Getting Iraq right
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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Musical Transcendence
Why Athism? - Beliefnet Forums: There are certain circumstances other than religious groups where a transcendent consciousness may be experienced. On rare occasions as a musician I have felt a resonance with the audience, and as an audience member a resonance with the musician(s) in which I feel I am sharing in the experience of the music in a way that transcends my own limited capability to understand the music. My own background in music is of course part of the greater whole, but only a small part when everything works right."
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Transcendent experiences are not all that rare; they are a reflection of the operation of the human mental faculty known as "the human spirit." The mooring lines that keep us fixed in a single version of reality and that keep us under tight rational control (with the emotions surpressed)are temporarily let out by the action of the human spirit.
I think I have referred to the father of modern sociology before, Emile Durkheim; he developed the idea of Collective Effervescence (CE)in response to the phenomenon he observed during certain religious practices and other social gatherings; it is a perceived energy formed by a gathering of people as might be experienced at a sporting event, a carnival, a communal worship service; this energy can cause people to act differently than in their everyday life.
All forms of musical and theatrical performances can enable the experiences of CE, but the person must release their internal controls and ignore any other distractions.
I think we are on the same page with human spirit, CE, and Collective Consciousness. But I think the mechanism is more basic and primitive than would be indicated by terms like effervescence and spirit.
The more I think about the phenomena the more I think that emotional resonance is the natural state of a small group of humans with similar mythos. And there seems to be evidence that it exists in most social animals. Its primary evolutionary impetus is group reaction to predation, but social predators seem to make use of this resonance to coordinate hunting activities. It seems to me a small step to incorporating this into human community building activities.
The emotional controls you mention are overlaid to counter the manipulation of the group by strong leaders of any type religious or secular. But sometimes I wonder how common they really are? I see manipulation of this resonance by sport, political and religious leaders and wonder whether the rational controls are even there to be released.
I am quite uncomfortable with the use of the term "spiritual values" in describing human values (such as art, education, love, etc) from an Objectivist perspective. The primary definitions of the word spiritual refer to concepts such as religion, church, spirit or soul. Are we doing an unintentional disservice to Objectivist Philosophy when we describe some Objective values as being spiritual in nature? [In a debate with a Theist they observed we had common ground because we both believed in spiritual things.]
[Questions by Gordon Oberg]
Answered by William Thomas [2/15/2004]
Objectivists mean by "spiritual values" those values that fulfill the needs of human consciousness. The word "spirit" indeed refers in general usage to the human spirit or soul. Secondarily, it is traditionally applied to activities or institutions that are meant to address the needs or nature of the human spirit. These include, as you note, religions, churches, and the like.
Religions are associated with the spiritual due to the widespread (and false) dichotomy between mind and body. If one believes that the human soul or spirit exists apart from the material and natural body, then one might well believe, too, that the "spiritual" realm refers to a supernatural dimension, such as a heaven, or to some supernatural experience, such as an encounter with God or God's messengers.
But the mind-body dichotomy is false. Human beings are unified organisms whose minds depend radically on their material bodies to exist, and whose bodies require a healthy mind to continue to live. The words "spirit" and "spiritual" refer to real aspects of human experience, namely the mental aspects of human life.
An encounter with art that calls out our emotions and sense of life, but that does not primarily address any physical need, is a spiritual encounter, and Objectivists are not the only people to see this. You can learn more about art as spiritual experience from Alexandra York's talk on that subject from our 2004 Summer Seminar.
And so it is for the other examples you mention. The fact that there is no supernatural realm does not mean that human life is dull or empty; it does not mean that the real yearnings and idealism associated with spiritualism have no place in a rational life. This is why Ayn Rand featured a "temple of the human spirit" in her great novel, The Fountainhead. This was a temple to make man feel what was possible to him, and what greatness he embodied. To be able to project ourselves into world-spanning, destiny-altering projects is a capacity uniquely arising from our rational faculty, i.e., from our mind. To honor that capacity in man is thus to honor the human spirit.
For more on objective spiritual needs, see also Nathaniel Branden's lecture, "What are Our Spiritual Needs?".
This is where I began the "quest" for the human spirit and believe I have legitimately expanded Bill Thomas' ideas.
Here's some more from my side of the fence:
Nathaniel Branden, in his talk "What are Our Spiritual Needs?," describes spirituality as
"the longing to feel at home in the universe, to feel benevolently connected to all that exists and to the ultimate source - whatever that might be - of all that exists"
What is it that atheists have that keep them connected to the world? Values. Our values connect us to the world because we need to interact with and be a part of reality and this world in order to acquire and create the values we need. The pursuit and enjoyment of one's values define the meaning and purpose of one's life; one does not need to look to God or faith to give his life meaning and purpose.
For example, a very important value for an individual is the manner in which he spends the majority of his life's productive hours - his career. The choice of career greatly helps to define his world and his place in it. It gives him purposes and goals to pursue, and a course of action to follow in order to succeed. An atheist does not need faith or belief in God to give his career meaning; his actions are filled with the meaning his career goals give him.
During tragic and terrifying events like this recent attack, we don't suddenly need to look to faith or God. Our pursuit of values gives us the support we need by tieing us back to the world. Our values help us to restore our connection to existence. Our values are what sustain our lives and give them meaning - even at terrible times like this.
After tragedies individuals often feel a deep need to "do something," to feel efficacious. One wants to help out and to be a part of something. One may feel that they need to volunteer at a relief center or to be involved in some other kind of action that helps to make the situation a little better. A great deal of what is behind this need is an attempt to restore the torn connections with the world. One is not only trying to keep one's self busy just to avoid focusing on the tragedy, but also trying to find a purpose and place in the world by being active in it. By getting out into the world and doing something, we are trying to seek out values and maintain our connection to reality.
Take for example the thousands of courageous volunteers for the rescue efforts. Or the millions of dollars that already have been generously donated for disaster relief. These volunteers and contributors may not have lost immediate loved ones, but they recognize that they need to act to protect their values. Even in the face of heartbreaking odds, the purpose and sense of efficacy that the rescue effort gives these individuals propels them to continue and makes life during this tragedy bearable.
As the emergency is dealt with and the rescue efforts end, we need to restore our own lives back to their normal conditions. We need to get on with our own lives. We need to go back to work, back to school, and back to play. It is hard to think about enjoying your son's soccer game or to focus on a marketing campaign for your corporation's newest product. We feel guilty for beginning to enjoy ourselves again whether at home or at work. But we shouldn't, we have a right to our own lives and our own happiness. We have to get ourselves back into our lives, and this means continuing to seek and create values.
This attack was an attack on the idea that life is about seeking this-worldly values and goals. It was an attack on the principle that we do have a right to our own lives and happiness. To allow ourselves to be frightened from the pursuit of our values or to be scared into accepting restrictions on liberty, and hence our ability to seek values, does not serve our lives or our values. It is victory for the terrorists and all those who seek to destroy freedom and civilization.
But it is in going back to work and continuing with value-seeking, that we bring harmony back to our connection with existence and with others. It is in this, sometimes painful, process that we can repair the gash in our spirituality and feel at home again in our lives and in our country. And this is the greatest victory over the terror and hatred directed at us on September 11, 2001.
— Shawn E. Klein
And a little more from Dr. Brandon:
The first of the six pillars, he noted, is the practice of living consciously, and the foundation of living consciously is respect for the facts of reality. "To strive for greater clarity of perception and understanding ... is to commit ourselves to spiritual growth, the continuing development of our ability to see... . Ultimately, if spirituality is about anything, it's about cultivating our ability to see."
The practice of self-acceptance, which is the second of Branden's six pillars, "is the application of living consciously specifically to oneself ... respect for reality; but now concerning ourselves. . . . Obviously, we will like and enjoy some aspects of who we are far more than others. That's not the point. What is at issue is whether we can be open to that which we may not like or enjoy... . Spiritual growth cannot be made out of self-made blindness. The more aspects of reality a consciousness is open to seeing, and the operative word here is 'seeing,' ... the more highly evolved the consciousness, and therefore the more mature the level of spiritual development."
Self-responsibility is the third practice of Branden's six pillars, and Branden observed that "the most fundamental expression of self-responsibility is of course reliance on our minds... . To look at the world through one's own eyes and be willing to live by one's own judgment requires courage, self-trust, and intellectual conscientiousness. To be willing to be accountable for one's actions requires integrity. These are moral and spiritual values if anything is, and they are profound moral and spiritual needs if the goal is to lead a fulfilling life."
The fourth of the six pillars, the practice of self-assertiveness, is an interesting one, Branden observed, because "to the conventional mind self-assertiveness may seem like the very opposite of a spiritual value." But, he said, "when I talk about self-assertiveness I have in mind the courage to treat one's self and one's convictions with decent respect in encounters with other people, the willingness to stand up for one's ideas and to live one's values in the real world, the honesty to let oneself be visible to others-or, to say it differently, not to be so controlled by fear of someone's disapproval that we twist our true self out of recognizable form. . . . Certainly, spirituality is more to be associated with openness than with self-concealment, with candor rather than with dissembling, and with authenticity rather than with a calculated persona."
The practice of living purposefully, the fifth pillar of self-esteem, "is essential to any genuine sense of control over one's existence," Branden observed. "To live purposefully," he said, "means to think through our short-term and our long-term goals and purposes; to identify the actions we need to realize them; to keep oneself on track; and to pay careful attention to whether the outcomes produced by our actions are those we intended." To act otherwise means that a person is not a thoughtful initiator, only an impulsive reactor. "To remove oneself from the realm of purpose," Branden declared, "... is to exist on the sidelines of life, to become a nonparticipant in life. After that, no form of spirituality is possible."
The sixth pillar, Branden said, is "the practice of integrity, [which] entails congruence between what we know, what we profess, and what we do. To be loyal in action to one's understanding and professed convictions is therefore the essence of integrity. When there is not congruence but contradiction, at some level consciousness is betraying itself. If one is genuinely concerned, therefore, with the growth and evolution of consciousness, which is what a spiritual quest or commitment entails, a lack of integrity is not to be tolerated... . The issue is not so much whether we are perfect in our integrity but rather how concerned we are with correcting such breaches as might exist. In the absence of such concern, whatever our life journey is about, it's not about spiritual growth."
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