Jacob Needleman responds to a few questions on his book "An Unknown World"
Q. When we question the meaning of life, you insist that we add the Earth to this query. Why is it important that we do so?
JN. One of the main aims of this book is to see what it means for us that the Earth itself is a living being. Within a living organism everything that exists has a function, a role to play, in the whole of the life of which it is a part. Therefore, the meaning of human life is inseparable from the function that the human species is meant to serve as part of the living Earth. The central question of my book is: What, then, does the Earth really need from us?—far beyond the kind of efforts we are making to fix the environmental crisis we have created. Since everything human is part of the Earth, and is meant to play an essential role in the very evolution of the Earth—then everything human, including especially our inner and most inmost life, has an essential function within the life of the planet.
Q. Your book explores humanity’s purpose on Earth—the perennial question that we can never seem able to answer. What is the missing element in our understanding of why humanity is on Earth? Also, why is this an important question to continue pondering?
JN. What is missing is our understanding of what it is that distinguishes human life from all other life on Earth. The element that distinguishes a human being from all other creatures is the possibility of awakened consciousness. Therefore, it is awakened consciousness that the Earth uniquely needs from us—far beyond the level of thought, emotion and behavior that characterizes the quality of our present everyday lives. We are built, constructed, to live at quite another finer, deeper level of conscious experience and action. In this sense, speaking generally, human life, fully human life, has not yet rooted itself on the Earth—except in remarkable men and women throughout history who have tried to help human beings awaken to the level of understanding, compassion and moral power which are properties of awakened consciousness.
Q. In the search for consciousness, you conclude that the Self (or the soul) isn’t measurable by the science of our era. What parts of the Self can’t the scientific method account for? Why isn’t science enough?
JN. Consciousness can exist at many levels and each level of consciousness brings with it its own level of knowledge. Our present level of scientific knowledge reflects our present level of consciousness. The more fully awakened human mind would see an entirely different reality, a more unified vision of a more purposeful, living universe. The capacity of a higher, unknown quality of human feeling is an essential element in seeing the whole of reality for what it is. This capacity of feeling is unknown to science and can only be recognized by awakening to it in oneself. Therefore, profound self-knowledge is necessary for deeper understanding of both the universe and the brain. Scientists who study the brain and the mind sooner or later may realize that new technologies or theories will never of themselves be enough to understand the higher self within the human psyche. To understand awakened consciousness one must oneself begin to awaken to one’s own possibilities of consciousness. Without that effort, our modern culture will continue to thrust upon us a standard of knowing and a vision of reality which blind us to our possible role in the cosmic scheme.
Q. Why do you say all of man’s science is a science of the Earth?
JN. Just as there are levels of consciousness and levels of knowledge, so there are also levels of reality. Putting it very simply:—there are levels of reality within any organism: each level serves the purposes of a higher level and is in turn served by the level beneath it. The life of cells serves the needs and purposes of the tissues within which the cells function—in that sense the tissues exist at a higher level of purpose than the cell. This follows the progression: cells—tissues—organs (such as heart, lung, etc.)—system (circulatory, respiratory, etc.) and, finally organism. In a living, organic universe there are also levels of reality: the purposes of the Earth serve the purposes of the next level— the purposes of the planets in solar system; the planets serve the purposes of the Sun, etc., etc. We can say that modern science never reaches above the level of the Earth because to perceive purpose (and value) one needs the development of feeling; the isolated intellect alone cannot perceive value or purpose in reality—which is why dogmatic scientism (such as that of Richard Dawkins) offers a relativistic view of ethics and values; the part of the mind that is used in scientism is the mechanical, logical part of the mind which is incapable of perceiving purpose in the external world. Modern science never reaches above the level of the earth because it explains everything it encounters by attempting to see only the mechanical elements in it (the element devoid of mind and purpose). Since it cannot perceive purpose it cannot understand the levels of purpose that are served by the Earth and that are therefore above the level of the Earth. In the human being also there is a level of functioning that is above the level of the Earth—the awakened consciousness (which sees purpose in the objective world) and the awakened conscience (which feels the value and moral element in all of reality.)
Q. You draw on the writings of great philosophers to argue that the Earth is a living being and that there is a correlation between the human soul and the Earth. How did you arrive at this conclusion?
JN. It is a teaching found in many ancient and modern philosophies (Pythagoras, Plato, Hermeticism, Jewish mysticism, William James, to name a few). But mainly, I personally verified key aspects of this idea through what may be called “inner empiricism,” observation of my own mind and body, following the ideas of G.I. Gurdjieff.
Q. You talk about the importance of acknowledging an idea as being part of a whole world of thought. Can you offer us an example of this?
JN. No great idea exists alone. It is always inextricably bound up with a system of ideas, without which it loses its meaning. Take, for example, the Judaeo-Christian idea of God. To understand this idea, we must understand the Judaeo-Christian ideas about human nature, moral obligation, the nature of emotion, the idea of creation, the role of nature as “the signature” of God, the meaning of love, faith, good and evil, etc. Any one of these ideas, taken alone, runs the danger of being interpreted according to the concepts and notions that happen to be in our own subjective understanding, brought to our own mind by an often disorderly, haphazard accumulation of opinions and points of view alien to the Judaeo-Christian tradition.
Q. What do you hope readers will ultimately take away from your book?
JN. A new sense of hope and responsibility as we realize that what can give our own life its real meaning is also what our threatened Earth deeply needs from us as well.