Global Mind Change

Willis Harman, former director of policy research at Stanford Research Institute and a consultant to Fortune 5000 corporations, was a speaker at the 1979 Evangelical Consultation on the Future sponsored by the Billy Graham Center.

"Down through the centuries a variety of anomalous phenomena, including clairvoyant remote viewing, telepathic communication, levitation and teleportation, “instantaneous” spiritual healing, and other “psychic” phenomena, had been reported..... What was common to all of these anomalous psychic phenomena was that mind seemed to have some effects in the physical world.... Yet as scientists, more an one generation of students were trained to engage in that denial."13

"The out-of-consciousness collective/universal mind is creator of the world which the conscious individual mind experiences. This way of looking at reality must seem so strange to the Western educated mind that it is hard to take it seriously. In fact, although it may seem to be more characteristic of the Eastern philosophies, it is also present in the Western traditions and, as we have seen, it does not necessarily contradict the usual scientific view." 39

"Consider another kind of explanation which speaks of some sort of teleological “pull” in the evolutionary process, of evolution toward increased awareness, complexity, freedom—in short, of evolution going somewhere (not in a predetermined sense, but in the sense of preferred direction). ... Perhaps a species on the long path of evolutionary development is not only pushed by random mutations and natural selection, but also pulled by the kind of teleological force implied in Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution and much more forthrightly in Teilhard de Chardins The Phenomenon of Man. In this kind of explanation mind is prior to brain, and evolution is characterized both by the organism’s freedom to choose and by its inner sense of “right” direction.

"This has been a totally unacceptable form of explanation in modern scientific debate—yet it is much more congenial to the emerging view that consciousness has somehow to be factored into our total scientific picture of the universe." 55

Choose your Metaphysics 33
"We who have been educated in modern society naturally assume that our scientific view of reality is essentially correct and other "pre-scientific" or “primitive” views are wrong. But we have to consider the possibility that some of those other views are seen through other cultural windows, and emphasize other aspects of the total human experience; they are not so much wrong as complementary.... 33-34

"Improbable as it may seem to many, we appear to be going through another such profound change. Again at the heart of it is a challenge to the prevailing knowledge authority system. So far, the evidence for this sea change is scanty. We can invite the reader to observe the pattern; we cannot claim it is demonstrable.

Oversimplifying somewhat for clarity, let us think in terms of three basically different kinds of implicit metaphysic:

• M-1. In the first of these, the basic stuff of the universe is matter-energy. We learn about reality from studying the measurable world.... Whatever consciousness is, it emerges out of matter (that is, the brain) when the evolutionary process has progressed sufficiently far. Whatever we can learn about consciousness must ultimately be reconciled with the kind of knowledge we get from studying the physical brain, for consciousness apart from a living physical organism is not only unknown, it is inconceivable.

• M-2. An alternate metaphysic is dualistic. There are two fundamentally different kinds of basic stuff in the universe: matter-energy stuff and mind-spirit stuff. Matter-energy stuff is studied with the present tools of science; mind-spirit stuff must be explored in other ways more appropriate to it (such as inner, subjective exploration). Thus there develop, in essence, two complementary kinds of knowledge; presumably there are areas of overlap (such as the field of psychic phenomena). 34

• M-3. Yet a third metaphysic finds the ultimate stuff of the universe to be consciousness. Mind or consciousness is primary, and matter-energy arises in some sense out of mind. The physical world is to the greater mind as a dream image is to the individual mind. Ultimately the reality behind the phenomenal world is contacted, not through the physical senses, but through the deep intuition. Consciousness is not the end-product of material evolution; rather, consciousness was here first! 34-35

"These three basic metaphysical perspectives are summarized briefly in the following table:

THREE METAPHYSICAL PERSPECTIVES
• M-1 MATERIALISTIC MONISM (Matter giving rise to mind)
• M-2 DUALISM (Matter plus mind)
• M-3 TRANSCENDENTAL MONISM (Mind giving rise to matter)

"The fundamental change which we are suggesting is happening in Western society can be put in terms of these metaphysics. Essentially, it is a shift of dominant metaphysic from M-1 to M-3. At first thought this may seem as outrageous a proposition as the heliocentric universe did to many in early seventeenth-century Europe. M-3 seems quite foreign to the Western mind, or certainly would have a generation ago. (It is not nearly so alien as it was even a quarter of a century ago, if we may judge from increased overt interest in the Eastern philosophical religions; purchases of books based around some sort of transcendental theme; appearances of “metaphysical” and Eastern transcendental concepts, such as reincarnation, karma, life-changing near-death experiences, in motion picture themes and innuendos; participation in meditative practices, work shops and seminars; widespread interest in the phenomenon of “channeling”; and other indicators.)" 35

"It is furthermore critically important to recognize that one does not set out to prove the validity of a metaphysic. Reality is far too rich to be adequately captured in any conceptualization of it—any conceptualization whatever.... 37

The Plausibility of M-3 Dominance

"This is indeed a bold claim we are making, namely that the M-1 dominance is declining, and the M-3 metaphysic is on its way to becoming the dominant metaphysic not only of. this society, but of most of the world as well. The fact that no such fundamental change has occurred in Western society since the Copernican revolution, nearly four centuries ago, suggests the aptness of the phrase “the second Copernican revolution....

"...the M-3 orientation is by no means new in human history. As we shall show in more détail in Chapter 4, for thousands of years it has been part of the esoteric, inner-circle understanding, or gnosis, in most of the world’s spiritual traditions. So also has been the concept of a cultural hypnosis which, although it differs in specific content from one culture to another, nevertheless tends to conceal an inner understanding that is akin to what we termed M-3..."37

"The out-of-consciousness collective/universal mind is creator of the world which the conscious individual mind experiences. This way of looking at reality must seem so strange to the Western educated mind that it is hard to take it seriously. In fact, although it may seem to be more characteristic of the Eastern philosophies, it is also present in the Western traditions and, as we have seen, it does not necessarily contradict the usual scientific view." 39

"...we are not arguing here that the M-3 metaphysic is true. We are merely trying to understand how it might be that some people—including some with rather sophisticated educational training—could have come to conclude that this way of seeing the world is more congenial to the totality of human experience than is the positivistic, reductionistic scientific worldview.

"Most of the rest of this book will be directed toward examining some of the areas of human experience that seem to suggest the M-3 metaphysic, and exploring the implications for society if indeed it comes to predominate." 39

Challenges to Positivism and Reductionism

"Consider another kind of explanation which speaks of some sort of teleological “pull” in the evolutionary process, of evolution toward increased awareness, complexity, freedom—in short, of evolution going somewhere (not in a predetermined sense, but in the sense of preferred direction). In that kind of evolutionary explanation the organism developed two eyes because at some deep level of inner understanding it wanted to see better! Perhaps a species on the long path of evolutionary development is not only pushed by random mutations and natural selection, but also pulled by the kind of teleological force implied in Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution and much more forthrightly in Teilhard de Chardins The Phenomenon of Man. In this kind of explanation mind is prior to brain, and evolution is characterized both by the organism’s freedom to choose and by its inner sense of “right” direction.

"This has been a totally unacceptable form of explanation in modern scientific debate—yet it is much more congenial to the emerging view
that consciousness has somehow to be factored into our total scientific picture of the universe." 55

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