Words&Dirt

“‘There are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, “Do thou,” and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in “Thou shalt.” Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But “Thou mayest”! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.’ Lee’s voice was a chant of triumph.

Adam said, ‘Do you believe that, Lee?’

‘Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, “I couldn’t help it; the way was set.” But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man.’”

––East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, pg. 301-2

“We must admit that the prospects for open and free democratic discussion on a global scale are dim. The populations of authoritarian societies with poor educational systems are growing much faster than those of the democratic countries, in some of which populations are actually declining due to low birthrates. Moreover, the major global players increasingly are no longer governments but multinational corporations, which tend to be authoritarian––and as Haim Harari, former president of the Weizmann Institute of Science, has remarked, these corporations are, by and large, managed better than most democratic nation-states. We must strive to protect open societies from irrationalism and fundamentalism––from all those who desperately seek emotional security and espouse closed worldviews because they cannot bear the naturalistic turn in the image of humankind. The best way to do this may be by creating a consciousness culture: a flexible attitude, a general approach that whenever possible maximizes the autonomy of the individual citizen and adopts a ‘principle of phenomenal liberty’ as a guideline. We must be aware that the decisions a society makes affect the individual’s brain and the individual’s phenomenal-state space. Unless the interests of others are directly threatened, people ought to be free to explore their own minds and design their own conscious reality-models according to their wishes, needs, and beliefs.

Developing a consciousness culture has nothing to do with establishing a religion or a particular political agenda. On the contrary, a true consciousness culture will always be subversive, by encouraging individuals to take responsibility for their own lives. The current lack of a genuine consciousness culture is a social expression of the fact that the philosophical project of enlightenment has become stuck: What we lack is not faith but knowledge. What we lack is not metaphysics but critical rationality––not grand theoretical visions but a new practicality in the way we use our brains. The crucial question is how to make use of the progress in the empirical mind sciences in order to increase the autonomy of the individual and protect it from the increasing possibilities of manipulation. Can we ride the tiger? If we demystify consciousness, do we automatically lose our sense of human solidarity at the same time?

If rational neuroanthropology shows us the positive aspects of what it means to be a human being, we can systematically cultivate those aspects of ourselves. Here I have considered only two of the possible aspects that should be nurtured and cultivated, but there may be many more. If we are naturally evolved cognitive subjects, rational thinkers of thoughts and makers of theories, then we should continue to foster and optimize exactly this feature of ourselves. If neuroanthropology draws our attention to the vastness of our phenomenal space of possibilities, we should consider this a strength and begin systematically to explore our experiential space, in all its depth. Developing a consciousness culture will mean expanding the Ego Tunnel and exploring the space of altered states of consciousness in ways from which we all can profit. The interplay of virtual-reality technology, new psychoactive substances, ancient psychological techniques such as meditation, and future neurotechnology will introduce us to a universe of self-exploration barely imaginable today.

How can we achieve cross-fertilization between the two sides of the human mind? Can neurophenomenological refinement help us optimize critical scientific rationality? Could scientists be better scientists if they were well-traveled, say, if they learned to have lucid dreams? Could rigorous, reductionist cognitive neuroscience develop a form of turbo-meditation, helping monks to be better monks and mystics to be better mystics? Does deep meditation perhaps also have an influence on thinking for yourself, taking your life into your own hands, and becoming a politically mature citizen? Could we find a way to selectively stimulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during dream phases in order to make lucid dreams available to everybody? If we manage to generate artificial out-of-body experiences safely in a controlled setting, might this help dancers or athletes improve their training? What about fully paralyzed patients? Could a ruthlessly materialist investigation into the way the mirror system develops in the young human brain help us cultivate empathy and intuitive attunement in our children in ways nobody thought possible? If we don’t try, we will never find out.

Many fear that through the naturalistic turn in the image of mind, we will lose our dignity. ‘Dignity’ is a term that is notoriously hard to define––and usually it appears exactly when its proponents have run out of arguments. However, there is one clear sense, which has to do with respecting oneself and others––namely the unconditional will to self-knowledge, veracity, and facing the facts. Dignity is the refusal to humiliate oneself by simply looking the other way or escaping to some metaphysical Disneyland. If we do have something like dignity, we can demonstrate this fact by the way we confront the challenges to come, some of which have been sketched in this book. We could face the historical transition in our image of ourselves creatively and with a will to clarity. It is also clear how we could lose our dignity: by clinging to the past, by developing a culture of denial, and by sliding back into the various forms of irrationalism and fundamentalism. The working concepts of ‘consciousness ethics’ and ‘consciousness culture’ are exactly about not losing our dignity––by taking it to new levels of autonomy in dealing with our conscious minds. We must not lose our self-respect, but we must also stay realistic and not indulge in utopian illusions; the chances for successfully riding the tiger, at least on a large scale, are not very high. But if we manage, then a new consciousness culture could fill the vacuum that emerges as the Consciousness Revolution unfolds at increasing speed.”

––The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self, by Thomas Metzinger, pg. 238-40