by Chris Clarke
Creation Spirituality Books, 2002, ISBN 0 9527992 1 9 (292 pp)
This book is currently out of print
Living in Connection invites the reader to join
the author on a personal journey discovering the implications of modern
science for a radically new world-view. The view of a world of which we
are passive observers is swept aside. Instead we can learn to live as
participants in a world of continual creation.
Eight key aspects of our world view are traced from classical science,
through modern science, and into their implications for our relationship
with the world; that is, for our spirituality in everyday life. The final
chapters discover, in a new form, the moral imperatives for living in
community on an endangered planet, and point to a radical rethinking of
traditional religious ideas.
Rationale. In contrast to many books on science and spirituality, the aim of this work is to present a truly integrated approach encompassing both science and spirituality. Particular stress is laid on:
Living in connection shows how a personal approach can rigorously bridge the apparent gulf between physical science and the deepest realities of human experience.
Readership. The book is written in the conviction that no one can be fully human without following their spiritual longing to be at home in the universe. It is for all those who recognize this, and recognize also the inadequacy of traditional religious forms to the challenges of today. While accessible to an educated popular market, it will also inform and challenge professionals in education, science, philosophy and religious studies. Appendices form a bridge between a simple main text and the more technical literature for those who want to go further.
The Author was formerly Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Southampton, where he is now Visiting Professor. In addition to three books and numerous articles on Cosmology, Quantum Theory, Consciousness, and theological implications of science, he has written Reality Through the Looking Glass (Floris Books, 1996) for general readership. Web site www.scispirit.com
Details. Length: 114,000 words. Current status: draft 2 (further work on formatting, final corrections required). Delivery: Dec 2002. Illustrations: 5 diagrams and two half-tone pictures included (some more line drawings of places and things mentioned would lighten the text)
SUMMARY (FROM CHAPTER 1)
The world, including ourselves, is vast web of interlocking processes in constant flux. It unfolds through the interplay of two very different, but closely linked movements. One is described by objective physical laws, in the more subtle and fluid form that these now take following the insights of quantum theory over the last century. The other is the subjective, but no less real, influence of a universal creative capacity that is best described as love. Each one is incomplete on its own. Together they give a picture that makes sense equally of the findings of modern physics, of psychology and of mystics. The picture endorses many of the hints, analogies and speculations offered by previous writers, but is founded on a careful analysis of those parts of physics that are sufficiently tested to be regarded as core foundations for any future theory.
The later part of Chapter 1 will explain the overall point of view that I will be adopting, and some of the basic concepts and mental "tools" that are needed. Then, in chapters 2 – 4, I first explain the past history of science in order to understand how we have reached the fragmented world view of today, and then the more recent history of science which provides a quite different picture of the world. Chapter 5 then provides a complementary account of a new understanding of spirituality (that is, of our inner relationship to the world) which is suggested by the previous picture of a new science.
The next two chapters then describe the central idea of the interplay of physics and love. First (Chapter 6) the origins of this principle are described on the basis of the evidence of our human experience; then (Chapter 7), the story is summed up as a coherent whole.
The final two chapters are "applications." These, however, are not minor illustrations, but are concerned with the fundamental ethical principles for our individual and social lives (Chapter 8) and with transcendent reality (Chapter 9). These topics, usually regarded as the domain of religion, now fall into place as part of an understandable total picture. The final conclusion will lead us to towards gathering our own powers, and acknowledging powers greater than our own, so that we can understand our past, recover a vision of the future and trust in the present moment.
The Eight Aspects of our changing World-View
| Old | New |
Suggesting …. |
|
Determinism |
Indeterminism |
Each present moment is open to new birth |
|
Machine |
Organism |
My relation to the world is modelled on my relations to living creatures |
|
Separate units |
Interconnection |
Empathy, for people and other-than-humans, is physically real; my actions and passions propagate infinite effects |
|
Exact quantities |
Global patterns |
My sensitivity to patterns is a key to understanding |
|
Observation |
Interaction |
I embrace being changed by what I encounter |
|
Control |
Participation |
I am committed to engagement with the world |
|
Competition |
Co-operation |
I look for mutual benefit |
|
Freedom is illusory |
Creativity |
I am willing to shift to new ways of perceiving |
SECTION OUTLINE
Chapter 1 Leading us in
resolving the confusion
This introductory section starts with a glance at the crisis of meaning in society, outlines in broadest terms the argument of the book, chapter by chapter, and elucidates "the missing face" as the human face that science has so far lacked. The subsequent sections of this chapter will prepare the ground by introducing the central ideas and mental tools.
spirituality
A glance at some modern attempts to define "spirituality" leads to the idea of its being "how we are in the world", something to do with our deepest relationships with the world around us.
science is then defined not as a set of facts, but as method and as a process within society.
the three perspectives
I introduce the three fundamental ways of experiencing: first person ("I", direct experience in present awareness); second person ("Thou", experience of the being of another through empathy); and third person ("It", impersonal description divorced from present awareness). The project of the book is to link the "it" of objective science to the "I" of subjectivity, but using the "Thou" of empathy.
from author to reader A poetic interlude, illustrating some of the preceding ideas.
the first person An autobiographical introduction to myself and my viewpoint
about story telling
I return to society’s need for story, and the idea of regarding science and religion as stories, though with very different forms and foundations. Story will be used in the book to enables us to bridge subjective and objective realms.
but what about god?
Some concluding remarks relating the approach here to more traditional comparisons of science and religion, and setting up some pointers to the later treatment of the notion of god (the general concept) or God (the deity of Western theism).
our predecessors ... on whose shoulders (book-covers) we stand.
Chapter 2 Clockwork
Like it or not, the society we live in is dominated by the ideas of Newtonian science. My aim in this chapter is to convey the reality of this domination, in both its strength and its limitations.
the classical inheritance
I explain why Newton is such an iconic figure, and set out the first two columns, old view and new view, of the table defining the structure of the ideas. The first column will be covered in the sections below.
pre-science The history of the idea of atomism.
determinism
I explain the origins of 17th century atomism, and how it led to the extraordinary idea that the universe, at the microscopic level, might be completely predictable, despite all appearances to the contrary.
the machine
The implications of determinism in founding the metaphor of the universe as a machine are then described with reference to Galileo and Descartes
separate units
The metaphor of the machine, and the scheme of atomism, then leads to "The Clockwork Universe" of identical units interacting only by pushing and pulling on each other.
exact quantities
A brief account is given of how the idea of prediction implies the possibility of actual calculation of how things in the universe evolve. This signals that even by the eighteenth century the idea of determinism started to reveal its shaky foundations.
observation
The conception of the scientist as impassive, uninvolved, unmoved observer is explained, in stark contrast to the involved, interacting participator of modern science.
control
This takes up essentially the Feminist critique of the preceding idea of the Observer, relating it to its social context where it evolved and issues of power.
competition
Further aspects of the links between mechanistic science and the politics of power are explored in ideas from capitalism to Darwinism
freedom A glance at the paradoxes surrounding this idea, from Augustine to Locke
Chapter 3 Quantal thinking
The time now comes to make a shift in the way we think, a shift inspired both by modern physics and by the basic nature of our human experience. In this chapter we discover this new way of thinking by looking at its roots in physics. A "fast track" set of synopses (on which are based the summary below) enable the reader to skim most parts of this chapter at a first reading.
beyond classical logic
I stress that we are really concerned not with an obscure piece of physics, which is only the means to an end, but with a change in thinking. To help avoid the confusion between physics and logic and coin the term "quantal" to refer to this. Its basis is the systematic recognition of uncertainty, of the influence of the past, and of the influence of the wider context.
quantum physics
An experiment, in which atoms passing through a magnet move either up or down, suggests on close analysis that this behaviour is fundamentally unpredictable, with no underlying mechanistic cause. Probabilities for different behaviours can, however, be worked out by assuming that each atom has a special property (loosely expressed by the phrase "direction in which it is pointing").
quantal principles
I explain how the experiments just described fit into the three principles of quantal thinking given above. Uncertainty introduces ideas of free will and synchronicity; the influence of the past leads to the alternative stories of "histories" or "quantum states"; and more details are spelled out about the relation between the "wider context" and "future possibilities".
the puzzles of the quantum state
This is a further exploration of the way that the context creates the range of possible outcomes explains how the quantum state encodes the probabilities of all possible responses in all possible contexts.
complementarity
The aspect of the context that fixes the range of different possible outcomes is called the "frame of reference". Different frames of reference ( producing different ranges of possible outcomes) are called complementary. The idea is illustrated by experiments revealing the complementarity of wave and particle accounts.
quantal logic
This key section (with no "fast track"!) explains how logic serves as a model of thinking, and how quantum logic is actually much closer to how we actually think, with its ambiguity and shifting frames of meaning. The psychological model of "Interacting Cognitive Subsystems" is briefly introduced.
the collapse of the quantum state
For comparison with older books, I introduce, as an optional way of talking, the model in which the state of a system changes suddenly (called "collapsing") whenever a measurement is performed on it.
all things are connected
I give an account of the Aspect experiment which shows that one can create pairs of photons (particles of light) separated by a large distance which respond to simultaneous observations in a co-ordinated way.
decoherence
Recent technical developments suggest that the connections between a quantum system and its environment can allow us to dispense with quantal thought. I explain why these arguments are inadequate.
about reductionism
"Reductionism" is many-faced: it is appropriate as a methodology for certain areas, but not as a metaphysical assumption that is contradicted by the facts of modern science.
Chapter 4 The new science
So what happens when we start applying quantal thinking, and the science that goes with it, instead of classical thinking and classical science? In this chapter I will explain how each category of Newtonian thought described in the table above has been superceded by a quantal version.
from determinism to indeterminism
It is fundamental to the recovery of meaning that I am not a cog in a machine - because the machine is a quite inappropriate metaphor for most things in the universe. To understand what indeterminism really means I introduce dynamical systems theory and link it with quantum mechanics to show that almost the whole universe, at all levels, is open to newness.
from separate units to interconnection
I recall the Aspect experiment, and reinforce its message of interconnection with an account of the behaviour of fields in nature.
from exact quantities to global patterns
The unsolvability of most dynamical systems subtly alters the way we think about science, shifting it from the quantitative to the qualitative.
from machine to organism
This then opens up the way to a new metaphor: the organism. It is given force by the work of Mae-Wan Ho in analysing just what an organism is, and Whitehead who shows its role in understanding the nature of the universe.
from observation to interaction
Nagel’s critique of the "View from Nowhere" is applied to the idea of the Observer, and quantal thought then directs us to the more applicable idea of interaction.
from control to participation
The notion of control is more deeply understood through modern control theory, allowing us to replace the controller by the participator.
from competition to co-operation - Lyn Margulis
from "freedom is illusory" to creativity The significance of quantum logic in creativity
Chapter 5 The new spirituality
What are the implications of moving to a science that no longer inhibits our spirituality, that tells a story of a world that makes sense, a world of meaning in which we can participate? In this chapter I will stay with the categories introduced in Chapter 2, and now develop their meaning for "how we are in the world".
triocular vision
A summary of the way the "three eyes" of chapter 1 are going to be applied in order to draw out the implications of science for spirituality in the present chapter.
return to story
The chapter is set in the context of my own daily life: the unspectacular routines of living and the occasional breakthrough of the divine.
indeterminism Each present moment is open to new birth
The transition from the indeterminism of physics to the freedom of human decision making requires us to understand the nature of time, and in particular a deeper awareness of the present. Heidegger’s concept of the "now" leads into the practice of mindfulness.
interconnection Empathy, for people and other-than-humans, is physically real; my actions and passions propagate infinite effects
Placing myself in the "now" opens my awareness to just the sort of connection with other beings that would be expected from the interconnectedness revealed by physics. It is mediated by empathy, and we draw from Martin Buber to understand this. This in turn leads on to the idea of meaning, and how meaning is now restored to the world. Further dimensions of connectivity, and human responsibility, are then opened up by considerations of field theory.
organism My relation to the world is modelled on my relations to living creatures
Experiencing the world as composed of organisms, rather than objects, leads on to practical illustrations of what this means for ordinary city life.
The following final sections draw out the ideas further, laying foundations for areas of investigation that will be continued into subsequent chapters.
global patterns My sensitivity to patterns is a key to understanding
interaction I embrace being changed by what I encounter
participation I am committed to engagement with the world
co-operation I look for mutual benefit
creativity I am willing to shift to new ways of perceiving
Chapter 6 The double breath of love
Creativity is the most important, and the most mysterious, of all the new scientific ideas. Unpacking the spiritual implications of this concept in this Chapter will lead us into the nature of our Selves and the role of love in our relationships with the world; and it will pave the way for a later investigation into the place of the experience of god.
introduction
I introduce the seminal idea of the two dynamics that govern the world: external, seen through physics, and internal, experienced through participation. The essential role of conscious awareness is introduced.
After describing the "connectivity theory of awareness" and surveying some of the key ideas about consciousness and the self, I develop in more detail the way in which we construct the world through participating in it.
the mystery
The strand of story is now brought in to return us to the immediacy of experience and provide material for discovering the nature of the internal dynamic of mind.
self-transcendence
Starting from an idea of J V Taylor, I examine the first way of understanding this inner dynamic, which requires us to perceive ourselves, the "I", in a new and more fluid way, as a pattern that is interconnected with the Whole.
play The essence of creativity, and a story about camels.
free will revisited
It is now possible to understand just how indeterminism blossoms into "Free will". To do this, we need the more refined concept of "Creative Freedom". The traditional analyses of free will are looked at in this light, and we examine, with illustration from Rilke, how creative freedom takes us into a realm that has been called the "transpersonal".
love In this pivotal section of the book I describe how a conception of love, though much broader and deeper than the everyday use of this word, unifies all the material in this chapter, and provides a clear understanding of the true nature of an inner dynamic that has confusingly many manifestations. It is the ultimate context for creativity, for play, and for self-transcendence.
conclusion
Returning to practicalities, I illustrate the response evoked by this chapter: that I am willing to shift to new ways of perceiving
Chapter 7 A participatory world
This chapter marks a new beginning, using the work of the previous chapters to place human understanding on a new foundation. It is as if we have built a motor car by adding progressively onto the framework of a horse-drawn cart: there comes a time when, realizing what sort of vehicle it is that we are achieving, we should ask, would it not be better to start from scratch? "Starting from scratch" means, here, starting from the first person perspective instead of the third person perspective.
phenomenology
I move from Heidegger’s version of this philosophy to that of Merleau-Ponty, to provide a new foundation that can integrate the first person and third person (scientific) perspectives, explaining how his ideas fit naturally with the picture that has emerged so far.
progression to quantal thought
What makes it possible to build a united world view on the phenomenological picture is the realisation that the particular approach (Hartle’s Generalised Quantum Theory) taken in Chapter 3 is precisely Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology in disguise, so to speak. This section outlines the broad idea.
the quantal picture
I now build on the previous outline, filling in a few more details about quantal thought so as to unite phenomenology and quantum theory.
participation I am committed to engagement with the world
I have now placed our creative freedom at the heart of both human existence and the foundation of physics. This brings the reader to the culmination of the argument, promised at the start of this proposal: we are participants in the continual creation of the world.
two other approaches
I acknowledge the close parallels between two other formulations of this idea, arising from different routes: first the Synchronicity of C G Jung, and then the Participatory metaphysics of John Heron, both of which have influenced my own work.
Chapter 8 The evolution of ethics
In this chapter, after setting some background, I get down to the practical issues of how we live. What difference does all this make to our personal values, to the values we teach our children, to our social codes - in short, to ethics? Do we have, as a result of the work so far, a credible story about the world which can really be translated into action in the world?
introduction
I begin with a clarification of ideas, distinguishing an ethics that stems freely from a total world view, from the broader "morality" that is often bound up with religious power-structures. For consistency with other authors, I refer to "morality", however, in what follows here.
In recognition of the role of "values" rather than "morals" in educational thinking, I examine the relation between these, referring particularly to Victor Kraft.
developmental classifications of morality
I now introduce the main framework to be used: the scheme of Kohlberg, seeing ethics in the context of the progressive development of a human being to maturity.
is morality rational? No!
the ethics of connectivity
I argue that the main ethical impact of the new world view comes through connectivity, and the participation that goes with it. If I feel connected with another person, or with a part of the natural word – so deeply connected that I am one with it – then I would no more wish to harm it than I would wish to harm myself. We are citizens of a succession of nested contexts, each of which defines (as seen by quantal thought) a pattern of meaning that inspires our ethics.
ecology and the Judaeo-Christian moral universe
Next I set the conception of morality just developed within the historical evolution of morality, and in particular in relation to Western religion. Considerable support is derived from the ecological ideas progressively developed in some strands of the Hebrew scriptures.
a planetary ethic
This, the climax of the chapter, is a detailed application of these ideas to the current environmental crisis, thus developing a "politics of spirituality" that derives from the new world-view.
joining the cosmic community
I end with a reminder that spirituality cannot be reduced to ethics, and that ethics has to be seen within the empowerment that comes from grasping our participation in the full creativity of the universe.
Chapter 9 The One
This final chapter integrates what has gone before with the most pervasive of human experiences.
but still, what about god?
Finding myself unable to ignore this most basic topic, I begin with an examination of the mystical experience of god. This leads to the possibility that one could identify god with the ultimate limit of the nested contexts of meaning examined in the last chapter.
beyond logic
In order to progress, the paradoxes of expositions of mystical experience need to be accepted. Our previous development of quantal logic in chapter 3 helps here, but is still not sufficient. I outline further extensions of paradoxical logic through the work of Matte Bianco.
encounter with the One: ideas from the faith traditions
The aim of this and the next section is to examine the relationship between the "limiting context" being examined here and the notion of god developed through the Western faith traditions. This section draws some support from religious experience within these traditions.
theology
Moving from experience to theology, however, and focussing on the notion of creation, I conclude that the world-view that has emerged in this book offers very little support for the conventional liberal Christian theology of a Creator.
The Event of Creation
Intimations of a new conception of creation are drawn from the conceptions of the "now", of creative freedom and of kenotic love as developed in this book .
instruments of Shalom
- What it all means for us: a call for us to enter in our responsibility as co-creators.
Appendices
1. Interpretations of quantum theory
2. The Bell-Mermin argument in the theory of the Aspect Experiment
3. Quantum entanglement
4. The Lorentz Dynamical System
5. The fallacy of the moving "now"
6. The new science and consciousness theory
Endnotes
Expansions, and references to entries in the bibliography.
Bibliography
This currently covers 138 references relevant to specific points in the text.
The four most influential texts have been
Abram, D The spell of the sensuous. New York: Random House 1997
Klotz, Neil Douglas, The Hidden Gospel
Isham, C J (1994) ‘Quantum logic and the histories approach to quantum theory’ J. Math. Phys 35 2157-85
Woodman, Marion and Dickson, Elinor: Dancing in the Flames: the Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness, Shambhala, 1996