4. HUMANITY
Religion, including Islam , regard mankind as a special creation. The science of
Biology regards Human beings as having arisen from animals by a continuous
process of evolution. It is true that human beings share the same physical
features with animals, and that apes in particular have some of the behaviour
characteristics of human beings. There is very little structural difference
between the ape and man, and the characteristics of human behaviour are an
elaboration of the behaviour found in most animals. This includes
territorialism, sexual behaviour, tribalism and social ranking. The genetic
difference between man and chimpanzee is only 1%.
According to the
Quran:-
“He (Allah) directs the
ordinance (regulates all affairs) from the heaven to the earth; then shall it
ascend to Him in a Day the measure of which is a thousand years of what you
count. This is the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Mighty the Merciful,
Who made good everything that He has created, and He
began the creation of man from dust.
Then He made his progeny of an extract, of a fluid held in low
esteem. Then He fashioned him and
breathed into him of His spirit, and made for you the faculties of hearing, and
sight and heart; little is it that you give thanks.” 32:5-9
There is a distinction
therefore, within man between three aspects or levels, the physical, the
spiritual and the mental, which arises from the combination of the other
two. The Real Self, the Soul can be
regarded as the organised Spirit and is the seat of consciousness, conscience
and will (self-control). Without consciousness nothing can exist for the person
not even for himself. It can develop or atrophy depending on human behaviour
and efforts. The equivalent faculties of the Mind are thought, feeling and
volitional action that give us knowledge, motives and skills. The faculties of
the body are sensation, instincts and reactions. The Mind has the capacity for
processing the data received not only from the outer senses, but also from
within the body and the mind. Man, therefore, not only has an outer physical
and life in the physical world, but also an inner mental life and an inner
world which is not just a reflection of the external world, and he also has a
spiritual aspect that transcends both and has the potentiality for control..
This, however, is inactive and dormant to a large extent. Man is, therefore,
said to be “spiritually dead” or “asleep” and needs to be resurrected or
awakened ( Quran 6:103, 34:46). To do this is the role of Religion. It is the
Mind that forms attachments through the senses to sense objects and the body to
create a self-image, an Ego, a false self owing to the fact that all
experiences are centred on the physical body. It is this that creates a
Persona, a mask or crust around his Essence and this is responsible for all his
malfunctions, his psychological, social and environmental problems and his
delusions and suffering, through the interdependent triad of greed, fear and hate.
Science has been mainly
concerned with physical existence because that is of primary interest to man
that is what is most accessible to him. The fact, however, is that man has the
most direct contact internally with his own body and mind and it is these that
are also in contact with the rest of existence. But the human mind is turned
outwards probably because his survival depended on his interaction with the
environment. This, however, caused him to ignore and neglect his inner needs
and welfare. But as science progresses and technology frees him from the more
basic needs human attention expands and deepens. Science then progresses from
concerns confined to the physical to the biological, then the social and then
to the psychological. The ideas so generated then gradually diffuse through the
Society transforming the way of life which then transforms the human psyche.
There are, therefore, several stages yet to come and Science as well as
societies and man are at present still in a relatively primitive state.
The Quran does not make
an absolute distinction between man and animals.
“There is not an animal in the earth, nor a creature flying on two wings, but they are communities
like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book. Then unto their Lord they will
be gathered.” 6:38
Yet there is a dramatic difference, as there
is between plants and animals. Plants are fixed in their environment while
animals possess locomotion, and can, therefore, move about and select their
environment. Human beings are even more free and can
create and manipulate their environment. They have created a complex culture
which the apes have not. The distinctive feature of man is that they have an
interest in more than just self-preservation and reproduction. They have an
inner life, self-consciousness, and ask questions about their own nature,
origin and destiny, about the things in their environment, and about the
Universe and existence itself. They have a religion. They have the capacity to
analyse, synthesise and manipulate the data of experience quite deliberately in
their minds before producing an output. They can reconstruct the world in their
minds and through it, the environment. They have constructed languages,
technologies and organisations. They have what might be called a self-extensive
urge. That is, they are activated not only by external stimuli, but also by
stimuli coming from within them. They have a need for activity, to exercise and
develop their faculties, to explore and experiment, to deliberately take risks
and face danger which flouts the self-preservative urge, to invent art, games,
tools, and the capacity to control their reflexes. They also have compassion
for each other. Therefore, from the Islamic point of view, they have a spark of
the divine in them and are titled Vicegerents.
Their
interaction with the environment has, therefore, become indirect. It is their
culture, constructed by themselves, which plays an increasingly larger role in
controlling their behaviour. Most animals learn from experience and show
varying degrees of intelligence, the capacity for adaptation and modification.
Some apes show a capacity for forming concepts, but not for manipulating these.
Animals can use natural products as tools, but the deliberate shaping of tools
and constructing machinery does not appear to exist among them. Though
cooperation is found in animals, man also displays empathy and sympathy for
each other which is not found in animals, except,
perhaps, in rudimentary form, in elephants and dolphins. Animals act through
instincts and do not display self-restraint and conscience. Animals do not show
an awareness of an inner centre of integration, self-consciousness, or an “I”.
In man there is a complete change in the level of functioning.
It is not
possible to predict the arising of human culture from a study of biology, or
the arising of the human mind from the study of human physiology. These are
separate phenomena requiring their own concepts and methods of study. Man
differs from other animals because of the existence of self-consciousness and
the large size and functions of the cerebral cortex. of
which he uses only a fraction. Thus, the arising of these is not explicable in
conventional evolutionary theory, which requires that only those features which
have a self-preservative and reproductive value should develop. The search for
the nature and purpose of existence has no survival or reproductive value. The
arising of Man is a mystery. There is, therefore, a new level of phenomena
which is as distinct from mere life as life is from dead matter. A new force
has entered the world.
The typically human
characteristics such as the ability to empathize, introspect, love, cooperate,
understand other peoples feelings and intentions, deception, feel guilt and
embarrassment, use abstract concepts, symbols and tools, make value judgments
and so on appear to be connected with the existence of a group of cells known
as Spindle cells found in the midline of the two cerebral hemisphere, in an
area known as the front insular cortex. Though apes also have these in small
numbers, human beings have far more. The cause is probably a single or small
number of genes or mutations. These cells facilitate social interactions and
appear to have multiplied over time owing to the need for social interactions,
rather than direct physical survival, and perhaps also striving to understand
and adjust to the world in which they exist and interact with. These three
motives appear to be inbuilt in man, though the higher ones are elaborations of
the lower. That is, physical survival in higher animals depends on their social
interactions and this is facilitated by greater awareness and control. It is
possible to increase the number and connection between these cells by means of
suitable exercises and techniques. Religions appear to utilise this
possibility. In so far as the enhancement of these faculties is a value built
into societies, this acts as an evolutionary pressure whereby these faculties
will develop and those in whom they are most advanced will multiply. However,
three counter evolutionary malfunctions can occur at this level:- (a) Atrophy of these faculties owing to a shortage or
destruction of these cells as in the case of autism, psychopathy or Alzheimer's
disease. (b) Exaggeration that results in obsessions, compulsions and
hallucinations. (c) Misdirection into channels that have no advantages and
might even be self-destructive or psychologically,
socially and environmentally destructive.
These
features of man are attributed to a Mind, Consciousness, Psychic force or
Spirit. However, various degrees of consciousness are also found in animals and
it may be a feature of all organisations. We will, therefore, distinguish
between different types of consciousness, and retain the word Spirit to refer
to 7 human characteristics, namely:- The centre of
integration, human consciousness, conscience, will, and his creativity,
initiative and a sense of responsibility. The capacity for impersonal
objectivity, discrimination and purposiveness may perhaps also be added but
they flow from the other factors.
These are
not characteristics recognised in the physical sciences and are regarded as the
attributes of God. Hence the religious assertion that man contains the Spirit
of Allah. These features form a different category of experience and thought
which are not explicable in physiological terms. Muddled thinking which equates
these with physiological processes will, therefore, be dismissed. This does
not, however, imply that certain physiological structures and processes will
not be needed to manifest such behaviour in a way similar to a radio set which
is needed to catch a radio broadcast, or any other special instrument is needed
to observe phenomena, which are otherwise inaccessible. The significant thing about
man is his culture. It creates a greater unity and has a larger extension in
space, time and quality than any individual, and it connects him to his
environment. Though each person contributes something to it, the development of
the human being depends on the culture into which he is born.
The ape
baby has a small enough brain for it to be born to a mother with a fully formed
brain. The brain of the human child, however, increases in size after birth. It
cannot be born with a full sized brain. It is, therefore, still helpless and
has to be cared for by parents for many years while the brain grows and the
learning process takes place. Hence the human baby needs a caring family which
is kept together by love. In a dangerous environment full of predators, this
requires that the care of the young should become the concern of the female
while the males take the role of protecting and supplying the family. For this
role the males grow larger and stronger. Species where these characteristics
did not develop would have died out.
The
position of the Biologist is that mutations take place first in a more or less
random fashion due to cosmic radiations and other factors and then selection
takes place by the environment. As these are world processes they do not contradict
the religious position that Allah has created man. It has to be pointed out,
however, that:-
(a)
Mutations take place at a steady rate owing to Cosmic and other radiations;
(b) That
they depend on the previous character of the genes and on the relationship
between the genes;
(c) Since
some genes are dormant and others are active, the characteristics of an
individual also depend on the physical and cultural environment. Adaptation
does not, then necessarily mean changes in gene structure.
(d) That
the environment is modified by the organism itself;
(e) That
human beings form communities which also exerts selective pressure;
(f) That
the organism has built-in strivings which are channelled by its experiences in
the environment and these lead to various forms of adjustment;
(g) That
there is mounting evidence that characteristics
acquired owing to environmental pressures or personal efforts and exercises are
transmitted to following generations;
(h) That
the capacity for processing, learning, manipulation of the data of experience
and imagination increases, and this increases both genetic and environmental
independence. Ideas play a part in human evolution particularly as these modify
behaviour and the social and material environment. However, ideas also depend
partly on the external environment, partly on inherent capacities and partly on
social interactions.
(i) That the brain is extremely sensitive and subject to
effects from a quantum field which may be thought of as the substratum of the
entire universe.
It is
necessary to understand that the human brain is constantly active in that:- (a)
It is inter-dependent with the rest of the body through nerve connections, the
blood circulation that brings nutrition and oxygen, various hormones that are
secreted by he endocrine system, and electromagnetic forces. (b) It is
recording and processing information that comes through the external senses and
from the rest of the body and sending information to the rest of the body and
the muscles through which we modify the environment. (c) It is adapting by
forming new connections between nerves and therefore new electrical circuits.
(d) The brain works as a whole such that the whole affects each part and the
parts affect the whole. Different parts can take over the role that any one
part plays. Apart from the flow of electrons along nerve circuits, the nerve
cells are also form and are connected by an electromagnetic field that pervades
the whole brain and is connected with the field of the rest of the body.
These
things make human beings increasingly independent of inherent genetic factors.
Environmental factors and personal efforts become more important.
Apart from
this the brain is not the only nervous system. There are two others, the Spinal
chord and Sympathetic Nervous system, which also forms several complexes such
as the Cardiac and Solar plexus that can be regarded as minor brains. The Heart
has been regarded as a centre of intelligence for a very long time, though in
science it came to be regarded as merely a pump for the circulation of the
blood and intelligence was placed exclusively in the brain. This view is
rapidly changing as research proceeds. All cells have electrical processes
within them and every organ can be regarded as having its own intelligence. The
Heart in particular produces various hormones and has a complex nervous system
that works partly independently but is also connected with the brain through
the circulation, hormones and electromagnetic forces. It reacts to
environmental factors and experiences by changes in rhythm and pressure.
Emotions and feelings certainly affect it and these affects produce further
consequences in the brain and the rest of the body, including the muscles, all
which have their own mode of behaviour, reaction and memories.
Memories on
which behaviour depends are now known not to have specific locations but are
recorded in a diffuse manner. These can be electrical circuits, endocrine
reactions, behaviour of organs and cells or muscle tensions. Memories are not
fixed but can and do alter in various ways by analysis, association, synthesis,
elaboration, merging, fading, reinforcement, layering and so on.
Physiologically,
the main difference between man and animals are:-
(1) The
large brain. (2) The upright posture. (3) The smooth furless skin. (4) The
capacity for speech and language. (5) Free hands that can create and manipulate
tools. (6) the existence of imagination, the power to
form and process images. (7) Interests other than self-preservation and
reproduction, the capacity for impersonal and objective thinking, feeling and
action. The later two require changes in the way the brain is ‘wired up’. There
are also a number of other minor differences such as the large rounded
buttocks, the relatively large penis of the male, the permanently full breasts
of the female.
The problem
of how these arose has been solved as follows:-
There was
about 4 million years ago a change in the global climate either owing to
increased radiation of the sun or due to change in the weather systems when the
Himalayas rose because of tectonic pressure when India joined Asia. The
environment became hotter and drier in
However,
the open lands increase vulnerability to predators. Four footed animals can run
away faster than upright ones on two feet. Human beings do not possess claws or
poisons as means of self-defence or aids in catching food. Other advantages
have to be developed as substitutes. This can happen in three ways:-
(a) The upright position allows a greater and
more distant view of the surroundings.
(b) Greater information processing powers and
intelligence.
(c) Greater cooperation between individuals.
The
original Primates, the Apes, were mostly fruit eaters. But when forests began
to disappear or the population became too great they had to adopt a more
carnivorous diet and this required hunting. This has several consequences:-
(1) Fruit
requires searching and moving to where it is to be found. Hunting requires a
settled life in villages from which the hunter goes out in search of food and
returns with the kill. This function was performed by the males while the
females stayed at home to look after the young.
(2) The
nutritional value of fruit is low compared to meat. As in other herbivores,
time is occupied almost exclusively in the search and eating of food.
Carnivores, however, spend only a relatively short time in hunting. They have
time left for other pursuits. This is important for the development of culture.
(3) Fruits
being small in size are found and eaten individually. But when a large animal
is killed it provides food for the whole family or tribe. Food consumption
becomes a social affair.
(4) Hunting
requires cooperation between hunters and certain amount of organisation.
(5) It
requires the ability to make and use tools.
(6) It
requires tracking, following clues, cunning and strategy.
(7) It
requires having a target and aiming for it skilfully.
However,
the teeth and Jaws of human beings are not like those of other carnivores. They
had to change the way they ate. The meet had to be cut with tools and softened
by cooking.
All these
features have developed over a long period. Those who had them were better able
to survive and multiply. They are now global features of modern man and affect
all aspects of his life, in the way he conducts his business, his sport, wars
and in the way he interacts with others and organises affairs. In many cases,
owing to changed circumstances, substitute activities have been invented,
tokenised or channelled to exercise these features. This is done sometimes in a
useless manner and sometimes in harmful or perverted ways as, for instance, in
organised wars where other human beings have been mistaken for prey and are
used for purposes other than food.
The
evolution of the human brain appears to have been extremely rapid. The causes
of this are the ability to stand erect. This gave them a larger view of the
world around them, allowing the intake and simultaneous processing of more
information. To do this requires a larger brain which must be cooled. There are
a number of holes in the skull through which valveless vessels take blood from
the brain to the surface where it is cooled and returned to the brain. The
number of these increased with the increase in brain size. So did the size of
vessels supplying blood from the heart. The upright position also released
their hands for purposes other than walking on. They could be used for gestures
and communication and to manipulate tools. It also caused a full frontal
display so that organs, the penis and breasts, which were previously hidden
underneath, came into full view, needed protection and became sources of
stimulation. The human female has permanently swollen breasts, even when not
lactating. The reason for this seems to be that they do not only have the
function of providing milk for the young, but also to stimulate the male. The
rounded shape of the breasts mimics the buttocks which, in apes, draw male
attention. The naked skin and the frontal view affected inter-sexual
relationships and required new forms of adjustment. Sexuality became a
permanent rather than a seasonal feature and went beyond the need for
reproduction alone. Since the child required greater care by parents this
facilitated greater cooperation between parents. The young of those in whom the
bonds were not strong suffered from a disadvantage and died out, while those in
whom it was strong prospered and multiplied. However, stimulation could also
have led to indiscriminate sexual relationships. Owing to his furless skin, the
coldness of nights and migration to colder climates in search of food, made it
necessary for him to use the hides of other animals for warmth and protection.
There was an incentive to hunt and to make fire. This had several cultural
consequences including the development of modesty, the hiding of defects,
creativity and self decoration, assertion of separate individuality, the
projection of an image, and as symbols of status. Since clothing hides the
sexual organs, they could be used to discriminate between the spouse and
others. On the other hand they are also used to enhance sexual differences and
to stimulate.
The
development of the family also led to the development of language so that
cooperation, communication, the exchange and accumulation of experience became
possible. This increased the advantages of human beings over the animals. The
ability to speak, however, also required a change in the position and structure
of the larynx. Though it may be supposed that these physiological changes are
required prior to the development of language, closer examination shows that
the reverse is the case. It is the desire and need to speak which gave
advantages to those who were slightly better at it. There was, therefore, a
selective pressure in favour of the development of this physiological
equipment. It is the organisation and the function, which determined the
material structure, not the other way round. This rule applies also to all the
other characteristics. This is an important conclusion with significant
implications which is not always appreciated.
To account
for the smooth skin, Sir Alister Hardy proposed the theory that human ancestors
must at one time have led an aquatic life. This must have been a transitional
period between fruit gathering and hunting since flesh food could be gathered
in the sea. Facts which support this theory are:- New born babies automatically
hold their breath under water and can swim; unlike apes man can swim, weep
tears and has a layer of fat under the skin to insulate against cold; man loves
water for bathing, relaxation and enjoyment; human beings can hold their breath
longer than any primate and this capacity also facilitates speech; there are
diving reflexes in man like those found in other marine mammals; the human
spine is more flexible than that of apes and this allows the motions for
swimming. It also allows dancing.
Though
there is some evidence, the details of these theories are mostly based on
speculation. There is a gap in the fossil record between about 7 million to 4
million years ago. Gradual changes from primitive to modern man can be seen
since then, but no such gradual change can be discerned from creatures which
lived before this period. There are also several unsolved problems. Many
animals stand erect and the view of the giraffe is even greater than that of
man. Other creatures were also driven out of the forest. Why did not the same
factors which affected man affect other creatures in the same way? What caused
man to move inland if the sea provided his needs? Why are some facts taken for
granted in order to explain other facts - the absence of natural defences such
as claws is taken for granted in order to explain the need to develop mental
powers. Why not find an explanation for why he did not develop claws? There are
a great number of other ways in which adaptation can take place, and have taken
place, to the same situation. There does not seem to be any good reason why it
should have led to the arising of man. Was it mere chance? No doubt further
research will change the picture.
The problem
is this:- Science appears to have only two
explanations, cause and chance. But whether it is predetermined by causes or
due to chance the situation is the same - it denies God or Allah. The religious
attitude is the reverse - both are due to Allah. There is, therefore, a
conflict between Science and Religion. However, there is an alternative as the
Science of Complexity shows. Both order and disorder, and therefore, cause and
chance arise from the same situation. And Allah is both transcendental and imminent.
Change from hunting to
herding, and then to agriculture and finally to industrialisation also require
great changes in structure and behaviour. But these changes have been much more
rapid than the time required by biological evolution. This, it is thought, is
the cause of stresses and strains in man, the contradiction between his nature
and the environment he has created. On the other hand it can be pointed out
that a particular feature of human beings is adaptability owing to his capacity
to think, channel motives and to manipulate, and it is this which has also led
to the rapid changes in life style. This third factor, the system of ideas,
values and techniques, his religion, is usually left out of the equations by
scientists. Their theories do not explain human consciousness. It is perfectly
possible to do and think automatically without being aware of what one is
doing. Not many people, even today, behave consciously, and those who do, do so
only rarely in restricted fields. Yet human progress depends on those who have
made conscious achievements.
From the
Anthropological and Archaeological point of view man arose by gradual changes
from an ancestry about 3 million years ago, and became more or less physically
like modern man about 50,000 years ago. The ancestry of man suggests that there
is no inherent genetic tendency to acquisitiveness, selfishness, and domination
which leads to class division and slavery, aggression and war as found in
modern man. These characteristics developed later and are culturally induced.
Man is said
to have originated in
(a) The expansion of modern man led to the
extinction of the other near humans either because they were unable to compete
for the resources or through wars or both. They reached an evolutionary dead
end.
(b) That inter-marriages occurred enriching
the human gene pool and differences in type.
(c) That similar independent evolution
occurred simultaneously in all parts of the world. This may account for
differences of race. However, all human races are capable of inter-breeding
showing that they belong to the same species.
As far as
Islam is concerned, it has no views about the exact way in which the physical
evolution of man took place. To say that Allah created man is similar to saying
that Nature created man and does not deny the process by which this was done.
The time it took for man to evolve, is but an instant from the cosmic
perspective. The Quran tells us that man was made from earth. This may either
mean that the whole process of biological evolution culminating in man arose
from the dead matter of earth, or that every individual is, in fact, the
product of materials which come out of the earth, through the food he eats.
There is a temporal and an organic view of evolution. There is also a third
psychological view of evolution in which earth stands for something passive and
inert which must be progressively activated by some vital impulse coming from
the cosmos, e.g. the sun. Thus a previously unconscious ape was made conscious
by the introduction of a new impulse, the spirit.
The
significant features of man are his consciousness, conscience and will. The man
spoken about in the Quran is the one in whom the Spirit has been introduced.
That is, one who has become conscious, possesses a language by which to
describe his experiences, and is capable of voluntary and intelligent processing
of data and manipulating himself and his environment. The Islamic teaching is
that mankind is a single species and were one community, arising from the same
parents. The existence of the world before man is recognised and the creation
of Adam may refer to a long period of time. Adam may be the name given to the
first conscious person, a Prophet, or it may also be a collective name.
----------<O>----------
The first thing we must
do when studying man is to define what it is we are studying.
A Human being has three
aspects:- 1. He obviously has a physical body which is
an organised, self-maintaining unity. 2. He interacts with other human beings
to form communities. 3. He interacts with the rest of the Cosmos.
He is a unity in which
three factors:- (a) outer behaviour, (2) physiological
processes and (3) psychological processes which give him an inner life are
related and inter-dependent. It is, therefore, possible to study him from all
these points of view.
Normally human
behaviour is based on the following:-
(a) Inherent factors,
these include the various instincts and the information built into them by the
laws and processes of the world and through the evolutional process.
(b) Reflex reactions to
events in the environment.
(c) Impulses coming
from inner physiological conditions.
(d) Memories of what
they have experienced in connection with their physical environments.
(e) What they have
acquired from their parents, other people and their cultural environment.
(f) The results of
imagination and fantasy.
(g) The results of
their own efforts, information processing such as reasoning, problem solving.
(h) It is also
necessary to recognise that human beings have or can develop psychological
centres or egos which may be integrated to various degrees. Experiences, for
instance, can accumulate around the experience of one’s own body and name, or
even around a place or career. They can and do identify themselves with
external things, and are then controlled by them. Complexes or psychological
systems of various kinds are formed which then control behaviour. Obsessions,
compulsions and phobias are of this kind. Traumatic experiences, fears, desires
and fascination cause strong emotions to bind together a great number of
memories into a single unit. If an event resembles part of this complex, then
it triggers a reaction from the whole unit.
(i)
Though most of behaviour is automatic, being sub-conscious or unconscious, the
degree of their consciousness allows human beings also to act deliberately and
purposefully to various degrees.
(j) The structure of
the environment, the cities, roads, farms, parks etc. and the way the society
is organised, these things control what a person can or will do, how frequently
he will do it and in what combination of actions. This forms habits of action,
thought and motives.
(k) Apart from the genes that are inherited
from parents, there are also mutations in the genes. But genes need to be
activated in order to produce the characteristics in features and behaviour.
Genes can be active or dormant or their expression can be distorted owing to
various factors that may be produced by the body itself depending on what a
person does or how he reacts, his efforts, habits, actions, thoughts and
emotions. His reactions depend on the conditions in the environment and their
frequency and intensity and how they are related and how he has become
habituated to respond.
(l) It is also necessary to consider that there are various chemicals, proteins, viruses, pollen, fungi, bacteria and other micro-organisms that can affect people not only physically but also psychologically. These can exist in the environment or can be transmitted between people. There is no absolute distinction between the physical and the psychological and between structure and behaviour. Psychotic or neurotic states can be transmitted just as physical diseases can. The behaviour and features that people have may not be due to their genetic make up or upbringing and culture, but due to certain ingredients that pervade their environment.
The
Biologist, Richard Dawkins speaks about idea units he calls Memes (derived from
the word memory) which are similar to Genes but act in the psychological
sphere. Strings of these are called Memomes. Here the word “Psychon” or “Psychene” will be used which could also be regarded as
psychological viruses or bacteria. They will be regarded as bundles of not
merely ideas but also feelings, motives and behaviour patterns. They reproduce,
grow, change, die out, mutate, divide, combine, re-organise, and produce
emergent phenomena. They induce experiences and behaviour patterns. They can be
useful, catalytic, harmful, parasitic, predatory on other Psychons,
cooperative, cause disease by infection and epidemics. They may consist of
slogans, attitudes, ways of thinking, conventions, traditions, prejudices,
dogmas, models, fashions, frameworks, paradigms or principles derived from
Science, Philosophy, Religion, Politics, Literature or group interactions.
Dawkins regards ideological systems such democracy, science and religion as
memes. But here we shall think of these as systems
created by organisations of Psychons and these may change. We can distinguish
between three types:- (1) Theons or Thenes which
refer to units derived from the objective world - notions such as flowers, trees, rivers, gravity etc . (2) Cultons or Cultenes which refer to units that derive from human culture –
notions such as home, nation, legal system, democracy, scholar etc. (3) Satons or Satenes which refer to illusions, superstitions and prejudices that
have harmful and destructive effects.
However, we also have to distinguish between three types of behaviour that correspond to the
distinction in man between body, mind and soul:- (i) Instinctive behaviour patterns IBP, units of which can
be called Instons or Instenes induced through genetic
information transmission. (ii) Social behaviour patterns SBP, units of which
can be called Psychons or Psychenes induced by social information
transmission. (iii) Conscious behaviour patterns CBP or Constons or Constenes
induced by conscious information transmission.
We notice
that the patterns created by consciousness are given by man a material form.
That is, human beings gather materials, sometimes they create special materials
e.g. plastics etc. and rearrange these through technology to form artefacts.
They also incorporate these mental patterns more directly in books, computer
discs and records. They create human organisations and institutions. We have
two opposite processes - the material world creates the world of consciousness,
and the world of consciousness creates a material world. These are facts about
Reality.
The culture
man produces does not exist in a vacuum. It is embedded not only in the
Psychology and Biology of the people but also in the environment, which depends
on the rest of the planet and the Universe. Different localities produce
different cultures. There is another set of images which comes directly from
the interactions of man with his real environment and constitution without filtration
through the social lense. The laws or forces of the Universe operate at each
point in the world and can, therefore, be experienced at that point depending
on the degree of consciousness. This level of perception, even when
sub-conscious, often becomes accessible through hypnosis. Or it penetrates
spontaneously into the normally restricted mind which we call the conscious
mind. This event is called insight or inspiration. The units of perception in
this field can also be included in the term “Theons” or “Thenes”. They are real
conscious percepts. One of the characteristics of these is consistency and
harmony which also leads to the formation of universally held Ideals and
Archetypes, not to be confused with socially derived ones which vary from place
to place. They require passivity or Surrender and do not make subjective
judgements of good and evil. Objective value judgements depend on comparison
and consistency with these. Conscience, unlike what Freud calls the Super-ego -
a socially conditioned value system - is a feeling of self-consistency in
motives, while Will should refer to consistency or coordination of action.
There can be little doubt that people do possess such Theons to various
degrees, and that there is often a conflict between the two modes of
experience, the direct and the socially derived, both in the person himself and
within society, else there could be no adjustment and progress. Development
depends entirely on the introduction of such objective information while
Psychons keep people at the same level.
We must
also consider an area of the mind called the Id by the psychologist Sigmund
Freud and the Shadow by Karl Yung. This contains resentments, hatred, spite,
envy, enjoyment of the predicament and misfortune of
others, fascination with cruelty and sadism, destructiveness, prejudices,
superstitions, illusions, delusions, distortions, fantasies, obsessions,
rationalisations, self-justifications, projections, substitution, created by
desires, fears, and frustrations. The moral values people have, not only lead them to judge others, but also themselves in so far as
one human being is like another. But these reactions constitute an inner
contradiction in so far as they negate the consistency and requirements of
life. This creates inner conflicts, suffering and guilt feelings, states of
discomfort or disequilibrium which require removal by the self-preservative
instinct itself. One way of doing this is by projecting them on to others, and
by finding scapegoats to persecute and sacrifice. It is this which under
suitable conditions explodes as ethnic and religious conflicts, witch-hunts and
mass hysteria of various kinds. They are, therefore, not only within us, but
have an objective existence and are transmitted, reinforced and organised, produce
temptations, distortions and compulsions. All this is included in the term
“Satons” or “Satenes”. Note that these arise only in opposition to value
systems and thrive at a sub-conscious level. Without a desire or goal, there
can be no frustration of it. The light of consciousness, which allows
intelligent techniques to be used to achieve the moral ideals, dissolves them.
The reason for this is that Satons are inconsistent with each other and with
experience as a whole while consciousness unites and requires consistency. Thus
Theons are associated with light and Satons are associated with spiritual
darkness and suffering (fire).
The terms,
Theons and Satons have been used deliberately to indicate that the notion of
God and Satan are connected with these. Theons produce unity, integration,
harmony and the capacity for adjustment. Satons are real psychological entities
which cause real psychological harm, disunity, disintegration and conflict.
The evil within
a person is only tolerable if forgiveness, hope and good techniques also exist.
Those who can accept that their shortcomings and sins have been paid for by the
sacrifices made by the prophets, by their love and tolerance in the face of
persecution, may be able to forgive themselves and other people as well. Love
or fellow feeling is then restored and no further scapegoats are required. When
one person injures another, he creates resentment in him. This is usually
discharged by passing on the injury to others. The resentment continues to
circulate within a society, by the law of cause and effect, until such time as
someone refuses to pass it on by absorbing and transforming its energy within himself. He, thereby, transforms both himself and the
society he lives in, and the physical environment as well, since it is a
product of social activity. Unfortunately all this has not been understood or
applied owing to self-deceit, repression out of consciousness, lack of adequate
techniques of development, and the difficulty of sustaining conscious
self-observation, self-criticism and self-discipline. There is, however, no
other way of becoming human.
The
sacrifice of animals, as practised by religions, symbolises the sacrifice of
ones biological nature. Even the social system human beings have set up
diminishes the requirement for such exercises and has made greed, envy, lust
and aggression the sole incentive for effort and the standard by which
excellence and success is judged. Human beings, therefore, continue to create
hell and will do so with greater power and efficiency as technology improves.
It should be observed that it is perfectly possible for a man to torture and
kill millions of people, as those who ran the German extermination camps did,
and still be a good loving fathers and husbands with all the recognised
virtues. The incompatibility between these two types of life is annulled by
separating them through a system of psychons, an
ideology which justifies these acts - e.g.. that those exterminated were evil and less than human. Human
beings can justify anything whatever. There is nothing in logic which can
discriminate between truth and falsehood, good and evil. The mind separates as
much as unites body and spirit. Since this type of rationalisation flouts the
law of unity and similarities on which consciousness is based, it damages the
capacity for consciousness. A repression into sub-consciousness takes place
where no conscious control can be exerted. This makes adjustment to reality
even more difficult.
Guilt is
the result of inner contradictions, and the resulting discomfort is dealt with
by withdrawing consciousness by denying its source or projecting it to some
external source.
This
clearly diminishes the individual still further. He will have a narrower field
of consciousness and his opinions and actions, including scientific and
political ones, will be governed by distorted motives. The rejection of the
idea of both God and the Devil, or the acceptance of some ideology which
contradicts these notions, is often based on this mechanism rather than on any
rational objection. Prayer, self-examination and the study of the Scriptures
could have produced awareness and the removal of these inner contradictions and
sufferings, but these techniques tend to be rejected and become impossible
where the addiction to outer worldly advantages is too great. These outer
advantages, wealth, power, prestige and pleasure, tend to be sought with an intensity proportional to inner emptiness. Indeed,
suffering is often clung to because it bestows some kind of personal
significance and importance to the individual; or as a form of self-punishment,
since the purpose of the aggression created by the flight/defence/fight
mechanism is to destroy the source of the suffering. Accident proneness,
psychosomatic diseases and even organic and infectious diseases resulting from
debilitating inner tensions often have the same underlying causes. The social
and, indirectly, the environmental consequences of these psychological
mechanisms are becoming increasingly more obvious.
----------<O>----------
Much
research has been done recently on consciousness, but what is not known is how
the physiological processes are translated into psychological experiences. An
idea, percept or image in the mind is not the same thing as an event in the
brain. The colour red as experienced is not the same thing as a particular
frequency of light. It seems obvious that physical events are affecting some
layer in man which is distinct from them. Hence the notion of
‘mind’. The science of Psychology is distinct from Physiology. However,
a state of consciousness is also not the same thing as ideas in the mind. It is
perfectly possible to be unaware of what is going through one’s mind. Thus we
have what is called Mysticism and the notion of ‘spirit’. The nature of
consciousness is a mystery and a problem for science. Unless this is solved we
have mere speculation.
Human
beings, but also animals and plants have four bodies or aspects to the body:-
1. The
ordinary physical body as studied by biologists. This consists of a number of
systems, organs, tissues, and types of cells.
Instead of
speaking about the various organs etc separately we could take a holistic view
and speak about a Physical Field. This consists of a great number of
structures, each having its own resonance frequency. Physiological processes
set up many kinds of vibrations. It, therefore, receives and emits vibrations
of many kinds and resonates and induces resonances in things in the
surroundings. The combination of vibrations also set up harmonics which may
also have their own outer or inner effects. All parts are connected by water
which is a good transmitter of these vibrations. It is not merely the case that
vibrations, sounds and colours are physical events, they also produce
psychological associations - blue with the sky and tranquillity, green with
vegetation and plenty, yellow with the day and activity, red with blood and
hunting and war, and so on. But every object emits colour according to the
processes going on within it, There is, therefore a resonance and the
combination of colours produces harmonies which also have physiological
effects. The same also applies to smells and sounds. Thus colours, smells,
sounds and other vibrations can be used in medicine to heal, injure or enhance
human capabilities.
Human
beings affect each other and the environment chemically e.g. through
pheromones, and biologically through an exchange of bacteria, and not merely by
transmission of disease but also in many other, even beneficial ways. Apart
from this all parts of the body have relationships with each other. Each part
is reflected in the others. This must be so if it is a self-consistent system.
The study of this in a scientific manner is still very rudimentary though
palmistry and other speculations and guesswork have been built on the
recognition of this fact. The hands, pupils, pulse and so on are used for
diagnosis.
Each person
has a zone within which he does not allow others to enter except close relatives, about 18 inches all round the body, though this
differs in different races and types. Aggressive people have a greater
forbidden zone. Other organisms have this too. Stresses are created if the zone
is infringed. However, people collectively, e.g. crowds also have a zone which
is not the sum of the parts and every individual adjusts himself accordingly.
The zone will also be affected by circumstances, e.g. danger.
2. The body
can be regarded as a Field of Chemical reactions.
These chemicals do not merely flow along the blood stream but are also diffused
through the body and link all the organs and cells together. The body is
surrounded by an egg-shaped Aura or Plasma Body. This probably consists of
ionised gas suspended in a structured magnetic field. It is visible to some
people and instruments have been invented to see it by Semyon Kirlian in
3. The body
is also an electric machine. Electrical events in various parts of the body are
often measured in medicine for diagnostic purposes. There is an electromagnetic
field around the body which also has a structure and parts. This is sensitive
to electric and magnetic events in the surroundings and connected with that of
the earth and the rest of the cosmos. Though the effects of changes in the
environmental field on the organism have also been studied, human beings are
not normally aware of these. These fields change with psychological conditions,
but there is normally no control over them. However, a number of unusual
psychic powers have been studied. Though no firm conclusion is as yet possible,
some people do appear to have some talent to affect objects, events and people
in their surroundings through this field.
4.
According to some authorities another subtler body exists, though there is no
scientifically tested proof of this at present, The
idea is compatible with certain experiences, occult and religious literature as
well as scientific theories, There may be a Quantum field in which events in
one part are affected by events in all other parts, thereby creating a
wholeness. The events in any one part are unpredictable. Consciousness may be
connected with this field. It may be part of, and interacting with, the
Universal Quantum field. However, since events lying below the Quantum level
are not accessible to physics, owing to the limits imposed by the Principle of
Uncertainty, it is hard to see how any direct scientific study can be made. It may
only be possible to do this by a study of consciousness itself.
The earth
itself can be regarded as having the same four levels, each having its own
structure, and man can interact with each level. Different places induce
different psychological states, though not every one is sensitive or aware of
these and many are subject to fantasy.
All four
kinds of phenomena exist throughout nature, but the word ‘body’ is used only
when there is a self-maintaining organisation. According to some authorities it
is possible to organise these higher levels into independent bodies. These four
bodies may correspond to the four souls mentioned in the Quran, namely:-
(1) Nafs-i-Ammara ,
the Commanding soul (Quran 12:53) (2) Nafs-i-lawwama, The Self-accusing, or
self-critical (Quran 75:2) (3) Nafs-i-mulhima, The Inspired Soul (Quran 34:2). and (4) Nafs-i-mutmainna, The Fulfilled or Perfect Soul
(Quran 89:27-30).
It is not
reasonable to reject this idea outright, but in the absence of evidence we can
suspend judgement. But even if we do so, the fact remains that we can certainly
distinguish between these four ways of functioning. Generally, when
distinctions of function have been made, structures responsible for them are
eventually found.
According
to some theories there is correspondence between minerals, plants, animals and
man on the one hand and the four bodies, and their
functions are described as mechanical, organic, intellectual and spiritual
respectively.
Mineral
objects only have the physical body, plants have the Subtle or Aural Body in
addition which is responsible for what might be called instincts and emotions
by means of which they grow, are organised and have certain sensitivities and
reactions. Animals have the third body in addition to the other two and this
allows motor and intellectual functions. That is, animals can take in
information, process these and act accordingly, a capability not possessed by
plants. Most information, after all, comes through light, which is an
electromagnetic phenomena. Human beings have, or can
create, the fourth or Spiritual body in addition to the other three. This
allows the existence of the higher faculties of consciousness, conscience and
will. However, these may only be differences of degree.
----------<O>----------
The question
is:- What is Consciousness?
The fact is
that unless we are conscious nothing can exist or be real for us, neither the
world nor ourselves. Thus there is a
connection between reality and consciousness. Reality, however, must be prior
to consciousness, otherwise it cannot be real. The implication of this is that
things may be real which we are not conscious of. But all things we are
conscious of are real to us.
The word
“con-sciousness” implies three things - awareness, togetherness and some entity
to which it applies, a centre or ‘I’.
(1) It
refers to a Unity which includes the observer, the observation and the things
observed. Unity, however, could mean (a) the entire collection of all things
(b) a thing which is an organisation of parts (c) An integrated wholeness
having no parts. Since it refers to a whole it can never be the subject of
logical reasoning or computation.
(2) It
refers to the ability to see things not in isolation but as parts of a greater
whole. To be conscious implies that we can relate diverse items together and
see the wholeness so formed, the patterns made and its self-consistency. This
also makes possible analysis and synthesis. All this will depend on the
quantity, quality and relationship of the data available and how it has been
previously analysed, related and synthesised.
(3) But
awareness itself requires something, itself unified,
which has that awareness. Consciousness depends on the degree of integration of
the subject or person who is conscious. This may vary between things and in the
same object at different times. The centre of integration in a person can be
denoted by “I”. This may, therefore, be in various states of stability and
integration. Consciousness is a property of the “I” but cannot be known, since
knowledge refers to what the “I” knows. The ‘I’ is not to be confused with the
ego, an idea of self, since heightened states of consciousness create a feeling
of egolessness. We are not normally aware of an ego, though behaviour is
governed by it sub-consciously. Awareness must not be confused with sensation,
feeling or thought processes. These can take place without awareness.
Consciousness should not, therefore, be regarded as a ‘ghost in the machine’,
but a property of the way things are organised. There are many states of
consciousness. However, it could be that certain parts or substances within the
body can become separately organised and capable of an independent life and
consciousness, in a manner analogous to the emergence of butterflies from
caterpillars.
(4)
Awareness is the relationship between the subject or knower and the object or
thing known. Consciousness is the relationship between the “I” and the data
received or in memory. Consciousness cannot, therefore, be the object of
knowledge. We cannot experience other people’s consciousness. However, it can
be known indirectly. If we perceive that there is a necessary relationship R
between our inner conscious state C and our outer behaviour B, then if we see
the same behaviour in other things, we can deduce that consciousness is present
in them provided the same relationship exists between their inner state and
external behaviour. To establish this requires that we perceive the difference
between conscious and non-conscious behaviour. Unfortunately, we cannot
perceive this difference because we are unconscious with respect to
non-conscious behaviour. However, we do tend to remember actions which we have
done unconsciously. We could also arrange to observe and compare someone else’s
action when he is conscious and unconscious. But this requires that we are
already convinced that he has consciousness. This is established by the fact
that this other person is like ourselves.
Studies of
consciousness have revealed the following facts:-
Human
beings do not merely react mechanically to sensations. They may react to
stimuli which are not recognised by the ordinary sense organs at all. They
search for data. They also form memories, analyse, associate and synthesise
these, and make images and ideas in the mind which affect their behaviour, and
they may or may not be aware of these. Sensations depend on the nature of the
sense organs, the direction of attention and selection. Sensations have to be
interpreted by association with other experiences to create perceptions, and
these have to be organised to create ideas. Motor, emotional and intellectual
factors are involved. Selection and organisation depends on interests and
motives, the conceptual framework, and habits of actions, feeling and thinking.
These images and ideas are formed by an interaction of three things:- (a) physical or sense data (b) social interactions (c)
psychological factors. It is perfectly possible for different individuals,
groups, nations, cultures or races, or for the same person at different times,
to see different things in the same situation. It is possible to manipulate
people to see or not to see something. The mind itself organises sensations in
certain ways. It forms patterns, rhythms and structures according to its
inherent nature. Ideas about what is true, good, beautiful or useful have,
therefore, been much too naive in the past.
Psychologists
recognise four states of the mind:- The conscious, the
pre-conscious, the sub-conscious, and the unconscious mind.
Thus
consciousness is distinguished from mind. Mind refers to the processing and
consciousness to awareness of it. Consciousness, however, is variable in
intensity, extensity and stability. It is, therefore, possible to speak of
several kinds of consciousness. We can speak about Attentive Consciousness when
we become conscious of our pre-conscious minds, as when we examine something
closely or conduct scientific observations. This clearly bestows much greater
powers on us. Self-consciousness may be defined as consciousness of our
sub-conscious minds. Objective consciousness requires that we become conscious
of the processes going on in our unconscious minds. In so far as all things are
interlinked, inter-dependant and interactive, we may also speak about a Cosmic consciousness. This requires that we be aware not
only of the immediate situation but also of all our past experiences and
memories and see them as a whole. But this may be regarded as a theoretically
possible condition rather than an actual one. There is some evidence that there
is a mind corresponding to this within man of which we are unconscious.
Hypnosis appears to produce results compatible with this. Some rare people may
have achieved this form of consciousness if legends are correct.
Experiments
show that consciousness can be expanded, contracted, transferred between
different levels, disintegrated, re-integrated, destabilised, stabilised and
moved. We can select a focus of attention. We can direct it outwards or
inwards. We can move consciousness into different parts of the body. The centre
of consciousness as well as the focus can be fixed to some complex of ideas or
part of the brain or object. It can be personal or impersonal. It can be
detached so that a person feels depersonalised or sees himself as a separate
object. One part of the brain can see another as if it were something external
to it. There are hallucinations, dream states, reverie, and different states of
hypnosis. Events occurring at one level or area can enter another. Most human
consciousness is narrow, unstable and disintegrated to various degrees. There
is probably a separate consciousness connected with groups of cells, particular
tissues, organs, nerve channels, local areas in the brain and complexes of
experiences and ideas. These different consciousnesses merge to form the
personal consciousness. There may also be an emergent collective consciousness
due to interaction between people in a community, and a still greater one
connected with humanity as a whole. However, as the consciousness of the
individual is limited and he does not have access to it, it is better to speak
about a Collective Unconscious.
There is
reason to believe that all living things, and indeed all things whatever, are
in communication with each other and together form a Unified Field, and that
consciousness can be developed to become aware of this. The ordinary waking
attention filters out most of this information because of the narrowness of
interest and particularly because of the development and use of language. This
is connected with these narrow interests and uses a simpler mode of
communication. Language has allowed the growth of reason which has been highly
successful. But it is slow and ponderous and does not provide as much
information as direct communication. We need merely compare the experience of
an object with a verbal description of it, or a simple action such walking with
the mathematical description of the movements involved. However, there are
cases of people who suffer greatly because their conscious minds are
overwhelmed with great amounts of information because of malfunctioning
Filters. They become confused and unable to cope. Clearly the capacity to
process and organise this information at sufficient speed and efficiency is
also required. The unconscious mind appears to have such a capacity.
The idea of a Universal Consciousness has been
advanced, but is not accepted in science. However, since all things are
divisible into smaller and smaller parts until they disappear, we may speak of
patterns or structures in Space-Time at various levels. We may represent
Universal Consciousness by a Great Circle having a structure. Within this there
are a great number of smaller circles, each having their own structures. These
also contain still smaller circles with their own structures. And so on. The
circumference controls the inward and outward motion of information and
influences, making each circle partially independent of its environment to
various degrees. The structures within a circle of consciousness are seen as
ideas, those outside it are seen as material objects, and there is an
interaction between the outer and inner and this is understood as experience or
life. New Circles may form in, and old ones may dissolve into, the greater
circles.
Consciousness
is generally regarded as a property of the brain. But this was not always the
case. In the past it was regarded as existing in the heart. The reason for this
difference seems to be that a change has taken place in emphasis on the
faculties we use. The intellect is more important than the feelings in the
modern age, as is the information received through the sense organs located in
the head.
The location of
consciousness in the brain is a mistake for the following reasons:-
1. We have not only
a central nervous system which consists of the brain, having numerous parts as
well as the spinal cord, but also an autonomous nervous system which is
divisible into a sympathetic and a parasympathetic nervous system.
2. There are a
number of nerve centres or complexes throughout the body. The cardiac and solar
plexus are well known.
3. The brain cannot
operate without the blood, which brings oxygen and nutrition, and the endocrine
system, which bring all kinds of hormones which determine how the brain works.
4. All the organs in
the body have a nerve supply, and no information can be gained without the
activities in them.
5. Memories do not
only form in the cells of the brain and other parts of the nervous system, but
also in the endocrine gland, muscles and other tissues of the body. That is,
experience modifies them and this modification affects behaviour and
perception.
6. It is likely that
consciousness is connected with a much more fundamental level of existence,
namely a sub-quantum field. The human mind may simply limit it to within our
body. Many people have reported experiences in which it was not limited in this
way. Out of the body experiences are not uncommon.
7. The brain itself is formed by the differentiation and migration and interconnection of cells. This appears to be controlled from something outside the brain. The brain can be damaged and yet recover. The functions located in one part can be taken over by another part.
The human
mind was regarded at one time as identical with the brain, and it was later
compared to a computer which requires both hardware wiring (the brain) and a
software program (the mind). Further research, however, has altered the
picture. A computer also requires a user and someone who writes the program.
The
computer is able to process data much faster and more efficiently than human
beings. It can and does, therefore, replace human beings in Industry, Business,
Laboratories, Offices and many other places. Human beings are apparently
becoming redundant. According to some people the computerised Robot may be the
next stage in evolution. It will have artificial intelligence and learning
capabilities and can be made to repair itself or other computers and robots,
and even to construct more sophisticated robots. Thus even evolution can be
built into them. They may become wholly independent of human beings and replace
them.
The
computer, however, differs from human beings in many respects.
It is not
organic since it consists of mineral units, crystals rather than cells, and cannot
be dynamically adaptable and complex enough to have consciousness. They are
rigid structures which do not grow, form new links, and produce chemicals,
reproduce and die. It is not capable of faith, love and hope. It does not
possess initiative, creativity and a sense of responsibility. A conscience, in
the form of laws, do and don’ts, could, however, be built into it. It is not an
integrated unit, but a collection of circuits. It cannot form concepts. It
cannot understand abstract concepts such as Beauty, Morality, Justice and
Truth. It has to be programmed simply, unambiguously and literally. It consists
of units called ‘bits’ which can have only two states, off or on.. Each bit deals with a single item. The units of the
brain, however, are complex growing cells which have multiple connections with
numerous other cells, thereby creating a network. Each cell has a multiplicity
of functions. A computer may recognise a word as a combination of letters which
when connected to another set of bits produces well defined reactions, and all
the reactions are separate items of behaviour. The human mind, however, sees
the word as a whole and this may be connected with other words to form a whole.
The reactions are not separate and independent. The memory in the computer is
located in well defined positions. Human memory has a centre of integration.
All of it is associated with an idea of the body or of self. Memory and even
perception disappears if some part of the body is, for some reason, discarded
from the image of self. Though the cerebrum has two distinct areas, the left
which concerns itself mainly with language and speech, and the right which
deals with the more imaginative side of man, if the connection between these
two areas is cut, it does not produce two different personalities. When one
part of the brain is damaged another can take over its function. The computer
cannot do this.
Human
memory and perception, moreover, cannot exist without subjectivity. The colour
red, for instance, is a subjective impression. It represents an external
electromagnetic wave of a particular frequency. The same applies to other
qualities. Human perception deals in relationship and patterns rather than in
discrete items as the computer does. The efficacy of a computer depends on the
possibility of obtaining predictable results. This depends on the circuitry.
But the human brain displays versatility and the operation of quantum and chaos
principles. However, human beings do often behave like computers and robots,
being programmed and operated by others or by the environment and having a set
of automatisms. They will, to that extent, be replaced by them as progress in
their design and power continues. The main difference lies in human
potentialities. Though human beings are partly programmed by the world, they
are also self-programmed by their behaviour.
Though a
computer is based on logic and capable of logical processes, it has been
impossible to construct a computer which emulates human thinking and language.
This is mainly because no rules for human thought and creative processes have
been discovered. Much of Human thinking is, therefore, beyond logic. It may,
however, be possible to allow the computer to generate random rules, select
useful ones, and combine these into complex systems. This would emulate the
evolutionary process itself. The human mind also uses such evolutionary
process.
There is
another lesson to be learnt from computers. An object on the screen, some times
called virtual reality, can be defined as a computer program. This program can
grow or be modified according to what we add to memory. It can be multiplied,
transferred and manipulated. If the image on the screen dies, the program still
remains in tact outside virtual reality. The image can be revived at a future
date. There is a correspondence between this program and the chromosomes and
genes from which all living things arise. The same kind of correspondence
exists with the way ideas are propagated. The relationship between Virtual
Reality and the Subjective World we perceive may not be different from the
relationship between the Subjective World and Real World. We live in a kind of
Virtual Reality. Death in this world is not death in Reality.
It is
necessary to distinguish between three levels - that of mechanical behaviour,
that of feeling and motivation where we have values such as truth, beauty,
goodness and usefulness with which understanding is connected, and that where
concepts and ideas arise requiring consciousness.
Computers
do not have feelings, cannot understand and no ethics, aesthetic, economic and
scientific judgements can be made by them. For these they must rely on the
human programmer. They are not conscious and cannot form concepts and ideas.
These are inner or subjective experiences. Consciousness implies seeing the
wholeness of things, the patterns made by the parts and understanding refers to
relationship which things have with the rest of one’s experiences. This would
require that all the parts of the computer somehow form a synthesis, a unity
which exists apart from the components. Consciousness is not the same thing as
thinking which may be regarded as a computational activity similar to what
computers do. Nor is it possible to simulate consciousness or understanding or
make models of it, mathematical or otherwise. Human beings can create rules and
procedures; computers, on the other hand, work by rules or procedures created
by human beings and cannot themselves create them except by means of other
rules.
The brain
can be regarded almost like a computer where nerve cells represent the chips or
parts of them and the nerve fibres represent the wiring. However, note the
following differences:- nerves fibres are connected in
multiple ways. They carry impulses which when they reach a certain threshold
cause chemical neurotransmitters (created by physiological processes and the
brain cells themselves) to migrate to the next nerve ending through the
synapses where they increase the probability that the nerve will fire and so
continue the transmission. This process can be excited or inhibited by other
chemicals produced by the endocrine system. Apart from this there is a built-in
“plasticity” which allows the cells to grow and shrink, produce new connections
or remove old ones. There is a certain random factor built into the brain which
allows new forms of behaviour, trial and error, so that the brain can also
learn in the Darwinian natural selection method. Nevertheless, this circuitry,
though much more sophisticated than any computer, can still be regarded as
deterministic though not mechanical. There are about 1011 neurons capable of
103 impulses per sec. each, giving us a a computing power of 1014 per sec.
This is
not, however, the only way in which the brain can operate. A group of cells can
act together in a coherent way with its own vibrations and resonances.
A nerve cell has a body which gives off
several short fibres called dendrites which pick up nerve impulses, and a long
Axon ending in several branches. These may connect via a synapse with the
dendrites of other neurons. It has two control centres - the nucleus or
Mitochondria contains the genetic material and a
second structure, the centrosome, which controls the cell’s movements,
organisation and activity. This centrosome can be regarded as the neuron’s own
nervous system, a kind of spinal chord, consisting of 9 sets of two or three
tubes sometimes arranged around a set of inner tubes. Each micro-tube consists
of proteins and is divided into two different kinds of tubulins, each composed
of about 450 amino-acids and arranged in 13 columns of dimers. Each dimer can
exist in two different states responding to electrical polarisation. They
contain electronically well organised water along which chemicals and ions
flow. The centrosome itself is controlled by the centriole which consists of
two cylinders of 9 sets of 3 microtubules, arranged like a broken T, one
vertical and the other horizontal. These microtubules are small enough to be
sensitive to quantum events and the laws governing them, including integration
of events and coherence, influence at a distance, the simultaneous existence of
many possibilities, and the forward and backward motion in time. It is the
processes going on in these which control the events at the synapses. What is
more if the dimers are compared to computer chips, then
there are 107 of them in each neuron which gives a computing power of 1027 per
sec.
We may also
suppose that still another level of consciousness become possible, that of the
underlying universal sub-quantum field itself, where all phenomena in the
Universe are inter-linked.
Similar
structures exist also in other cells of the body. They exist also in animals
and plants. If consciousness is, indeed connected with the quantum field, then
we may infer that degrees of consciousness exist throughout our bodies and also
in animals and plants. Though many people, including scientists have recognised
these facts, their consequences have not been worked out. The point is that
Consciousness requires that the data of experience should merge together to
form an over all unity. If this depends on the fundamental property of matter
then it must be regarded a universal phenomena, though macro organisation tends
to confine and limit it to various degrees - fundamentally the Universe is an
ocean of probability waves, but the wave functions collapse into particles. In
so far as quantum events take place throughout the universe, we may infer that
there is a Universal Consciousness. in which all
events take place. Our consciousness is a small part of this, and is not our
own personal property. We are not aware of all processes in our own bodies.
Therefore, our personal consciousness is a small part of our totality. If there
can be a unified consciousness in some part of the brain or body owing to the
collective action of many cells then there is Local Consciousness. And there
can also be a unified consciousness in groups of people - there is Collective
Consciousness to various degrees. It should be possible to invent techniques
operating on the micro-tubules to enhance consciousness through the various
levels. This would change our idea of what we are. Religious techniques
probably work in this way.
The coexistence of the inner conscious mind and the
outer physical reality has been a problem for religion, philosophy and science
for a long time and still is. Both are real experiences and yet there is a
difference between such things as the experience of colours and the physical
forces which are so experienced. There is also a difference between sensations,
feelings and thoughts, between mechanical or habitual actions and intelligent
ones and those based on understanding. On the other hand, it is well known that
the psychological state can produce changes in behaviour as well as
physiological ones and, through these, changes in the environment. But
physical, chemical and physiological factors produce psychological changes.
There is, therefore, a connection. There appear to be three possibilities:-
(a) That
consciousness is an aspect of the structure of the body or a part of it, i.e.
the brain. But consciousness is variable and even disappears in sleep though
the structure of the body remains the same. It cannot, therefore, be the same
thing.
(b) That it is
connected with the functioning of the body which does change. It is an epi-phenomena.
But this does not allow it to produce physical changes, being itself the result of such changes.
(c) That it is separate but a change in physical state allows us to become an instrument to access and transmit it. By state we will mean organisation - whether the parts are separate, the degree to which they are linked or integrated. However, this still retains the problem of whether it is a material thing or something else.
This problem can be solved as follows:-
Materiality has meaning only in relation to
consciousness - there is no object if there is no observer. We cannot know
things which do not have effects on our consciousness. There are only
experiences. Therefore, the three notions of matter, energy and consciousness
must be aspects of the same thing. This corresponds to the distinction already
made between structure, function and state. We can only distinguish between
what is grosser (more inert and disintegrated) and what is subtler (more
sensitive and organised). Thus we can have a series of substances progressively
more conscious.
There is also a distinction to be made between purely
physical or physiological processes, mental ones, which may properly be
referred to brain activity and conscious ones. The mind is more than body which
should be clear from the fact that we can change our behaviour and environment
and create new things which were not there before and cannot be explained by
causal forces existing the physical world. If the physical system is denoted by
a circle P, then to create a change in it requires some force from outside it,
a circle M. M will overlap P, so that it will contain something outside it, and
P will contain something outside M. Conscious can be denoted by a circle C
which has similar relationships with the other two. We will, therefore, have a
small centre in the middle where the three coincide.
Human
beings communicate with each other and the environment not only consciously
through verbal language but also subconsciously through gestures, intonations,
body language and quite unconsciously through chemical and biological (exchange
of bacteria etc) and electromagnetic means. Very subtle behaviour changes take
place as reactions to the behaviour of others and these reactions affect
others. People emit chemicals according to mood and the nervous system radiates
electromagnetic influences. Dogs and other animals are better at picking up
these signals. Information reaches us, modifies our behaviour and even our
physical structure, and we affect our surroundings in a manner we are unaware
of. In common with other living things we live in a world full of forces of
various kinds, some coming from processes occurring in the earth, the sun, the
solar system, the galaxy and the Universe as a whole, and there are resonances
and rhythms within us which are connected with these events.
It follows,
therefore, that:-
1. We
receive information in other ways besides that which comes through our senses.
This ability is far greater than ordinarily supposed. The human body is the
most sensitive and versatile of instruments. Knowledge comes to us in four
ways:-
(a) Through lingual communication
(b) Direct conscious experiences,
(c) Through the subconscious experiences of the subtle kind
(d) Through unconscious communication.
The ability
to sense things is not confined to the sense organs or the range to which they
are sensitive. These sense organs are specialised to be extra sensitive and derive
from a general sensitivity in the fertilised egg and the tissues derived from
it. This is proved by the phenomena of Synthesia. There are a number of people
in whom the senses are connected so that they can experience sounds as colours
and shapes, for instance. Smell, touch, tastes, vision and sound can all be
connected with each other in the same way. It is, therefore, possible to
develop the same senses in all other parts of body and to increase their range.
Dogs are sensitive to scents left by people long after they have departed. It
is not inconceivable that some human beings can, by sensing objects, discover
some thing about their owners. People also differ according to which of the
senses are mainly used for thinking. Some think in the sound of words, others
by the actual motions and feel of words. Some think in terms of body motions or
visual images and so on. Man has lost most of his sensitivity due to neglect
and the use of instruments as he has lost many skills due to the use of
machines. He could lose his intellectual capabilities due to use of computers
and calculators. It is already a fact that modern man cannot memorise as well
as people did in olden days.
There are
three sources of information:-
(a) Apart
from the popularly known five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch
which interpret light sound, chemical stimuli, heat and pressure, we also have
a muscle sense by which we judge weight, a sense of orientation and balance.
There are, in fact, seven senses.
(b) We have
senses which inform us of inner states. We are, for instance, aware of
physiological or mental pain and discomfort, but also of feelings and thoughts,
that is, endocrine and nervous changes which we may interpret in various ways.
The brain is constantly active and past memories are constantly processed,
analysed, re-combined and synthesised in various ways. It is this which allows
hallucinations, illusion, remembering, imagination, lying, fantasy, the
creation of fiction and actual invention. These are degrees of the same thing.
(c) It is also known
that the brain and other tissues react much more directly to various
environmental stimuli. Light, its various colours, smells, sounds, ultra-sound,
vibrations of other kinds, electrical and magnetic fields have their effects,
For instance, it is known that before an earthquake actually takes place, there
are changes in the earth which manifest as complex electrical or magnetic or
even gravitational changes. Animals are sensitive to these. In man a great many
unusual experiences such as those connected with “Flying Saucers” coincide with
such occurrences. It is possible that “ghosts” can be attributed to these.
Quite apart from the way these experiences are interpreted, the fact remains
that human beings, depending on their varying sensitivities, are affected by
cosmic states and events. “Visions” of various kinds are not uncommon and vary
in their sophistication. These should be distinguished from hallucination by
(i) The fact that they refer to
actual objective phenomena,
(ii) They retain consistency with the rest of experience,
and inferences based on them can be verified,
(iii) They do not cause maladjustment. On the contrary some
lead to even better adjustment to reality.
2. We can
process information by association, analysis, synthesis, abstraction of common
elements, and organisation into patterns, We can do
this subconsciously in emotional ways or deliberately through intellectual
reasoning. or in other higher much more powerful ways.
Swimming, manipulating objects, works of art, leaps of insight and inspired
theories in science and so on illustrate this. There appear to be both higher
emotional and intellectual faculties which process greater amounts of
information, often of subtler kinds, at a much faster rate and to greater
levels of organisation and synthesis. This occurs when the rational faculties
are suspended. The results of these are not normally understood by the lower
feelings and intellect. However, their presence is known to exist because of
the frustration and bewilderment created when ideas understood in dream or
semi-dream states fail to be understood on awakening.
Intuitions, inspirations and revelations are probably due to these higher
faculties. Information processing goes on within the genes, cells, tissues and
organs through chemical, electronic and electromagnetic processes, and we are
quite unconscious of these. It may, however, be that these processes
occasionally enter consciousness and we may interpret these in various ways.
3. We
produce an output and influence our environments in ways other than by our
deliberate actions and in a much greater and subtler way. We communicate
sub-consciously or unconsciously through gestures, expressions and body
language. These are outer manifestations of inner states. Though most people
are unaware of producing or being affected by them, some people have various
amounts of expertise in both producing and interpreting them. We affect the
environment through our excretions, faeces, urine, sweat and breath which
contains not only carbon dioxide, but also other chemicals and micro-organisms.
Our thoughts, emotions, muscle tensions and so on create chemical changes and
some of these are expelled. These can be smelled by animals, for instance.
These chemicals also cause direct changes in people and other organisms.
Pheromones, for instance, cause sexual stimulation. We also cause
electromagnetic changes in the environment which affect things. It is more than
likely that whole communities can change the electromagnetic condition of their
environment which will then affect the objects and events in it.
The States
of consciousness have been classified as follows:-
1.
Dreamless or Orthodox sleep. The heartbeat is regular, but some muscles are
tense. The brain produces slow delta rhythms. Growth hormones in the blood
increase, cell division increases, the body repairs itself. This is found in
most animals.
2.
Paradoxical sleep connected with rapid eye movements (REM), dreams, rapid brain
waves which resemble wakefulness and the heart beat is irregular but the
muscles are more relaxed. The sleeper is difficult to wake. More blood flows to
the brain and more heat is generated showing greater brain activity. The brain
processes and assimilates the unsorted memories of the previous day and this
produces the dreams, most of which are forgotten on waking. This kind of sleep
is only found in higher animals. Dreams also arise from the subconscious and,
perhaps, from the unconscious levels in a symbolic form.
These types
of sleep, alternate, and both are important for health. Sleep usually requires
three things:- (a) the suspension of consciousness, (b) a degree of
physiological paralysis, and (c) the loss of control over nervous activity.
Sometimes, the three do not coincide. A person may retain a degree of
consciousness. The paralysis then induces fear which, in its turn, leads to a
number of horrifying experiences, or nightmares. On the other hand, the free
activity of the brain may lead to the solution of problems which the waking
mind could not solve because its attention was rigidly controlled by fixations
or habits or by attention to objects.
3. Reverie
- Wandering and un-concentrated attention.<
4. There is
wakeful consciousness in which we focus attention and gather information
through the senses, select and react to them. This, however, cuts out awareness
of other subtler influences which the sub-conscious mind also receives. The
conscious mind, however, is slow compared to the sub-conscious. Pictures shown
at speeds too great to be consciously recognised nevertheless were recognised
by the sub-conscious mind. This can be demonstrated by associating an electric
shock when a picture is shown several times. There will then be a reflexes
reaction when the picture is shown by itself.
5.
Concentrated or Rational consciousness. Consciousness is narrowed down to
exclude data which is not of interest. But the senses are sharpened and much
subtler stimuli, differences and changes can be observed. reason
is applied to the selection, interpretation, and organising of data.
6.
Intuition may be regarded as the falling into order of data in the subconscious
mind, though the results are verbalised in the conscious mind. This usually
requires the suspension of the rational faculty. The data so organised may come
from three sources:- that which is gathered
consciously, that which is contained in the sub-conscious and that which exists
in the unconscious and derives both from the organism itself and that which
comes from the environment. Cosmic rhythms, such as those of day and night, the
seasons and the phases of the moon appear to have set up similar rhythms in man
which then affect the way they see and interpret. People are sensitive to the
harmonies and rhythms of music, and this is probably connected with cosmic
rhythms and is known to affect thinking even in science.
7.
Imagination in which the brain itself creates the images. This gives rise to
creativity, fantasy and hallucination, which may be mistaken for objective or
external phenomena. Though some people may dismiss these as unreal, the fact
is, though not material, they are real, and can have material effects. Ideas
change the world.
8.
Hypnosis, fascination and suggestibility. Consciousness becomes restricted to
some object, and the mind is controlled by suggestion or the object. Trance
induced by rhythmic movements, chants, music etc. have similar effects.
Illusions or misinterpretations of experience and selective
perception is governed by this.
9.
Heightened consciousness created by meditation. The thinking faculty has to be
suspended. This is similar to sleep as far as the two other ingredients are
concerned.
10.
Contemplation. Several other stage of consciousness are
also known but they are not reached by many people and no research has been
done in these higher levels.
The
distinction and power of the higher mind over the physical body can be seen
from the following:-
Under
hypnosis it is possible for people to feel no pain when injured, or to feel pain
without injury; to see and hear things for which there are no corresponding
stimuli or not to see or hear things presented to them; to remove or induce
allergic reactions despite the fact that these have connections only with blood
chemistry. Self-suggestion can bring about many physiological changes. There
are physical diseases which bring about changes in consciousness, and
psychological states which bring about physiological changes.
Meditation
techniques have induced what is called the ‘oceanic feeling’ of oneness with
the Cosmos. Dissociation, the separation between self and not self is removed,
the ego dissolves and time slows down merging with eternity, and things are
seen with greater clarity. Sensitivity increases and the person responds to very small and subtle stimuli and changes. A
feeling of well being and peace occurs, and the state is felt as an awakening.
Revelation and inspiration is associated with them. These states are known as
satori, moksha, samadhi, union, divine love, ecstasy, bliss etc.
The
physiological effects of meditation are the lowering of temperature, blood
pressure, pulse and respiration rates, metabolism and brain activity is
reduced. Increased carbon dioxide and decrease in oxygen in the blood seem to
be involved, hence the effect of high altitudes and certain kinds of breathing
techniques. Diets such as vegetarian ones which reduce the acidity of the blood
and, in compensation, increases its carbon dioxide
content, are also used. A study of the brains of people who meditate shows
thicker prefrontal cortex activity which is connected higher thinking and
planning, and also in the insula on the right side where sensation, emotion and
thought are integrated. This thickening is due to a greater number of
inter-connections and a richer nutrient carrying blood supply. On the other
hand people who suffer from trauma, stresses and anxiety have thinner areas in
this region. Human behaviour depends on the brain and other organs of the body,
including the respiration, the blood circulation and the endocrine system which
the brain also affects. It is constantly forming new connections in response to
experiences and efforts, but this also depends on the appropriate supply of
nutrition. Therefore, the environment, the attitude to it, the experience, the
life style, the diet, the efforts, the thoughts, motives and behaviour, the
value systems, all modify the person and affect his development or
degeneration, and through him the rest of the society and environment with
which he interacts. Human beings are able to control all this to various
degrees, have a Cosmic function and can rightly be regarded as part of the
Universal Creative process, as Vicegerents of the Creator.
Experiments
to study the Will, the control which the mind has over the body and the
environment show that many extraordinary feats are possible. It is possible to
control the metabolic rate, to control body temperature and blood pressure, to
become immune to extreme cold, to be buried in the ground for long periods of
time, to hibernate, cure diseases, communicate with and affect events in the
environment, often at long distances, and so on. If similar emotional states or
electrical brain patterns are set up in two people at a distance, then changes
induced in one can be communicated to the other. Such telepathic contact also
causes changes in blood pressure, respiration rate and heart beats, decrease in
tension, muscle tone and skin resistance. This condition is obtained when
meditators empty their minds of all thoughts as recommended in many systems.
Telepathy can be enhanced by electromagnetic fields.
It is a
well known fact that the psychological state of a person not only affects his
behaviour, but also his physical state and the way he experiences and sees
things. There is also enough evidence that it affects other people, creatures,
objects and the environment as a whole. The fact that a
person is able to act intentionally, that is, he can control his physical
actions, itself shows the power of the mind over the body. This
possibility is called Will and many extra-ordinary feats arise from it, in
self-extension, against personal disabilities, adverse circumstances, and
social opposition. People can cause their own diseases and death as well
healing.
Scientific
experiments have also been done on Prayer. Some experiments were performed
using a culture of bacteria. People were asked to pray about them. The results
were recorded. It was found consistently that the rate of multiplication of
these bacteria was affected. The bacteria cannot be said to have had knowledge
of what was being done or any faith of their own. Investigations were also done
in the claims people made about answered prayers and remission of diseases and
disabilities.
It was
found that:-
(1) The
prayer was most effective when there was a state of reverence.
(2)
Experience and skill in praying affected the results.
(3) The
prayer which was open-ended rather than specific was most effective. That is,
the prayer was for the welfare of the bacteria not for multiplication.
(4) Prayer
was effective regardless of the religion professed by the person, and even if
he was an agnostic.
(5) Both
negative and positive results could be achieved. That is both benefits and harm
could be done.
(6) Prayer
was often effective instantly even over very long distances. The forces
involved appear to be outside the limits of space and serial time.
(7) Prayer
was more effective when the there was no limited object or image to which the
prayer was addressed.
(8) Prayer could have
several forms:-
Asking (a) for some material advantage; (b) for change in events; (c)
for personal power or enhanced ability; (d) for some psychological state such
as peace, comfort, courage etc. ; (e)
for the welfare of others; (f) As a means of praise or adoration of God. (g) A
state of surrender or acceptance which may be formulated as “Thy Will be done”.
Though a person’s personal request is answered, this often does not turn out to
be beneficial to the person in the long run. But the state of surrender though
it might lead to some unasked results turn out to be much more advantageous.
(9)
Persistent prayer strengthened the desires expressed as well as confidence or
faith.
(10) The
achievements of people varied directly with the strength of their desires and
confidence. This is because desire concentrates attention on opportunities to
fulfil them and leads to an appropriate search, selection, and interpretation
of experiences. It also leads to actions which create appropriate responses
from the environment. All these increase the faith which in turn strengthens
the decisiveness of an action and the desire.
It is,
therefore, true that
(a) Many things are seen, felt or believed which are not
externally real;
(b) Many things which are real and could be experienced are
not experienced;
(c) The climate of beliefs and opinions in a community
affects what people see or do not see;
(d) It is possible to alter what we experience, and
therefore, the world we perceive;
(e) Many diseases, malfunctions and conditions exist which
need not exist;
(f) Many physical and psychological conditions could exist
which do not;
(g) It is possible to alter our own state of health and
functioning.
(h) It is possible by altering the climate of opinion and
beliefs, the nature of people and their interactions.
(i) It is possible to change the
physical environment and its effects on human beings by changing their social
and psychological nature.
Some research
has also been done on the way we acquire knowledge. A person usually has more
knowledge than he is normally aware of. This can be demonstrated by questioning
him under hypnosis. Some is due to sub-conscious records of experiences, and
some is inherent in the organism. Some of this knowledge may sometimes come
into his awareness spontaneously, or due to stimulation by circumstances. A
person may act according to this knowledge unconsciously, consciously or not at
all. He acquires knowledge in several ways:-
(a) From experiences through the outer senses.
(b) From inner experiences connected with his own
physiology and events in his mind.
(c) From communication with others or what he reads and
hears.
(d) From thinking about things, by
arranging the data of experience gained in the above ways according to some
motive or interest.
(e) Experiences when chewed, digested and assimilated, that
is when analysed, related and integrated tend to form structures or patterns.
He may or may not be aware of these patterns.
(f) Over a long history of evolution information is
genetically built into a person. This affects the way a person behaves, is
motivated and sees things. But this is usually indescribable though sometimes
it emerges in symbolic forms. (g) There are events taking place in the whole
Quantum Field and the Cosmos of which a person is a part, and this affects his
brain and body.
Research
has recently been done into what is known as faith healing. Two groups of
people were given a small injury on their arms. They were then required to push
their arms through a hole in a wall for a few minutes over several days, being
told that a special camera was going to be used to photograph the energy field
around their arms. On the other side of the wall, unknown to the participants
in the experiment, a faith healer was required do his healing without touching
the subject. It was found that in every case the wounds of those so treated
healed faster than those on whom no healing was done. Obviously, no faith on the
part of the subjects was required.
In another
experiment a random number generator was employed which was set up to produce
an average of 100. Various people were tested to see whether they could, by
means of their intention or concentration of thought alone, affect the working
of the machine. It was found that they could. They were able to change the
average to less or more than 100. Dr. Robert Jahn who was Dean of Engineering
at Princeton University in the U.S.A conducted thousands of experiments with mechanical
and electronic devices producing random events and found that:-
(a) People could change the way these machines worked by
intention alone without any physical contact.
(b) That these effects varied with people and could almost
be used as unique signatures.
(c) That they could affect the working of the machine even
from thousands of miles away as if no time interval was involved.
Most
scientists at his University and elsewhere refused to believe him, refused even
to look at the evidence or to perform the experiments. Dr. Jahn was ostracised,
ridiculed and demoted. He was retained in post only because of his brilliant
work in other Engineering projects. The closed mind of the conventional
scientist is becoming notorious. Progress in knowledge, it seems will require
disestablishment of Scientism, the religion of Science.
It seems
that the mind affects the Quantum Field and through it, produces resonance
effects on other objects. This has implications for evolution. Changes in
organisms could occur not because of external factors alone but inner ones,
desires and intentions. We may also ask what the effect on our environments is
when whole communities have certain ways of thinking, behaving and intending.
If the mind can affect systems around us directly, then this also poses a
problem as to what it is that the scientific observer is observing. The
scientific fact is perhaps not a fact independent of the observer at all.
Though the capacity for producing direct changes is very small, it often
requires only very small changes to trigger off large changes, just as the mere
pushing of a switch can cause a powerful engine to start.
Dowsing is
a well tested phenomenon. The Dowser uses a Y-shaped twig, a pendulum or some
other aid in order to locate water, minerals or some object in the earth. The
success rate for some dowsers is far greater than chance would allow.
Sometimes, he merely uses a map of an area rather than the area itself. No
scientific explanation for this has ever been found. No known force appears to
be involved. The mystery connected with this is as great as that which used to
be connected with magnetic lodestones before magnetism and electricity were
discovered.
There are a great number of other phenomena under the
title Paranormal or Psychics which have been observed and well documented.
Present day science has no explanation for them. These refer to hidden human
faculties and potentialities not normally functioning. Though some scientific
research has been done, these tend to be ignored and even denied. The
controlled experimental situation, however, often interferes with these
phenomena. Experiments and explanations are possible only when appropriate
instruments, procedures and tools of thought have been developed. It is only
then that notice is taken. Among these phenomena are the following:-
Psychokinesis - the ability to move objects by thought
alone.
Teleportation - the ability to transfer objects or
oneself from one place to another without moving over the intervening space.
Precognition - the ability to see into the future.
Clairvoyance - the ability to see things hidden from
the senses.
Telekinesis - the ability to send thoughts to other
minds or to read other minds. This, however, may also be the result of the
ability to discriminate and perceive and read very subtle changes in behaviour
and expression.
Mediumship - The ability to experience past lives or
to identify with people who have lived in the past.
Visions - The ability to see, hear and feel in a
non-physical way.
Strange talents and abilities - People who have never heard a language
can suddenly speak it fluently. Some who have never played music or written a
book can suddenly compose in the style of some past master.
Healing - People with diseases and crippling disabilities
since birth, whom conventional doctors are unable to
cure, suddenly recover.
The ability to sense the past history associated with
objects.
The ability to influence the growth,
behaviour and condition of the plants and animals.
The ability to influence the kind of
events which will happen in ones surroundings.
Out of body experiences. The ability to make mental journeys from place to place.
Some have claimed the ability to travel to other planes or levels of existence
but this cannot be verified except by those who can also do this and meet
others in those planes.
Sensitivity to very subtle forces such as
the aura around human beings, ghosts and spirits.
Animals appear to sense things human beings cannot normally see.
The ability to sense or feel physiological
processes within oneself which are normally unconscious.
The ability to control ones own metabolic processes
and rates. Yogis can be buried underground for long periods or exist with
little food or warmth in the Himalayan mountains. They are able to control
their heart and breathing rates and the processes of digestion and heat
production. Many animals hibernate.
The ability to control ones length of life
and time of death. Genetic research shows that the human
immune system and the production of growth hormones decline from the age of 13
or so. Nature itself starts to destroy the organism when it is past its
reproductive age, the organism having served its purpose. But this process can
be reversed and has been reversed in laboratories. Researches into methods of
obtaining immortality are taken seriously in the U.S.A where many millionaires
pour funds into it. It is not inconceivable that this can be achieved
psychologically. There is enough evidence to show that there is a
self-destructive as well as self-generative impulse which is affected by the
stresses caused by inner contradictions or the degree of inner harmony. In
nature the destructive forces have the function of removing that which is
malfunctioning in order to release the materials for new constructions.
Ghosts and spirits have been experienced by many
people. These are regarded by some people as souls which have formed
attachments to material things and localities. Others suppose them to be
electro-magnetic effects left behind by those who have died in certain places.
The mind generally filters out most of the information received through the
senses in accordance with belief systems or interests which concentrate
attention on only selected types, especially those which are above a certain
threshold of intensity. Most people, therefore, cannot see ghosts. Different
people are certainly sensitive to different degrees. It could be that the more
sensitive people have vague experiences which the mind then interprets and
forms the images of ghosts.
In the far future, if human evolution proceeds
correctly, then a race of immortals may well arise. This may, however, increase
the problem of over-population. On the other hand reproduction is connected
with destruction and evolution. Death is overcome by reproduction and the two
are required to facilitate change and development. If development can be
assured by other means then neither death nor reproduction will be necessary.
There may well be a causal link between these three factors. Sexual activity
and reproduction certainly increases during periods of war when the death rate
increases. Conversely, increases in reproduction rate create stresses which
increase the death rate. The control of the sexual impulse
and celibacy have been long regarded as methods of spiritual
development. Sexual energy is then diverted to self-reproduction. The better
educated and those who are psychologically more highly developed tend to have
smaller families.
Most of these extra-ordinary phenomena probably work
because of the following:-
1. All objects emit electrical and other radiations
and emanations. They probably affect the quantum field around them.
2. The frequencies and structures of these correspond
to the structure and events in those objects.
3. These radiations affect other objects in the
surroundings including human beings.
4. They set up resonances in objects which have
similar structures.
5. Human beings have the capacity to various degrees
to (a) process these effects, to interpret them and become conscious of them.
(b) to change their own state so as to attune
themselves to objects, to resonate in sympathy. (c) to
control the emission of their radiations and induce resonance in objects.
6. This can be done selectively in different
directions and for different purposes.
7. Generally speaking three conditions are required:- (a) deep relaxation (b) confidence or faith. (c) suspension of the intellectual or critical faculty,
cultivation of receptivity rather than activity.
----------<O>----------
NOTES
It is asserted by the Quran and other religious
literature that human beings can change themselves as well as the world by
means of their thoughts, faith or other psychological means alone. According to
Quantum Theory, the Real World consists of a great number of alternatives, the
world we see being only one of these. The seen world may, therefore, be
regarded as an illusion created by our attachments to things, events or
thoughts. The Real World (the World of Allah) may be thought of as Heaven which
we can enter if these attachments are removed and we can then create anything
we desire by our control over our psychological processes. This possibility can
be formulated as follows.
We need four things to construct a world. (a) an aim, (b) certain materials, (c) tools and (d) power.
The aim must be clear and self-consistent.
The materials consist of mental things such thoughts,
beliefs, attitudes, feelings, choices and decisions. These must be appropriate
to the aim. There is information inherent within us and in our experiences
which form memories. Attachment to these keeps us where we are. But we can
select and interpret them, thereby creating thoughts which differ from mere
memories. Thinking, however, may also involve fantasies which arise from the
rationalisations of wishes. This must be avoided. The more comprehensive
thinking is the more flexible it is, since the number of relationships between
the units of thought increases and a progressively more fundamental level is
reached. Beliefs which may be good or bad can enable or disable the aim. A
belief may refer to objects, the nature of the world or be a self-image. Faith
or confidence is required to achieve anything. Attitudes may be negativistic or
positivistic. It may consist of looking to the past which is fixed rather than
to the future where possibilities exist. Feelings may arise from attachment to
things, thereby causing jealousy, envy, anger, dislike and hatred. These
usually mean that a person thinks himself unable to obtain
the things which cause these feelings. Past choices or decisions may be
incompatible with the aim. These may well exist in the sub-conscious mind so
that a person is not aware of these obstructions.
The tools can be such things as desires, expectations,
imagination and courage. Desires should not be mistaken for attachments. The
latter causes a person to be controlled by the object he is attached to. The
desire for wealth can make a person rich but not attachment to it. Imagination,
not to be confused with fantasy, may consist of visualisation, but is a much
more general term connected with all the faculties. Expectation involves a
confidence that something will happen. Without courage a person is easily
distracted from his aims. It is necessary that a person be willing to take all
the consequences of achieving the aim he has in mind.
Power refers to will, love, gratitude, trust,
involvement. Will is not to be confused with self-will which merely refers to
stubbornness, or mere intention. It is probably necessary to align ones will
with Cosmic processes in order to remove the
contradictions which would disable it. Love implies to care for, and have an
interest in, Gratitude implies that a person is not indifferent, but really
cares or wants something. It is itself a reward since it gives him pleasure.
Without it he is unlikely to receive what he wants. Trust is confidence in an
existence which makes things possible. Involvement means intimacy with things,
alignment and empathy whereby a kind of resonance is set up.
People vary naturally in the amount and direction in
which they have these characteristics; hence they achieve different things to
different degrees. In most cases people are unaware of them, though some can
use them consciously. Some of these achievements are regarded as miraculous,
though there is nothing supernatural about them. It is merely the case that the
laws and processes by which they were achieved are not known widely. This is no
different from the primitive man who might suppose that television is a miracle
because he does not know or understand the phenomena of electricity. All these
qualities can be developed by suitable techniques. No secular educational
system includes them.
It is necessary to point out that increased abilities
can be obtained without a concept of Allah. But there is a danger involved. The
narrower aims and achievements may then not be consistent with the Cosmic process leading to conflict and destruction. It could
create powerful devils. Indeed, the history of the world shows many such very
able, but evil people.
----------<O>----------
Apart from meditation and other techniques, these
states can be induced by drugs, unusual events, stresses, circumstances,
certain emotional states, and can also occurs quite spontaneously to various
degrees and frequencies in many people. There are drugs like soma, nepenthe,
hashish, peyote, extracts of certain mushrooms, LSD. It must be supposed that
what these drugs do is not to create these conscious states, but to create physiological
conditions which either remove obstructions or enable access to consciousness.
Religious doctrines and practices derive from these
possibilities. In general they abhor the use of drugs or other external means
for several reasons:-
(a) They make man
dependant on something else.
(b) They create
changes which are sudden, uncontrollable and fleeting.
(c) As the
individual has had no practice in controlling or manipulating them, he cannot
interpret them and no distinction can be made between reality and
hallucination.
These states may be regarded as quite natural rather
than supernatural, though they are certainly supernormal. According to the
Quran:-
“He casts His Spirit upon whom He will of His servants.” 40:15
Some scientists and others regard these potential
abilities as abnormalities, interesting but of no importance for survival.
Others see them as the products of a diseased mind which disable adaptation and
adjustment to the realities of existence. This is like saying that because we
live among the blind we ought to be blind, or that if we live in a community of
apes, neurotics or criminals only such creatures are well adapted and everyone
ought to adopt their values and live like them.
Quite a different attitude may be advanced as
follows:-
Evolution is a fact of existence. Human beings have
been provided with a brain much larger than is normally used and with faculties
and possibilities which are extra-ordinary. The use of these ought to be, and
can be normal to man. The fact that they are not indicates that man has fallen
short of his capabilities, that he is disabled by disease. This disease must be
cured by adopting suitable techniques and a different way of life.
The age of technology, materialism and reason has
emphasised the use of certain human faculties at the expense of others. A
number of faculties which have atrophied due to lack of exercise are still
evident among technologically less developed peoples in
----------<O>----------
The Quran may be regarded as a book on human
psychology. Many of its features have been dealt with in this book under the
title “Man” and “Alienation”. One of the verses having great psychological
significance is the following rather innocent looking one:-
“And he whose perception is dim to the remembrance of the Beneficent God, We assign unto him a devil who becomes his comrade” 43:36
The famous Psychologist Freud, the founder of modern
Psychology, regarded the human mind as consisting of the Ego, the Superego and
the
This verse gives a different and better explanation.
There is a built in value system in man owing to the divine spirit in him. It
produces the impulses of faith, love and hope and consciousness, conscience and
will. Remembrance of God, particularly of His attribute of Beneficence,
strengthens these higher impulses. Greed, (attachment, obsession, addiction,
fascination) produce hate, aggression, fear, anxiety, doubt, uncertainty,
agitation, tension, illusion, confusion, rationalisation by destroying the
impulses of faith, love and hope. In short, it produces the Id or Satan within.
From the point of view of Freud the Super ego and Id are purely subjective
phenomena within the individual. And he supposes that the concept of God and
Satan arise by projecting these outwards into the world. But the view given
here is the exact opposite. They come into existence in man by introjection.
The devil exists not only in one man but in all, and they interact with each
other. It is a global social phenomenon which affects all individuals in it. It
is, therefore, certainly an objective phenomenon though not a material one. Nor
could it arise in human beings unless they were constructed to receive it. We
may, therefore, conclude that human beings have only one of three alternatives:- To turn towards God, to Satan or remain in a middle state
which is a mixture of both and fluctuates between one and the other. Most
people belong to the last category and the good and evil which human history
shows is explained. Human progress, however, demands striving towards God.
----------<O>----------
It is reported that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) instructed: "Remember your death". In this connection he also required Muslims to behave reverently when a funeral, even of a non-Muslim passed them. The question is: Why is it important to remember one's death?
Human beings appear to be the only beings on this planet that are aware of their mortality and also have a conscious religion. This is not accidental but has profound significance.
The certainty of death is a contradiction of the self-preservative drive that human beings share with all animals. This contradiction is uncomfortable and presents a problem and requires a solution. That is, it is painful and we have an inbuilt abhorrence of pain. Or conversely, an antipathy to contradiction is built into us and is experienced as pain. Unity and harmony are built in ideals and strivings. The whole of life can be regarded as a process of solving this problem. Even plants and minerals have a resistance to change and destruction in the form of inertia and tend to overcome it through elasticity and adaptability which could be defined as intelligence.
The solution of problems requires efforts that supply a third reconciling factor which restore the unity and harmony. Problems can be solved by human beings in three ways:- (a) in reality, (b) in fantasy or (c) in a perverse manner such that the problem is shifted to another area. When hungry, we can earn our food by work, or we can simply imagine we are doing something, or we can steal from others which brings us into conflict with them.
There are three methods in each of these ways:-
(1) We can suppress either of the contradicting factors by means of the third, leaving the other free. For instance we can suppress the idea of death out of consciousness. This is what normally happens. But this means that there is a persistent struggle between the other two factors in the sub-conscious mind - between the idea of death and what suppresses it. This has sub-conscious manifestations in behaviour that not under conscious control. One of the manifestations is that if anyone or any event reminds a person of his mortality, this creates fear and anxiety, and as this makes them uncomfortable, it creates aggression against the source of what makes them aware, as this makes them very uncomfortable. The purpose of the aggression is to destroy the source of the contradiction or pain. This is why events such as terrorist attacks create strong reactions.
(2) It is also possible to suppress the self-preservative impulse. This leads to depression and suicide. This happens more rarely. It is usually connected with guilt feelings and feelings of unworthiness that result from self-contradictory behaviour. It is, therefore, counteracted by the cultivation of a good self-image and self-worthiness. This could be a real solution when a person strives for and achieves some values or goals. Or it could be mainly in fantasy, which leads a person to reinforce this by boasting. It could take the form of cultivating an external image by pretence and through publicity agents. Because he has a vested interest in this image, the person comes to believe his own lies. If he did not, he would suffer from the contradictions. Here again if anything, person or event should remind him of his sorry state of inner self-contradiction, then he would try to get rid of the source by destroying it. He could do this by persecuting the righteous or those who accused him or seem to accuse him and make him feel guilty by their very existence. On the other hand he might wallow in guilt, injure himself as self-punishment and commit suicide. Self-mutilation, obsessions, compulsions and accident proneness are often perverse ways of solving this problem at the sub-conscious level. The notion of forgiveness is important to counteract this negative destructive state and its opposite compensatory state, the illusion of grandiosity and conceit.
(3) A third method of solving the problem is to create a unifying link or bridge by means of the third factor. A person might try to solve the problem in fantasy by associating himself with what he considers to be sources of power and immortality. He could identify himself with, and cling to a family, a group, a company, a party, a class, a race, a nation, an institution, a sect, a movement, a culture, an ideology or a cause. This gives him the illusion of immortality as a part of something that has a greater life span than himself. He can get the same feeling by associating himself with the rich, powerful and famous persons or groups. This is because immortality is associated with power because mortality can be seen as powerlessness to maintain oneself. All these are seen as types of idolatry in Islam.
Perverse solutions consist of the desire for wealth, power and prestige and action to dominate, control and exploit others. There is a competition to win something that others do not. The goods and menials that a person surrounds himself with provide him with a sense of security. These could be barriers or fences that also reflect and are reflected in physical, social, political, cultural and psychological fences to keep out destructive influences and ideas. The feeling of superiority is gained through separation and discrimination, in comparison with, and at the expense of others who are regarded as inferior. In fact, of course, everyone is dependent on others and dies, losing these things, and returning to the System from whence they came. Even in life, there is a constant flow of materials, energy and information through them, which also flows through other entities and connects all things in a single system. At no two times are they physically or mentally the same separate person.
As the maintenance of life requires that human beings should have correct knowledge, motives and appropriate abilities and that things should be predictable and controllable, insecurity, fear and anxiety is caused by inadequacy and disorder. The knowledge of death is, therefore, the cause behind all typically human pursuits, namely science, philosophy, art, technology, law and religion.
The real solution to the problem of death is provided by religions. This tends to have several levels:- (a) A person while alive affects his surroundings and other people by his actions and also more directly by the forces he receives, transforms and emits. This has a permanent affect on the system of which he is part. (b) He is also genetically a point in a spacio-temporal network. (c) It could be said that a person is mentally a product of the culture of the society he is born and bred in. He receives from and contributes to that culture. In a sense, therefore, the people of later generations are mentally reincarnations of those of the past. (d) Religions see man as souls that are part of a Universal soul. That is, the person is not the body or mind, but that which is conscious; that about which it can be said "I am", " I will", "I do". This is not possible for unconscious entities. This cannot be confined to Time and Space but contains them. It is an Absolute Universal Unity. It is by identification of oneself with this that a person attains or realises immortality. Religions, therefore, supply the techniques by which this can be achieved.
----------<O>----------
The physical work required by human beings was at
first given over to animals, then to enslaved human beings and is now
increasingly given over to machines, while observation is entrusted to
instruments. Human beings pride themselves on their intellect. But Intellectual
work, including scientific research, technological design and even
administration, is increasingly done by computers. Man, it seems, is becoming
redundant. However, the distinction between a living organism and a machine is
the fact that living things are self-regulating and have motives (urges,
desires, purpose) which machines do not. These appear to be connected with
their endocrine system, chemical events which on further analysis turn out to
depend on electrical forces. It may, therefore, be stated that such urges are
inherent in matter itself. The forces of attraction and repulsion have merely
been channelled in complex ways. However, there is also a distinction between
living organisms and human beings who possess consciousness, the ability to see
connections and relationships and the ability to manipulate the data of
experience within themselves.
In the diagram below,
though the distinctions are not absolute, the three systems are described as
follows:- In a material object an external cause, C
acting on the object, O produces an effect E. A living object has an inner
biological system of cause and effect. The external cause, C will act on this,
and the final effect, E will depend on the inner processing. In the Human being
there is still another third mental system within the second where the
biological effects are processed. These three systems should not be confused
with one another. There may be still another fourth system within the third to
which we apply the word “I” or Self, an Absolute
centre of integration.
As the material Universe arises from a single origin,
so does life and humanity, and the Self.
The evolution of Humanity should now proceed in three
directions:- (a) The increase in inner integration
which should produce greater awareness, empathy and self-control. (b) Increased
social unification so that they become a single organism (not physically) (c)
Increasing environmental responsibility.
And this should proceed through (a) genetic means (b)
education (c) social organisation which channel energies by means of incentives
and checks.
----------<O>----------
MEDICINE
As the nature of consciousness is the distinguishing feature of human beings it would be absurd to treat them as if they were merely a material body in the restricted sense. Nor do human beings exist in isolation. The superior ability to absorb and process and apply information makes the individual much more a part of the society, part of the world he live in and part of the evolutional process. In so far as medicine is concerned with human welfare it has to take these three factors into consideration.
Medicine is defined as the diagnosis, treatment, and cure or healing of dis-ease, illness, afflictions or malfunctions.
This leads us to three questions:-
1. What is disease, illness etc.? These terms all refer to something which disables people. These could be physical, social or psychological conditions.
2. How do we judge what is a disease? We must have some standard in mind, departure from which is disease. The average or normal is not a good standard since the whole community may be suffering from the same disease. The man with good sight is abnormal among the blind. It is only possible to have an Ideal in mind and different degrees of health and disease with respect to it. The Ideal itself will have to be modified progressively.
3. What are the sources of disease? Diseases may be:-
(a) Within a person due to genetic causes, his life style (the way he eats, exercises etc), and the way he processes information (the way he learns, feels, thinks, behaves and relates to others).
(b) Environmental. These could be his physical, social or psychological environment (i.e.. culture).
(c) As evolution is a fact of nature, maladaptation to changing circumstances could also be a source of disease.
4. What does Medicine consist of? Medicine can be redefined as the study, techniques and treatment of the human state, and should have three aspects:- (a) To prevent disease. (b) To cure disease, to heal. (c) To facilitate development.
Though Medicine, physical, social and psychological, has made many advances in the West, there is still something rather primitive about it. The Principle of Unity and the Law of Reciprocity which flows from it, are ignored.
In the first place there is no comprehensive view about man, and each disease tends to be treated in isolation from the whole person, whereas all aspects of a human being interact.
Secondly, it treats symptoms rather than causes. The causes, being still active, produce some other set of symptoms.
Thirdly, Western medicine concentrates its attention on the cure of disease, though some action has been taken in the prevention of diseases and maintenance of health, but nothing is done to facilitate adaptation and development. In view of the evolutionary process the mere maintenance of the status quo implies relative degeneration and maladaptation.
Fourthly, it is well known that human beings interact with the physical environment, with the social environment (other human beings and particularly through culture) and with themselves inwardly (owing to the fact that they have inner experiences which must also be interpreted and understood). These three also interact. The physical environment produces social and psychological effects; social factors are responsible for environmental changes as well as many psychological conditions; psychological conditions produce physical, social and environmental effects. Though something has been done to produce a healthier environment, little is done to make a comprehensive study of all these inter-relationships or to bring about healthy social and psychological conditions.
Fifthly, it ignores the human purpose and function with respect to the Cosmos, his Vicegerency.
The planet we live in must itself be regarded as an organism in which all parts are inter-dependant. It consists of three main organs, land, sea and atmosphere, and the biosphere is like the brain of this system which controls the interactions. Human beings may be regarded as the brains of the Biosphere. Physically they are like animals. But they convert the animal matter into the kinds of energy which accounts for the truly human qualities. They create a culture, systems of ideas, organisations and technologies. It cannot be claimed by any sane person that such things as Political or economic systems or Science are unreal though they are not material objects. Man modifies animals and plants as well as the physical environment. They affect these not only by what they do but also chemically by what they excrete or take in, but probably also much more directly by the kind of electrical impulses they produce.
Human nature and behaviour depends (a) partly on their inheritance which has developed over a long evolutional history, (b) partly on characteristics acquired by association with the environment, and (c) partly owing to their own efforts in so far as they have the capacity for volition. Their thoughts, motives and actions, therefore, depend partly on how well they have processed, integrated and assimilated the experiences, both outer and inner, and the degree of their consciousness. Ideas and values are also significant.
The evolution of this planet is dependant on the constant flow and absorption of solar and other Cosmic energies. This causes an increase of order which may take three forms:-
(a) Increase in the quality or complexity of the organisms arising. This is a vertical change which has culminated in man.
(b) Increase in the quantity or number and diversity of the higher forms of life. The increase in population leads to dispersal and migration of populations, and when space runs out, to competition and conflict. The multiplication of human beings at the expense of lower animals is, no doubt, part of this process.
(c) Increase in the organisation or complexity of the inter-relationships. This leads to the arising of multi-cellular animals from unicellular ones, the formation of herds or the increasing complexity of human societies and nations. However, such organisations depend on the occurrence of suitable modifications in the organisms which are so organised. Population congestion by itself creates physical, moral and psychological disease. It creates neurosis, psychosis, criminality, aggression, anti-social and destructive and self-destructive behaviour, including suicide, homosexuality, stresses leading to organic diseases, and by debilitating the immune system, to infections, unrest, insurrections and wars, all of which are designed to reduce the population.
It seems clear, therefore, that unless vertical human evolution continues the problems associated with increase in population and the stresses of increasing organisation will continue to increase.
The human body, as all multi-cellular organisms, arises from the multiplication and differentiation of a germ cell which itself must be regarded as relatively immortal. In the multicellular organism this immortality has been exchanged for versatility. The organism is maintained by a process known as metabolism. This consists of two opposite processes known as anabolism, a building up, and catabolism, a disintegrating, process. The one leads to increasing order and the other to increasing chaos. The one process is dominant in childhood and during sleep while the other dominates in old age and during the day. Communities and whole civilisations undergo similar processes. Metabolism is governed by the endocrine system which in turn is governed by the Sympathetic nervous system, and this is controlled by a part of the brain. This affects and is affected by the rest of the brain including that which is responsible for voluntary processes and the processing of experiences. Health and disease may be regarded as the results of the balance between anabolism and catabolism, between order and chaos. Bacteria merely fulfil their function which is to break down and recycle malfunctioning organs and tissues.
There are three ways in which human beings can be treated:-
(a) By acting directly through drugs etc on the metabolism;
(b) By acting on the environment; and
(c) By changing their thinking, behaviour and emotional reactions. This may be done through a suitable comprehensive way of life based on an ideological system.
In accordance with the facts considered so far, it is possible to see an individual as consisting of three interacting levels:-
(a) A spiritual level (consciousness, conscience and will)
(b) A mental level (intellect, emotion and action)
(c) A physical level (consisting of three interacting systems:- the nervous, the endocrine and the visceral).
The visceral system consists of 7 systems as follows:- (i) the skeletal, (ii) the muscular, (iii) the circulatory, (iv) the lymphatic or immune, (v) the respiratory (vi) the digestive (vii) the reproductive.
There are said to be 7 endocrine glands, the Pineal, Pituitary, Thyroid, Thymus, Pancreatic, Adrenal and Sexual. According to some systems of thought, the creative energy arises from the lowest, the Sexual and energises the others as evolution proceeds. This allows one to divide human history into corresponding 7 stages. We are said to be in sixth or Pituitary stage.
The nervous system, too, can be subdivided into the Central, the Autonomic and the Spinal. Each can be similarly subdivided. The Central nervous system may be divided into the Cerebrum, Mid brain and Brain stem. There are Autonomic Complexes or little brains associated with the endocrine system. There are said to be 7 of these though the Cardiac and Solar Plexus are the best known.
It is not too difficult to see that there is:-
(a) Mutual interaction at each of these levels,
(b) There is a correspondence between the levels since each can be divided similarly into the same three aspects , and
(c) There is also interaction between all these levels. The Spiritual level, consciousness etc, for instance, is connected with the Cerebrum, particularly with the frontal lobe, while what we call the mind is connected with other parts of the cerebrum which account for subconscious activities. Other parts account for wholly unconscious physiological processes.
The distinctions are not absolute, but have been made for the convenience of clarity.
It is a common fallacy to regard the brain as the most important organ in man or even the only organ worth considering. But the function of the brain depends on the endocrine system. Nor can it work without the nutrition and oxygen supplied by the blood.
The brain has been compared to a computer, but it differs from computers in very important respects:-
(1) The brain arises by the multiplication and differentiation of a single fertilised cell. All its cells have arisen in a mutually dependant and interactive manner. They change and their connections change. The units of a computer have been created from a limited number of blue prints. There are about 1000 million cells in the brain connected by fibres in about million billion ways. They send electric impulses in different combinations and patterns. The number of these combinations exceeds the number of particles in the whole Universe. No computer can come even close to matching this. The connections in the brain are weakened or strengthened and the cells in the brain die as we age without seriously impairing the function of the brain. Its circuits are not permanent but keep changing and its cells are capable of change, growth and decay and new nerve links can be formed or old ones dismantled. Apart from the physical connection between the cells, the cells also react to each other by direct electrical induction and by chemical messengers which by pass the nerve paths. It is also affected by apparently random quantum effects and by the laws governing complex systems. It, therefore, acts as whole. One part of the brain can take over the function of another. New faculties and abilities can arise. It records, processes and organises the data of experience into patterns. This is not the case with computers.
(2) Though brains are also programmed by experiences, they do not require external programmers as computers do. Computers cannot be said to know anything since information merely passes through them along predefined circuits. They have no memory. When switched off everything is lost. Data is stored on discs where it remains exactly as stored without undergoing any processing. The brain is the computer, the program, the programmer and user all in one. It creates and continually modifies the programs which activate it, and these programs also alter the structure. It has many levels of sensitivity, integration and control. Some parts of it are fixed by inheritance, others are subject to change through experience, and still others can change due to internal processes, the effect of higher centres over lower. The brain can be said to have an over all electrical field with its own structure and pattern of events. Computers do not have motivations of their own but depend entirely on human input. They can be switched on or off. Though people do go to sleep or wake up, the brain continues to function.
(3) Information has to be fed into computers and this has to be done in an exact manner and in strict order. The computer is not able to interpret experiences and classify them. It is possible to describe the same experiences in many ways, but though human beings can recognise these as applying to the same events, for the computer they are all different. The complexity of experiences cannot be reduced to simple rules which the computer can understand. Computers cannot form concepts or understand symbolism.
The brain is not, therefore, a machine. It is made for adaptation. Its function is better described by a form of mutation and natural selection, though this takes place at an enormously faster speed than it does in the biosphere. It is an internalisation of an external process. The motives or value systems (self-preservation, sexuality, curiosity etc) are provided by the brain stem. The whole brain is constantly active creating innumerable electric patterns. Experiences through the senses are recorded as patterns of electrical discharges by the cortex.
However, memories are also recorded as muscle tensions and as modifications of endocrine production and cell activity in other parts of the body. Thus, the connections which prove useful are strengthened while those which do not atrophy, and harmful ones are inhibited. The strength of reinforcement or inhibition depends on (a) the number of similar events, (b) the number of associations and (c) the strength and concentration of attention.
This can be seen in babies. Their movements are random and uncoordinated, but by trial and error, their arms reach for and grasp the things of interest. The same applies to perception. Sensations have to be reinforced by similar ones. Further learning takes place by association. If some shape is found to be good to eat, for instance, then the combination of colours which are associated with it also become fixed in the mind. There is also synthesis and analysis. When two things are compared certain features reinforce each other and these become distinct from other features which may be reinforced by other comparisons. Problem solving also requires an aim and the brain patterns are selected step by step until the goal is reached. The speed with which this happens must clearly be very great. The brain, moreover, creates patterns, a picture or construct which is retained in the imagination.
It follows that:-
(1) The brain has enormous potentialities. Its capacity for analysis, synthesis and association are limitless. Only a very limited amount of this is ever used. The greater the flexibility of the brain the greater its power.
(2) Certain patterns can be so strengthened and others weakened that fixations are formed which dominate and restrict the functioning of the brain. This weakens the capacity for adaptation.
(3) It is not possible to predict which patterns will be made or selected in the brain, though some statistical studies can be made. We can know this only after the selection has been made. We can only explain behaviour retrospectively. Thus a person is a unique individual. However, the environment can be distinguished from others by the relative frequency with which certain kinds of events take place in it, and this will have its effects on the individuals living there. Thus, different environments produce different kinds of people.
Consciousness may refer to such an overall field. There is evidence to show that creative thinking such as that which takes place in Science, Art, philosophy and technology takes place in rhythms and patterns which resemble well structured classical music. There appear to be inherent rhythms and patterns in the physiological system which are connected with the rhythms in nature. This is not surprising since man is formed by nature and has evolved in adaptation to it. There is, therefore, enough evidence to indicate that human progress is connected with direct or indirect awareness of these rhythms and patterns. People differ in their capacity to perceive the underlying patterns.
Though not completely distinct, we may, for convenience, divide the faculties as follows:- Thinking affects and is affected by the Nervous system; emotions (feelings, motivations, intentions) affect and are affected by the endocrine (or hormone) system; actions affect and are affected by the visceral system. These three affect each other.
The three nervous systems affect and are affected by thinking, feeling and action respectively, and by each other.
Thoughts, feelings and actions affect each other. Action need not be fully expressed, it may simply consist of muscle tensions.
Thoughts , feelings and actions are controlled by:-
(a) Voluntary inner processes
(b) Habits (automatisms)
(c) External stimuli, coming from the environment. (mechanical)
These affect each other. For instance, constant efforts in particular directions can produce habits of thinking, feeling and action. These can also be produced by environments which provide a preponderance of certain stimuli and situations. Thoughts, feelings and actions affect and are affected by the whole social culture, the physical and cosmic environment and the inner physiological conditions of the person.
Emotions are accompanied by respiratory changes as well as by changes in heart beat, muscle tension, and postures. Fear and anxiety, for instance, cause the flow of the hormone, adrenalin, which causes muscle tensions, redistribute the blood from the surface to internal organs and muscles, and away from the digestive system. Different emotions, therefore, utilise different organs. Some can be exhausted due to over use and others can suffer from deprivation of nourishment by the blood, depending on habits of functioning or environmental conditions.
Postures, which depend on muscle tensions and the skeleton, affect the pressure on blood vessels and the endocrine organs. The Digestive and respiratory systems provide the substances which the circulatory system distributes to the various organs, including the endocrine and nervous systems, and these control the digestion, respiration and circulation. The respiratory system depends on the condition of the environmental air, and the digestive system depends on the nature of the food supply. The nervous system depends on the nature of the impressions received.
Consciousness, conscience and will affect and are affected by each other and by thought, feeling and action respectively, and these will affect and be affected by the nervous, endocrine and visceral systems.
It should, therefore, be clear that we do not have a simple system to which linear laws can be applied, but a great number of feed-back systems. Anything which is done to alter the condition of any of these various aspects of man will cause alterations in many other aspects. There will always be unpredictable and unwanted side effects when the wholeness of the individual is not taken into consideration. It is in general, not possible to alter the whole system unless one deals with several aspects at the same time to prevent leaks, as it were.
If you wish to treat a physical, social or psychological disease you will have to deal with not merely a particular malfunction, but with the thinking, habits, postures, diet as well as the spiritual, cultural, social and environmental relationships of the person. You will have to deal with his total environment as well as with his way of life, his state of consciousness, his education, ideologies, attitudes and value systems. It is not possible to deal with human beings adequately other than by taking into consideration that aspect of them which is more than animal, namely consciousness, and by regarding them as Vicegerents having an interaction and function with respect to their community, physical environment and the Cosmos as a whole. It is the departure from this function which should define disease. Religion which takes all this into account is, therefore, a system of healing.
“And We reveal in the Quran that which is a healing, and a mercy for believers, though to evil doers it causes naught but ruin.” 17:82
It follows also that the nature of thinking, of science itself, depends on the over all health and stability of the person, which may depend on the nature of the society he lives in, and both may depend on the whole environment in which that society exists. In so far as human beings are neurotic or otherwise diseased, we cannot know what disease man, his societies, his culture and science itself may be suffering from, since the judge is the diseased mind itself. The partial view can never be a substitute for the Unitary view.
It is usual to speak of disease as an abnormality where normality is judged by the average situation. To say that it is a disability also presupposes an idea of what ability means and is expected. This varies. It is probably better to have an Ideal to aim for, and judge things according to the departure from this.
Since human beings are interdependent with, and interact with the environment they need facts, meanings and values. They receive an input, process these internally and produce an output. They have a cognitive faculty, they interpret data according to feelings and motives, and they must act. They form four sets of three kinds of judgements as to qualities, quantities and relationships:-
Whether it is true, uncertain or false.
Whether it is good, neutral or evil according to how it affects them.
Whether it is useful, catalytic or harmful for some purpose.
Whether it is beautiful, indifferent or ugly.
These judgements overlap. For instance, truth may be judged to be good or evil according to its usefulness for some purpose with which a person identifies himself.
Animals do not appear to be capable of making such judgements though they certainly examine things to gather data. Their reactions take place according to instinct as to what is good or bad for them. But usefulness requires the ability to manipulate and beauty requires consciousness.
The judgements may depend on:-
(a) conscious and deliberately acquired knowledge which gives them objective values
(b) accidentally and unconsciously acquired experiences, knowledge, prejudices due to circumstances and social conditioning.
(c), inherent factors which are genetically built into them over a long evolutionary history.
Things may be judged evil when they are, or are judged to be, harmful to the individual or the community or to the world in general. This gives us three levels of values.
There are three kinds of evil:-
(a) Things which relate to the environment - Earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts, heat, cold, erosion, problems connected with resources etc. Hence the interest in science and technology
(b) things which relate to the functioning of human beings - diseases. hence interest in medicine.
(c) Things which refer to the attitudes and relationship between human beings. Hence interest in politics and law etc.
Human beings, however, can (a) think about these things, (b) they can have feelings and motives regarding them and (c) they can act with various amounts of skill.
There ought, therefore, to be a fourth category of interest which combines and co-ordinates all these. This function used to be performed by Religion. These three interests mentioned above are not independent of each other. Human attitudes not only affect their own functioning but also the environment as is now widely known. Natural disasters as well as diseases are caused by human activities and affect people according to their attitudes. They may take them as tests or stimuli to action or they may resign in despair. Environmental conditions, the terrain, the weather and so on affect the kind of diseases current in a place as well as the attitudes, mentality and value systems of the people living there.
Inner psychological alienation and disintegration leads to social disintegration and alienation from the environment, and may itself be the result of incorrect ideas or faulty learning processes. Medicine used to concentrate attention mainly on the body, though social factors and increasingly, psychological factors are also taken into consideration. There is, however, as yet no understanding that people are often poisoned by ideas, failure in learning or by incorrect processing of information, and yet it is not difficult to see that most of the great man-made tragedies created by war, conflicts, persecution and mismanagement are due to poisoning by ideas.
Diseases are attributed to three factors which are usually inter-dependant:-
(1) External causes. (a) Infections by bacteria, viruses and fungi, (b) poisons of various kinds, contacted, eaten or inhaled (c) Trauma or accidents.
(2) Inherent or genetic causes.
(3) (a) Life styles. Unbalanced diets, lack of proper exercise, bad postures and so on. (b) the attitudes, value systems, outlook on life, (c) the way human beings see and adjust to reality, and this is defined, here, as Religion.
In general, human intelligence, knowledge and value systems can provide the basic personal, social and environmental hygiene to deal with external causes. Trauma and accidents may depend on the kind of environments man has created, e.g. traffic, factories, domestic and civic environments, social and psychological conditions leading to conflicts, criminality, revolutions and wars, The immune system, given a correct life style, is able to deal with infections. The bacteria causing the various diseases always exist, but do not become virulent until the correct conditions are provided. Disease may, therefore, be regarded as a kind of punishment for wrong living.
However, things are not quite as simple as this. It is true, of course, and Islam recognises this, that life is a struggle between opposite forces, pleasure and suffering, health and disease, fortune and misfortune, construction and destruction, knowledge and ignorance. Human beings live in communities. Though a particular individual may lead a sensible life, others in his surroundings may not. He may be said to be punished for not discharging his responsibility towards others by influencing them correctly. The disease may be due to ignorance, and may be regarded as a punishment for ignorance or a stimulus to acquire the correct knowledge, or a test of how he deals with it. If natural disasters and diseases lead to despair and impotence then this must be regarded as disease in itself.
The point to be made here is that it is not so much a question of whether the idea that Allah punishes, tests or stimulates man or not is true in the factual sense, but that this is how our attitude to life should be. Since the result of these attitudes lead to certain consequences then they prove the premises. We are instructed to see things that way for our own health. And if health results then the correctness of the attitude is proved. It is also factually true that the survival and development of life on this planet depends on an inbuilt attitude such as this. The impulses of hope, love and faith are integral to it and need to be cultivated.
Mutations in the genes do take place and some of these may be harmful to the individual, usually only under certain circumstances. Many of these, if not all, also have advantages given the correct circumstances, if not to the individual then to the race. The progress of mankind often depends on the achievements of people who appear to have some defect. It is difficult to determine what are defects and what are advantages since these are judged subjectively and may change from time to time and community to community.
Usually, genes which give disadvantages are removed by the natural selection processes. However, human beings have created a protective environment and a medical technology which often allows defects or inferior characteristics to flourish. Many births would not have taken place but for the advances in medical techniques. The accumulation of these can eventually bring down the whole society. There are certainly an increasing number of people of low general intelligence who could not have reproduced themselves but for the Welfare State which protects and supplies them. Medical advances which allow genetic intervention to prevent such births can be regarded as a good thing. The alternative, to destroy such people at birth has bad moral consequences for the whole community. However, it may also be argued that the existence of the sub-normal tests and brings out the good in a community which cares for them. Thus something which appears as a defect on the surface is not so at all.
Advances in knowledge and techniques have made it possible to produce a generation of people having characteristics selected by the parents. It is possible to produce better, more intelligent, healthier stronger and more talented human beings. The problem is the subjective judgements about what is good, and ignorance of what might be advantageous in future. It is possible to create a greater imbalance. On the other hand it can also be argued that every stage in evolution alters the course of subsequent evolution, and the fact that mankind has reached a stage where it is possible to take control of evolution itself is no different. It does, however, add to responsibilities and can lead to disaster without an adequate system of values. Man is not dependant only on his genetic constitution, but his diet, the kind of drugs invented and ingested and even surgery or the aid of artificial instruments, machines and computers increase his powers. So does training, education and personal efforts. High inherent intelligence may be no advantage to either the individual who has it, or to the society. There are highly intelligent criminals, tyrants and psychopaths whose power can be increased by these external devices. It is also perfectly possible to create psychopaths by methods of conditioning and training. Many organisations, such the Thuggis and Assassins, devoted to creating such people have existed in the past and continue to exist today, some supported as policy by governments. They may well use genetic engineering and surgery in future.
The danger is that by removing defects genetically we will also remove advantages, that by creating a uniform people we will remove the variety on which evolution depends and by removing so called disadvantages we will remove the stimuli and challenges, thereby creating stagnation.
Apart from genes we have infectious viruses some of which can be regarded as free genes which invade people from outside. Apart from biological viruses, there are also non-biological self-replicating viruses such as those which infest computers and other information processing devices. There are Psychons, psychological viruses, which infest minds. They are bundles of independently organised ideas which can mutate, reproduce, multiply, and infect. They can be variously beneficial, harmful or indifferent. They create epidemics of various duration and virulence, arising and disappearing suddenly or slowly. There have been a great number of crazes, fads and fashions throughout history, some of these have been highly dangerous to life. It has been suggested by some people that religion is one of these, and indeed, it often appears so when fanaticism takes hold.
Ideas can, however be acquired in seven ways -
(a) Through reason based on evidence.
(b) Through experience.
(c) Through social conditioning.
(d) Through insight, awareness of ones inner consistencies.
(e) Through fantasies based on self-interest, greed etc.
(f) Through accidental associations.
(g) Through ignorance and insufficient data which may depend on physical or psychological limitations.
This applies to science and politics as well as religion and all other departments of life. It is not possible to make a distinction between science and religion on the grounds that one is based on evidence and the other on infection merely because scientific ideas are regarded as universal while religious beliefs depend on territories and are transmitted from one generation to another. Scientific ideas are transmitted the same way, and there is not necessarily an agreement on the truth or on the way they are formulated. Most people believe them without examining the evidence. On the other hand many religious people do think deeply and try to understand their religion, and again members of the same religion do not necessarily agree.
There does not seem to be any alternative but that the function of Medicine should be extended and become amalgamated with education, the function of which should also be extended. And indeed, from the Islamic point of view, since the Quran is healing, guidance for life as well as the criterion of good and evil, then ethics, education and medicine are one. And this is incorporated in the meaning of Surrender.
The main causes of ill health are as follows:-
(1) The unawareness of the rhythms in the body which harmonise with each other and are tuned into the rhythms of the earth, sun and the rest of the Cosmos. The result is that the behaviour and life style of the individual and whole communities causes:-
(a) These rhythms to be upset.
(b) Destroys their inner synchronisation.
(c) Destroys the external synchronisation with the world. The organs begin to malfunction and stresses are created.
(2) Life depends on a balance between the individual and his environment. This refers to materials, energy as well as information. The three processes of input, transformation and output are inter-dependant. What and how he transforms will determine what he needs as input and what he produces as output. This in turn will determine what the environment receives, what it transforms and what is supplies. What he takes in or puts out will affect what and how he transforms. Thus disease may result from an imbalance between the individual and the environment owing to incorrect input, transformation and output.
(3) The body has a great amount of tolerance and flexibility. It can repair itself. Damaged cells can be replaced. There is a balance in the body between the reproduction of cells, the maintenance of cells and the death of cells. T here are checks and balances everywhere. There are factors which stimulate and others which inhibit and still others which regulate the relationship between these two. Disease may be caused by the disturbance of this balance or the breakdown of the balancing mechanism. This may be due either to environments which are unsuitable or to unsuitable inner conditions.
(4) The Lymphatic or immune system is efficient in killing off harmful bacteria and other substances. The circulatory system removes waste products. Disease may be the result of factors which weaken these systems. Prolonged stresses and exhausting activities may cause this to happen.
(5) Since physical, social and psychological factors are interlinked, then the disease in any of these spheres may be caused by factors in any other of these spheres. That is, psychological and social factors can cause physical diseases; physical and social factors can cause psychological diseases; physical and psychological factors can cause social diseases.
(6) Diseases may also be caused by mutations, traumas and injuries due to accidents and man-made or natural disasters. Some of these are preventable, and protection against others may be possible. The damage organs or cells may behave in abnormal ways.
(7) Human beings can be regarded as being organised in the form of a pyramid with many levels. Though every unit at each level has a certain amount of autonomy, several units at a lower level are controlled by a unit at a higher level. There is also interaction between units at each level. Disease may be caused by malfunctions at any of these levels, but the malfunction at a higher control level would be progressively more serious. The whole of the organism is, therefore, controlled from a single apex. However, human consciousness does not lie at the apex.
This is both fortunate and unfortunate because by being unconscious of many processes within ourselves we are unable to interfere with their functioning directly, either to do harm, cure a malfunction or increase their power. There is evidence that consciousness can be expanded to acquire control over these functions, and that it has been expanding in certain directions while contracting in others - that it has moved. Modern man has lost some of the instincts which motivated more primitive man but he has also become independent of their control. Though this has given him greater versatility it has also allowed him to develop a number of malfunctions which did not exist in the past.
But concern with health should not become an obsession. Life has a purpose and we all have to die in any case. Though a certain amount of health is certainly needed to fulfil ones function, it is the function which is important and the use or sacrifice of ones life to fulfil this purpose is objectively legitimate. What is not legitimate is to damage health unnecessarily.
It is, however, necessary to realise that the human social system offers protection to the weak which is not available to animals. This not only allows defects to multiply, but also provides the opportunity for the arising of characteristics which are useful for purposes other than those involved in the struggle for survival or reproduction. There is, from the biological point of view, no need for an individual to survive beyond his reproductive age. A number of human characteristics have no value unless they are interpreted in terms of an evolutional process in the universe, and they could not have arisen or survived otherwise. It is perfectly possible to visualise a static universe in which survival and reproduction could have been achieved without them.
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References:-
Supernature -
Lyall Watson
The Works of Carl Yung and Sigmund Freud.
The
Naked Ape, The Human Animal etc by Desmond Morris
New
Scientist Magazines
Encyclopaedia
Britannica
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