THE HOLOTROPIC attractor is a subtle but fundamental drive or “lure” affecting complex and coherent systems in the biosphere. It is the imprint of the universe on living systems, and it affects the perceptions and the behavior of these systems.
In the systems of the human species, the lure of the holotropic attractor can reach waking consciousness. Whether it does so depends on whether we, human systems, overcome the beliefs and convictions that mask or block the reception of this lure. On the deeper, subconscious level, the holotropic lure does, of course, leave an imprint. When we feel one with another person, or with some part or feature of nature, we apprehend the trace of the holotropic attractor. But just how does this imprint of the attractor appear in our waking consciousness?
We should keep in mind that the holotropic lure appears with various degrees and levels of intensity. Its manifestation ranges from a subtle feel of “being one” with a person, or even with a tree or a waterfall, to the deepest and most intense love we can feel for person, or for all of humanity, or for the whole of nature. These feelings and perceptions appear spiritual because they transcend the reach of the eye and ear—and because they usually come to the fore in the consciousness of people we consider spiritual. Yet they are not “esoteric”—they are not beyond our experience of the world.
The experience and experiments of psychologists and parapsychologists testify that spiritual experiences are not extraordinary: they are relatively frequent occurrences in the experience of sensitive people. They occur mostly in meditative, exalted, or otherwise altered states of consciousness, where the “chatter” of the everyday world is not dominant. Then people can become aware of a subtle lure in the depth of their consciousness.
The awareness of our intrinsic connection with people, and with nature and the universe is a radical departure from the way we conventionally view the world. In the conventional view, our sense of oneness with people and nature is a fantasy. This view is still dominant in the modern world, but it is the wrong view. It can be, and needs to be, challenged and overcome.
The emerging worldview of the quantum sciences helps us overcome the obsolete and still dominant view. Stating that emerging worldview was the objective of Part I of this book. Now, in Part II, we address the practical implications of the emerging view. Can we bring our intrinsic connection to the world the emerging view tells us is the correct view, to the level of waking consciousness? Can we act on the wholeness and oneness that would then surface in our consciousness?
The challenge is to connect, more exactly to reconnect, with the holotropism in the world around us. As we shall discuss, this is of crucial importance in our time. It could change us, and change the world around us.
We approach the task of reconnection by first reviewing holotropic developmens in the world around us, and then asking how we could becone holotropic ourselves, so as to effectively connect with or reconnect with the holotropism that in-forms the world.