China Oz

2006-03-20T14:30:00.000+08:00

The Terrible Truth About modern China.

For those unsuspecting fools that believe rumours of China's liberalisation, here is the damning evidence that settles the issue once and for all. All those coming to China will suffer terrifying punishments for even the slightest offence. There is no pain like being "amerced" good and proper.

Bright lights in the night

2006-03-19T22:54:00.000+08:00

Some people ask me how I got interested in knowledge that might be considered "alternative" in some circles. Here isa little story that certainly helped me along my way!

So here goes my story, and 100% true. There is a bit of prelude, so forgive me. In 1996 I was living in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia - a small coastal town. One day I was walking along the street, and I saw a sign which read: "Psychic readings, $10" Now I had never had a psychic reading, and was just in the process of discarding a typically hard, patriachal empiricist western facist worldview, so I went inside and met a woman named Leslie who gave me a "reading."

Now to cut a long story short, I ended up going to one of her talk/meditation evenings a few weeks later. At the end of the talk she told me that she had had lots of dreams about UFOs the previous night.

"Whenever I have these dreams there are lots of UFO sightings around," she said. "So if you go out tonight you may see something. I feel that 2am would be the right time."

Now being the gullible fool that I am, I decided to take up the offer. I went to bed at about 11pm, but set my alarm for 1.45 am. So I managed to drag myself out of bed at that hour. I stumbled around my unit for 15 minutes, and then headed outside at 2.00am sharp.

Well, my eyes almost popped out of my head when I swung the door open, and looked up at the sky. For flying right in front of me in the clear night sky was something I had never seen before. I can only describe it as a large (about a third the size of a full moon) ball of luminous white light. It was probably a few hundred metres in the air, adnd was flying/floating eastwards at about 60 degrees above the horizon, in front of me. There was absolutely no sound, and it seemed to be gliding on air. I can only describe it as eerliy unearthly. I ran out onto the road, and watched it disappear over the neighbours' houses. In total it was in view about 30 seconds.

Now, since it was heading east, and since I was in a rather excitable state, I headed down to the beach, which was only a few hundred metres in an easterly direction from where I lived. I walked up and down the beach for an hour, but saw nothing else. Finally I gave up, and decided to head back to bed. I walked back down the short street to my home, and up the driveway. As I was about to duck into the doorway (I'm rather tall) I looked up one last time. Once again my eyes nearly jumped out of my head. I'm not pulling your leg, when I tell you I saw something totally different, but equally amazing as the first ball of light. For, flying directly over my head (and I mean it was directly up) there was a group of about 20 red, circular lights flying in a double triangle formation. Again there was no sound, just eerie silence. As far as I could tell it was a group of circular red flying objects, flying in a double triangle formation, one triangle inside the other. The objects flew in a southerly direction, along the coast. They seemed to be a few hundred metres in the air, and disappeared over the horizon (there were some trees at the end of the road), again in about 30 seconds.

I have had quite a few "interesting" experiences since that day, but probably nothing quite so extraordinary. Of all the things that set me on a path of questioning dominant knowledge strutures of western society, this experience was probably the most significant.

2005-11-11T17:57:00.000+08:00

The mad house - Lan Kwai Fong, Halloween's Eve.

2005-11-11T17:56:00.000+08:00

Late afternoon before the Big Buddha, Lantao Island, Hong Kong.

2005-11-11T17:53:00.000+08:00

Tai O village, near Lantao Island, Hong Kong.

2005-11-11T17:52:00.000+08:00

Why Hong Kong drives many people nuts.

2005-11-11T17:50:00.000+08:00

The front view from our new place, Tai Po, Hong Kong.

2005-11-11T17:48:00.000+08:00

My wife, Emma, strolling along Lan Kwai Fong, Halloween night.

2005-11-11T17:41:00.000+08:00

Me,speaking before a packed house at the Tamkang Conference! Actually, it was a big room and most people were behind the photographer. Honest!

2005-11-11T17:39:00.000+08:00

Physicist Michio Kaku speaks at the Taipei conference

The Past Present and Futures of Intelligence

2005-10-21T09:05:00.000+08:00

Here's a paper I'm presenting at a futures conference in Taiwan shortly. Sorry, some of the formatiing, esp. diagrams doesn't come out properly.

Abstract
This paper traces the past, present and future of intelligence, with a particular focus upon integrated intelligence. The concept of intelligence is situated within a genealogy of the development of the western mechanistic worldview and its preferred rational ways of knowing. It establishes the relationship between this development and defining moments in dominant discourses within modern biological science, psychology and intelligence theory in the scientific era. Lastly three possible scenarios regarding the futures of intelligence discourse are posited.

A Genealogy of the Western Rationalist Hegemony

Introduction and Overview
This paper traces the development of intelligence theory from ancient times through to the present, and then posits three potential futures for dominant intelligent discourse. The idea of intelligence will be situated within a civilisational perspective, and in particular the western rationalist hegemony. Thus the development of western theories of mind is first traced, up until the beginnings of the modern era. Then seminal relevant moments within modern psychology and science are identified. Finally, the three potential scenarios are stated, extrapolating from the past and present.

Diagram 1: Schema Depicting Layers of the Problematic re. Dominant Contemporary Representations of Intelligence and Mind

1. The mechanistic paradigm
2. Ways of knowing
(rational modes: incl. experimental, classificatory, and technological)
3. Molecular Biology and the neo-Darwinist paradigm
4. Neuroscience
5. The field of psychology
6. Specific theory/theorist of intelligence

The seminal historical moments which have created the modernist discourses on mind and intelligence will be identified via genealogy. Genealogies seek to determine which discourses have been victorious in constituting the present, how they have traveled through history, and the points in which the focus issue has become contentious. (Inayatullah, 2002: 27) This paper identifies seminal events in the history of western rationality, wherein the mechanistic worldview became dominant (and thereafter largely implicit and unconscious). It analyses the philosophy and/or science within which these events have been embedded. The focus is upon the relationship of this process to dominant mainstream mechanistic depictions of mind and intelligence within modernity.
In regard to the positing of intelligence theory within current dominant discourses, the argument can be depicted as with Diagram 1, above. In the diagram above each level is defined and mediated by the level preceding it.
The employment of ways of knowing - mediated by historical, civilisational and paradigmatic factors - has vitally affected the development of science and scientific conceptions of intelligence and consciousness. The argument here is predicated upon an essential distinction between rational and intuitive ways of knowing. This is illustrated in Diagram 2, below.
There are two intuition types posited here. Inferential intuition is a mundane representation of intuition. It is a subconscious processing of experiential and sensory knowledge. It incorporates no metaphysical or mystical components. (Torff and Sternberg, 2001) It is the preferred way to depict intuition within modernist discourses. Classical intuition is the second intuition type, which is intuition defined in metaphysical and/or transcendent terms. Historically it has most commonly been depicted in spiritual and mystical texts and forms a part of numerous mystical traditions. Integrated intelligence is a subset of this. This intelligence incorporates transpersonal experience that transcends the boundaries of the individual – it is in effect a collective human and universal intelligence. (1) It is the interplay between integrated intelligence and rationality that is the prime focus of the genealogy to follow.
There are five rational ways of knowing listed in Diagram 2, and they can be seen as subsets of the broader general concept of rationality, which is “the power of the intellect to comprehend, reflect, abstract, analyse, and draw conclusions.” (Rohmann, 1999: 337)
Firstly, classification (natural history) is “notebook science”, and is “about describing and collecting, identifying and classifying, utilizing and displaying.” (Pickstone, 2000: 60) Natural history as a way of knowing dominated science beginning around the year 1500, when medieval anatomy texts featured naturalistic diagrams. (Ibid.: 63) Secondly, analysis as a way of knowing can be seen in science’s analyses of the structures, processes and forms of plants and animals. Analysis also incorporates the earth and social sciences, which began to emerge around 1800. (Ibid.: 106) Thirdly, experimentalism is “about making and displaying new worlds”. Experimentalism emerged around the mid-nineteenth century. (Ibid.: 30) Mathematics as a way of knowing has been added here because its significance in the development of the modern world and science is so great that it requires a category in its own right. Logical-mathematical intelligence is employed to calculate and quantify mathematical problems, and secondly to examine hypotheses and propositions. Finally, rational/linguistic intelligence is the capacity to use language and words to construct and understand thoughts, ideas and meanings. (Gardner, 1993)
Attention now turns to the genealogy itself.

Diagram 1.5 Rational and Intuitive Ways of Knowing and Integrated Intelligence

Rationality

Ways of Knowing

Intuition
Inferential
Intuition
Classical Intuition
Classification
Analysis
Experiment
Math/logic
Linguistic
Intelligence
Integrated
Intelligence .Intelligence

The Past: From Ancient Greece to the Birth of the Modern Secular State
The emergence of rationalism in ancient Greece
Ancient Greek culture was premised upon integrated conceptions of intelligence, where divine and sacred space were closely intertwined. (Shapiro 1992: 6; Tarnas, 2000) Yet Greek society also developed a rational representation of nature, cosmos and consciousness which was to be seminal in the development of the mechanistic paradigm. The history of ancient Greece was one in where scientific and mechanistic models of mind and cosmos were in constant interplay with more metaphysical and spiritual conceptions. (Tarnas, 2000)
The rational mind was well represented. Aristotle defined mankind as a rational animal, an increasingly prevalent theme in the ancient Greek world. The schools established by Plato and Aristotle valorised logic, geometry, and “disputation.” (Gardner et al., 1996: 33) The mathematical predilections of Archytas, Pythagoras and Plato (Sheldrake, 1994: 2005a,b) were also significant. The social sciences that Plato founded at his Academy were predicated upon mathematical models. (Brumbaugh, 1981: 139) Greek rationality has influenced both science in general and consciousness and intelligence theory into the twentieth century, helping shape the dominant view that intelligence is the capacity for abstract reasoning in mathematics and language. (Gardner et al., 1996)
Further, the atomistic tradition of materialism - inspired essentially by the changeless and atomistic conceptions of Parmenides - later contributed to the seventeenth century idea that the universe is mechanistic and changeless. (Tarnas, 2000) The universe of the ancient Greeks was a world of separate “blocks”, and thought was sequential and linear. This would evolve into the civilisation-defining “sequence trap” (de Bono, 1986; 56), which requires that a person be “right at each stage” and thus be able to “keep going forwards”. (Ibid., 60) Notably the “sequence trap” stultifies the fluidity and receptivity (an openness to non-local mind) that is the basis of integrated intelligence. (2)
The philosophy of the ancient Greeks also “implanted the philosophy of dualism very firmly in the western psyche.” (Ross, 1993: 39) Ancient Greece was a culture that “separated God and nature, mind and body, males and female, master and slave and cause and effect.” (Ibid.: 39). The predicates of scientific objectivity were present in the ideas of Thales, Anaximenes and Heraclitus. (Ibid.: 40) These men were practical-minded, and sought understanding through observation, which allowed them to discern the theories of basic elements. (Ibid.) The Western psyche became enamored by the idea of a metaphysically stratified cosmos. Platonic metaphysics entailed a strong dualism – divinity, mind and reason were clearly differentiated from the body and matter, including nature. (Ibid.) For Plato (and for Socrates), truth was something that was available through perfect reason. (Zohar, 1994: 108) This single, ultimate knowable truth later became the foundation of enlightenment science. (Ibid.)
Further, the Socratic method was a question and answer process, with an emphasis on the status of the individual to challenge the polity of the state, and the consensus of society. It was a thus a precursor of modern western intellectual individualism. Socrates also claimed that he did not know anything with certainty, and tended to employ hypotheses instead of didacticisms. (Brumbaugh, 1981: 126, 129), foreshadowing scientific skepticism. The stoics and skeptics of the later Hellenic era were even more rationally declined, yet without the spiritual inclinations of the mystics. (Tarnas, 2000)
These rational ancient Greek conceptualisations deeply influenced the development of modern western thinking, including its depictions of consciousness and intelligence. This interpretation of Greek thought that was revived during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment would ultimately become one of the dualism of mind and matter, of rigid conceptualisations, and linear and sequential thinking. Yet the metaphysical predilections of the ancient Greeks would not endure to the same degree. The transcendent mind of Plato and Socrates, including the divine and transcendent nous which even Aristotle embraced, would become a footnote; while the rationalism of Aristotle would fill the main pages of university texts.

“Rational” Christianity and the suppression of the mystical
The development of modern science was also indirectly influenced by Christian theology. The idea that the world has a rational and coherent order, that the world is a machine, and that a divine being created the world according to “number, weight and measure”, are all medieval themes elucidated by Christian clerics and philosophers. (Huff, 2003: 40-41) Indeed, the idea of laws of nature has Judeo-Christian groundings. Both Newton and Copernicus held a realist interpretation of the world, founded on the theological belief that men are imbued with reason and conscience, empowering them to find “subjective certitude beyond objective demonstration”. (Nelson, 1991: 158-159)
The theology of St Augustine (AD 354-430) was crucial. (Ross, 1993; Wilber, 2000b: 372) Augustine’s was a decidedly “otherworldly” philosophy, deriding the body and sexuality as evil and as being of original sin. (Rohmann, 1999: 33) Augustine also denied the feminine, a cornerstone of mysticism. (Ross, 1993) Later scholasticism would dominate Christian theology, from about 1000 to 1500. Its prime method was the scholastica disputatio, whereby faith was subjected to reason via questioning and evidence. Scholasticism formed the foundation of all schooling and university education up till the twentieth century. (Rohmann, 1999: 353) Notably, the scholastics leant heavily on classical philosophers, especially Aristotle, and early Church fathers, particularly St. Augustine. (Ibid.) Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Newton were all products of the procrustean and scholastic universities of Europe. (Huff, 2003: 344)
Christianity has strong pagan, and animistic roots. (Frazer, 1914) Shamanism, visionary experience and prophecy were all apparent in early Christian thought and practice. (Sheldrake, 1994: 185) However, orthodox Christianity came to discourage mystical experience. The Church, both Protestant, and Catholic, denied the body and the experience of mysticism.
The dualism of Plato and the ancient Greeks was adopted by the early Christian Church, with matter seen as lower and the divine as higher. From the time of Augustine to the time of Copernicus, the Church valorised the divine and the angelic, but reviled the body and the Earth. The Church “held out the goal of perfect Ascent in Christ” while simultaneously “prohibiting it” (Wilber, 2000b: 419), discouraging spirituality as “an ongoing living experience.” (Ross, 1993: 41) Indeed it repressed Gnostic Christianity (which was prominent up until about 300AD) and mysticism, which not only saw gods and the divine in nature, but encouraged the development of personal spiritual experience as a source of knowledge. (Ross, 1993: 41) Instead a “theological elitism” prevailed, with the clergy as the source of revealed wisdom. This put the divine beyond the reach of the common people. In effect the physical world was “despiritualised.”(Ross, 1993: 41)
In medieval Europe the Church rejected persecuted those who practiced or preached ideas such as the immanence of God, accessibility to divine intelligence (and not via the revelation of the clergy), and pagan and druidic rituals and philosophy in general. Witchcraft, a form of paganism, was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Europe, while in America the Puritan clergy often targeted strong and independent women. The rejection of mysticism meant that western ways of knowing remained centred upon external modalities; the world of the senses, rather the internal world of consciousness. (Ross, 1993: 150)
The Protestant reformation was itself deeply influenced by Augustinian thought. Martin Luther (1483-1546), the prime instigator of the Protestant reformation (Rohmann, 1999: 239) was an Augustinian monk. The reformation reinforced an “intellectualised” way of knowing, based on biblical interpretation, not union with the divine. This theology established “a great faith in reason”. (Huff, 2003: 6)

The re-introduction of Aristotle in the 11th and 12th centuries
A shift in locus of power from clergy to scientist occurred over several centuries, and this shift both featured (and was mediated by) the continued shift towards predominantly rational ways of knowing. Huff writes that:

What laid the foundations for the scientific revolution was Europe’s unique synthesis of Greek philosophy… Roman law… and Christian theology. (Ibid.: 317)

Huff (2003) argues that the introduction of Aristotelian thought into Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries was the real point at which scientific rationalism emerged. (Ibid.: 19) Huff argues that there was a powerful intellectual and social revolution beginning at approximately the twelfth century. Reason and rationalism were valorised as a means to truth, something which was “deeply embedded in the vocabulary and discourse” of the Europeans of this period. (Ibid.: 187)
Huff states that this shift:

…was both sponsored by and motivated by the idea that the natural world is a rational and ordered universe and that man is a rational creature who is able to understand and accurately describe the universe. Whether or not men and women can solve the riddles of existence, so this view goes, they are able to advance human understanding mightily by applying reason and the instruments of rationality of the world we inhabit. (Ibid.: 1)

Further, the organised skepticism associated with science began no later than the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Biblical criticism was common in schools and universities, where rational demonstration was valorised and believed to grant humanity the capacity of comprehending the universe and nature “with or without the aid of Scripture.” (Ibid.: 340)
At this time the shift in university education was a direct result of the re-introduction of the Aristotelian emphasis upon “explaining the world in terms of fundamental elements, causal processes, and rational enquiry.” (Ibid.: 339) For this was the cornerstone of the arts curriculum through which students passed before studying the higher faculties of law, theology and medicine. (Ibid.) This system was still in place when Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus were developing modern physics and astronomy. (Ibid.) By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries European universities were establishing a scientific curriculum “within neutral zones of intellectual autonomy which allowed philosophers and scientists to pursue their agendas free from the dictates of the central state and the religious authorities.” (Ibid.: 317-318) This represented a new naturalistic, intellectual agenda: an open forum, where scholars could ask questions, and indeed they were taught how to do so. (Ibid.: 318)
Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, in order to aid the teaching of astronomy in universities, the “corpus astronomicus” (new scientific knowledge which included standard texts, scientific instrumentation and collections of data) was also introduced. Thus a new “arithmetic mentality” emerged. (Ibid.: 346)
A parallel legal revolution led to the creation of new forms of social interactions, group and social agency, as well as new areas of autonomy in the intellectual and political domains. Notably:

This revolution also sharply demarcated the religious domain - the moral and the ethical - from the secular state. Not least of all, these changes created both the legal and institutional foundations for the emergence of professional associations of physicians, lawyers, merchants, and, eventually, scientists.” (Ibid.: 317)

We thus see a number of processes occurring to facilitate the further development of rational ways of knowing. Open discussion and debate allowed for individual thought, thus enhancing individuality and ego-centered autonomy. Separation of the religious and secular meant that institutions and individuals were no longer burdened with the need for spiritual and mystical considerations. This represented a freeing of control of the Church, and allowed the intellectual mind and scientific method to flourish. However it also moved those very institutions and the populace further away from spiritual conceptions and intuitive ways of knowing.

The Copernican shift
The heliocentric universe as posited by Copernicus (1473-1543) was not only an intellectual shift - it was a metaphysical one which determined whether “the decision regarding truth and certitude could be claimed by anyone who was not an officially authorized interpreter of revelation.” (Ibid.: 183) As Grof (1985) states, paradigms delimit not only conceptions, but also the methods of enquiry and ways of knowing. After the Copernican revolution, the scientific method became the final arbiter of the real in western culture, and the study of scientific ideas became the core of the university curriculum. (Huff, 2003: 183)
Critically, the development of the scientific method further shifted the western world’s dominant ways of knowing. Phenomena which were not easily measured and observed effectively became less real, and intelligibility was seen as being found in the observation of matter. (Ross, 1993: 41; Grof, 1985: 19) This affected the representation of consciousness itself, which was essentially ignored until the very last years of the twentieth century because of its intangible nature. (Blackmore, 2001; Maddox, 1998: 2-3) The interplay between observation and explanation was made more explicit with the clarification of scientific method. Extra-sensory phenomena began to be left off the map. To this day a theory is not deemed a valid explanation unless it has been tested by observation or experiment. Thus all phenomena demand a physical explanation, and this includes the working of the human brain (Maddox, 1999: 2), a factor which has made both the examination and representation of integrated intelligence highly problematic within modernist science.
Thus with the coming of the enlightenment, a new philosophy emerged, based upon reason and sensory evidence. As Panek (2000) writes of the new astronomers such as Galileo:

(they)… trusted in evidence from the telescope, but they trusted in it even more when it didn’t depend on the interpretation of the observer; when it was answerable to the higher power not of ancient authority, or even to God, but of Nature; when it was quantifiable, measurable, replicable, absolute – when it was, in a word, mechanical. (Panek, 2000: 85)

Thus in a matter of decades, the Church, which had stripped away inner knowing with its denunciation of Gnosticism and mysticism (Ross, 1993), and replaced it with the divinity of the priesthood, had itself been usurped as the arbiter of ultimate knowledge. (Dossey, 1993; Laura and Leahy, 1988) Within two centuries after the positing of the heliocentric universe, “man had gone from being the apple of God’s eye to being God’s eye.” (Panek, 2000: 61)
The differences between the mechanistic representations of consciousness that are depicted in mainstream science, and the holistic representations seen in many traditional mystical and spiritual philosophies, are a direct result of the application of their polarised ways of knowing. The ancient mystics of India, Tibet, Kashmir, Japan, China and Europe, used first person methodologies, and wrote extensively about consciousness. They revealed a set of general principles considered “empirical” by some. (Wilber, 2001; Kafatos & Kafatou, 1991: 3) Thus in the East, looking in and seeing out were considered complementarities. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991) There was no negation of inners as is now found in Western science.
Another crucial issue was that a definite dualism emerged at the birth of the scientific era. Cartesian dualism depicted mind as separate from matter. (de Quincy, 1999) Descartes saw mind/self as knowable in isolation from others, primarily via observation and analysis. (Owusu-Bempah & Howitt, 2000: 38-39) Descartes’ dualism was integral to the birth of Newtonian science and its mechanistic and materialistic predicates. (Ross 1993: 42)
Cartesian dualism implied a split between humanity and nature, and between the individual and society. Kafatos and Kafatou argue that this damaged the “very ideals” of Western culture. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991: 17) Further, the new science was incapable of answering deep questions about the meaning of life and each person’s place in society. (Ibid.) This estrangement from the greater society mirrored a parallel alienation from the whole at a psychic level, as consciousness became increasingly self-fixated, and the processes of cognition became externalised and alienated from the inner dimensions of the psyche. Ultimately, mystical states of consciousness would come to be termed “nonordinary” (Grof, 1985) or “altered” (Tart, 1972), thus consecrating the status of intuitive and integrated perception as “other”.
The enlightenment was ultimately a victory for the materialists who rejected transcendent phenomena. All “other worlds” were denied. (Wilber, 2000b) The spiritual basis of Western society, which had been built upon the philosophy of Christ, was attacked and ultimately dismantled by the scientific community. This severed the link between the divine and humanity and nature. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991: 17) The result was that “there was no way to actually reconnect the self with a “holistic cosmos.” (Wilber, 2000b: 370) Enlightenment space ultimately banished all hierarchy, non-locality and divinity from the cosmos in favor of a clockwork, mechanistic atomism.
Zohar (1994) argues that prior to Descartes, thinkers had used reason to ask fundamental questions such as what were the most important values, and what constitutes a good life (Zohar, 1994). Ideas were judged as rational according to whether they made sense within a holistic and broader context. However, after Descartes and the seventeenth century rationalists, reason became associated with logic and mathematical truth.

The rationalists versus the empiricists
The enlightenment debate between the rationalists such as Descartes, and the British empiricists such as Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke established a precedent that is still seminal in consciousness and intelligence theory in the contemporary world. (Gardner et al., 1996: 33) Locke and Hume argued that the contents of the mind could be explained entirely in terms of sensory inputs. Their argument was predicated upon the idea of the mind as “tabula rasa” or a blank slate, with the environment determining mind and personality. (Ross, 1993: 115) These assumptions would be echoed in the early to mid years of the twentieth century, when behaviorists postulated similar notions. (Ross, 1993: 115) Notably Hobbes’ and Locke’s individualistic and fragmented representations of mind and self became the philosophical basis of the western state. (Owusu-Bempah & Howitt, 2000)
Kant, like other rationalists, argued that the mind lacked a material substrate, and thus could not be examined empirically. Yet he also held the view that knowledge was dependent upon sensory experience. He claimed that the ways that this knowledge is acquired is innately determined. Kant’s ideas formed a vital and influential impact upon various branches of psychology such as Piaget’s developmental conceptions. (Gardner et al., 1996: 35-36)

The instruments of reason
As western science developed, both questions and answers were largely driven by the developments of a new instrumentation. (Jardine, 2000: 9) The ideas that were generated quickly began to spread to other disciplines: botany, geography, geology, mineralogy, zoology, physiology and pharmacology. (Panek, 2000: 73)
At the beginning of the scientific revolution, the Copernican model had placed the sun at the centre of the universe. (Panek, 2000) The effect was great. Before the publication of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius in 1610 the Copernican universe stretched as far as Saturn, with the sun as the centre of the universe. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the universe had expanded until it had become “exactly one galaxy big.” (Panek, 2000: 123); and by January 5th, 1996, that number had expanded by approximately forty billion times, the number of estimated galaxies revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. (Panek, 2000: 1)
Prior to the invention of such instruments, the frontiers of knowledge had belonged to philosophers and sages, predominantly employing what Wilber (2001) refers to as the eyes of reason and contemplation. However Wilber points out that the map of reality which emerged from the enlightenment depicted the universe in “empirical and monological” terms. (Wilber, 2000a: 226). This included a “well intentioned but deeply confused attempt to understand consciousness… by putting (it) under the microscope of the monological gaze.” (Ibid.) The result was the evaporation of all “interior depths” because they could not be seen with reductionist apparatus. Thus “they were pronounced nonexistent or illusory or derivative or epiphenomenal – all polite words for ‘not really real.’” (Ibid.) Apparatus commonly employed in modern brain research - such as magnetic resonance imaging equipment and the electroencephalograph continue this process.
Galileo, Newton, Kepler and the enlightenment “scientists” shifted the focus and the power firmly back to the sensory-motor domain, aided by the advanced instrumentation and mathematics which they employed. Galileo stated that he placed his faith “not in ancient tomes, but in close observations and personal consecration…” (quoted in Panek, 2000: 72) It was sensory evidence of “the great book of nature” that became the ultimate purveyor of truth. (Ibid.)
The telescope, the microscope, the spectroscope, and ultimately computer-aided means of information processing took human perception from inners to outers; the cosmos became closer even as inner worlds diminished. The world of faith, divinity and even philosophy was relegated to secondary status, and often derided as limited, irrelevant or even dangerous. (Panek, 2000)

Industrialisation, secularism and the ego
The influence of the industrialisation of western society and emergence of the secular state had a profound affect on the western mind and its relationship with nature, the cosmos and the divine. Such effects have included the establishment of an increasingly utilitarian education system, the desacralisation of space, and the reinforcement of ego-centered consciousness - all of which contributed to the entrenchment of the western rationalist hegemony.
The great growth of urban centers and their industries during the industrialisation of society created a demand to identify and train individuals with the capacity to manage the social and economic challenges that were occurring. (Gardner et al. 1996: 41) This would eventually lead to the development of “technoscience” (Pickstone, 2000), which in itself would radically alter the way that humanity saw itself, and the universe (Ibid.) and contribute to the entrenchment of the hegemony of rationality.
The industrialisation of society compounded the movement towards ego-centered, individualistic and competitive modes of consciousness and their preferred rational ways of knowing. It “bred the philosophy of atheistic materialism.” (Ross, 1993: 35) Comparisons can be made with the mechanistic paradigm, which “endorses individualism, egoistic emphasis, competition, and the principle of ‘survival of the fittest’” as normal and healthy. Cooperation, synergy and ecological factors are not assigned value in this model. (Grof 1985: 27; also Loye, 2004b)
This individualism and egoism was compounded by the separation of church and state. (Laura and Leahy, 1988) No longer were spirituality and God the focus of the typical person’s life. Christian theology was questioned, and the individual became the center of the universe. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991; 17) Divine medieval space was replaced with a more mundane perspective. In order to validate commercial enterprise, various thinkers (most notably Adam Smith) developed critiques and political ideologies which supported commercial enterprise. These ideologies undermined the validity and power of the estate-based society, with its static, hierarchical and divine predicates. (Shapiro, 1992: 13) Thus Adam Smith replaced “piety with calculation.” (Shapiro, 1992: 13) Later, the development of early psychology and behaviourism would be deeply influenced by “the exploratory and exploitative drives of nineteenth century capitalism.” (Ross, 1993: 116)
The modern secular state not only eliminated hierarchical social structure, but also rejected the spiritual and metaphysical framework upon which it was predicated. The focus became economy and work, and mathematical and abstract modes of operation became institutionalised even as “calculation” superseded divination.

The Present: Towards the modern mind
By the mid-eighteenth century at the dawn of the modern era, scientific knowledge in western society had developed predominantly rational ways of knowing - classificatory, experimental, linguistic/philosophical, and mathematical. The door was then open for empirical science’s rational ways of knowing to entrench their hegemony on the various discourses on life (biology), mind (psychology) and intelligence.

Biology and the mechanisation of life and mind
Mechanistic assumptions came to dominate biology and thus biological perspectives on consciousness (Dossey, 2001; Grof, 2000), and modern cognitive psychology became “a handmaiden to neuroscience.” (Maddox, 1999: 278)
The mid nineteenth century publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution had a massive impact upon biology, science in general and also upon ways of knowing. (Gardner et al., 1996: 39; Maddox, 1996: 18) Darwin permanently changed humanity’s perspective of its place in nature by demonstrating that all life on the earth is the product of the same processes - chance variation and natural selection. (Maddox, 1998: 235) By the mid-twentieth century the neo-Darwinian paradigm became “entrenched seemingly beyond all contesting in the textbooks from grade school through graduate studies.” (Loye, 200 4a: 6) The theory confirmed a link between humans and great apes and nature in general, and needed no place for God. It thus reinforced the Copernican Principle. (Grof, 1985; 21; Maddox, 1998: 7) Notable is the paradigmatic exclusion of the contribution to the initial development of evolutionary theory by Darwin’s cotemporary Alfred Lord Wallace, who “fell from scientific favor” by engaging in “dubious interests” such as spiritualism and the possibility of alien life. (Bryson, 2003: 389)
The work in genetics of Mendel helped establish modern biology, and like Pasteur’s work, represented a further vindication of reductionism and focus upon the world of the very small. The inevitable implication from Mendel’s work was that cells are the essential units of living things. (Maddox, 1998: 18) Specifically Mendel’s concept of dominant and recessive genes was significant, as it enabled the mathematical prediction of inherited characteristics. (Gardner et al., 1996: 53) Notably, Mendalian conceptions became a popular way to describe human characteristics, including intelligence. (Gardner et al, 1996: 54)
Crick and Watson’s construction of a DNA molecule in the 1960’s had a tremendous and pervasive effect upon science in general, and especially biology, psychiatry, and thus psychology. (Maddox, 1999: 20) Indeed the practical and intellectual implications of the structure of DNA “are without precedent in the whole of science.” (Ibid.: 195) When Crick and Watson built their model of the DNA molecule, ontogeny had finally been bought within the bounds of rational enquiry. (Maddox, 1999) Writes Maddox:

That was the springboard for a detailed explanation of what has proved to be the universal bio-chemical machinery of living things, which continues still at breakneck pace. (Ibid.: 20. Italics added)

The death of vitalism, animism, pantheism, panentheism and mysticism was seemingly complete; for finally the random mutation of the gene - seen as the overriding “driving force” of nature (Dawkins, 1976, 1987) - was then made material, sensible and therefore observable and empirical.
Thus in the nineteenth century and beyond “How?” become the overriding question, not “Why?” (Maddox, 1999: 9) The very questions upon which spiritual discourses were founded had been rendered effectively obsolete by reductionist biology and the dominant rational ways of knowing which underpinned it. The alternative musings of the romantic movement throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were ignored within dominant scientific discourse at this time. This included the romantics’ valorisation of affective experience, individual subjectivity and the “transmuting power of the relationship between subject and object.” (Buckley, 2001: 458)

The beginnings of modern psychology and intelligence theory
Kant insisted that consciousness could not be studied objectively. Yet later anatomical and physiological investigations of the nervous system revealed clear links between human abilities and brain structure. (Gardner 1996: 36, 37) The period from the 1860s until the early 1890s saw the wide deployment of experiments using complications tasks, reaction times and the subtractive procedures. (Ibid.: 37)
The research of German anatomist and phrenologist Francis Gall (in the early nineteenth century) implied that the development of the cerebral cortex was linked to enhanced human and mammalian capabilities. Other European physicians and scientists were revealing the relationship between brain damage and impaired mental and linguistic functions. These individuals included Marc Dax, Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, and Hermann von Helmholtz. (Ibid.: 36-37) When Helmholtz demonstrated that nerve impulses travel at 100 metres per second, he effectively grounded the brain, and thus consciousness in the physical world. The way was then open to research the mind at a physical level, in line with the tenets of western materialism. (Ibid.)
William Wundt, in part, attempted to study consciousness empirically. For Wundt even religion, language and customs could be explained as consisting of “elements.” Individuals were the units that developed culture and transmitted it from one generation to the next, moving from simpler to more advanced cultures over time. (Gardner, 1996: 38) Wundt’s empiricism mirrored the methodologies of physics, and was a seminal incursion point of mechanistic paradigm into psychological theory, as his methods were widely copied throughout Europe and North America. (Gardner et al., 1996: 38) Yet notably Wundt’s more humanistic Volkerpsychologie (cultural psychology) was largely forgotten as American psychology became predominant; a process which would later be mirrored in the Americans’ over-emphasis of the rational components of Freud and the downplaying of his spiritual predilections. (Bettleheim, 2001)
Francis Galton’s work in the mid to late nineteenth century was crucial in developing intelligence and aptitude tests. He applied statistics to the study of intelligence, a trend which continues to this day. These tests focused on sensory modalities. (Gardner et al., 1996: 51) Meanwhile Alfred Binet was more interested in comprehension, judgment, and the capacity for reason and inventiveness. (Gardner et al 1996: 49) Notably, these two psychologists avoided any deeper reflective processes that might require introspection or even mildly non-ordinary states of consciousness. The tendency of some of those who later employed Binet’s tests was to interpret the IQ score as a single universal measure of intelligence of an individual. The IQ score became “reified.” (Ibid.: 50).
Freudian psycho-dynamics have also profoundly influenced contemporary understandings of the human psyche. (Vandermeer, 1996) Like the behaviourists, Freud’s model was essentially linear and one of stimulus and response, but with the unconscious and its intricacies as the focus. (Goleman, 1986: 57-60) Notably, Freud failed to account for transpersonal experience. (Grof, 1985, 1992) Freud’s major contribution to knowledge is his tool of free association, (Wilber, 2001: 52) an interrogative process which mirrors the Socratic method, and is still the basic tool of psychoanalysis. Significantly, by mid century Freud’s more humanistic and spiritually inclined contemporary Carl Jung was widely rejected in academia and even derided, reflecting the predominance of mechanistic thinking. (Ross, 1993)

Towards the mid-twentieth century
The emergence of behaviourism had a vital influence upon the development of psychological theory and practice in the twentieth century. (Dossey, 1999; Gardner et al., 1996; Ross 1993: 112-113). It emerged in a time of dominance of mechanistic thinking, where “science was focusing its materialistic analytic beam on just about everything”. (Ross,1993: 115) At this time all mind was being reduced to matter by mainstream scientific thought and represented as materialistic epiphenomena. (Ross, 1993: 115) In psychology introspectionists’ claims were being attacked as subjective, and it was thought that self-articulated reports of one’s own consciousness were not dependable. Instead, objective verification, modeled on the data-specific disciplines of physicists and chemists were felt to be more accurate. (Gardner et al, 1996: 52) Behaviourists wanted to make psychology rigorous and scientific, and avoid nebulous ideas such as “plans, images, consciousness, schemata, thoughts, ideas and the mind.” (Ibid.) It denied the mental and spiritual; and even consciousness in totality - “an audacity which could only have been countenanced in a society falling into the hypnotic trance of atheistic materialism.” (Ross 1993: 112) Behaviourism was an almost perfect projection of the mechanistic paradigm, where “the human organism is viewed as a rather complex but totally reactive mechanism.” (Wilber, 2001: 50)
The conceptions of Jean Piaget have deeply influenced developmental psychology, and so have the information and computer models of consciousness. Yet Piaget made no attempt to observe or measure any effect or process involving spiritual or reflexive inner dimensions. Piaget used the scientist as the basic model of the learner. (Gardner and others, 1996: 113) Piaget’s method clinique was a dialogical question and answer method modeled from Freud. (Wilber, 2000b) Thus the process was heavily verbal/linguistic, and did not allow for the non-ordinary states of consciousness which facilitate mystical experience. In the wake of the successes of Piaget, other researchers such as Kohlberg, Loevinger, Broughton, and Maslow also employed a dialogic approach (Wilber, 2001: 54), thus perpetuating a method which often obfuscated the inner, the intuitive, and the transpersonal.
The neuroscience which dominates modern cognitive psychology was becoming well established by 1949, when psychologist Donald O. Hebb declared a finding that remains the dominant position in neuroscience. (Dossey, 1993)

Modern psychology takes completely for granted that behavior and neural function are perfectly correlated. There is no separate soul or lifeforce to stick a finger into the brain now and then and make neural cells do what they would not do otherwise… One cannot logically be determinist in physics and biology, and a mystic in psychology. (quoted in Dossey, 1993: 138)

Hebb’s materialistic position that the machinations of individual brains and consciousness itself are inseparable remains the foundation of physiological psychology. (Dossey, 1993: 139) The lineage has continued into recent times. Francis Crick epitomised this with his “astonishing hypothesis” that “everything about you” and “all aspects of experience …can be explained by neurons.” (BBC, 2001; Crick, 1994) In this way psychology (and thus intelligence theory) has been restricted by the very same parameters that have increasingly restricted theories of consciousness and the mind – only fixed, measurable, isolated and preferably microscale entities are permitted to qualify as causal; and the neuron is the perfect fit.
Ironically it has been the publication of Crick’s Astonishing Hypothesis (1994) which has been crucial in the re-introduction of the concept of consciousness into recent scientific discourse. (Maddox, 1999) Notably, it is Crick’s mechanistic hypothesis and his methods (microscale focus upon the neuron) that establish the validity of his thesis within dominant consciousness discourse. This epitomises the self-perpetuating and self-obfuscating hegemony of dominant paradigms in general: only when a conception conforms to the paradigmatic parameters, and is explicated via its preferred ways of knowing, and shaped according to the agreed upon preconceptions, will it be acknowledged as legitimate. In short Crick’s hypothesis is not at all astonishing. Its lineage can be traced back through the history of western civilisation

Summary of the past and present
Thus within the dominant reductionist methods of neuroscience, the concept of integrated intelligence has effectively been excluded. For in such a science there is no intelligence as a property of the individual - only as a description of behaviour (Nash, 2005: 7) or as an emanation of the neuron, as verified through experiment. The introspectionists and the mystics remain largely silenced.

The Future: Three Scenarios
Paradigms lock the perception of individuals, institutions and civilisations into simplistic and linear modes of thinking. The present is often viewed as an ineluctable process of modernisation whereby falsehoods are discarded and the givens of the current discourse verified. The same is true of modern science. (Kuhn, 1970) Thus Richard Dawkins sees the elimination of all non-material representations of mind (which he sees as one of “the last vestiges of vitalism”) as an inevitable outcome of scientific research in the future. (Dawkins, 1999: 63) Yet the constant interplay of intuitive and rational cognitive modes throughout the western world since the time of the ancient Greeks suggests that a purely mechanistic and rational discourse would be short-lived.
Thus these three possibilities for the future of intelligence and mind are posited in the knowledge that none of them is likely to be a static and unchanging end point, and that all three are likely to gain precedence at different times.

Scenario One: The Mind Machine. In this scenario mechanistic representations of mind and intelligence continue to dominate until such time as the other discourses are effectively silenced altogether. Mind is represented in neuro-physiological modalities with the computer continuing to be the defining mechanistic metaphor. As the mechanistic predilections of Dawkins (Ibid.), Dennett (1991), Jensen (1998), and Murry and Hernstein (1994) prove correct, an interface between human and machine becomes inevitable. Intelligence continues to be defined in terms of the mechanists’ preferred ways of knowing – mathematical/logical and verbal/linguistic, with the experiment as the ultimate purveyor of truth. Thus it would seem likely that in this scenario that IQ theory and the domain-general thesis would continue to strengthen, with factor analysis determining what constitutes valid cognitive modes. Intuitive and spiritual representations of mind cease to be posited on the paradigmatic map, relegated to a place in history, or depicted as a vestige of an outmoded misunderstanding of human consciousness.

Scenario Two: The Soft Mind Machine. This is the more gentle version of the mind machine. Mechanistic models of mind continue to dominate, yet various theorists continue to critique it, and the shortcomings of the mechanistic model become more apparent. The limitations of factor analysis, materialism and the computer metaphor are recognised. Theorists permit feelings, emotions and inferential intuition to re-enter the discourse. Nonetheless, the dominant discourse baulks at permitting representations of mind that suggest the possibility of brain-transcendent consciousness and integrated intelligence. Yet the ideas and conceptualisations of the latter are not so radical that they are incomprehensible. Thus in the soft mind machine scenario the mechanists essentially retain control, but “the others” are allowed a voice within the discourse as “the unfashionables”, and tolerated.

The Integrated Mind. In this possible future, mainstream academic and educational intuitions acknowledge that the interplay between intuitive and the rational ways of knowing is not an either/or dynamic; nor a simple linear process whereby the false ideas of the ignorant “others” will be successfully eliminated. Intelligence is redefined to incorporate the intuitive, the immeasurable and the spiritual. Intuitive ways of knowing (including classical intuition) are permitted a place in universities and schools, both as valid theory and as method. Alongside more traditional scientific methods, scientific research permits the employment of transpersonal research methods: including insight, deep questioning, systematic contemplation, non-ordinary states of consciousness; and even dreams, visions and shamanistic processes. Thus the individual would draw upon integrated intelligence as part of the research process and learning in general.

The Integrated Mind would be a fundamental challenge to mainstream science as it exists in the early 21st century. So paradigmatically dissimilar is it to current mainstream discourses on mind and intelligence that the infiltration of such conceptions and methods would appear to be a long way off at the present moment. The two academic disciplines which most heavily feature integrated mind - transpersonal psychology and parapsychology - are still fringe discourses. In mainstream consciousness and intelligence theory the major debates are generally representative of a struggle between scenarios one (Crick, 1994; Jensen, 1998; Murry & Hernstein, 1994) and two (de Bono, 1999; Gardner, 1993; Goleman; 1999); with scenario three (Grof, 2000; Wilber, 2000c; Zohar, 2000) a generally distant aside.
Yet futures have a habit of being unpredictable. The stoics and skeptics of ancient Greece may well have seen the emergence of mechanistic depictions of mind and cosmos as inevitable. It is less likely that they could have predicted the endless waxing and waning of the interplay of the intuitive and rational, the mechanistic and the spiritual in the more than two millennia which have followed them, up to the present year of 2005 when their particular worldview is once again dominant. The pendulum may once again swing back towards the intuitive and the spiritual.
Only the futures will tell.

Notes:
1. See Anthony (2005a) for an expanded explanation.
2. See Anthony (2005b) for more on the concept of receptivity.

Bibliography
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Ping, relaxing on an afternoon stroll by the beach, at Railay.

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That's me (tiny black spot in the water, centre) swimming out to a rocky little island, near Railay Beach, Thailand.

Thailand holiday.

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Ping and I travelled to Thailand for our honeymoon. We left Hong Kong on August 10th, and returned on August 24th, the day before I returned to work. In between we had a great time, and visted some great places. The photos below were taken during the holiday.

We arrived in Bangkok late evening, and jumped on bus for the hotel, downtown. We had booked the hotel for two days only, and we had decided to wing it thereafter. Abot 40 minutes later we arrived at the Baiyoke Suite Hotel,perhas best identifie as being the pooer cousin of the taller and more expensive Baiyoke sky Tower just up the road. But we weren't complaining. Ping was quite excited to be in Thailand, and liked it immediately, a stark contrast to her feelings for Hong Kong. The hotel was reasonable at 1700 Thai Baht a night (about US$35), but I kept banging my head on the ridiculouy low ceilings outside the office.

After a quickly unpacking, we headed out to catch the Bangkok nightlife. We jumped in a cab, and Ping asked the driver to take us somewhere interesting. He opted for Pat Pong - not my prefered destination, as on a previous trip to Thailand a tuk tuk driver had taken me there - directly to what is refrerde to in the business as a "Ping Pong show". rather than go into details, lets just say that well trained and qualified women can do amazing things with Ping Pong balls, ribbons and other assorted paraphenalia... But this is a "family" blog site, so no more details.

Actually, Pat Pong was better than I expected. It wasn't just seedy bars. There were long market streets selling all kinds of neat stuff, mostly fakes and cheapies; but interesting nonetheless. Just behind these, there were the bars, where scantily clad lasses danced in mostly rather limp fashion before rather excited looking middle-aged foreigners (not me of course). I'm not sure about the menu, but I suspect one could order take-away.

To be continued....

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Sunset.

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Surfie chick Ping, out to catch the waves.

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Late afternoon, West Railay Beach, Thaland.

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Bangkok: A little shrine outside a shopping mall.

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The seedier side. Bar girls (guys?) strut their stuff at an open air bar, Patong Beach, Thailand.

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One of the best things about Thailand: the food - this a cheapie, as you can see.

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Ping in her element. At lunch in a shopping mall, Bangkok.

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Thailand Picture. The Ladyboys, Patong Beach, Phuket.

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Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand. Livin' it up with the ladyboys.

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Thailand Photo: A faily typical Bangkok scene. Lots of little stalls at a market street near our hotel.

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Thailand Beach: Ping strutting it at the beach.

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Thailand Photo. We approach West Railay Beach in the longboat.

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Thailand Picture. To get to West Railay Beach, you have to take a small boat from Au Nang Beach. It was a bit rough!

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Islands off West Railay.

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Thailand Picture: Ping relaxing at the same pool as below.

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Thailand Picture: This is the pool of another hotel near ours ar West Railay. We snuck in and swam there a few times before we got busted and told to go away!

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Thailand Picture: The beautiful Beach at West Railay.

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Thailand Photo: me, relaxing at an Indian restaurant at East Railay Beach.

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Thailand Photo: This shot of Ping is taken in the short stretch of land that is the peninsular between East Railay and West raialy beaches, Thailand.

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Thailand Picture: Me, wading through the rock pools near Au Nang Beach, just across from West Raialy Beach where we were staying.

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The spectacular beach, East Railay, southern Thailand, where Ping and I stayed for a week in August.

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Ping.

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I include this one so you can see how grey my hair really is. But hey, when you get past 50, it happens!

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I don't really look this good, but Ping does!

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Ping in traditional Chinese dress.

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This is what I really look like without all the makeup. Ping too.

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What a beach looks like in north-east China. Jinzhou city, Lioaning Province.

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At the "beach", Jinzhou.

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A monastry before an ancient tower in the hills above Chaoyang.

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I get in a quick workout with Pipi, before one of the ancient towers at Chaoyang City, dong-bei.

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Pipi and I at the beach in JinZhou, Liaoning province.

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She looks so lovely! You'd never know the truth!

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A lovely shot of Ping!

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My niece, Pipi, in the park at Chaoyang city.

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That's my niece, Pipi, and I, at the local fun park in Chaoyang City.

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My parents in-law, and I. This was taken in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province.

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Ping really likes this photo, so I'd better post it!

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Yep, Ping and I.

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More of the same!

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Traditional Ping

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Ping and I

Academic: Chapter 1 of my PhD

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This is the first draft of chapter one of my PhD thesis. No doubt it will change after my supervisor rips into it! Sorry about the formatting, but I'm not going to go through the whole thing and reformat it!

Marcus

Chapter 1. Introduction: Contexts, Methods, Definitions
1.1.1 Introduction
1.1.2 The research topic and key questions
1.2.1 Definition and important distinctions
1.2.2 Two problematics: Uncertain epistemology and nebulous definitions
1.2.3 Further distinctions
1.2.4 A brief history of integrated intelligence and its contemporary relevance
1.3.1 Contextualizing the thesis
1.3.2 Intelligence theory and integrated intelligence
1.4.1 The methodology
1.4.2 Poststructuralist thought and Causal Layered Analysis
1.4.3 CLA, Futures and Bussey’s critical spirituality
1.4.4 Wilber’s Integral Theory
1.4.5 The integrated/fragmented mind model (IFM)
1.4.6 Participatory futures and integrated intelligence
1.4.7 Ways of knowing
1.4.8 Limitations of the method, and thesis in general
l.5 Chapter outline
1.6 Conclusion to chapter one
1.1.1 Introduction
It would take quite a bit of imagination to visualize a consciousness that runs a galaxy, a cluster, a cluster of galaxies, or finally, the universe. There is such a consciousness, and we shall call it the Creator. All these consciousnesses are in communication with each other, and we could even eavesdrop on their conversations while in a high state of consciousness…
Our psyches, which contain all our knowledge, expand periodically into… (transcendent) space for a very short period of time at practically infinite velocities. There the human psyches form an interference pattern with the psyches of all other consciousnesses in the universe.
This interference pattern or hologram of knowledge information we can call the “universal mind.” The knowledge in the universal mind is open to anyone who can extend his stay there by stretching out his subjective time while there so as to gain useful information and decipher it upon his return.
Matter contains/is consciousness. Our planet is therefore a larger consciousness, and so is the sun. A rudimentary consciousness contained in matter and in living cells maintains the life of the body. A higher consciousness, the human psyche, inhabits that body most of the time but is independent of it. The planet and the sun have also a “permanent resident” consciousness and a higher consciousness/intelligence using it as a focus or a garage.
All these consciousnesses communicate with each other and make up part of the information hologram. Communication throughout the universe is continuous and instantaneous.

Itzhak Bentov. (1988) Stalking the Wild Pendulum: 157-158.

Many (perhaps most) individuals in the modern Western world reading these words of Itzhak Bentov would dismiss them as nonsensical, the product of delusion or insanity. Cognitive scientists such as Persinger (2001) and Greenfield (BBC TV, 2001) would most likely reduce Bentov’s perceptions to temporal lobe anomalies, or the hallucinations of the vestigial “bicameral mind” (Jaynes, 1990). They would be even more incredulous if they knew that Bentov was a man “without much formal education.” (Bentov, 1988: preface) Rather, he was an “intuitive inventor” who liked to “tinker about in his versatile basement laboratory seeking simple and practical solutions to complex technological problems.” (ibid.) Instead of employing the empirical and reductionist methods of science, his understandings evolved after “his intuition led him into the regular practice of meditation.” (ibid. Italics added) His “research” was predicated upon “the design of experimental journeys into the microcosm and macrocosm of the universe.” (ibid.)
Yet these few paragraphs of Bentov’s have been chosen here because they effectively represent the conceptions of consciousness and intelligence - and a primary way of knowing - held by numerous civilisations throughout the history and across the geography of humanity; a way of knowing and a consciousness that shall be referred to here as “integrated intelligence.” Integrated intelligence, as will be outlined below, is the state of personal consciousness whereby individual awareness is infused with a transpersonal awareness that transcends the confines of the individual mind, and the limits of the sensory organs.
A crucial aspect of Bentov’s claim is the fact that his way of knowing involves the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness, something that is also consistent with various non-western and non-contemporary civilisational ways of knowing, and central to the idea of integrated intelligence. (Braud, 1998: 64, 76; Grof, 2000) Western mainstream science is founded upon one of the few epistemologies that rejects the idea of the integration of consciousness and intelligence with cosmos. (Dossey, 2001; Grof, 1985, 2000; Sheldrake, 2003) The implications are enormous. For as White (1998) notes in regard to “exceptional human experiences” (EHEs): Note: White (1998) defines EHEs as “psychic, mystical, death-related, and strange encounter experiences that raise eyebrows.” (White, 1998: 129) Within this thesis this definition will be retained. “Human intelligence functions best when it is actively open to many possibilities not considered to exist according to western consensus reality.” (White, 1998: 134)
The other key issue here is education, which will comprise an important focus of this thesis. If Bentov’s claimed ability is true, then it leads to the question of why a relatively uneducated man was able to achieve such “extraordinary” (in terms of the western episteme) abilities. The second question to logically derive from this is why highly educated people in western “developed” nations, including those who have gained higher degrees such as masters and PhDs, not only generally do not exhibit such abilities as Bentov’s claimed capacities, they generally have no experience or “training” in integrated intelligence, despite up to twenty years in public and/or private education.
Yet it is important to note that the purpose of this thesis is not to prove or disprove the existence of consciousness as integrated beyond, or localised within individual brains. Rather it is to juxtapose, compare and contrast these two seemingly opposing views of consciousness and reality. The goal is to glean from that juxtaposition a deeper understanding of the dominant discourses on consciousness and intelligence within contemporary society, science, and education via elucidating the power plays that underpin their conceptualisations, representations and ways of knowing.

1.1.2 The research topic and key questions
The prime research topic of this thesis contains two prime facets: the comparison and contrast of integrated and fragmented representations of intelligence including the typical exclusion of integrated intelligence from representations of intelligence, and educational curricula in the present era; and the current educational implications of this. The primary question is thus: how do classical and modern scientific representations of intelligence differ in respect to their depiction of the transpersonal integration of intelligence, or lack thereof, and what are the implications of this for modern education?
This thesis therefore examines theories of intelligence and coscniousness in the scientific era, in respect to the way in which they represent (or exclude) integrated intelligence. The prime research question is designed to identify the way rational, linguistic and brain-based definitions of consciousness have come to dominate consciousness and intelligence discourse and research at the expense of integrated and spiritual depictions.
There are several essential questions which derive from this prime question, and which will constitute the broader focus of the thesis. They are listed here, along with the chapters of this thesis which specifically deal with them

1. What is integrated intelligence? (chapter one)
2. In what ways does integrated intelligence differ from commonly held contemporary definitions and assumptions about consciousness and intelligence? (chapter one)
2. Why has the concept of an integrated intelligence been largely neglected in modern scientific discourse? (chapter three)
3. How have rational and linguistic definitions of consciousness and intelligence dominated research and discourse within these fields? (chapters two, and three)
4. How is integrated intelligence depicted (or excluded) in contemporary, scientific representations of consciousness and intelligence? (chapters four and five)
5. In which eras and civilisations has integrated intelligence been represented, and what form did/does it take? (chapters one, two and three)
6. How has the focus upon rational linguistic and mathematical forms of intelligence (and the exclusion of integrated intelligence) affected contemporary schooling and education? (chapter six)
7. What are the possible implications of incorporating integrated intelligence into modern educational practice? (chapter six)
8. What are possible sites for the employment of integrated intelligence in education (for example the university, alternative universities, schooling, and others)? (chapter six and conclusion)

1.2.1 Definitions and important distinctions
The term “integrated intelligence” as used in this research is taken to refer to non-localised and transpersonal intelligence/consciousness. It refers to the integration of individualised brain-based intelligence with universal or cosmic intelligence. As Dossey (2002) writes:

The idea that the human mind is infinite or nonlocal - that at some level it cannot be confined to specific points in space, such as the brain and body, or in time, such as the present, is ancient. (Dossey, 2001: http://www.stephanaschwartz.com/distant_healing_biblio.htm)

Integrated intelligence has most commonly been depicted in traditional, ancient, spiritual and mystical texts, such as the Chinese Taoists and Confucians (Bishop, 1995; Jiyu, 1998); Greeks (Brumbaugh, 1981; Sheldrake, 2005a, 2005b); Romans and Egyptians (Dossey, 2002; Grof, 1985); the Indian episteme (Auribindo, 1985; Inayatullah, 2002b; Nisargadatta, 2001; Yogananda, 1979); shamanism, animism and indigenous cultures. (Clarke, 1989; Murinbata & Whitehead, 2002; Osumi & Ritchie, 1988; Walsh, 1990; Wildman, 1996) Most commonly it is associated with spiritual experiences, or depicted within texts related to personal and spiritual development. The connection with mystical experience is an essential one. As pointed out by Leonard George, since the 1600s mystical experiences have been “characterized by the feeling that… everything forms a unity”. (quoted in White, 1998: 132)
Although integrated intelligence is virtually absent from contemporary secular education (note, As will be argued in chapter three, Christian theology tends to be rationally and textually orientated and generally lacks the transpersonal element and utilisation of non-ordinary states of consciousness that are key aspects of integrated intelligence. Traditional religious education in public and private schools in western nations is primarily Christian in denomination, and does not encourage mystical experience and, by implication, integrated intelligence.) and mainstream intelligence and consciousness discourse within the dominant mechanistic paradigm, (Note: Kuhn (1970) introduced the idea that all knowledge (including scientific knowledge) is premised upon specific paradigms. (Kuhn 1970) Inayatullah defines paradigms as “internal rules of how we see others, the world and nature.” (Inayatullah, 2002a: 206) Sardar writes that a paradigm is “a way of looking at things: a set of shared assumptions, beliefs, dogmas, conventions, theories.” (Sardar 2000: 73) Thinkers and theorists embedded within established paradigms most often fail to acknowledge or even see emerging paradigms. Often they resist new paradigms when they emerge. (Inayatullah 2002: 206) The term “worldview” is interchangeable with paradigm, as used in this thesis. The term “discourse” refers to the debates and discussions that occur within a particular field, discipline or subject matter.)
it is nonetheless a widely posited conception and experience across a plethora of disciplines, discourses, civilisations and worldviews in the present day. Some of the most notable include spiritual healing and new age texts (Dobie, 2002; Myss, 2001; Newton, 2000; Weiss, 1985; Wilde, 2001; Woolger, 1994); UFO phenomena (Mack, 1999); tales of the supernatural (Ritchie, 1992); neo-humanism (Bussey, 2004; Inayatullah, 2002a;); Jungian psychology (Jung, 1973, 1989); transpersonal and humanistic psychology (Broad, 1998; Ferrer, 2002; Grof, 1985, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2000; Hart et al., 2000; Ross, 1993; Walsh & Vaughan, 1993; Wilber, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2001); parapsychology (Schlitz, 2001; Sheldrake & Smart, 2003; Targ & Katra, 1999, 2001; Tart, 1993, 2001, 2002); deep ecology (Couzyn, 1995; Eisler, 2004; Sahtouris, 1999); quantum physics and systems theory (Bradley, 2004; Capra, 2000; Fox & Sheldrake, 1996; Peat, 1988; Sheldrake et al., 2001; Folger, 2002); consciousness theory (Marshal, 1989; Penrose, 1990); cardio-psychology (Pearsall, 1999; Walker, 1988). It is also a common theme and experience in popular songs, science fiction, general literature, movies, fairy tales and fantasy of numerous kinds. Perhaps its most widely known popular depiction is in the phenomenally successful Star Wars films, where the concept of “The Force” was taken directly from the Taoist concept of the Tao. (Ross, 1993)
Depictions of integrated intelligence vary somewhat within these texts, and nowhere is it explicitly referred to by the term “integrated intelligence.” Note: Krishnamurti (1956) does employ this term, but not in the same sense as it is used in this thesis. His idea of “integrated intelligence” is one in which the mind is broadened by an educational system which incorporates spiritual, mystical and important moral and philosophical domains to its curriculum. Although it can be said to incorporate integrated intelligence (as defined in this thesis) is not specifically about the integration of personal and transpersonal awareness. Indeed innumerable terms are employed, all of which incorporate integrated intelligence to greater or lesser degrees. For example, Lao Tzu’s “Tao” grants one a kind of transcendent perception where: “Without stirring out of the house, one can know everything in the world.” (Zhengkun, 1995: 201) Sheldrake and Smart (2003) refer to “telepathy” within a more rigorous parapsychological methodology, manifesting as the ability to know who is calling before one picks up the phone. Wildman (1996) refers to “The Dreaming” of the Australian Aborigines, which includes assumed telepathic potentials between individuals and perception of the spirit of places. Futurist Slaughter (1999) touches upon concepts such as “subtle awareness”, “causal insight”, “ultimate identity with the source”, “psychic intuition”, “superconsciousness” and “transcendent knowledge”. (Slaughter, 1999: 332-33) Zohar (2000) defines “spiritual intelligence” as “an internal, innate ability of the human brain and psyche, drawing its deepest resources from the heart of the universe itself.” (Zohar, 2000: 9) Meanwhile, physicist Peat (1988) refers to synchronicity as “the bridge between mind and matter”.
Integrated intelligence differs from most contemporary mechanistic depictions of intelligence and consciousness in that it is “non-localised” (Dossey, 2000, 2001) (moving beyond purely brain-based models of consciousness), transcends linear conceptions of time (Dossey, 2001; Grof, 2000; Nelson, 2000; Targ & Katra, 2001), and acknowledges sources of inspiration and knowledge that are transpersonal and spiritual. It implies that the brain is a permeable organ imbedded within a sea of consciousness. It inverts the western myth of materialism (Davies & Gribbin, 1992) which depicts consciousness as epiphenomena, an accidental bi-product of random evolutionary forces. (Grof, 1985, 2000) As transpersonal researcher Stan Grof (1995) states:

It has become increasingly clear that consciousness is not a product of the physiological processes in the brain, but a primary attribute of existence. The universe is imbued with creative intelligence and consciousness is inextricably woven into its fabric. (Grof, 1995: page)
Duane Elgin mirrors Grof’s point, and adds a dimension that is an essential component of this thesis: the potential of integrated intelligence to transform the human experience:

…consciousness appears to be present at every level of the universe, from the atomic scale (and the behavior of electrons that seem to have a mind of their own) on up through the human scale. So the universe has the properties of a living system; life exists within life. This is an amazing miracle, and as we discover this, I think that it is going to begin to shift who we think we are and what we think our life-journey is about. It's transformative. The idea and the experience of a living universe is a powerful recontextualization of who we think we are and where we think we're going. (quoted in Phipps, http://www.wie.org/j19/elgin.asp?page=3)
Thus integrated intelligence is most closely akin to what is referred to as the proto-consciousness view, the idea that consciousness is present in all things to greater or lesser degree. (Zohar, 2000)
Integrated intelligence, as defined in this thesis, comprises two distinct domains. The first is higher order perceptions of wholeness and integration, what Wilber calls the subtle, causal, and non-dual aspects of consciousness. (Wilber 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2001) For the purposes of this research, this shall be referred to as “domain one integrated intelligence.” It is the direct experience or perception of the integrated nature of the universe and consciousness. The second is various “paranormal” perceptual phenomena such as ESP, clairvoyance, and visionary experience; what is popularly referred to as the “psychic” realm. (Wilber, 2000c; Wilde, 2001; Targ & Katra, 2001; Jacobson, 1997) This shall be referred to as “domain two integrated intelligence.” Domain two integrated intelligence approximates the numinous realm. These phenomena suggest the plausibility of non-localised, integrated consciousness.
Both domain one integrated intelligence and domain two integrated intelligence are considered aspects of mystical and spiritual experience, however different approaches and philosophies valorise them to different degrees. For example, Buddhist texts tend to downplay domain two integrated intelligence phenomena, whilst valorising domain one integrated intelligence experience, particularly the experience of enlightenment or nondual consciousness. (Jacobson 1991, 1997; Nisker 1998) Conversely a plethora of popular and new age texts valorise and sometimes glamorise domain two integrated intelligence. Examples of these are Kubler-Ross (1997), Redfield (1997) and Wilde (2001).

1.2.2 Two problematics: Uncertain epistemology and nebulous definitions
The lack of clear definitions and distinctions is a highly problematical aspect of the fields which incorporate integrated intelligence, as is the uncertain epistemological foundations. Dossey (2002), whilst himself preferring the term “distant non-local awareness” points out that the lack of an agreed upon terminology represents a tremendous obstacle in the field of alternative healing methods. This is a field heavily imbued with references to integrated intelligence, and thus Dossey’s point is also relevant to research and writing which deals with notions of an integrated intelligence in general. Ferrer (2002) identifies similar problems in regard to the entire field of transpersonal studies. Ferrer finds that transpersonal knowledge has “lacked an adequate epistemology”, and that this has been “deeply detrimental for the legitimization of spirituality in academic and social milieus.” (Ferrer, 2002: 10) He points out that there is a lack of criteria for determining what valid transpersonal knowledge actually is. This has rendered transpersonal theory “a free-for-all open to any form of metaphysical speculation.” (ibid.) He accuses “most transpersonal authors” of “working upon unexamined and outdated objectivist epistemological assumptions”. (ibid.) Ultimately Ferrer finds the objectivist claims and “inner empiricism” (ibid.: 2) of transpersonalists such as Wilber untenable, problematic and ultimately self-limiting. Ferrer posits an alternative: a “participatory vision” where there is no ultimate objective ground of being, but a diversity of spiritual paths not dependent upon hierarchies.
Thus the discourses involving integrated intelligence do not deliver a clearly-defined representation of the idea, scattered as it is across history, religions, continents, intellectual and spiritual discourses, epistemes and worldviews. There are numerous discrepancies regarding definitions, methods, language and religious/spiritual interpretations. Yet the totality of these far-flung discourses point to an intelligence that is consistent with the original definition given above. It is an area that deserves closer scrutiny, as evidenced by its increased presence in such a diversity of contemporary and pre-modern discourses.

1.2.3 Further distinctions
The term “integrated intelligence” is being developed here to clearly distinguish it, and avoid confusion with certain terms used within other texts that may cover similar or related ground. The second significant process is to situate it more deliberately within contemporary discourse on intelligence, something that is absent from the literature.
The primary foci in the literature include: the empirical evidence for psi phenomena and the paranormal (Kennedy, 2003; Loye, 1982; Raden, 1997; Ritchie, 1992; Tart, 2002); how it works (Dossey, 2002; Steinkamp, 2002); ways of knowing (Broomfield, 1997; Forbes, 2003; Smith, 1995); epistemological issues and civilisational differences in knowledge (Capra, 2000; Ferrer, 2002, Inayatullah, 2002a, 2002b; Zingrone, 1999); practical applications of the psychic abilities (Targ & Katra, 1999; Wilde, 2001); and spiritual and consciousness evolution (Bausch and Christakis, 2004; Eisler, 2004; Gebser, 1985; Grof, 1995; Hawkins, 2002; Hollinshead, 2002; Goerner, 2004; Loye, 2004; Wilber, 1999, 2000c) amongst others. However, there is little attempt in the literature to conceptualise transpersonal and psychic capacities in terms of their relationship with intelligence. The closest attempts involve the juxtaposition of intuitive intelligence with rational and logical intelligences, as is the case with Gardner’s (1993) multiple intelligences, de Bono’s (1999) six thinking hats, Goleman’s (1995, 1999) emotional intelligence and Klein’s (2003) “intuition”. Yet the tendency in these texts is to define intuitive intelligence in mundane terms (as inferential intuition) as will be defined below.

Related concepts
Several relevant concepts are closely related to the idea of integrated intelligence, yet these differ in various ways. Below, these have been divided into several categories: enlightenment experiences; non-local mind; extrasensory perception; planetary mind; inferential intuition; classical intuition/psychic abilities; exceptional human experiences; revelation; spiritual intelligence; other ways of knowing; and other related concepts and phenomena. A definition is provided for each - either my own, or taken from sources within the literature. Note: The distinctions amongst these will be further elaborated in chapter two

Enlightenment experiences.
These involve the “state of consciousness or enlightenment (where) people experience themselves in the utmost depths of their psyche as being one with God” (Smith, 1995: 406-407) or some translogical cosmic essence. Examples include: “enlightenment” (Smith, 1995); “cosmic consciousness” (Bucke, 1991; Kubler-Ross, 1997; Moffett, 1994: 11; Smith, 1995); “Oneness” and “Pure Consciousness” (Jacobson, 1997, 1999: 35); “self-realization” (Nisker, 1998: 212-214); “subtle”, “causal” and “non-dual” consciousness (Wilber, 2000c); “ultimate identity with the source”, and “superconsciousness” (Slaughter, 1999: 332-33); “universal consciousness” (Kafatos & Kafatou, 1991); “unity consciousness” (Friedman, n.d); and “transcendent states” (Boorstein, 2000).

Non-local mind
This is the experience or conceptualisation of mind as extending from the boundaries of self, and interacting with people, spiritual entities, “objects” or information in an extra-sensory capacity, regardless of whether the perceived phenomena are in an immediate locale, or distant. Examples include: “nonlocal consciousness” (Targ & Katra, 1999); “distant non-local awareness” (Dossey, 1993, 2000a); “the holotropic mind” (Grof, 1992, 2000); the “holographic brain” (Bradley, 2004; Pribram & Bradley, 1998); “the universal mind” (Bentov, 1988) “open thinking” (Liberman, 1995); “group consciousness” (Krippner, 1992); “connection with the source/Divine” (Mack, 1999: 292-293); “intrasubjective experiences” and “participatory events” (Ferrer, 2002: 2); the “collective unconscious”: (Broomfield, 1997; Jung, 1989); “telesomatic connections” and “cardio-energetics” (Pearsall, 1999); “ the ultimate alignment of individual and cosmic good” (Bussey, 2004: 84); “being cognition” (Maslow, 1971); and “boundless mind” (Schlitz, 2001).

Planetary mind
Within the terms of this thesis, this is the conception that the Earth itself is conscious in some form, and that there is a process of communication or knowledge transference (potential or extant) between this consciousness and individuals living/existing on the Earth. This also includes both human and animal, individual and collective entities (such as human or animal collective minds), ecosystems and systems in general.
Examples include the concepts of: “global brain” (Bloom, 2000); “Gaia” (Couzyn, 1995; Lovelock, 1979; Sahtouris, 1999) Note: Maddox (1999) heavily criticises the misrepresentation of Lovelock’s initial hypothesis, which he points out does not suggest that the earth has "mystically, a life of its own". (Maddox, 1999: 348). Thus a distinction is required by those researchers who conform to Lovelock’s initial hypothesis, and those who take it and add mystical components.; and “nature as alive, self-organizing, intelligent, conscious or sentient and participatory at all levels.” (Sahtouris, 1999: http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/scripts/sahtouris.html)

Extrasensory perception
Here the focus is restricted to just one of the two primary components of “psychic experiences” as defined by White (1998) - extrasensory perception; namely ESP, clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition; but excluding psychokinesis, or being able to influence objects and organisms without touching them. (White, 1998: 132) The latter is excluded, simply because it pertains to a phenomenon beyond the scope of this thesis.
Examples include: “extrasensory perception” (Wallace, 2003: 185); “telepathy” and “ESP” (Sheldrake and Smart, 2003 ); “distant intentionality” (Dossey, 1999, 2001, 2002); “psi” experiences (Batcheldor, 1994; Kennedy, 2003); “ESP” (Henley, 2002: 289); and “transpersonal knowing” (Ferrer, 2002: 10).

Exceptional human experiences
Exceptional human experiences are “psychic, mystical, death-related, and strange encounter experiences that raise eyebrows.” (White, 1998: 129) This is a broad term which has come into use in the literature in recent years. It incorporates many of the mystical, psychic and spiritual experiences referred to under the other categories in this section. Examples include White (1998); and Kennedy (2003).

Revelation
This is the process of an individual receiving spiritually meaningful information from divine sources (God, angels, spirit guides etc.). Examples include: “revelation” Dobie, 2002; and “theophany” Fox and Sheldrake (1996: 51).

Spiritual intelligence
This is term that has come into popular literature in recent years. According to Zohar (2000) spiritual intelligence is “an internal, innate ability of the human brain and psyche, drawing its deepest resources from the heart of the universe itself.” (Zohar. 2000: 9) Examples include: Levin, (2000); and Zohar, (2000).

Inferential-intuition
This is mundane intuition, where the sources of intuitive knowledge are represented as coming from the unconscious mind and sensory sources, not from extra-sensory or metaphysical realms. Examples include: “intuition” (Klein, 2004; Myers, 2004; Senge, 1994) Note: Myers primarily constructs intuition as a form of tacit learning, However he acknowledges that “psychic” capacities exist, but remains skeptical and uncommitted about their potential. “intuitive intelligence” (Torff and Sternberg, 2001); “primary intuitive conceptions” (Torff and Sternberg, 2001; Ben-Zeev and Star, 2001); “tacit learning” (Hogarth, 2001); “intrapersonal intelligence” (Gardner, 1993; Gardner et al. , 1996); “red hat thinking” (de Bono, 1999). (Note: de Bono, Gardner, and Gardner et al. all lump intuitive and emotional intelligences together in their respective schemas, which is why they also appear under “emotional intelligence”)

Classical intuition/psychic awareness
This representation of intuition incorporates sources of intuitive knowledge that incorporate transcendent, extra-sensory and metaphysical dimensions. Examples include: “intuition” (Fox & Sheldrake, 1996; Rowan, 1986); “intuitive awareness” and “intuitive inquiry” (Braud, 1998: 75); “the sixth sense ” (Wilde, 2001); “psychic abilities” (Targ & Katra, 1999); and “perfect insight” and “intense knowledge” (Cleary, 1999: x-xi). (Note: when “intuition” is used within this thesis, it will be used in the classicist sense, comprising metaphysical and transcendent potentials, unless otherwise stated)

Other ways of knowing
These are ways of knowing, of enquiry, that move beyond the normal or accepted ways of knowing in western society and civilisation. As employed within this thesis, they incorporate spiritual and metaphysical components. Examples include: “other ways of knowing” (Broomfield, 1997; Forbes, 2003); “shamanistic, participative science” (Varvoglis); and “relatio” or “relationship knowledge” (Wildman, 1996).

Emotional intelligence
This entails being able to identify master one’s own emotions, as well as manage other people’s emotions effectively. As employed in this thesis, the definition of emotional intelligence does not incorporate integrated intelligence, but can be seen to include a type of inferential intuition. (Note: Basing his definition on the research of one of the original theorists (Salovey), Golemen finds that emotional intelligence incorporates such skills as knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others and handling relationships. (Goleman, 1995: 46-47) These include: “emotional intelligence” (Goleman, 1995, 1999; Israel et al., 2000; Salovey et al., 2004); “red hat thinking” (de Bono, 1999); and “emotional knowing”. (Friedman, 2005)

Other related conceptions: non-algorithmic and non-linear cognition
These are a diversity of conceptions which incorporate expansive notions of rationality but do not move into the metaphysical or transcendent realms. Thus they are still categorized under fragmented knowledge within this thesis. These will be referred to at times within this thesis. Examples include: “fuzzy logic” (Kosko, 1994); “lateral thinking” (de Bono, 1999); “quantum logic” (Clarke, 1995); “non-algorithmic thinking” (Penrose, 1990); “collective intelligence” (Avis, 2002; Dewey, 1937; Nash, 2005; Szuba, 2002).
The author’s of these expanded conceptions of rationality each critique standard conceptions of rationality as self-limiting. Kosko (1994) and de Bono (1999) develop critiques of dominant western civilisational ways of knowing, while Nash (2005) identifies the self-limiting constriction that rampant individualism has placed upon the idea of intelligence; the latter of which he finds identifies too much with individual thinking apart from group/collective perspectives. Notably all these proponents’ expansive representations of rationality differ from integrated intelligence in that all of them fail to challenge the dominant localised conception of consciousness inherent in modern dominant discourses, and essentially remain bound by the mechanistic paradigm in which their theories are embedded.

Agency and integrated intelligence
The conception of a universal mind/ intelligence and/or agency, either transcendent and/or immanent, personal and/or impersonal, is commonly depicted in texts which incorporate integrated intelligence. This will be further discussed in chapter two of this thesis, while the essential relevant conceptions and definitions will be stated here. Typically integrated intelligence is seen as dynamically operating as part of this larger system/intelligence. It is a “participatory” system (Wheeler, 1983) year where the whole sends messages to the parts. (Broomfield, 1997) We thus see a group of terms which attempt to make sense of this intelligence, such as the following:

l “The holographic mind/universe”. (Bradley, 2004; Pribram, 1991; Talbot, 1992). This theory, originally developed by neurophysiologist Karl Pribram depicts a cosmos predicated upon holistic principles where the part contains the whole, and the overriding metaphor is the hologram.
l The “Kosmos” (Wilber, 2000c). This is Wilber’s particular term for a representation of the cosmos which incorporates all four quadrants of his Integral Theory, including consciousness. It embraces the cosmological intelligence of the Buddhist tradition.
l “The implicate order” (Bohm, 1973). Bohm’s term for a subtle generative order within the universe; the implicit, hidden dimensions of the cosmos which lay behind the explicate or observable order.
l “The conscious universe”. Here the universe is seen as having an overriding intelligence and teleological propensities. This includes: “the conscious universe” Kafatos & Nadeau, (2000); Raden, (1997); also Elgin’s “living universe” (quoted in Phipps, 2004).
l Field theories of transpersonal consciousness, including: “morphogenetic fields” (Sheldrake, 1981, 1988, 2003); “the socioaffective field” and “collective agency” (Bradley, 2004); consciousness “attractor fields” (Hawkins, 2002); and “fields of consciousness” (Tiller et al., 2001). All these theorists posit various field theories, drawing heavily upon systems theory to explicate the interaction of consciousness and matter in the universe, and the workings of the universe as whole.
l God or divine intelligence/guidance. These theorists employ the word “God” or “agency” in an impersonal sense, using it to describe the teleological and intelligent properties of the greater cosmos, suggesting that an overriding consciousness is responsible for cosmic and human evolution. They include: “God” (Aldworth, 2001; Russell, 2004); also “spiritual higher power” and “the creator” (Newton: 2000: 122); “the Creator” (Bentov, 1988 ); the “Divine Ground of Being” (Ross, 1993: 9, 294); and “agentic capacities” (Coole, 2005).
l Cosmic consciousness. The term, as employed by these thinkers, differs from the way used above, under “enlightenment experiences”. Here it is not a perceptual experience, but a descriptive term for a universal guiding intelligence. This includes “cosmic consciousness” Sheldrake et al., (2001); also Sarkar’s “Supreme Consciousness” as discussed in Gauthier, (1999); and Inayatullah, (2002b;).
l Co-evolution, including: “intelligent design”. These are post-Darwinian conceptions of evolution which incorporate a teleological, transpersonal and/or participative component. They including “intelligent design” Bloom, (2001); the “participatory universe” (Eisler, 2004; Folger, 2002; Wheeler, 1983); and “dynamic evolution” (Goerner, 2004).
l Synchronicty. Here synchronicity refers to meaningful coincidences which represent an interface between human experience and a greater universal intelligence. Usually, as with Jung’s (1973) original theory, the full comprehension of the process is beyond human cognition, although the synchronicity’s “meaning” may be intuited. These include Dossey, (2000, 2002b); Hawkins (2002); Jung (1973; 1989 ); Peat (1988); Redfield (1997); Storm (1999); and Wilde (2001).

The conception of an overriding agency brings to bear the entire question of agency in history and evolution, another crucial aspect of this thesis. The concept of various kinds of collective consciousness adds to the complexity of theories of integrated consciousness.

Summary
This variety of terms associated with integrated intelligence are often employed in different ways by different thinkers, and are often vague and are easily confused with other cognitive processes. At other times, although ostensibly similar to integrated intelligence, they may mean quite different things. However, as used in this thesis, the meanings will correspond with the categories identified above, except where there is a reference given to a usage as given by a particular theorist. The distinctions amongst these terms will be explored more fully in the research to come, especially in chapter two.

1.2.4 A brief history of integrated intelligence and its contemporary relevance
Classical depictions of intelligence typically posit the existence of integrated intelligence. Indigenous and native mythology is heavily imbued with concepts of deific, revelatory and transpersonal consciousness. The ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures held strong beliefs about deific intervention, revelation, and prophecy. Mystical traditions such as Buddhism, Tantra, Taoism and Sufism contain strong transpersonal elements and imagery, and their depictions of intelligence contain strongly non-localised elements. Indigenous cultures throughout the world feature shamanic traditions, ancestral worship, and mythologies which all contain elements of a non-localised intelligence. (Groff, 1994; Pearsall, 1999)
Contemporary science, in wake of the enlightenment has tended to avoid the issue of consciousness altogether, instead focusing upon readily measurable aspects of cognition such as neurophysiology and behavior. (Dossey, 2002; Grof, 1992; Penrose, 1990; Ross, 1993; Sheldrake, 1981; Wilber, 2000c)
The issue of an integrated, non-localised intelligence has become increasingly significant in recent decades, coinciding with an increased attention paid by the scientific community to the concept of consciousness. A greater number of scientists, philosophers and thinkers are questioning strictly neurophysiological interpretations of intelligence and discussing the validity of expanded cognitive capacities which defy localised models of consciousness. (Blackmore 2001; Dossey, 1999, 2001; Hawkins, 2002; Penrose, 1990; Raden 1997; Sheldrake, 2003; Tart 1993, 2001) Prior to this shift in focus, the nature of intelligence and its function as a neurobiological epiphenomenon of evolutionary biology, was assumed to be a given. This shift has occurred parallel to, and also within a strong postmodernist critique of modernist science. Strong debate continues to occur within scientific circles as to the way in which quantum principles of non-locality impinge upon traditional scientific models of the universe and this has spilled over into the field of intelligence theory (Penrose, 1990; Hawkins, 2002; Wilber, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c; Zohar, 2000). Meanwhile speculators, philosophers and writers of popular science and spirituality have taken the arguments to new dimensions (Bentov, 1988; Capra 2000; Friedman, 2005; Talbot, 1992; Zohar, 2000). Further, contemporary mystics and many of those within various spiritual modalities are continuing to insist that integrated intelligence exists, and indeed is vital to personal and spiritual development. (Fox and Sheldrake, 1996; Nisker, 1998; Pearsall, 1999; Redfield, 1997; Wilde, 2001)

1.3.1 Contextualising the thesis
What is the problem and why is the research needed?
Current mainstream educational practice, following the dominant scientific discourse, assumes a narrow definition of intelligence and consciousness. Rational, linguistic and mathematical depictions of intelligence currently predominate (Gardner, 1993; Shearer, 2004). In line with this, neurophysiology and developmental, social, and cognitive psychology prevail in modern psychology and consciousness theory. Cognitive psychology has become a handmaiden to neuroscience. (Maddox, 1999) Recently genetics and genetic psychology have also gained prominence. (Loye, 2004a). Of the significant contemporary schools of psychology, only transpersonal and humanistic psychology, positive psychology and parapsychology have touched upon the idea of an integrated intelligence (Loye, 2004a; Wilber, 2000b), and these schools have not been embraced by many mainstream thinkers. In recent years information theory, artificial intelligence theory, cybergenetics, and evolutionary biology have also delved into consciousness theory (Kaku, 1997) but these fields have mostly remained grounded in standard reductionist models of consciousness.
This situation restricts the potential development of a truly holistic and integrated curriculum in schools and universities. Amongst educators, IQ theory is seen as problematic, but has been replaced in teachers’ minds by the effective synonym of “ability”, which mirrors the concept of “g”, or a domain-general intelligence predicated on the presupposition that logical, linguistic and mathematical acuity is the basis of intelligence. (Nash, 2005) Generally stated, the neglected domains are the development of the “intrapersonal” (Gardner, 1993) and spiritual components of education (Broomfield, 1997; Krishnamurti, 1956; Moffett, 1994). Integrated intelligence implies an alternative way of knowing – through introspection, through contemplation, and through “receptive” modes of consciousness. (Fox & Sheldrake, 1996; Wilber, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c; Moffett, 1994; Liberman, 1995) Moffett (1994) argues that the lack of a spiritual component in contemporary education is severely damaging the young and the greater society. He suggests that spiritual education will be highly beneficial in the long run, as a more stable, self-aware and wholly developed population will create a more peaceful, moral and harmonious society.
On a broader scale, Various critics are suggesting that humanity is on the verge of a shift, or potential shift in consciousness. (Grof, 2000; Ferguson, 1986; Hawkins, 2002; Moffett, 1994; Sahtouris, 1999; Wilber, 2001) Duane Elgin writes that:

…there is a whole shift in mind-set now occurring. In the United States, for example, a conservative estimate is that about ten per cent of the American adult population, or twenty million people, are making a shift on the inside toward a more experiential spirituality and on the outside toward a more ecological approach to life. Taken together, these could transform the adversity trends into a great opportunity. (quoted in Phipps, 2004: http://www.wie.org/ji9/elgin.asp)
If such critics are correct, the near future may be the perfect time to consider the relevance of spiritual and integrated intelligence in our science, our education, and our lives. Elgin states further that the increasing awareness of a “conscious” universe has vital implications for humanity.

This is an amazing miracle, and as we discover this, I think that it is going to begin to shift who we think we are and what we think our life-journey is about. It's transformative. The idea and the experience of a living universe is a powerful recontextualization of who we think we are and where we think we're going. (ibid.)

Personal, social and planetary transformation and healing is a seminal theme throughout a plethora of texts that posit an integrated representation of intelligence.
The significance of the research
Alternative educational methodologies such as the Steiner, Montessori and Krishnamurti schools all acknowledge the role of intuitive, inspirational and integrated intelligence in the development of the child. (Bussey, 2003; Krishnamurti, 1956; Steiner, 1970) Various non-western spiritual education and training practices also have emphasised integrated intelligence, such as those of the Australian Aborigines, eastern spiritual traditions, and shamanic initiations (Broomfield, 1997; Lawler, 1991; Wilber, 2000c; Wildman, 1996). The paradigms upon which such education is predicated acknowledge the existence of “non-localised” agency within the experience of intuition and inspiration. This most commonly includes concepts such as revelation, spirit guides and angels, and telepathic transfer of knowledge between people and the land or nature. (Grof, 1995; Wildman, 1996; Broomfield, 1997; Pearsall, 1999)
Within mainstream public and private education the debate has barely begun. Though more radical thinkers such as, Beare & Slaughter (1993), Broomfield (1997), Carter and Smith (2003), Forbes (2003), Fromberg (2001), Gardner (1993), Krishnamurti (1956), Hogarth (2001), Moffett (1994), and Steiner (1970) have openly criticised educational theory and practice for its narrow constructs of what comprises consciousness and/or intelligence, few are entering the debate as yet with any conviction. While in recent decades concepts which touch upon the idea of intuitive knowledge - such as multiple intelligences (Gardner 1993), six thinking hats (de Bono, 1999), emotional intelligence Goleman (1995, 1999) and have become well known in educational circles, these theorists have represented intuition as inferential, downplayed any spiritual or mystical components, and confined the discourse firmly within respected traditional scientific models of intelligence and consciousness. Literature that refers to other ways of knowing and intuitive intelligence lacks a framework that allows for the genuine incorporation of integrated intelligence into its methodology. This may to some degree reflect Ferrer’s (2002) finding that a lack of a clear epistemology in transpersonal studies has severely hindered its broader acceptance in science and society in general.
Greater research into integrated intelligence will potentially deliver an expanded framework for its theory, and thus for its possible place in educational practice of the future. While integrated intelligence remains unexplored and unrecognised and its epistemology vague and ungrounded, there is little hope that most educational institutions will acknowledge it. Thus any potential benefit of an expanded curriculum will remain unrealised.

1.3.2 Intelligence theory and integrated intelligence
The exclusion of integrated intelligence from mainstream intelligence theory
Jensen sees intelligence as being highly correlated with the concept of IQ, especially in terms of the latter’s reliance upon deductive and inductive reasoning, spatial visualisation, quantitative reasoning, and verbal knowledge and reasoning. (Jensen, 1998: 89). Piaget (1977) and similar developmental psychologists see intelligence as initiating at the sensorimotor and preconceptual modes, with the rational domains such as the formal operational seen as the zenith of consciousness development. Such models depend heavily upon, reasoning, memory, language and moral judgment. (Trombley & Bullock, 1999) The behaviorists such as Skinner (1971) and Hull (1981) tended to ignore consciousness altogether, instead focusing upon observable behaviour. (Ross, 1993)
Many texts link intelligence and consciousness to biological processes and tend to posit it either explicitly or implicitly as a mechanistic epiphenomenon of evolutionary processes. Examples of this include academic researchers such as Spearman (1973), Binet (2002); and popular science writers such as Bryson (2003), and Dawkins (1976); and the neo-Darwinian geneticists, as indicated by Loye (2004a).
Even many theorists who expand their conceptions of intelligence beyond the limitations of g and its mathematical/logical presuppositions (Gardner, 1993; Shearer, 2004) merely posit further extrapolations on the localised and fragmented mind by adding further horizontal dimensions such as emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995, 1999; Salovey et al., 2004), lateral thinking (de Bono, 1999), collective intelligence (Nash, 2005; Szuba, 2002), inferential intuition (Klein, 2003; Torff & Sternberg, 2001); “civic intelligence” (Dewey, 1937); or various non-linear components (Kosko, 1994) without expanding the vertical dimension into translogical cognitive modalities. Note: Here the “horizontal” axis refers to cognitive domains that remain in the traditional western conceptions of localised representations of mind, while the “vertical” represents depictions of intelligence expanded into non-localised and transcendent potentials.
Such discourses as these tend to avoid the issue of integrated intelligence altogether. The assumptions of the mechanistic paradigm from which these theories and models emerge do not allow for debate on consciousness and intelligence to embrace the conception of an integrated intelligence, as a localised and non-integrated intelligence is implicit within that paradigm.

1.4.1 The methodology
In this section the methodology will be outlined. Inayatullah’s (1998, 2002a) Casual Layered Analysis (CLA) will be detailed, situating the method within postcritical discourse and futures studies. Bussey’s (2004) Critical Spirituality is also discussed, and the Integrated/Fragmented Mind Model (IFM) introduced. The concept of ways of knowing is also explicated here, as it is crucial to the methodology employed in this thesis. Finally, the limitations of the method are outlined.

1.4.2 Poststructuralist thought, futures studies and Causal Layered Analysis
In the context of Poststructuralism and critical futures research, Sohail Inayatullah’s (1998, 2002a) Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) will be used to unpack the texts of intelligence, consciousness, and other relevant discourses – rational, intuitive, pre-rational, integrated and other modes. Slaughter (1999) identifies four ways that the knowledge base of futures studies is growing – namely critique, innovation, new voices, and synthesis. Slaughter posits CLA within the category of critique, or critical futures studies. As Slaughter indicates, critical futures studies is more than just criticism. It is “also about the ability to understand problems, issues and phenomena in depth.” (Slaughter, 1999:29). The multi-layered methodology of CLA allows for that depth to emerge. Further, as Slaughter points out, CLA allows for the movement beyond purely western futures, towards a “multi-civilisational view” of futures studies. (ibid.) The benefits of this for the analysis of integrated intelligence are obvious, in that integrated intelligence is a conception that has been all but excluded from modernist, western intelligence theory, and is primarily found in pre-modern and/or non-western texts, or feilds that have been influenced by them.
CLA takes as its starting point the assumption that there are different levels of reality and ways of knowing. Individuals, organizations and civilizations see the world from different vantage points. (Inayatullah 2002a:10) CLA analyses problems at four levels: namely the empirical and factual; the social; the worldview of individuals involved; and the mythological level. A prime goal of this thesis is to identify the strengths and weaknesses that are inherent within the given texts. The goal is not to prove or disprove the existence of an integrated intelligence per se, but to assess the role that each of these four levels plays within the discourses – for example modern rationality, and epistemic rationality (ordering of reality via epistemes).
CLA is an ideal methodology to employ for this thesis topic. The debate on integrated and transrational intelligence remains at an embryonic phase in education. The deconstruction process inherent in CLA allows the assumptions, worldviews and paradigms that underpin various depictions of intelligence to be brought forward with greater perspective. Whatever conclusions can be gleaned from this will enable future researchers to move into more specific aspects of this field with a greater sense of where the debate lies in juxtaposition to intelligence theory, consciousness research, and science and education in general. Finally, the use of CLA within this research topic is intended to lay the foundations of a map which will depict the potential applications of integrated intelligence in contemporary education.

1.4.3 CLA and Bussey’s critical spirituality
Futures studies has taken much influence from the postmodernist tradition and postcritical theory. Futures studies is, according to Inayatullah: “Committed to multiple interpretations of reality”, and this legitimates “the role of the unconscious, of mythology, of the spiritual… instead of views of reality for which only empirical data exists.” (Inayatullah, 2002a: 3)
CLA is a means to conduct inquiry into the nature of past, present and future. It problematises the present and the past, allowing the possibility of alternative futures to emerge. (Inayatullah, 2002a) The purpose of CLA is to elucidate the deeper meanings imbedded within texts via the application of the four layers, and to allow the acknowledgement of other ways of knowing (ibid.). The first level of CLA is the “litany”, which examines the rational/scientific, factual and quantitative aspects of texts. The second level - the social/systemic - deconstructs the economic, cultural, political and historical components. The third level of CLA explores the discourse/worldview of texts, identifying the deeper social, linguistic, and cultural structures. The final component of CLA is the mythical/metaphorical level. This reveals the hidden and explicit mythologies, narratives, symbols and metaphors contained in texts. This includes any emotional, unconscious and archetypal dimensions (Inayatullah, 2002a).
Once the discourse is expanded into these four levels, the way is then cleared for a movement beyond the purely critical and rational, which in turn allows for the re-introduction of the actual experience and employment of other ways of knowing, (including integrated intelligence). The tools and non-ordinary states of consciousness entailed in the use of integrated intelligence provide a means for actualizing what Slaughter calls “transformative” futures, and what Moffett calls “education for transformation”, where the transpersonal and spiritual have been re-integrated into our discourses and our pedagogies. (Moffett, 1994; Slaughter, 1999: 359)
As indicated, CLA can be seen as being situated within critical futures. As Inayatullah (1998) states, CLA is

“…less concerned with disinterest, as in the empirical, or with creating mutual understanding, as in the interpretive, but with creating distance from current categories. This distance allows us to see current social practices as fragile, as particular, and not as universal categories of thought – they are seen as discourse, a term similar to paradigm but inclusive of epistemological assumptions.” (Inayatullah, 1998: 16)

Yet this distancing, an inherent tool of postcritical thought (Inayatullah, 2002a), does not in itself actualise spiritual, mystical or translogical experience. The tools of postcritcal thought and CLA are primarily analytical. CLA does however, leave an idealised space, a field of potential for these domains.
Bussey’s (2004) concepts of “critical spirituality” and “Neo-Humanism” provide a further, deeper dimension to the situating, legitimising, and indeed experiencing of integrated intelligence within contemporary discourse and society at large. Critical spirituality is essentially Neo-Humanism as method. Neo-Humanism was developed to initiate “a new narrative to provide the inspiration and the tools to transform our selves and our future.” (Bussey, 2004: 203) It has a definite methodology which drives a critical spirituality which “complements the critical method that underpins the most proactive and vibrant areas of futures research.” (ibid.) Neo-Humanism embraces a Tantric epistemology, and espouses an holistic perspective of life that is both philosophical and practical. It spans both east and west by taking inspiration from the humanist tradition emphasising the seminal importance of human consciousness within the domain of action, whilst it also embraces empirical methodology and experimental rationality. As Bussey sums up: “the methodology of Neo-Humanism is scientific in nature but deeply metaphysical in origin”, integrating the rational and intuitive realms. (ibid.)
Bussey writes that:

Critical spirituality redefines rationality and empiricism by including within their framework both the somatic and the meditative as valid and necessary components of any research activity. (Bussey, 2004: 199)

Bussey further argues that Neo-Humanism provides “a coherent narrative… that extends critical futures research by proposing a critical spirituality to compliment the reason of the head, with a reason of the heart or soul.” It is infused with a “metaphysical depth.” (Bussey, 2004: 203) Thus within the model of Neo-Humanism, progress emerges from the spiritual domain. (Bussey, 2004)
Thus if we are to diagrammatically depict the situation of integrated intelligence in contemporary discourse, the following diagram summarises the argument posited here.

Diagram 1.1: Situating integrated intelligence within postmodern thought

7.Integrated intelligence

6.Critical spirituality

5.Neo-humanism

4.Causal Layered Analysis

3.Critical Futures

2.Post-critical discourse

1.Postmodernism

If we look at this somewhat simplistically as a liner progression rather than as a dynamic system of interacting levels, we see that the insertion of spiritual and transpersonal modes of cognition occurs below the level of CLA. Yet it is the theoretical inclusion of the spiritual, the metaphorical, the analogical and other ways of knowing within CLA theory that represents the seminal insertion point that permits the re-entry of spiritual discourses into contemporary theory. On all levels below CLA, the predominant tools and methods are rational-empirical.
Integrated intelligence is the practical link that makes real Bussey’s (2004) claim that Neo-Humanism provides the metaphysical depth to move beyond linear modes of rationality and sensory reality. While CLA and critical spirituality, by definition, predominantly employ analytical and critical cognitive modes, the employment of integrated intelligence potentially expands these discourses via a direct experiential link with a cosmic intelligence, grounding the entire framework in practical transpersonal/mystical experience. This re-instates the missing dimension of “all the messy stuff” which has been left out of modernist science (Schlitz, 2001: 341) and perpetuated by the aperspectivism of postmodernism. (Bussey, 2004; Wilber, 2000a)

1.4.4 Wilber’s Integral Theory
As shown in Diagram 2 below, Wilber’s (2000a, 2000c) Integral Theory and four-quadrant model specifies four domains of general human inquiry. Note: I have also found Floyd’s (2005: 48) summation of Wilber’s model helpful in developing this account of Wilber’s model. The four quadrants incorporate the individual, collective, interior and exterior aspects of perception, of reality. Wilber’s argument is that none of the quadrants should be reduced down to another. This includes the subjective, inner perceptions of the upper left being reduced to the exterior materialism of the upper right – a process endemic within contemporary psychology and consciousness theory. (Wilber, 2000a)

Diagram 2: Wilber’s Four-Quadrant Model (simplified)
Upper Left
Interior-individual
The “subjective”
Consciousness/culture

Upper right
Exterior-individual
The “objective”
Matter/energy/systems

Lower left
Interior-social
Inter-subjectivity
The cultural

Lower right
Exterior-social
Inter-objectivity
The social

Adapted from Wilber (2000c): inside cover

Using Wilber’s map, it can be seen that the depictions of consciousness and intelligence in western texts in the modern era have tended to exclude the subjectivity of the upper left-hand quadrant – the interior/individual. This is the domain of integrated intelligence, the awareness of knowledge of the psychic and transpersonal as experienced via an inward, “subjective” focus of mind. The tendency throughout the twentieth century has been for contemporary developmental and cognitive psychology to become increasingly a handmaiden to neuroscience (Maddox, 1999), which focuses its attention upon the top-right hand domain - the exterior individual. (Wilber, 2000a)
The other crucial component of the model is that it is hierarchical; the arrows moving outward suggest the outward and upward thrust of evolutionary forces of the “Kosmos”. Wilber’s Kosmos has an intelligence/consciousness and evolutionary imperative of its own. (Wilber, 2000c)
Wilber’s four-quadrant model will be used as a reference point in the analyses that occur throughout this thesis. Yet the purpose of this thesis is not only to discern the representations of mind within modern texts on intelligence, but also to discern the rudiments of the actual dominant manifestation or experience of the fragmented mind in modernity, and especially the psycho-spiritual factors which have greatly contributed to this dominance. For it will be argued that the dominant representation of mind as essentially mechanistic and brain-based is itself a function of the predominance of the fragmented mind amongst those constructing the texts.
Note: de Mause (2005) finds that most people even today have only achieved a partial integration of their "relatively independent subselves" that they begin constructing as small children. de Mause has found that fourteen percent of the general public experience “substantial dissociative symptoms", while most of the general population experience “lesser dissociative symptoms.” He argues that it is repressed trauma that lies at the heart of this dissociation, and points out that half of contemporary adults have suffered sexual abuse as children, and that most adults have been physically and emotionally abused to some degree, while responsible and caring parenting is relatively rare. de Mause does not find that these dissociative states are reflective of a failure to connect with transcendent cognitive potentials, nor non-localised, stygian or spiritual influences (which is consistent with certain aspects of indigenous and medieval cultures and integrated intelligence). However he does concede that

…people in the past had their demon alters exorcised or had conversations with their various inner souls, but even today religious spirit possessions are not uncommon. A third of Americans say they have experienced other spirits in themselves and over 90 percent of us believe in and at times converse with (pray to) god alters of one sort or another.” (de Mause: http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/eln09_psychesociety.html)

de Mause does not imply that these traditional spiritual influences are legitimate, but merely points out that these dissociative states were more readily addressed in pre-modern cultures.
While de Mause does not refer to transcendent components of mind, his findings suggest that the typical contemporary mind at the every least exists in a state of psychological dissociation. The possibility of ego/transpersonal fragmentation is one that requires further research in order to establish empirical validation, but an empirical evaluation is highly problematic.

Reanney (1991) finds a simple explanation for the dissociation of mental and spiritual in contemporary society.

It is obvious… that most of the choices we make limit the universal quality of consciousness… Overtime, after many choices have been made, after we have fixed the structure of our thoughts in words through tens of years, we emerge with a lens on the world which is tightly defined and narrowly focused. Over time, gradually, irresistibly, inevitably the ego-self becomes a trap for consciousness, a prison in which our vision becomes increasingly ensnared and emeshed. (Reanney, 1991:170)

Finally, the fundamental predicate of the integrated/fragmented mind model is that human consciousness is non-localised and embedded within a “sea” of universal consciousness. As has been stated, this argument has been represented in transpersonal, positive and humanistic psychology, in indigenous cultures, and in numerous spiritual traditions, both East and West.

1.4.5 The integrated/fragmented mind model (IFM)
The integrated/fragmented mind model follows mystical and transpersonal theory/experience (Ferrer, 2000; Gebser, 1985; Grof, 2000; Wilber, 1999, 2000c) which states that there are both rational/ego-based and transrational states of mind driving human evolution. In Wilber’s and Gebser’s models (ibid.), consciousness evolves from pre-personal and undifferentiated modes, through to rational and ultimately to transpersonal modes.
As used here, the term “the integrated mind” features the conscious mind in awareness of its essentially non-localised and universal nature. Concurrent with this is the experience or knowledge of externalised “influences” on the mind, including mystical, deific, spiritual and stygian.
The term “fragmented consciousness”, by implication, is the state whereby the conscious mind is unaware of its non-localised, transpersonal nature, and exists in a state of dissociation from any genuine awareness of universal or spiritual consciousness. It is characterised by the mind’s drive to perpetuate its state of separation, by a need for control and power, and to deny death and impermanence. (Grof, 1995; Krishnamurti, 1987; Wilber, 1999, 2000c)

1.4.6 Ways of knowing
Central to this thesis is the concept of ways of knowing. As indicated, CLA acknowledges different levels of reality and different ways of knowing. (Inayatullah 2002a:10) The argument shall be that it is primarily the employment of ways of knowing (Broomfield, 1997; Pickstone, 2000), mediated by historical, civilisational, paradigmatic factors and ultimately levels of consciousness which have affected the development of science, and in turn scientific conceptions of intelligence and consciousness.
The argument in this thesis is predicated upon an essential distinction between rational and intuitive ways of knowing. However these two categories are themselves generalised, and can be further broken down into more specific categories as follows.

Table 1.1. Intuitive and Rational Ways of Knowing

Intuitive
Inferential intuition.
Classical Intuition.

Rational
Classificatory ways of knowing. (Pickstone, 2000)
Analytical ways of knowing. (Pickstone, 2000)
Experimental ways of knowing. (Pickstone, 2000)
Mathematical/logical intelligence. (Gardner, 1993)
Rational/ linguistic intelligence. (Gardner, 1993)

Note: These categories should not be seen as distinct and inseparable. In regard to rationality, Pickstone’s (2000) three dominant ways of knowing in science can be seen as interdependent. Further, all of these can be seen to involve the final two categories – mathematical and rational/linguistic intelligences, to some degree. For example, the so-called fathers of modern science, such as Galileo, Kepler and Newton, all employed mathematics to complement their experiments and/or observations. (Hawking, 2003)

The intuitive ways of knowing
Inferential intuition is mundane intuition. Torff and Sternberg (2001a) define intuitive intelligence as a form of implicit knowledge, or “knowledge or knowledge structures that individuals acquire and use largely without conscious reflection or explicit instruction”. (Torff and Sternberg, 2001a: introduction: vii) As Ben-Zeev and Star (2001) argue, such “intuitions” contain a barely conscious reasoning process. This is consistent with the inferential-intuitionist viewpoint (ibid.). This construction of intuition is an overtly rational one, and incorporates no metaphysical or mystical components. It thus differs radically from the classicalist position, such as that of Spinoza and Bergson, which holds that intuitions are essentially metaphysical, a priori and antithetical to reason. (Ben-Zeev and Star, 2001: 31, 51) Integrated intelligence, domains one and two, can be seen as part of the classicalist position.
Note: There are other possible ways of knowing that could have been classified in the intuitive domain such as spiritual intelligence (Levin, 2001; Zohar, 2000); cosmic consciousness (Bucke, 1991; Kubler-Ross, 1977); while Wilber’s (2000a, 2000b, 2000c) subtle, causal and non-dual modes of consciousness are incorporated into level one integrated intelligence. Various depictions of the psychic realm, such as that of Wilber (ibid.).; Broomfield (1977); and Targ & Katra, (1999, 2001); are consistent enough to be been included under domain two integrated intelligence. However the two intuitive categories have been selected here because they are simple yet cover what I see as the essential distinction between sensory and extra-sensory perception, which in turn reflects generalised preferences inherent in western and eastern epistemes respectively.

The rational ways of knowing
Max Weber argued that the west is distinguished from the Middle East in its rationalising of all forms of thought. (Huff, 2003: 6) The rational ways of knowing that are listed here can be seen as subsets of the broader general concept of rationality, which is “the power of the intellect to comprehend, reflect, abstract, analyze, and draw conclusions.” (Rohmann, 1999: 337)
Dawkins (1998) epitomises this rationalist mode of cognition within modern science when he writes that:

With the aid of external memories and symbol-manipulating artifacts - paper and pens, abacuses and computers - we are in a position to construct a working model of the universe and run it in our heads before we die. (Dawkins, 1998: 312)

Rationality in this sense is the mind of symbol, of data and manipulation; the mind of the ratio. (Wildman, 1996) In essence the empirical-scientific worldview is the world of the symbol, where the word, the number, and the computer image are what constitute the real. The result is that the ways of knowing (method) of science are virtually incapable of dealing with quality in general, and are, as Whitehead stated, “primarily quantitative”. (quoted in Wilber, 2001: 24)
There are five rational ways of knowing identified here: classification/natural history, analysis, experimentalism, rational/linguistic intelligence, and mathematical/logical intelligence.

Pickstone’s three ways of knowing
Pickstone (2000) identifies rationality (as deployed in the age of science) as consisting of three ways of knowing: classification and analysis (natural science), experimentalism (invention), and technoscience. These ways of knowing are not exclusive from each other, and yet they have developed sequentially in this order during the scientific era. Revolutions in science, suggests Pickstone, do not totally dispense with previous ways of knowing; they merely displace them (Pickstone, 2000: 25) The argument that follows builds upon Pickstone’s (2000) three-tier model of rationality, with the addition of Gardner’s (1993) generalised rational/linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences.

Classification/natural history
Natural history is broadly similar to Wilber’s (2001) “eye of flesh.” Pickstone finds that this “notebook science” employed a way of knowing that was “about describing and collecting, identifying and classifying, utilizing and displaying” (Pickstone, 2000: 60). The main purpose was to record the wonder of nature, and was motivated by “a compulsion to identify and collect” (ibid.), and not for functional use, nor to elicit meaning from nature (Pickstone, 2000).
Pickstone states that natural history as a way of knowing dominated science beginning around the year 1500, when medieval anatomy texts featured naturalistic diagrams. (Pickstone, 2000: 63) Thereafter, natural science and analysis were primarily responsible for the “massive restructuring” of science, technology and medicine beginning from the late eighteenth century. (ibid.: 106) The main driving forces of natural history were “the pride of possession”, “intellectual satisfaction”, and the needs of “commerce and industry.” (ibid.; 60).

Analysis
Analysis as a way of knowing can be seen in science’s analyses of the structures, processes and forms of plants and animals. Analysis also incorporates the earth and social sciences, which began to emerge around 1800. (ibid.: 106) In modern medicine the proliferation of analysis can be seen in hospital laboratories, where the components of bodies are examined by post-mortem anatomies or microscopial specimens, by analysis of blood chemicals and bodily tissues, by immunological testing for antibodies, by electrical sensors including electrocardiodiagrams (ECGs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs). (ibid.)

Experimentalism
According to Pickstone, experimentalism emerged around the mid-nineteenth century. (ibid.: 30) It can be seen that it has broad similarities to Wilber’s (2001)“eye of flesh.” Experimentalism was “about making and displaying new worlds”. (Pickstone, 2003: 30) Pickstone argues that experimental science was essentially a product of the nineteenth century. (ibid.; 136) Its emergence emphasises the relationship between experimentation and systematic invention. As Pickstone states, experimentalism “concentrates on the creation and control of novelty.” (ibid; 136) He argues that the parallels between experiment and invention are so close that they may be considered the same thing. (ibid.;136). An example is when Pasteur designed bent-drawn-out necks on his flasks, satisfying audiences that he could control fermentation, and showing that fermentation was not a spontaneous process. (ibid.:135)
Maddox (1999) finds that the understandings of physics of recent decades are "intellectual triumphs of the first order, but none of them would command confidence without the crucial clues provided by experimenters." (Maddox, 1999: 88) Maddox’s point not only shows that experimentation is a prime way of knowing in physics, it also suggests one of the reasons why psi phenomena (such as clairvoyance, ESP and telepathy) and integrated intelligence are not readily acknowledged in modern science is the fact of the “capricious, actively evasive, unsustainable nature of psi” is not readily amenable to empirical analysis. (Kennedy, 2003: 53)

Mathematical/logical intelligence
Moving beyond Pickstone’s (2000) three ways of knowing, mathematics has been added here because its significance in the development of the modern world and science is so great that it requires a category in its own right. Logical-mathematical intelligence is employed to calculate and quantify mathematical problems, and secondly to examine hypotheses and propositions. (Gardner, 1993)
It can be seen that western rationalist hegemony has been greatly influenced by the development of this intellectual capacity. Ben-David (1964, 1971) sees the scientific age beginning in the seventeenth century, with the coming together of the mathematical tradition of Europe and the experimental and empirical movement in England. (ibid.). Needham finds that “the application of mathematical hypotheses to Nature,” including “the geometrization of space” was seminal in the development of modern science in the late Renaissance." (Needham, 1969: 15) Further, the central issue raised by the Copernican revolution was “the right of the mathematical astronomer to make claims in natural philosophy". (Huff, 2003: 345) The ultimate answer, as adjudged by the eventual implementation of the heliocentric universe in modern science, was “yes” - and mathematics has played a seminal role in scientific breakthroughs ever since. It is arguably the final arbiter of truth in modern science.

Rational/Linguistic intelligence
This intelligence is the capacity use language and words to construct and understand thoughts, ideas and meanings. (Gardner, 1993) It can be seen that rational/linguistic intelligence is a prerequisite for all four the other ways of knowing listed here, including mathematical, for it is difficult to imagine understanding even mathematical conceptions without the aid of language to posit questions, conceptions and problematics. It appears that consciousness as we understand it is predicated upon language and that the kind of self-awareness that we associate with being conscious would not be possible without the use of language. (Jaynes, 1990)
Linguistic intelligence is not only important in terms of what it is, but also in terms of what it is not. The question is whether it represents the ultimate evolutionary leap of mind (ibid.), or whether it constricts certain kinds of perception, and indeed integrated intelligence will be discussed further in chapter two.

The verbs of perception reveal the way of knowing.
Through an examination of the verbs of perception used by various scientists, philosophers and mystics, the cognitive processes (ways of knowing) of theorists can be made explicit. This reveals two levels of a discourse. Firstly, in the case of individuals who were seminal in the establishment of the western rationalist hegemony, it can be determined what ways of knowing they employed to perceive and communicate their understandings. Secondly, where researchers and philosophers are commenting and critiquing other individuals, institutions, and even civilisations, the verbs that they attribute to those they are commenting upon and analysing, can be used to determine the civilisational or paradigmatic biases of the critic. Wilber’s (2001) concept of “category error” is particularly relevant here, as the employment of an inappropriate “eye of knowing” to attempt to understand knowledge gleaned from a different “eye of knowing” may lead to misunderstandings.
Though certain verbs may be used in both intuitive and rational modes of perception, they may be generalised into two distinct groups in the following manner.

Table # 1: Classification of verbs of knowing into rational and intuitive

Intuitive
Rational
Intuit
Feel
See
Hear
Contemplate
Meditate
Sense
Perceive
Channel
Reveal (revelation)
Connect with
Divine (verb)
Access
Actualize

Rationalise
Postulate
Intellectualise
Theorise
Extrapolate
Cognise
Conclude
Think
Deconstruct
Examine
Dispute
Argue
Observe
Measure
Read
Research
Deduce
Calculate
Detect
Dispute
Take apart
Reduce
Collect
Gather
Extrapolate
Study

While it is acknowledged that any dichotomy such as this involves some degree of approximation and generalisation, the verbs have been placed according to their most common usage in the texts which constitute the subject matter of this thesis. In the texts that are transcribed and referred to in the chapters to follow, the verbs of knowing, where appropriate, will be highlighted in bold text.

1.4.8 Limitations of the method, and thesis in general
Comparing and contrasting thinkers and schools from different eras is always problematical. There is the possibility that the reviewer will interpret past texts in the light of his/her own worldview, and fail to consider seminal differences in method, culture, or even consciousness itself. For example, the understandings and the worldview of Chinese mystic Lao Zi (who lived some 2600 years ago in rural China), is inevitably vastly different from that of Ken Wilber (2000c), living in the present age. This is despite the fact that they both exhibit a deeply mystical worldview. Jaynes (1990) argues that ancients such as Lao Zi did not even posses a differentiated consciousness, but instead lived in an egoless mental state directed by the auditory hallucinations of the “bi-cameral mind”. If Jaynes’ thesis is correct, attempting to interpret Lao Zi’s understanding as a product of a considered and introspective modern mystic, is as invalid as the Jiyu’s (1998) attempt to deconstruct it in line with the assumptions of the Marxian dialectic. The distancing tools of postcritical thought (Inayatullah, 2002a) can help to disrupt such tendencies, but cannot guarantee any true impartiality. It can only make explicit the worldview of the interpreter. In the case of this thesis, this has been presented in the personal prelude of the thesis.
Another major challenge is the impossible task of attempting to make a complete map of all thinkers, schools and developments within all the disciplines covered within this thesis. This is obviously because of the sheer weight of research and work being carried out in each field. Within this thesis alone, just some of the fields that have been examined include: intelligence theory, various schools of psychology (including transpersonal, positive, humanistic, cognitive, developmental, behaviourist and parapsychology), education, mysticism and spirituality, consciousness theory, systems theory, quantum physics, deep ecology, genetic biology and evolutionary theory. Thus what is hoped to be achieved is not a complete map, but the equivalent of a cross-section of a broad theme (integrated intelligence) across these several fields, and the gleaning of some broad themes and developments. Yet such is the nature of futures as a discipline, that a cross-disciplinary approach is arguably the best means to uphold its self-proclaimed inclusive nature.
The diversity of the fields themselves leads to the difficulty of attempting to gain a competent understanding of all the fields without in any way misunderstanding and/or misrepresenting them. As an example of this issue, the comprehension of the abstract conceptualisation of quantum theory and its quantum logic (Clarke, 1995) and the essentially transrational perceptual knowledge of mysticism, require completely different cognitive modes, or ways of knowing.
The different approaches to history and knowledge explicit within the scientific, philosophical and mystical discourses creates a problematic in terms of comparison and contrasts. How does one deconstruct the disparate approaches without valorising the constituents or worldview of any of them? If one is to accept the dominant western modernist scientific worldview, then the value of integrated intelligence and its validity rests almost entirely upon its measurability. Yet this in itself is a perpetuation of the western rationalist hegemony, since integrated intelligence in is nebulous, “elusive” (Batcheldor, 1994) and by definition “transcendent”.
Inayatullah (year, in understanding understandings) identifies several problems inherent with comparative methodologies. While Inayatullah’s analysis refers specifically to situating the work of Indian mystic P.R Sarkar, it is equally applicable to comparative approaches in general, such as with this thesis. Firstly, the comparative approach is ahistorical, with the possibility that two different worldviews/paradigms will be merely compared with one another “at a particular place in time.” (ibid.:247) Secondly, the units of analysis become problematic (ibid.). For example, is integrated intelligence a cognitive modality, a theory of evolution, a new paradigm (or an old one), or a philosophical tradition? Therefore the units of comparison are in themselves problematic. (ibid.) A related issue involving the comparative approach is that it “does not reveal the structure of the categories chosen…” (ibid.: 247). Inayatullah gives the example that the categories that are selected for comparison will inevitably be an essential component of cosmology and discourse (ibid.). Thus in terms of this thesis, the categories such as ways of knowing (including types of intelligence), paradigms, and even discourses themselves are relatively recent western concepts. Inayatullah (ref) points to the categories of nature and technology (as separate entities), as being cognisant only “in Occidental models of thought” (ibid.: 247). This means that the selected categories are implicitly problematic because they may constitute a component of “the structure of a particular discourse” (ibid.), with the potential of constructing a taxonomy:

…which effectively simply compares not two cosmologies with each other, but the given cosmologies with the silent cosmology that the categories chosen are themselves embedded in… (ibid.)

Coming from the postcritical perspective of Foucault (1984), it is the underlying power structures of dominant western scientific discourses that will be analysed in this thesis, and significant linear and teleological hegemonies made explicit. Yet the limitation of this approach is the inevitable invalidation of the truth claims of the texts being examined. Therefore it also undermines the claims of spiritual and mystical discourses to provide a framework for meaning, and insight into a purposeful universe. Foucault, for example has often been criticised for his rejection of agency (Coole, 2005). Coole is even more critical of postmodernism and postcritcial theory’s claims that:

…subjects are too unstable or fragmented in their identities, too opaque in their self-knowledge and too nonrational in their thinking to sustain personal commitments or collective identifications; that there is no essential inner self, repository of freedom, will, identity or autonomy; that subjectivity is merely an effect of power or performative iteration; that history has no overall meaning or direction. (Coole, 2005: 126)

Such a method, such a worldview - for both Coole (2005) and Wilber (2000c) have pointed out that postmodernism is a worldview in itself - creates an inherent dilemma when attempting to allow for the inclusion of integrated intelligence into any vision of a future society or education system. For as previously stated, agency is a prime conception within spiritual and mystical texts, as well as other fields which incorporate integrated intelligence. How can we incorporate the processes and a worldview of integrated conceptions of mind and cosmos when the method of enquiry renders its central conceptions illegitimate. This is the dilemma of the “relativism” that postmodernist thought often degenerates into. (Wilber, 2000c) As Wilber has queried: which is better, the philosophy of Nazism or Mother Teresa? (ibid?) Postmodernism struggles to answer any such questions of value. It can merely point out that they are different, and contain different power imperatives.
Thus this thesis attempts to move beyond this limitation of postcritical theory and posit suggestions and possibilities into the ways in which integrated intelligence might be incorporated into educational curricula, or may benefit western culture and research in the future.

Participatory futures and integrated intelligence
The way beyond this dilemma is participatory futures. Hollinshead (2002) finds that are two major types of futures research

Futures Research is fundamentally about mapping the future vis a vis the present and past. It may be divided into Anticipatory Futures and Participatory Futures. Anticipatory Futures is an academic discipline which uses scientific methodologies to explore the future. Participatory Futures is a praxis by means of which people create the future they prefer. Both are essentially about societal and cultural change, what it is and how it is accomplished. Anticipatory Futures maps the objective factors which social science indicates are implicated - technological change, demographics, economic dynamics etc. Participatory Futures creates a technology of societal and cultural change. (Hollinshead, 2002: 509)

Transpersonalism, like the eighteenth and nineteenth century romanticism which preceded it, entails a participatory epistemology (Strohl, 1998), and from this it can be readily seen that the conception of integrated intelligence is perfectly compatible with the concept of participatory futures. This also moves it beyond the purely analytical modes of postsructuralism and the methodology of CLA. Integrated intelligence, used with visioning and action learning, may potentially be one of the technologies that drives societal and cultural change. This will be further discussed in chapter six and the conclusion of the thesis.
In the participator model (Wheeler, 1983) where human and divine agency are theoretically intertwined, integrated intelligence could be seen as a link to knowledge which potentially makes the human journey a cognisant, conscious, and deliberate one.
This is also one way in which integrated intelligence might benefit futures, because as Hollinshead points out, both anticipatory and participatory futures are limited because of contemporary Western culture’s employment of limited cognitive modalities “in which emotion and direct experience of reality… are suppressed.” (Hollinshead, 2002: 509) This direct perception is virtually synonymous with the concept of integrated intelligence, and includes “non rational or non existential modes of consciousness”, according to Hollinshead. (ibid.) Hollinshead finds that the exclusion of this integrated intelligence is problematic in that throughout history social and cultural change have always been mediated by people who “seek direct experience of reality and the personal transformation it entrains.” (ibid.)
One goal of this thesis is to suggest the ways in which this might be achieved. (chapter six, and conclusion)
A further significant point made by Hollinshead in relation to these individuals whose elevated consciousness contributes greatly to human cultural and spiritual development, is the following:

… this suggests that Futures Research should be layered, in the sense that the various levels of mental modality should be made explicit in any piece of research. The dynamics of interaction between these layers needs to be explored. (ibid. Italics added)

Using CLA, Wilber’s Integral Theory, and the Integrated/Fragmented Mind model (IFM), Hollinshead’s suggestion is an important aspect of this thesis. Texts, theorists and schools will be analysed according to the degree that they permit an integrated process and representation of mind within their theories, their methods, and their lives.
Finally, while this thesis can make statements about the possible and probable futures of science, consciousness, education etc., it cannot do so in any way that might be conceived of as empirical. The future, by its very nature is nebulous and immeasurable, a field of potential and possibility, but ultimately unknowable.

1.5 Chapter Outline
This thesis is consists of six chapters, and a conclusion. Below, a brief summary of these chapters and their general content is given.

Chapter 1. Definitions, context, methods
As the title suggests, this chapter has three general aims. The first aim is to define integrated intelligence, including distinguishing amongst several related but distinct terms used in the literature and give a brief historical background. Secondly, the context for the thesis is also presented in this chapter, situating the debate in historical context, and within the perspective of contemporary society, education and research.
The third part of this chapter details the methodology. Postmodernist and postcritical theory is outlined in general, whilst Sohail Inayatullah’s (2002a) Causal Layered Analysis, and Wilber’s (2000c) Integral Model are detailed. The Integrated/Fragmented Mind model is also introduced.

Chapter 2. Literature review: The important debates
In a sense this thesis in its entirety is a literature review, reflective of the relative infancy of the subject matter. Thus an overview of the major debates in the relevant discourses is provided in the second chapter. Considering the cross-disciplinary nature of this thesis, there are numerous debates which are crucial to the topic, as the following list indicates.

Philosophy of science: The mechanistic paradigm
l Paradigms and the machine metaphor
l Rationality as highest form of intelligence in west
l Rejection of inner and transcendent;
l Reductionism vs. holism
l Ascendance of the abstract/mathematical
l Rejection of the affective
l Neo-Darwinism and intelligent design

Consciousness
l The mind/body problem
l Non-local consciousness
l Consciousness as epiphenomena
l Quantum physics, nonlocality, systems theory and consciousness

Psychology, intelligence, and neuroscience
l Developmental psychology and the issue of transrational stages of development
l Cognitive psychology as a handmaiden to neuroscience
l The mind as computer metaphor
l Intuition: mundane or extra-sensory?
l IQ and “g”: domain general vs. domain specific intelligence

Parapsychology
l The empirical evidence for psi
l Parapsychology as a handmaiden to empiricism

Transpersonal knowledge
l Transpersonal psychology, the criticisms including limitations as a discipline; lack of clear epistemology
l Inner empiricism. Wilber’s “eye of spirit” and its critics. Validity of first person approaches to consciousness.
l Ineffability – beyond the linguistic/rational modes of mind.
l Receptivity vs. control.

Chapter 3. A genealogy of the western rationalist hegemony
This chapter analyses the relationship between representations of consciousness in the Western world and the cultures, paradigms and disciplines in which they are situated. The selections span the period from the ancient Greeks, the rise of Christianity and religious thought in Europe, various schools of philosophy such as the British empiricists, the so-called scientific enlightenment, and the influence of Darwin. Thereafter the analysis turns to the modern era, including the seminal influence of early psychology, behaviourism, cognitive science, and genetic and biological theory. The linguistic, methodological and mythical aspects of these periods, fields and individuals are analysed using CLA.
The objective in this chapter is to trace the lineage of consciousness research and philosophy, and to elucidate the ways in which they are representative of various non-objective factors and subtle struggles for power that have extant throughout the history of representations of mind. It will be shown that there are “discursive practices or rules of reasoning” (Franklin, 1999: 347) constituted within the language of all consciousness disciplines and all texts, according to the dictates of the paradigm in which they are imbedded.

Chapter 4. Five representations of mainstream intelligence and consciousness theory
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse five texts which depict intelligence and/or consciousness in terms of the mechanistic presuppositions of mainstream contemporary discourses. The commonalties and distinctions amongst all of these texts will be clarified, and the predominant mental modalities identified. The texts are as follows.

Arthur Jensen (1998). “g” theory.
Edward de Bono. (1986, 1999) Six thinking hats.
Susan Greenfield. Brainstory (BBC television series, 2001). Neuroscience and popular science.
Howard Gardner (1993). The theory of multiple intelligences.
Torff and Sternberg (2001b). Intuition theory.

Chapter 5. Five representations of integrated intelligence
Similarly to the previous chapter, this chapter analyses the ideas of five thinkers whose works incorporate integrated intelligence.

Danah Zohar (2000) Spiritual intelligence.
Ken Wilber (2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2001) Integral Theory.
John Broomfield (1997). Other ways of knowing.
Larry Dossey (1999, 2001 etc.) Non-local mind.
Moffett (1994). Spiritual education.

Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis is used to deconstruct these texts. The five authors and their texts are compared and contrasted on some of their major themes.

Chapter 6. Integrated intelligence, the knowledge economy and education
Chapter six examines integrated intelligence and contemporary education within the context of the knowledge economy. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce several possibilities and potentials regarding the implementation of integrated intelligence into the modern public education system and the knowledge economy which it serves. There are thus two seminal questions. Firstly, what general uses might integrated intelligence have in the modern secular public education system? Secondly, what place might integrated intelligence have in the long-term development of education and society?

1.6 Conclusion to chapter one
The primary purpose of this thesis is not to examine the scientific evidence for the existence of integrated intelligence – to prove or disprove it. That is a problematic that – according to the tenants of the mechanistic paradigm – is best served by parapsychology. Rather, the purpose of this thesis is to problematise the very discourses within which mechanistic conceptions of consciousness and intelligence are constituted - or indeed excluded – and in line with Foucault (1984), to disrupt the hegemonic lineage of instrumental rationality. Further, there will be an attempt to suggest various potential applications for integrated intelligence in modern education and society. Finally a prime aim of this thesis is to re-open the discourses on the futures of intelligence, and the futures of education, such that the very presuppositions about consciousness and intelligence upon which the basis of humanity’s relationship with nature, the world, and the cosmos is founded, is brought to question.

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China article: Education or Child Abuse?

2005-06-27T16:07:00.000+08:00

Note: I wrote this about a year ago, while I was teaching at a middle school in Sichuan, China.

“Good morning everyone!” I say cheerfully as I pass through the door of class five. It is 8.10 a.m., time for the first class of the day, and the students have already been in class since 7.40. As their only foreign teacher, the students are often very happy to see me. I am something different. It is not simply that I am the best part of 30cm (one foot) taller than their Chinese teachers. It is the way that I teach. We play games, laugh and joke a lot. I talk a lot about myself, and my experiences in my own country, Australia, as well as my teaching experiences in New Zealand and the United States. Yet to me the students are a sea of faces. After six months, I still do not know a single student by name.
But just as often the greeting that I receive from my classes here at this middle school of 15-18 year olds is underpinned by one overriding emotion – exhaustion. Today the students are subdued. The entire front row is sleeping, as well as a dozen or so other students around the room. I know from experience that several of them will be sick, as every class has a few students bowed low with illness. I have never asked, but it seems that either they are not allowed to sleep in their dorms, or they choose to come to class because they don’t want to miss out on any anything vital for the exams. Yet exhaustion and illness are sometimes difficult to distinguish. These students are in this classroom till 9.00pm, six days a week. At 11.00pm the lights are switched out in their dorms, and they must sleep. At 6.45 in the morning, the loud speakers blare out the morning music – time to begin again.
Exams. This word just about sums up the goal of Chinese education. The students and teachers are obsessed by them. Everything centres around the test. When I was teaching at the Beijing No 2 Foreign Language Institute, the Dean of the Training Department came to check on my progress. Yet he asked nothing about what I was teaching (nor did he ever do so in the year that I was there). He only wanted to know what tests I had given the students. I pointed out that the aim of the course was to teach the students English, not to do tests. But in the end I had to relent, and began testing the students every two weeks. The absurdity of the testing obsession in China is no more apparent that in the enormous amount of money that students wishing to study abroad spend on IELTS preparation tests. Students who can barely speak or write a word of English think that if they just study test technique they will get a high score in the test and be able to study in a foreign university. In China, learning is not about knowledge, skill, or wisdom, but about The Test.
I walk past the desk of one boy. There is a stack of dozens of text and writing books on his desk, that must be about 45cm high (one and a half feet). I ask him if they belong to the students of the class. “No!” He states, with a grin. “They are all mine.” The worst part is that he will have to remember almost everything in those books. There will no analysis, however; just rote memorisation of the facts, to be mindlessly re-written on exam papers at the end of the term. The social sciences are not taught as problematical discourses. The History text says that Tibet was “peacefully liberated” in 1950. Period. The almost total absence of any capacity to think critically, or to question authority, is one of the most marked characteristics of Chinese students.
This scene in class 5 is repeated daily in every middle school across this country of 1.3 billion people. Recently, I traveled four hours by bus, with the English teachers of my school, to Mianyang Middle School, considered one of the best schools in Sichuan Province. There we sat in on an English class. I was not surprised at what I saw. There were precisely 69 students (I counted them) crammed side by side in a bleak classroom, repeating grammar drills from exactly the same text books as used in my own school. I saw students sitting silently as they filled in the blanks in their texts. At exactly 9.50a.m. the bell rang, and the loud speakers blared out precisely the same marching music as is played at my own school. 10 000 students filed out into the courtyard for stretching exercises, just as they do every morning.
As part of my doctoral studies in education, I have encountered the argument that Western education is based on the industrial model – that schools are basically giant factories spiting out gradates to become cogs in the societal machine. Perhaps those critics would not be so harsh if they came to China and saw the education system in this country. A colleague of mine teaching in a middle school in another province describes schools here as “concentration camps.”
This is my fifth year of teaching in China, and I never ceased to be amazed at what I see. Yet perhaps the most incredible thing out of all this is the attitudes of the students themselves. By and large they are polite and very respectful, and they are very keen to do well at their studies and very willing to talk to foreigners about life in other countries. There is little of the angst that one sees in the faces of so many Western students; little of the anger, alienation, or the self-fixation of an individualism which has almost degenerated into pervasive narcissism. Despite what many westerners would call an abusive education system, with only some exceptions, Chinese students grow up without the rebellion, hatred or despair that I have seen in so many adolescent eyes in Western countries. The key seems to be not at school, but at home. The Chinese love their children. Inevitably the students’ comments about their parents are effusively loving. Perhaps there is something for us westerners to learn from that.

Photo: Ping , recently

2005-06-27T15:39:00.000+08:00

Ping, recently.

Academic Article: Rationality, the Affective, and the Western Rationalist Hegemony

2005-06-13T21:41:00.000+08:00

This article is currently being considered for publication in a European journal, and is not yet published.

Abstract.
This paper explores three underlying psycho-spiritual imperatives which have affected mechanistic science, and how they have contributed to the depiction of consciousnesses and intelligence as mechanistic, brain-based, and consisting primarily of linguistic, mathematical an abstract operations. The consequent rejection of integrated, transcendent and spiritual depictions of consciousness and intelligence is thus also examined. Futurist Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis is used to deconstruct the relevant texts and discourses.

Rationality, the Affective, the Wound, and the Dominant Ways of Knowing of Modern Science

1. General introduction
The primary purpose of this paper is to identify three underlying psycho-spiritual imperatives which underpin the “temporary victory” (Foucault, 1984) of the dominant mechanistic representation of science and consciousness, and then to specify the ways in which these have led to a restriction of representations of consciousness and intelligence in contemporary science and the western world in general. These imperatives are:

l The rejection of inner and transcendent space.
l The elevation of rationality to the pinnacle of intelligence in modernity.
l The rejection of the affective.

While I have identified other such imperatives previously, this paper will confine itself to these three only. (1)

What is integrated intelligence?
There are many differing conceptions of consciousness (other civilisational ways of knowing), which have been silenced in the wake of the seemingly ineluctable hegemony of the scientific/mechanistic worldview. Many of these depict consciousness as being integrated into a universal whole. Just a few include Sarkar’s cosmic mind (Inayatullah, 2002b); Chardin’s omega point (de Chardin, 1976); Lao Zi’s Tao (Jiyu, 1998; Zhengkun, 1995); Meister Eckhart’s “eye of God” (Lang, 2004); Dossey’s non-local awareness (Dossey, 1999, 2001); and the cosmic consciousness of Bucke (1991) and Kubler-Ross (1997). Within this paper, this transpersonal and cosmic depiction of consciousness will be described as “integrated intelligence”, as outlined below.
Depictions of integrated intelligence vary somewhat within texts, and nowhere is it explicitly referred to by the term “integrated intelligence.” Integrated intelligence is a transpersonal intelligence that transcends the boundaries of the individual. It is in effect a collective human and universal intelligence. Historically it has most commonly been depicted in spiritual and mystical texts and forms a part of all mystical traditions. In ancient cultures such as the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian and Tibetan, integrated intelligence was an implicit aspect of their worldviews. (Grof, 1995) Many indigenous cultures, both contemporary and past, also incorporate integrated intelligence into their ontologisms. (Grof, 1995, 2000; Lawler, 1991; Pearsall, 1998). As Dossey (1999) writes:

The idea that the human mind is infinite or nonlocal - that at some level it cannot be confined to specific points in space, such as the brain and body, or in time, such as the present, is ancient. (Dossey, 1999)

Integrated representations of consciousness typically differ in fundamental ways from mainstream/mechanistic representations of consciousness. These differences are found not only in their philosophical and intellectual delineations, but also in the essential cognitive processes that underpin their use. It is these differences that are seminal to understanding why integrated intelligence has been largely ignored in the scientific age, while instrumental rationality has been valorised. (Sardar, 1998)
Integrated intelligence, as defined here, is comprised of two distinct domains. The first is higher order perceptions of the wholeness and integration of the cosmos; what Wilber calls the subtle, causal, and non-dual aspects of consciousness. (Wilber 2000a, 2000b, 2000c, 2001) This is the direct experience or perception of the integrated nature of the universe and consciousness, and normally manifests itself as a transcendent sense of wholeness and connectedness, but may also involve visionary, and auditory components. Domain one integrated intelligence has been described in numerous spiritual and mystical traditions such as Christian mysticism, Sufism, Tantra, Buddhism and the Kabalistic tradition. Domain two integrated intelligence includes the experience and/or deliberate employment of various “paranormal” perceptual phenomena such as ESP, clairvoyance, and transcendent visionary experience; what is commonly referred to as the “psychic” realm. (Jacobson, 1997; Targ and Katra, 1999, 2001; Wilber, ibid; Wilde, 2000) These two domains of integrated intelligence sometimes occur together, but not always. Yet they both suggest an intelligence and consciousness that extends beyond the brain and is integrated with the cosmic whole.

2. The integrated/fragmented mind model
Definition
The integrated/fragmented mind model follows mystical and transpersonal theory/experience (Bucke, 1991; Gebser, 1985; Grof, 2000; Hawkins, 2002; Jacobson 1999; Nisker, 1998; Walsh & Vaughan, 1993; Wilber, 2000c) which states that there are both rational/ego-based and transrational/transpersonal states of mind. In Wilber’s and Gebser’s models (ibid.), consciousness evolves from pre-personal and undifferentiated modes, through to rational and ultimately to transpersonal modes.
As used here, the term “the integrated mind” features the conscious mind in awareness of its essentially non-localised and universal nature. Concurrent with this is the experience or knowledge of externalised “influences” on the mind, including mystical, deific, spiritual and stygian. Fragmented consciousness, conversely, is the state whereby the conscious mind is unaware of its non-localised, transpersonal nature, and is dissociated from any genuine awareness of universal or spiritual consciousness. It is characterised by the mind’s drive to perpetuate its state of separation, by a need for control and power, and to deny death and impermanence. (Grof, 1995; Krishnamurti, 1987; Wilber, 1999, 2000c)

Causal Layered Analysis
Futurist Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is the poststructuralist method that is utilised within this paper. CLA is a means to conduct inquiry into the nature of past, present and future. It problematises the present and the past, allowing the possibility of alternative futures to emerge. (Inayatullah, 2002a)
The purpose of CLA is to elucidate the deeper meanings imbedded within texts via the application of four specific components, and to allow the acknowledgement of other ways of knowing. (ibid.) The first level of CLA is the “litany”, which examines the rational/scientific, factual and quantitative aspects of texts. The second level - the social/systemic - deconstructs the economic, cultural, political and historical components. The third level of CLA explores the discourse/worldview of texts, identifying the deeper social, linguistic, and cultural structures. The final component of CLA is the mythical/metaphorical level. This reveals the hidden and explicit mythologies, narratives, symbols and metaphors contained in texts. This includes any emotional, unconscious and archetypal dimensions. (ibid.)

Six types of representations of consciousness
The discussion on the three influential psycho-spiritual imperatives below, incorporates six kinds of textual representations of mind into its considerations, thus encapsulating the civilisational and other ways of knowing that are crucial to a more inclusive understanding of the world. (Broomfield, 1997; Bussey, 2000; Inayatullah, 2002a; Sardar, 1998; Wilber, 2000a, 2000c) Each type can be explicated as falling within one or more quadrants of Wilber’s (2000a) four-quadrant model, as shown in very simplified form in Diagram 1, below.

Diagram 1: Wilber’s Four-Quadrant Model (simplified)
Upper Left
Interior-individual

Upper right
Exterior-individual

Lower left
Interior-social (cultural)

Lower right
Exterior-social (social)

Adapted from Wilber (2000c): inside cover.

The four quadrants incorporate the individual/collective, and the interior/exterior aspects of consciousness and cosmos. Using Wilber’s map, it can be seen that the depictions of consciousness in western texts in the modern era have tended to exclude the interior, left-hand quadrants. This is the domain of integrated intelligence, the awareness of knowledge of the transpersonal as experienced via an inward focus of mind.

Type 1: Indigenous
Many indigenous cultures held (and many still hold) strong beliefs about the integrated nature of human consciousness and the universe. Indigenous cultures employed a type of integrated intelligence in their healing and shamanic practices, which hold to a connection with the forces of nature and the supernatural realms. (Grof, 1994, 2000; Lawlor, 1991; Pearsall, 1999: 59; Walsh, 1990) (2)

Type 2: Ancient and medieval
Many ancient and medieval cultures had strong beliefs in gods and various psychic potentials of human beings. Strongly transpersonal aspects can be found in the cultures of the ancient Greeks, Buddhism, Taoism, The Kabbalah, Tibetan Vajrayana, Sufism, Christian mysticism, the various forms of yoga and many others (Grof, 1985, 1994, 2000). The ancients and people of the medieval era often employed tools such as prayer, breath control, meditation, and movement meditation for inducing non-ordinary states of consciousness, which are closely associated with integrated intelligence. (Fox and Sheldrake, 1996; Ross, 1993; Wilber, 2000a)

Type 3: The mechanists
In the wake of the enlightenment, science rejected the concept of inner stages of consciousness (Wilber, 2000a: 65), modernist thought tends to posit intelligence and consciousness within mechanistic and localised dimensions, the right-hand side of Wilber’s model. Thus mainstream depictions of consciousness (within psychiatry, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence theory, the general modern debate on consciousness, biological science etc.) mostly fall into this category. Quite often modernist science fails to acknowledge consciousness at all, preferring to focus upon empirical and measurable aspects of consciousness such as behavior and neuro-physiology. (Blackmore, 2001; Capra, 2000; Grof, 1985, 2000; Ross, 1993) Within these texts rational and empirical tools predominate. Statistical and normative analysis is common, such as factor analysis. Psi phenomena, including integrated intelligence are usually ignored, and often ridiculed by proponents of mechanistic consciousness.

Type 4: Postmodernist and poststructuralist
Postmodernism retains the detachment and intellectualism of type three texts, but probelmatises the epistemological foundations of science and knowledge in general. The postmodernists’ methods – analysis, genealogy, distancing, deconstruction – are reductionist methods which break things into their constituent components, and solidify the observer and object/subject split which proponents of integrated intelligence see as necessary to transcend for deeply intuitive perceptions to occur. (Broomfield, 1997; Dossey, 2001; Hayward, 1984) Further, postmodernist relativism is unable to genuinely accommodate hierarchical dimensions of consciousness, reducing transrational cognitive modes to “other ways of knowing”. (Wilber, 2000c)

Type 5: Critical spirituality
Within type five texts, integrated intelligence (and Wilber’s interior quadrants) is acknowledged theoretically, or even incorporated into the map, but without extended experiential references or an adequate range of effective tools that might facilitate the employment of direct personal understanding of integrated intelligence. At a practical level integrated intelligence thus remains an aside to the dominant rationalist discourse, but with increasing relevance. Generally speaking, to use Wilber’s (2000a) terms, there is a lack of the actual employment of the interior cognitive modes.

Type 6: The mystics
Type six texts are those texts that focus upon spiritual and mystical subject matters, and tend to rely heavily upon esoteric and spiritual methodologies, Wilber’s (2001) “eye of spirit”. Wilber’s interior quadrants are included, and at an experiential level. Type six texts incorporate three sub-groups.
Popular “new age” texts feature a strong tendency to valorise the spiritual, and in particular psi and so called “paranormal” phenomena. Rationality is played down, or even demonised. (e.g. Kubler-Ross, 1997; Myss; 2001; Walsch, 1999) (2) The second group is the “non-dual/critical” texts, which employ an expanded array of spiritual/consciousness tools over type five texts, such that integrated intelligence is valorised above rationality, transcending it. Rational tools are still employed, but their limitations are identified. (e.g. Bussey, 2000; Hawkins, 2002; Nisker, 1998; Wilber, 2000c) The third sub-group is the “non-dual/mystical” texts, in which domain one integrated intelligence and the spiritual are valorised, whilst both domain two integrated intelligence, and intellectualisation in general are seen as being of limited value. (e.g. Bucke, 1991; Jacobson, 1991; 1999) These texts focus upon the inner/collective domain of Wilber’s model, with common emphasis upon expanded non-dual states of consciousness.

3. Three psycho-spiritual imperatives of fragmented consciousness and their effect upon integrated intelligence

3.1 The rejection of inner and transcendent space
The rationalists versus the empiricists
The enlightenment debate between the rationalists such as Descartes, and the British empiricists such as Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke established a precedent that is still influential in consciousness and intelligence theory in the contemporary world. (Gardner et al., 1996: 33) Locke and Hume argued that the contents of the mind could be explained entirely in terms of sensory inputs. Their argument was predicated upon the idea of the mind as “tabula rasa” or a blank slate, with the environment determining mind and personality. (Ross, 1993: 115)
Kant adopted aspects of both camps. (Gardner et al., 1996: 35-36) He emphasised a non-material representation mind. Yet he also held the view that knowledge was dependent upon sensory experience, although he claimed that the ways that this knowledge is acquired is innately determined. Kant’s insistence that one had to retreat into individual separated thought in isolation from cultural and societal influences was also influential, especially in later developmental psychology, such as Piaget’s. (Gardner et al., 1996: 35-36; Kant, 1784.) In general it encouraged individualism and a fragmented state of mind: Wilber’s (2000a) inner/individual domain, but without the inner/collective - “inward, but not “beyond”.
Significantly, both rationalists and empiricists failed to consider the possibility of intelligence being universally integrated or transpersonal. This assumption underpinned several dominant conceptual imperatives of psychology in the twentieth century (Bussey, 2005), where constructivism, behaviourism, and social interactionism all, to some degree, saw development and intelligence as predominantly a process of interaction between an isolated ego/self (interior social) and the physical and/or social environment (the exterior, right-hand quadrants); a process mediated via the physical senses.

A divine reason
The enlightenment continued the process of rationalisation of the western mind which had begun with the ancient Greeks ( Buckley, 2001; Brumbaugh, 1981; Huff, 2003) and which had been cemented by the “rational” theology of Augustine (AD 354-430) and the scholasticism which he deeply influenced, especially in the philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas (AD 1225-1274). (Fox, 1988; Ross, 1993; Wilber, 2000c: 372)
Scholasticism dominated Christian theology from approximately the years 1000 to 1500. Its prime method was the scholastica disputatio, whereby faith was subjected to reason via questioning and evidence. The dominant way of knowing here was analysis via questioning, disputation and the requirement of evidential procedures, thus cementing a process which can be seen in psychology and educational processes in the west to this day. The influence of scholasticism on the western mind cannot be underestimated: it formed the foundation of all schooling and university education up till the twentieth century. (Rohmann, 1999: 353). Notably, the scholastics leant heavily on classical philosophers, especially Aristotle. The early Church fathers. (ibid.) Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Newton were all products of the procrustean and scholastic universities of Europe. (Huff, 2003: 344)
A crucial and related point is that the philosophy and ways of knowing of Augustine and the scholastics denied the earth and the body, and once again this ultimately deeply affected psychology and contemporary education. For, as argued by Jung (1989) and Wilber (Wilber, 2000c: 349-354), in denial of the psyche and body, ascent into transrational realms of consciousness becomes difficult, as integration with the lower domains of the psyche (the shadow) is needed for an integration with the transcendent.
Wilber (2000a, 2000c) argues that the enlightenment philosophers believed in the great Chain of Being, where human beings were nested in a hierarchical order of consciousness which spanned the undifferentiated prepersonal realms through to the rational and ultimately to the cosmic. (Wilber, 2000a: 225-226; 2000c: 420-421) However there is a crucial distinction that Wilber points out. The existence of such higher realms of reality was merely “postulated” to exist by these philosophers. It was a “rationalised” hypothesis, an assumption, which helped to explain the “gaps” between God and humanity. (Wilber, 2000c: 421) These spaces were depicted as “other” and rendered effectively unreachable. Yet to the originators of such conceptions, such as Plotinus, Dionysius and Eckhart these were human potentials which could be actualised. (Wilber, 2000c: 421-422).
Thus along with access to the integrated consciousness of the inner mind, modernity lost the capacity to perceive the whole, including the indivisibility which had been such a notable aspect of mystical insight. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991; Nisker, 1998; Wilber 2000c) Although philosophical reflection as practiced by the enlightenment philosophers is a type of “inner” cognitive process, it is fundamentally different from the “inner” process of mystical insight. The former is essentially rational and intellectual, and occurs in ordinary states of consciousness. Yet the latter requires a focus upon awareness itself, and away from thoughts and feelings. It is not an intellectual process. (Shear & Jevning, 2002: 190-191)

Confusion of mind-content and mind-transcendent awareness
There is an important distinction between self-reflective thinking, and transcendent knowledge. (Shear and Jevning, 2002) Christian mystic Meister Eckhart knew this when he stated that: “If I knew myself as intimately as I ought, I should have perfect knowledge of all creatures.” (quoted in Lang, 2004) Eckhart’s comment points to a vital aspect of integrated intelligence - that an inner awareness can lead to a transcendent knowledge. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991) Pointing out that perception of transcendentalia requires a focus upon awareness itself, and away from thoughts and feelings, Shear and Jevning (2002) write that:

¼even awareness of one’s own most private, internal thoughts and feelings is still external to one’s awareness itself, for they appear to one’s awareness, in from of one’s ‘mind’s eye’, so to speak, and the inward referred to here is intended to indicate a complete reversal of attention, away from thoughts and feelings as much as from external objects, beck into awareness itself. (Shear & Jevning, 2002: 191)

It is this kind of inner focus, moving away from both external objects and internal sensations, images and thoughts, that the mystics claim produces the experience of a deeper awareness of “the ground, structure, and dynamics of consciousness” (Shear & Jevning, 2002: 190) which lies beyond ordinary thought.
Western philosophy followed the lead of Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” , which led to the emergence of Cartesian egoism. (Ferrer, 2002) Descartes introspection was crucially different from that of introspective meditative traditions, both east and west. For Descartes’ was an identification with the world of thought and ideas, not a transcendence of them. According to Hawkins (2002) this identification is a typical function of the modern mind which works primarily within the limits of rational consciousness. (Hawkins, 2002) Hawkins states that individuals working at the rational level of consciousness development tend to “become infatuated with concepts and theories and end up missing the essential point.” (Hawkins, 1995: 71)
Various spiritual and mystical traditions teach that it is the attachment to thoughts, feelings and sensations which entraps the individual in the world of “the mind” and the ego. (Ferrer, 2002; Jacobson, 1999; Ross, 1993) In eastern philosophy this is said to lock one into the world of atman, and its quests for conquest and immortality. (Wilber, 2001: 116-117) The fundamental question of the rational philosopher was “Who am I,” but the Buddhist turns the question away from self and asks “Who are we?” (Nisker, 1998: 214), thus universalising the process and moving it beyond the bounds of the fragmented ego and mind-content cognition. Indeed the Hindu phrase “Tat tvam asi” (sometimes interpreted as “I am that”) in effect means: “I am this whole world” (Kafatos & Kafatou, 1991: 236). It is thus an identification not with the small ego, but with the cosmos, the transcendent, and the divine.
Thus while Descartes and the rationalist philosophers of the enlightenment generally acknowledged mind-content cognition, they failed to acknowledge mind-transcendent perception, which is a fundamental predicate of the awareness of integrated and transrational consciousness.
This tendency can still be seen in many contemporary depictions of consciousness and intelligence. The identification - and indeed fixation - of modern science with the mind-content and intellectualising focus of philosophy and academia (thus the name “doctor of philosophy”) embeds its very practices in an ego-fixated world of the small self, of the atman. The world of science and academia requires no deep introspective/transcendent cognitive modalities in the processes of its research, and thus the first person view of consciousness, and intuitive/integrated knowledge that it engenders has been largely removed from scientific and post-modernist space. This represents a restriction of intuitive and integrated ways of knowing.

The reduction of consciousness to micro-processes in the brain
The rejection of inner worlds in modern science has contributed to the reduction of mystical experiences to micro-processes in the brain, and we see this all too uncritically in popular science. In a scene from the BBC television series Brainstory, neurobiologist Susan Greenfield claims that all conscious experiences and “even our deepest spiritual experiences” are all ultimately explicable “in terms of brain phenomena.” (BBC, 2001: episode 1). At one point Greenfield thus reduces the “intense spiritual feelings” of a woman to “malfunctions” in the frontal lobes. (ibid.)
In the popular magazine Newsweek (Begley, 2001), neurologist D. James Austin is described as having had a “mystical experience” as he waits for a train in London:

… suddenly (he) felt a sense of enlightenment unlike anything he had ever experienced. His sense of individual existence, of separateness from the physical world around him, evaporated like morning mist on a bright dawn. He saw things “as they really are,” he recalls. The sense of “I, me, mine” disappeared. “Time was not present,” he says. “I had a sense of eternity. My old yearnings, fear of death and insinuations of self-hood vanished. I had been graced by a comprehension of the ultimate nature of things.” (Begley, 2001: 41)

Despite the quintessential “spiritual” nature of the experience, Austen refuses to describe it as such. Instead he takes it “as proof of the existence of the brain.” (ibid.) Austen predicates this view on the belief that “all we see, hear, and think is mediated or created by the brain.” (ibid.) The interpretation of the experience, “reasoned” (ibid.) in mechanistic terms, is predicated upon neurology, and specifically the argument that the cessation of “certain brain circuits” - the amygdale, the “parietal lobe circuits,” and the “frontal and temporal lobe circuits” - creates the illusion of the experience. (ibid.) The employment of the machine/computer metaphor is readily apparent in the term “circuits”.
With Greenfield and Austen, the invalidation of spiritual and integrated experiences of consciousness is readily seen. Yet the reductionist argument that the micro-processes are dominant over the macroscale perceptions themselves, is an assumption which often goes unquestioned in modern science. (Bloom, 2001) Developments in chaos and systems theory suggest that micro-systems cannot be fully understood without reference to the nature of the entire system. (Bloom, 2001; Bradley, 2004; Capra, 2000; Grof, 1985, 1992, 2000; Laszlo, 2004)

Other civilisations acknowledged inner knowledge
While the development of science in the West focused more and more on rationality and externalities or “surfaces” Wilber (2000a, 2000c), other civilisations throughout history have developed epistemologies which acknowledged or even valorised the inner world and its intuitive perceptions. In China for example, Lao Zi’s philosophy allowed for an inner knowing:

We hammer wood for a house,
But it is the inner space
That makes it livable. (quoted in Broomfield, 1997: 78)

Turning attention elsewhere, we can see similar themes repeated in a variety of cultures and traditions. Within the Buddhist and Zen traditions, withdrawal of attention from the senses, and towards a mind-transcendent perception is an essential aspect of the training of the bodhisattva (Zen student). (Cleary, 1999) Similarly, in the Hindu tradition, the Yoga and Samkhya schools believe that rational intelligence dominates only as long as spiritual insight remains dormant. (Ross, 1993: 150-151). Significantly, the Yoga tradition sees identification with the cosmos (externalities, materialism) as the source of suffering. The goal of knowledge is thus liberation of the mind’s identification with the material world, not to explicate the workings of nature and the cosmos. (ibid.) The inner or mystical approach can also be found in the writings of early Christian mystics such as St Teresa of Avila, in the Hebrew Kabbalah, and in the cultures the ancient Romans and Egyptians. (Kafatos & Kafatou, 1991:193).
Indigenous cultures have also featured well-developed inner worlds, such as the dreaming of the Australian Aborigines (Lawler, 1991; Wildman, 1996), the shamanic and spiritual traditions of the Native Americans, Siberians, and Polynesians (Broomfield, 1997: 56) and Japan’s Seiki-Jutsu. (Osumi & Ritchie, 1988).
While such spiritual traditions contain profound differences amongst themselves, specific contrasts in these civilisational ways of knowing from scientific methodology can be seen in the withdrawal of attention from the senses, and union with the transcendent, divine or nature. Conversely, scientific method focuses upon sensory knowledge gleaned via the separation of observer and object/subject, and generally rejects the idea of the divine or transcendent consciousness.

3.2 Rationality as the pinnacle of intelligence in modernity
Modern science and the rationalist hegemony
Contemporary intelligence theories generally assume that abstract, linear and sequential conceptualisation is the pinnacle of the development/evolution of intelligence. Examples include Piaget (2001) (the scientist as model learner); Jensen (1998), and Hernstein and Murry (1994) (IQ rendered in rational, linguistic and logical terms); and implicitly in the scientific writings of de Glasse Tyson (2001) and Kaku (1997) (super-sensory man with aid of technology). This tends to be a given within the discourses, a dominant conception which has become largely implicit and thus unconscious and unchallenged. Implicit also within this framework is the idea that intuitive perceptions, emotions, and all inner impulses that are non-rational are either of a lower denomination of intelligence, or are simply not important. Wertsch and Polman (in Torff & Sternberg, 2001: 58) write:

From this perspective intuitive knowledge is understood in terms of being homegrown (i.e. spontaneous or everyday…) and not grounded in the principles of abstract, logical organisation that underlie schooled discourse and thinking. (Wertsch & Polman, in Torff & Sternberg, 2001: 58).

The modern education system perpetuates this valorisation of the rational because of its focus upon short-term economic and social goals. (Moffett, 1994). Loye ( 2004a) points out that the “pseudo–Darwinian Mind” has so dominated education in the wake of Darwin, that schools have become mainly “factories for the training and survival of the fittest.” (ibid: 30) This has led to the valorisation of IQ and (in the United States) SAT scores as the “the highest aspect of human achievement.” (ibid:)
The mystical insight methodologies of spiritual and mystical practice are not valorised, acknowledged or practiced in such a system, thus retarding virtually all potential for the cultivation of integrated intelligence. The widespread and often adhoc use of computers and technology, seemingly implemented under the belief that information processing and intelligence are synonymous, only adds to the fragmentation and distraction of mind. (Oppenheimer: 2004) Young people are rapidly loosing the capacity to process and cross-index sensory data, primarily due to the bombardment of the mind with the constant noise of modern technology and entertainment media, coupled with a significant absence of nurturing stimuli because of too-busy adult caregivers. (Walker, 1998) Such a system produces myopic visions focused on ego-centred agendas, and economic and technological utilitarianism bereft of genuine humane and spiritual values. (Moffett, 1994) An example of the latter is that of physicist Michio Kaku (1997), who paints a future dominated by machines, technology, and materialism, with few references to human interaction, let alone spiritual insight. (Anthony, 2003; Kaku, 1997)

A linguistic snobbery
The alleged superiority of abstract conceptualisation and reason that appears in western and scientific thought can be viewed as a type of snobbery. Former indigenous hunter Tjinman Murinbata (in Murinbata & Whitehead, 2002) reports with some indignity:

Some anthropologists have described the way I think as primitive, emotional, concrete operational, primary process, child-like, or pre-logical. (Murinbata & Whitehead, 2002).

The key here is that Murinbata, a so called “stone age hunter,” is perceived as being at a lower evolutionary scale of thinking than Western logical/analytical thought.
The dominant western position places abstract rationality atop the cognitive ladder. de Glasse Tyson (2001) states that many scientific concepts: “don't make much sense to scientists …until they acquire a new and higher level of ‘common sense’ from long study of the math and physics of the universe.” (de Glasse Tyson, 2001: 87) In these representations it is the Western scientist/intellectual who is placed at the summit of the scale, just as it implicitly is in Piaget’s model of cognitive development. (Gardner et al., 1996) In this sense consciousness and intelligence theorists make the same mistake as the nineteenth century phrenologists and eugenicists, who adapted Darwinian thinking to social anthropology, and concluded that Western, white European upper classes were at the highest rung of the evolutionary ladder of intelligence. (Gardner et al., 1996)
Various theorists positing an evolutionary model of consciousness have depicted rationality and “egoic” consciousness as occupying a convergent space on the map of consciousness evolution. Numerous theorists such as Ferrer (2002), Hawkins (2002), Jung (1989), Moffett (1994), Targ and Katra (1999), Tart (1993, 2001), and Wilber, (2000A, 2000B, 2000C, 2001), argue that consciousness is evolving and expanding into higher levels. In these conceptions logic/rationality is but a phase of consciousness development, and not the pinnacle of consciousness, as is implied within the methodology of science and academia because its reliance upon reason. The dismissal of all non-rational forms of perception as lower and inferior may well turn out to be a form of intellectual snobbery that (ironically) retards the development of the understanding of transrational consciousness in the Western world.

The valorisation of abstraction
In mechanistic science, abstraction is valorised, while other ways of knowing are downplayed or rejected. When Newton published his theory of gravitation in the late seventeenth century, his use of the animistic and sexual term “attraction” led to its slow acceptance. (Sheldrake et al., 2001: 32) In the modern age of science, the tendency towards abstraction is epitomised by Tom Wilke’s statement that the Human Genome Project is an “attempt to find out how to spell “’human.’” (quoted in Sardar, 1998: 218) In Wilke’s conception, it is the reduction of “human” to a codified representation that is real, not the experience of being human itself.
Wildman (1996) states that in the present Western epistemology, words like “apprehension,” “allure,” “allude,” and “myth” are often seen negatively, or even as misconceptions. Meanwhile words like “apperception” are almost unknown, whereas words like “comprehension” and “perception” are celebrated as facts. (Wildman, 1996: 18-19) Wildman writes:

¼it is almost as if there has been a conspiracy to repress those extant abilities in the language to repress direct intuition of wisdom through the mind of the symbol. Rather we see unprecedented emphasis in favor of the mind as the ratio. (ibid.)

Wildman points out that ninety per cent of indigenous cultures are non-textual, and have no written language, and have thus suffered tremendously in the wake of mechanistic science’s insistence upon abstraction. (ibid) He writes:

¼the net effect of Western obsession with (hyper) textuality and literacy has been the ascendancy of the mind of the ratio and the genocide of the indigenous, often matriarchal, relational cosmologies based on the world mind of the symbol…the tendency of limiting the meaning of science and technology to its narrow Western ‘textual’ rationality. (ibid.: 19)

Western “hyper-textuality” effectively creates, via its representational abstractness, an inerrant separation from the things that are being perceived, and from the world itself: the classic observer and object/subject dualism of modern science. It can be assumed that this exacerbates the condition of the fragmented mind, which in turn retards intuitive perception and knowledge, because (as has been argued), it is the collapse of the observer and object/subject dichotomy, and a deep sense of relationship with the world and all things within it, that is at the heart of integrated intelligence.

3.3 The rejection of the affective
Emotion and intuition discarded
Implicit in the dominance of rationality in the scientific age is the downplaying or even discarding of emotional and affective ways of knowing. It is widely believed in modern society that IQ and intellectual ability are more important than emotional intelligence, leading to its social undervaluing. (Goleman, 1996, 1998: 6)
Hollinshead (2002) finds that since the mid-seventeenth century humanity has subsisted on “a limited mental modality in which emotion and direct experience of reality are suppressed,” including the “non rational or non existential modes of consciousness.” (Hollinshead, 2002). Similarly Ross (1993) writes that twentieth century psychology is “a dogma of feeling avoidance for oedipally frustrated male academics to hide behind.” (Ross 1993:116)
Various theories of consciousness and intelligence downplay or even completely ignore the affective. Piaget’s developmental psychology, one of the most influential of the twentieth century, ignored the affective, focusing on the development of logical and mathematical cognition. (Wilber, 2000A: 22-23)
The rejection of the affective must inevitably retard intuitive acuity, as the latter can be seen as a subset of the former: intuitions involve a subtle sense of feeling. There is a crucial connection between numinous experience and feelings. Storm (1999) points out that one of the prime factors required for a psi-conducive environment is an "increased awareness of internal processes, feelings, and images.” (Storm, 1999: 264) Jung (1973) also realised that an “affective” component was required for the meaningful integration of numinous experiences. (Jung, 1973) Cambray (2002) writes that the interpretation of Jungian-type synchronicities and mental images becomes meaningful “when these symbols are accessed by consciousness and experienced affectively.” (Cambray, 2002: 418.). The spiritual, the numinous and the meaningful are closely correlated with the affective components of human cognition, and thus with the experience of an integrated intelligence.

The story of the cold hospital
The contemporary hospital stands as an apt metaphor for science’s fear and rejection of the affective domains of cognition and life in general. The isolation of babies at birth, a common practice until the last decades of the twentieth century, mirrors the separation and dualism of the Newtonian billiard-ball world of separate, hard, discrete objects. In the Monty Python movie Meaning of Life, John Cleese – acting as a doctor – parodies this perfectly. After delivering a new-born baby, he slaps it on the backside, sterilizes it, and, holding it at arms length proclaims: “Then finally we isolate it!” before thrusting it rudely into an isolation chamber. This is Wilber’s (2000c) universe of “its”, the product of a science which rejects all inners, mistrusts subjective states, and distances itself from feelings; a science which sees itself as separate and isolated from nature and the universe. It is the cosmos of the fragmented mind.
Thanatologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1997) echoes a similar theme when she relates the time she attempted to communicate her concerns about the lack of empathy in modern medicine to her medical students - she brought a dying 16-year-old girl (Linda) into the lecture theatre. Kubler-Ross reports that the medical students became uncomfortably quiet when the dying girl was introduced to them. The students could only manage to ask Linda technical questions about “her blood count, the size of her liver, her reaction to chemotherapy and other technical details.” (ibid.: 132) Notably they were unable, or unwilling to ask questions about Linda’s personal feelings. Finally it was the dying girl, exasperated and angered by the students’ lack of compassion and empathy, who posed and then answered the questions she had hoped her doctor (and the students) would ask, but never had. Kubler-Ross reports how, at the end of Linda’s talk, the normally unimpressed students were in a “stunned, emotional, almost reverential silence”, and most were moved to tears. (ibid.: 133) Kubler-Ross leaves no doubt that the emotional reaction of the students was “in fact due to an admission of their own fragile mortality.” (ibid.) It was the first time they had truly acknowledged “feelings and fears about the possibility, and inevitability, of their own death.” (ibid.)
Here Kubler-Ross not only highlights the denial of the affective in modern medicine and science, but suggests that it is the fear of death that underpins this denial. Conceptions of one’s own mortality most commonly involve a denial of the “feelings of anger, fear, and sadness” (Marrone, 1999: 509) that are associated with the idea. This is seen in Freud’s terror of “staring into nothing” (Zilboorg, quoted in Ross, 1993: 122); in Macbeth’s archetypal fear of a “life…signifying nothing” (Shakespeare, 1994: 101); and in dying microbiologist Darryl Reanney’s (1991) realisation that many of the neuroses of modern life are an attempt to anaesthetise of the fear of death. (Reanney, 1991).

Mystical experience and the affective
Intuitions, including mystical intuitions (and thus perceptions from integrated intelligence) are at least in part “affective” and reliant upon feelings. It is the verb “to feel” which occurs again and again in deep spiritual and numinous experiences. Kubler Ross (1997) “felt” the pain of all those she had helped to die in her experience of “cosmic consciousness.” (Kubler-Ross, 1997: 217-224) Neuro-physiologist Austen “felt a sense of enlightenment unlike anything he had ever experienced” during his transcendent experience. (Begley, 2001: 41.) Hawkins “would feel an exquisite energy” within himself, as his consciousness was being gradually transformed. (Hawkins, 1995: 297) Michael Talbot, “felt a sudden compulsion” to reach out and grab a book, which launched his life-long passion for researching the interface between physics and mysticism. (Talbot, 1992: 137-138) Further mystic Stuart Wilde employs an intuitive process whereby he “projects feelings” into distant objects and people, as a means to garner knowledge about them. (Wilde, 1993, 2000)

4.0 The wound at the heart of the world
Various critics point to the mechanistic paradigm as being at the heart the shortcomings of modern science. (Capra, 2001; Davies & Gribbin, 1992; Fox & Sheldrake, 1996; Goerner, 2004; Grof, 1985, 1992, 1995, 2000; Hawkins, 2002; Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991; Laszlo, 2004; Panek, 2000; Ross, 1993; Sahtouris, 1999; Sardar, 1998; Sheldrake et al., 2001; Zohar, 2000) Eisler (2004) argues that behind the mechanistic paradigm lies the dominator model, the drive to control and have power over others and the cosmos. Yet going a step beyond this, it can be argued that there is a deep wounding that drives both the dominator model, and the mechanistic paradigm. For both these are control and power centered, and attempt to suppress the affective and feminine, and the fear of death and vulnerability which lies beneath them. They are in effect, means to deny humanness. Thus the dominator model of culture tends to develop in harsh environments (Eisler 2004: 70), suggesting that trauma and wounding underpin the development of patriarchal culture.
Thus one might add that simply changing the paradigm - whether it be from mechanistic to organic (Sahtouris, 1999), to holographic (Bradley, 2004); from dominator to participator (Eisler, 2004), or from reductionism to chaos (Sheldrake et.al, 2001) - will be ineffective unless there is a parallel healing that occurs along with that paradigmatic change. If this argument is correct, it may be assumed the imperative to dominate and control will persist as long as does the wound. Grof (1995) states that “the problems in the modern world are products and symptoms of a psychospiritual crisis” and that “any effective solution will require a deep inner transformation of humanity and a new scientific world view emphasizing unity, co-evolution, and cooperation.” (Grof, 1995)
And just what is the wound? The recoded history of humanity is one of countless sufferings – bloodshed, war, famine, and on top of this the multiple natural disasters that have befallen numerous cultures and civilisations. Grof (ibid.) writes that the “two most powerful psychological forces in human history have been without doubt violence and greed.” Woolger (1994), argues that humanity exits within a deep collective consciousness, where pain and trauma are forever present.

…in the unconscious all lives are perpetually present. The karmic swing of action and reaction is more like a vast river whose currents, eddying back and forth, rebound from one bank to another. When a soul has suffered at human hands – be it by knives, fire, water, or whatever – a deep imprint of the means that inflicted the pain is left. (Woolger, 1994: 201)

If one is to assume for a moment that a collective human psyche does exist (Bradley, 2004; Hawkins, 2002; Jung, 1989; Sheldrake, 1988, 2003; Sheldrake et al., 2001; Woolger, 1994) then the collective wound may feasibly be a part of this collective. This trauma may move beyond merely genetic propensities, and assume field/attractor properties, in line with the conceptions of field theories of consciousness. (Bradley, 2004; Hawkins, 2002; Sheldrake et al., 2001) Further, Sheldrake (1988) argues that places retain the essential energy of their past, contained within a morphogenetic field. (Sheldrake, 1988)
Within eastern spiritual traditions and transpersonal psychology, the seminal collective human wound is often seen as the tearing away of the individual spirit from the universal spirit – the child torn from the arms of the cosmic mother. (Wilber, 2001: 116-117) Within the context of such a paradigm, the key to healing is in the re-unification of the atman and Brahmin, of individual and collective, of ego with spirit and cosmos. (ibid.)
However the (unconscious) goal of the fragmented ego that drives the mechanistic paradigm is the perpetuation of the egoic, separated state – the fragmented mind. (Anthony, 2005b) In this sense, unification with the cosmic collective represents annihilation of the small self. Following this idea to its logical conclusion, the refusal of mechanistic science to acknowledge (or experience) spiritual and integrated modes of awareness, can be seen as a direct function of its fear of the annihilation of the ego state, which stands as a primary imperative which underpins the superstructure of the paradigm.
The denial of intuitions, feelings and the affective in general, and the valorisation of the intellect, reason and abstraction in mechanistic science is thus possibly an attempt to avoid the collective pain that resides within humanity, and within locations upon the earth itself.

5.0 Conclusion
It has been argued above that the mechanistic paradigm’s drive to control, dominate, colonise, and possess is a projection of the fragmented mind; and three psycho-spiritual imperatives that underpin this have been identified.
Thus the mechanistic paradigm mirrors the imperatives of the atman to create “tighter and ever more restricted modes of consciousness.” (Wilber: 2001: 117) Dominant contemporary representations of intelligence and consciousness, with their fixation upon the linguistic, the rational, the abstract, the mathematical, the codified, the textual and the ego itself - at the expense of the affective, intuitive and spiritual (Gardner, 1993; Sardar, 1998; Wildman, 1996) - are thus projections of this restriction and tightening of consciousness.

Notes
1.) Previously (Anthony, 2005b) I identified four other imperatives of mechanistic science, and their effect upon the depiction and experience of consciousness in the modern age. Those four imperatives were: firstly, the dualistic nature of the scientific method, and in particular its separation of observer and object/subject; secondly, mechanistic science’s tendency towards power and control over nature; thirdly the patriarchic and “hard” basis of mechanistic science; and fourthly, the influence of ego-level consciousness and the drive towards the state of psychic fragmentation and narcissism.
2.) Wilber (2000c) argues that indigenous cultures hold not a transpersonal, but a prepersonal, undifferentiated level of consciousness development, which is prior to the rational mind. He thus differs from the romantics who tended to valorise nature mysticism. However Wilber sees some shamanic experience as essentially an incursion of transpersonal consciousness into the prepersonal mind, and thus of transrational origin. See Wilber (2000c: 244-50) for more on this.
3.) Wilber (2001) sees the New Age movement as predominantly pre-rational “narcissistic regression and self-centric fixation.” (Wilber, 2001: 194) and lacking generally transrational experience. This suggests the need for caution in regard to the utilisation of insights from New Age texts.

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Political: The Futures of China

2005-06-13T21:00:00.000+08:00

The Futures of China
Where is China heading? The recent attempt at defection of Chen Yonglin to Australia - quickly followed by two other Chinese diplomats - has created something of a storm in Australia, and elsewhere. It comes at a time when surveys in western countries show that China's image abroad is more positive than ever. People are increasingly seeing China as a friendly and (relatively) liberal partner in world globalisation.

Yet Chen's claims have raised further concerns about whether Chinas political development is keeping pace with its economic development. Recently there have been further arrests of journalists, internet restrictions, increased party indoctrination sessions for journalists and lots of people listening to obnoxious Chinese pop songs on public transport. Where will it all end?
Former student leader Wang Dan has noted recently that "Most of the transformations we saw in the past decade were economic ones. If there is no corresponding reform on the political side, a lot of social problems will arise." He cited rampant official corruption and social injustice as volatile issues that could lead to social instability. He believes that until the Tiananmen incident is vindicated and discussed in China, all talk of political reform is meaningless.

One of the most poignant remarks about "progress" in China in recent times was made by another student leader from 1989, Wuer Kaixi, who is still in exile from the mainland. This comes from an interview from Hong Kong magazine.

The Chinese people have accepted a lousy deal, exchanging political freedom for economic freedom, both of which I think Chinese people are entitled to. Since the Tiananmen crackdown, we have seen a parade of foreign leaders and multinational corporations feting China's leaders, as if somehow things have changed, but as far as I can see nothing has. If anything, China's leaders have learned their lesson, and have a tighter grip on power today than they did when I went into exile...Morally, to my mind, the continual rule of the regime that exiled me is indefensible. Realistically on the other hand, the world needs to engage with China, and that leaves us in an awkward place.

In the west at large there seem to be two camps in terms of opinion about China's future, if one may generalise. They are the China optimists and the China pessimists. As the names imply, the optimists seem to think China has an incredibly positive future, and tend to look at any problems in China as aberrations that will be swept aside by the liberalisation of China and its glorious future. They like to watch CCTV 9. The China pessimists on the other hand tend to focus upon the negatives. They look at China and see the mind-boggling inefficiency, political repression, imbalance in regard to economic and political developments, and when they see economic development they point out that it is massively skewed towards the middle class. Some see an inevitable collapse of China amidst all the corruption, vice, economic instability environmental decay, and repeats of Korean soapies.

Scenarios
Lets use a little cerebral stretching here, and hypothesise where China might go in the next 10-20 years. These will be crucial years. I suggest three possible scenarios, amongst numerous other possibilities.

Scenario One: Full steam ahead. Political and economic progress.
In this scenario, the optimists prove correct. Hu Jintao's crackdowns prove ephemeral. After stability is achieved, and the Olympics are a glorious success, a billion flowers are allowed to bloom. There is political liberalization. Democratic reforms are progressively introduced, beginning with Hong Kong, and eventually spreading to the mainland. The media, the internet and academia are unshackled. Education is liberalized. The economy booms amidst the new freedoms. People carry spit bags around and use them. China is a true superpower.

Scenario Two: The China machine. Economic progress, political stagnation.
Hu Jintao continues to utilise the media to present a glossy self-image for himself and the CCP. He is seen in public beaming and waving before cameras as he flirts with leaders from around the world. Economic advancement is handled to precision. and all the people of China become wealthier, matching levels in western countries. Hu gives up on subtle bribery such as offering Pandas to Taiwan, and instead sends a cheque instead. The tactics work a wonder, and the two sides of the Strait are united in glorious harmony.

But there is no such liberalisation in the media, academia or other information sources. The CCP tightens its grip on power. The reform through labour camps continue to operate, text books refuse to mention June 4, the invasion of Tibet, the cultural revolution or Hu's dyed hair. Mao's smug mug continues to hang before Tiananmen Square.

In twenty years China's economic clout is so great, that nobody is willing to stand up to its bullying over Taiwan or other territorial disputes. When China invades Taiwan, there is a distilled mumble of protests, but nobody does anything. The French sell weapons to the Taiwanese resistance to counter the ones they sold to the Chinese twenty years earlier.

Scenario Three: Collapse and devastation.
Foreign multi-national corporations continue to exploit China for all it is worth. The CCP continues to run “Happy Happy” news in the media. People notice things are bad, but like the frog swimming in the pot of ever-hotter boiling water, they are just too apathetic and too ill-informed to see it all going to hell. There are a series of environmental disasters. Sand storms engulf Beijing for a month in spring 2010, severely disrupting business. Beijing announces that“Everything is getting better and better, and 9% growth as usual!” They tell everyone to plant more trees. The Yangzi River turns to black sludge. All those swimming in it at the time are preserved for eternity in a soup of chemical sludge and nitrogenous human waste. (They are discovered one million years later by a team of aliens scouting this part of the galaxy). Amidst public concern expressed by factories that no longer have anywhere to pump their shit, Beijing announces: “9% growth, no slowdown.” There are riots in Tiananmen Square when tobacco crops begin dying and Chinese men, (most of whom cant get laid because of the women shortage), are unable to get their daily fix of carcinogens. They revolt en masse. Hu Jintao's troops open fire. The long eerie silence is only broken by the megaphone-voice of a government spokesman informing all to: “Return to your houses; and by the way, its 9% growth this month in case you were wondering.” But the riots continue. The country, like the rivers, the air and the economy, turns to shit.

So there it is. Three very possible scenarios. There are other possibilities of course. Which do yo

Political: The Chen Yonglin Case. A turning point?

2005-06-12T12:05:00.000+08:00

The recent attempt at defection of Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, (folowed quickly by similar assertions by two of his fellow countrymen) raises several crucial issues.

As this case relates to both my country of origin, and the country that I am now living in, I feel quite strongly about it. A strong and empowered China (in the most genuine meaning of the word 'power') will be a great thing for the world. There are 1.3 billion people who can be bought out of a veritable slumber (and yes, there are degrees of slumber, including our own) and that can only be a good thing if power is defined and employed responsibly. It will not be agood thing if the current trend continues, and the Chinese authorities continue to breed economic robots, cogs within the China machine, whose prime purpose is to bolster some collective sense of pride, ego, and the power (over and above others) of the CCP. This is why the recent developments in Australia are so important. The west must learn to set moral and ethical boundaries for itself, and for China. There is no excuse for violating humanity en masse for the sake of doing business, for a few bucks.

Governments must be responsible to an intelligent and informed poulation, not masters driving them according to covert agendas. This goes for all nations. I don't want to live in a world where evil is swept under the carpet because it does not serve the agenda to reveal it, or because it will cause people to lose face. There comes a time when one has to go beyond the discomfort of "offending" people, and to call a spade a spade.

I met a woman a few years back who told me she lived in India in the same community as the Dalai Lama. She and her sister regularly sat with the DL and others, and discussed political and spiritual matters. One day, whilst sitting before the DL, the woman's sister became hysterical when recounting some abuse she had exprienced in her life. What did the DL do? According to that woman, the DL stood up and slapped her sister hard across the face! I don't recall all the other details, but the woman told me that her sister never again made such a scene, and seemed to mature as a result of the "slap". The moral of the story is that sometimes people need a good slap across the face when their own egos are unable to concede their own errors or shortcomings. Simply nodding politely because they might be offended is to concede power to the human ego and the endless games and manipulations it likes to play.

The key is in finding the right time and place to administer the slap. Another important point is not to allow the slap to degenerate into a persecution/abuse in itself. (i.e. not to try to score points of or play power games in order to gain power OVER another) I think this is the time to stand up and be counted; and give the Chinese authorities a slap. Boundaries have to be set, or one day we will wake up and find that we have crossed so far beyond what is good and right, that turning back will be very difficult or impossible. Do we (the Australian govt., Australians, the West, everybody) have the courage?

China Photo: Three Cute Girls

2005-05-29T01:46:00.000+08:00

Three beautiful girls on the street in Lijiang, Yunnan province, central China, 2003.

China Photo: Ping and I crossing the river at Bai Her

2005-05-29T01:37:00.000+08:00

That's Ping and I crossing the Bai River, north of Beijing, mid 2004. There is a small village in the background.

China Photo: Beijing during SARS

2005-05-29T01:35:00.000+08:00

Beijing at the height of SARS, May, 2003 (believe it or not!)

China Photo: Cute boy in Beijing Park

2005-05-29T01:34:00.000+08:00

Cute boy in the park, beijing, spring, 2003

China Photo: Tower near Kaiping

2005-05-29T01:13:00.000+08:00

A mysterious old tower, near Kaiping, Guandong province, Feb 2005

China Photo: My Wife, Ping

2005-05-29T01:12:00.000+08:00

Her again!

China Photo: Me

2005-05-29T01:11:00.000+08:00

Reading the Party line, Lijiang, Yunnan, 2003

China Photo: My brother Sean in HK

2005-05-29T01:10:00.000+08:00

My brother Sean, before the misty skyline of Hong Kong, Feb 2005

China Photo: Girl near Kaiping

2005-05-29T01:01:00.000+08:00

This cute girl was found outside her parent's little store, in a very small village in rural Guandong province, near the town of Kaiping. Feb 2005.

General: Benjamin Franklin Press - Great stuff!

2005-05-28T23:46:00.000+08:00

This is just a quick plug for a great publishing company just getting off the ground - Benjamin Franklin Press http://www.benjaminfranklinpress.com/ . I particularly recommend it for anyone interested in the philosophy of science, futures, contemporary and intelligent discussions on progressive and spiritual discourses, and Darwin's theory of evolution. Futurist David Loye (PhD) who set up BFPress has written some great stuff about Darwin and evolutionary theory. You can find it all on BFpress, including some great stuff you can download for free. You can also find my review of David's book The Great Adventure: Toward a Fully Human Theory of Evolution (SUNY Press, 2004), near the bottom of this blog (to be published in Futures journal soon) - just go to the contents at the bottom of the page, and press on April archives.

General Humour: Student funnies

2005-05-26T22:47:00.000+08:00

Just to lighten the moment a little, here are a few things I collected from the students when I was working as DOS at a Chinese uni in Beijing. Just in case you are wondering, Peter is a teacher, and so is Marcus (the latter being my good self). Some of the excuse notes I received from students are particularly amusing, I think. Original spellings have been kept. I shared these with the students at the end of the year, but they didn't always know why native speakers found them funny!

Radical History

It just a short time. After this time, the inland (of Australia) was taken away by James Cook. Winnie

James Cook and the army brought a lot of unhappiness to them (the Aborigines). When they were only living the inland, they were happiness, but finally they were not happiness and peace. Winnie (again)

For this next one, you need to know that "yellow movie" means pornographic film in Chinese, the equivalent of "blue movie" in the west. This is from an essay entitled "The Major Cultural Influences in the West."

TV took informations for people, but took some bad things too. There were some channels show the yellow culture or yellow movies to the public. Young people and some people who has a bad mentality did some aberration when they saw the channel. They began to find some ways vent their appetence. Alaway their ways are criminal, it's bad for their lives. Xavier.

The ancient Greek people established the earliest and a more perfect feudal monarch institution in 11th century. Winnie

About 50 million years ago, the Aborigines were already lived in Australia. They never killed too much weild animals, they never throw the wasts in to the river, and they never cut down the trees for benefits. Toman (Revisionist History at its most radical - good to see benefits weren't taken advantage of in those times so long ago)

Excuses for being absent from class

These are all taken from notes students wrote to explain absences from class.

My father is come to Beijing. So, I want to play with him. Sorry, I can't get here. David.

"I had to help my friend find the Malaysian Embassy." (Deborah, explaining her absence of one week. Hmm, someone should have told here there was one in China)

Dear Marcus,
I'm very sorry, I felt very bad. So I have to go to the dum. I can't come to Your class, Justin Lewis 8.1

I'm sorry I missed so many of your classes this week. I had to go to the hospital for an injection. Justin (Hmm, they have loooooong injections in China)

Dear Marcus and Peter,
I did not take care of myself very well, so I caught heat at last. I think I need more exercises to improve my physical quality. All of my classmates suggested that I would better not present the rest of classes and I agree with them. So, please believe me, I am terrible sorry for absent your and Peter's lectures.
Yours: Hanson

Dear Marcus,
I'm sorry I can't go to your class because I got suntorke. Rose

Dear Marcus,
Today I can't come to your class. I'm sorry to tell you that. Yesterday, I slept in Hanson's dorm. His dorm is hell now. It's unacceptably hot. So I found I was sunstruck. I'm dizzy and adynamic now. Please forgive my absence. Thanks a lot. Your student Max

Dear Marcus,
I was absent from your class yesterday afternoon. Because I felt headache again. Yesterday noon, when I got up from my short nap, I couldn't move further otherwise I would lose my head. My headache has been more seriously than before since last week. I mean maybe I felt so nervous because of the IELTS test. Yours Sincerely, Leon

Dear Marcus,
Yesterday, I was felling unwell, I thought I got sun-stroke. So I took a class. Thank you! Jessica.

Dear Peter:
I'm sorry for havn't been your class. I had have a temperature. Sincerely Your obedient student John.z

Dear Marcus,
I ate a lot of fruit last night. I got stomachache and felt uncomfortable that it made me sleeping too late. Now I feel tired and still stomachache. So I won't go to school. I'm sorry for absent your class. Yours: Cobain.

Dear Marcus,
I am still sick. I try to go to your class but I find it's difficult for me to concentrate in your class so I decide not to go to your class. I'm very sorry. Rose

Marcus: I was sick this morning and I was awful. So I want to take the morning's class off. I am terribly sorry. David

Dear Marcus,
I'm sorry, because two fuck guys fight each other last night, so it's too noisy. I feel bad this morning. Please forgive me. Yours, Amy

Dear Marcus,
I was absent from your class this morning because I felt so painful with my left buttock.. Last weekend, I have been injured with my buttock when I played a football match with my senior school classmates far away from Erwai (university). Firstly I didn't mind it too much, but it became more swollen and painful. So I couldn't get up on time and went to school by bike myself. I am sorry to say that. Maybe the pain will last for several days, but I have prepared to get up earlier and ask my dormates to send me to the classroom. Leon.

General Quotes

"I spent my holiday in my mother." Xavier

"I spent my holiday playing stimulating games with my boyfriend." Winnie.

"Would you like to enjoy us?" Rachel, inviting her teacher Marcus to join her and her friends in a game of darts at the G&D ranch. (Marcus' response deleted)

Academic Research
And finally there is this piece, part of a final research essay. PS This one didn't quite make the grade.

Big Problem It is a big problem that pollution is continuing grate part of people still cannot understand that how much serious about pollution problem. One of effect by air pollution is the Antarctic ozone hole. Ozone layer was beaked by flurine which run out of fridge. The ray harmful which come from the sun could not be stopped by the ozone layer because of the hole. Too much lighted up by ultraviolet ray will case people to got skin cancer, albinism, and the other diseases about skin. If we can't stop the action that break the ozone layer keep going, our sons will cannot to go out with out caver a few years later. Not only that, everything living on earth will be killed by ray. The earth will becoming a death star. The worming will melt the ice in Antarctic and Ataxic. Thus the water level will rise at the same time and there could see nothing except water on the earth. Not only that, the pollution about SO2, CO2 and CO, etc. are terrible, too. SO2 case the acid rain happened, it corrode plants, animals, and human; WATER POLUTION Some kinds of factories, such as papermaking factory, chemical factory, always let the waste in to river without handle to save money as possible as they can. The waste that factories thrower killed the living thing in river, then the water that polluted by the waste pollute the sea. Too much polluted cased some kinds of living thing growled abnormal, such as the toxic red tides, as the particle in textbook said. On the other side, too much using will bring us the same negative effect. The best ensample is Ganges in Indian. In Indian's mind Ganges is holy and enigmatical, so people wash themselves, wash the domestic animals, takeorder with the body and the others' Disease and feculence are spread abroad by the river, but also bad to the living thing in the Indian Ocean. In fact, the polluted water not only kill the animal live in water, but also kill the living thing on ground, include human and plant. The waste banefully always soak into soil, at the same time, crop and tree absorb the waste from the polluted soil (again)
(Name withheld)

Creative Writing: The Initiate, Chapters 1-3

2005-05-26T22:21:00.000+08:00

This entry consists of the first three chapters of a novel called "The Initiate". Basically it is the story of a teenage boy (Tony Moffett)who is initated into a world of spirit and mysticism. It begins with a near death experience on the rugby field, which leads to a series of events including a meeting with a mysterious woman who will eventually become his teacher. Basically it is aimed at a teenage readership, but I trust that older readers will enjoy it too.

There are more chapters to follow. Just email me (mailto:marcusadude@yahoo.com.au) leave a comment below and I can post some more of the novel here.

Chapter 1 The Game

I was 15 years and one day old when I died for the first time. That is one thing I can say for certain, because it happened the day right after my birthday. You don’t forget birthdays too easily, and you don’t forget dying even less, at least for the first time.
So it was definitely the day after my birthday. The chocolate mud cake I ate most of was probably still in my gut. I know it was my fifteenth birthday the day before because today is my twentieth birthday, and I promised that I would not say anything about these things for five years.
This is my story. The story of Tony Moffett. I know you won’t believe half of what I write but it all happened to me, I swear. But I’ve had to change some names, places and details. Too many people just aren’t ready to hear this kind of stuff, and I don’t want to be locked away in the loony again. There are people that I have to protect, and others that I have to hide from. There are things that have to be kept secret. I can’t be too careful. As you read this you might like to put yourself in my shoes for a minute, and then you might understand what I’ve been through, what I’m going through even now. I know that there are people who are reading this. I can feel it, deep within me where The Knowing comes from.
I’m different from other people. I can see things, hear things, and feel things that others can’t. There are things that I know that nobody else knows. But I used to be normal. When did the changes begin? It was five years ago…

******************

The day I died was pretty much like any other day. Sure, there was probably some of that mud cake in my gut, but other than that it seemed perfectly standard. It was a Saturday, June 21st to be precise. The Under 18s rugby game against Nestfield had been penciled right in there on the day they drafted the draw months before hand. We were about two-thirds of the way through the season. It was an important match for us, as we were lying fifth on competition table, and with a victory we had a good chance of moving past West Bay into the fourth place spot. Since only four teams would make the semi-finals at the end of the competition proper, we were really keen to win. Unfortunately we were up against Nestfield, or “Nesty” as we called them. They were unbeaten right throughout the season up till that point. In fact they typically thrashed everyone else. They were bigger, meaner and a whole lot uglier than the other teams in the comp. They could also play too, which was unfortunate for the rest of us. In the first round they had beaten us 32-9, which actually was a good score considering that they had scored over 100 points on three occasions that year, including a 152-3 victory over Stilton, the then-last placed team. Stilton subsequently withdrew from the competition. The joke was that the guy who kicked the field goal for Stilton in that final game to give them the three points was named their player of the year. But it was only a rumor.
The concrete floor of the dressing room felt like ice on my bare feet. I quickly slid on my shorts and black/orange socks so that I could change into my rugby boots. There is something about the feel of plastic sprigs on concrete locker-room floors that lifts my spirits. I don’t know what it is. I kind of feel taller than my 187cm height (I know, I’m a tall bastard) and stronger than my75kg (Yep, I’m a skinny bastard too!). Once the boots are on and the smell of Heat Rub fills the room I switch on. There is a kind of warrior spirit that fills my veins. It just comes over me. Normally I’m shy and don’t say much. In fact at that point in my life I had never had a girlfriend, or even kissed a girl. I wasn’t really what you’d call confident and outgoing. I was kind of dorky to tell you the truth. But once the boots were on I changed.
Which is, I suppose, why I was in the starting line-up that day, instead of on the bench. I play inside-centre, which is a really important position of the rugby field. Some people who don’t really understand the game think that the centers are attacking positions for guys who can run like the wind. But inside-centre is really all about defense. You gotta be able to tackle in that position or you are history. The big guys and the small guys run at you all day. But that was OK as far as I was concerned. I liked tackling. I was good at it. It’s all about timing, putting your shoulder into the guy at the right time. To tell you the truth I’m not that fast, so when our side is in attack I usually just pass the ball to my outside-centre, Jeffery Greenstone, who’s a lot quicker and more evasive than I am. So he makes all the breaks, scores all the tries and gets all the glory. I just run on, pull down the big guys and run off.
At least that is the way it had worked up until that day, the last day I ever played rugby league.
Fear is something you have to deal with in a contact sport. Nobody talks about it, nobody admits that they are afraid. But everyone is. After all, it hurts to get crunched in a tackle, or have some guy stick his knee in your groin (as sometimes happens in the line of battle) or to be picked up and smashed into the ground if you are a skinny runt like me. You can see the fear on their faces before the game. My teammates that is. They try to hide it, but it’s there. You can smell it, all mixed up with the body odor and the eucalyptus smell of Heat Rub. And that day it was just a little more smelly than usual, on account of who we were playing.
Rusty Vandenberg, our coach was his usual self. Rusty was in fact a social sciences teacher at Dolphin Bay High, but filled in as coach because there was no one else around. He wasn’t a bad coach, but he wasn’t great either. He was really too quiet to be the coach, and he usually only said a few words before kick-off.
“We can win this one,” he said, attempting to believe his own words, because none of us sure did. There was a certain desperate look that crossed his face when he wanted to look worked up or angry. It was pretty much the same look he had in class when he got angry. But it just didn’t work in his case. His face was just too round and chubby, capped with a ridiculously wavy clump of red-gray hair with a bald patch in the middle. Kind of like Crusty the Clown with his head on fire. Instead of angry he just looked like he was constipated and in dire need of a good crap.
“Tony,” he said, turning to me. “You gotta nail that big second-rower of theirs. Don’t go high, or he’ll trample you into the ground. Take him around the ankles.”
I just nodded stupidly. He needn’t have told me. I knew how to tackle, or at least I thought I did. Perhaps it was over-confidence that did me in that day. Or maybe it was just fate.

It was from the first tackle that the tone of the game was set, and I happened to be involved. We kicked off, and that aforementioned giant second-rower received the ball in the in-goal area. That means that he had about 20 meters to wind up his huge thighs before he reached the defense. Those thighs had parted many a defensive line in games gone by, but I was determined to get him. As it happened, he ran in the direction of our half-back, Rick Steel, the smallest guy on the field. Rick was only 14 years old, and about as big as my left thumb. But he was a great little layer, which is why they put him up to the under 16s. The big guy probably ran at him because he was so small, the big bully. It was like a mad bull about to tromp all over one of the Tele Tubbies. But since Rick was standing immediately next to me in the defensive line, I decided to give him a little help. The big guy steam-rollered towards us, size13 boots stomping the grass beneath his feet as he ran. I stepped across in front of Rick, and drove forward with all the strength my skinny legs could muster and drove my shoulder as hard as I could into the big guy’s thighs. It was just one of those inexplicable things. The timing was perfect, and he went down like stack of potatoes. I didn’t feel a thing, but I heard the groan. His groan. It took him at least ten seconds to get up. I’d hurt him bad. He staggered up, groggy on his feet. He barely knew where he was. The feeling of power that comes right after making a good tackle filled me with elation.
After that we were on a role. We scored only a few minutes later, and the conversion was good. At half time we led 7-0.
I don’t think that any of us could quite believe that we were winning as we huddled around during the five-minute half-time break. You could see Rusty Vandenburg was excited. His pale blue eyes lit up as he delivered an uncustomary half-time encouragement speech of at least ten words. Something of a record. Chris Dalewood, the captain of the team, gave me a slap on the back.
“Keep it up Moffett, you’re playing like a champion,” he enthused. Those words meant something to me. I lived somewhat in awe of Dalewood. He was not only the Captain of the rugby team, but school Captain as well. He was pretty much the same height as me, but I’d reckon at least 15 kilograms heavier, and twice as wide. He was one of those guys who is good at everything.
After we’d sucked the oranges dry we ran on again for the second-half. I remember thinking how hot it was as I lined up at my customary position, deep to the left hand touch-line. Their guy kicked the ball off and it floated high and long toward me. As I focused my eye on the ball it crossed the path of the sun. For a moment I was blinded, the ball lost in the sheer white light of the mid-morning winter sun. In that moment something strange happened. As the ball melted into the golden light, I almost forgot where I was. The sun’s light pierced me like an arrow, and time stopped. I knew that you are not supposed to look at the sun with your eyes open or you can go blind, but I couldn’t help myself. I just stood there, motionless, arms outstretched for a ball that I could not see, nor in that moment could even remember existed. It seemed like a minute, staring at the white orb, bleaching my soul with its light. There was an exhilaration that came over me, like the spirit of something long lost but indescribable.
I was brought back to reality with the thud of the ball falling into my arms. How it got there I don’t know, because all I could remember was the light, then next thing I was charging up field with the ball, looking at the wave of defenders baring down on me like the hordes of Ghengus Khan. What I do remember is the eyes of the big guy, the giant second-rower as he lined me up. I guess maybe it was Karma or something, considering I’d got him with a big hit from the first-half kick-off. There was revenge etched deep into those strangely small blue-grey orbs. He wanted to get me back. It was pay-back-time. I saw it in that instant just before we met, the sockets of his eyes seeming to jump right into mine. I feigned to move into him, but swerved away at the last moment, something that an old international player had shown me in a pre-season camp when I was a kid. It worked for him because he played for his country. But I was a defensive player, remember? Watching me on the attack in a game of rugby is like seeing the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz flopping about in the wind with the Tin Man’s brain under his arm. The big guy, big as he was, wasn’t fooled by my swerve. He lurched at me with huge shoulders, hate-filed eyes, mouth-guard protruding from his jaw like some great white shark about to devour its pray.
They say that I ran with my head too high. They say that I veered back into the big guy at the last minute, inexplicably, irrationally. My forehead connected with his shoulder some said. Some of our guys said it was his elbow. Many swore they heard a cracking sound, like the branch of a tree snapping off in a violent storm. They told of how my head whipped right back, just like the heads of those crash test dummies in cars as the vehicle piles head-on into a brick wall. Some said my head then slammed into the hard earth after I fell, bouncing back like a rubber ball from the sheer impact. The rest no one disputed. I stopped breathing. Everyone gathered around me. Rusty Vandenburg reached deep into my throat with his fingers and pulled my tongue out of my mouth. They said he gave me mouth to mouth, which I’m really not too keen on the idea of, to tell you the truth. Then the ambulance came. The game stopped. It never started again.
But I didn’t remember any of that, because I was dead.

Chapter Two: The Dying

I don’t recall the tackle at all. All I can remember was that look in that big second-rowers’ eyes as he lurched toward me. Then nothingness.
The next impression I had was that I was looking at a group of people. I was standing with them. Everyone was gathering around to look at something on the ground. I peered down and saw that one of our guys was lying on the grass, face covered in blood, head twisted awkwardly to one side. He looked a real mess. I recall was hoping that he would be OK, but it looked pretty bad. Phil Jenson, our rather chubby prop forward,
was standing right next to me. His face was ashen white, scared.
“Hey what happened to him?” I queried. “I didn’t see what happened.” But Phil wasn’t listening to me. He just kept right on staring at the guy on the ground. One of the Nesty players bent down toward the person on the ground.
The referee grabbed him and pulled him away. “Don’t touch him!” He bellowed like a sergeant major. “It could be a spinal injury.” At that moment Rusty Vandenburg hustled his way through the crowd.
“It’s OK, I have the Red Cross First Aid Certificate!” His chubby face seemed to crease up as he knelt down over the body.
“Jesus Christ.” I heard him mutter, looking up. “Somebody call an ambulance. Quick. He’s not breathing.” Rusty pulled out a hanky and wiped blood away from the injured guy’s mouth and nose. “Come on, Tony, don’t die on us for Christ’s sake.” I heard him say.
Why was Rusty calling that guy Tony, I thought. That was my name. There were no other Tonys on the team.
“Is Tony OK?” Came a voice from behind me. I turned around and saw David Chee, our rather short, bow-legged full-back trying to peer in between the rest of us to get a look. That’s when it hit me. It was like a freight train rushing into my head, so impacting was the realisation. That person lying there before me. That body all twisted like a piece of licorice in a child’s hand, was me. But it couldn’t be me. I was here, standing with the guys. I tapped Rusty on the shoulder.
“Hey Rusty, I’m OK. Don’t worry about a thing. I’m OK. Really.” But he didn’t hear me. I looked over and saw Chris Dalewood. The big guy looked all cut up, his face aged and crooked like a much older man . He turned to Phil Jensen.
“Is he OK? How bad is it…?” Phil just shook his head, face ghostly white.
“I can’t look at this.” He walked away, distress etched deep into his brow.
I followed him. As he knelt down on one knee, just a few metres away. I went to him. He was saying words under his breath. “God, don’t let Tony die. Please help him.”
I laughed nervously. “Hey, Phil! No need to get all religious. I’m right here. I’m not gonna die. Cheer up mate.” I put my hand on his shoulder. Again, he didn’t seem to hear me, or even know that I was there.
“Tony!”
The voice called me. Or was it really a voice? It sounded like a voice and yet there was no sound. The idea of it just seemed to force its way into my head. I looked up, stood up. The winter sun burnt into my face, again, just as it had done moments before during the game. But this time it didn’t hurt my eyes at all. I looked at it deeply, transfixed by it. An indescribable feeling, like the longing for something long lost in one’s childhood, made me forget about what had been happening all around me. I stepped forward; a single step, two steps. Then I was running, running toward the sun. I could feel the souls of my bare feet caressing the grass and my normally ungainly running became an effortless grace. My feet seemed to caress each blade of grass with an athlete’s graceful stride. It was funny, because I couldn’t recall taking my boots off.
The sun beckoned me, all warmth and caressing light. My strides became longer and longer, impossibly long, until in a single moment I was lifted up, gliding effortlessly forward. I could hear the sound of something like the wind, as it carried me forward. It held me like a mother might hold a first-born child. I knew that I was protected by it, and that no harm could come to me. Don’t ask me how I knew. I just knew.
The flying changed. It is not easy to describe what I was happening, but I was no longer flying forward, but outwards, in all directions at the same time. Everything was happening within the one moment within that one place. I was dying, and I knew it. But it was not as I’d ever imagined dying might be like. I was evaporating upon some cosmic wind, disappearing into forever, and it was beautiful. It was something that words just cannot describe. I was everywhere and nowhere. I was everybody and yet nobody. There was no time as I had become time itself.
I became aware of some images. It was not so much like seeing something on television. It was more like a dream, but different because everything that I saw I also felt. I felt it because I was it, and it was me. The pictures. The people. The places.
A baby cried. I saw the room, the hospital and the doctor, a woman. I saw it all. I saw my mother, and felt her love for me. I felt it like that love was my own. But I saw more tan that. I saw a story. My life unfolded before me, every last detail of it became known to me. I saw myself as a two-year-old fall and stub my toe. I saw myself as a six-year-old hitting Bill Dea’s sister because she said she didn’t like me. The images passed in and out of my awareness; some pleasant, some very painful.
A single tear appeared before me, and I melted into it, then out of it. It expanded till I saw the tear rolling down the face of a seven-year-old child. I knew the child was me. The scene unfolded from that one tear. The solemn faces, my father in his good suit with a black tie; the stained glass on the church windows that seemed to transform the sun’s light into muddy hues of despair. I saw my mother’s casket paraded out of the church, carried by my father, my uncles and some other relatives. The pain of that filled me again. I was a tear itself, and I was the pain of that scared little boy seeing the cold face of his mother in that casket. I felt my father’s pain too.
It was as I looked my father that I became aware of someone beside me, a presence as I watched this in that strange void. It was a woman’s voice.
“Forgive him”, she said. The woman gestured in some invisible way for me to look. I say invisible because I couldn’t see any person beside me, but the strong idea of being directed came into my mind, and I followed that feeling. I looked at my father, and I suddenly felt deep inside him to his pain. I saw that after my mother died that he blamed himself. His guilt ate into him. I saw that every time he looked at me, he saw my mother. His decision to leave me with Aunt Joyce was because he simply couldn’t bare to look at me anymore. It was not that he didn’t love me.
A hand took mine, and I was led away from all that. I left it, and I left the sense of grief too. Somehow, even though I’d seen it, the feelings passed right through me, like water passing through a gauze and out the other side.
Some other images opened themselves up to me, as if they were deliberately communicating with me.
“This is the future.” The woman said to me. Her hand closed more tightly around mine, compelling me to pay close attention.
I saw myself climbing a hill. It was quite steep hill. Ahead there was a snow line. The idea came to me that I did not have the appropriate clothing or gear to get through the snow, and certainly not the experience to do so.
“These things will come to you.” The voice said. I knew that the woman could read my mind. Even as questions formed in my mind, she responded. I thought that this was quite cool, and wondered why I couldn’t normally read people’s minds.
“The mind must be quiet, resting within the moment, to hear.” the voice responded.
“To hear what?” I asked.
“To hear minds,” she said.
Some faces came before me, they seemed to be above of me on the mountain. The faces were unclear.
“These are those who will help you.”
The faces drifted in and out of the mist. An older woman with brown-red hair. A girl with dark hair, perhaps my age. There was something different about her, but I could only sense it vaguely.
“Help me with what?” I asked, not understanding what was being said.
The answer came immediately. In that place, every thought seemed to bring an answer immediately. Unfortunately the answer seemed just as confusing as the questions.
“You will be helped.” The voice simply said. In that moment great Light came too me again, smiling on my soul. I wondered at that for a moment, but my attention was being drawn back to the images. As I watched I saw great storm clouds gathering on the horizon. They wee making there way closer to the sun. I realised, as I watched that they would soon cover the sun. They came closer, and a chill filled my spirit. There was the crack of thunder and lightning snaked across the sky in brilliant rivulets. As I looked at it there came an awareness. The storm was alive. It wanted something. The sense of that filled me with fear. I could feel the mind of that storm. It was like something I’d never experienced. It wanted to come and take me, to take my mind.
“Enough” said the women. The sun and the storm disappeared. There was a space, a pause after that.
For a moment I saw her, the voice, in that world of shadows and dreams. The wisps of cloud parted and I saw the woman, not clearly, but I saw her. She was young, less than thirty, with dark hair. There was a sense of kindness that came to me much more clearly than the image of her. And there was one other thing. Somehow, somewhere I knew her. But I didn’t know where, or how we had met before.
She sensed me looking at her, looking into her, and in that awareness the image clouded over.
“Why are you hiding from me?” I asked. “Who are you? I know you from somewhere. I know.”
In that very instant a wave of thought came over me. I knew I wasn’t allowed to know that.
“In time beyond time you will know,” came the soft reply.
Suddenly there was a pulling away.
“It is not your time yet, Tony,” the woman’s voice came to me. There was a tearing, as I was thrown backward violently, pulled sucked, thrust away from that place. A deep sadness came over me.
“Don’t leave me,” I pleaded. The pulling away continued. I fell and collapsed. I fell from everything into one small thing. Tony Moffett. Me. There was one last impression as that world disintegrated.
“I never left you,” she said.
And that was all.

Chapter Three: Back To Life

Somewhere in the hazy distance I heard a garbled voice.
“He’s coming to.”
My eyes opened groggily. Everything was covered in a think foggy haze. It hurt to look. I cold make out the silhouettes of several people standing over me.
“Oh, Tony! How are you feeling?” I recognised the shrill voice. It was Aunt May.
“Terrible” I answered meekly, which was about the most honest answer I could manage. I could barely keep my eyes open. The glare from the light hurt my eyes, and my brain felt like it was about to burst out of my cranium and deposit itself at random nearby locations.
“Where I am I?”
“It’s OK Tony, you’re in the Western Suburbs hospital in Sydney.” I knew that voice too. It was my father. What the hell was he doing here?
The figures became clearer as my eyes adjusted to the light. I could see that I was in a white room. There was a fan on the ceiling. I seemed to be lying on a bed. I say seemed to be because I felt too week to look around..
“Hospital?” I said puzzled. “Why am I in hospital?” There was a slight feeling of pain, like the moment that you wake up from a bad dream and don’t know where you are.
“You don’t remember?” Helen said, worried.
“Remember what?”
“The game and everything,” she said.
I went to shake my head, but found I couldn’t move it. It was like it was in a vice or something.
Aunt May put hand on my chest. “Don’t try to move.” I’ll call the Doctor. My head was spinning so much I had to close my eyes. A feeling of great exhaustion came over me. I slept.

Something sharp pricked my toe.
“Jesus what was that!” I yelled, opening my eyes. I tried to jump up, but something was holding me in a rigid position, like a vice was all around my body. Two hands pressed down on my chest.
“Relax Tony. Everything is OK.” It was the rather soft voice of a woman. Not a bad looking one at that. She introduced herself.
“Hi Tony, I’m Doctor Handy. I’m your doctor here.”
I almost made a quip like “Very Handy, I’d say!” but fatigue got the better of me.
She smiled rather dryly, as doctors tend to do. But doctors don’t tend to be young and beautiful. At least not in my experience. I relaxed a little.
“Everything seems to be going fine. Your recovery is right on track.”
“Huh? Recovery from what?” I asked. I wasn’t understanding her at all.
Doctor Handy looked at me with indifferent compassion, something else that only doctors can pull off. “Tony, you are in the spinal ward of the hospital. You hurt your back and head playing football.” I looked at her. I looked down and could see the white cylinder of the brace on my neck jutting out from under my chin.
“I, I don’t remember,” I said dumbly.
Doctor Handy placed a clipboard under her shoulder. “You suffered severe concussion. You were unconscious for four days.”
“Shit!” was all I could say. There seemed to be something solid sitting in my stomach, but I knew it wasn’t anything I’d eaten. It was my fear.
“What, what’s gonna happen to me.” I choked. “Is it bad?”
The doctor paused for a moment, but there was something in her pretty brown eyes that made me trust her. “You suffered two cracked vertebra in the base of the neck and a fractured skull.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Other than that you are fine.”
“That’s fine?”
“Well it’s as good as can be expected in a case like yours. The EEG shows that your brain is fine. Tests show that your spinal cord is OK too. But we’ll need to run some more tests to be sure.”
“So I’m not going to be a cripple?”
“Tony, I have to be honest with you. Each person heals differently. But from what I have seen this last week, I think you will almost certainly recover fully.”
That was a relief to hear.
“Of course it would be very unwise to run out onto a football field again.” That wasn’t so good to hear. “Unless you like the feel of a wheelchair, I’d hang up my boots if I were you.”

Aunt Helen and Dad came not long after. I was seeping, but they woke me up.
“The doctor says you are doing real good,” said Helen. Dad just nodded. He looked vaguely concerned, but as usual didn’t say much. Helen did most of the talking. After about five minutes he spoke.
“Ya got medical insurance son?”
I looked at him. In that moment I saw where his real concern lay – in the hospital bill. I was tempted to tell a lie, but didn’t.”
“Yeah. It’s part of the sign on fee. I don’t know the details though. You’ll have to check it up.
“Good” he said, as he gave a nervous cough.

In the following days I was subjected to just about every test imaginable. They stuck pins in me, rubbed me in every conceivable place (yeah, even there), and put enough x-rays through me to make me glow in the dark. I felt really tired, so I spent most of my time sleeping, and watching television. The most exciting thing was when I got the nurses to scratch my body, wherever I felt itchy (no, not there).

A week after I came too, I got a surprise.
“There’s someone here to see you, Tony.” One of the nurses announced.
“The prime minister? I joked.
Almost immediately a pack of noisy young men had piled through the door. They were my teammates. They were raucous and full of laughter.
“Hey, you look like crap!” Phil Jenson bellowed with his big frame. “Which is a great improvement on last time I saw you.”
Dave Chee leaned through the pack . “Yeah, you’re just as ugly dead as you are alive.”
“Stop, you’re making me laugh” I said. ”It hurts like hell with my ribs.”
“Better get used to it” Chris Dalewood chirped. “We didn’t come here for a funeral, did we?”
“Hey, what’s it like to die, Stork? Someone else ventured. There was a slight moment where they waited to see if I’d be offended by that one.
“Oh its nothing really, I retorted.” “But you know, dying isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
Rusty Vandenurg leaned forward, his chubby face glowing in the fluorescent light.. “So, did your life flash before your eyes or what?”
The words came to me, and there was something in them that stirred me. I paused for just a second or so, something trying to come forth from somewhere deep inside. But I pushed it back down.
“Yeah, I saw it all again. The worst part was when I re-lived Jack missing that dead-cert of a try against Franford in the first round again when he dropped the ball when he was over the line.. It kept repeating over and over. I thought I was in Hell.”
Everyone laughed.

In that first week I was tired, really tired. I barely had my eyes open, other than when someone was visiting me. I slept a lot . Mostly it was a deep dreamless sleep, but there was a dream that kept coming to me. It must have happened five or six times, and each time it happened there was a great sense of deje vu, like I was experiencing the same dream over and over again. In the dream I could see Doctor Handy walking slowly towards me. She would be smiling a deep smile. It was kind of a deep dopey smile, like on those statues of the Buddha; like she was carrying a secret that was very funny but which she just couldn’t share with anyone. It was a strange dream, because in the dream she would bend over me, and place her hands around my neck, so that they completely circled it. Yet there was no sense of danger. In fact her hand’s felt really soft, like the gentle touch of a mother holding a child. Typically I would drift in and out of this dream, but I could feel the hands there, even when I was half awake. It was like I was the baby and Doctor Handy was the mother. I’m not sure what Dr Freud would make of it, but it sure felt nice. I thought that maybe I was falling in love with that pretty doctor. That was until the last such dream that I had.

She entered the room, and I saw her, walking closer and closer, until she was right over me. I felt that same peaceful feeling that I’d felt the times before. Then the thought came to me that I was sleeping, and that I should wake up. That was strange, because I really was sleeping, and you don’t normally know you are sleeping when you are sleeping. So I opened my eyes. I realized that I had never actually looked at her face in the other dreams. The moment I looked up I realized that this woman standing over me it was not really Doctor Handy at all. This woman’s hair was darker and longer, the skin too, like she was partly Asian or perhaps a Pacific islander. But I couldn’t see clearly, her face and shoulders were hazy like a mountain slope caressed by wisps of mist. Yet there was one thing that was so clear that it will stay with me forever. Her eyes. They were not eyes like I had ever seen before. They were blue, but unlike any blue you could possibly imagine; two blue diamonds that pierced me, cut into my soul, leaving me naked and exposed. There was something unearthly about them that terrified me.

I awoke with a shock, sitting up and catching my breath. The room was dark. It occurred to me that the sudden movement might damage my spine. I sat down again gingerly, my heart racing inside my chest. I was half expecting to have some sort of seizure, but none ever came. After a while the image of the woman with piercing eyes faded from my mind, and I relaxed into sleep.

A hand tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up to see Geek and Andy grinning at me like Cheshire cats.

My progress was good. Doctor Handy came in a few days after that. She pulled out a couple of large x-ray sheets, and propped them up in front of me. I was sitting up comfortably by that stage, so I grabbed them for a closer look.
To tell you the truth I was trying to look down her top, but it was too tightly zipped at the top. I was pretty sure she didn’t notice. I’m pretty good at that kind of stuff. It’s all in the peripheral vision. I read it in a book somewhere once. Most people only use the cells at the front of their eyes, but in fact you can develop your peripheral vision deliberately by looking at things either side of you, whilst staring straight ahead. It definitely works. By that time I’d had a few solid years of practice behind me. I could look at any chick without actually staring at her. Call me a pervert if you will.
There were two x-rays, close ups of my lower neck and shoulders from side-on. Holding up the first x-ray photo, Doctor Handy pointed to the base of my neck.
“This is the x-ray was taken a week ago. You see those lumps on those two vertebrae?” she asked. I nodded. “There are significant fissures in both, as you can plainly see.” Sure enough you could see the darker cracks through the bone. It didn’t look pretty. She held up the second x-ray.
“Now this one is the result of the x-ray taken today.” She then held up the second x-ray photo. I peered at the picture. It was pretty much the same as the first one; y head and shoulders from side on.
“Notice anything different?” She asked.
“The cracks in the vertebra. I can’t see them in this picture.”
“Interesting isn’t it? Not a sign of calcification and no fissures visible.”
“Is that normal?” I asked.
She looked at me with a whimsical smile. “To tell you the truth I haven’t been working so long here, but this is freaky. You’ve got more than a few of the guys back there wondering what the hell is going on here. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
A rather dumb “Oh” was the best response I could manage.

They let me out of the hospital two days later. Aunt May came to pick me up. She wouldn’t let me carry my bag, but I insisted. They booked me in for some test for a month down the track, but basically they said that I was a free man. As far as anyone could tell there was no brain damage or long term spinal complications. I was lucky… or so I thought.

China Photo: Raisinfu*k!

2005-05-02T01:01:00.000+08:00

1001 things to do with raisins... and then some! The Chinese outsmart us again.

The "Raisinfuck" brand of raisons, as found on supermarket shelves in Leshan, Sichuan. They make a great gift to that girl you've been eyeing off for some time but never had the courage to speak to.

I should explain. This is a translation error. Rasin in Chinese is "Pu Tao Gan" or literally "grape dried". However "gan" is also a vulgarism for the horizontal deed. So... well, you work it out.

China Photo: Ningbor

2005-05-01T18:11:00.000+08:00

Scene from my hotel window, Ningbor, Eastern China. (Taken at dusk).

China Photo: Near Yanji

2005-05-01T18:06:00.000+08:00

Scene about four hours out of Yan Ji, NE China.

China Phot: Sky Pool Lake

2005-05-01T18:04:00.000+08:00

Tien Chi Hu (Sky Pool Lake), NE China

China Story: Yan Ji and All That

2005-05-01T17:37:00.000+08:00

This one is a couple of years old, but one of my favourites. See the photos of the lake, Tuan, Jie Hu, above.

I lurched into the office, ducking under the doorframe, and dumped my teaching gear onto my desk. My butt had barely hit the seat when Shelly, the pretty young Chinese office assistant called to me.
“Marcus, phone call!”
I gathered my self up and walked briskly over to the phone. Who could possibly be calling me at this time of the day? (11.30am).
It was Jean, the Chinese director of the Chinese office of the company I worked for. I worked at a Beijing university English foundation program, but my real employer was in fact a Beijing based education group.
“How would you like to go to Yan Ji this weekend?,” Jean said coolly.
I didn’t have the faintest idea where Yan Ji was.
“It’s right near the Korean border.” Jean spoke purposefully down the phone. You could really help me out you know. Tom, our usual guy is sick. He had to go back to England. So I’m stuck.”
Jean also worked for a certain Australian university as their representative for China. She regularly traveled to other cities in China to promote the university. Tom usually went along with her, but not on this occasion, as fate would have it.

So that’s how it all began. Now I’m a spontaneous kind of guy. I immediately said yes. After all, my stint in China, up till that day some six months, had been mostly uneventful, being primarily confined to the vomit colored interior of the office at the university. The job was a demanding one. Including my part-time PhD studies, it was not unusual for me to spend fifteen hours a day in the office. Typically I would get out of bed at around 7.30am. Sometimes my work would finish at 5.00pm, but just as often at 7.00pm. Then it was time to hit the books. Often it would be 11.00 pm before I would leave the office. The office lights would abruptly go off for about five seconds at around 10.55, to warn all those souls foolish enough to still be on campus that the doors would be locked in five minutes. Afterwards I would amble back along the mostly empty streets toward my apartment building. Usually I’d be in bed by 11.30 or twelve, then be up early the following day for the next round.

Company HQ was situated in a fairly modern high rise downtown, a stark contrast to the bomb shelter of an office I occupied at the university. Jean smiled warmly when she saw me. I accepted her offer to sit down.
“Here is what you need to know,” she said handing me a four-page flyer about the university.
I eyed it nervously. “This is it?” I asked incredulously.
“Oh, your job is easy she said with a wry smile. You just have to bullshit. That’s my job too. It’s all bullshit.” She had spent 16 years in Australia, so she knew the vernacular.
“That’s very reassuring,” I muttered. And there it was. All I needed to know about ……University in Australia. I was to be the spokesperson, the foreign representative of the university in China, imparting fountains of wisdom to the eager young Chinese minds anxious about their future prospects of gaining a place at an Australian university. The fact that I had never set foot in the university nor knew the first thing about it was, of course, irrelevant.

The plane landed in Yan Ji just after lunchtime that day, Friday. The journey had been pleasant enough, a mere two hours. I traveled with Jean, and Mindy. Mindy was a quietly spoken young Chinese woman who worked in Jean’s office. Don’t ask me what she was doing on the trip.
After disembarking and collecting our bags, we headed outside. There were two immediate and simultaneous impressions of Yan Ji. The first was the air - crisply fresh, especially when compared with the carbon monoxide soup I had been used to inhaling in Beijing. The second impression was the instant sense that this place was small. No high rise, at least not around the airport. Just a small car park and a few disheveled buildings.

Our hosts had picked us up, an entourage of three Chinese women all from a certain language school in Yan Ji. The school regularly sponsored students to study abroad. They were happy to receive us in Yan Ji. Only Trish, the principle of the school could speak good English. She greeted me with a somewhat forced smile and said a few friendly words, then proceeded to talk with Jean and Mindy. This was to set the tone for the rest of the trip. I, the lone male, stuck in the middle of a pack of mostly Chinese speaking females.
We were first taken to eat. The selection was small Korean restaurant in the middle of town. Being so close to Korea, much of the food, and indeed culture of Yan Ji is Korean. A large number of Koreans live there.
I tried to speak with the attractive but quiet young Chinese girl who was at the table with us. My Chinese is not good, but passable.
“Are you a student at the school” I queried?
She blushed, and the other woman laughed. I was surrounded by Chinese woman and there was no escaping.
“How old do you think she is?” Trish asked?
I mumbled something just a bit less than 20, hoping not to offend her or my guests. Inwardly I estimated about 20. They laughed again. Apparently I was only about a decade off. Just as hint - she wasn’t nine years old.
The food was served, a mostly Korean concoction of garlic mixed with more garlic, something like onion, lots of ground chilies, chili sauce and a bit of pig thrown in for the hell of it. There was beer too, which I supposed was probably to be used as an anesthetic.
“Try it” offered Trish with a smile.
I took a mouthful and smiled. “Really good” I lied. I drank more beer than usual that afternoon.
After some time Trish announced that there was a special trip for all the guests organised the next day to some place called Tien Chi Hu. Immediately my heart sank. Oh no, not a tourist trip, I thought! Just let me sleep in the hotel, please. Somehow, deep inside me I just knew it would be awful.
“It’s very famous” said Trish. “Everybody who comes to Yan Ji goes there. Tien Chi Hu means Sky Pool Lake.” I didn’t really listen to the rest of the pitch. I had been hoping for a nice quiet day the next day. We had one day spare on our itinerary. The university presentation was not until 12.00 midday, Sunday. I had planned to stay in the hotel room and study for my PhD, and also prepare for my speech. I had brought along a few study materials and had it all worked out.
“Come on Marcus, you’ve got to go,” said Jean. Reluctantly I agreed and took another mouthful of Kim Chi to quell the pain.

For the rest of the day we were shown around Yan Ji. The town consisted of small streets, small people, and absolutely tiny taxis. I couldn’t believe the size of the taxis. An anorexic pigmy dwarf would struggle to get in one.
“Anyone got a can opener,” I mumbled as I struggled to get my 195cm frame into the rear of the taxi. The humor was lost on my friends and hosts. We were driven to the school. After peeling myself out of the vehicle, we were ushered around the school. It was nice enough and our hosts were friendly.
After chit-chat and business small-talk we were whisked off to the hotel. Jean and Mindy were in the room next door to me. They said good night and said that they were going to bed. I explained that it was only 8.00pm.
“We have to get up at 4.00am tomorrow,” Jean said with a grin.
My face dropped. Apparently there was a four hour bus trip involved and we would be out of town till about 5pm in the afternoon. I closed the door politely.
I turned on the TV in my room, but found the menu consisted totally of Chinese and Korean language programs. So I lay back on the bed and relaxed. My eyes wandered around the room and fixed on a card on the table. Restaurant service, room service… hmm, massage service. I think I mentioned before about my being a spontaneous kind of guy.
I picked up the telephone and dialed the number.
“How much is it?…300 Yuan… So expensive!” I grumbled. At last I relented. I figured I was on a holiday, so what the hell.
There was knock on the door about three minutes later and a young lady entered the room. She wore casual clothes and had a distinctly Korean “look” about her. I don’t know how to describe the difference between the Chinese and the Koreans, but there is something. Maybe it’s just a vibe or something. Something else (perhaps a man’s sixth sense which has developed over thousands of years of evolution) told me that she was also a prostitute. Now I knew why it was 300 Yuan.
“Ni hao,” I said. She echoed the greeting back to me in Korean accent.
I was feeling rather embarrassed at that point. I didn’t want to do the horizontal deed with her, but didn’t want to offend her either.
“I don’t want to make love with you, but a massage is OK,” I said in Chinese. She looked at me as if I was from the outer moons of Neptune, then told me she couldn’t speak much Chinese.
Somehow, with a little body language I managed to explain the deal. She looked rather perplexed. So I kept my underpants on and laid down on the bed. She rubbed my back with one hand while she watched TV, totally disinterested. It was truly the worst massage I had ever received. After no more than ten minutes she said “OK” and looked at me.

“That’s it?” I asked rather disgusted. You want 300yuan for that?” I demanded more massage time. In Beijing you can get a professional massage for one hour for 80 yuan. So she massaged me for a few more minutes, then stopped. By that time I was rather annoyed. I gave her the 300yuan and hurried her towards the door. I was hoping to hell that Jean and Mindy weren’t in the hallway at the time she left.
“Give me 100 yuan tip,” she said as she was leaving.
“No bloody way!,” I said as I pushed he out the door. Luckily my work colleagues were nowhere to be seen.
There was already some light at 4.20am when the bus rolled up. We clambered on. Jean and Mindy sat together just I front of me. I crammed my legs into the too-small space that masqueraded as leg-room and tried to get to sleep. But it was just too uncomfortable. I closed my eyes for while and went into a semi-hypnotic state. When I opened my eyes I looked around and saw the sun was fully out. The Chinese man in the seat next to me was staring at me. Now the Chinese are the most annoying starers in the world. For some reason they think they have the right to just look at you – all parts of you – without even trying to disguise it. Somewhere a long time ago their mothers forgot to tell them that staring is rude.
As I do sometimes when I am being stared at, I stared straight back at him, right into his eyes. He didn’t flinch, but kept right on staring, like I was a gorilla in a zoo or something. I don’t know why some Chinese do this. I suspect because at some level they don’t quite think of foreigners as human. They forget that we feel uncomfortable and annoyed too if people stare at us too much. After about ten seconds he looked away. But he kept looking back regularly. I thought about beating my chest and making some “booga booga!” noises, but didn’t on account of the fact that I didn’t want attention from the other passengers as well.
The bus made its way along some winding roads, through forests and small villages until we arrived at into a more mountainous area.
There was no toilet on the bus, as is the norm in China. I find that incredible. How can you have a bus service, where there are trips of several hours between stops and have no toilet? What do the children do when they want to go? Strangely, not one of the Chinese people on that bus had to go in the first three hours before our first stop. But I was absolutely busting.

There was a small brick hut perched on the side of a small precipice. That was the toilet. The men’s’ consisted of a single room with two holes about a foot in diameter smashed out of the floor. There were no cubicles, so if you wanted to do a squat then everyone would have to good look at you taking squat, I guess. It occurred to me that if the locals found my sitting on a bus so fascinating, just think of the queue if I had to take a squat. I could charge admission for sure.
Luckily neither I nor anybody else was doing their business at the time I was there.
I looked down into the hole and saw that there was a drop of a few metres. The droppings all fell down onto the ground below the small building.
It was awful, but the show had to go on. The bus lurched onward until we entered a national park area. I was beginning to feel relieved. We crossed small streams and passed by scenic hills and cliff faces. This would be a nice change from Beijing, I thought, with its endless smog and traffic jams.
We rounded a bend and there before us was a straight stretch of road leading up to what looked like a waterfall, perhaps a kilometer ahead. But that was not the most prominent thing. For stretched out in front of us, like a prosthetic implant from the suburbs of Beijing was a line of buses, four-wheel drives and other vehicles that stretched on forever. There was no way through. We sat there, on the mountain, in the traffic jam, for about 20 minutes. Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, it began to rain - really heavily. Everybody started to grumble. An enterprising woman entered the bus bearing blue rain-coats. Jean, Mindy and I all purchased one. When the rain eased off a little, we put on the raincoats. Unfortunately anorexic dwarf pygmies must have been common in these parts, because the raincoat barely got below my waist. What’s more the buttons could not be unfastened, probably due to a manufacturer’s fault for that particular batch. None of us could unfasten them, so we just had to wrap them around us.
There was a winding path that crossed several quaint wooden and stone bridges. The three of us ascended a part of the way to the waterfall, but decided that it was too dangerous to go further. There were hundreds if not thousands of people using the slippery, steep paths and bridges, and if anybody slipped, you would be wearing them. So we just took a few photographs, and descended. The entire area around Tien Chi Hu is a volcanic area. So steam was rising from the streams and the mud in some places. That was rather intriguing. It warmed us up a little and made us forget about the rain.

The bus headed off to our next destination. When we arrived it was about 12.00noon. It was a small village, which was really no more than a tourist stop . A few souvenir shops were scattered along the strip. It was revealed that our wheel drives would stop and whisk us up the mountain to see the lake. Unfortunately the demand for four-wheel drives was greater than the supply. There were hundreds of people lined up waiting for the vehicles. After about an hour of waiting, we all became rather annoyed. Jean, a rather strong-minded woman not known to take nonsense from anyone, began to complain bitterly.
“This is ridiculous.” She wailed. “If they advertise this tourist spot, they should have enough facilities to cater for everyone. But we must wait for hours here!”
Both Mindy and I couldn’t agree more. But I had reached the blissful state of surrender. I had consciously decided not to fight the situation any more. This was China. Whatever services they had, however inadequate, we would just have to accept it.
Two hours passed, and still no four-wheel drive for us. Some of the Chinese people were becoming very angry. Heated words were being exchanged with tour guides and other official looking people, who mostly just looked anxious and helpless. The system was obviously totally inadequate to cater for the demand. Jean walked over to what amounted to an office building. She confronted an official, really letting him have a mouthful. She was no typical Chinese woman, and didn’t care about losing face. She threatened to take legal action against them.
Just to get away from the chaos I decided to walk across the small road to a drink stall not more than 30 metres away. I picked up a bottle of water. At that moment I thought I heard somebody call my voice and turned around. It was all rather surreal. My eyes fixed on Mindy, calling out to me. She stepped out onto the road.
“Quickly, our car is here!,” she yelled.
Unfortunately in her haste to inform me, she didn’t look to see if there was any traffic on the road. A four-wheel drive that was coming down the hill from behind her put on the brakes, but not soon enough. I saw it hit Mindy, and send her sprawling onto the road. The drink can she had been holding fell out of her hand and rolled down the road right in front of me. Everything was happening in slow motion. I picked up the drink can and ran over to her. She was conscious and sitting up, sobbing. Luckily, the four-wheel drive was not traveling fast at the time of impact. The man n the four wheel drive got out of his car. He was apologizing frenetically, babbling in Chinese so quickly I couldn’t understand him. Mindy was cursing him between sobs
After checking that she was OK, I ran to get Jean. We helped Mindy get up. She had a bruised hip, and a lot of pain in her arm, but she could move it. Jean was furious. We took Mindy into the office area and demanded a first aid kit. Nobody knew where it was. After some time, one did finally arrive. A Chinese woman and Jean attended to Mindy. All the time Jean was cussing and vowing revenge against the organisers of the trip.
“I’ll go to the national TV stations!” she blurted. I just nodded. There was no point trying to pacify her. I was well and truly outgunned. Fortunately, Mindy seemed to be OK. She appeared to be suffering from a bit of shock, and had a few grazes and bruises but nothing was broken or missing.

Ultimately Jean decided to take Mindy to a local hospital for a check-up. It was decided that I could proceed up to the lake, and meet them later on the bus back to Yan Ji. Thus I found myself clambering into the rear seat of a ridiculously new four wheel drive a short time later. It was already around 3.45pm so it was getting a little late. There was a Chinese middle-aged man in the passenger seat, and a young mother and her daughter sitting beside me. The daughter was cute girl of about nine or ten. Behind us sat another Chinese couple.
The driver was an early twenties Chinese cowboy (minus ten-gallon hat). He just about pushed the accelerator though the floor. We ascended the steep and winding road up the mountain. The lake is situated in the crater of a dead volcano. The roads were paved in thick solid brick blocks, which is probably why I am still alive to write this story today. The driver swung the vehicle around the hair-pin bends with such speed and force that we passengers were all glued to our seats from the G-force. I had never seen driving like it. The roads traversed treeless grassed slopes. There were no fences or walls to stop us from plummeting the hundreds of meters down the drops that bordered the road throughout most of the journey.
“Hey driver, slow down!” I screamed in Chinese. “I don’t want to die today!” The little girl giggled excitedly. How sweet is the naivety of the child I thought. Her mother giggled too, but there was no excuse for her. They only encouraged the driver! The manic driving was obviously due to the fact that the drivers were under extreme pressure to get everyone to the top due to the major shortage of vehicles. I also suspect that they were paid by the truckload (of passengers), thus encouraging the recklessly fast driving. Later I found out that a family and a driver had all died the previous week when their four-wheel drive plunged off the road and down one of the steep precipices. I was hardly surprised.
The trip was about fifteen minutes, which was all I could handle anyway. We were let out. I looked around and saw light green rolling hills as, and a steep short rise in front of us. After saying a prayer to the Creator for the miracle of my surviving the ride up, I left my Chinese companions and clambered up the rise. It was steep, but it took only a minute or two to climb.
Ascending to the top of the crest, I surveyed the scene before me. Suddenly the frustration and the pain of the long and tortuous day melted before me. There she was: Tien Chi Hu, nestled within the protective arms of the volcanic crater. The actual lake shoreline was perhaps 300 meters below us and another 300 meters before us. In between was a steep rocky decline. The water was deeply blue, and its placidity gave it the shimmer of a giant mirror. Around the lake there were steep long inclines leading up to the crater face. The inclines were covered in grasses (or perhaps mosses) of the deepest green. Above this the pale blue sky was offset with frail threads of white clouds. It was truly beautiful. Indeed, one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen.
Now I knew why all these people came here. How remarkable, I thought, that in this often crazy country of so much chaos and hustle, where nothing seemed simple or convenient, there was this magnificent jewel. I looked around at the handful of hardy Chinese souls who were there with me, and suddenly I saw a different China - more than just buses without toilets, taxis without change, or televisions without decent English programmes. I saw more than landlords over-charging westerners, DVD peddlers hassling me on street corners, and Chinese eyes staring at me on buses trains and in supermarkets. Instead I saw something timeless there in that single shining blue eye of Tien Chi Hu. I saw the vast timelessness of China and its people. I saw the futility of complaining about the small things that complicate life when there was something greater than all this. How small I had become, I thought. I thought of my friends sitting in ex-pat bars complaining about all those things that make China what it is, and maybe what it always will be. How many of us had taken the time to really know China and its people, it’s language, culture and History? How many of my friends would return home to Australia, Canada, America, New Zealand or wherever and be no different , no better, no bigger than what they were when they arrived here? How many would be the same - still small? To think, having visited the third biggest country I the world with a quarter of its population, and still be a Small Person.
I asked some Koreans to help take my photo before the lake. Maybe some of its magnificence and immortality would be imprinted into my soul from the photo. Then I looked round one last time. The amber shades of evening were beginning to descend upon the lake. I knew it was time to go. My vehicle would be leaving. And somehow I knew that I would never go back there. But maybe, just maybe I would take something with me.

The bus finally arrived back in Yan Ji at about 11.pm.
Mandy was OK – a little sore but other than that she would make it. She and Jean headed off to bed. I was tired. But as I think I said before I’m a spontaneous person…
I showered and put on some fresh clothes. Then I headed out to sample the wares of Yan Ji nightlife.
“Take me to a disco or bar.” I directed the taxi driver. He took me about 200 metres and I paid him the small fee.
“Got a can opener, Sir?” I laughed as I extracted by personage from the taxi. There were some steps leading up to a doorway. I walked up and into the bar. It looked more like a restaurant – a few tables scattered around some wooden uprights, with a wooden “fence” fashionably traversing the interior of the room. There were three Chinese guys there talking at a table, and a young couple sitting gin the corner. Other than that, the place was empty. I ordered a beer.
“Where’s all the fun around here?, I asked the waitress. Eventually she wrote something in Chinese on a piece of paper for me. I quickly finished the beer and left the place before sleep descended upon me. I gave the paper to the cab driver. He drove me about 100 metres down the road, and I paid him the fee.

The place looked pretty ordinary. I was told by the doorman that the disco was on the fourth floor (not a good omen in China as the number four (si) sounds like the word for death). In the elevator was an old guy sitting on a chair. His eyes flickered up at me for a moment, as I instructed him to take me to the fourth floor. Just as we approached the fourth floor, there was an enormous crashing sound, and the elevator suddenly dropped about thirty centimeters. Something very heavy had smashed into the door of the elevator. I moved toward the doors cautiously, but the old guy raised his hand, a hint of concern crossing his face. We quickly descended to the ground floor again. The old guy told me to wait five minutes, but I didn’t understand the rest of what he said.
I was a bit freaked out, but decided to hang around. I retuned to the lift five minutes later, and the old guy took me to the fourth floor. As we approached the fourth floor once more, there was a mighty racket that could be heard coming from outside. The elevator doors slid open and I was immediately greeted by a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood movie scene from a red-neck bar. There were dozens of policemen and just a few less Chinese young men engaged in a huge brawl. I thought about it for moment, then stepped out of the lift and negotiated my way between the fracas and over to the other side of the room. I looked back rather worried, but eventually the youths were hustled into the lift, and the room fell quiet, except for the rhythms of the techno beat echoing out of the tinny sound system.

It was only then that I had a chance to survey the crowd. There were three young foreigner guys sitting together at a table in front of me. They looked totally bored, as did everyone else there. In fact the bar was almost empty. There were perhaps a dozen young Chinese or Koreans there, all of whom looked to me to be under 18 years of age. There was no-body there over twenty as far as I could see. I figured that Yan Ji was probably like my home town, Taree, on the mid north coast of New South Wales, Australia. After finishing school, everybody goes to the bigger cities for work and excitement.
I ordered a draught beer from the bar. The young bar tender filled the glass about three-quarters full, and pushed it at me across the bar. I gave him the money but when I surveyed the glass and its contents, I asked him to fill it up. The bar ender sneered at me with a look of such utter hatred and contempt that it was almost comical. I repeated the request, but he just folded his arms and looked away. I gave up and took the beer away – as far away as possible.
The three foreigners got up and headed for the door. One of them had a flower and handed it to one of the pretty young girls there. She smiled, but he didn’t stay to get her phone number. Not long after I also headed for the lift. I had had enough for one day. I headed home to bed.
It was about 3.00am so I figured that if I got up at ten, I would still have an hour’s preparation before the university presentation at twelve.

Unfortunately at 8am I got phone call from Jean.
“The presentation has been brought forward to 9.00pm,” she informed. I groaned. I had had about four hours sleep, and was totally unprepared for the presentation. There was a last minute scramble, but somehow I managed to pull it of without anybody noticing the true level of my incompetence. Perhaps that was because most of the audience could not understand English and it was all being translated into Chinese by Jean anyway.
Our plane was due out at 8.pm, but was delayed by about five hours. By the time I got back to my apartment in Beijing it was almost 4am Monday morning. The first class was at 8.00am. I managed to get up at seven and get there on time. I had had a total of about 11 hours sleep in three nights. Some of my students turned up late for class. One of the students who was absent from the morning class come to the afternoon class.

“I'm sorry, but I didn’t sleep well last night so I couldn't get up,” he said.

I was not impressed.

China Photo: My Wife again

2005-04-30T00:55:00.000+08:00

Someone special!

China Photo: Sean and Tower

2005-04-30T00:53:00.000+08:00

The real inspiration for Psycho. My Young Brother Sean Before an old tower near Xiagang

China Photo: Towers near Xiagang

2005-04-30T00:50:00.000+08:00

Nice view from a tower near Xiagang, Guandong

China Photo: The Great Wall

2005-04-30T00:41:00.000+08:00

Plotting the siege at the great wall