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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 27 - Page 4 |
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THE INFORMATION ELEMENTEarth was once able to assimilate the results of human life without being damaged. But the planet is now dominated by humanity to the point where human effort is necessary if we are to prevent a catastrophic growth of pollution.The semantic nature of the human psyche is like a second layer overlaying the ordinary animal awareness. It is formed in infancy and continues to be developed throughout life. Its nature in the infant state is that it reacts to or identifies with the infant responses to inner and outer sensations. This stage in the development of the individual is formed under the influence of the family. Later, this semantic layer is elaborated to form what might be described as an ‘information system.’ This varies in complexity and form from person to person, and its basic structure is added to the family contribution to the psyche through education and vocational training. As it normally is, the adult psyche formed in this way is constantly subject to errors of thought and action. The result of these is that it is in effect indiscriminate, and although it learns to imitate moral behaviour, this remains skin-deep, and the individual remains amoral and without true conscience. This adult semantic element of the psyche gives the illusion that we control this faculty, but in fact it cannot be controlled without long and arduous training, which is almost totally unavailable in the West. Physicist and thinker David Bohm, before he died, showed how in our normal state of identification associative process not only governs our thoughts but makes connections between thought, emotion and the body. Using the word ‘thought’ to refer to the whole associative process, he wrote: "It can deceive us about anything and everything. There is no limit to its power of deception. You could say that every trick we know, thought knows in the next moment. If we see a trick, then in the next moment thought has it there in the reflexes. In other words, thought is us - thought is not different from us." (David Bohm - Thought as a System - p99) Despite the brilliance of his thesis, the book failed to solve the question it addressed, a lack which - if Romanides claims (below) are true - was addressed by the early church. Romanides calls this condition a ‘short circuit’ between head and heart. (John S. Romanides.) It has also been likened to a special organ possessed by every ‘normal’ human being. Psychologically, it can be described as identification: at its root is an error in our understanding of and awareness of our own identity. Its cure is 'prayer of the heart', properly performed. Father Paisious, the elder on Mount Athos who helped me on my visits there, told me that his work was similar to that of a doctor. Romanides wrote about this idea that: |
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