'These hinted-at connections indicate a necessary merger of the physical and spiritual.' Photo: Greg Rakozy / Unsplash.
‘We are not wholly separate lifeforms; we are intrinsically bound to the planet itself.’
Being interconnected: Developing the thought
As we come through this curious and annoying pandemic, our thoughts are returning to the things that preoccupied us before it all began. Climate change, for example, was and is a big concern. But this brief pause in time may give us a chance to think about things differently. Indeed, I want to turn them on their head.
So far we have been considering the environment as part of the physicality of the world. But this has nothing whatever to say about the actual driver of our lives: the spiritual, the life force. At death, I believe, something leaves the now-inert body. This is the same for all life.
Our dominant culture teaches that we are separate physical individuals. Any suggestion of matters other than the physical is held to be anathema – suspicious, even psychotic. Our children are encouraged in this through the education system. This sinks deep, unconsciously affecting later growth. Real teaching aims to kindle a spark that will enable children to discover their autonomous selves. Only this way reveals the spirit.
Our Quakerism sits perilously within that scenario, as with all churches, because this ‘physicalist’ culture is pervasive. The historical timeline of Quakerism shows a wavy graph on which we succumb to cultural blandishments, become comfortable there, but then follow that with a period of spiritual renewal. This is a widespread human problem: it is difficult to discern the flaws in a situation that we have grown up with. This is one of the reasons we should pay close attention to Quaker historians.
But I want to extend the concept of underlying spirituality, via a short detour into space exploration. We are fundamentally a part of this still-lovely planet. This is illustrated by an atmospheric electrical effect between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere, known as the Schumann Resonances. Some claim that our brainwaves are linked with these resonances – indeed a study published last year suggests that some humans can detect the Earth’s magnetic field. Research is ongoing into the extent to which our bodies can be influenced by these frequencies but some are convinced that they have an effect on human and animal behaviour. All this demonstrates that we are not wholly separate lifeforms; we are intrinsically bound to the planet itself.
The scientific description of our nervous system does not deal with meaningfulness in our thinking and speech. But we need meaningfulness to comprehend what ‘spirituality’ is – and, importantly, its limits. Are there any limits? ‘God’, perceived as an all pervasive universal presence, suggests not.
And why should we restrict spirituality to humans? Let us dispense with the notion that this kind of intelligence is defined by intellectual capacity alone. That would limit intelligence to humans but any alert dog owner knows that their companions are capable of loving responses – and I would like to include love as an aspect of intelligence.
Further, in The Secret Life of Plants, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird showed that plants have their own intelligence and modes of communicating. Owners of pot plants note responses to loving care and thought. Plants live more slowly than us – but then, flies live much faster.
Following these thoughts we can see that being spiritual is not about monkish withdrawal from the world. Rather it is a very ordinary, largely forgotten, aspect of our lives. Recognition of that is the first step towards paying attention to that necessary inner growth.
That’s not all. Spirituality is not something attached to a body. The body dies but the spirit, or soul, I believe, goes on to the next life.
These hinted-at connections indicate a necessary merger of the physical and spiritual. We know very well that we are not only susceptible to physical events like this virus, but non-physical events too. Why else would there be an epidemic in mental health? Covid-19 has contributed to this via the fear it elicits, on top of the damage it does to the lungs. More generally we can see how hostilities build collectively – Brexit is an obvious example – and this tribalism is worsening. It makes Quakerism difficult, but also a haven.
Why stop there? We noted one way of connection to our planet. Another comes from recent comments made by scientists speaking to the New York Academy of Sciences that, in order to live on another planet, to resist radiation, humans may have to change DNA. Would they still be human? We hinted at meaningful interactions between humans, other animals, and plant life. If these interactions are real is it not also true that we can maintain one with our world, Mother Earth? Otherwise we have been nurtured by a dead thing. Surely she has her own intelligences, discernible by inference.
And beyond our planet? As hinted at above, everything is connected down here. Evolution delivers many new lives out of ancient primitivisms, all beautifully tied in to our Earth. So logic suggests we must recognise the planet as alive in its own way. Can we then believe that our Sun, the arbiter of our fate by its very life, is merely neutral – also a fiery dead thing? I conclude, via my Quaker faith, that Earth itself, and the Sun, contain ‘that of God’.
Readers will perceive where I am going next! The Sun has its own context. For me, the entire planetary system, including occasional comets, is involved with events on those planets. Our consciousness is linked with the Earth, our Sun, and the rest of the solar system. And maybe beyond. All of this looks to me like a wonderful spiritual linkage. This can be seen as a message from, well, whatever may be our preferred delineations of the ultimate.
This leads to my final step. We are very rare in an abundant universe. So, very very precious. But we are adolescents – witness our destructive inventions. We have overrun and plundered our planet. So one could think of our entire spiritually intelligent network – earth’s life forms, connected through to our solar system – as the arbiter of our current crises. We are being chastised, and offered a corrected way. ‘That of God’ in us takes part in this: we must respond where we are as we can.
Comments
I am disturbed by the range of statements here which are put forward as if true, but which to me are problematic or at the least are requiring more evidence. The writer believes that the teaching within our dominant culture ignores the spiritual, the connection between individuals (I wonder who “our” refers to – is that just the UK?). I would probably be in agreement with the writer that the apparently materialist culture in which we live appears to allow little time for considering spiritual matters, but I suggest that there are a great many who do recognise a spiritual connection between people, and peoples, and many teachers are among them. That the writer thinks the education system is not aiming to enable children to discover their autonomous selves perhaps reflects that there is no formal assessment of such development, except at the Foundation Stage - “Personal, social and emotional development”. However, schools that I know are aiming for that alongside developing children’s subject knowledge and skills, perhaps more obviously in the Primary phase. School is a context in which children’s awareness of themselves and their relationship to others can be fostered, and usually is.
I am happy to agree that spirituality has not yet found a home in the physical description of our nervous system, and I doubt that it ever will, fortunately. I also agree that animals can demonstrate a form of love and care for humans, but I am not inclined to equate that with spirituality. Perhaps that reflects simply that the writer’s view of spirituality is different from mine. While I do believe, with the writer, that the spirit of a human being goes on to a next life, or I might say “returns to its Creator”, I don’t feel ready to say the same about animals, although I recognise there are many in the world for whom a human or animal spirit is thought likely to reappear in a new body.
The recognition of interactions between humans, animals, and possibly plants, does not lead me to see a similar interaction with “the planet” – the rock, soil, water and air, even down to its mineral core. I cannot describe it as alive, in the sense that a description as “Mother Earth” implies, and to step from there to say that we have otherwise been “nurtured by a dead thing” is not for me. Neither “alive” nor “dead” can be words I use to describe our planet, although I would readily say that it is “continually changing”, which is not the same as being autonomous. It is from that position that the writer goes on to infer the “intelligence” of the Earth, and hence of the sun, and thus of all stars, of which the sun is just an example. So why for the writer is it only “and maybe beyond” the solar system? - many steps too far for me. For one person to make an inference does not mean that everyone will infer the same.
Yet, what of God? I recognise there is “that of God” in each human. Believing that we have evolved, then perhaps I must infer that there is that element in each living thing (but not planet or star!). Perhaps I should avoid, as some certainly would, killing the moths which otherwise eat my carpet. I am content to concern myself with fostering and responding to the spiritual characteristics of the homo sapiens with whom I come into contact, to attempt to recognise God’s leading in my dealings with them, and with other living things too. I also try to take care of the Earth, not because it is alive but because if I do not it will not be able to sustain future generations of God’s creation.
I do not have a “Quaker faith”. I have a Christian faith which is supported and challenged by my participation in Quaker meetings and worship, and by reading “The Friend”!
By RayHarris on 22nd June 2020 - 17:41
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