Spiritual Atheism

* Book: Spiritual Atheist: A Quest To Unite Science and Wisdom Into A Radical New Life Philosophy To Thrive In the Digital Age. By Nick Seneca Jankel.

URL = [1]

Contextual Citation

Nick Seneca Jankel:

"As soon as we feel threatened by another’s identity and any defensive/aggressive activities that go with it, we lock into C&P Mode even if we are looking genteel and calm. Immediately our empathy disappears (this is a survival benefit as we don’t want to befriend the saber-tooth tiger). We take up a position, which always leads to the power struggle of conflict. We no longer see others — especially those that we feel are oppressing us with their white privilege / misogynistic patriarchy / racial stereotypes / affirmative action / justice warrior-ship / rights (*delete as appropriate) — we just see objects that are threatening our sense of safety and structure. We can no longer experience their fragile humanity with compassion and caring. We just want to defend ourselves. We then justify our anger or anxiety with stories that make us feel right; and that justify our behaviors and beliefs making them seem eternal truths. We cast the “others” as crazy, stupid, and dangerous." (https://hackernoon.com/hacking-identity-politics-877205e1f310)

Discussion

Nick Seneca Jankel:

"I recently published a book Spiritual Atheist: A Quest To Unite Science and Wisdom Into A Radical New Life Philosophy To Thrive In the Digital Age, in which I set out the philosophical foundations for a new social and cultural narrative — and theory of transformation — that includes yet transcends pre-modern, modern, and postmodern ideologies (so is, apparently, “metamodern”). Within it is a rigorous “dual-aspect” metaphysics that sees the scientific and wisdom traditions as two different, yet complementary, ways of knowing one “non-dual” or unified reality. Both are understood as having full ontological existence even if the secondary qualities of consciousness cannot be “proven” to exist by a science — i.e. Western science — that purposefully evolved to study only the primary properties of matter.

In this phronetic — and so very practical — philosophy, science is the most rigorous way we have found to date to give us reliable and replicable data about what works to change the material world of atoms, neurons, and financial systems. Wisdom, whether through burning ecstasy, incandescent intimacy, or quiescent meditation, is the most rigorous way we have found of building up a reliable and replicable knowledge-base of our consciousness so that we can consistently change our biologies to experience compassion, creativity, and collaboration.

For a spiritual atheist, neither consciousness nor matter is more important or more “true”. This is unlike either idealistic gurus, who pronounce matter (including abused children and scarred forests) to be an illusion; or mechanistic madmen who state that even their own consciousness — the one that is making said utterances — is a delusion. For a spiritual atheist, mastery of both aspects of one world are vital if we want to transform ourselves so we can step up as the transformational leaders we need to be to solve the species-threatening problems we now face. We must master both domains of our being — how we think and feel in our consciousness and how we act on the world in matter — to upgrade our Neolithic neurons to a state where they can deal with our Anthropocene (our current geographical epoch, the first to be influenced by humankind) agonies in our VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world.

Spiritual atheism is underpinned by the majesty of modern science without limiting our wisdom to what can proven with a methodology explicitly designed to study just the measurable “primary properties” of matter. But by recognizing the refined wisdom that emerges after years of “inner work”- consistent meditation and the processing of our trauma and “shadow” within — as equally valid to scientific knowledge we do not fall back into superstition, we do not cede control to a priestly tribe, text, or temple, nor do we fall into the trap of much “New Age” spirituality: remaining an aesthetic choice — tattoos and yoga pants — rather than a profound psychological and political one.

Built on the dual-aspect — both matter and consciousness, both science and wisdom — metaphysics of spiritual atheism is a methodology and process of human and systemic transformation that we, within my enterprise, have called the Switch On Way."

Control and Protect Mode vs Create and Connect Mode

At the heart of it is a dual-mode understanding of human consciousness that is underpinned by recent neurobiology whilst being fundamentally informed by timeless insights from the great wisdom traditions. I believe these two modes, working in an antagonistic pair as our biceps and triceps do, are the everyday manifestations of our dual-aspect metaphysical nature.

Control and Protect Mode is a state of consciousness in which we are focused, often without being fully aware of it, on defending ourselves against threats and dealing with uncertainty to maximize our chances of survival with control and predication. In this state we are classically smart, relying on efficient, but not always effective, memes, habits, and ideologies that have worked in the past to protect us and to help us survive trauma and threats. When threatened to the extreme, these include variations of the fight, flight, or freeze response. In quotidian life, we are measured, logical, and attempting to remain in control.

Through recent brain studies scientists have identified a powerful brain network called the Cognitive Control Network or Executive Control Network, which dominates us when we are solving familiar problems with existing rules (and so relying on our patterns to control the world). I sense that this correlates with Control and Protect Mode (thus reuniting the latest science with timeless wisdom in a very practical way). In Control and Protect Mode (C&P Mode) we see the world as separate lumps of material to be measured, explained, and mastered with science and reason. The tendency is to conserve what works, using an existing rule-book (religious or scientific) as best-practice to get predictable results with known and knowable problems.

Create and Connect Mode, on the other hand, is a state of consciousness in which we are focused on growing, learning, loving, leading, and thriving by connecting with ourselves, each other, and the universe. In this state we can access imaginative thoughts, ideas, insights, and intuitions to create effective, if not always efficient, solutions to new and emerging challenges (the kind we must all face today). There is another important brain network, the Default Mode Network (often called the “daydreaming” network), which allows us to create new solutions to problems as they emerge in a changing world (without which our species would not have been so successful). This seems to correlate with Create and Connect Mode.

In Create and Connect Mode (C&C Mode) we see the world as alive, connected and creative: ripe to be explored curious creativity and within intimate and trusting relationships. We experience what William James called “cosmic consciousness” and what I call connective consciousness. The tendency in this Mode is to progress to a better place, feeling our way into next-practice rather than be locked in repeating old habits and assumptions. We follow principles of heart and mind and we are willing to disrupt old rules with courage." (https://hackernoon.com/hacking-identity-politics-877205e1f310)