October/November 2005

FOUR TELEOLOGICAL MODES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
— Paul Von Ward

Although it may be the most powerful force in the universe, consciousness is the most amorphous and intangible aspect of human existence. We have a vivid dream that awakens us, thrilling or threatening, but we change position and it eludes us like a puff of cloud. An image or concept grabs our attention, but a friend telephones and we can’t recall it. Sometimes we just “know” something, but a few rational thoughts reveal it has no substance or practicality.

How do humans corral and harness such a wild and tempestuous force as consciousness, making it respond to their daily need for interaction with nature and one another? We do so by learning basic assumptions that help us make sense of our reality. We commit them to deep memory banks and act on them without thinking. They move from our active yang mood of consciousness (thinking) to our passive yin mood of consciousness (knowing). They become the “truths” that impose personal order on the data coming through our physical and subtle senses. Such a mechanism is essential to human functioning. Without this core set of assumptions, the psyche would break up from the centrifugal force of internally inconsistent beliefs.

These beliefs, considered “truths,” comprise our “worldviews” and cover most questions in life. They serve as the individual’s “lens” for interpreting self, other, and external events. The more basic ones deal with the most fundamental of questions: What is the design and purpose of nature? This teleological question requires our assumptions of fi nal causes: Why we think things work as they do. For example:

Yahweh created me. Mind rules.
God/Allah decides all. Nature is neutral.
Allah/God is just.

In this yin mood of consciousness, human behavior is guided by instinctual survival impulses and by our culturally conditioned assumptions about the nature of nature. These assumptions are largely implicit, outside of routine awareness. It requires great effort for people to even give expression to them. For the vast majority, these assumptions are simply considered to be “the truth.” Most individuals and their cultural cohorts feel no need to question them.

CHANGING OUR TRUTHS
Because these assumptions derive from cultural practices and beliefs, they are mutable through experience or new learning. We can change these worldviews through a rethinking of specifi c beliefs. Sometimes this rethinking is stimulated by a powerful subjective experience. The active mood of consciousness tests and considers alternatives (based on new inner or external evidence) to the ingrained worldview. However, such change is not easy and requires several stages of conscious transformation. The fi rst is the most simple, yet the most diffi cult: Recognition that my perception of reality is based on assumptions that may be true or may not be true. If this fi rst step does not stir up strong emotional reactions in the individual, it is likely that one is not yet dealing with worldviews as defi ned in this article.

The second step requires my identifi cation of the central assumptions I hold. This can be done by refl ecting on any event or aspect of life and asking, “What causes, principles, or forces can I imagine that could result in this outcome?” And then I ask, “Which of these do I believe is the most likely to be correct?” (The self-assessment questionnaire introduced at the end of this article illustrates for the reader how this may be done.) The next step requires that I look for evidence that supports my chosen assumption over alternatives.

When I cannot find evidence that a “nonbeliever” will agree tends to support my assumption, I must conclude that I am taking it on faith. It is this “taking on faith of one’s own or one’s group’s assumptions” as the absolute truth that leads to fragmentation of societal consciousness. In the context of religious and spiritual worldviews, the United States is in effect a “polytheistic” society.

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Let me explain. An individual is not usually polytheistic, i.e. “worshipping more than one god.” A social unit, however, can call itself polytheistic and provide for the worship of different gods, although not many do. However, this article deals with a situation where a group (a nation or some other collective) assumes everyone worships the same god, although under different names. But an analysis of worldviews may reveal that a nation is actually “polytheistic.” That is because people do not directly worship the ineffable source of all that exists. They worship their own worldview’s assumptions about it.

Thus, when fundamental divergences in worldviews exist, where the defi nitions of their god are mutually incompatible, groups actually believe and behave in a “polytheistic” way. Although they may use the same word—God, their defi nitions are so widely different that they, for all practical purposes, live under different gods. To the extent that groups believe that their concept of “god,” by whatever name, and their “god’s word” (as interpreted by them) is the Truth, they set themselves apart from all others with no less certainty than the Babylonians who worshipped Ba’al and the Hebrews who worshipped Yahweh 2,500 years ago. It is no wonder then that the Quran, from the newest of the three great supernatural religions, describes polytheism as “the path to Hell.”

Because their assumptions are taken on faith, based on a priest/ rabbi/imam’s inspirations (which are infi nite in number) and on varying levels of knowledge, over time the diverging worldviews result in deeper and deeper fragmentation of the species’ consciousness. Such diverging realities (caused by worldviews that shape the way people actually experience life) have always increased the potential for political and physical confl icts.

But to understand the depth and complexity, and the threat to human survival, of the current maelstrom of worldviews that socially and politically rend today’s world, we must look deeper than labels (the names groups use for their divine beings and give to their religions). Such analysis is necessary to understand the players in the current push for a more theocratic U.S. government.

Given their Deist perspective (belief in a creator or supreme power, but not in the anthropomorphic god of 18th-century religions), it appears likely that America’s Founding Fathers had an intuitive understanding of the competition for power that could arise among competing religious worldviews. They recognized that some groups in a “polytheistic society” (my term) with fundamentally different concepts of reality would want to impose their assumptions on others through the political process. They foresaw a struggle to impose laws that would regulate what had been private matters from one religion’s perspective. For this reason, they established secular U.S. institutions with constitutional barriers to prevent the followers of one “god” from dominating the rest of society.

This problem is not limited to religious worldviews. Scientific theories and philosophical schools are also based on assumptions and beliefs founded on partial evidence, always subject to revision based on experience. When groups holding them consider their worldviews as the Truth, and dismiss other ways of knowing, they are in effect worshipping their own divergent “realities.” Until we fi nd a way to transcend the hardened worldviews that now divide the species, we will not be able to “put the Humpty Dumpty (of human consciousness) back together again.” To help pierce this defensive shield of superfi cial labels and symbols, I have constructed a self-assessment tool to differentiate among groups at a teleological level regardless of their nominal religious or spiritual orientation. Its purpose is to provide a basis for dialogue across the barriers of deeply ingrained worldviews.

MOODS AND MODES OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
Above I described the natural yin (knowing) and yang (thinking) moods of human consciousness. They may be called the passive form “assuming” and the active form “thinking,” or, respectively, “perceiving” and “projecting.” It is through the explicit yang aspect that we can both identify the elements that make up a person’s worldview, and observe how it changes. We can participate in the change process with others.

Worldviews may be assigned to various modes in this schema depending on which type and level of assumptions are included. I have chosen in this article to deal with what I believe are teleological worldviews, or human assumptions that deal with the character and functions of human nature and the universe. In four decades of cross-cultural work on personal, scientific, political, and religious issues as a diplomat, educator, and psychologist, I have dealt with different worldviews in 100 countries. Identifying and understanding their various assumptions about the nature of reality has been essential to cross-cultural communication and cooperation.

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My work involved 15 years as a U.S. diplomat, 15 years as CEO of Delphi International, and 10 years as a cross-cultural independent scholar. From this experience, I have developed a tool that I believe can transcend language and cultural barriers. It can place people into various groups on the basis of fundamental beliefs that cut across current religious, educational, and social divides. I have chosen to use four descriptive terms for different modes of thinking that are somewhat self-evident: Material, Supernatural, Mystical, and Integral. (The modes of consciousness they suggest can be understood as actually “living in different worlds” or “different states of reality.” As worldviews, they are just that important for understanding one’s perceptions and behavior.)

The simple instrument comprises 32 questions with four possible answers to each. (Based on a forcedchoice principle, the response closest to the person’s own belief must be marked by an X even if it doesn’t exactly represent that person’s view. During the pilot phase, one may note that no answer represents his or her view. One can also suggest language that would.) Each of the responses falls into one of the four modes labeled above and described below. The scoring system clusters responses into the four modes.

The sample question/answer sets at the end illustrate the concept. Most of us have some of all four modes of consciousness or worldviews in our makeup. The scoring system is designed to profi le the relative strengths of the respective modes (basic paradigms that infl uence a person’s thoughts and actions) in terms of their importance to a person. Each mode refl ects a different approach.

I: PHYSICAL: Focuses on a material reality and depends on the fi ve senses and human technology to validate one’s beliefs. Subordinates inner experience.

II: SUPERNATURAL: Assumes a separate, divine realm from which a god rules daily events. Favors revelations from accepted translators of the truth.

III: MYSTICAL: Believes unseen and spiritual energies control events. Sees humans as spirits with the ability to directly control their reality through belief.

IV: INTEGRAL: Accepts various ways of gaining knowledge, but subjects them to consensual validation by nonbelievers. Seeks testable connections among all events.

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The questionnaire rests on the hypothesis that it covers the central basic areas of beliefs that shape an individual’s emotions and physical reactions to most categories of life experiences. With its comprehensive focus on the thinking (yang) level of consciousness, the instrument allows one to infer the underlying (yin) worldviews. These worldviews can be correlated with individual lifestyle categories and group norms. Consequently, data about worldviews can be used to predict choices that may lead to family, community, political, and economic comity or discord.

This concept and instrument is now in the pilot-study phase of development. Interested parties can participate in the pilot phase, and help shape its outcome by contacting the author at the e-mail address shown below. Feedback on the article, concept, and the instrument/ scoring package is welcome.

SOME OF THE QUESTIONS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE TESTING THE FOUR MODES OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND WORLDVIEW

6. Soulmates or life partners are probably: A. Joined fi rst in heaven. B. Through mutual self-defi nition. C. Created by hormones and chemistry. D. Made by prebirth agreement. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

7. The state of my health results from: A. A combination of several factors. B. My attitudes and belief in myself. C. Mine and my family’s divine destiny. D. Genes interacting with the environment. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

8. I see life on Earth as: A. A product of physical evolution. B. Learning lessons on the soul’s journey. C. Doing the Lord God’s work. D. Consciousness incarnate in matter. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

9. As a human, my role on the Earth is: A. To learn how nature works. B. To prove my faithfulness to God/Allah. C. To test my soul’s progress. D. To participate in Earth’s development. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

10. Government policies should: A. Serve the highest purpose. B. Refl ect God’s plan for humanity. C. Represent agreed-upon goals. D. Be the will of the majority. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

15. Tragedies occur in life: A. By accident or confusion of intentions. B. To remind people of God’s power. C. As a result of the physical laws of nature. D. Due to our inner need for course corrections. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

17. What is the relationship between God/Allah and Nature? A. God personally rules nature. B. God exists in nature. C. Nature and God are one. D. Nature has no God. E. No answer even closely represents my view. I would say ____.

21. I engage in prayer to: A. Link with the Universal Mind. B. Help me feel better psychologically. C. Communicate to God or the Trinity. D. Energize or direct my intentions. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

22. Emotional suffering comes from: A. Natural causes. B. Perceptions of events. C. Human sins. D. Human attachments. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

23. The divine or eternal realm is: A. Within natural human reach. B. Potentially knowable by humans. C. A projection of human hopes. D. Beyond human understanding. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

24. Humans are born: A. Potentially good or bad. B. Morally good. C. Ethically neutral. D. Sinners or fallen beings. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

26. Before conception humans are: A Transcendent beings of energy. B. Divine souls in waiting. C. Nonexistent. D. Potential life forms. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

27. The timing of my physical death: A. Is the choice of my soul. B. Is in God’s plan for my life. C. May involve various dimensions. D. Comes from natural or human causes. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

29. Truth is best learned through: A. Scientifi c experimentation. B. Meditation and inner channels. C. Comparing different ways of knowing. D. Revelations from God or his angels. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

31. The implicit goal of most human actions is to: A. Resolve inner and conflicting impulses. B. Achieve an immediate positive impact in the world. C. Achieve personal unifi cation with God. D. Contribute to long-term peace and health. E. No answer closely represents my view. I would say ___________.

PAUL VON WARD, now an interdisciplinary cosmologist, is the author of GODS, GENES, & CONSCIOUSNESS and OUR SOLARIAN LEGACY among other books and articles. www.vonward. com, paul@vonward.com

Second Cover Story

A BICULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON WORLDVIEWS

— Ilham Al-Sarraf