Bolstering our mystical imagination with empirical findings

Today’s Post

     Last week we suggested that mysticism is alive and well, not only in the secular sense, but in the modern sense as well.

This week, we will look into what it is that these modern mystics are seeing that adds a ‘liminal’ characteristic to our empirical findings as we begin to ‘make sense of things’.

‘Zero Sum’ vs ‘Win Win’

We have previously seen how Johan Norberg identified nine facets of human evolution documented in examples of increases in human welfare that show them all to increase by an unprecedented explosion over just the most recent hundred fifty years.  In his book, “Open”, he goes on to address how such undeniable data contradicts the prevalent but dystopian concept of ‘zero sum’.

To many, the idea of ‘zero sum’ underlays the popular belief that any gain is necessarily countered by a comparable loss.  Norberg sees such a belief as essential to a prevalent current political belief that one side must necessarily triumph over the other side in any disagreement.  The viewpoint of ‘zero sum’ as opposed to ‘win-win’ can be found in nearly all expressions of religion, alongside that which sees life as a ‘rise’ in some places and a ‘stalemate’ in others.

Norberg makes the case that if life were a ‘zero sum’ game, it would not progress.  Any increase in welfare encountered in human life would be paid for by degradation encountered elsewhere.  Nowhere is this perspective more prevalent than in the distribution of wealth.  In his book, “Progress”, he takes aim at the conventional wisdom that increases in wealth on the part of the few is paid for by increases in poverty on the part of the many.  From such a dystopian perspective, “wealth is accumulated off the backs of the poor.”  The total wealth of the world, by this reckoning, is static, effectively ‘zero sum’.  In a Malthusian conclusion, human evolution eventually requires all the wealth to be owned by a few, collapsing society and leading to human extinction.

Norberg’s data, however, shows quite a different trend, and leads to a contrary conclusion.  The data not only shows world wealth increasing exponentially, but it also shows poverty to decrease at the same rate.  Effectively, by this reckoning, total global wealth is increasing.  ‘Win-win’ isn’t the exception: if you know where and how to look at history it’s the norm.

Norberg asks the question in his book, “Open”, where does this global trend come from?  In a mechanistic universe, in which energy is neither created nor destroyed, the rule of ‘zero sum’ would seem to dominate.  , one which is deeperTeilhard poses an insight into the same phenomenon: in all relationships, not only does “true union differentiate”, it leads to increased fullness.  As in the case of the nine metrics of human evolution in which Norberg charts, how does the increased ‘fullness’, now quantified in the increase in human welfare, occur?

The ‘cosmic spark’, postulated by the sages of the Axial Age, articulated so clearly by Teilhard, and addressed by the nascent science approach to ‘information’ is clearly at work in Norberg’s nine metrics.  Repeating John Haught’s insight:

“Running silently through the heart of matter, a series of events that would flower into ‘subjectivity’ has been part of the universe from the start.”

   This of course simply reflects Teilhard’s insight that the energy of evolution by which the universe rises to increased levels of energy (and hence ‘consciousness’) necessarily continues in the human product.  Recognition of this ‘cosmic spark’ has been the goal of nearly all religious enterprises and is echoed in every mystic’s quest.  As Norberg’s insight shows, traces of it can be seen be seen in the most mundane facts if we but choose to cast our nets of understanding widely enough.

Evolutionary Mysticism

Insights such as this, a small example in a much larger group of perspectives of human existence, are illustrations of how a trained eye can be paired with a comprehensive set of facts to result in a much clearer perception of not only of our environment, but much more importantly, the part we play in it.  This offers a ‘secular’ definition of mysticism.  When put into an evolutionary perspective, our understanding of ourselves and our milieu can come together into a comprehensive worldview that makes it possible for us to navigate our own personal evolution in a way that insures our collective survival.  The ‘evolutionary mystic’ is simply one who learns how use the insights of imagination to integrate the data available to us into a coherent context in which our own lives are resonant.  Teilhard sees cosmic evolution in this way when he says

“Evolution is the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes in a universe in which there is always more to see”

   While this perception of mysticism might be seen as distinctly contrary to the mystical experiences of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, with their emphasis on emotional ecstasy and separateness from society, the common ground is there: seeing.

One concept that Teilhard identifies as essential to human evolution is the ‘psychism’, by which humans pool their insights in such a way that a new insight is born, one which is deeper and more comprehensive than that of any individual.  In summary the psychism is simply a group of humans who collectively undertake a quest.  It can be a group of carpenters building a house, or a group of scientists discovering the treatment of a virus.  To varying degrees, such undertakings result in a satisfaction in what is accomplished, but whose progress is guided by a vision of the unfinished product and the need for depending on each other to achieve it.  The more difficult the job, the more necessary will be the triad of confidence, vision and relationship (Paul’s faith, hope and love) that is active in the group’s work.

The holistic vision which sees the whole emerging from seemingly disjoint parts is just as alive in the psychism as it is in the desert mystic with her ecstatic emotions.  It is perhaps more profound in the psychism because it is a celebration of the fruit of human relations instead of requiring the recoil from them.

Put into the sweep of cosmic evolution, evolutionary mysticism can be seen in instances of ‘empirical mysticism’.  Teilhard’s “intuition bursting on a pile of facts” is described by secular thinkers such as Albert Einstein in terms of ‘joyful awakening’ to a clearer vision of universal cohesiveness.

The larger psychism, consisting in the groups of scientists which developed the molecular concept of genetic activity by which a treatment of the Covid-19 virus emerged, all report the same reaction to uncovering how the Covid virus attacked the human gene.

The Next Post

This week we explored the idea of increased ‘holism’ in the human attempt to more fully grasp and understand the objective reality that we reflect in our subjective minds.

Next week we will take a closer look at such a seemingly dualistic idea as ‘empirical mysticism’.