The Canadian National Newspaper: The Fellowship of Mind: Where We Should be Headed

To address matters regarding the fellowship of mind, I will need to overlook the reservations, regarding the non-scientific appropriateness of the topic of mind, that were made by my colleague the late Robert Bigelow. He had stated to me that, as a scientist, the phenomenon of mind, did not allow him to accumulate for analysis, the mix of hard objective data that science stipulates as being required, so as to accommodate any feature or any issue.. Accordingly, he stated that, although he could use science to address the presence and the phenomenon of brain, there was no such objective evidentiary material or reference context, which allowed him to address the phenomena of mind, (so that he could bring its influence to bear on his analysis of human evolution).

Although I am someone who appreciates the analytical insights which the usage of science has allowed, there is no necessity for me to buy into the parallel imputation that a degree of intellectual “fuzziness” and non viability, may be attached to exploring the proposition of a Fellowship of Mind.

I had met Robert Bigelow at a conference in the late spring to early summer of 1974. At that time I had praised the insights about the linkage of war to the evolution of human civilization , which he had presented at the IXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences - The Etiology of War. His paper was entitled “The Role of Competition and Cooperation in Human Evolution”. It also became published in the book , War, Its Causes and Correlates; Nettleship, Dalegivens and Nettleship Eds. (Mouton Publishers, 1975) p.235. In that paper, Bigelow had advanced the thesis that, human civilization has basically evolved, intimately in concert with on-going sequential predatory territorial raids, by respective groups; with the aim to seize control over territory and resources.

Furthermore, I later discovered that Bigelow had presented his arguments in more elaborate form, in the Book , The Dawn Warriors: Man’s Evolution Towards Peace; (Little Brown & Company (Canada) Limited, 1969).

The bulk of the other conferees, made it known in discussions (and also in lack thereof), that they were not happy with Bigelow’s thesis; (and I surmise that it was because what he was presenting, went contrary to “accepted” pacifist truths, that were held by his colleagues in the ethnological and the anthropological sciences). However, in discussing his arguments with him later that day, after his presentation, I communicated to him that I had found his presentation to be genuinely illuminating and stimulating. I added, however, that I was surprised, and was also uneasy at the fact that in his arguments and in his presentation, he had not accommodated into his imputation (regarding the predatory roots of human reality), any apparent emphasis on the presence, or on the role of mind, as an influence on the revealed [and more likely deduced] evolutionary path.

Bigelow’s (long ago) response to that observation which I had made to him, has percolated in my thoughts over the years since that day. In addition, and my sympathies with the scientific method have led me to subdue and to leave alone what he said, until now. Furthermore, my intent after such a long delay, to address Bigelow’s (essentially orthodox) response, grows out of my current unease at the presence of some overlooked truths that must be faced, in the evolution on which we (as humans) must now proceed.

It is also not surprising that in Bigelow’s presentation in The Dawn Warriors, he gave much emphasis to the phenomenon of the evolution of the size of the human brain, (as an impact route on what had historically occurred as a part of our human evolution). His arguments in that matter, are persuasive. Yet, the linkage between mind, and brain, may not be so simply reduced or avoided – especially when one reflects on a Fellowship of Mind.

Brain, is essentially an organic entity. It is the largest single organ in the central nervous system; and via the autonomous nervous system, it operates to co-ordinate the functional organic parts, which together execute the material survival of any host entity to this organ.

In the process, the brain also operates as a co-ordinating receptor of external stimuli (however generated). Furthermore, if it is not impaired (by accident or by disease) and is functioning organically properly, the brain also operates as an endowment of programming that co-ordinates the normal biological functioning of the host organism. In the process it operates as a storehouse of previous survival-centred correlations that had been made on data (information) about the environment in which the (biological) organism is functioning. Brain, is the possession of AN INDIVIDUAL. As a result, an in situ collection of individuals with their respective brains, also parallels the presence of a basket of potatoes with the collective presence their respective harnessed or harnessing of organic potential, and also of material capabilities.

Mind, on the other hand, IS A DOMAIN, OR A (STIMULUS) FIELD. It operates in, or functions within an existential conwillowsence, which is tantamount to a prevailing bio-electrical sentience grid. As a result, a Fellowship of Mind emerges from, or embodies the union, and the sharing, and the community, which occurs in that bio-electrical sentience grid. There, mind accommodates and orients the recording and the storage of the impulses that the brain notes and digests.

Mind, also operates as a contextual directorate, in which information becomes digested. It contextualizes the recognition, collation, ranking, and priorisation of ambient information, in light of SELECTED survival-centred targets at which the socialized entity aims.

Mind, represents an instrument of environmental reconciliation. Meanwhile, a particular brain, (that has been stimulated to comprehend the operating presence of a larger – if not the total – universe, as being also a domain to which it is connected), effectively comprehends and construes its operating presence, by drawing upon the domain of mind. As a result, under the influence of prevailing distilled objective information, the host organism of the particular brain, frames context/meaning to any voluntary (as compared to reflexive) decision that it makes to continue living. In turn, that process will be indicated by a commitment or by an intention on the part of the brain possessor, to execute (or to fit into) existential targets.

Indeed, mind, is the repository which acts as the prime basis to the individual’s recognition of the concept of (a universal) community.

Whereas BRAIN, RECORDS PARTICULAR PIECES OF INFORMATION; MIND, CATEGORIZES, RANKS, AND PRIORISES IT in light of the existential survival targets (within a construed whole), at which the entity aims. That is because the domain of mind, is the domain of be-ing; whereas, the brain is an operating organ which absorbs and correlates communicated impulses and information, against achievements that are related to the execution of material survival.

The result is that, to focus on a Fellowship of Mind, is to invite communal attention to the existential/transcendental achievement targets to the operation of mind that also point human achievements to more than material results. Meanwhile, a particularly rudimentary Fellowship of Mind exists, as indicated by the fact that humans in communities, usually form ranking systems (regarding what action responses of individuals will be the tolerated). The respective individuals brain holders, are therefore somewhat aware of the presence of a shared mind, even though they are not aware as to how their commitment to the shared rankings of likely outcomes, was either generated or came about.

It is notable, for example, that on being aware of their mortality, and of the presence of a larger universe (which behaves responsively to some of their initiatives, as well as behaves noticeably autonomously to some of their prevailing capabilities), humans have also tended to create a common societal perception and weighting, by forming various types of organized religions. These religions have tended to communicate various types of superstition about how reality came about, and also to promote conforming behaviours within those superstitions.

In contrast, as a result of its attunement to the wider material universe, mind, requires individuals to pursue and to use objective information so as to develop a technical understanding of reality and its tolerances, as a basis for selecting among survival commitments/targets.

Within an awareness of the potential Fellowship of Mind, possessors of the human brain are being invited to become more existentially self aware, (as a part of their coping strategies with their environment). Singly, as well as in their groups, the reality and the Fellowship of Mind will lead humans to appreciate the diversity of which they are apart. Humans who are participating in that fellowship, will then be able to frame a path of their survival, that is much more sophisticated than the animal-like process (of predation, in assimilation of territory toward more secure sustenance), which is the path of evolution that Bigelow had reported on them as following.

Initiatives to enhance the quality-of-living of humans, will be one of the targets within a society that is articulated within a Fellowship of Mind. However, facilitating that enhancement in the quality of living of humans, is not likely to emerge in a universe where operating (local) resident governments, are complicit in the management and the usage of local material resources, primarily toward facilitating the increase in financial returns, to banks and other large corporations.

Notably, too, an environment which is committed to accommodating and to facilitating the Fellowship of Mind, will also be committed to promoting the practices of empathy and of mutuality; rather than committed to facilitating the practices of greed and of predatory exploitation (as the terrain in which the local expression of mind is limited to evolve). v Indeed, Western civilization, with all of its PROFESSINGS and its claims that it is guided by the pursuit of scientific truths, IS NO MORE THAN A FRONT MECHANISM for the sentience-beclouding materialist exploitation of the resources as well as the people of planet earth, in behalf of greed and financial-equivalent profits. What this civilization seeks to generate, are, mental slaves to those exploitive materialist objectives. A Fellowship of Mind, in a universe of souls, is alien to the greed-centred selfishness-promoting materialist goals of this civilization.

At the same time, a Fellowship of Mind is not a terrain that is built around the guilt-reinforcing and dogma-discharging religions. Rather, that fellowship (of the mind), is based on respect and awe at the integrated complexity of our universe.

A Fellowship of Mind, also represents an invitation to us to draw on the potential usage of our respective brains, to embark on establishing and executing information-guided linkages to our universe. Furthermore, the existential conwillowsence and the shared bio-electricexistential sentience grid, (which envelopes the reality of mind, as a prevailing guidance and weighting framework to stimulus response), also requires that, in our operations, we will need to execute respect for each other. That is because, we each comprise a functioning minuscule portion of the awesome reality of the context of be-ing in which we share, as respective components in our universe.

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