Evolution. The theory supposes an ongoing process. We, according to the theory, should be evolving. Right now. A significant difference between homo sapiens ("wise" or "knowing" human) and the rest of the primates, I think, is that we have the capacity for consciously choosing to evolve. I really like the idea of evolving, consciously. That is premised on making the choice to evolve. But, evolve into…what?
Deciding to sprout wings, or have our bad teeth grow back like a lizards tail may not be the must efficacious avenue for such an ambition as conscious evolution. Our biology and genetics will likely not want to play ball with such imaginings, not on short order. However, our consciousness might be more game on the idea, and in fact, our DNA might be suggesting it.
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell thought it might be worth exploring what the next phase of evolution might look like, and went so far as to name it; Homo Noeticus ("inner knowing"human). He co-founded the Institute for Noetic Sciences with Paul N. Temple in 1973 to do just that. During Edgar's return trip to Earth on Apollo 14, he had what he called an epiphany concerning the human condition in the scheme of things: "The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes ... The knowledge came to me directly…"
Edgar's didn't claim a religious conversion or decide to become a born again, zealously campaigning for Team Jesus, though the description of his experiences mirror what many born-again's describe as their own. But this was a man who's perspective on the world was afforded by science. His objective realization was not facilitated by a church (though his experience might have had some help from being spawned in a Christian dominated culture). Of course, this experience of divinity does not belong to the province of astronauts (for many described similar realizations) or Christians alone, but has been reported by people of all religions and practices, and enjoyed a lot of air time out of the mouths of psychedelic seekers since the cultural revolution of the 1960's. I consider the premise of Edgar's institute as laudable in my opinion. Even if the endeavor was a bunch of New Agey hooey as the critics claim, I admire and respect his taking the unpopular road of exploring inner-space and challenging the cultural narrative of a Judeo-Christian God.
As far as the "Sheeple" notion. Sheep are going to flock, with or without a Shepard, and humans, with or without a chief, are going to tribe. Traditionally, the black sheep of the flock and tribe both have had a harder go of it. Being conspicuous in the wild invites predators, so, one can see an attractive evolutionary advantage to belonging.
There are a myriad of shepherds of the human flocks. Some honor their charge of protecting, some sheer the fleece too close. Some lie their way into their roll to devour, some sacrifice themselves in earnest. But the flock will accept one or the other arbitrarily. Holding up a mug shot of a wolf, real or imagined, is often enough to scare a consensus into them. "Outside the consensus lurk the devourers, so, I will hang with the flock rather than take my chances."
A central aspect of the Homo Noeticus that Edgar's was interested in was what the institute termed "integral intelligence," or a working awareness of the oneness of life. For convenience, I'd like to focus on the notion of the oneness of humanity as a single body.
Within this body of humanity we can find the brains, the immune system, the nervy people, the muscles, etc. The body won't do much without coordination between all the parts of the organism. The brains may tell the muscles to start the feet in the direction of nourishment, but not without a signal from the gut. After that task has been completed, the asshole becomes necessary. Coordination (cooperation) is not negotiable if the body is to survive another day. From my own experience of operating a body, conflict cannot be avoided. My sex organs have caused problems for my brain, and vice verse. My brains have motivated me to do things for the sake of my adrenals at the expense of my flesh and bones. In spite of all this, life still endorses my being.
Who knows whom we are dealing with when we interact with other people. We may be dealing with a scatological function, someone we feel is "talking shit." How we deal with that can help us understand our own function. If we can relax enough, we may facilitate a healthy movement. Trying to stop it out of repulsion may not be good for the system as a whole. This can be where we make a conscious choice to honor the asshole and let it do it's duty. Or we can make a conscious choice to be a sphincter muscle and contract the anus. When we choose to identify our personal being with the body of humanity, we can be mindful of the appropriate time for all these functions, but the herds/tribes/body goes a long way to inform us what that appropriateness may be.
Homo Sapiens are capable of this kind of integral awareness, and through the exercising of this mindfulness of our interconnection, integral intelligence can be developed. I wonder if the Homo Noeticus may not be a new kind of human to develop in the future, distinct from the Sapien, but a necessary function of the human species right now. High functioning Sapiens have an awareness of the body of humanity, the interconnectedness of it with our environment, and all other life within it. But perhaps the function of the Noeticus concerns itself with that awareness of life, as well as the notions of life beyond that, in and out of time, on and beyond this planet. Someone has to do it.
So, where does the heart fit in all this? It's a mystery. The brain doesn't tell the heart to beat. The heart can continue beating even if the brain is "dead." The heart can continue to provide life for all the other parts of the body, even with no brain to put those parts into action. For a while. Some say the heart, the motor for the life-blood, has it's own intelligence capable of overriding the brain, and seems to have impulses that are as counter intuitive as they are powerful. The head holds our vision, but the heart tells the head which way to look and motivate the body into action. It can seem as though the heart doesn't care what price the body and mind pays for it's mysterious motivations, even as it pumps life into every part of them. Sometimes this doesn't work out so well, as far as the body, or the brain's perspective, and a resistance forms in the system.
I have so over metaphored. I'll try some science sounding stuff now.
The Internet told me that a Russian biophysicist named Vladimir Poponin made some interesting discoveries in the early 1990's concerning the nature of human DNA. The story goes something like this;
Poponin put some human DNA in a container and blasted it with photons. The random acting photons then glommed onto the DNA. When the DNA was removed, the photons continued to hold the DNA spiral form in what has been called the "phantom effect." It was surmised that we are leaving phantoms all around us as we move about, phantoms specific to our particular DNA, at a particular moment.
Conventional Science has begun to rethink the function of the 98% of human DNA called "noncoding" or "junk" DNA. Because noncoding DNA does not encode proteins for sequences, it was believed that it had no biological function. More recently however, various functions have been attributed to sections of the "junk" DNA including pseudogene sequences that "appear to accumulate mutations more rapidly than coding sequences due to a loss of selective pressure." and "allows for the creation of mutant alleles that incorporate new functions that may be favored by natural selection; thus, pseudogenes can serve as raw material for evolution and can be considered 'protogenes.'" This noncoding DNA could be considered a kind of biological 'open mic' that allows new talent to take the stage and catch the attention of the organism. The Internet also told me that scientists were able to detect a contracting of our DNA when we are experiencing anxiousness or fear, and that the DNA had an expansive quality when were were experiencing compassion, or love. So we could be walking around leaving stroboscopic phantoms in our wake in the shape of our contracted or expanded DNA, depending on how we feel that moment.
So, when we choose to look at our fellow humans with love and compassion, we are creating ghosts of our condition that others unwittingly encounter. At the same time, our DNA can "wear" this condition, to try it on for size to see if it wants to walk out of the store with it. Inversely, when we choose to carry the burden of fear based emotions, we cancel the open mic and stick with the golden oldies.
So, to go back to the sheeple thing: The sapien resists anything not of it out of survival fears, and thus perpetuate their state, where a Noeticus can walk amongst them, incognito, all the while shedding impressions of an integral intelligence that leaves a very real impression; people in sheeple clothing.
If humanity is ailing, the affliction comes from within. Our right arm has a mind to punch us in the head while the left arm reaches behind our back, trying to hold our butt cheeks together. Meanwhile the left and right brain argue over control, forgetting they are one. Let us pray that our DNA has a plan to get us through this mess.
Or, we can choose to trust that it will, and in that trust serve an integrative function.
