Sound Of Sirens

It is obvious that some kind of shift has to happen, will happen.

Observing and understanding the corporate world, the global economy, politics and society are crucial components to realize where we are at. But this won’t give us the keys to change, I don’t believe in changing from ‘within’, sticking to the old paradigms.

There is a lot coming up concerning the shift of paradigm, the shift of consciousness. One of the voices is Stephan Harding, Co-ordinator of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College, where he is also Resident Ecologist and a teacher. In his book ‘Animate Earth’ he explores how Gaian science can help us to develop a sense of connectedness with the ‘more-than-human’ world. His work is based on a careful integration of rational scientific analysis with our intuition, sensing and feeling.

Read an exerpt of the first chapter:

Holistic science … is a quest that aims not at a complete understanding and mastery of nature, but rather that strives for a genuine participation with nature…

A key insight in systems thinking is that we can understand a great deal more about a system if we focus on the patterns of relationships between the parts rather than on the parts themselves as isolated entities…. We very quickly encounter the principle of emergence, in which surprising properties appear at the level of the whole that cannot be understood through focusing on the parts alone.

Systems thinking involves stepping away from the notion that it is possible to predict and control nature…. Control is the wrong basis on which to build a fruitful relationship with nature – participation is clearly more appropriate, and is in fact the only available option. In order to participate fully and properly we need to… develop a deep, intuitive sensitivity to the qualities of things. So what is intuition and how can it be developed in the practice of holistic science?

In holistic science there is an attempt to cultivate intuition as much as thinking, sensation and feeling…. In cultivating intuition…careful attention is paid to the phenomenon being studied through a process of active looking, without attempting to reduce the experience to quantities or explanations… active looking involves the redeployment of attention into sense perception and away from the verbal-intellectual mind…If this works as it should, one can experience the suspension of one preconceived notions and habitual responses about the thing being perceived, so that its exact sensorial qualities enliven and deepen perception…one has the intuitive perception of the thing as a presence within oneself, and not as a object outside one’s own being.

Intuitive, holistic perception naturally connects us with the domain of ethics…in holistic science we realize that perceptions of wholeness arrived at through active looking are inseparable from a deep sensitivity to the intrinsic value in the being or entity we are interacting with, making it very difficult for us to do anything that would harm or disturb the ‘inner necessity and truth’ of that being….
Holistic science is about reuniting fact and value in ways that enable our culture to explore new possibilities of living harmoniously with the Earth.

‘Animate Earth‘ by Stephan Harding, 2006

also in Geman: Lebendige Erde: Gaia - Vom respektvollen Umgang mit der Natur