Like Alan Watts has said, the most profound questions are the simplest and most obvious. The question I'm particularly interested is: What's going on here?
This whole book has consisted of one worldview after another, one paradigm after another. Or, just laying it out as simply as possible, this book has been one story after another. At the onset I said that these were all to be laid side by side so that we may compare and contrast the various elements of these worldviews, these stories, to understand them on their own terms and to see especially in which aspects they agree. But with all of these different viewpoints in hand, one can not help but ask that most profound question of them all; Just what the hell is going on here?
We can approach this question from many perspectives. I think one important realization that comes from the survey of all of these philosophical, scientific, occult and mystical viewpoints is that there is just way more going on here in reality than any of us ever suspected. Reality, Life, Existence, Nature, or what ever you want to call it, is just so incredibly rich with possibilities that, like the popular cliché says; the truth is much stranger than fiction. Taking all of these views at face value, the claims of Seth or Leadbeater, the incredible perspectives of modern science with its quarks, DNA and black holes, the human imagination seems to pale in comparison. Though ironically, it is through the human imagination that these things have come to be known by us.
But there is another perspective we can take of this issue of "What is going on here?". Instead of taking each story at face value we can instead see that indeed what we have in hand is a bunch of stories. Some stories may appeal to us more than others for whatever unique and particular reason, but undeniably we are dealing with stories. Throughout this book I have referred again and again to the concepts of worldviews, paradigms and belief systems. We have from the start taken the stance that we must go inside these worldviews and understand them in their own terms, to understand the elements of meaning within each. I have claimed that the only fair way, the most objective way in which to approach these worldviews is by going right inside of each of them; by staring at the world through them from the inside out, so to speak. The only way we can be as fair and as objective as possible with each worldview is to understand it subjectively, as our own personal viewpoint, our own personal belief system. The most objective approach available to us is to be as honestly aware of our own subjective orientation as is possible. And the most honest approach available for us to understand each other is to be open to understanding each other's subjectivity.
But what does this exercise do for us? What do we gain from opening up to all of these viewpoints? One thing we gain is an appreciation for the incredible possibilities inherent in this thing we call Life, or at least in the possibilities of our human imagination. But depending upon our attitude, we may also walk away from this exercise even more convinced at how insane the world is and at how people will concoct the most far-out tales and believe anything. But there is also another lesson we can take from this exercise and that is the realization that; The world is made up of stories, not atoms1.
I could have made this claim at the beginning of the book, but it is relatively meaningless until one has lived through many stories, until one has believed and experienced life from multiple viewpoints. Only then is the truth of such a statement apparent. It would seem that the fundamental fabric of our being, of our immediate conscious awareness, always expresses itself through mind and imagination. No matter what we believe, we are still believing, and that is the important point. Even if we claim to believe in nothing at all then it is still us believing, only in this case we believe in nothing instead of something.
Our consciousness is the essential matrix of our being. And as
we can see from the variety of viewpoints I have discussed
throughout this book, it is a rich matrix indeed. And when one
realizes all of the cultures with all of their particular
beliefs, and all of the individuals within these cultures, up and
down throughout history, and the unique slants given by us
individuals to our cultural belief systems, then what I have
attempted in this book pales to insignificance in comparison. The
panorama of consciousness is rich and boundless beyond any of our
individual hopes, beliefs and expectations. And this is only
human consciousness, which in itself is a microcosm, a reflection
of the endless infinite variety, the never ending variations upon
never ending themes that is the Infinity of Nature itself.
Notes: Chapter 20
1This is a quote attributed to Muriel Rukeyser in the book:
LeShan, (1987), page 9.
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