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Western Michigan University
Humanity's Need for Visions
The Chinese language symbol for "crisis" has two elements, one
denoting"danger", the other denoting the "opportunity for growth and for
something new." Erik Erikson's psychological development theory also reframes
Western society's typically negative view of crisis, relabeling it as "not a time of
panic or disruption, . . . [but] a decision point - that moment when one reaches an
intersection and must turn one way or the other" (Widick, Parker and Knefelkamp
in Knefelkamp, Widick and Parker, Eds., 1978, pp. 3-4). Joseph Campbell, in The
Power of Myth ( 1988), speaks of mythological crises as having this same duel
nature.
Western society has a tendency to focus upon the dangers inherent in
crisis and to deemphasize its positive aspects. Perhaps in no situation is this
one-sided, unbalanced tendency more apparent than in our current global crisis.
In general, the media, most of our leaders and most educational resources about
ecology and global awareness cause those exposed to them to envision a host of
negative/danger scenarios: Horrors caused by further depletion of the ozone layer; a growing economic gap between third world countries and more advanced societies, leading to massive starvation and economic collapse; nuclear
holocausts and accidents; etc. Although recent political changes around the world
and in the attitudes of freshmen at United States postsecondary institutions
(Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), 1990) may herald important new
levels of awareness and activity, these negative scenarios are to an important and
dangerous extent still being simply "tuned-out" by many in the general
population, including college students, faculty and staff.
What can explain this apparent apathy? Is it apathy at all? It is perhaps
basic human nature to deny that which causes us great fear/pain/danger but for
which there also seems to be no answer/opportunity/growth. Such one-sided
problem definition causes us to view challenges as simply bigger than we can
personally do anything about, the government's problem to solve, the
environmental groups' problem to deal with, etc. However, if the way in which a
problem is defined is thus unbalanced as denial, we develop and maintain an
unhealthy coping mechanism which continues the dangerous status quo and, in
some cases worsen it with this neglect rather than create and move toward a
personal. positive vision. Such a vision will enable us to move toward crisis
solution straightforwardly and positively with hope and determination, out of and
beyond denial.
It is important to note that such a vision is based upon a balanced,
transcendent perspective the vision is not the other extreme - a denial of the danger - but rather a recognition, response and reaction to this danger which also allows for the possibility of growth and opportunity. A transcendent vision helps us balance fear of the danger in the crisis with hope for the opportunity and growth the crisis also offers.
Another point that perhaps might be argued is that denial results when we focus on a huge problem from only the cognitive part of ourselves. It is the intuitive/spiritual part of ourselves from which powerful and life-changing visions are developed and pursued. In other words, hope, always a component of a vision, cannot be labeled as rational.
The sheer magnitude of the global crisis and our general society's
comparatively insufficient and negatively oriented response to it, illustrates that
denial of it is rampant. Messages about the global crisis from, for example, the
media, our scientific, governmental and other leaders, and key educators are to a
great extent negatively oriented and thus inspire individuals to become caught in
the fear/denial cycle. The frightening results of this denial are reduced governmental appropriations for mandatory ecologically oriented regulation implementation, an increase in fossil fuel use resulting from increases in posted
speed limits which were legislated across the country in response to over
whelming popular demand, and popular indifference to waste recycling unless it is very convenient. In addition, as our global crisis is reaching monumental proportions, freshman indifference towards environmental issues increased from the early 1970s to the late 1980s (HERI, 1990). In short, devoid of a positive vision, we are denying the underlying spiritual nature of the challenges before us to a great extent, both in our problem definition and therefore in our attempts at solution.
From these examples of the unhealthy results of denial, several ideas
emerge:
1 ) a positive vision for our global crisis is clearly needed to balance the danger in the crisis with its opportunity and growth. Such a vision would provide positive direction, but would not necessarily be seen as absolutely reachable, just perhaps so, with hope, rather than certainty, as a motivator;
2 ) this vision must be one that can be individualized, one in which each person
can have a unique and personal role that she/he may play in daily life in order for
the vision to be eventually realized, as much as that is possible; and
3 ) the vision, by definition, must be attractive, that is "inspirational", or endowed with the spirit, and there must be a personal incentive to move toward it.
"The Global Brain" as a Vision
Peter Russell's award winning video-tape, The Global Brain, can serve to balance our reactions to the global crisis. It is a crucial transformational resource for the promotion of campus, community, societal and, most of all, global
ecology at its most fundamental, spiritual level. The video-tape jacket describes it
as follows:
The Global Brain is an award winning multi-media presentation based on
Peter Russell's highly acclaimed book. Using music, specially generated graphics
and visual collages, a rich variety of images ranging from atomic particles to
galaxies, and his own commentary, he presents an inspiring and optimistic vision
of humanity's future in a dynamic and captivating form, and one which reconnects
people with their deeper intuitions and inner visions.
Russell proposes that the earth itself is an integrated, self-regulating living organism and considers what function the human race may be playing in this
planetary system. He suggests that humanity stands on the threshold of a major
leap in human evolution as significant as the emergence of life some 3,500,000
year ago. Spiritual growth is shown to be no less than the force of evolution
working through the human mind. Moreover, Russell maintains that only through
this inner exploration will we find the resources to take us through the current set
of crises into a new era of human development.
So profoundly, artfully and masterfully articulated, neither these words,
nor any others can convey the strength of Russell's message. Attempts to convey
its essence fall incredibly short. It is something which simply must be
experienced and this crucial caveat must be kept in mind.
Russell describes and (amazingly!) attempts to lead us into "a place that
each of us has access to but which is not easily reached or understood - what
mystics call the 'deep core"'. Campbell ( 1988, p. 123) poetically describes the
paradoxes in the labyrinth of the mythological "hero's" experience which result in
the hero reaching this deep core:
Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the hero's
of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only
to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an
abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we
shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the
center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be
with all the world.
"Where we had thought to be alone, we will he with all the world" is the
deep core. This is where true community is known. Campbell believes the core is reached through a series of trials and revelations which result in transformations of consciousness. It is reached by making a sincere, unswavering commitment to apply spiritual principles, such as truth and love, to everything we do, imperfectly but with ever purifying intention. Through this process we come to know our essence and to know this as positive, even "godlike", rather than as an abomination". We come to understand our responsibility to create the life we want and need as mature adults, that we are not victims nor children, and that this is also true of everyone else and through this we are freed from the need to control anyone or anything but ourselves. By commiting ourselves to what Campbell calls "joyful participation in the sorrows of the world" (pp. 161-162)
and thus "traveling outward", we continually learn lessons we can apply to our
inward journey of spiritual development..
Having undergone these transformations of consciousness and having thus
achieved a basis for further growth, the hero is ready to move into the deep core.
The deep core is where all are experienced as One. We begin to be able to love
others as we have learned to love ourselves and feel compelled to live lives that
are based on this new perception and personal reality. Some perceive themselves
to be vehicles of God's love. Relationships are radically altered and we are driven
to both attempt to build this type of community in the external world and to help
other people know this new reality of oneness/community by sharing our
knowledge of the deep core and how to discover it.
Russell's "global brain" is a vision of everyone in the world together
experiencing true community ( which must be spiritually learned, rather than
cognitively grasped) and its resulting alterations in perception and lifestyle. These
alterations are the key to our global survival, he believes.
Implications for Campus Practice
Secretary of State James Baker III, key negotiator in the current U.S. -
Soviet arms reduction discussions, was recently quoted as saying he
believes"spiritual values are important in the pursuit of world peace" and that he
thought it might be possible that "a major meaning of the revolution going on in
Eastern Europe is the resurgence of faith."
Perhaps our campuses are also witnessing a similar resurgence. For the
last several years the Higher Education Research Institute's survey of American
freshmen has demonstrated steady, growing concern with the environment and a
willingness to assume responsibility for facilitating governmental and societal
change. In addition, for the first time since 1967, when 82.9%. of the surveyed
students reported that they believed the development of a meaningful philosophy
of life was essential or very important, the percentage of students reporting that
they believe this has slightly Increased from 1987's all time low of 39.4% to
1989's 40.8%,. Though too small and too soon to be labeled a trend, combined
with the stronger trends relative to global concerns and willingness to assume
personal responsibility for facilitating change and with what is happening around
the world, perhaps what we are beginning to see is awakening spiritual hope and
with this, the need for a positive vision to nurture this hope.
Campus leaders have a responsibility to help students avoid the earlier
discussed pitfall of denial by helping them create positive visions of themselves,
for themselves to facilitate their personal empowerment as well as their lifelong
development and contribution to the community and world. These visions must
be intentionally derived from each student's own values and should be wholistic
in nature, dealing not only with the vocational and intellectual, but also the moral,
spiritual, aesthetic, psychological, ecological, interpersonal and physical domains.
The Global Brain can help students in their quest for a meaningful, wholistic,
individualized yet communal, philosophy of life.
The video is not only helpful to students, however, but is a rich faculty
and staff development resource. Perhaps most important, The Global Brain can
help people understand the crucial importance of the entire campus perceiving
itself as, first and foremost, a "developmental community" which facilitates the wholistic, total development of all campus community members, with all other missions actually serving this spiritual, and therefore, truly meaningful, purpose. A helpful discussion of higher education's primary mission as being human development is found in Howard Bowen's seminal work, Investment in Learning (1980). In addition, besides building global ecological awareness and ownership of personal responsibility relative to this, video can be used for innumerable other purposes: To model participative decision-making and cooperation; to foster the integration of spiritual (not religious) concerns into the curriculum and extracurriculum; to help people grasp what is really meant by community, multiculturalism and a global perspective; etc.
All of these changes, and countless others, which Russell's Global Brain might help facilitate, are crucial to our institutions recovering meaning and renewing their lost sense of focused purpose. They are a way of building
empowering, transcendent, institutional visions of ourselves, for ourselves to
which we can truly be committed and which will lead us away from the sense that
"the system" is in charge to the realization that we are the system.
The Global Brain is 35 minutes long and is available from the Hartley
Film Foundation, Cat Rock Road, Cos Cob, CT 06807, (203) 869- 1818. The cost
to individuals is $49, to institutions $98.
Editor's Note: Dr. See is an assistant professor in the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology at Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, M1 49008-5195.
References
Baker, J. in Thomas, C. (1990). Baker links spiritual values, peace. Kalamazoo
Gazette, 157(112), A6.
Bowen, H. R. (1980). Investment in Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Campbell, J. (1988). The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday, Higher
Education Research Institute. (1990). Environment top concern for college
freshmen. The American freshman and follow-up survey. Los Angeles: Higher
Education Research Institute, UCLA.
Widick, C., Parker, C. A. & Knefelkamp, L. in Knefelkamp, L., Widick, C., & Parker, C.A. (Eds.) (1978) Erik Erikson and psychosocial development. Applying
new developmental findings. New directions for student services. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass (4),1-18.
Yaakov J. Garb, a graduate student at the University of California-recently
( Spring 1989) published an article in Educational Horizons entitled
Psychological and Moral Responses to Environmental Knowledge: Reflections on
the Impact of an Introductory course in Environmental Issues. The article outlines
his experiences in assisting with the course.
The course covered the major topics of emironmental concerns i.e., toxic
waste, groundwater contamination ozone depletion. greenhouse effect, low-level
radiation, and nuclear winter. But the course was designed not only to increase
knowledge but to impact the psychological and spiritual responses of the students.
In addition to focusing on the assessment of technological responses to the
environmental crisis ( in current jargon "shallow ecology" ), the course also
explored the social and cultural attitudes and the need for restructuring these to
form a different relationship to the planet (deep ecology). Using this approach
Garb found the course to elicit strong emotional responses from the student. The
article concludes by suggesting ways to help guide the emotional response away
from paralysis and despair and toward personal empowerment.
Given the nature of the Berkeley experience, there are a number of ways that the student affairs professional might contribute to a similar course: 1) With the "deep ecology" vs. the "shallow ecology" approach of the course, a possible team approach (faculty and student affairs personnel) might be helpful where technology and philosophy could interface; 2) A person skilled in group relations might also be helpful in facilitating the emotional reactions that may he produced by the course; 3) With resources like the Global Brain, the student affairs professional can help make the experience more meaningful at a personal level.
Bateson, G. (1975). Steps to an ecology of the mind. New York: Ballantine.
Bookchin, M. (1980). Toward an ecological society. Montreal: Black Rose
Books.
Lovelock, J. (1979). Gaia: A new look at life on earth. London: Oxford University
Press.
Nollman, J. (1987). Dolphin-dreamtime. New York: Bantam Books.
Nollman, J. (1990). Spiritual Ecology. New York: Bantam Books.
Russell, P. (1983). The global brain. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, Inc.
Taylor, P.W. (1986).Respect for nature: A theory of environmental ethics.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tobias, M. ( 1984). ( Ed. ). Deep ecology. San Marcos, CA.: Avant Books.
This material resides on an Indiana State University server and is maintained by
Will Barratt.
Please forward any problems and comments to him.