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Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination. For in a civilization equipped with immense technological power, the sense of alienation between man and nature leads to the use of technology in a hostile spirit---to the "conquest" of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with nature. Alan Watts Just a thought, we are often inhibited by our own little circle of society, friends family ect..,as well as society at large. I remember when I was considerable younger coming to the conclusion that there is a kind of subconscious conspiracy by society in both these instances, to convince one that reality is pretty hum-drum, that is just the way it is, its kind of monday morning grey. That is obviously the message of ones context speaking and the context does believe it, but what a terriable disservice to life. Ones everyday routine sometimes adds to the height of a tideous repetition and the colouring of your reality,so to make a transition like this, it is an individual effort in most cases, you will not be aided by the context you find yourself in. We have however a rather unusual context here at the philosophy forum, and that might make to transition all the more likely. What do you think?:eek:
Where there are no flowers there are no bees, where there are no bees there are no flowers---------coevolution! How might coevolution apply to the existence of man,in that great relational net, what are the most apparent inter- relationships linking man to the world at large? Is water not part of what it is to be a fish----------------come folks, I am fishing here!I am truly a neophyte when it comes to all matters philosophical, and quite new to this forum, so please excuse my humble beginnings, and picking up discussions that appear to have been over several months ago...I have some catching up to do.
I think duality comes naturally to humans - ebb and tide, wax and wane, night and day, left and right. Maybe it has to do with our bilateral symmetry. Who knows - if we had evolved with three hands, eyes, and ears, perhaps we would have a tendency toward a triumvirate categorization of natural order.
But I think, as an admitted bilateral-symmetricist, that duality represents not discrete opposites with discernable boundaries, but opposite poles of a continuum...
And hey, without duality, there would be no Star Wars (and I loves the Star Wars...).
I do not think my (current) bipolar view of natural order necessarily interferes with a sense of connection with my surroundings (whether social, biological, planetary, or universal). I guess I thought the interconnectedness of all things was kind of a no-brainer even for 20th century humans, Western or no. I don't mean to trivialize the significance religious relics have had (are having) on the course of many societies, but when we're talking about thinking people, I believe there's not much dissention on the point. Am I missing something? Or someone?
As for Allan Watts' statement that this lack of awareness is a hallucination?I think the primary issue is sensory deprivation, while hallucination is a secondary phenomenon - cause-effect, not equal status. The brains of people whose senses are deprived for even a few hours will by necessity fill in details that might not exist, at least in the physical sense. These experiments have taken place over many years, originally as a form of torture - isolating people in dark, soundproof rooms, and giving them no temporal cues (eg, regular meals). Individuals in nearly all cases reliably begin to "see" and "hear" things that aren't physically there, and are highly open to suggestion, (eg, by interrogators?). In short, their brains are desperately grasping for context.
In the absence of the ability (or will) to look outside humanity, into the whole planet or even universe for context, doctrine will fill the void?artificially, in my opinion, but hey, it's me (and presumably you) vs. millions of religious adherents.
I think with the matter of duality the attitude should not be either/or, as a functional reality, duality it is, but also realizing that there is no totality in fact for us to observe, thus we are all parts of something larger than ourselves. I have less trouble with religion now that I understand that it is an emotional response, anti-intellectual really. This is a lot of peoples response to the insecurity of wonder, they do not wonder, they know that a supernatural father watches over his sheep---------lol!! 
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