How Our Many Worlds Are Entwined
I maintain that it is no more possible to know the parts without knowing the whole than to know the whole without knowing the parts individually.
—Pascal
In Point Lobos Reserve, I spy a slender woman peering through binoculars at a tree. Seeing me, she raises her hand silently and points: the tree is full of vultures—red heads and large, dark, hunched bodies, arranged as if they had drawn straws to see who would be at the top. The birder, for surely this is who she is, notes that the vultures are no doubt here because of the harbor seals. I walk on a bit and gaze down at a beach, where a group of seals stretch lazily out on the sand; some are completely black, others speckled. Occasionally, one or two of them swim out into the secluded waters of the cove and then return to the beach, playfully going to and from the water. Suddenly, a vulture takes flight, and all twenty or so seals undulate swiftly to the sea. In an instant all I see are a random scattering of seal heads poking out of the water’s surface, their whiskered and alert faces looking like a pack of dogs.
What happened? Was it the aerial motion of the vultures, those feathered forms of finality, that forced the seals to flee to the sea’s safety? I realized how interconnected life is in this small inlet, how tree, bird, seal, sand, and sea support a vast ecology of life forms. If one being moves, all others react in an intricate dance. Before me is the entwining of living worlds.
The interconnections between nature and our human-designed world are manifold. Ecosystems comprise a rich hierarchy of interactions that enable many forms of life to coexist in dynamic balance. At each level of a complex natural system reside smaller, intricate subsystems allowing the flow of energy and nutrients to sustain these entwined microcosms. Energy flows into the system and is distributed in optimal ways to ensure a stable environment. There are intricate communications and interactions among all who inhabit any environment. From bacteria beneath the ground to the leafed branches of the trees reaching into the sky, everything is connected.
How does the system “know” how to build these intricate interactions? Science tells us that coherence emerges out of such complexity. The system itself behaves in such a way as to give birth to structures that live in and organize the greater whole for the purpose of sustaining the environment for all. The interconnectedness of individuals becomes the means by which the greater system sustains and perpetuates itself. Such systems react constantly to changes in the flow of energy entering the ecosystem and to variations taking place within it. Changes in rainfall affect life in a forest, and any change in rainfall filters through the whole system. If the change is not too severe, the system will adjust. If the change is too large or long lasting, the system may collapse. The resiliency of the whole works only so far in its ability to preserve and protect the vitality of life. Interconnections do not guarantee a secure future, but they do imply a cascade of changes throughout the whole. Interconnection assumes that each part, no matter how seemingly small, plays a role in the governance of the whole.
This same dynamic extends to human-constructed social systems. These also contain systems within systems, in which one may fit within an even larger one. Consider the hierarchy of neighborhood, suburb, city, county, state, and nations. Socially bounded constructs including families, socioeconomic classes, religious beliefs, and political affiliation exist within each of these political and physically bounded systems. Just as with natural systems, energy and information flow through all of them. Of course, there are important differences between human and nonhuman systems, perhaps the most important being the level of conscious engagement. We have the unique ability to transform radically our environment at a level unimagined in the nonhuman world. While there are certainly many instances in which animals manipulate their environments, these pale in comparison to what humans are capable of. Perhaps the greatest change over human history is the magnitude and speed with which we have changed our global environment. So, unlike the natural world, which reacts mainly to external disruptions, we ourselves are the source of the disruptions to our world.
How do these reflections on connectedness relate to a transformation of consciousness? Consider that collective consciousness results from a flow of energy and information within our social systems. As it is a complex system, coherent structures arise to hold us together and guide us into the future. These meaning-providing structures may be beliefs, ideas, or ideologies. Currently we are in a situation in which structures created in the past have become counterproductive to our future survival. These old constructs provide support for a few, but in the long run they are severely limiting. Rigidity opposes resilience, and these old constructs are creating a system susceptible to collapse.
Recognizing interconnectedness is extremely important in dealing with the problems in our world. For example, the U.S. populace is periodically polled on what the issues of highest priority should be for the government. Improving the economy is traditionally recognized as highest, followed by lowering unemployment, lowering the deficit, and fighting terrorism. Addressing global warming is often at the bottom of the list. These results are in stark contrast to other polls that show an overwhelming feeling among the public that protecting the environment is very important. This apparent contradiction exists because issues closer to the day-to-day demands of life are deemed more important than the environment.
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” model may help explain these disparate findings. After studying individual and social needs among Americans, Maslow proposed that our perception of needs fall along a vertical hierarchy, with the most basic needs located at the base, followed by needs related to family and community, with transpersonal experiences all the way at the top of the hierarchy. Maslow pictured this hierarchy as a pyramid of perceived needs. He argued that until our more basic individual needs like food, shelter, sex, and safety are met, we invest less attention in the higher needs. If we feel that our basic individual needs are threatened, we will focus much of our attention on them. The contrast in the polls between these priorities and protecting the environment indicates that people are concerned about their basic individual needs. They may feel that the environment is important in a more abstract, collective sense—as in we should protect the environment—but are far more affected by their individual fears around the loss of basic needs. Further research on Maslow’s hierarchy has found that different cultures have differing orderings of needs. In particular, Asian cultures place the needs of the community at a more basic level than individual needs.
How does Maslow’s hierarchy of needs relate to the interconnectedness of the world and the challenges of addressing climate change? We may choose to look at improving the economy, lowering unemployment, deficit reduction, improving national security, providing affordable energy, and addressing global warming as separate issues, but in reality they are fundamentally interrelated. Any comprehensive, enduring approach to addressing these issues requires a holistic view.
In a truly interconnected system, if you start at any particular nexus point and follow the threads connected to it, you eventually reach every point in the web. As the naturalist John Muir put it, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” In thinking within a context of interconnectedness we unveil an ecology of global values.
Let us begin with energy, an important issue for most of us. By relying so heavily on fossil fuels as our source of energy, we have built rigidity—a constraint—into our social and economic fabric. The political and economic liabilities that come with using fossil fuels have forced the United States into international conflicts costly to human life and the national economy. The fluctuation and instability in the availability of oil causes ripples in the global and national economies; thus we can see how energy cannot be viewed as separate from security, the economy, unemployment, and the national debt. Consider also that our reliance on fossil fuels results in environmental disruptions that have tremendous economic and social costs. A single severe storm, like Hurricane Sandy, causes billions of dollars of damage, and in our warming world, the likelihood of these events will increase. All of these issues are interconnected; we can no longer view our various worlds as separate. In today’s world of intricate globalization, nothing is unrelated. Knowing this to be true, we need to find solutions acknowledging these entwined worlds and build more resiliency into the global system.
Ironically, a warming world is a result of seeing the world through a lens of disconnectedness. Consider the effects of the hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, which crippled cities, destroyed lives, and left millions without energy or fresh water. A more resilient system would respond to these storms with greater adaptability. Resilient complex systems with greater interconnectivity have the ability to reorganize rapidly on multiple scales. Of course, we can build more resilient and adaptive systems with more careful engineering and social planning, but this is an old approach, one that uses our intellect to address symptoms rather than causes. We need to move beyond this toward a transformation in how we see and experience our worlds.
Transformation must start somewhere. Does it begin with the individual, or do we try to change the whole all at once? We need to recognize that change is going to occur simultaneously on multiple levels throughout our social system. In the Buddhist tradition, Indra’s net spreads across the universe, with highly reflective jewels placed at each intersection. Whatever is reflected at one point of the net is seen throughout the whole network. Imagine jewels reflecting jewels in an infinitely recursive dance of points and lights. I believe this is how transformation can take place now; each individual is a jewel in the global social network, reflecting ideas, feelings, beliefs, and actions. Change a few of these jewels, and the whole will reflect the change. This is a good way to view many of the social transformations that have occurred through time—Gandhi’s transformation of India, for example, or Martin Luther King Jr.’s participation in transforming racial inequality in the United States.
On a personal level, we must become more conscious of our actions and thoughts. If we continue to view ourselves as separate from others and the world, we continue to reflect an extremely limiting and narrow view.
How do we break through this old way of seeing the world? Do we have the capacity or potential to change our way of seeing? I believe we do: It is our inherent ability to tap into our tremendous capacity for empathy or compassion for one another and the world. Carl Jung states that what is needed more than ever in human history is to “temper our will with the spirit of love and wisdom.” Unlike physical systems, where exchanges occur as flows of energy and mass, social systems include the flow of the critical element empathy. Our ability to care, have feelings, and value others radically changes the entire process within social systems. In connecting to our capacity to care, we can effect tremendous creative change in the world. This is the true key to our transformation. How do we connect to this basic ability to care? How do we reconnect to the spirit of love and wisdom?
The importance of empathy for others becomes most apparent when it is inhibited. In such cases, the social network suffers, and all who are in the web suffer. Empathy is a grand connector across our complex web of social interactions, from the family unit to the national unit. If we are to transform our global system and create a flourishing, healthy world, we need to make the flow of empathy a priority throughout our complex social systems. Currently, our emphasis is on the flow of currency and material goods, and while these are necessary for a viable and vibrant society, without the flow of empathy, our decisions do not account for the effects of our actions on the whole. The flow of empathy is the “glue” that holds the whole together. It is the property of life that creates our connectivity to the seemingly disparate parts making up our wondrous world.
Individuals are also a system, as I have noted throughout this work. Jungian psychology views the mind as a complex system including both conscious and unconscious processes. If transformation is to take place, does this mean that every individual on the entire planet must transform before we can address issues like global warming? Jung states, “The unconscious produces contents which are valid not only for the person concerned, but for others as well, in fact for a great many people and possibly for all.”
We can understand these words in many ways. The universal patterns of perception, or archetypes, connect us through our collective reactions to images and metaphors. Certain images galvanize whole societies and lead to significant shifts in behavior. On the instinctive side, empathy acts to connect us as a whole. In the current world of global interconnectivity, there are also conscious interactions that facilitate unification. The implications of Jung’s words are that global change can begin locally and propagate quite rapidly, a phenomenon that became popularized as crossing a “tipping point.”
I imagine interconnectivity as a symphony orchestra, each instrument tuned to the others, their coordinated playing creating a patterned work of beauty. In following a score they are connected together in order to produce a melodically coherent creation pleasing to the senses. Often this cooperative creativity elevates the listener to a feeling of intense numinosity. If each musician is especially attentive to the pitch of his or her instrument and is mindful of his or her role in the symphony, then the interplay works in synchrony. The musicians flow together to create a whole that appears as a single, seamless entity. A resonance occurs in body, mind, and heart in a well-performed symphony, and with similar care and attentiveness this is what we can achieve in our social engagement with the environment.
I am particularly fond of the fugues of Bach. The fugue has an interesting structure: a single melodic theme is introduced, and then in counterpoint the theme is repeated in different tones by other parts of the orchestra. This contrapuntal echoing back and forth among the various instruments and musicians leads the listener into an expansive reverie. Fugues may contain a single theme and response, or they can be more complex, with multiple thematic elements and multitoned responses. They hypnotically circle around in subtly shaped form, musical mandalas leading one on a journey of beauty and, possibly, self-discovery.
I see our arguments on climate change as fuguelike exchanges of a single thematic element. We have experienced the opening theme, which states that we need to do something about global warming. Other groups have restated this opening statement in varying voices. The repetition of the original theme plays across a number of distinct social groups. Round and round the argument goes, with little promise of closure, for just like a fugue, the discussions on climate change never come to a close, continuing on with false endings that sound very similar to the beginning. We are caught in a fugue without a finish.
There are two key elements to any symphonic form. First, the musicians have a score before them, informing each what and when to play. The score is the grand map of the symphony, the creative fruit of the composer, and it provides coherence and form to the notes, chords, and tempo of the whole work. Without a score, the musicians would be present but lacking a telos or goal, lacking anything to lead them into the creative act of playing together.
Second, an orchestra has a conductor, who ensures that the musicians are coordinated in their creative process. The conductor interprets the score within certain constraints; for example, they define the tempo of various parts of the score and may emphasize particular aspects of the score.
Are there analogies with respect to these two factors regarding global warming? Currently, we have no score for addressing this issue; we lack a map that brings coordination and coherence to it. For decades the United Nations has attempted to write such a score; this approach struggles to find a score agreeable to all. The musicians want to create their own scores, leading to tremendous dissonance. Perhaps rather than a full symphony we need a small quintet composed of the top five emitters of carbon dioxide.
What would a score for such a flourishing future look like? Composed in the form of a fugue, it would contain an opening statement for a flourishing future for our children. In essence, we would have thought through and articulated the world we want to create for the future. This thematic statement would then be repeated by each aspect of society—in its own tonal form—amplifying in imaginative ways the creation of a future for generations to come. In the process of this contrapuntal exchange of imaginative development, the score would reveal the inherent interconnectedness of the world. As the skilled musicians in this symphony of creativity, we would address the issue of global warming in a coordinated fashion. Physical scientists, engineers, social scientists, business people, and those from the humanities and arts would create a holistic score for our flourishing future. We would be caring craftspeople of creativity, mindful of our place in the orchestra of life.
Imagining our entwined worlds as being akin to a great symphonic work informs us of what we need to do to move forward on the issue of global warming. Part of being a careful musician is to develop an ear for tones. What is the pitch, the tempo, the chord that we perceive? Similarly, we are asked to listen to what the other is saying about climate change. We are asked to attune ourselves so that we harmonize and resonate with others. Do they resonate with us? Is there dissonance in their speech? How do we bring harmony to discordant voices? These questions are important for improving our awareness of interconnectedness.
What are the key elements to working from a perspective of entwined worlds? First is the ability to take time to step away from the particulars and see the whole. We so often focus our attention on a narrow aspect of the whole and thereby miss the many connections existing in it. We need to develop our sense of reflection on the greater world.
Second, we need to develop our ability to hold the whole and not just the pieces. Often we feel we cannot grasp the varying aspects of the world’s complex nature, yet to address our problems holistically we need the capacity to hold the center in the midst of this complexity.
Third, we need to experience a sense of the whole and its parts. We need to move away from looking at the world from a purely thinking mode to one of feeling and experiencing the world in a more holistic manner. Can we develop a sense of what people in the developing world are experiencing because of economic globalization? Can we begin to recognize our contributions to environmental problems in distant lands?
Fourth, we need to become attuned and attentive to the ways that our actions affect the world. We must awaken to how our local actions spread out to distant places around the planet. What we purchase, our energy consumption, and our daily choices do affect those around the world. The forces of globalization have insured this strong social connectivity. We must recognize our interdependence of being in the world.
In my local café, I look around and see people from all walks of life, some intently staring into their laptop screens, others in conversations about personal or business matters. The barista is busily preparing coffee, and the room is animated with energy; it is the beginning of another day for everyone. I gaze at my coffee cup and see on its curved white porcelain surface reflections from around the room. I reflect on the interdependencies embedded in this cup, on the people who made it, perhaps as far away as China. I imagine them going to a factory every day, no doubt thankful for being employed and able to support their families. Their act of creating this cup has reached me today in this café. I think of the clay used to make this cup, brought up from the earth and transported to the factory. This cup connects me to earth. The cup also includes the people who transported it to the store where it was purchased. It includes the fuel used in the various vehicles transporting it, fuel that also comes from the earth. I think of the people employed in diverse places to produce this fuel, which changes our atmosphere when burned.
This single cup enfolds and entwines so many worlds. Similarly, entwined worlds exist within everything, and in each moment of life we can choose to open our eyes to this. The more we open ourselves to seeing our interconnectedness the more we will feel connected to our world, and our actions will reflect this sense of connectedness.