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The evolution of consciousness as the foundation of meaning and its implications for education and counseling

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Content THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AS THE
FOUNDATION OF MEANING AND ITS
IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION
AND COUNSELING
by
William Kelley Sheridan
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Education)
June 1976
Copyright by
William Kelley Sheridan
1976
UMI Number: DP24169
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
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a note will indicate the deletion.
Dissertation Publishing
UMI DP24169
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
TH E GRADUATE SCHO O L
U N IV E R S IT Y PARK
^ LOS A N G ELES, C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
*76
S5“ 52l
This dissertation, w ritten by
William Kelley Sheridan
under the direction of Dissertation C om
mittee, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The Graduate
School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t o f requirements of
the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y
Dean
DISSERTATB
Chairman
Dedicated to my Mother,
Louise Kelley Sheridan
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION . . ................... 1
Introduction to the Problem ......... 1
The Statement of the Problem.......... 2
Questions and hypotheses .................. 2
Limitations of the study .................. 5
Assumptions underlying the study .... 5
Definition of terms ...................... 7
Procedure ................................... 8
Review of the Literature .................. 9
Organization of Remaining Chapters .... 12
II. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF OPINIONS ................ 15
The Existential Neurosis............. 15
Coleman................................ 15
Bugental.............................. 16
Tillich................................ 17
F r a n k l ................................ 18
The Secularist View..................... 21
Schopenhauer ...... . . 21
Darrow ............. .. . 22
Russell . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... 23
iii
Chapter Page
Von Hartmann................... 24
Camus.................... 25
Consciousness as the Key to Meaning— ■
Carl Jung ................... 2 8
III. HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS—
TEILHARD DE CHARDIN ..... 32
E n e r g y ........... 33
The Upward Direction of Evolution
to Consciousness........................ 36
The Law of Complexity— -Consciousness . . . 41
The Coming of Man on E a r t h ............... 47
Origin of Consciousness and Man*s
Psychic Structure .... 54
Anxiety . ...................... ..... 56
L o v e 5 8
Tendency to the absolute 6 3
IV. THE PRESENT STRUCTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS—
PAUL TILLICH ........................ 69
The Structure of Consciousness ...... 71
The subject-object split ............... 71
Anxiety and finitude ........... 75
Courage and Meaning 7 8
V. THE DYNAMICS OF THE DIRECTION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS . . . ................... 83
Maslow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Fromm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Bucke ........................ 109
iv
Chapter Page
Watts...................................... 105
Teilhard and Cosmic Consciousness ......... 107
Mysticism................................ 109
VI. PHILOSOPHICAL SYNTHESES ...................... 115
Toward a Philosophy of Consciousness . . . 115
Heidegger.............................. 117
Tillich and self-isolation.......... . . 119
Hegel...................... 123
Deikman................................ 125
Poetry and Consciousness .................. 12 8
Hegel on poetry....................... 150
Heidegger on poetry................... 152
Obstacles to the development of the
poetic consciousness ......... 154
VII. FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. . 158
Findings................... 158
Conclusions and Significance
for Counseling.......................... -140\
Conclusions and Recommendations
for Education...........................v14 6
REFERENCES............................................s15 0.
v
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Introduction to the Problem
This dissertation directed itself to a problem
which is at the very center of the foundation of education.
Philosophers of education have been trying to answer the
question of "Why education at all" for many centuries ever
since Plato in The Republic first formulated the question
and proposed his answer. It is obvious that education must
prepare a student to take his place in today.'s complex
modern world. The student must be prepared to function as
a worker in the economy and a citizen of the nation.
However, the question is further asked, "Is this all there
is?" Education today teaches a person to read his work
orders, to balance his checkbook, and to program a
computer. He is able to earn a living, purchase a home,
read the newspaper editorials and vote with some intel
ligence in an election. However, behind all this success
the philosophical nature of man urges him onward further
to ask more profound questions. The existentialists
use the terms anxiety or dread to refer to this urging.
Man is not at home in the world as he lives from day
to day. He reads, figures, earns a living, raises
1
a family and on week-ends his hobbies, and recreation
keep him busy. However, behind it all there is J;
the fundamental questioning of the meaning of everything he
does.
It is evident that education and philosophers of
education have not ignored this basic questioning of man.
Plato's education prepared a person to ascend to the level
where he could contemplate the good. With the coming of
Christianity, education was directed to form the good-living
church member. The history of education clearly manifests
that early education in the United States was designed to
teach Bible reading and produce good ministers. The history
of American education is in many ways the story of the
secularization of education. In our times, the total con
trol of education by religion has ended. In spite of the
decline of religion in education, the fundamental question
of the meaning of life still remains. Can the educational
process fulfill in any way the void in the depth of man's
being? Is there a pattern of meaning which can be discov
ered in the vast amount of data available to the contem
porary scholar?
The Statement of the Problem
Questions and hypotheses. The problem with Which
the dissertation was concerned is the problem of man as he
asks the question of meaning. It was more specifically
2
concerned with man as he questions this meaning of his
existence. The problem can best be expressed in a series
of questions:
1. Is it possible to discern a pattern in the vast
amount of data available which can be a basis for a sense
of meaning?
2. Can a pattern of meaning be recognized without
any reliance on a religious system or an appeal to a revela
tion coming from a source outside our experienced world.
3. Can a secular education system which by its
nature is independent of religion or revelation contribute
to a student's formulating a sense of the meaning of his
own existence?
These questions are fundamental and the whole his
tory of philosophy is itself involved with their answer.
However, this dissertation is primarily concerned with these
questions as they are felt and experienced by an individual.
This experience of the need for meaning must be explored and
understood. This lack of meaning as it is experienced by a
person is called the existential neurosis and it is the pri
mary concern of this dissertation.
The dissertation evaluated the following hypotheses:
1. There exists a sense of absence of meaning in a
person's life called the existential neurosis and this can
be explicated by reference to selected authors.
3
2. The evolution of human self-consciousness in
the history of the cosmos is a foundation of meaning and
[
this can be demonstrated in the writings of selected au
thors;
3. A pattern of evolution in consciousness can be
discerned from the writings of various authors. This pat
tern consists of a progression from present self-conscious
ness characterized by a subject-object split to a state of
consciousness characterized by a realization of a unity
transcending the subject-object split.
4. Man can achieve a sense of meaning by seeing
himself as part of the evolution of his consciousness from
a past of millions of years to a present state of estrange
ment consisting of the subject-object split. This present
estrangement can be overcome in some future fulfillment in
which the subject-object split is transcended in an experi
ence of unity.
5. An understanding of the existential neurosis
and the philosophical issures involved in it is relevant to
the counseling process.
6.1 Education can foster a sense of meaning especi
ally by an emphasis on poetry because certain selected
authors have seen poetry as a means of overcoming the
estrangement of the subject-object split.
4
Limitations of the study. This study was limited
by the nature of the questions asked and the material
selected from various authors was chosen in accordance with
its relevance. Each author considered had a large number
of works in his field of knowledge and only that material
was used which pertained to the questions asked in the dis
sertation. No attempt was made to give any kind of a com
plete summary of the thought of the authors involved. The
study was further limited by restricting the number of per
sons considered. There has been much written on the subject
and a long list of authors could have been considered. The
study selected certain authors but there is no implication
that these are the only authors who have treated these ques
tions in a scholarly manner.
Assumptions underlying the study. One assumption
underlying the study is that the authors considered can be
trusted and respected fb.r their scholarly methods and proce
dures. It is assumed that their conclusions merit some
degree of belief by reason of the intelligence of the author
and the acceptance of his writing. There was no attempt
made to critique or defend the procedure of various authors.
The authors considered have been subject to various criti
cisms. For example, Teilhard has been criticized for con
fusing science and philosophy, Tillich for mixing up exis
tentialism and Christianity, and Maslow for not being
5
scientific. A complete exposition and critism of the proce
dures of the authors involved was beyond the scope of the
study.
Another assumption of the dissertation is what is
called the coherence theory of truth. This basically holds
that if a number of scholars working independently with dif
ferent procedures and writing in different time periods
come to the same conclusion, then it follows that this con
clusion has some truth value and is worthy of belief. The
truth of a statement depends on its coherence with other
statements used to describe a world system. This coherence
theory of truth is most closely associated with rationalism
and idealism. An article which well describes this assump
tion is one by W.T. Stace (1967) called "The Objectivity of
Mystical Experience." Stace holds that mystical experiences
by a number of people in different parts of the world and in
different centuries have certain characteristics in common.
The fact that they have perceived the same thing is the
basis for the objective validity of their insights. The
epistemological assumptions of this study are essentially
that coherence among authors is a valuable indication of
truth. To point out unifying themes among authors is a
contribution to the field of knowledge. Frequently differ
ent authors write totally independently of one another and
a scholar in later times by reason of a better perspective
6
can see the similarities and differences between authors.
The dissertation-, should contribute to the field of know
ledge by pointing out themes of unity in the thought of
different authors.
Definition of terms. The definitions of the princi
pal terms used in this study are as follows:
Consciousness— in this study the term consciousness
is used to mean the self awareness of man. This self con
sciousness contrasts with the simple consciousness of the
animal world. An animal is conscious in the respect that it
is aware of its environment and can react to it.
Man also has this simple consciousness in that he
is aware of his environment. However, in addition to this
simple consciousness man has consciousness of his simple
awareness. He is therefore conscious of his consciousness.
This uniqueness of man also enables him to be aware of him
self as a self distinct from the world he inhabits. This
self consciousness of man is characterized by the ability
to ask the question of the meaning of his existence. In
summary, the consciousness that this study is concerned with
is the consciousness of man's awareness of his own conscious
ness, his own self, and his questioning the meaning of his
existence.
Meaning— a thing has meaning in a context of refer
ences. For example, a hammer has meaning in reference to
the hand which holds it and the nail which it drives into
the lumber. Man questions the meaning of his own existence
and asks how he fits into the totality of reality. In this
study man is hypothesized as being able to achieve meaning
because of a reference system of past, present, and future.
Evolution— in this study evolution is the process
of consciousness as it evolved from simple animal con
sciousness to self-awareness characterized by the subject-
object split. A continued evolution is postulated as
consciousness evolves to a sense of unity.
Procedure
This dissertation is a philosophical study of the
writings of selected authors on the subject of conscious
ness, its evolution, and its relation to life*s meaning.
The study directed itself to the writings of major authors
who have established themselves as respected scholars in
their various fields. It sought to synthesize their ideas
concerning the relationship between meaning and conscious
ness. The study further established a relationship between
the authors in terms of the unifying hypotheses mentioned
above.
All the major works of Teilhard de Chardin were
read and his specific references to the evolution of con
sciousness were compared and synthesized. The works of the
other authors were searched to see what they have said on
the principal themes of the dissertation. Philosophical
8
literature was researched on the general ideas of meaning
and consciousness in order to determine how various contem
porary authors have synthesized these ideas'.
Review of the Literature
It is the intention of this review to show how this
study fits in the extensive body of literature on the ques
tions considered. No attempt is made to present a summary
of the vast fields of literature available.
There are fundamentally two bodies of literature
which this study attempted to bridge: these two bodies are
consciousness and meaning. In the literature* on conscious
ness studies in both philosophy and psychology are concerned
with the nature of self-introspection and the perennial
body-mind problem. Idealist philosophers, who place the
emphasis on consciousness as the more fundamental reality,
are considered in this study in reference to Hegel. On the
other hand, the materialist have equally attempted to
explain consciousness according to their principles. For
example Joseph Margoles in an article "Reduction and
Ontological Aspects of Consciousness" presents a philosophy
of consciousness from the materialist point of view. The
materialist point of view is not explicitly considered in
:the study, but it is implicitly treated in the writings of
the secularists. In addition to the philosophy of con
sciousness there are studies about altered states of con
sciousness. There is a considerable body of literature on
9
on the development of consciousness in Zen Buddhism and
various forms of.Yoga. For example Gope Krishna in an
article "Understanding the Transformation of Consciousness,"
attempts to bridge the difficult gap between science and
religion. In this area also there is writing about tech
niques of meditation to alter consciousness without the use
of drugs. Burl Payne in his book, Getting There Without
Drugs, examines the techniques of consciousness alteration
without drugs. In this same area there is considerable lit
erature on transcendental meditation and its effect on the
body and mental states. An excellent recent book on the
subject of consciousness is The Nature of Human Conscious
ness edited by Robert E. Ornstein. This book is a collec
tion of different articles on the subject of consciousness.
The other family of literature is that concerned
with the meaning of life. This group embraces religious
literature and psychological studies of meaninglessness and
alienation. For instance John Battista in an article called
"The Development of Meaning in Life," explores the philoso
phical, psychological, and phenomenological aspects of
meaning. In this study various psychological tests such as
the Personal Orientation Inventory and the Purpose of Life
Test, were given to different groups. These tests attempted
to measure the sense of meaning possessed by persons with
different intellectual perspectives. Another similar study
10
was by Martin Bolt reported in an article, "Purpose of Life
and Religious Orientation." Bolt gave the Crumbaugh Test of
Meaning to 52 undergraduates and not surprisingly found out
that those with what he called an intrinsic religious ori
entation had a greater sense of meaning and purpose to
life.
Boltfs study is significant and unique in that it
attempts to bridge the two fields of meaning and conscious
ness. Another study which was in this area is that of
Arthur J. Derkman reported in an article called "The Meaning
of Everything." This article appeared in the book The
Nature of Human Consciousness mentioned above. Since this
article is so relevant to this study, it is considered in
detail in the sixth chapter on philosophical syntheses.
Concerning research done in doctoral dissertations,
no dissertations were found which made a connection between
an evolution of consciousness and a meaning to existence.
There were numerous dissertations on meaning as applied to
education; one significant study was "The Pragmatic Theory
of Meaning as a Potential Source for Educational Theory" by
Guidelia Abacar. Another was a work called "A Definition
of Meaning for American Education" by William McKenzie.
There were also numerous dissertations which made studies
of various psychological aspects of consciousness.
11
The one dissertation which most closely approaches
:the material treated in this dissertation is entitled "They
Call It Christianity, I Call it Consciousness: A Theologi
cal Correlation of Paul Tillich and R.W. Emerson" by Dwight
Kalita. This study examined man's estranged being as en
countered in anxiety, despair, and loss of identity. Man,
it was maintained, confronts the ground of Being (God) in
the ecstatic consciousness of faith. This study by Kalita
which compared the thought of Tillich with Ralph Waldo
Emerson on the subject of ecstatic consciousness was the
only one found which closely approached the matter treated
in this present study.
This dissertation has its uniqueness in its associ
ation of meaning with the evolution of consciousness and in
its selection of authors to illustrate this association.
Organization of Remaining Chapters
The second chapter is an historical survey of opin
ions on the nature of the existential neurosis and the opin
ion of those whose views are contrary to the findings of
this study. They are called secularists for lack of a
better term and in order to avoid placing a negative value
on their opinions.
This dissertation claims a meaning structure exists
in the evolution of human consciousness. Evolution implies
a time span of past, present, andtfuture. In addition to
12
1
the time span there is the progression of consciousness from
.its past of simple animal consciousness to its present con-
dition of self-awareness characterized by the subject-object.
split, to a future healing of this split by a sense of
unity.
In the third chapter the history of consciousness
is explored with reference to the works of Teilhard de
Chardin. In the fourth chapter the present structure of
consciousness is examined largely with reference to Paul
Tillich. In the fifth chapter the future or direction of
consciousness is examined principally with reference to
Maslow. Several other authors are considered because they
have written directly on this matter.
The sixth chapter presents a greater philosophical
synthesis of the matter treated. The authors considered
in this chapter are more philosophical in their outlook than
some of the others mentioned. In this chapter also the role
of poetry is treated as it pertains to the hypotheses of the
study. The reason for this treatment of poetry is that it
is the principal link between the themes of the dissertation
and the educational process. Poetry is presented as being
an excellent educational device useful in the development of
a consciousness of unity.
In the seventh and final chapter there is a summary
of the findings together with conclusions and recommendations
13
for further research. The significance for education and
counseling are treated in this chapter.
14
CHAPTER II
HISTORICAL SURVEY OF OPINIONS
The Existential Neurosis
The field of contemporary educational thought has
in recent times been concentrating increasingly on the
preparation and education of those individuals who seek to
be counselors. This profession is beginning to play an
important role in the high school, the college and the
university. The number and variety of problems that are
presented to counselors are very great. One of the
problems which the counselor frequently encounters is
that of the sense of loss of meaning which has been
experienced by the client. The person complains of an
absence of direction or of any sense of meaning to his
existence. This individual is suddenly confronted with
the realization that many of the things that he does
in connection with his personal life and his job seem
now to be without any real fulfillment or meaning. This
condition has been described as the existential neurosis.
Coleman. James C. Coleman (1972) in his
well-known textbook on abnormal psychology gives a brief
15
consideration of this type of neurosis. He describes it
as resulting from a breakdown of traditional values and
the consequent loss of meaning which is encountered. < . >
Coleman asks whether this questioning really comes within
the definition of neurosis. However, there is no doubt
that this sense of purposelessness and alienation is some
thing which is severely disturbing to an individual and
very often prompts him to seek the aid of a counselor.
Bugental. James F. T. Bugental (1965) devotes a
considerable part of his book on existential analysis to a
consideration of the existential neurosis. He says he
is finding among intelligent educated patients that they
are dominated by this existential neurosis. These people
are preoccupied by feelings of powerlessness, blame,
absurdity, or estrangement. Bugental sees four character
istics of the existential neurosis. The first is the
anxiety of fate and death which is an intuition of man's
finite condition. In the second place existential neurosis
consists of the anxiety which is associated with guilt and
condemnation. Thirdly the most significant characteristic
of the existential neurosis is this fear of emptiness and
the general meaninglessness of one's existence. Finally in
fourth place he places loneliness and isolation as an
element in the existential neurosis. Bugental also refers
to absurdity as being one of the elements which make up
16
the existential neurosis. Absurdity is the fear a person
has of being "a cosmic triviality." This feeling of
absurdity particularly comes from a person's realization
of the immensity of the universe. This feeling of absurd
ity is very much evident in modern times with the
discoveries of astronomy which indicates the vast extent
of the universe of which we are a part. Furthermore,
biological science has clearly shown the very long ages
which have preceded man. These factors especially prompt
an individual to wonder whether or not his entire exist
ence within this universe is a mere triviality.
Tillich. Bugental in his analysis relied very
heavily upon the thought of Paul Tillich (1952) in his
outstanding work entitled The Courage To Be". Many of the
categories which Bugental used were obtained from the
system which was devised by Tillich in this book. In this
remarkable work Tillich gives a considerable amount of
time to a consideration of the problem of the anxiety
that results from emptiness and meaninglessness. Tillich
(1952) specifically defines existential“neurosis' as
follows: _
The anxiety of meaninglessness is anxiety
about the loss of an ultimate concern, of a
meaning which gives meaning to all meanings.
This anxiety is aroused by the loss of a
spiritual center, of an answer, however,
symbolic and indirect, to the question of the
meaning of existence [p. 47].
17
Tillich presents meaninglessness as a total loss
of any sense of ultimate concern. Emptiness is further
defined as something which does not result in the total
loss of meaning but which causes only a partial loss of
meaning. An example would be the breakdown of a belief
due to some external events or some internal process of
thought.
Frankl. One of the most significant writers in
the field of the existential neurosis is that of Viktor
Frankl who was professor of psychiatry and neurology at the
University of Vienna. In his book, Man's Search for
Meaning (1963) , Frankl starts out by describing his
experiences in a German concentration camp during the
Second World War. In spite of the great obstacles to
human existence that were presented in this concentration
camp, Frankl still feels that there is a very center in
man's existence in which he is able to find meaning and
peace, Frankl mentions that there exists a certain inner
freedom which cannot be lost. He (1963) writes as
follows:
Dostoevski said once, "there is only one
thing I dread: not to be worthy of my
suffering." These words frequently came to
my mind after I became acquainted with those
martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering
in death, were witness to the fact that the last
inner freedom cannot be lost. .It can be said
that they were worthy of their sufferings: the
way they bore their sufferings was a genuine
18
inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom—
which cannot be taken away— that makes life
meaningful and purposeful [p. 105].
In the second part of this book, Frankl adds a
brief description of his system of counseling which he
calls Logotherapy. He indicates that from various surveys
taken and from his own personal counseling experience he
encounters a large number of people who are troubled with
the problem of meaning. He also coins another type of
neurosis that he calls Noogenic Neuroses. He defines this
type of neurosis as being that which does not emerge from
a conflict between any particular drives or instincts.
Rather it results from a conflict of various values. In
other words, he says, it results from spiritual problems,
such as lack of meaning or frustration. His system of
Logotherapy he regards as being distinct from that of
psychoanalysis. To some extent it does resemble
psychoanalysis. The purpose of psychoanalysis is largely
to bring to conscious activity certain instinctual
activities that are within man's unconsciousness. In
contrast to this, Logotherapy tries to bring to
consciousness certain spiritual realities which includes
man's striving to discover the meaning of his existence. .
Frankl (196 3) says:
. . . logotherapy deviates from psychoanalysis
insofar as it considers man as a being whose
main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning
and in actualizing values rather than in the
19
mere gratification and satisfaction of drives
and instincts, the mere reconciliation of the
conflicting claims of Id, Ego, and Superego,
or mere adaptations and adjustment to the
society and environment [p. 164].
Frankl goes on to consider the nature of the
meaning of life and seems to locate this meaning in man's
freedom and responsibility. He says, "In a word, each
man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life
by answering for his life; to life he can only respond by
being responsible" [p. 168]. Thus, Logotherapy sees in
responsibility the very essence of human existence.
Frankl also considers meaning insofar as it is related
to love and suffering.
Frankl also has a category he calls supra-meaning
which is made up of a person's religious values and>
beliefs. He indicates that this ultimate meaning exceeds
and surpasses finite intellectual capacities, since it is
concerned with a person's individual religious beliefs.
Unfortunately Viktor Frankl, though helpful in defining
the problem, does not clearly delineate any solution
as to how the existential neurosis is to be overcome. The
student of Frankl is left with an excellent description
of the existential neurosis, but there does not seem to
be any remedy to the problem except a turning to religion.
20
The Secularist View
The question of the meaning of life is very
much interwoven with the general themes taught by the
world's great religions. Fundamentally, there are two
positions which can be considered here. The first
is that held by most of the world's religions especially
in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. This tradition holds
that life is meaningful and worthwhile by reason of
an encounter with God and because the Cosmos is ordained
according to God's purpose. Individuals can achieve a
degree of bliss in a future life and can have a sense of
meaning because of a reference to God and immortality.
In contrast to the general religious answer
to the question, there is the answer of a group of
secular thinkers. This group generally denies the validity
of concepts about God and personal immortality. They
consequently also conclude that life cosmically is
meaningless and without any particular goal. They
quite frequently speak of the futility, the absurdity,
and the vanity of life. Some of these thinkers deserve
a detailed examination.
Schopenhauer. Among the secular thinkers,
Schopenhauer ’ was one. of the most influential. He (1883)
21
held a very pessimistic view of human existence and gave
numerous arguments for his conclusion. Basically he said
that happiness was for the most part unattainable for the
vast majority of mankind. He then described man as
constantly pursuing an illusion. A person looks to some
future thing or event which he thinks will give him
happiness. He strives for it and perhaps achieves it;
but after he has achieved it, he then discovers that his
achievement does not bring him any happiness and he starts
this illusory quest all over again with something else.
He says that our goals are like optical illusions and that
we are now mocked by them. '
Parrow. Another example of pessimism in modern
times is that of Clarence Darrow, who was a very well-known
and distinguished lawyer in America at the beginning of
this century. He also believed that life was without
meaning and purpose and that everything was blind from
beginning to end. He compared life to a ship on a sea
which is tossed about by every wave and by every wind. The
ship is not headed for any port nor harbor and it is : * ■ >
without a rudder, compass, and pilot. Life, therefore,/
is aimless and without any goal or destiny. (Is Life Worth
Living, p. 43). He concluded that life_is not
worthwhile and that "it is an unpleasant interruption of
nothing, and the best thing you can say of it is that it
22
does not last long" (Is the Human Race Getting Anywhere?,
p. 53) .
Russell. Another well-known pessimist is the
modern English philosopher Bertrand Russell. He completely
denied the existence of any kind of a God or immortality.
His view, therefore, was that the world was essentially
pessimistic. He felt that the beginning of wisdom was
accepting the fact that the universe does not care about
our aspirations and that happiness or unhappiness is not
given out in accordance to the way people act or according
to any particular system of merit. In a television
program commemorating his 92nd birthday he says that the
secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is
horrible. Allan Wood (195 6), his biographer, quotes
Russell as saying,
But the universe is unjust, the secret of
happiness is to face the fact that the world
is horrible, horrible, horrible . . . you
must feel it deeply and not brush it aside.
You must feel it right here (hitting his
breast) and then you can start being happy
again [p. 2 37].
Bertrand Russell (1957) in one of his essays, A
Free Man's Worship, concluded that,
All the labors of the ages, all the devotion,
all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness
of human genius, are destined to extinction in
the vast death of the solar system, and the whole
temple of man's achievement must inevitably be
buried beneath the debris of the universe in
ruins [p. 3].
23
Von Hartmann. Among the'secularists it is also,
appropriate to note the work of Eduard von Hartmann who
lived from 1842 to 1906. In the year 1869 at the age of
25 he produced a book which he called The Philosophy of
the Unconscious. The significance of this work is that it
ties a pessimistic view of the world in direct relationship
to the evolution of consciousness. Von Hartmann (18 84)
makes a value judgment on consciousness itself which is
very negative. From his works he seemed to imply that the
less consciousness there is the less misery that there is.
He fundamentally describes the world as a miserable place
with very little happiness within it. As we descend the
scale of consciousness, this misery seems to disappear.
Von Hartmann says,
. . . the individuals of the lower and poorer
classes and of ruler nations are happier than
those of the elevated and wealthier classes
and of civilized nations, not indeed because
they are poorer and have to endure more want
and privation, but because they are coarser
and duller [Vol. Ill, p. 76].
In the same way he describes the life of the animals in
terms of their degree of consciousness:
How much more painful is the life of the more
fihely feeling horse compared with that of the
obtuse pig, or with that of the perverbal happy
fish in the water, its nervous system being of a
grade or so inferior. As the life of a fish is
more enviable than that of a horse, so is the
life of an oyster than that of a fish, and
the life of a plant than that of an oyster
[Philosophy of the Unconscious, vol. Ill, p. 78].
Finally, the conclusion is inevitable that the
24
form of existence is best when we descend beneath the
threshold of consciousness. The significance of von
Hartmann's observations is that he here equates meaning
with the rise of consciousness. In his three volume
work he points out that there is a purposefulness of
nature and that this purpose was the production of
consciousness. His rather peculiar philosophical thought
however, places a negative value on this consciousness
that has emerged from unconsciousness. Nevertheless, it
is interesting to note that von Hartmann did maintain that
consciousness evolved from some more primordial uncon
scious reality. In this he was influenced by the German
idealists. If it would be possible to reverse his ideas
and place a positive value on consciousness, we would then
have an optimistic view of the world insofar as we would
have a purposeful universe which is evolving a conscious
ness which is a source of happiness rather than misery as
von Hartmann maintained.
Camus. Few men have felt any more intensely the
problems of the existential neurosis than Albert Camus.
In his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus (1955), he reflects
upon the human situation. He starts his essay by asking
the question as to why in an absurd universe a person does
not commit suicide. The first paragraph in his essay is
as follows;
There is but one truly serious philosophical
problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether
life is or is not worth living amounts to
answering the fundamental question of philosophy.
All the rest— whether or not the world has three
dimensions, whether the mind has 9 or 12 categories—
comes afterwards. These are games one must first
answer [p. 1].
He refers to the existential concept of anxiety
that hits us in the midst of our routine activities. He
mentions that we get up in the morning, work 4 hours, have
a meal, work another 4 hours then have another meal, sleep,
doing this Monday through Friday with the same rhythm. But
one day the why arises and everything then begins to be
filled with weariness and amazement. He then refers to
Heidegger when he says that anxiety is the source of
everything. This theme of anxiety continually runs
through all of the works of the existentialist which are
being considered.
Camus was profoundly influenced by Heidegger's
idea of anxiety. He interprets Heidegger as saying that
when this anxiety becomes conscious of itself, it then
becomes anguish and it is in this perpetual anguish that
men then dwell. This is the only reality which is
important, and its importance is far greater than all of
the categories of Kant.
Camus then goes through a review of the history
of philosophy in which he indicates the inadequacy of most
philosophical systems to solve the problem of meaning. He
26
does, however, find praise for Husserl and the phenome-
nologists who contend that phenomenology does not have as
its goal any explanation of the world; it wants merely to
describe the actual experiences which we have. In this
sense phenomenology confirms the absurd and intensifies
it further by urging us to see how our consciousness
describes the world which we are in.
Camus finally asks whether this world has any
meaning which transcends it. He says that if it does, he
does not know that meaning and he also knows that it is
impossible for him to grasp any meaning. - This Camus (1955)
regards as a significant fact for he says.
If I were a tree among trees, a cat among
animals, this life would have a meaning, or
rather this problem would not arise for I
should belong to this world. I should be this
world to which I am now opposed by my whole
consciousness and by my whole insistence upon
familiarity [p. 38].
Here in Camus we can see the fact that even though there
can be no system which explains reality, still Camus finds
his ability to ask the question as being significant. Here
also in Camus we find the notion of the nature of con
sciousness as being opposed to the world.
Camus then seems to answer the question as to why
he does not commit suicide by affirming some meaning to
what he calls the metaphysical revolt. He says, "just as
danger provides man the unique opportunity of seizing
awareness, so metaphysical revolt extends awareness to the
27
full of experience" [p. 40] .
He then goes on to claim that it is this revolt
that gives life its value. It is this mysterious opposi
tion to the absurdity of the world which seems to make
life worth living to some limited extent. He (1955)
writes,
. . . that revolt gives life its value.
Spread out over the whole length of life, it
restores its majesty to that life. To a
man devoid of blinders there is no finer
sight than that of the intelligence it grips
with the reality that transcends it [p. 40].
This conscious revolt in Camus in many ways is
very familiar to the courage which Paul Tillich urges upon
us in his book, The Courage to Be.
Consciousness as the Key to
Meaning— -Carl Jung
This study will have consciousness as its theme.
Consciousness will be seen to be the basis of all meaning.
The author who most illustrates the primacy of
consciousness in reference to meaning is Carl Jung the
well-known Swiss psychiatrist who died in 1961. Jung was
the author of the introvert-extrovert typology and a system
of archetypes which resided in man's collective uncon
sciousness. In the latter part of his life, he studied
extensively the relationship between religion and
psychiatry.
Jung stressed the importance of consciousness as
28
that which gives the world a meaning. In March of 1959 he
wrote of this to Erich Neumann: "Without the reflecting
consciousness of man the world is a .gigantic meaningless
machine, for as far as we know man is the only creature
that can discover 'meaning.'"
Jaffe (1971) in her work on Jung describes the
dialogue between Erich Neumann and Carl Jung. In 1959
Jung was retired and reflecting on his life's work. In
March of 1959 in a letter to Newmann, Jung wrote:
Since a creation without the reflecting
consciousness of man has no discernible meaning,
the hypothesis of a latent meaning endows man with
cosmogonic significance, a true raison d1etre. If
on the other hand the latent meaning is ascribed
to the Creator as a conscious plan of creation,
the question arises: Why should the creator
stagemanage this whole world phenomenon since
he already knows what he can reflect himself in,
and why should he reflect himself at all since he
is already conscious of himself? Why should he
create alongside his own omniscience a second,
inferior consciousness-- millions of dreary little
mirrors when he knows in advance just what the
image they reflect will look like.[p. 310].
The question asked by Jung is the principal
foundational question which is touched upon in this study.
However, it is beyond the scope of this study to examine
the theistic foundations of meaning. It is rather clear
however, that Jung definitely rejected any concept of a
self-conscious creator. He (1963) writes as follows on
the point:
If the Creator were conscious of himself,
he would not need conscious creatures; nor is
29
it probable that the extremely indirect methods
of creation, which squander millions of years
upon the development of countless species and
creatures, are the outcome of purposeful
intentions [p. 312].
Later Jung in a letter to Serrano (1966) referred
to a creator who needed man to become conscious of himself.
The light of consciousness is most precious
not only to me, but above all to the darkness of
the creator, who needs man to illuminate his
creation. If God had foreseen his world, it
would be a mere senseless machine and man's
existence a useless freak. My intellect can
envisage the latter possibility, but the whole
of my being says "no" to it [p. 88].
Jung stressed the nature of consciousness as being
the basis of all meaningfulness. His ideas of the rela-i -
tionship between man and a creator are not very clear.
However, he does not believe that man is totally isolated
as the supreme consciousness of the universe. He speaks
of prayer as an I-Thou relationship between a transcen
dental Thou and an Imminent I. He further speculates on
the possibility of a meaning-situation subsisting in
itself but independent of man. The relationship between
seemingly unrelated events is attributed to a force called
"synchronicity." From its description it seems like a
planning force of meaning independent from man and
certainly different from the traditional notions of God.
Synchronicity is responsible for extrasensory perception,
dreams that come true, premonitions and foreknowledge.
In summary, the thought of Jung is important
30
jbecause he presents the key to meaning— namely
consciousness.
This chapter has presented certain material which
can constitute a background for the remainder of the study.
The remaining chapters present the evolution of
consciousness as the foundation of meaning, the time span
of past, present, and future each having a corresponding
characteristic of consciousness and illustrated by a major
thinker. A diagram of this theme is as follows:
Time Span Past to Present Present Present to Future
Nature of
Consciousness
Simple animal
cbrisciousness
to self
reflection
Self-
ref lection
and ■ ; ;
subject-
object
split
Peak experiences
of unity with
cosmos
Author Teilhard de
Chardin
Tillich Maslow, mystics
31
CHAPTER III
HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS —
TEILHARD DE CHARDIN
Consciousness will be examined in a three-fold
aspect: its past, its present condition of existential
split, and its direction toward healing the split.'
For the aspect of the past of consciousness, there
is no better author than Teilhard de Chardin. He was
born in Auvergne, France, in 1881 and became an ordained
member of the Society of Jesus. He taught geology at the
Catholic Institute of Paris and spent some years in China
on an expedition which was instrumental in the discovery
of Peking Man. In the year 1951 he moved to New York
under the auspices of the Wenner-Gren Foundation where he
continued his studies and writings until his death on
Easter Sunday, 1955. During his lifetime, his Jesuit
superiors and Roman church authorities would not allow him
to publish any of his writings. He left his writings to
his secretary who with the guidance of an international
commission continues to publish all his writings. His most
well-known and important work is The Phenomena of Man which
was published in English in 1959.
32
The significance of his thought to this study is
that it explores the relationship of consciousness to the
universe. He further shows how consciousness has emerged
from its past. The first aspect of his thought is the root
of consciousness in a unique analysis of energy. As things
become more complex through greater unity among multiple
elements, man himself appears as the end product. Present
consciousness is structured by this evolutionary past. All
these elements will be considered in his thought.
Energy
The universe does not arrive at consciousness all
at once, but rather it is the result of a long struggle.
Whenever the unifying factor within the universe emerges
to observable levels, a deeper analysis of this reality
can be obtained. The word that Teilhard uses for the
scientific force which drives the universe to consciousness
is energy. The word energy has a very definite meaning in
the field of science. Teilhard (1959, p. 65) is very well
aware of this and he calls scientific energy tangential
energy. Tangential energy is described as that energy
which links all elements together with one another of the
same order of complexity and centricity. However,
Teilhard broadens his concept of energy to include a wider
reality than is ordinarily recognized by the scientist.
33
He believes that energy is the most primordial form of
universal stuff and everything that has taken shape in
the world is a manifestation of energy.
The basis for this broader concept of energy is
the totality of his scientific observations in the field
of evolution. A broader picture of the evolutionary
world clearly reveals to Teilhard's mind that there has
been continued upward progress in the direction to con
sciousness in the process of evolution. He (1959) says,
"The impetus of the world, glimpsed in the great drive of
consciousness can only have its ultimate source in some
inner principle, which alone could explain its
irreversible advance toward higher psychisms" [p. 149].
Thus, Teilhard sees in the evolutionary process itself
scientific evidence for the existence of a broader concept
of energy than the usual limited scientific concept of
energy which we know.
This broader concept of energy he names radial
energy. He makes it very clear that he does not believe
in a dualism of energy. He calls any solution to the prob
lem of consciousness in terms of two energies a bad
solution. He says that there must be a single energy at
the root of all advance. This single energy is then
divided or manifested in two different ways: as tangential
energy and radial energy. Tangential energy is the energy
which science knows and measures. Radial energy however,
34
is derived from an analysis of the upward movement of
evolution to consciousness. This radial energy is that
energy which draws something to a greater degree of
complexity and centricity.
A piece of matter which we can see before us is
ultimately rooted in the ultra-scientific unity of the
universe which is the root of both consciousness and every
thing else. Energy is this unifying power as it forms a
certain piece of matter. In every piece of matter there
is both tangential energy and radial energy. In the
ordinary amount of matter before us, the amount of radial
energy would be slight; so slight in fact that it cannot
be noticed by scientific observation. In a stone the
amount of radial energy would be negligible and not able
to be detected by science. However, radial energy becomes
noticeable in the higher forms of life especially in animal
consciousness and in human consciousness.
The relationship between human consciousness and
radial energy is very intimate. Human consciousness
results whenever radial energy has succeeded in producing
a complexity which is capable of being aware of itself.
Before the existence of man, no doubt some kind of a
homonoid creature existed. Under the influence of radial
energy, complexity gradually grew to the point where
Teilhard says that a tiny addition of tangential energy
caused the radial energy to be turned back upon itself and
35
he describes this turning back of radial energy upon
itself to be an infinite leap forward. Consciousness could
thus see itself. Teilhard describes man as the most syn
thesized substance under which the stuff of the universe
is available to us.
Thus, energy is the factor which leads to the rise
of human consciousness. His concept of energy is both
scientific and philosophical. In many ways radial energy
is a strictly philosophical notion since it cannot be
detected by science. Teilhard believes it is a reality
because its manifestiation in ourselves and the higher
forms of animal life can be seen. He traces this back
to inorganic matter itself.
The Upward Direction of
Evolution to Consciousness
One of the most important points Teilhard makes
is that evolution is directed. This opinion is in contrast
to those who see no definite direction to evolution. These
opponents of directed evolution say man is just an accident
of nature. The arguments pro and con concerning direction
or non-direction in evolution fill many volumes. The
importance of the answer to this question is considerable
because the implications are vast.
In many ways a theistic view of the universe
depends on this answer. If consciousness was the result
of a directed upward movement, it follows that there is
36
something somewhere that wills man and his self-awareness.
Man is willed and desired by nature. It is easy to go
from this idea to a theistic view of the world. On the
other hand, if no direction of evolution exists, if man
and his self-consciousness are the mere results of chance,
a theistic view becomes increasingly difficult.
Teilhard is very definitely in the school of those
who see direction in evolution. He (1964) says, "It is
certain that matter on Earth is involved in a process
which causes it to arrange itself, starting with relatively
simple elements, in ever larger and more complex units"
[p. 199]. The end goal of this process is increasing
complexity which will result in consciousness.
However, Teilhard is no naive vitalist who excludes
completely any working of chance. In attempting to explain
this upward movement, he postulates a "within" to matter
which he describes as a psychic force analogous to the
power of invention. In addition to this "within" there is
an "outside" where the principles of natural selection of
some sort may operate. Teilhard feels that in the early
phases of evolution the principles of natural selection
were most evident. Later, as the "within" gained strength,
it directed the process of evolution rather than blind
chance. Purposefulness only shows itself above a certain
level.
In his work, The Future of Man, Teilhard (1964)
37
!says this:
The Darwinian Era of survival by natural
selection (the vital thrust) is thus succeeded
by a Lamarkian era of Super Life brought about
by calculated intervention (the vital impulse).
In man evolution is interiorized and made
purposeful [p. 212].
Later in the same work, he describes the pre-
atomic, atomic, and molecular phases of matter as being
arrangements of chance and probing. Thus, Teilhard holds
for a direction in evolution which on an earlier level
incorporates the workings of chance and natural selection.
Teilhard (1965) affirms that the goal of the
direction of evolution is consciousness:
What prehistory has so patiently recorded,
point by point, in the course of the last
eighty years, is nothing less, I think, than
the trajectory of humanity moving persistently
towards ever higher states of individual and
collective consciousness [p. 123].
Throughout his works, Teilhard gives various
sources of evidence for his conclusions. The current
fossil evidence of man's descent from lower forms can be
arranged in patterns according to time. Such an arrange
ment shows a gradual upward direction to man. In The
Appearance of Man (1965) he says that this direction
brought a birth of mankind:
So historically there would be ' . a . global genesis
(that is to say a general anthropogenesis) for
humanity, exactly as there is a birth and develop
ment for each man in particular. Such is the con
clusion toward which all the discoveries and
teachings of palaeoanthropology converge, the summit
in which they all culminate [p. 123].
38
However, the most important evidence for a
direction in evolution to consciousness can be shown from
the development of the brain and nervous system. It is
evident that the brain and nervous system are most
intimately related to consciousness. In the development
of these organs, Teilhard (1966) sees very clearly this
direction to greater degrees of consciousness:
By orthogenesis (in the widest and most
strictly etymological sense of the word), we
should in this context, I repeat, understand
the fundamental drift as a result of which the
stuff of the universe is seen to behave as though
moving towards corpuscular states continually
more complex in their material arrangement and
psychologically, continually more interiorized:
this drift, we should add, being in the case of
higher living beings, directly involved in an
increasing concentration of the nervous system
[p. 91].
From his life long researches, Teilhard discovered
that the nervous system is really what nature wants. This
development of the nervous system enables us to see that
consciousness itself is evolving. This point of the
evolution of our consciousness itself is one of the most
important contributions of Teilhard to human thought.
In many ways man can realize that he is only a step along
the way to some higher form of consciousness. Teilhard
(1965) says:
From a simple positivist viewpoint, it seems
undeniable that life's steps (whether one thinks
of insects or vertebrates) have always been
directed towards the realization of the richest
and most highly differentiated nervous system.
The quantity and quality of consciousness, one
39
may say, have always been growing throughout
geological time. In this respect man, in
whom nervous organisation and therefore
psychological power have attained an indisputed
maximum, may be considered, scientifically, as
a natural center of evolution of the primates
[p. 49].
Of all the parts of the nervous system, the brain
is the most important. Concerning it, he (1966) says:
There can be no doubt that we can distinguish
a well-marked progress in the development of the
brain from fishes to amphibians, then from amphibians
to reptiles, and then, ever more distinctly, from
reptiles to mammals, and this is not simply some
chance progress affecting the whole group, but
one that operates systematically and selectively
along certain closely determined lines [p. 51].
By examining fossils, an upward direction toward
consciousness in the development of the nervous system and
brain can be seen. Teilhard introduces an interesting
point about this upward direction. This direction can be
described as a searching and groping for a better solution
to a problem. Even though the motion is upward, there is
room for many mistakes. The concept of a searching force
in evolution has interesting implications for philosophy
and for a theistic view of the universe. No real answer
I
has yet been given for the vast problem of evil. Very
often Teilhard is criticized for being too optimistic.
However, a careful study of his thought makes places for
failures, evil, and defects.
The upward directing force of evolution which is
the source ultimately of consciousness itself, is capable
40
of making errors. One example given of the mistakes in the
direction towards consciousness, is the insects. The
insects are presented as an attempt at consciousness, but
in them consciousness is extroverted to become frozen. By
this, Teilhard means that consciousness, in its early
levels of the insect, was forced into such a rigid
pattern that it could not develop properly. The external
skeleton of the insect is described as a bad solution*
The insect cannot grow without becoming dangerously frag
ile. In contrast to the insect, he indicates that superior
psychic levels demand physically big brains. These
physically large brains were impossible within the insect
world.
The insect world is presented as an attempt of this
upward force to achieve something, namely a self-conscious
entity. Imperfections, faults, and mistakes all are
part of the general upward movement to a goal. In
Teilhard's view there is room for optimism in the goal and
pessimism in the mistakes made on the way to that goal.
The Law of Complexity--Consciousness
The heart of the thought of Teilhard de Chardin on
the matter of consciousness is centered in a universal law
which may be termed the law of complexity— consciousness.
Basically this law is a definition and explanation of
consciousness. It states that consciousness is the result
41
of a unified complexity. Man is the most complex of all
phenomena. With regard to size, he is not of much account
when compared with the vast stretches of the universe. But
the strong point in man's favor is that he is the most
complex of all beings. He is composed of billions of
atoms and cells in a splendid unity. This vast unified
complexity results in consciousness. Consciousness is
present in the animal world to a lesser degree because
these organisms are less complex particularly in their
brain and nervous system. Later, the operation of this
law in the human psyche itself will be examined. Since
it is so important, this law as stated by Teilhard must
be considered in detail. In his great master-work,
The Phenomenon of Man (1959), he says that this law is
the most important point of the entire work:
Reduced to its ultimate essence, the
substance of these long pages can be summed
up in this simple affirmation: that if the
universe, regarded sidereally, is in process
of spatial expansion (from the infinitesimal
to the immense), in the same way and still
more clearly it presents itself to us,
physicochemically, as in process of organic
involution upon itself (from the extremely
simple to the extremely complex)— and, more
over, this particular involution "of complexity"
is experimentally bound up with a correlative
increase in interiorisation, that is to say in
the psyche or consciousness.
In the narrow domain of our planet (still
the only one within the scope of biology) the
structural relationship noted here between
complexity and consciousness is experimentally
incontestable and has always been known. What
42
gives the standpoint taken in this book its
originality is the affirmation, at the outset,
that the particular property possessed by
terrestrial substances— -of becoming more
vitalised as they become increasingly complex—
is only the local manifestation and expression
of a trend as universal as (and no doubt even more
significant than) those already identified by
science: those trends which cause the cosmic
layers not only to expand explosively as a wave
but also to condense into corpuscles under the
action of electromagnetic and gravitational
forces, or perhaps to become dematerialised in
radiation: trends which are probably strictly
inter-connected, as we shall one day realise.
If that be so, it will be seen that conscious
ness (defined experimentally as the specific effect
of organised complexity) transcends by far the
ridiculously narrow limits within which our eyes can
directly perceive it [p. 301].
In his work, The Appearance of Man (1965), this
law is stated in the following way:
Life is apparently nothing but the privileged
exaggeration of a fundamental cosmic tendency (as
fundamental as entropy or gravitation), which may
be called the "Law of Complexity— Consciousness,"
and which can be expressed as follows:
Left long enough to itself, under prolonged
and universal play of chance, matter manifests the
property of arranging itself in more and more
complex groupings, and at the same time in ever
deepening layers of consciousness; this double
and combined movement of physical unfolding and
psychic interiorization (or centration) once started,
continuing, accelerating and growing to its utmost
extent [p. 139].
This law is Teilhard's fundamental discovery and
it has vast consequences for philosophy and the total
understanding of the human situation.
To help clarify this law further he states it this
way in The Future of Man (19 64):
4 3
The more complex a being is, so our scale of
complexity tells us, the more it is centered upon
itself and therefore the more aware does it become.
In other words, the higher the degree of complex
ity in a living creature, the higher its con-r
sciousness; and vice versa [p. Ill].
This law of complexity is one of the important
insights of Teilhard and is one of the unifying themes of
the present study. The consequences of his ideas have
significance for philosophy and human thought in general.
One consequence is that this idea is a departure from
a type of thought which tends to consider everything
in a thing-like fashion. A person tends to think that
consciousness must rest on some thing. Usually, this
thing might be visualized as a part of the brain in which
consciousness rests. Or perhaps, a more spiritualized
form of this image would be to conceive of a thing-like
(substance-like) entity called the soul in which
consciousness rests. Teilhard gives us a new vision of
reality in this matter. Consciousness does not rest in a
thing-like structure. It is the result of complexity.
Mere atoms and molecules themselves cannot produce
consciousness. Nor can any individual element produce it.
Only in the creation of a vast complexity does there come
forth human consciousness.
A second consequence of his theory is that
consciousness admits of great variety in an ascending
scale. Consciousness is not a word for a definite state
but rather a generic word to cover a multitude of states.
There is even some kind of rudimentary consciousness in
matter itself. Thus, consciousness admits degrees of
perfection downward on the scale to even inanimate matter
and upward on the scale to yet unknown heights.
Rideau (1965) in his study of Teilhard says that
this hypothesis that matter is somehow animated by forms
of hidden consciousness is by no means new to philosophy.
Leibniz with his monads theory held a similar idea.
Schelling, Ravaisson, and Bergson held similar ideas. For
example, Bergson (quoted in Rideau, 1965) says,
Matter cannot be anything but dormant
spirit .... We must picture to our
selves an initial distension of spirit,
a diffusion in time and space, which
constitutes materiality [p. 91].
A third consequence of this theory is similar to
the second. Consciousness can have higher degrees and
expand itself to greater degrees of intensity. Also
following the same line of thought, individual conscious
ness can itself become an element in the formation of a
greater consciousness.
Before the next point concerning the actual
production of man is considered, Teilhard's thoughts about
the concept of the threshold should be mentioned. He
asserts that in the upward movement of evolution, certain
45
levels are passed which modify the nature of the reality
itself. This can best be explained by an example of
boiling water. Water may be described as being in three
stages of evolution. The first is ice; then a certain
threshold is passed and the molecular arrangement becomes
water. As energy increases within the water and it
becomes hotter, another threshold is reached when the
molecules begin to form steam. The achievement of water
and steam would be then described as a threshold. The
interesting thing about these thresholds is that they are
both sudden and instantaneous and they constitute a real
difference between two different forms. Steam and water
are certainly different. Water and ice are different. It
makes a great deal of difference whether one falls \
into water or onto a solid piece of ice. At
the same time, however, along with this difference there
is an essential underlying sameness of the chemical
identity of water and ice. Teilhard also gives other
examples of the threshold: the curve that doubles back
upon itself, the surface which contracts to a point, the
solid that begins to disintegrate and the germ cell which
reaches a threshold and then it divides.
The threshold is incorporated in his thought
especially for his explanation of the nature of man. By
this idea he can affirm both the continuity and
46
discontinuity of man with the natural world which gave
him birth just as water and steam are the same in one
respect, but different in another respect.
The Coming of Man on Earth
Without doubt, the nature of man is and always has
been the object of careful concern by the world's great
thinkers. Today -new visions of manare appearing on they
scene. This creature.can no longer be seen as the f
perfect and final expression of the ideal essense of man
which might exist in Plato's idea-world or in the mind of
God. Many thinkers are contributing to this new idea of
man. Teilhard has an important contribution to make on
this vital issue. Fundamentally, he sees man as self-
consciousness. However, this self-consciousness is not
totally discontinuous with the universe of nature from
which it emerges. The idea of threshold explains
how self-consciousness is both continuous and
discontinuous with nature. It is like entering a
different realm of reality. It happens suddenly and
instantly. Millions of years ago suddenly in some location
a quasi-ape-like creature for a brief second had conscious
ness of himself. This brief flash probably lasted for
only a few seconds. Later it returned again; after the
passage of many years, it became a permanent reality. Man
had been born.
47
Preceding his coming a great many things had
happened in the biological world. This process is
explained at length in Teilhard's scientific works. Since
science is not the object at present, an account of the
biology of man's evolution will be omitted. However, the
point where man appears in nature is very critical and
what Teilhard (19 66) has to say on the matter is important:
Whereas, during the Quaternary, a quite
appreciable progress in the convolution and
convexity of the brain case can be noted from
the prehomenoids to Homo sapiens, we find
nothing (except perhaps, if we are to believe
Weidenreich, a certain general tendency to
brachycephaly) from the end of the Palaeolithic,
throughout the last twenty thousand years, that
noticeably indicates any new step forward in
cephalisation. So much so, indeed, that students
have often been inclined to conclude that, in
man, cerebration is reaching its zenith in this
quasi stationary state— if indeed it has not been
halted completely [p. 91].
This statement indicates that the upward movement
of evolution principally worked on the brain of man until
a certain stage of perfection was developed. In the
biological order, the development to man was largely a
perfection of his brain. In the interior order this
development consisted in an increased consciousness until
the stage of self-consciousness was reached. Teilhard is
well aware of the dispute concerning the essential
difference between man and the highest animal. His
position is to firmly defend the superiority of man by
recourse to the power of self reflection. He (1959)
48
describes this superiority as follows:
From our experimental point of view, reflection
is as the word indicates, the power acquired by a
consciousness to turn in upon itself, to take
possession of itself as of an object endowed with
its own particular consistence and value: no
longer merely to know, but know oneself; no
longer merely to know, but to know that one knows.
By this individualisation of himself in the depths
of himself, the living element, which heretofore
had been spread out and divided over a diffuse
circle of perceptions and activities, was consti
tuted for the first time as a centre in the form
of a point at which all the impressions and
experiences knit themselves together and fuse into
a unity that is conscious of its own organization.
Now the consequences of such a transformation
are immense, visible as clearly in nature as any
of the facts recorded by physics or astronomy.
The being who is the object of his own reflection,
in consequence of that very doubling back upon
himself, becomes in a flash able to raise himself
into a new sphere. In reality, another world is
born. Abstraction, logic, reasoned choice and
inventions, mathematics, art, calculation of
space and time, anxieties and dreams of love—
all these activities of inner life are nothing
else than the effervesence of the newly-formed
centre as it explodes into itself [p. 65].
This evolution into self-consciousness was somewhat
of an immediate process. It was the crossing of a
threshold. All scientific realities were ready and then
some little change took place which pushed this biological
organism into the realm of self-consciousness. He (19 59)
describes the advent of man in these terms:
When the anthropoid, so to speak, had been
brought "mentally" to boiling point some further
calories were added. Or, when the anthropoid
had almost reached the summit of the cone, a
final effort took place along the axis. No
more was needed for the whole inner equilibrium
to be upset. What was previously only a centered
49
surface became a centre. By a tiny "tangential1 1
increase, the "radial" was turned back on itself
and so to speak took an infinite leap forward.
Outwardly, almost nothing in the organs had
changed. But in depth, a great revolution had
taken place: consciousness was now leaping and
boiling in a space of super-sensory relationships
and representations; and simultaneously conscious
ness was capable of perceiving itself in the
concentrated simplicity of its faculties. And
all this happened for the first time [p. 169].
This concept of the advent of man was not well
received by some centers of traditional thought. As a
Jesuit priest, Teilhard was certainly within a very
definite tradition in reference to man. One of the reasons
why his superiors did not permit him to publish The
Phenomenon of Man during his lifetime was simply because
his thought seemed to deny the "special creation of the
soul."
Many believe Pope Pius XII (1948) had Teilhard
in mind when he wrote the encyclical "Humani Generis."
In this document the strong traditional distinction
between body and soul is maintained. The body may be
considered to come about by evolution, but the soul is
created by God:
For these reasons, the Teaching Authority
of the Church does not forbid that in conformity
with the present state of human sciences and
sacred theology research and discussions on the
part of men experienced in both fields take place
with regard to the doctrine of evolution inasfar
as it inquires into the origin of the human body
as coming from pre-existent and living matter— for
Catholic Faith obliges us to hold that souls are
immediately created by God [p. 19].
50
Since he was a Catholic, it may be asked what
Teilhard thought of this matter. Basically, a "special
creation" of the soul does not fit into his system in any
way. Man's essential participation in the universe is
part of his system. To introduce a special intervention
by the Deity from outside to create a soul is to introduce
an unfortunate dichotomy within man that is totally
foreign to his vision. If such were true/" then
consciousness would have its roots in this special creation
of God. While this opinion is certainly important in
reference to the dignity of man, it has the disadvantage
of dividing man from the universe of which he is a part.
If indeed thought and consciousness are superior outside
matter then it seems inefficient to unite this powerful
spiritual entity to this material system which acts only
as brakes to slow down its intensity. Dualism of body and
soul has played an important part in the history of
philosophy, but it has no place in Teilhard's system. He
was very cautious in this matter and admitted in an
important footnote that anyone could add the concept of
special creation to this system if they wished. This
footnote was added largely to satisfy the censors when
he tried to publish his works. This footnote (1959) is
quoted in fulls
Need I repeat that I confine myself here to
the phenomena; i.e., to the experimental relations
51
between consciousness and complexity, without
prejudging the deeper causes which govern the
whole issue? In virtue of the limitations imposed
on our sensory knowledge by the play of the
temporo-spatial series, it is only, it seems,
under the appearances of a critical point that
we can grasp experimentally the "hominising"
(spiritualising) step to reflection. But, with
that said, there is nothing to prevent the thinker
who adopts a spiritual explanation from positing
(for reasons of a higher order and at a later
stage of his dialectic), under the phenomenal
veil of a revolutionary transformation, whatever
"creative" operation or "special intervention" he
likes (see Prefatory Note). It is not a principle
universally accepted by Christian thought in its
theological interpretation of reality that for
our minds there are different and successive
planes of knowledge [p. 169].
The importance of self-consciousness in man is not
totally foreign to traditional thought. St. Thomas (12 71)
defines spirit in terms of reflection in Librum de Causis;
the essence of spirit is "that it returns to its own
essence in a complete return" [Lecture 15]. In the Summa
(1273), he says, "To return to its essence means that a
thing subsists in itself" [Part I, Q. 14, Art. 2]. Self
consciousness in Teilhard's thought is very central and
plays the most important role in determining the essence
of man. It results from the fact that an upward thrust
of evolution broke through a threshold and resulted in man.
His thought on this point is not crystal clear. He (196 6)
has an interesting idea in a footnote of one of his works:
Had some other zoological ray, by chance,
crossed this critical surface before, there would
never have been man: for it would have been that
other ray that then blossomed into the noosphere
[p. 62].
52
At this point it is interesting to observe a pro
found relationship between man and the natural universe.
It is one of the most important ideas of Teilhard that man
was the product of an evolutionary process. All of
nature, in its striving with a multiplicity of forms, was
trying to achieve this self-consciousness unified complex
ity called man. A most interesting confirmation v >
of this philosophical thought is that nature seemed
satisfied once man had been produced. There is painted a
picture of nature as if it were a searching person who
rests satisfied once man has been found.
Teilhard (1966) claims that since the Pliocene
nature has concentrated on man and has not produced any
new biological forms:
The evidence is undeniable that, since the
Pliocene, life seems to have concentrated on man
(as a tree does in its leading shoot) all that
was best in the sap is still held. In the course
of the last two millions of years we can see that
countless things disappeared, but not a single new
thing, apart from the hominians, has appeared in
nature [p. 73].
Later in the same work, he indicates that before
man evolution had functioned by divergence, but after man
this tendency came to an end:
Until man (and one could even say, "until
the pre-hominians," who also seem externally
to obey the common law) animal evolution had
functioned under the ages of divergence [p. 73].
The striking relation between man and biological
evolution has great implications for philosophy. It
53
'certainly tends to show the great unity of the universe
in which man lives. It calls for some kind of a
goal-directed intelligence in nature which may make
mistakes; yet it is intelligent enough to know it has found
what it wanted in man. What is the nature of this strange
intelligence? Is it still operating in nature? What is
it trying to produce? Question asking is the beginning
to perhaps new insights.
This section has considered the coming of man
upon the Earth showing that it resulted in the fact that
an evolutionary process, after an almost inconceivably
long time, finally broke through a threshold into
self-consciousness.
Origin of Consciousness and
Man's Psychic Structure
The great reality of human consciousness is not
■something that is injected into man from outside. It has
a long history in evolution. This origin is in some way
going to effect its nature. Before a single thought is
produced, the processes by which that thought is conceived
has millions of years of history and its roots are deep
in the mysterious, unity of the universe. Some thinkers
have compared the mind of man to a tablet on which nothing
has been written. Teilhard's vision would be different.
Every atom and molecule, every previous species, has writ
ten its mark on our mind. Man does not start out like a
54
blank tablet. He is,, here as the result of a gigantic
upward struggle. Man.is directed to a goal which is within
‘him yet beyond him. This section considers human
consciousness in the light of its long history.
All of these ideas have great implications because
they bear on a definition of man. Determining a definition
of man has been one of the central problems of philosophy.
Man has been defined as a rational animal. This defini
tion, simple though it is, has had a great influence on all
western thought.
How would Teilhard (1959) define man? There is no
doubt he sees man in terms of his evolution. Indeed the
primacy in his definition is given to evolution itself.
Man is evolution that has become conscious of itself:
We are not only concerned with thought as
participating in evolution as an anomaly or as an
epiphenomenon; but evolution as so reducible to
and identifiable with a progress towards thought
that the movement of our souls expresses and
measures the very stages of progress of evolution
itself. Man discovers that he is nothing else
than evolution become conscious of itself, to
borrow Julian Huxley's striking expression. It
seems to me that our modern minds (because and
inasmuch as they are modern) will never find
rest until they settle down to this view. On
this summit alone are repose and illumination
waiting for us [p. 220].
This certainly presents a dynamic picture of
human consciousness. This great driving force which
brought man to be, now becomes aware of itself in man.
This concept of man and his consciousness stresses
55
the real cosmic dimension of our awareness:
The proof that the growing co-extension of
our soul and the world, through the consciousness
of our relationship with all things, is not simply
a matter of logic or idealization, but is part of
an organic process, the natural outcome of the . . . .
impulse which caused the germination of life and
growth of the brain— -the proof is that it expresses
itself in a specific evolution of the moral value
of our actions [1964, p. 17].
He again repeats his idea of the cosmic extent of
consciousness in the Appearance of Man (1965) :
By the reflective nature of his psychism,
individual man appears in the field of our
experience to be the extreme form so far attained
in an isolated element by the cosmic process
(or drift) of complexity— consciousness [p. 245].
The nature of consciousness as it is structured
by its evolutionary origin will be considered. The first
of these structures examined is that of anxiety.
Later man's innate tendency to love, and his drive to the
absolute will be treated.
Anxiety. Teilhard notes well that reflection and
anxiety are closely related. Man emerges into self-
consciousness and finds himself upset and filled with care
and anxiety. The reason for this anxiety is deeply rooted
in the psyche. He vividly describes this structure of
consciousness as follows:
It is impossible to accede to a fundamentally
new environment without experiencing the inner
terrors of a metamorphosis. The child is
terrified when it opens its eyes for the first
time. Similarly, for our mind to adjust itself
56
to lines and horizons enlarged beyond
measure, it must renounce the comfort of
familiar narrowness. It must create a new
equilibrium for everything.that had formerly
been so neatly arranged in its small inner
world. It is dazzled when it emerges from
its dark prison, awed to find itself suddenly
at the top of a tower, and it suffers from
giddiness and disorientation. The whole
psychology of modern disquiet is linked with
the sudden confrontation with space-time.
It cannot be denied that, in a primordial
form, human anxiety is bound up with the very
advent of reflection and is thus as old as man
himself. Nor do I think that anyone can seriously
doubt the fact that, under the influence of
reflection undergoing socialisation, the men of
today are particularly uneasy, more so than at
any other moment of history. Conscious or not,
anguish— a fundamental anguish of being— despite
our smiles, strikes in the depths of all our
hearts and is the undertone of all our conver
sations. This does not mean that its cause is
clearly recognised— far from it. Something
threatens us, something is more than ever
lacking, but our being able to say exactly what
[1965, p. 273].
One of the great causes of this anxiety, especially
for modern man is the fear of the great reality of the
cosmos. Modern astronomy has revealed the great vastness
of the universe. Confronted with this immensity man tends
to think that he is of no consequence. Teilhard speaks of
the "malady of the space time!" As a consolation to man,
Teilhard points out in his scientific works that man can
have the assurance that he is the most complex being. He
may feel inferior in size in relation to the greatness of
the cosmos, but he knows he is the greatest unified
complexity in the vast material masses of the universe.
57
In attempting to determine the root of this
anxiety, it may be speculated that it is the intuition of
man's incompleteness which causes him to be anxious. When
a student walks through the vast halls of a modern library,
he is overcome by a sense of anxiety because he realizes
he has a long way to go in securing knowledge. In a
similar way, upon coming to consciousness, man realizes
his limitations and'senses.a'calf to overcome'
- - * ^ . . . ^
them.
This anxiety structure of consciousness has been
well explored by modern existentialist philosophers.
Teilhard is very much aware of the anxiety of our times
and really tries in all his works to be a consolation to
our distressed age. Anxiety is not something man wills,
it is not the result of a decision; it is simply there.
It is evolution seeking for a yet unfulfilled completion.
As evolution was never satisfied with nature till man was
produced, so now, conscious of: itself, it is still
discontent with the status quo and by anxiety does not let
man rest here as if he had a permanent home.
Love. There are few modern thinkers who say as
much about love as Teilhard. What he presents is a real
philosophy of love itself. Love is ultimately rooted in a
structure of consciousness itself by which it continually
strives for greater union. As such, it is a continuation
58
of the tendency in nature to greater unification. Love,
like consciousness, is a universal phenomena. A man's
attraction to a woman is not totally unrelated to the
fusion of atoms into molecules. His ideas on love are
well expressed as follows:
Considered in its full biological reality,
love— that is to say, the affinity of being with
being--is not peculiar to man. It is a general
property of all life and as such it embraces, in
its varieties and degrees, all the forms succes
sively adopted by organised matter. In the
mammals, so close to ourselves, it is easily
recognised in its different modalities: sexual
passion, parental instinct, social solidarity, etc.
Farther off, that is to say lower down on the
tree of life, analogies are more obscure until
they become so faint as to be imperceptible. But
this is the place to repeat what I said earlier
when we were discussing the "within of things."
If there were no real internal propensity to
unite, even at a prodigiously rudimentary level—
indeed in the molecule itself— it would be physically
impossible for love to appear higher up, with us,
in "hominised" form. By rights, to be certain of
its presence in ourselves, we should assume its
presence, at least in an inchoate form, in every
thing that is. And in fact if we look around us at
the confluent ascent of consciousness, we see it is
not lacking anywhere. Plato felt this and has
immortalised the idea in his Dialogues. Later, with
thinkers like Nicolas of Cusa, mediaeval philosophy
returned technically to the same notion. Driven by
the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek
each other so that the world may come to being. This
is no metaphor; and it is much more than poetry.
Whether as a force or a curvature, the universal
gravity of bodies, so striking to us, is merely the
reverse or shadow of that which really moves nature.
To perceive cosmic energy "at the fount" we must,
if there is a within of things, go down into the
internal or radial zone of spiritual attractions.
Love in all its subtleties is nothing more,
and nothing less, than the more or less direct trace
marked on the heart of the element by the physical
convergence of the universe upon itself [1959, p. 264].
59
The last sentence is the justification as to why
love is called a structure of consciousness. Love is the
psychical convergence of the universe upon itself. The
origin of love is thus most profoundly deeply rooted. It
does not start with the soul or will, but rather it is
much deeper than the ordinary definition of these realities
generally indicate. This idea of his shows how very
essential love is to man. Psychologists and psychiatrists
have in a multitude of studies strongly and consistently
affirmed the intrinsic need man has to love. Teilhard
gives a philosophy of this universal need by showing how
really deep and profound love is.
Needless to say, sexuality is very much a related
topic to love. It is an amazing thing that philosophy has
said so little about sex. Philosophy has been interested
in sex largely from the ethical point of view. What is
right and what is wrong with reference to sex has been a
major topic of ethics. Sexuality is naturally in need of
regulation by norms and principles. However, seldom have
philosophers really asked themselves as to what sexuality
really is. One of the great contributions of Teilhard is
that he provides us with a philosophy of sexuality which
is beautiful and inspiring and enobling. For him,
sexuality is the basis of all real love. Spiritual love
has its roots in sexuality just as consciousness has its
60
roots in the universe. About sexuality he says;
The energy that feeds and elaborates our
interior life is originally passionate in nature.
Like every other animal, man is essentially an
urge toward the union that brings completeness; he
is a capacity to love. Plato pointed this out a
long time ago. It is from this primordial., impulse
that the rich complexity of intellectual and
emotional life develops and builds up and assumes
different forms. However lofty and widespread the
ramifications of our spirit, their roots still
reach down into the physical. It is from man's
deep reserves of passion that the warmth and light
of his being arise, transfigured. It is in them
that is initially concentrated, like a seed, the
highest and most subtile essence, the most sensitive
motor, of our whole spiritual development.
The mutual attraction of the sexes is so
fundamental a fact that any explanation of the world
(whether biological, philosophical or religious)
that cannot find a structurally essential place in
its system, is to all intents and purposes ruled
out. Sexuality can be included, in this sense,
with particular ease, in a cosmic system that is
based on union [Quoted in Rideau, 1965, p. 106],
Teilhard's idea of sexuality is that it is the
basis and foundation for any higher love. The principle of
sublimation is very prominent in his works. However, he
uses it in a different sense than the usual Freudian
meaning. In the Freudian sense, sublimation gives the
impression of a frustration which is taken out in doing
something constructive. Teilhard's idea is more that of
directing and harnessing the power of sexuality and
directing it to a goal. He speaks of capturing the
energies of love. Misuse of sexuality is seen as a loss
and scattering of energy. In a rather poetic passage he
sees the attraction between man and woman as a great force
61
to be directed:
It is really the universe which, through
woman, is advancing towards man. If man
fails to recognize the true nature and the
true object of his love, the disorder which
follows is profound and irremediable.
Desperately striving to appease upon something
too small a passion which is addressed to the
All, he inevitably tries to cure a fundamental
disequilibrium by constantly increasing the
number of his experiences, or making them more
material in character .... Look quite
coldly, as a biologist or engineer, at the
reddening sky over a great city at night.
There, and indeed everywhere else, the Earth
is constantly dissipating, in pure loss, its
most miraculous power .... How much
energy do you think is lost to the Spirit of
Earth in one night? Man must, instead, perceive
the universal Reality which whines spiritually
through the flesh .... Woman is put before
him as the attraction and symbol of the world.
He can only unite with her by enlarging himself
in turn to the scale of the World . . . he can
only reach Woman through the consummation of the
universal Union. [1958, p. 5 8].
When it comes to his treatment of love, Teilhard
has as his strong point the elimination of any idea of a
sharp dichotomy between matter and spirit. Spiritual
love is rooted in sexuality and its physiology. Even
though the terms matter and spirit are used, this is
only because of the deficiencies of human language
which of necessity must use this terminology because
language lacks any other. His vision is one of great
unity. Energy, evolution moved by this same energy,
man as evolution conscious of itself, man's attraction
to his sexual opposite, all form a splendid unity.
< Another important aspect of his thought is the need for
a disciplined control particularly of the forces of.
sexuality. He would certainly never approve of
unrestrained use of sexuality without strong ethical *
norms of regulation. Of all great thinkers who have
written of love, Teilhard takes his place as being well
deserving of a hearing.
Tendency to the absolute. The nature of
consciousness as it is determined by its evolutionary
origins is being considered. The term "a priori" may
correctly be used for these structures because they are
within man prior to any decision on his part. Neither
does he acquire these structures by abstracting ideas from
sensible images. They are deep within him by reason of
his foundation in the universe itself. Man is anxious; he
feels dread and care without having willed it or learned
it by education. He must love as part of his nature; the
tendency to love is within him before he can explain it
or put it into words. So far the structures of
consciousness called anxiety and love have been examined.
Another structure difficult to express is a few words is
the tendency to the Absolute. It is similar to love in so
far as it is a tendency. It differs from it in that the
63
object is the cosmos, the universe, and to a certain
extent perhaps God himself. It is a sense of the all
embracing unity of the world. It is also a sense of the
divine. A phenomonology of religion has always noticed
the very intimate relationship between the sense of
mystery of the universe and the God who is in some way
responsible for it. Reverence and mystery are really the
beginnings of the religious experience.
In one of his essays Teilhard develops this notion
of the cosmic sense as a continuation of love. He gives
a three part analysis of human love. The first part is
sexual love which has been treated. The second part is
"the human sense." The primary difference between this
and sexual love is that the second form, unlike sexual
love, is not exclusive but rather outgoing to all men.
The second sense is manifested in friendship with a
variety of people. It is further intensified by a devotion
to a common cause. Thus, patriotism and other feelings of
unity which man experiences have their origin.in love.
Finally, he considers in the third stage, the,cosmic sense
which is the*'affinity that 'binds us psychologically to
the whole of the universe.
This cosmic sense is the love of the Omega toward
which evolution is directed. Teilhard (1936) describes
this cosmic sense as follows:
64
The cosmic sense is a love; it cannot be
anything else. It is a love because it is
directed to a unique and complimentary object
of a personal nature. It must be a love, for
its role is to dominate by bringing them to ful
fillment in the love of man for woman and the
love of the human being for all other human beings.
In the cosmos as I have described it, the possi
bility is clear as unlikely as the expression may
seem, of loving the universe. And it is only
within this act that love can grow and develop
with unlimited intensity [p. 104].
The basic characteristic of the cosmic sense is
its perception of unity. It is interesting to note that
consciousness itself is characterized by a unified
complexity. Thus, consciousness itself is dominated by
its own natural unity. This perception of unity in the
cosmos is characteristic of the cosmic sense. This sense
is naturally closely related to mysticism. Much has
been written on the nature of mysticism; and Teilhard's
ideas can be a great help in throwing light on this
mysterious human phenomenon. Of mysticism he writes:
In itself, the mystical emotion is a sense of,
and a presentment of, the total and final unity
of the world beyond its present, sensibly experi
enced multiplexity: a cosmic sense of oneness.
This holds good for the Hindu or the Sufi, just
as it does for the Christian; and it allows us
to measure the "mystical import" of a written
document of a person's life [Quoted in Rideau,
1965, p. 492],
He regards mysticism as the supreme science and the
supreme art. By it man is able to reach the secret of the
real and reach its source. In the Vision of the Past
(19 66a) he says, "We are brought to thO absolute not by a
65
journeying but by an ecstasy" [p. 132.] . For a person who
traveled much he looked upon mysticism as a journey into a
new sphere of the universe rather than a usual journey
of movement from place to place. This sense of oneness
with the universe is one of the essential structures of
consciousness as the latter is determined by its evolution
ary origins. It is not difficult to realize that
consciousness searches for the oneness in the universe
when consciousness itself is rooted in that oneness.
Teilhard's mysticism of the oneness of the
universe naturally fits in well with his religious
convictions. He saw an ego at the very summit of the
world which was the consummation of all the elemental egos
of the earth. It is here that he finds himself in conflict
with the type of atheism represented by Sartre. Even if ^
man is observed by a divine witness ■ , this does not* over
whelm him, because this witness is a loving and intimate
presence which invites man to a share in infinite love.
Love in some manner unites the egos in a bond which does
not destroy or reduce the human ego to nothing.
This mystical sense of the great oneness of the
universe is also presented as a solution to the problems
of anxiety as presented in the literature of existential
ism. He believes an all-embracing view of evolution will
be a consolation to man in his existential distress. When
66
he visited U.C. Berkeley he was impressed by the greatness
of this university's.achievements and wrote (1953) :
As a direct consequence of its vastness, and
therefore of its sureness, the movement I could
distinguish was allaying the terror of my mind.
The vaster the cyclone, the less danger was there
that the grain of sand that represented me would
be lost in the universe. What I had been reading
in existential literature for the last twenty years
was a delusion: it is only an all-embracing view
of evolution— and not an ever more isolated intro
spection of individual by individual— that can
shield twentieth-century man from the terror he
feels when he looks at life. Once again this was
brought home to me by my own experience [p. 3 76].
Teilhard feels his own system of evolution can
be an answer to the deep existential anguish which modern
man experiences. This deep fear of not amounting to
anything of significance is overbalanced by the realization
that all of evolution has been directed to producing his
consciousness.
In this section human consciousness as Teilhard
sees it has been examined. Teilhard feels that
consciousness is a dynamic force which is structured in
its very nature by reason of its long evolutionary origin
with deep roots in the universe itself. These structures
have been summarized as being anxiety, the tendency to
love, and the mystical tendency to see the oneness of the
universe. These factors are not acquired by experience
but are within man as he comes from nature. Indeed, the
various forces which produced man are still operative in
67
his psyche. His thought in this matter is open to many
possibilities of.development.
The thought of Teilhard de Chardin has traced the
evolution of consciousness from its beginnings in radial
energy to its highest achievement in the self reflective
consciousness of man. This evolution has made an imprint
on the present structure of consciousness as anxiety and
a tendency to love and achieve some absolute reality.
This study will next examine another author who
will illuminate further the present structure of
consciousness.
68
CHAPTER IV
THE PRESENT STRUCTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS—
PAUL TILLICH
Paul Tillich is one of the better known writers
in the field of existential philosophy. He was born in
1886 in the province of Brandenberg, Germany. He studied
at the universities of Tubingen, Halle, and received
his Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of
Breslau. In 1912 he received the Licentiate in Theology
from Halle and was ordained a Lutheran minister. During
World War I he was an Army chaplin. He then became a
Professor of Theology at various German universities. He
taught at Marburg, Dresden, Leipzig, and Frankfurt. In
1933 he came to the United States where he was Professor
of Philosophical Theology at Union Theological Seminary
and Columbia University. He spent the latter part of his
life teaching at Harvard and the University of Chicago.
He died in 1965 at age 79.
The individual who is a victim of existential
neurosis is searching for an answer to the question of
the meaning of his own particular life. Tillich is one of
the well known existential writers who has written on
69
the problem of existential neurosis. His thought and
his philosophy direct itself very much to this problem.
Tillich seems to resolve the question of meaning to the
question of being itself. The individual who asks the
question of the meaning of his own existence is implicitly
asking the question of the meaning of being itself.
This ontological question is usually asked as a result
of the so-called "metaphysical shock." According to
existential thought in general this shock comes about
as a result of.anxiety or dread. The anxiety and dread
ultimately is resolvable to the fear of non-being and to
the implicit perception of the possible non-existence of
something. This so-called metaphysical shock leads to
the question 'Why is there something, why not nothing?" If
this question could be answered, then some light could
be thrown upon the person1s questioning the meaning of
his own particular existence.
Tillich is vitally concerned with ontology or
metaphysics in contrast to much philosophical thought
of today which tends to reject ontology or metaphysics.
Tillich affirms that a science of metaphysics is possible
because of the existence of concepts which are less
universal than the concepts of being, but which
are more universal than any particular being.
These concepts have evolved over centuries of
human thought and Tillich believes that they can be used
in any attempt to answer the question of the meaning of
being.
The Structure of Consciousness
The subject-object split. How is a person able
to ask the question of meaning in the first place? Only
man can ask this question. Apparently, no where in
the animal world is there any asking of the question of
the meaning of existence or of being in general. It
follows from this that there is something in the very
nature of man himself which enables him to ask these
fundamental questions. Tillich contends that the
ontological question presupposes what has generally
been called the existential split. This is the split
between the subject and object. According to Tillich
then there is a subject-object structure of being
which in turn presupposes the self-world structure.
The separation between self and world is the
fundamental concept of Tillich's thought. This is well
expressed in his first volume of Systematic Theology in
which Tillich (1951) says as follows:
Being a self means being separated in some
way from everything else, having everything else
opposite one's self, being able to look at it
and to act upon it. At the same time, however,
this self is aware that it belongs to that at
which it looks. The self is "in" it. Every
self has an environment in which it lives, and
the ego self has a world in which it lives. All
71
beings have an environment which is their
environment. Not everything that can be
found in the space in which an animal lives
belongs to its environment. Its environment
consists in those things in which it has an
active inter-relation. Different things
within the same limited space have different
environments. Each being has an environment,
although it belongs to its environment. The
mistake of all theories which explain the
behavior of a being in terms of environment
alone is that they fail to explain a special
character of the environment in terms of a
special character of the being which had an
environment. Self and environment determine
each other [p. 64].
In addition to explaining the ontological
constitution of man as a split between self and world,
Tillich also goes on to further analyze this structure
according to three divisions:
1. Individuality-universality
2. Dynamics-form
3. Freedom-destiny
Each one of these elements is by its very nature
poor. By poor Tillich means that each element is
necessary for the other and for the whole.
First of all concerning individualization and
participation, it can be said that man is a totally
centered self; hence, he is completely individualized.
This is the basic meaning of his being a person. However,
he is also universal insofar as man is a microcosm by
which he participates in the whole of the universe by
means of the rational structure of his mind.
72
Dynamics and form is perhaps more difficult to
explain. According to Tillich form is roughly the
equivalent of essence. Dynamics on the other hand cannot
be easily conceptualized. It can only be symbolized
because it has no definite form but yet it is not pure
nothingness. Tillich refers to the concept of Bergson’s
"Elan Vital," or Nietzsche’s "Will to Power," and the
unconsciousness of Freud as examples of dynamics. He
believes that dynamics appear within man as a power of
life and of growth. On the other hand form appears as an
attempt to grasp and to shape reality through universals
and through creating universal structures.
A third set of polar structures which Tillich
explains is that of freedom and destiny. Tillich asserts
that man is free because he is not a thing. He transcends
any thing-like structure. He analyzes the whole argument
between determinism and indeterminism in terms of their
relationship to a thing. He feels that determinism is
correct insofar as the determinists indicate that no thing
can really be free. Essentially he says that the deter-
minist says that a thing is a thing. It is hence a
tautology. Freedom of a thing is a contradiction in
terms. On the other hand the advocates of freedom and
those who oppose determinism point to man's consciousness
and his power of responsible decision-making. However,
they do make an error insofar as they attribute this power
73
again to the so-called "will." When the indeterminist
attributes freedom to the will he is falling into a
very serious error because he is attributing human
freedom to a thing-like structure, namely, the will.
Tillich is very critical of this particular method of
proceeding.
Tillich believes that freedom is not freedom of a
thing but rather it is the freedom of man. Destiny on
the other hand is basically the multitude of things which
are ordinarily considered to be deterministic. Tillich
lists them as man's body structure, his psychic strivings,
and his spiritual character. He furthermore includes
within destiny the communities to which a person belongs
and also the past, both remembered and unremembered.
Among the things included in destiny is also the
environment and the world which has made an impact upon
me. Destiny is also myself insofar as I have determined
myself by my past decisions.
What, according to Paul Tillich is the basic
ontological structure of man by which he asks the
question of meaning? There is a direct connection
between the question of the meaning of being and
the question of meaning in general. It is here that
there must be examined the fundamental question of
finitude which according to Tillich is that basic factor
in man by which he is able to ask both the ontological
question and also the question of the meaning of his own
existence. Man is able to ask this question because he
is free to transcend every given reality. He is not bound
to any particular type of being and therefore he is able
to ask the questions of the meaning of being itself. When
he asks this question he is also forced to ask the question
of the meaning of non-being. It is here that Tillich goes
into a historical consideration of the nature of non-
being as it has been considered in the history of
philosophy.
Anxiety and finitude. In this section on finitude
Tillich gives an historical survey of the whole question
of non-being in the history of philosophy. His most
important observations are of the present day
existentialist who have considered the problem of nothing
ness in a very radical and profound way. Tillich refers
to Heidegger's idea of 1 1 annihilating nothingness" which
describes man's situation of being threatened by non-being
which is his personal death. It is the anticipation of
the nothingness of man and death that gives to human
existence its existential character. Sartre includes in
being not only the threat of nothingness but also the
threat of meaninglessness which is defined as the destruc
tion of the very structure of being. Tillich observed
that in present day existentialism there is no real way to
overcome this particular threat.
Tillich next goes on to consider the problem of
finitude which is extremely important particularly to the
counselor and to the problem of existential neurosis.
First of all finitude is defined as being which is limited
by non-being. Finitude in every way is experienced by
man at every level. Ends are anticipated by man with
everything that he does and everything that he has. This
finitude comes to an awareness in man and when it does
it becomes anxiety which is certainly one of the things
which is considered at length by modern psychology and it
is constantly encountered by the counselor. Following
in the school of existentialism Tillich finds and believes
that anxiety essentially had an ontological quality. He
feels that it cannot be derived from anything. It can
only be analyzed on the phenomenological level of being
described. Along with most existentialists, Tillich
believes that anxiety is independent of any special object
that might produce it. If a person fears a definite
concrete thing, then there is fear and not anxiety. v
Objects, Tillich believes, are feared. On- the other-.hand
anxiety has no definite particular finite being. It is
that overall anxiety which is always present in some hidden
way within human nature. Anxiety, therefore, can become
present at every moment even in those in which there
76
are no definite situations to be specifically feared.
Tillich believes that the discovery of the meaning of
anxiety is one of the great accomplishments of the
twentieth century in the field of depth-psychology and
existential philosophy.
All these things which Tillich says have great
significance for the person who in any way is attempting
to be a counselor. Indeed it is very important that the
person understands thoroughly a client who comes before
him. If the counselor is aware of the philosophical
situation and of the nature of man, he is able to
understand and to help the person who has come for his
assistance. A person comes to the counselor confessing
anxiety. This is not surprising because every person
sees and intuits his own finitude. Every joy seems to
have an end and even in moments when everything seems to
be going all right there is this basic fundamental
anxiety. This is not due to any particular psychological
phenomena that can be explained in terms of stimulus
and response. The reason for this anxiety is because
of the very ontological construction of man as a finite
being, Man perceives his own finitude and'his
limitations.
This perception of finitude must be further
analyzed. Man is anxious because he sees his finitude and
77
furthermore he sees his finitude because of the
ontological split between self and world. The stone
lying on the ground is also finite but it has no anxiety
because it has no ontological split between object and
self. It is purely a thing and consequently, it cannot
in any way perceive itself. Man, however, because' of ' ?
the ontological split can step back from himself and
see himself, as a finite creature. From this observation
there then comes the perpetual anxiety which is so often
manifested in the counseling situation. The existential
counselor must especially have a deep philosophical
knowledge of the basis of anxiety. Tillich in a most
profound way contributes to this knowledge.
Courage and Meaning
An examination of the history of the problem of
meaning in the survey of literature has indicated that many
authors have been concerned with the problem of meaning
lessness. However, their attempts at a solution of this
problem have been inadequate. It is easy to pose the
problem, but it is more difficult to find some kind of a
solution. In Tillich's remarkable work, Courage To Be
(1952), there is an interesting analysis of a procedure
which a person can use against the meaninglessness of
existence. In this essay which was originally the Terry
Lectures on Religion at Yale University, Tillich first
78
describes the situation that man confronts. Once again
it is anxiety that reveals to man; the deeper questions of
reality. He distinguishes three kinds of anxiety. The
first is ontological anxiety which is the fear of non-being
itself. This is then expressed in terms of the fear of an
absolute non-being, which is death, or the fear of some
mitigation of our existence which would happen through
fate. The second kind of anxiety he calls moral anxiety
which in its most complete form is the fear of condemnation
and in a lesser form is the anxiety of guilt. Finally the
third form of anxiety is spiritual anxiety and it is here
that he locates emptiness and meaninglessness. Meaning
lessness is the most extreme form of spiritual anxiety
whereas emptiness is a lesser form. This anxiety is
described by Tillich and has also been described by other
existential authors.
In contrast to all this anxiety, Tillich proposes
the idea of courage. Essentially his essay is a descrip
tion of courage. What then is courage? Tillich (1952)
defines courage as follows: "Courage is the self-
affirmation of being in spite of the fact of non-being"
(p. 155). Tillich takes his origin of the notion of self-
affirmation from Spinoza. In his ethics Spinoza says that
the endeavor of everything to persist in its own being is
nothing else but the actual essence of the thing in ques
tion. . In Spinoza there is an actual.identification of
V
79
a person's essence with the power of being and self-
affirmation. From Spinoza, Tillich gets the idea of
self-affirmation as not being an isolated act which
originates in the individual; on the contrary it is
participation in a universal or in a divine act of self
affirmation.
At this point, Tillich also refers to the
mystical experience and claims that in mysticism the
individual self strives for participation in the ground
of being which approaches identification. He claims
that the mystic affirms his own essential being against
the elements of non-being that are in the world. As is
common in mystical literature, Tillich also finds a
certain amount of meaning even in the very state of
emptiness and meaninglessness itself. Tillich (1952)
says as follows:
In these moments the courage to be is reduced
to the acceptance of even this state as a way to
prepare through darkness for light, through
emptiness for abundance. As long as the power
of being is felt as despair, it is the power of
being which makes itself felt through despair. To
experience this and to endure it is the courage to
be of the mystic in the state of emptiness [p. 159]
In such places the idea of courage is the
acceptance of the non-being of finitude upon oneself.
Self-affirmation is in turn resolved into a kind of
mystical participation in being itself. Later Tillich
(1952) .says-as follows:
Only because being-itself has the character of
self-affirmation in spite of non-being, is courage
possible. Courage participates in'the - very self-
affirmation of being itself, it participates in the
power of being which prevails against non-being.
He who receives this power in an act of mystical
or personal or absolute faith is aware of the
source of his courage to be . . . . By affirming
our being, we participate in the> self-affirmation
of being itself. There are no valid arguments for
the "existence" of God, but there are acts of courage
in which we affirm the power of being, whether we
know it or not. If we know it, we accept acceptance
consciously. If we do not know it, we nevertheless
accept it and participate in it. In our acceptance
of that which we do not know, the power of being
is manifest to us [p. 181].
In his work, The Courage to Be, Tillich attempts
to give us some kind of solution to the problem of
meaninglessness. He does so through an examination of
courage which he resolves to self-affirmation. This self-
affirmation is valid and good because in some way it
refers to a being or being in general. Since he is a
theist, Tillich in some way refers this to the existence
of God. Thus, in Tillich, it can be seen that ultimately in
some way the foundation of meaning is linked up with a
theistic view of the universe.
There are, of course, numerous difficulties arid
questions that can be asked concerning Tillich's position.
It is possible to inquire, for example, what precisely this
action of self-affirmation is. No where in his book do we
discover exactly what it really is. Whatr indeed, does man
say to himself when he affirms himself in spite of the
difficult things which happen to him?
81
Furthermore, it may be asked as to whether or not
mysticism is the answer to the problem of meaning.
Mysticism seems to be beyond the grasp of the vast majority
of the human race. It is quite evident from anyone who is
familiar with the literature on this subject that mystical
experiences of one kind or another are for the most part
comparatively rare. The question further remains as to
what is the problem of meaning for the vast majority of
people who from day to day labor without any particular
mystical experience of any kind. Perhaps they are to be
satisfied with the teachings of an organized church or
other philosophers. However, the question is further
asked what of the individual who is dissatisfied with the
general teachings of most of the world's religions and who
has not had any kind of mystical insight into the nature
of being. Is this person then to be condemned to the
existential despair of a Camus or a Sartre?
It can be summarized then that Tillich has made
an immense contribution to our problem of meaninglessness.
However, like every contribution, it is limited and does
not completely solve the issues which the question raises.
Tillich briefly mentioned mysticism as a unity
with the ground of being which approaches identification.
This study will now further examine the direction of
consciousness to a perception of unity.
82
CHAPTER V
THE DYNAMICS OF THE DIRECTION
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
This study opened with an analysis of the question
and problem of meaning. Man's search for meaning and an
examination of the existential neurosis are a vital concern
to the entire educational process and especially they are
important to any theory of therapy or counseling. A
person can find meaning if he can see himself as part of
a whole or of a reality of some kind. If a person sees
how he fits into a world view, then he has some sense of
meaning. Direction and a consideration of ends are vital
to any solution of the problem of meaning.
It is the essential theme of this study that a
person can derive meaning by seeing his own consciousness
as part of a cosmic process of evolution. The thought of
Teilhard de Chardin has been examined and it has shown the
past or the history of consciousness. It can be claimed
that consciousness has evolved from a primordial past in
which there was no consciousness of any kind to the present
situation where there is a self-conscious reality. The
thought of Paul Tillich was used primarily to illustrate
83
the present situation of consciousness as it is with its
existential split between self and world, subject and
object.
Maslow
The study turns now to another author, in order
to consider the future or the direction of consciousness.
What the future of consciousness may be is essentially
a mystery and is somewhat beyond any analysis or power
of conjecture. It can, therefore, only modestly be
affirmed that some kind of a direction for consciousness
will be dealt with. The works of Abraham Maslow, partic
ularly in reference to the concept of the peak experience,
will principally be considered in reference to any
direction of consciousness. Consciousness is not a static
reality. Just as it has had a past in its evolution, so
also it will have a future. By direction it is affirmed
that there are some further dynamic processes within
human consciousness which are leading it somewhere.
Abraham Maslow is largely regarded as the leading
light in what is generally called the Third Force of
psychology. It is a Third Force since it is in contrast
to both Freudianism and Behaviorism.
Sigmund Freud had a view of man which was largely
influenced by the evolutionary thinking of Charles Darwin.
Man was the product of an accidental process of evolution.
Within him were the instinctual drives largely known as
the Id. Among the drives of the Id that of sexuality was
of prime importance. Man was in constant conflict with
society which imposed various restraints on these
instinctual activities. These restraints were imposed by
customs of society which were commonly referred to as the
Super Ego. Freud felt that mental illness was the result
of a Super Ego or a moral code that was unrealistic and
consequently the patient was unable to cope with the
resulting conflict. Freud's theories were primarily
developed as a result of listening to his patients and from
his own subjective interpretation of their neuroses.
In contrast to the method of Freud, the
behaviorists relied strictly on an objective scientific
approach. Behaviorism is generally associated with John
Watson who is regarded as its founder. Other major names
in this school of thought are those of Edward Thorndike,
Clark Hull, John Dollard, Neil Miller, and especially
B. F. Skinner who is generally considered today as being
the leading exponent of behaviorism. John Watson, the
founder of behaviorism, was most influenced by the work
of the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov concerning the
stimulus response apparatus of the organism. From its
beginning behaviorism has therefore placed great emphasis
85
on the idea of association or the stimulus-response
system of learning and conditioning. The primary method
which is used by the behaviorist is laboratory controlled
experiments. These laboratory experiments are primarily
concerned with the stimulus response procedures. From
this experimentation it is claimed that a great deal can
be learned about man and his operation. Th’ is kind of
laboratory experimentation is valid for man because, .there
is a similarity between man and the animal world. (Matson.
(1966) quotes Skinner as saying, "The only difference I • ^
expect to see.revealed between the behavior of rats and man
(aside from enormous differences in complexity) lie in-the
field of verbal ..behavior"
Abraham Maslow spent all of his life as a teacher
of psychology in various universities. He studied
extensively the theories of Freud and behaviorism and he
wrote his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of
Professor Harry Harlow and obtained his doctorate on the
sexual and dominant characteristics of monkeys. His
extensive readings soon led him to be very discontented
with the contemporary behaviorism and Freudianism. In
contrast to Freud, Maslow wanted to examine the healthy
or the good individual in contrast to a person who was
mentally sick or very disturbed.. In his various psycholog
ical studies Maslow spent a great amount of time studying
self-actualizing people. These were those individuals
86
who are happy, contented, successful, and creative. From
a study of these individuals, Maslow then hoped to con
struct a psychology that had as its base healthy
individuals rather than the sick ones.
Furthermore, Maslow saw a vast difference between
man and the animal world. He was critical of the
behaviorist insofar as as they made too great of an
emphasis upon the continuity between man and the animal.
Maslow, on the other hand, emphasized the tremendous
difference between the man and the animal and the
difficulty in applying studies of pigeons and rats in
coming to psychological conclusions for man himself.
Another important aspect in which Maslow departed
from the tradition of behaviorism was his emphasis upon
value. Most scientific studies are for the most part
ethically neutral. They are strict scientific analyses
of certain things. However, Maslow felt that certain
deeper problems of a spiritual nature/ specifically those
concerning value and value judgments, were important aspects
of psychological studies. Maslow felt a limitation of the
scientific analysis of things and wanted to consider as
part of the science of psychology such things as values and
deep personal experiences. Maslow believed that man had
to be studied as a totality and he rejected an atomistic
approach which concentrates mainly upon specific aspects
of man. In this way Maslow felt that man was a whole
87
which was greater than the sum of its parts. Man had to
be studied in his totality with his instinctual drives and
urges together with his yearning for meaning, mysticism,
religion, and all of the other factors which make man to
be man.
Maslow was highly influenced by the existentialists
and frankly admits his considerable dependence upon them.
He admires the existentialists for their concept of
identity and considers the experience of identity as the
fundamental basis of human nature and of any philosophy
about man. Maslow chooses this aspect of existentialism
in contrast to any long considerations of essence-existence
ontology. It must be emphasized here also that Maslow
was more of a psychologist than a professional philosopher
and constantly throughout his works one is able to see a
lack of precision with regard to philosophical thought.
Nevertheless his dependence upon some of the insights of
existentialism is considerable.
Another thing which he saw in existentialism was
its stress upon the more concrete experience rather than
upon any abstract knowledge of a priori ideas.
Existentialism has this kind of approach because of its
basis in phenomenology which uses the personal subjective
experience as the foundation of knowledge itself.
Maslow1s principal method was to study the self-
actualized individual. Maslow (196 8;, p. 26) gives
88
, various characteristics of this person and these can be
listed as follows:
1. A superior reception of reality,
2. An increased acceptance of self, of others,
and of nature,
3. Increased spontaniety,
4. Increase in problem centering,
5. Increased detachment and desire for privacy,
6. Increased autonomy and resistance to
enculturation,
7. Greater freshness of appreciation and
enrichment of emotional reaction,
8. Higher frequency of peak experiences,
9. Increased identification with the human
species,
10. Changed or improved inter-personal relations,
11. More democratic character structure,
12. Greatly increased creativeness,
13. Certain changes in the value system.
The characteristic of the self-willed person which
is significant is that even though his ego strength is at
its height, Maslow found that the self-actualizing person
tends to forget himself and transcends his ego more
easily than do others.
This study is principally concerned with what
Maslow calls the peak experience. The reason for the
89
emphasis on the peak experience is to show the
relationship between Maslow, Teilhard de Chardin and
Tillich. It is principally in the analysis of the peak
experience that this relationship among these three men
can be found. Teilhard was concerned with consciousness
and its evolution from the past. Tillich focused upon
the structure of consciousness as we know it and as we
experience it. Maslow goes a step beyond this insofar
as he is looking not to the present ordinary waking
consciousness; but rather he is looking to forms of
consciousness that are superior to and in advance of the
present forms of consciousness which we know. It is for
this reason, therefore, that this study will consider
Maslow in its search for a direction in which conscious
ness may be moving. This direction toward which
consciousness may be moving is principally shown from
Maslow’s consideration of the peak experience.
Maslow began his consideration of the peak
experience by asking 190 college students to describe
certain wonderful experiences of their life. He asked
them to consider a happy moment, ecstatic moments, moments
of rapture, feelings of being loved, or listening to
music. In these situations, the person is "hit" by the
book, the painting, or the music. The person may feel
some great creative moment. Maslow asked his students to
list these moments. The second step of the procedure was
90
he asked them to tell how they felt in these moments and
how they feel differently in these moments from other
situations.
Maslow in addition to considering this experiment
with college students, also confesses that he tapped the
immense literature of mysticism, religion, art, and other
related fields.
In the peak experience, Maslow identifies some
kind of being-cognition which he considers to be one of the
results of the peak experience. However, it must carefully
be observed here that Maslow in no way is intending to
present any kind of intuition of being the like of which
we find in certain philosophers, such as that of Jacques
Maritain. It must be remembered that Maslow was not a
formally trained philosopher and consequently his use of
the term "being" is not exactly the same as this term is
understood in traditional philosophy in terms of essence,
existence, participation, pure act, and ^the like.
According to Maslow, cognition of being seems to be
cognition that is organized in such a way that it is more
objective. It does not take into consideration the
deficiency needs of the individual which he calls
D-cognition. It would perhaps have been better for Maslow
to call this "selfless-cognition" in contrast to "being-
cognition. " It is not all together clear to what extent
Maslow really intended that there be some kind of intuition
91
of being in his peak experience.
Maslow lists various kinds and characteristics of
the peak experience. These are as follows:
1. In a peak experience, the object tends to be
seen as a whole or as a unit. It is detached from certain
relationships.
2. In the peak experience or in B-cognition the
thing is concentrated upon exclusively.
3. When the thing is seen, it seems to be seen
independently of the usefulness of the particular object
to the fulfillment of human concerns.
4. In this type of cognition, there seems to be
a much richer kind of a perception.
5. In the peak experience, there is a tendency
for the thing perceived to be of value in itself,
independent of the ego. In other words, the perception is
object centered rather than ego centered. It may even
be said that there is an identification of.the perceiver
and the perceived.
6. The peak experience is a thing which is felt
and has its own intrinsic value.
7. In these peak experiences there is a common
characteristic of being disoriented in time and space.
8. In the peak experience, the object is
experienced only as good and desirable. It is never
;experienced as evil or undesirable. This perception of
92
everything being good within the peak experience impressed
Maslow very much because he felt that there was a tremen
dous philosophic implication in this. Maslow (1968) says
as follows:
The philosophical implications here are
tremendous. If, for the sake of argument, we
accept ,the thesis that fn peak^experiences-the
nature of reality itself may be seen more
clearly and its essence penetrated more
profoundly, then this is almost the same as
saying what so many philosophers and theologians
have affirmed, that the whole of being, when
seen at its best and from an olympian point of
view, is only neutral or good, and that evil
or pain or threat is only a partial phenomenon,
a product of not seeing the world whole and
unified and of seeing it from a self-centered
or too low a point of view [p. 81],.
9. In the peak experience of B-cognition the
person is able to achieve some kind of a relationship with
what is generally called the absolute in contrast to the
relative. It is at this point that Maslow observes that
it is a meaningful thing that the mystic experience has
been described in almost identical words by people in
every religion, every era, and in every time. Here he
refers to Aldous Huxley in calling this type of experience
the perennial philosophy.
10. The peak experience tends to be more of a
passive reception experience rather than an active one.
And at this point Maslow also makes the observation that
a good therapist tends to perceive persons as they are
without any tendency to classify or pigeon-hole them. In
93
other words, the therapist is passive and receives the
person as they are without actually classifying them or
putting them into categories.
11. The peak experience is characterized by a
sense of wonder and awe. It is as if one were in the
presence of something that is truly wonderful and great.
12. Another aspect of the peak experience is
that it has a certain unity about it. Maslow (196 8)
says,
In some reports, particularly of the
mystic experience or the religious experience
or philosophical experience, the whole of the
world is seen as unity, as a single rich live
entity [p. 88].
13. In the peak experience the person is able to
achieve that perfect blend between an an abstract concept
of a thing together with a concrete understanding of it.
Here Maslow identifies and praises the ability to perceive
the whole and to rise above its parts. This ability is
an important characteristic of the cognition that takes
place in the peak experiences. Here also Maslow goes on
to describe the ideal therapist as one who is able to
see the person in his unique wholeness without in any
way concentrating excessively on various parts or aspects
of the person.
14. Maslow says that in the peak experiences
dichotomies and conflicts are fused, transcended and
resolved.
94
15. In the peak experience the person also is
able to perceive things in a kindly and understanding way.
It is here that Maslow refers to a generally accepted
characteristic of God as being all-loving and at the same
time applying the appropriate punishment. In a similar
way, the person with B-cognition is able to be kind,
understanding, and forgiving to all sorts of people, par
ticularly those whom we would ordinarily condemn. Again -
he refers to the therapist as having this kindly attitude
toward the problem people that come to him such as
criminals, exploiters, cowards and the like.
16. Perception in the peak experience tends to
concentrate upon a unique instance and not see a person
as a member of a particular class.
17. In the peak experience there is a loss of
fear and anxiety.
18. In the peak experience a person tends to
become one with the world in some kind of a cosmic
experience. He feels that he is part of the unity that is
perceived in this great philosophical insight.
19. In his final section Maslow describes the
peak experience as being some kind of a fusion between the
general Freudian ideas of the ego, the id, the super ego
and the ego ideal. There is further a synthesizing of the
pleasure principle with the reality principle and a true
integration of the person at all his levels. Thus it can
95
be seen that the peak experience tends to be an
integrating experience in which all the parts of the
personality as they have been delineated by psychology
are integrated into a whole.
Maslow also describes the peak experience as an
acute identity-experience. He well realizes the difficulty
in trying to define what the word identity means. He even
admits that identity is really whatever a t : person says it is.
He goes on to say that the word means different things in
various psychologies and in different forms of therapy. He
seems, however, to use this word in the sense that through
the peak experience, the person most clearly achieves his
true self. He (1968) says as follows:
Since my feeling is that people in peak
experiences are most their identities, closest
to their real selves, most idiosyncratic, it
would seem that this would be an especially
important source of clean and uncontaminated
data; i.e., invention is reduced to a minimum
and discovery is increased to a maximum [p. 103].
Maslow claims that in the peak experience a person
feels more integrated or unified than at other times. And
here it is interesting to observe that the existential
split mentioned in the consideration of Tillich seems-less
intense. Maslow says that there is less of a split between
the experiencing self and an observing self. The person
seems to be more harmoniously organized and more
integrated.
In the line of the same kind of experience,
96
Maslow mentions that the person in the peak experience
seems to fuse more with the world. Here again, we see a
reduction of the split between the self and world. Then
Maslow mentions various examples such as lovers who come
closer to forming a union of two people; the mother who
feels one with her child; the appreciator becomes one with
the music that he is listening to. Maslow also indicates
that in the peak experience the person tends to use ...
language and forms of expression that are most akin to the
poetic and the mystical. in this way, the person tends
to become much more like the poet and the artist.*. And
here he (1968) quotes Shelly in saying as follows: "Poetry
is the record of the best and happiest moments of the .
happiest and best minds" [p. Ill].
It would be appropriate to analyze what Maslow
has been saying in terms of what is known from the
literature of mystical experience. It is very clear from
the thought of Maslow that he sees an obvious relationship
between what he is saying and the mystical experience.
He frequently talks about and mentions the mystical or
poetic experience. He sees some kind of relationship
between his own analysis of the peak experience and the
mystic experience.
Fromm _
Like Paul Tillich and Abraham Maslow, Erich Fromm
97
I is a well-known writer in the field of philosophical
psychology. Fromm has written.extensively in the field of
the relationship between psychology and religion. He has
much to say on the question of the evolution of
consciousness which is the theme of this study.
Fromm was born in Germany in 1900 and emigrated to
the United States in 1934. He is a practicing" psychoanalyst
and psychiatrist in New York City. His writings have
principally emphasized the influence of society on the
human condition. In connection with his studies in this
field he has proposed a synthesis of the ideas of Marx
and Freud.
His book, entitled Zen Buddhism „and,Psychoanalysis
(1960), contains ideas which directly pertain to this
study. His analysis and description of the existential
neurosis is extensive. Western man he claims is in a
— 'V' ‘
schizoid state because he cannot express affect. This
split started with Descartes and results in the fact that
thought alone is considered rational. The ego is divided
from the intellect and man is principally concerned with
the perfection of things rather than the perfection of
man. Fromm (1960) describes modern western man as follows:
Ask him what he is living for, what
is the aim of all his strivings-~and he will
be embarrassed. Some may say they live for
the family, others, "to have fun," still others,
to make money, but in reality nobody knows
what he is living for; he has no goal, except
the wish to escape insecurity and aloneness [p. 79].
98
The answer to the problem of overcoming this alien
ation is the transcending of the subject-object split. This
split results Jirom; the fact that man is a contradiction
within himself; "being in nature and at the same time of
transcending nature by the fact that he is life aware of
itself" [p. 92].
The well being of man is achieved by overcoming
separateness or alienation and arriving at’ the experience
of oneness with all that exists. The achievement of unity
however still provides for the continued maintenance of
the separate entity, the "I am" as an individual.
The principles of Freud and psychoanalysis are
beneficial in achieving this goal of unity. Fromm believes
our actual consciousness is the product of our social
conditioning and as such each person is subject to the
limitations placed on him by the historical situation in
which he may have been thrown. On the other hand, the
unconscious represents the universal man rooted in the
Cosmos. In accordance with general psychoanalytic
principles, Fromm believes that the correct method of
achieving a sense of unity is to transform the unconscious
idea of universality into the conscious ;"Being-experierice"
of this universality. This process of making conscious
what is unconscious results in a greater being-in-touch
with reality and truth. This is an enlargement of
consciousness resulting in a waking up and enlightenment.
99
Fromm sees a similarity of goals between
psychoanalysis and the principles of Zen Buddhism. The
goal of Zen is enlightenment whereas that of psychoanalysis
is the overcoming of repression and, the transformation _ .
of the unconscious into consciousness. However, Fromm
seems to imply that there is a similarity of goals between
Zen and psychoanalysis with respect to making the
unconscious conscious. He stresses that the authentic
psychoanalytic insight comes into our consciousness
suddenly without being forced or premeditated.
Fromm (1960) describes an evolution of
consciousness from our present state of consciousness:
Man, as long as he has not reached the
creative relatedness of which satori is the
fullest achievement at best compensates for
inherent potential depression by routine,
idolatry, destructiveness, greed for property
or fame, etc. When any of these compensations
breakdown, his sanity is threatened. The cure
of the potential unsanity lies only in the
change in attitude from split and alienation
to the creative, immediate grasp of the response
to the world [p. 137].
Fromm proposes an evolution of consciousness which
is fundamentally the same as that discussed in this study.
To explain his theory, Fromm refers to the Old Testament
myth of the Fall of Man. In the beginning man was part of
nature and not aware of the difference between himself and
nature. In this state there was no consciousness,
differentiation, choice, freedom, or sin. With his first
act of choice man is aware of himself as separate. He sees
100
himself distinct from Eve, from nature, animals and the
earth. In this state he feels ashamed. In the course of
history man gradually overcomes this estrangement into
which he has emerged by reason of consciousness. The
Messianic Age is seen by Fromm as the development of
man's insights to overcome his estrangement.
Fromm believes that in Zen Buddhism there is a
healing of the subject-object split which is the root
source of man's difficulty. He (1960) says the following:
But this knowledge is not the "scientific"
knowledge of the modern psychologist, the
knowledge of the known-intellect who knows
himself as subject; knowledge of self in Zen
is knowledge which is not intellectual, which
is non-alienated, it is full‘experience in which
knower and known become one [p. 118].
This state;of consciousness is regarded by Fromm
(I960) as superior.because of its intuitive nature:
To the degree, however, to which
consciousness is trained to open itself,
to loosen the threefold filter, the discrepancy
between consciousness and unconsciousness
disappears. When it has fully disappeared
there is direct, unreflected, conscious
experience, precisely the kind of experience
which exists without intellection and
reflection. This knowledge is what Spinoza
called the highest form of knowledge, intuition;
the knowledge which Suzuki describes as the
approach which "is to enter right into the
object itself and see it, as it were, from the
inside"; it is the conative or creative way of
seeing reality [p. 133].
Fromm is impressed with the concept of Satori in
Zen. He insists that it is not an abnormal nor a trance
state. Even the great Carl Jung misunderstood Satori in-
101
this manner. On the contrary Satori is a totally natural
state. In this state sensual impressions are enhanced
and things are seen not as objects but as they "are" "it"
in their full reality.
The attainment of Satori involves the process of
making the unconscious conscious. This at least is Fromm's
understanding of Suzuki, the principal exponent of Zen in
the United States. Fromm disagrees with Suzuki's calling
the unconscious the Cosmic Unconscious. Fromm would prefer
to use the term Cosmic Consciousness in reference to
Satori because his research has led him to conclude
that a conscious experience like Satori precludes any use
of the term unconscious. In a footnote Fromm (1960)
makes the following interesting statement about Bucke who
first used the term Cosmic Consciousness:. "What Bucke
describes as cosmic consciousness is, in my opinion,
precisely the experience which is called Satori in Zen
Buddhism" [p. 134].
Perhaps this last sentence in a footnote has more
meaning than Fromm saw in it. Perhaps also here can be a
bridge between the thought of the East and West. In any
case it is clear that Fromm sees a direction in conscious
ness toward the healing of the existential subject-object
split in the general ideas of Zen Buddhism. Since Fromm
referred to the thought of Bucke, it would be appropriate
to consider his ideas next.
102
■Bucke
In considering the evolution of consciousness, no
study would be complete without a consideration of a
well-known work in this field. This is a book entitled,
Cosmic Consciousness by Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke. This
book was originally published in 1901; by 1956 it had gone
through eighteen editions and is still selling many copies.
There are few books which have such a successful impact
and sale for a period of sixty years. Dr. Bucke was a
Canadian psychiatrist and professor of mental and nervous
diseases. His book had an influence on William James
and it has been a classic in its field of the psychology
of the mystical experience. Basically, Bucke maintains
that there has been an evolution of consciousness. The
first level was the simple consciousness of the animal.
Then came the self-conscious reality of man's being. He is
very similar to Teilhard's ideas on this point. His most
important contribution, however, is his description of what
he calls "cosmic consciousness." In the last half of the
book he narrates a series of such experiences as they were
recorded by famous religious and artistic leaders of
mankind.
He believes that present self-consciousness can
be transcended by this cosmic consciousness. The
description of cosmic consciousness is very similar to
the peak experiences described by Maslow. The similarity
of these descriptions arrived at by many different people
at many different times certainly indicates that
103
'there is some reality which cannot be easily dismissed.
One of Bucke's (1901) best descriptive paragraphs of
cosmic consciousness reads as follows:
Simultaneously or instantly following the
above sense and emotional experience there comes
to the person an intellectual illumination
quite impossible to describe. Like a flash
there is presented to his consciousness a clear
conception (a vision) in outline of the meaning
and drift of the universe. He does not come
to believe merely; but he sees and knows that
the cosmos, which to the self conscious mind
seems made up of dead matter, is in fact otherwise—
it is in very truth a living presence. He sees
that instead of men being, as it were, patches of
life scattered through an infinite sea of non-living
substance, they are in reality specks of relative
death in an infinite ocean of life. He sees that
the life which is in man is eternal, as all life
is eternal; that the soul of man is as immortal
as God is; that the universe is so built and ordered
that without any preadventure all things work
together for the good of each and all; that the
foundation principle of the world is what we
call love, and that the happiness of every
individual is in the long run absolutely certain.
The person who passes through this experience
will learn in the few minutes, or even moments,
of its continuance more than in months or years
of study, and he will learn much that no study
ever taught or can teach. Especially does he
obtain such a conception of the whole, or at
least of an immense whole, as dwarfs all
conception, imagination or speculation, springing
from and belonging to ordinary self consciousness
such a conception as makes the old attempts to
mentally grasp the universe and is meaning petty
and even ridiculous [p. 73].
Along with the above description of the intellec-. .
tual illumination, there is a sense of immortality and the
absence of the fear of death. These same characteristics
were noted by Maslow's descriptions. Bucke also says the
sense of sin diminishes with this experience. The coming
104
of cosmic consciousness is usually instantaneous and it
lasts for only a short time.
The descriptions of Bucke of this cosmic sense
are perhaps classic in the field. The second half of his
book is a series of individuals', who have had the
experience of cosmic consciousness among whom he lists
Buddha and Jesus Christ. Some of his examples of cosmic
consciousness may not be able to withstand a critical
examination; however, it seems evident that Bucke has
well described a phenomena of human consciousness which
is a reality that cannot be easily dismissed.
A more modern author who also writes about this
same phenomena is Alan Watts.
Watts
Alan W. Watts in a book published in 1958 also
describes this type of consciousness. Watts is familiar
with Bucke1s work and adds several accounts by modern
writers of a similar experience. Watts (1960) describes
cosmic consciousness as follows:
Cosmic consciousness is a release from
self-consciousness, that is to say from the
fixed belief and feeling that one's organism
is an absolute and separate thing as distinct
from a convenient unit of perception. For
if it becomes clear that our use of the lines
and surfaces of nature to divide the world into
units is only a matter of convenience, then all
that I have called myself is actually inseparable
from everything. This is exactly what one
experiences in these extraordinary moments. It is
105
not that the outlines and shapes which we
call things and use to delineate things
disappear into some sort of luminous void.
It simply becomes obvious that though they
may be used as divisions they do not really
divide. However much I may be impressed by
the difference between a star and the dark
space around it, I must not forget that I
can see the two only in relation to each
other, and that this relation is inseparable
[p. 35].
Watts also observes that there is a sense of feel
ing 'that all is right with the world. The whole universe
is seen as a manifestation of love ranging from the animal
to divine charity.
This phenomena of cosmic consciousness is too
evident a factor in the writings of outstanding men to be
ignored in any study of the nature of consciousness.
Watts himself attempts to give an explanation of this::
phenomena. He says that no energy system can be completely
self-controlling without at the same time ceasing to
move. Total control would be complete restraint and would
curb any motion entirely. Put into human terms, total
restraint would be,equivalent to total ;doubt.
On the other hand movement and release are the
equivalent of faith. According to Watts, one must see .his
life in terms of the uncontrolled and ungraspable back
ground world which is ultimately what man,himself is.
This explanation by Watts is really a further
elaboration of the phenomena rather than a description.
106
Teilhard and Cosmic Consciousness
It would be appropriate to present some explanation
of the phenomena of cosmic consciousness in the
terminology of Teilhard. The great sense of unity that is
exhibited in cosmic consciousness was well known to
Teilhard. He defined mysticism as follows:
In itself, the mystical emotion is a
sense of, and a presentiment of, the total and
final unity of the world beyond its present,
sensibly experienced, multiplicity: a cosmic
sense of oneness [Quoted in Rideau, 1965, p. 492].
There is a great deal of similarity between the
thinking of Bucke and Teilhard. Both see an evolution
from the simple consciousness of the animal to the self-
consciousness of man. Bucke postulates a further
evolution from the plane of self-consciousness to that of
a cosmic consciousness. Teilhard does not explicitly
mention such a further evolution. However,.his system is
adaptable to incorporating within it such a further
evolution. Teilhard demonstrated that consciousness
results from an increased unified complexity. Eventually
the unified complexity become so great and intense that a
threshold is crossed and self-consciousness results.
However, the self-conscious entity which is called man
does not cease to grow. Man forms a higher complexity
within himself. Every sensation, every book read, every
idea thought, every human experience endured; all these
become the raw material in the formulation of a greater
107
complexity which is unified around the ego. With the
passage of time in the life of a sensitive and intelligent
person, it happens that a great unified complexity is
created. In Teilhard's system whenever a complexity be
comes very great, a threshold is crossed and a new reality
results. It certainly seems reasonable to explain cosmic
consciousness as the crossing of a threshold resulting
from the formation of a greater unified complexity around
the ego. When this threshold is crossed the center of
unity of the unified complexity takes place on a level
that is above and beyond that of our everyday ego. Such a
theory would explain why the sense of cosmic consciousness
seems to carry with it a diminution of the ego.
Also, according to Bucke, cosmic consciousness is
never reached until the person is at least in his late
thirties. The people who have recorded these experiences
are usually of great intellectual ability. This can be
explained by the fact that many years of gathering sensa
tion and ideas would be necessary before a greater unified
complexity could result. Considerable intelligence
would be required in order to achieve the necessary unity.
Teilhard's principle of thresholds and unified
complexities thus provides a thought system which can
explain the higher forms of consciousness.
The authors considered'in this chapter: Maslow,
Fromm, Bucke, Watts, and Teilhard, have all spoken of
108
iexperiences which traditionally have been called mystical
experiences. It would be appropriate to give further
detailed study to this phenomena.
Mysticism
When the mystical experience is examined certain
things can be seen about it. They are as follows:
1. The mystical experience is characterized by a
unifying vision. In other words it is the concept of
unity that is the most dominant characteristic of the
mystical experience. In the mystical experience, somehow
all things are one and share a single life. There is an
experience of an individual self that merges into a
universal self, or an absolute, or God, or some other
unifying form. The mystical experience, therefore,
typically involves an intense and joyous realization of
oneness with some divine, incomprehensible, all-embracing
form of being.
2. It can also be said that the mystical experi
ence has a variety of sources or associations. For
example, it can quite frequently be associated with reli-
gion. It can be the result of a long arduous religious
discipline or aesthetic path. But also the mystical
experience can be spontaneous and independent of any
particular religious belief. It can be experienced by
people who have no particular religious belief or
109
background. It is here especially that it must be
emphasized that Maslow1s peak experience somewhat comes
under this no religion category insofar as it is presented
as being independent of any particular religious idea. It
is possible also that the mystical experience can result
from the use of drugs or even from some forms of mental
illnesses. The significant thing is that mystical experi
ence can be from a variety of sources.
3. There can be several distinct kinds of
mystical experience. The first is what is called the--
extroverted type and the other is the introvertive or
inward looking type of mystical experience. In the first
type, that is the extroverted, the subject looks upon
the multiplicity of objects and sees that they are
transfigured in some way into a unity. Their distinc
tiveness and their separations are to some extent
obliterated. This is quite frequently what happens in so
called nature mysticism where a profound unity is seen
within nature. In other words, in the extroverted type of
mysticism the main concern is with the objects of the
world which lose their distinctiveness and somehow are
seen in some great particular unity. In the second kind
of mysticism, the introverted, there is a situation
whereby the person becomes progressively less aware of
himself as a separate individual and he speaks as being
merged in or identified with or dissolved into the "one"
110
or "the great unity. 1 1 In other-words, the subject-object
split that has been considered in this study is in some way
obliterated or it vanishes altogether.
4. The mystical experience can also be subject to
a variety of interpretations. Quite frequently the mysti
cal experience has taken place in the context of some
particular religion., such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism,
or one of the other religions in the world. If this
happens, the person usually interprets and expresses his
experience in terms of his particular religion. However,
mysticism does not need to be expressed necessarily in any
kind of a religious way. For example, it can also be
equally interpreted in an pantheistic way as it has often
been done. Especially it should be observed that in many
forms of Eastern mysticism, the mystical experiences are
interpreted in a non-theistic way. For example, in the
Upanishads and in Buddhism there is a different
interpretation than is had in Christian, Jewish or Islamic
forms of mysticism which are theistic. Another interesting
fact in reference to mysticism is that it often states
contradictory things. It sometimes affirms that the
world is identical with God or that the world is not
identical with God. Some forms of mysticism use both
the languages of pantheism and theism. For example,
in the writings of Meister Eckhart there are examples of
both pantheism and theism. There can be found similar
111
examples in other mystical writings. Consequently, it
seems that the mystical experience is independent of any
particular religious system.
Maslow's peak experience obviously resembles in
many ways the descriptions of the mystical experience.
Consequently, Maslow refers to the idea of unity. He also
very clearly refers to both the extroverted and introverted
kind of mysticism. He frequently mentions seeing things in
a great unity and especially he talks about the elimination
of the distinction between self and the world which is
one of the characteristics of the introverted mysticism.
It can be concluded, therefore, that Maslow in many ways
is describing in the peak experience a miniature or a
minor kind of mystical experience.
The interesting thing about Maslow's description
of the mystical experience is that in his case it is
entirely separated from any kind of religious belief.
Maslow's peak experience, therefore, appears to be a
secular kind or a miniature form of mystical experience.
The peak experience seems to lack the tremendous impact
that some of the mystical experiences have which are
associated with religion. However, Maslow does associate
the experience with self-fulfillment or self-actualization.
The most significant thing of Maslow's description of the
peak experience is that he associates this with self-
actualization rather than with any particular kind of
112
religious belief.
The great significance of Maslow and his thought
in reference to consciousness is that he gives us some
insight into the direction toward which consciousness is
moving. In the consideration of Teilhard de Chardin
the history of consciousness and where it has come from
was discussed. In Tillich there was presented an analysis
of consciousness as it is now in its existential split
between subject and object. In Maslow, however, some
new aspects of consciousness may be seen. Instead of
seeing the average, everyday consciousness one is led to
a higher form of consciousness, something new and something
different. Maslow explains this consciousness in terms
of the peak experience in which there is seen this
wonderful sense of unity and the gradual elimination of the
separation between subject and object. Furthermore, it
can be shown that the peak experience that Maslow talks
about is not something totally new to Maslow, but rather
this has been considered in religious and mystical
literature for centuries. Maslow, however, seems to be
discovering a kind of consciousness that really exists. It
is significant that he shows that this consciousness is
independent of any kind of religious belief or dogmatic
system. His emphasis upon the peak experience is not any
attempt for a union with the Divine or for an attainment
of bliss with the Diety. It is rather simply a
113
description of a higher form of consciousness that leads
to self-fulfillment and self-actualization. It is some
what a secularization of the mystical experience. The
important fact that must be remembered, however, is that
our present consciousness is not static in its present
form; on the contrary it is dynamic. It can change, it
can be modified, and it can move toward a goal.
114
CHAPTER VI
: PHILOSOPHICAL SYNTHESES
Toward a Philosophy of Consciousness
It would be appropriate to synthesize and to
summarize the material which has been thus far presented.
This study started out with the question of the meaning
of existence which is felt particularly by a client as he
approaches the counselor or in a broader perspective by
any student in an educational system. This question of
meaning is vital, important, and basic.
In order to determine what meaning is and to some
how solve the question of meaning itself, it is necessary
to consider when a person has a sense of meaning.
Fundamentally, a person has this sense of meaning when
he sees himself as a part of a greater whole. Any
particular thing has a meaning only in a referential
system. For example, a hammer in itself is isolated and
has no meaning. However, if it is seen in the context of
a hand and an arm which moves it and the nail which it hits
in order to build the home, then it can be seen to be a
meaningful thing. In its context, it then becomes an
instrument by which a person can construct and make his
115
home. Seen in this context, it then has meaning. A
typewriter would have no meaning to an Australian Bushman.
A typewriter only has meaning in a context where it can be
the instrument by which a person symbolically records his
thoughts on paper. In other words, something has meaning
insofar as it is in context and can be seen and understood
in this context.
A person has a sense of meaning in the same way,
that is, by seeing himself in some kind of a context.
This is the way that most people have a sense of meaning.
They see themselves as members of a family, as part of a
system, as belonging to a certain group, tribe, or nation.
The great religions that have come into the world are
essentially designed to give people a sense of meaning to
their existence by showing them that they are involved
in some kind of a context of meaning that is universal
and world-wide. Perhaps it is a scheme of salvation or
a sense of the history of the development of a people or
a church. However, neither the secular counselor nor an
educational system independent from a religious setting
can urge upon its recipient any sense of meaning that
requires of them the acceptance of any particular religious
system. Very often too, a certain person is no longer
able to derive meaning from a certain religious system.
116
Heidegger. In order to have a sense of meaning,
!a person must see himself as part of some universal
process. The starting point in this understanding of the
meaning of existence is the reality of his own
consciousness and the very fact that he himself asks the
question of the meaning of his existence. In Heidegger's
remarkable work, Being and Time (1962) , he indicates that
the person must have some insight into the nature of a
reality in order to ask a question about it. Heidegger
(1962) says,
Every inquiry is a seeking. Every
seeking gets guided beforehand by what is
sought. Inquiry is a cognizant seeking
for an entity, both with regard to the fact
that it is and with regard to its being as
it is [p. 24 J.
/
This quotation indicates that if man is able
to ask the question concerning the meaning of his
existence, he is guided beforehand by some intuitive
awareness as to what that meaning might be. It is also
significant to realize that only man can ask the question
of the meaning of his existence. Heidegger (1962) later
says, "Dasine (man) is an entity which does not just occur
among other entities. Rather it is ontically distinguished
by the fact that, in its very being, that being is an issue
for it" [p. 32], Thus it can be seen that the very fact
that man can ask the question of meaning is in itself
117
meaningful. Once a person realizes this, then he is
on the way to a calmer realization of the meaning of his
;existence. This is really the first step towards solving
the whole problem of meaning. This first step is to
demonstrate that it is meaningful to be able to ask the
question of meaning itself.
After a consideration of our conscious questioning
about meaning, the next step is to realize the contingency
of our own consciousness and of its questioning. A person
can and should be brought to the realization that his con
scious questioning which today exists at one time did not
exist. That is to say, consciousness has a very long his
tory. At one time upon the face of the earth, there were
no beings that asked questions of the meaning of existence.
At one time the earth was void and empty. The significance
of the thought of Teilhard de Chardin is that it shows and
demonstrates the history of consciousness. Teilhard
affirms that present consciousness is the* result of a long
evolutionary process and this process was somehow directed
and had as its goal the establishment of our present
consciousness. Thus, another step in seeing oneself as
part of something is to look back at the history of
our consciousness. This brings a person to the
second meaningful realization which is the fact that
it is a remarkable thing that a person is here today
as a conscious being, questioning his own being.
118
This in itself is a wonderful thing. This can be only
because millions of years of evolution have taken place.
The fact that a person is alive today in this century
asking the question of the meaning of being is possible
only because millions of years of evolution that have
gone before. Thousands of attempts by nature have taken
place to produce self-reflective consciousness. Teilhard
has illustrated these attempts to produce a brain and
nervous system. As Teilhard points out, some of these
attempts have failed and others have been dead-ended.
However, some of these attempts have succeeded and have
produced this self-reflecting group of individuals who
today can philosophize and reflect upon the meaning of
themselves, of their being, of their consciousness, and
of their own questioning.
Tillich and self-isolation. The thought of Paul
Tillich is essentially introduced to give a clearer, more
vivid description of the present situation of conscious
ness. He especially brings out the split in consciousness
between the self and world or subject and object. This
split can be of considerable significance because in over
coming this split there can result a great benefit to the
person involved. The split in consciousness is intensified
by the series of rejections which a person is sometimes
forced to endure. Rejections intensify a person's
119
isolation from things. Sometimes these rejections come
from the world when the crops that are planted fail because
no rain falls or the house that has been built for
shelter is destroyed.by an* earthquake. In these
instances a person feels isolated and rejected by the world
of which he is a part.
Most importantly, however, a person feels rejected
and is intensified in his isolation by the rejection of
others. The series of rejections that a person
experiences in his own life intensifies the existential
split between subject and object. The person feels him
self not a part of anything, but rather intensely iso
lated. A child for example, may be rejected by his
parents. Perhaps there was a divorce in the family in
which the child deeply experienced the loss of one parent
and interpreted this departure of the one parent as
rejection by that parent. This rejection can cause a
lifetime trauma for the person involved as therapy
frequently brings out. Often a person can feel rejected
in school when a teacher gives him;low marks and singles
him out as being a "poor student." A person goes through
a series of rejections in his life of dating and
association with the opposite sex. A rejection may be even
more serious if it occurs after a marriage. That is why
a divorce is frequently a very traumatic experience in a
person's life. A person may again be rejected by the job
120
market which does not provide him an opportunity to
exercise his talents and abilities because of the
peculiarities of a harsh economic system. Thus these
series of rejections that a person can go through can
result in an intense feeling of isolation. Instead of
feeling a part of things, the person feels more intensely
isolated and separated from everything.
Tillich provides a partial answer to this problem
with his idea of self-affirmation. To contrast the
■ rejections which a person experiences he must affirm
himself in spite of everything. This self-affirmation
appears also in Frankl where in the midst of his
concentration camp and at the very height of the most
difficult of circumstances, he can still affirm the
reality of his own existence.
After consideration of Tillich then this study
looked to Maslow for a direction in which consciousness is
moving. This direction largely consists in evolving from
the existential split toward a greater degree of inte
gration. Maslow especially points out the significance
of this integrating experience in what he calls the peak
experience. An analysis revealed that this peak
experience is in many ways a minor, non-religious mystical
experience as it has been known in the history of
literature. As a person has these peak experiences, he
; begins to see himself more as part of a unified whole.
, In this sense the existential split is overcome. In the
peak experience, as Maslow brings out, the person sees
himself as a part of a greater whole.
The final element in the solution to the problem of
meaning is this insight a person has in seeing himself
as part of a cosmic process. As he exists here today he
sees that he has a history in a vast process of evolution
that has brought him to his present condition in which he
is asking the question of meaning and in which he finds
a split between subject and object. From this condition,
he then realizes that there is a direction in which he
can move and in which he can see himself more and more
as part of a great universal cosmic process. This is then
as much of an answer as can probably be given in our
generation to the question of the meaning of existence.
Somehow a person is a part of a great universal cosmic
reality. There is something that has happened and is
happening in history and that thing is the evolution of
consciousness from primordial matter to self-consciousness
and to a final more intense realization of the unity of
individual consciousnesses with a greater whole or a
greater reality.
In summary it can be said that there are three
elements in the question of meaning. First is that the
very fact of asking the question of meaning is in itself
122
meaningful. The second is the fact that this questioning
of meaning is the result of millions of years of the
evolution of consciousness that has brought a person to
the present state in which this question can be asked.
Thirdly, as this question is asked, it is realized that
its answer is in the fact that a person is part of a great
cosmic process which is taking place.
This cosmic process can basically be explained by
an evolution of consciousness from a primordial situation
in which there is great diversity. As evolution proceeds
there is a greater unified complexity which finally
results in the self-consciousness of man. Man in his self-
conscious reality finds himself then in a transitory state
in which he sees himself as separated from the world
which is the object of his consciousness. In this state
he can find himself more intensely estranged through
rejection and can heal the wounds somewhat by a self-
affirmation which has a reference to being itself.
Through further self-development and self-actualization his
consciousness will more and more recede from a condition
of an intense awareness of self to a gradual awareness of
himself as being part of a greater whole which is seen in
Maslow1s peak experiences. This philosophical summary can
be viewed in reference to Hegelian idealism.
Hegel. This great cosmic process which is going on
can be explained in other philosophical terms. In the
last century Hegel explained it in the terminology of his
own philosophy. Hegel also saw a great cosmic process
in which all reality developed from \ the idea. The idea
was considered independently of all other reality. This
was the idea as it was in itself or as he called it, the
logical idea. Through a dialectical process the idea
then stepped outside of itself in nature. This would be
what is generally known as the physical world and
is the object of our consciousness. In the third phase of
the dialectic the idea became spirit. This was the idea
in and for itself. In this third phase the idea gradually
came to recognize itself, particularly through human
consciousness. Therefore human consciousness was really
the idea recognizing itself as it proceeded from its
estranged state in nature to its more perfect state of the
logical idea in itself. Stace (1955) in his work on Hegel
describes this situation when he says as follows: "The
absolute comes to itself in man, but only by means of a
long arduous dialectical development" [p. 321]. Stace
(1955) also says the following,
'The pure idea had in nature gone over__
into its opposite. It has become estranged
from itself, become the mindless, the idealess.
In spirit it returns into itself, enriched from
its own opposition. The idea was in nature
imprisoned in the mindless. In spirit it frees
itself from the bondage, comes to exist as free
spirit [p. 322]„
124
Thus, according to the philosophy of Hegel, man's
consciousness was that instrument by which the idea which
was totally estranged from itself in nature would gradually
come to see and recognize itself in spirit.
The history of Hegelian thought and its subsequent
development in German idealism and in the transcendental
movement in the United States is well-known. Modern
philosophy has for the most part rejected the absolute
idealism of Hegel as being a logical explanation of -
reality. However, it can give us some insights into the
problem of meaning and can constitute some basis for
further theory of development.
Deikman. Another interesting and modern account of
consciousness and its nature is given in a paper entitled
"The Meaning of Everything" by Arthur J. Deikman which is
found in a recent book compiled by Robert E. Ornstein
entitled The Nature of Human Consciousness (1973) . It is
the .intention of Deikman in this article to answer the
question as to what is the nature of consciousness in
itself as distinct from any of its contents. Arthur .
Deikman first of all starts out by describing the bio
system which he regards as a system of organizations. In
his description of the bio-system there is a very clear
relationship with the thought ..of Teilhard ,de. Chardin. In
each level of the biological system, there is a continual
r
125
increase of complexity; in other words, things are
organized in a constantly increasing degree of complexity.
The author then goes on to define human consciousness as
the organization of the bio-system; that is, consciousness
is the "complimentary" aspect of that organization, its
psychological equipment. In other words, things are
organized, but this organization has a complement to it
and this complement is awareness. He contends that every
organized biological reality has both an aspect that is
mental and physical. Both the mental and physical are
complementary aspects of the biological system. For
example, a human person in his physical sense is organized
by reason of a complexity of atoms, molecules, muscles,
bones, nerves and skin. The complementary aspect of this
organization we call life. And on the other side, the
psychological side, a person has ideas, affections and
sensations. The complementary aspect of the organization
of these things he regards as awareness.
Deikman is very similar to Teilhard in his ideas
about matter. He ; believes that matter is far from being
inert. He claims that matter is intrinsically active in
the direction of increasing organization. By this he
means that progressive organization is a basic character
istic of matter-like mass. This trend toward increasing
organization is what has become known as evolution.
Deikman believes that this idea was found in ancient texts
126
such as in the ancient Vendanta and various Buddhist
texts and he then mentions some modern authors among
them the name of Teilhard de Chardin.
Deikman also takes into consideration the higher
forms of consciousness which have been discussed in
connection with Maslow and mystical consciousness. For
example, he says, "Mystics have stated that through man
kind God is able to know himself" [p. 32 3]. Deikman
regards the self as a particular field of organization for
the individual. The self is based upon sensory perception,
language, and the space-time of the world in which we
exist. He has previously defined consciousness as the
organization of the system. Later he says that the
organizing force itself that is active in our own local
region is what we experience as the "I" or the "I want" in
the case of willing.
The following quotation gives a brief summary of
the philosophical description that Deikman (1973) gives of
consciousness.
Organizing activity takes place continuously
throughout the universe because it is a basic
characteristic of mass-energy. Each person is
a manifestation of that same activity, as if he
were an eddy in a river. The organization of
the entire system is awareness. We confuse our
local mind-functions with the general awareness
and believe we are separate selves. To the
extent that we separate ourselves conceptionally
from other people, perform an action that actually
delimits our awareness by forming a bio-system
barrier that interferes with the experience of
oneness. Caught in the illusion of separateness,
127
we engage in actions that bring suffering to
ourselves and to others. In those cases in which,
by means of an arduous discipline, a powerful drug,
or an extreme life crises, the delimiting barriers
are temporarily dissolved, the individual awareness
becomes the general awareness. These events of
barrier disillusion constitute the phenomena of
mystical experience, provide the basis for religious
metaphysics, and introduce into our lives the
reality of the trans-personal [p. 325-26].
This article by Deikman has been considered at
length because it represents an excellent contemporary
summation of all that has been considered so far. In his
theory a great deal of what has been said by Teilhard
de Chardin, Paul Tillich and Abraham Maslow, can be
integrated and synthesized.
Poetry and Consciousness
When it is further asked as to what the consequence
of all this thought is for education, a clue can be
taken from Maslow who constantly describes the peak
experience with the use of the word poetry. The peak ex-'
• i
perience was poetic--and mystical. In one place in his works
he said that "poetry is the record of the best and happiest
moments of the happiest and best minds." This appeared as
a quotation from Shelley in Maslow*s description of the
peak experience.
The modern public tax-supported school cannot
teach much in the line of mysticism and peak experiences.
Nor can the modern secular school teach religion as a means
of fostering a person's educational development. However,
the modern school can teach poetry. Poetry has been a
128
traditional subject that has been taught on every level of
schooling, from the grade school to the high school and on
into the universities. It constitutes a very definite
part of the intellectual heritage of the world. Poetry
by its very nature seems to promote and develop what
we may call the mystical or poetic consciousness. It does
so primarily because it is a great unified synthesis. The
task which poetry accomplishes is to take an idea which is
abstract and as such dull and uninteresting and to express
this idea in more concrete sensual terms that make it more
interesting and exciting. Poetry takes an image which can
be visualized within the imagination and unifies this
image with a more abstract idea which it wishes to express.
In Teilhardian terms, poetry increases mystical
consciousness because there exists in poetry a greater
unified complexity. It fosters the development of a
higher consciousness. Through poetry a person is more
disposed toward the peak experience. As a matter of fact
a real appreciation of poetry is in itself a peak
experience.
Poetry enhances consciousness insofar as poetry
duplicates the structure of consciousness itself. From
the thought of Teilhard it has been seen that consciousness
is the result of a unified complexity. A poem is also a
great unified complexity insofar as it unites a multitude
of sensate images with some kind of abstract idea. The
129
power of poetry to enrich the personality and to achieve
some kind of union with being has been .recognized by many
thinkers. Hegel and Heidegger are two which can be
mentioned.
Hegel on poetry. Hegel pointed out that poetry is
never merely an abstract universal because it is always
steeped in individuality, and clothed in sensuous
imagery. The other arts are limited with regard to the
content which they can express. Poetry is less limited and
is able to express more of the dimensions of the hum^n
spirit. It is, "in this sense, a universal - art. In Hegel's
system, poetry holds the abstract in some kind of a
senuous vital unity. Poetry is one of the divisions of
absolute spirit. The characteristics of absolute spirit
are very important in this particular study. Absolute
spirit is really the unity of the subjective spirit and the
objective. Roughly it can be said that the subjective
spirit is man's psychological life and his consciousness.
The objective spirit can be roughly characterized as the
state with its laws and institutions. In the absolute
spirit, there is a unity of subjectivity and objectivity.
This is an important and significant point because this
study has shown that in the peak experience of Maslow
there is a unity of subject and object. The person in the
peak experience does not feel the subject-object division
130
which Tillich pointed out to be the existential split.
Absolute spirit, according to Hegel in someway overcomes
this split between subject and object. The absolute spirit
is within human consciousness but in it the distinction
between subject and object is annihilated. Both are „ ■
embraced in unity. They are in a sense identical.
According to the Hegelian systems, spirit has therefore as
its object nothing other than spirit itself. Absolute
spirit therefore, according to the Hegelian system,, as
Stace (1955) points out, is the spirit's contemplation of
itself (p. 440). In absolute spirit this entire
opposition between subject and object is completely
overcome. At this stage the mind realizes that any
object which is opposed to it is really only itself. In
this stage the absolute spirit realizes that whatever is
opposed to it as the object; for example the sun, the moon
and the stars and the entire physical and non-physical
universe is nothing other than the spirit itself. Absolute
spirit is that final phase in which the spirit knows that
when it contemplates itself it contemplates the Absolute.
It can also be said that since the absolute spirit exists
only in subjective human consciousness it may be said that
the absolute spirit is the knowledge, by ;human .'beings of
the Absolute. This knowledge in turn is divided into
three stages of art, religion, and philosophy. In his
discussion of the arts Hegel discusses all of the arts
'but indicates that poetry is the greatest and the most
■perfect of all the arts. It is, however, superseded by
religion and by philosophy.
It is evident from the history of American
education that tax supported institutions cannot teach
religion. Courses on philosophy are generally confined to
; A
higher education. This means that poetry remains as the
best discipline for applying the findings of this study to
the largest part of the educational system. Poetry can be
taught on any level of education from grade school through
university and, unlike religion and philosophy, it is
generally free from controversy. Communities of different
intellectual persuasions will accept poetry in the educa
tional system but they would find objection to many
philosophical systems or anything that might touch upon
religious convictions.
Heidegger on poetry. Heidegger also sees an
important role for poetry in the recovery of being. It is
Heidegger's belief that at the very beginning of western
philosophy with the early Greeks, especially with
Parmenides, there was a unity between being and thought.
With the passage of time, however, somewhere between
Parmenides and Aristotle there occurred a splitting of
these two elements. According to Heidegger, the real
nature of truth is that it is the "unconcealment" of being.
By the time of Aristotle, truth became a correspondence
132
!between a certain proposition with the so-called facts.
i
Man became a rational animal that had logos. In other
words, in the development of Greek philosophy there came
within it the subject-object split which has been men
tioned. Poetry is one of the great devices that was used
to call man back to being. Heidegger said that the poet
names the Holy and that the poet speaks being. In his
essay "Wood Pass," Heidegger says that it is the poet who
brings back the trace of the vanished gods into the
vanished night. He said the poet is a half-god because he
dwells in a particular area that lies in between ordinary
humanity and divinity and has a privileged access to the
holy. Richardson (196 3, p. 44 8) points out that there is
a definite affinity between being and the poet in that the
poet is in between Being in general and individual beings.
In some way Being-in-general conceals itself as it mani
fests itself in the various beings which exists in man's
world. Being is therefore both a concealing and revealing
and it is here that Heidegger places the very mystery of
Being itself. It is the poet's task to bring Being into
words. This is possible because from the very beginning,
the poet somehow, in contrast to other people, has a com
prehension of Being. The poet has an intuition into what
Heidegger calls the ontological difference. This ontologi
cal difference is the distinction between concrete, every
day ordinary beings which we see and Being in general.
Since the poet has the comprehension of Being in general
and places this comprehension into words, he brings to
133
light the great Being-in-general dimension of those beings
which he writes about. It is in this way Heidegger
believes that the poet articulates the holy.
Thus in summary, poetry represents the best device
by which a secular educational process can enhance and
develop the person in the highest forms of his conscious
ness. It is the means by which a person can be led to this
mysterious and elusive thing that is called Being-itself
by Heidegger or the Absolute by Hegel. In poetry, perhaps
we might say, there is summarized the insights of
Teilhard, Tillich, Maslow, Hegel, and Heidegger. With
such a unity of great thinkers it would seem that the
educational process would do well to increase both the
extent and the intensity of the teaching of poetry on
all levels of the educational system.
Obstacles to the development of the poetic
consciousness. There are many obstacles toward teaching
poetry in the educational system today. The first is that
of our general scientific mentality. Science dominates the
educational system in both the free Western World of the
United States and Europe as well as the Communistic Western
World of Russia and China. Science is important because
it puts men on the moon, food on our tables and
automobiles in our garages. It is practical, it is con
crete, it is down to earth. It helps provide us with our
134
clothing, food, recreation, and shelter.
In addition to the importance of science, education
today is dominated by the harsh realities of the economic
system. A student must graduate from an ) educational
institution and go into the job market. A job means
everything to a person in that it provides the basic needs^)
of life. Jobs are usually given only for a practical
task. Accountants and computer programmers are in great
need because they perform useful tasks in the economic
world. Graduates in science and in other practical fields
can easily obtain good paying jobs. It is well known, as
any placement office can certify, that the graduates in the
liberal arts are most difficult to place. In such an
atmosphere the study of poetry will hardly find much
acceptance.
In addition to science and the economic
situation, the present time is characterized by a philos
ophy which is dominated by logical positivism. This
philosophy is so concerned about the nature of truth and
with epistomological problems that it scarcely is
going to admit the validity of any form of thought
which speaks about being, mysticism or the like. As a
matter of fact, logical positivism uses the very word
poetry to indicate a statement which is not telling us
anything. The linguistic analyst and the logical
positivist carefully analyze every statement for its truth
135
value and its truth content. In so doing they perform a
very useful service protecting the human race from all
kinds of outrageous and stupid superstitions. However, at
the same time, they are closing off a very important
dimension of the human mind which has been discussed in
this study. When a statement is made which does not yield
any definite truth value as far as the logical positivists
are concerned, such a statement is called an emotive
utterance or a poetic statement. It follows, therefore,
that the student certainly picks up the idea that poetry
certainly does not express anything of value at all except
perhaps those so called inferior emotions. These
emotions may have their value in a certain limited aspect
of life. However, as far as being important for truth
values, the poetic-emotion statement is discounted.
Due to science, the economy, and a great deal of
modern philosophy, the intuitive along with the mystical
side of the human mind hardly gets a chance to develop in
the present educational system. The things which Teilhard
de Chardin, Paul Tillich, and Abraham Maslow talk about are
not stressed or regarded important. All is not without
hope however. Increasingly young people today are
beginning to see that science is not everything. They are
beginning to see that it has not solved all our problems.
Just as it yields great prosperity, so also it has
brought us the hydrogen bomb, pollution, and nuclear
136
missies. In today's world increasingly, people are
discontent with their day to day very practical jobs and
are looking elsewhere for something more deep and more
profound. The advent of existentialism in our times as
it arose in France and Germany indicate that not all
philosophical thought is dominated by linguistic analysts
and logical positivism. All of these factors and forces
indicate that there is hope. The human spirit, even
though it is battered down in our present age will continue
to emerge as it has in the past. The evolution of
consciousness is a process that continues to go forward.
To be a part of that which is emerging in history is a joy
and a foundation of a meaningful existence.
137
CHAPTER VII
FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Findings
The principal findings of this study can be
summarized in terms of the questions and hypotheses pre
sented at the beginning of Chapter I.
The first question asked was whether it was pos
sible to discern a pattern from data available which can
be a basis for a sense of meaning. The answer to this
question is in the affirmative. This pattern consists of
a directed evolution to human consciousness by an increas
ing degree of complexity culminating in human self-
consciousness. The ideas of Teilhard de Chardin and the
philosophical synthesis of Arthur J. Deikman were
principally concerned with this pattern in the cosmos.
The second question asked whether this pattern can
be discerned without reference to a religious system.
Again an affirmative answer is given to this question
because the entire dissertation was based on the thought
of authors who relied upon scientific data and their own
reasoning without reference to truths derived from r' .
138
religious sources.
The third question asked whether a secular
educational system can contribute to a sense of meaning.
The answer is again affirmative because this dissertation
has shown that the study of poetry can contribute to a
sense of oneness with the cosmos. This intuition can be
the basis for a sense of meaning.
There were also six hypothesis presented which
can be summarized in terms of the findings of the study.
The entire study was directed to presenting evidence which
would demonstrate the truth of the six hypotheses. The
hypotheses which were evaluated were:
1. The existential neurosis is a very real
psychological problem and is recognized as such by well-
known authors in the field of psychology and counseling,
namely Coleman, Bugental, Tillich, and Frankl.
2. The evolution of human self-consciousness can
be a foundation of meaning. The writings of Teilhard de
Chardin are optimistic in presenting a purposeful evolution
in the cosmos toward man and his self-awareness.
3. The writings of Tillich, Maslow, and Fromm
are especially significant in presenting patterns of
evolution from self-consciousness characterized by the
subject-object split to a state of consciousness tran
scending this split.
4. A person can achieve a sense of meaning by
139
seeing himself in a context of relations of past, present,
and future. The past consisted in the progress of
consciousness from animal consciousness to human self-
consciousness as explained by Teilhard de Chardin. The
present condition of consciousness was illustrated in the
writings of both Teilhard and Tillich. The future
direction of consciousness toward overcoming the subject-
object split was considered in reference to the works of
Maslow, Fromm, and some writers in the field of mysticism.
5. This hypothesis postulated a relationship
between the findings of the dissertation and counseling.
This relationship will be considered in detail in the next
section.
6. The last hypothesis affirmed a relationship
between poetry and the ideas in this study. This
relationship was shown at the end of the last chapter. A
further consideration of the relationship between education
and this study will be considered in detail in the final
section of this chapter.
Conclusions and Significance
for Counseling
When the counselor encounters the client, his
technique is guided by his theory of counseling. For this
reason the study of theories of counseling occupies an
important part in the preparation of the counselor. This
140
study has its principal meaning for counseling in this
area of theories of counseling. All counseling ultimately
depends on the nature of man. There are many fundamental
questions in counseling theory such as "What is man"
and "What is the ultimate nature of anxiety and meaning
lessness?" The answer to these questions will play an
important role in the relationship between counselor
and client. This study can be helpful to the counselor
in four important areas.
First, this study can assist the counselor to
understand the nature of existential neurosis and the
issues involved in it. The writers who were classified
as secularists have explicated in philosophical terms
that feeling of meaninglessness which is frequently :
experienced by a client. These thinkers have experienced
fully the nature of meaninglessness and have reacted to
it by accepting this condition and trying to make the
best of it. This study has attempted to negate the
fatalism of these secularists by affirming a meaning
situation in life which is independent of any religious
system. An understanding of the ideas in this study
can be of assistance to the counselor in gaining insights
into a client's feeling of meaninglessness and guiding
him to perceiving some kind of meaning to his life.
This study can be of assistance to the counselor
141
!in exploring the meaning situation in which a client was
raised. A person's meaning situation in life has
usually been derived from the religion in which he
was educated. The general philosophical positions a
person implicitly holds can usually be traced back to
the initial religious training he has received, since
most religious systems are interwoven with certain
philosophical points of view. As a person matures in
his intellectual development the early childhood
synthesis of meaning sometimes begins' to break down and
the person consequently begins to experience a feeling
of meaninglessness.
This same experience of meaninglessness can
have its origin in the breakdown of deep interpersonal
relationships by reason of death or a divorce. The
experience of rejection in reference to love or even the
inability to find fulfilling employment frequently
can precipitate the existential neurosis. The talking
out of rejections and failures by the client may prove
to be a beneficial counseling technique. The counselor
can be of great assistance by encouraging the client to
explore his feelings at the time of his rejections.
Often there is a feeling of rejection in early life due
142
to the divorce or separation of parents. Such events
can have a profound effect on the later life of a client.
Second, this study can contribute to the
formulation of a definition of man which can be a basis
for the development of a counseling theory. The
consideration of Teilhard de Chardin can be helpful in
this regard insofar as Teilhard worked toward a definition
of man. He defined man as evolution that has become
conscious, of itself. This consideration of man's
continuity with the evolution of the cosmos can provide
valuable insights into the problems man experiences.
Freud's theories of man were influenced by his study of
Darwinian evolution. The directed evolutionary theories
of Teilhard de Chardin can be fruitful for the
development of the understanding of many problems
encountered in counseling. For example, Teilhard
associated anxiety with the advent of self-reflected
consciousness of man. Also, Teilhard's idea of love
as being the affinity of being for being can contribute
to an understanding of love and its presence or
absence.
Third, this study's consideration of Tillich
can also be helpful in developing counseling theories
143
because of Tillich's idea on the structures of
consciousness. The subject-object splits as discussed by
Tillich can give insight into man's present sense of
estrangement and alienation. Tillich's structures of
individuality-universality, dynamics-form, and freedom-
destiny, are fruitful resources of material for counseling
theory. Tillich also contributes to a theoretical explana
tion of anxiety by associating it with the finitude of
being. The counselor could also profit from Tillich's
notion of the roots of self-affirmation in the structure
of being as contained in his well-known work, The Courage
To Be.
The idea of resistance is an important aspect of
therapy and Tillich has much to say about overcoming
resistance. In existential psychotherapy, resistance is
the patient's refusal to admit freedom despite the fact
that in his past life he has used his freedom to make
fundamental choices. It is Tillich's belief that man
can give meaning to his life through his responsibility
for self-determination and self-definition. The
patient's resistance is his struggle against the awareness
that his;:life has no predetermined meaning and therefore
demands his personal definition. One of the major themes
therefore emphasized by Tillich and the existentialist
in general is man’s refusal to recognize his own freedom
144
‘and his own responsibility. Consequently, one of the tasks
of existential psychotherapy is to bring a person to full
realization of his responsibility for making the decisions
that are important concerning his life and happiness.
Tillich's main concern was arriving at an ontology
of man. His efforts to describe man have already resulted
in a profound effect on counseling theory. Bugental1s work
in counseling theory, discussed in the beginning of this
study, has been very much influenced by Tillich. This
study's treatment of Tillich's structures of consciousness
and self-affirmation can be of value to counseling theory
and practice.
Fourthly, this study can contribute to counseling
because it presented the ideas of Maslow in the self actu
alization of the healthy individual. The peak experience
can have a fruitful effect on the sense of meaning of life
which a person experiences. Maslow defines guilt as a
failure to live up to one's potential. In results from a
person's failure to exercise freedom in developing his full
potential. The study considered in detail Maslow's idea of
the peak experience and compared it with other writers in
the field of mystical experiences. Today many clients
in counseling are very interested in altered states of con
sciousness. Knowledge of writings in this field would be
helpful for the counselor in understanding his client's
inclinations in this regard. This understanding would help
145.
the counselor to contribute to the client's knowledge of
the operations of his own mind and perhaps assist the client
to achieve peak experiences without the self destruction of
drug usage. Problems of substance abuse are frequently
encountered by the counselor and a knowledge of Maslow1s
descriptions could make the counselor more aware of altered
states of consciousness. The descriptions of the sense of
unity in this study achieved by Maslow and other scholars
should be a source of hope to individuals that fulfillment
is possible by scholarly disciplined living rather than
modification of brain chemistry by harmful substances.
Conclusions and Recommendations for Education
The extensive field of education has many areas
which can be affected by the ideas presented in this study.
In the fields of biology and anthropology the idea
of the evolution of human consciousness should prove an
interesting concept which could be a motivation for further
research. The thought of Teilhard de Chardin raises ques
tions which should prove very profitable to those studying
the fields of biological evolution and the descent of- man
in the evolutionary history of this planet. Whether evolu
tion has a direction or not is a controverted question in
biology. The thought of Teilhard certainly affirms that it
has a definite direction in'the development of consciousness;
and his evidence for this hypothesis is impressive. This
146
I
evidence constitutes a fruitful field for further research
and analysis.
As mentioned in the last chapter, this study sees
a unique function of poetry in our excessively technological
society. If educators had a philosophy of poetry and under
stood its role as explicated in this study, then a revival
of poetry in our educational system could possibly take
place. There could be much fruitful research here in deter
mining just what poetry accomplishes for the human mind.
By the study of poetry man acquires insights into things
which could not be achieved by any other discipline. The
teacher in the classroom would find the implications of this
study applicable to the teaching and understanding of poetry,
The subject of religion as taught in a secular
school could also profit from the ideas in the study. All
religions in general at least profess that man is in a mean
ingful universe. The establishment of a pattern of meaning
in the universe independent of a recourse to strictly reli
gious truths should help constitute a basis for the affirma
tion of the meaning of life. A student of religion is then
able to add to this natural affirmation the acceptance of
any religious system which appeals to him. The student of
religion could find many ideas for further research con
cerning the functions of religion in solving the meaning-
question raised by man.
147
The findings of this study should have some impact
in the field of philosophy of education. The history of this
discipline goes back as far as the supernaturalism of Plato
with his world of ideas. In the third century, this super-
:naturalism was replaced by the Christian supernaturalism of
'Augustine. These systems dominated the philosophy of educa
tion for centuries until gradual secularization took place
culminating in the German Idealism of the 19th century. In
our own century, Dewey himself was profoundly influenced by
this idealism at the beginning of his scholarly career. It
was his study of Darwinian evolution that principally caused
him to change from this idealism to a system of naturalism.
In turn, this naturalism of Dewey has had a tremendous
influence on modern educational thought. The important
point that must be made in presenting these concepts is that
biological evolution played a key role in the formulation of
much of modern educational thought.
Since this study has also been concerned with evolu
tion, it is a potential field for influence on educational
thought. This Study looked at evolution in a different light;,
than the naturalistic evolution of Charles Darwin. It is in
this area of Teilhardian directed evolution that further
research and study are recommended. Since the naturalistic
evolution by natural selection of Darwin had such an impact
on^philosophy of education, it is possible that further
studies in evolution of a different kind may also have a
14 8
significant influence on the total philosophy of education.
'This dissertation has presented this different way of look
ing at evolution insofar as it has considered the directed
evolution to man's consciousness rather than mere modifica
tion of body structure by natural selection.
It is hoped the ideas presented may inspire further
reserach into the evolution of consciousness as the founda
tion of meaning and that the fields of education and coun
seling will be enriched by the fruits of this research.
149;
REFERENCES
150
REFERENCES
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Batirsta, J. The development of meaning in life.
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Bucke, R. M. Cosmic consciousness. New York: Dutton,
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Bugental, J.F.T. The search for authenticity. New York:
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965.
Camus. The myth of sisyphus. New York: Random House,
1955.
Coleman, J. C. Abnormal psychology and modern life.
Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman, 1972.
Darrow, C. Is life worth living? Girard, Kansas.
Deikman, A. J. The meaning of everything. In R. Ornstein
Nature of human consciousness. New York: Viking,
1973.
Frank!, V. Man's search for meaning. New York:
Washington Square Press, 1963.
Fromm, E. Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. New York:
Harper, 1968.
Hartmann, E. V. Philosophy of the unconscious. London,
1884.
Heidegger, M. Being and time. New York: Harper, 1966.
jJaffe, A. The myth of meaning. New York: Putnam, 1971.
Jung, C. Memories, dreams, reflections. London, New
York, 1963.
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Kalita, D. They call it Christianity, I call it
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Maslow, A. Psychology of being. New York; Van Nostrand,
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Payne, B. Getting there without drugs. New York: Viking,
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Richardson, W. J. Heidegger. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff,
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Rideau, E. The thought of Teilhard de Chardin. New York:
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Russell, B. Why I am not a Christian. London and New
York, 1957.
Schopenhauer, A. World ass will and idea. London, 1883.
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Teilhard de Chardin, P. Esquisse d'un univers personnel.
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153

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Creator Sheridan, William Kelley (author)

Core Title The evolution of consciousness as the foundation of meaning and its implications for education and counseling

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, philosophy of,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c26-449993

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