JMG - I've finally got round to reading through your excellent essays in Ecosophia about Enchantment, the Myth of Progress and Consciousness through the works of Wilber, Gebser and Barfield. Thank you for very informative and thought-provoking pieces. My question: Evolution is non-teleological. However, succession is, in some way, progress. That's to say, when pioneer species colonise a barren landscape (cooled lava flow, for ex.) they give way to - and give rise to - increasing complexity towards, eventually, lush, rich, entangled ecosystems. Could it be that people tend to confuse increased complexity, biodiversity and bioabundance with progress-towards-a-goal? And could this, then, give rise to the conflation of evolution with progress, and the idea of progress-of-consciousness? Also, can evolution be consciously driven? I ask because I found in Frederic Myers the idea of the imaginal as an indication of our greater evolutionary capacities. Then wind forward and I found in Barbara Marx Hubbard the insistence that we can, somehow, 'speed up our evolution' (or some such...) in some kind of spiritual sense. What do you think? Is Hubbard barking up the same teleological tree as Wilber et.al.? Lastly - thank you! You cited Robert Anton Wilson’s 'The Persecution and Assassination of the Parapsychologists as Performed by the Inmates of the American Association for the Advancement of Science under the Direction of the Amazing Randi'. This is the first time I've found you referring to RAW. You and he make excellent bedfellows (excuse the metaphor!). RAW, though, was also convinced that humans are destined for some greater expansive cosmic consciousness and that we can drive forward our evolution. His correspondence with Timothy Leary and his affinity with Leary's Starseed mission seems oddly similar to the Wilber-Gebser-Barfield rap. Or perhaps not. I'm not entirely certain. Thanks again for you tireless work and generous teachings. Victor
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branchandroot
Evolution - progress
Date: 2023-04-03 08:00 am (UTC)My question:
Evolution is non-teleological. However, succession is, in some way, progress. That's to say, when pioneer species colonise a barren landscape (cooled lava flow, for ex.) they give way to - and give rise to - increasing complexity towards, eventually, lush, rich, entangled ecosystems. Could it be that people tend to confuse increased complexity, biodiversity and bioabundance with progress-towards-a-goal? And could this, then, give rise to the conflation of evolution with progress, and the idea of progress-of-consciousness?
Also, can evolution be consciously driven? I ask because I found in Frederic Myers the idea of the imaginal as an indication of our greater evolutionary capacities. Then wind forward and I found in Barbara Marx Hubbard the insistence that we can, somehow, 'speed up our evolution' (or some such...) in some kind of spiritual sense. What do you think? Is Hubbard barking up the same teleological tree as Wilber et.al.?
Lastly - thank you! You cited Robert Anton Wilson’s 'The Persecution and Assassination of the Parapsychologists as Performed by the Inmates of the American Association for the Advancement of Science under the Direction of the Amazing Randi'. This is the first time I've found you referring to RAW. You and he make excellent bedfellows (excuse the metaphor!). RAW, though, was also convinced that humans are destined for some greater expansive cosmic consciousness and that we can drive forward our evolution. His correspondence with Timothy Leary and his affinity with Leary's Starseed mission seems oddly similar to the Wilber-Gebser-Barfield rap. Or perhaps not. I'm not entirely certain.
Thanks again for you tireless work and generous teachings.
Victor