The Ghost in the Machine
“The rhythms of nature underlie all of human interaction: religious traditions, economic systems, cultural and political organization. When these human forms betray the natural psychic pulse, people and societies get sick, nature is exploited, and entire species are threatened.”[1]
The very nature of being human means we are necessarily individuals, but by no means is this a sufficient definition. We are beings who are more than just a sum of our parts, we contain “selves,” that are both conscious/individuated and unconscious/boundless. We are expressions of the infinite within the finite, we are the expression of paradox; we are both located in a particular time and space, and, impossible to locate. Because it is easier to identify with that which is tangible, seen, and quantifiable, our culture has moved towards a religion of science. These things, these physical, manifest things have never betrayed us, they simply are. Faith, however, is a much more treacherous path, one where it is possible to be lead astray and commit unspeakable acts in the name of unseen, and thus, unaccountable forces.
[1] Stephen Aizenstat, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, ed. Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen Kanner (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995), 93.