Healing Fragmentation

What’s brought us and our planet to such crisis today is a habit of thinking that only concentrates on parts of a situation, fixing symptoms and flare-ups, and not the whole inter-related organism of being. Seeing the web extending from us in all directions, what we depend on and what depends on us, we’d be less inclined to damage what would be experienced as part of us. Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor described one of the effects of the stroke in her left hemisphere as losing the sense of a clear boundary between herself and everything around her. Without the naming and separating function, things lose their individual identity and become part of an inclusive continuity. The dependence on verbal knowledge has led to the habit of separating things. Nobel winning scientist David Bohm, reflecting on the revelations of quantum physics, thought that the dominance of words did violence to experience by unnaturally dividing things, which led to more sense of separation from others and in the self. People often treat words as real things that should be defended, creating a misplaced antagonism toward fellow humans because of what they call them. Every category and label becomes a barrier toward the place where we understand each other. Not seeing the whole picture leaves us blinkered to the implications for other areas, the interrelationships that are part of every experience. This ignorance creates damage, hardship, and reactivity. Treating just the symptoms can create other symptoms. Breakthroughs in medicine are usually about better pictures for seeing what is wrong. Examining our psychology, art offers pictures about the feelings of being human. It’s available to everyone as a way of looking inward and prompting related insights. Separate objects in a picture are joined as part of a particular vision that is there in its entirety. Einstein said he saw his ideas in his mind. Understanding relationships requires imagery. Looking at art is a way to heal the division that has grown from generations of dependency on words and the division that comes with them. So much could be accomplished if people were working together. So much energy is lost in jockeying for power, competing with others to have more. The competitive mindset may have been useful up to a point, but as civilians coming back from outer space have come to realize, we only have this one small planet that we share. Our different perspectives offer more choices and possibilities for solving the serious problems that we face together. Pushing capacities is what gives an individual the best brain chemistry. Endorphins for learning, dopamine for new territory and the joy of involvement in a task. Putting the many ideas of the group mind in service to the world body is a collective effort that could revolutionize the way we live together. Art is a link to our common humanity. The feeling of understanding when a work opens something inside pushes through the isolation. It’s a first step to feeling like part of humanity, caretakers of our common world.