-riding certain instinctive
and/or ego-based impulses.
However,
on a ‘deeper’ level, there may be promptings or values or motivations that
arise through intuition, or some sense of inner knowing or feeling. Feelings,
perceptions, motivations and expectations at this level typically have a
quality of universality, of connection, of self-transcendence. They may
contradict the socially sanctioned beliefs and judgements
of our conditioning (and of our social group). The irony is that it is only by
respecting, supporting and enlivening consciousness
at this deep level within each individual, that we experience the flowering of
the self-transcendent feelings and intents. Universality, Deep Intelligence,
and sustainability, have their place in the dimension of depth, not breadth.
The
solution to the dilemma of the struggle between the having mode and the being
mode, the dilemma of our suppressed Deep Intelligence, lies in strategies
relating to this ‘hierarchy of controls’, and to the very conscious use of
choice. There are many ways in which we can manage our environments, our
experiences, deliberately to facilitate the shifting of our functioning, our
state of consciousness, from our sense of self as separate (‘lower’) to the
sense of self as connected to or one with universal Being (‘higher’), so that
the latter ‘controls’ the former. The objective is not to deny the ‘lower’
ones, to hide from them, fear them or feel guilt or shame for them. The
objective is to recognise them, face them, and bring
them into the governance of the ‘higher’ by full awareness and conscious
choice.
When
we allow ourselves to see our definitions and conditioned beliefs and fears for
what they are, when we face and experience our buried memories, and our hidden
emotions and impulses, we release ourselves from their hold. A mode of
perception, knowing and connectedness opens up that is beyond the purely
cognitive, beyond the abstract, beyond maya.
We perceive and relate with ‘true nature’ and with the core of other people.
The reality and depth of the oneness experienced when such Deep Intelligence is
activated within us has been recorded by countless people who have chosen not
to be bound by the limitations of the discriminative intellect.
EDUCATION
FOR DEEP INTELLIGENCE
How
does an education program cultivate Deep Intelligence? A few of the more direct
considerations are these: The first part of the answer concerns providing
people with an adequate conceptual framework. Human beings can only perceive
things they have some expectation or sense of possibility of perceiving. People
need a conceptual framework of ‘reality’ and of human nature that allows for
the operation of the mechanisms of transformation of consciousness briefly
outlined above. For example, appropriate selection of stories for the young to
hear and to read. People need to be familiar with ways of deciding if something
makes sense – if it is illogical, unfounded, or unhelpful. They need the simple
basics of philosophy to discriminate between formulations, and to reflect
‘critically’ on whose purposes they may serve or not serve. People need to be
familiar with a variety of ways of determining if an idea, process or action is
viable. Familiarity with applying the basic elements of scientific method is
useful here. People need encouragement in bringing their attention fully
to bear on their present experience. People need encouragement and
opportunities to choose a clear intention, and to give it their
attention. People need encouragement, guidance and skilling
in taking action to realise an intention. This
includes being able to express, explain or communicate their understanding or
intent, as well as to apply, pursue or create it. People need opportunities to recognise, express and accept their bodily sensations,
their emotions, their thoughts, their pains, fears and desires. People need
opportunities to identify their beliefs, and to test the helpfulness of
beliefs, behaviours and lifestyles, both their own, and those of others. People
need opportunities, encouragement and inspiration to review and reconstruct
from a higher ‘reference point’ their own body, emotions, thoughts, goals and
behaviours, if they find them inadequate, unhelpful or unsatisfying. Strategies
here can include reviewing the day, journaling, affirmations, ‘sounding’,
writing ‘cutting the cord’ and forgiveness letters, and rituals. People need
encouragement and skills to challenge the beliefs and behaviours of others, if
they are experiencing others’ beliefs or behaviours as limiting, damaging or
disempowering. People need a variety of kinds of opportunities for
experiencing, expressing and changing their emotions, their body, their
perceptions and their relationships. They need opportunities to give visual
expression to their emotions, their experiences, their intuitions and their
beliefs. And they need to be encouraged to find or place into their living
environment forms of visual art which have the ability to inspire and lift the
spirit, that is, to bring about a shift in consciousness from one category or
level to a larger or higher one, respectively. People need similar
opportunities with regard to sound, the voice, and various forms of
instrumental music – to express in these ways and to experience them with full
attention, deliberately for the purpose of enjoyment and altering consciousness
in evolutionary ways. People need similar opportunities with regard to touch
and movement – to express their emotions, their experiences, their intentions
and their beliefs in tactile and kinaesthetic ways,
including free form dance movement and breathing techniques. People need
opportunities for contact with things that awaken feelings of the magical, of
beauty, tenderness, and ethereality, such as babies, baby animals, flowers,
incense and other aromas, ritual, open sharing of themselves with others, and
regular time communing with nature. They need opportunities and encouragement
to be alone, to be silent, to be fully aware of their
internal environment, to be aware of themselves as a field of energy, to be
aware with full sensory attention of their external environment, and of their
connectedness to it.
Education
programmes characterised by such experiences are
liberating and empowering. They involve more than just conceptual learning.
They involve consciously changing and transcending concepts, definitions,
beliefs and patterns, which limit how we perceive ourselves, others and the
world. They go beyond cognition, into experience. They involve emotions,
feelings, intuition, expanded perception, bodily
experience, a new consciousness of Being, and purposeful and creative
expression and action. Of course, opportunities need to be provided first for
teachers and teacher educators to have experiences in cultivating Deep
Intelligence. The resulting changes in identity, disposition and orientation to
the world will enable them to support others in their cultivation of Deep
Intelligence.
CONCLUSION
Education
for Deep Intelligence develops a much broader set of human faculties, qualities
and abilities than traditional education has done. In contrast to conventional
schooling programmes, education characterised by such
experiences genuinely cultivates the Deep Intelligence required for sustainable
living and development in all its forms. Such education enables us to find more
effective and satisfying ways of thinking, feeling, knowing, relating, living
and being-in-the-world. It opens the way for humanity’s transition to a civilisation characterised by
connectedness, prosperity, and cooperation with the natural world.
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Emoto, M. (2004) The
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Fromm, E. (1976) To Have or To Be? Harper & Row,
Glasersfeld, E. von
(1995) Radical Constructivism:
Goswami, A. (1995) The Self-Aware Universe: How
Consciousness Creates the Material World. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam,
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C. (1997) Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind
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