350 years ago René Descartes and his contemporary Sir Isaac Newton set back human evolution by centuries. Each in their own fields of philosophy and science, respectively, proposed new theories that fundamentally altered Man's understanding of his place in the Cosmos. In the span of a few decades all the superstition and fantasy of Medieval Europe – it's elves, faeries, nymphs, trolls, and nature spirits - had been discarded like childhood toys and Man awakened to his highest self. Stonehenge became nothing more than a collection of interestingly-placed rocks and the new god of Rationalism assumed its eventual place on the altar of ideals.
With one fell swoop Man had become separate from his environment. He, like all the other objects in this three-dimensional plane, was now subject to its discernible and unbreakable Laws. Now in order to make a change in this world of sticks-and-stones an object had to be pushed, burned, thrown, kicked, or somehow physically altered. And what of Man's seemingly unique capacity for self-awareness? Well, there lay an explanation for that as well: his consciousness was some strange coincidence of nature that appeared in his brain when it reached a certain degree of complexity, allowing him to perceive the material world and comment upon it. Other than that, it's only purpose was to facilitate his rational thought so that he could navigate the Universe intelligently.
What was perceived at the time, however, as a great leap forward in Man's understanding was none other than a substantial retreat for the evolution of his Consciousness for with the superstition and fantasy had been thrown out all the Magic and Purpose of his existence. What special meaning could there be to this giant clock of a universe? Possibly none at all. For the more devout it may be to simply worship God, the Creator, out of fear of being smitten for failing to do so. Other than that, it was a hard-scrabble existence in which Man had to scratch out a living on an obscure blue planet suspended in the cold vacuum of empty space which, like each of us in turn, would ultimately be consumed by the inevitability of Death.
Our civilization has maintained this world view since the “Enlightenment” and suffered heavily for it. In the past few centuries we have almost polluted our home to the point of environmental collapse and have come close on a few occasions to annihilating ourselves and our fellow inhabitants of this planet in a thermonuclear firestorm. But there has been another victim of this Great Leap Forward: our own sense of happiness.
As of 2007, 22.2 million Americans were on the drug Prozac, and anti-depressant, making it the third most popular drug in the country. A number of questions arise from this startling fact: 1) “What did Ancient Man do without Prozac? Did an enormous percent of the population just lay around all day wallowing in sadness?“ and 2) “Why is there such a great need for psychiatric medication?”
Regarding the second question, the medical community will answer that Man's brain is a complicated supercomputer regulated by chemicals which, occasionally, may get out of whack. When that happens it's the function of medical science to recalibrate the chemical balance of the computer to restore order. Accordingly, every deviation from perfect happiness and predictability is the function of a chemical imbalance and can be remedied with a little tinkering (which may result in the need for a little more tinkering to compensate for the tinkering but that's OK).
The answer to the first question may be impossible to answer but one suspects that if for the 100,000 years of modern human history before the invention of Prozac much of the species was crippled by depression and Restless Leg Syndrome we would've heard about it. Surely there must be a hieroglyphic on the wall of some Egyptian pyramid showing people moping about in a dark room touching the wall in desperation. Its discovery is probably right around the corner.
Or perhaps the answer to both questions is the same: Ancient Man wasn't depressed like Modern Man because his world wasn't bleak and meaningless. It was magical, hyper-intelligent, and filled with Purpose.
This gets to the the crux of the problem created in the “Enlightenment” and illustrates the critical difference between the modern world view and that of Ancient Man. The modern world is a meaningless one of objects suspended in space, of which we are but one, hoping not to be hit by a bigger object before we ultimately vanish from existence. To the Ancients, however, the world was an eternal Cosmic Mystery, its purpose unknowable but Divine, with Man an integral part of its ever-developing Destiny and transforming with it. He was not only a participant but a Co-Creator. Through its Collective Consciousness, of which he was a separate yet inextricably linked part, the World was constantly re-inventing itself.
In a World created out of Consciousness everything was possible: There were no Laws of Thermodynamics that had to be adhered to. The seemingly vast distance between objects was recognized as simply an Illusion and if Consciousness were underlying it all then Man was not the only manifestation with self-awareness. Trees had a markedly different yet equally real awareness. A volcano had its own spirit and personality and something as vast as the Sea, an organism composed of an enormous amount of diverse Life, had its own consciousness and was a force to be reckoned with.
In this magical world, what Modern Man would perceive as dead and inanimate matter was nothing of the sort. But perhaps Ancient Man was a fool, beating a drum for rain, ignorant of meteorology and the effect of warm, rising, moist air in a low-pressure system? And now, Modern Man, with his barometers and weather-measuring equipment has finally cracked the code and achieved dominance over atmospheric conditions, if even just by being able to predict them accurately and bring an umbrella?
In the end, it is Modern Man that is the fool – unaware of his own Power, unconscious of the awareness that surrounds him, lumbering around with his clunky machines and measuring devices. But what evidence is there to support the power of Consciousness?
One interesting series of experiments was done by a Japanese scientist, Dr Masaru Emoto, who showed that by sending various intentions to water that the crystalline structure of the sample would change and become apparent when frozen. Consider these two samples:
This water sample was told, “You fool”
This water sample was given love and thanks
Dr Emoto published his results in various books including, Messages from Water (Vol. 1 and 2) and The Hidden Messages in Water. The images are stunning and the implications earth-shattering especially considering that the human body is 78% water. Aficionados of heavy metal music, then, may want to reconsider their musical taste when they see that this is what water molecules look like when exposed to heavy metal:
In a fascinating extension of Emoto's experiments, Lynne McTaggart, author of The Field and The Intention Experiment, is now using the power of the Internet to coordinate for people all across the world to focus their intention on specific goals at specific times with renowned scientists devising and overseeing the experiments. Visit the website at www.theintentionexperiment.com for details. What these experiments have shown, and will continue to show, is that human intention has the power to affect physical reality. In a world created by Consciousness, it is not a difficult leap to make.
What, then, may be the Purpose underlying it all? Perhaps the Hindus have got the right idea: that the Universal Self has created an elaborate game of hide-and-go-seek to amuse itself and, as the seemingly separate manifestations of that Soul our role is to rediscover our true identity.
Even without understanding the Purpose, however, there is one thing we can gain from an understanding of the role of Intention and Consciousness in our lives: the power to determine our Destiny. Our internal dialogue is not merely commenting on an external world – it is creating it. When we seize the power of our Mind we seize the Power of Creation instead of being led around as a dog is on a leash for our casual thoughts over time become Intention.
Perhaps this is what the Buddha truly meant when he said, “With our thoughts we create the world.” It is a simple concept and yet one that may be the most difficult to truly understand.
In 1901 divers unearthed treasure from an ancient Roman shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. Among the findings was a remarkable little mechanical device that defied current understandings about the technological capabilities of the Ancient World.
