Healing the Split in our World
View:
The lesson of Native
American Wisdom
David Gustaf Thompson
California Institute of Integral Studies
San
Francisco, CA
11/18/2002
Abstract
In this article I examine
the underlying assumptions of contemporary western society. I reveal how the peculiarities of the
dominant world view have brought about our culture’s depreciation of both the
natural world as well as the inner world of the human psyche. This imbalance of the western mind-set has
ultimately led our society on the path towards the devastation of our planet as
well as an epidemic of a feeling of alienation and cultural malaise. In the face of this exigency, I offer the
example of the traditional world view of the Native American people. In sharp contrast to our contemporary
conceptualization, the traditional Native American individual identifies her
inner being with outer natural reality.
In so doing, she integrates her inner psyche with outer reality allowing
a marriage of spirit and nature that brings meaning and inviolability to
both. The development of an
appreciation for this wholly different orientation to life may aid the vital
work of healing the split in our contemporary world view.
Introduction
In recent years many of the traditions of Native American
cultures have received a surprising amount of attention from an increasing
number of non-Native Americans.
Numerous modern westerners have become interested in such practices as
sweat lodges, native healing practices and other native ceremonies and
traditions. The strange irony that
exists in this phenomenon is immediately striking. After perpetrating genocide as well as subjecting the Native American
people to oppression and discrimination for hundreds of years, American dominant
culture (primarily white Americans of European descent) suddenly wants to
explore and participate in the very cultural traditions that they violated.
Although this indeed sounds ironic—even presumptuous and
insulting—if we take a closer look at what is happening on a cultural level we
can uncover the fascinating reason for this strange phenomenon. The world view within which the western
colonial tradition operates includes in its foundations an inherent imbalance
that will eventually need to be rectified.
That time has come. Fittingly,
what the westerner needs is exactly what the victims of his imbalanced life
style possess. He must now turn to
these people and their culture in an attempt to own up to his long list of
horrendous crimes and make an attempt at apology and atonement. This requisite first step must precede any
hope that he may learn from the wisdom of those cultures that he once sought to
annihilate—a wisdom that has the potential to save him from his own
annihilation.
This paper represents an attempt to expose the core
imbalance of the western world view which is now upsetting the social,
ecological, and psychological world of western modernity. But perhaps a goal of even greater importance
is to explore the possibility of a solution to this imbalance. Like “the hair of the dog that bit you,” or
in this case “the blood of the lamb you slew,” the answer can be sought in the
worlds that western culture has most neglected, abused, and overlooked. By means of working towards a greater
understanding of the wisdom that lies within the Native American world view the
modern westerner may find the potion that can heal his soul and perhaps even
mend the terrible damage that he has inflicted on the natural world.
The
Native American world view carries with it a way of relating to and being in
the world that is wholly foreign to the modern westerner. Because such an enormous amount of
traditional academic discourse is founded upon western epistemological and
philosophical grounds, western academia often takes its assumptions for granted
and has never truly criticized its own world view. To gain an appreciation for how sharp the contrast between the
modern western world view and the Native American’s truly is, it is helpful to
begin by examining some of the core assumptions upon which modern western
culture has constructed itself.
The Imbalance
of the Modern West
One assumption at the core of the modern western world view
is what Aikenhead (2000), in his cultural critique, calls naïve realism. Whitehead (1967) also identifies this same
philosophical assumption—alternatively referring to it as scientific
materialism. The assumption to
which they refer is the belief that reality can ultimately be ascertained by
objective observation and employment of the scientific method. The deep belief that there is a single
objective reality to the world which operates according to the laws of science
is at the heart of the modern western world view (May, et. al., 1958; Tarnas,
1991; Wilber, 1995). Inherent in this
notion is the belief that the universe is composed of matter and that this
matter operates according to the laws of physics and chemistry. The natural world, from this perspective, is
not suffused with spirit, soul or meaning.
Instead, it operates like an exceedingly complex machine and can be
understood by means of empirical observation, or the scientific method. This is the philosophy of modern scientific
materialism that is a cornerstone of modern consciousness.
As a corollary to this philosophical assumption is the
notion that the phenomenal world is composed of two fundamentally distinct
parts. Descartes was the first to
articulate this. His concept of the differentiation
of res extensa, the objective world, from res cogitans, the subjective,
divided the world into two fundamentally different realities (Keller, 1985;
May, et. al., 1958; Tarnas, 1991). In
the modern conception, the objective world (everything outside the human
psyche) is governed by scientific laws and is verifiable by empirical science,
while the subjective world is definitively isolated from the outside
world. The subjective world, the world
of the human psyche, is sole proprietor of meaning and purpose—spirit and
soul—and is not governed by the physical laws.
(Figure 1 is an illustration of this aspect of the western world view.[1])
Figure
#1
This
is perhaps the philosophical hallmark that distinguishes the modern western
world view from all other cultures’ conceptions of the universe. Modern western culture is the only known
major cultural tradition that has philosophically split the world into two
halves—subject and object—wherein only one half, the subjective realm, has any
meaning (Bellah, 1970). By means of
this philosophical bifurcation, western cosmology strips the outside world of
all inherent meaning (Smith, 1991; Tarnas, 1991). The natural world is therefore soulless—governed by the
impersonal laws of science—without a meaning of its own.
Here
lies the reason that the modern westerner has come to view the natural world
with the egregious irreverence he shows.
Nature from this perspective has no life of its own; it has no spirit or
soul. The westerner is thus morally
free to utilize nature as he wishes for his own personal gain. Humans need natural resources to survive,
and in a sense we are dependent on them, but ultimately the natural world is
ours to exploit for our own benefit.
Francis Bacon, one of the key founding fathers of the modern mind-set,
promulgated this attitude toward nature throughout his life’s work. He writes, “I am come in very truth leading
you to Nature with all her children to bind her to your service and make her
your slave” (Quoted in Keller, 1985).
It
is this attitude that has guided western culture over the past few centuries
and led the world to its present ecological crisis. The deep assumption that the natural world is governed by the
laws of science and is thus soulless has legitimized our barbaric mistreatment
of the Earth.[2] This same aspect of the modern world view is
also a prime contributor to our current psychological crisis (May, et. al.,
1958; Tarnas, 1991). The bifurcation of
the world into subject and object has left the modern individual living in a
world devoid of greater meaning. The
modern is left living a life of lonely individualism and complete disconnection
from her environment. An epidemic of
anxiety, depression, and vague feelings of emptiness and discontent plague
modern life. Alienated from the outside
world, the modern individual is caught in a world where he is ultimately
alone—trapped in his narcissistic ego.
In stripping the world of meaning we fell head over foot into an empty
world drowning in a deep feeling of cultural anomie (May, et. al., 1958;
Tarnas, 1991; Wilber, 1995).
We
can now begin to see why the modern American has begun to look to other
traditions for some hope in the quandary in which he has found himself. And although looking to the Native Americans
for help after he has brutally murdered millions of them seems more than a bit
presumptuous, at least he is looking in the right direction.[3] Indeed, the wisdom of the Native American
world view has much to offer the ailing western culture. Let me now turn my examination to the
traditional Native American world view.[4]
The Native
American World View
Unlike
the moderns, the traditional Native American people do not rigidly separate the
world into res extensa and res cogitans. The objective world does not stand in sharp,
incongruous distinction to the subjective realm. Rather, their cosmology is unified. They experience themselves as being at one with the rest of the
world. They are ultimately of the same
substance as the natural world—at one with their surroundings (Allen, 1998;
Duran & Duran, 1995; Hughes, 1983; Smith, 1991). Intiwa, a Hopi, said, “The whole universe is enhanced with the
same breath, rocks, trees, grass, earth, all animals, and men” (Quoted in
Hughes, 1983).
Interrelatedness
is the key word in describing this way of being in the world. The Native American appreciates her
dependence on the natural world in a way that the westerner misses. This is due not simply to greater prescience
on the part of Native Americans.
Rather, the Native Americans in addition to having a deeper respect for
their dependence on the natural world have a reverence for the mysterious
quality of their relationship to it.
Brown (1964) captures this aspect of Native American consciousness as he
describes their world view, “There is…an affirmation of the mysterious
interrelatedness of all that is.”
Unlike modernity, the traditional Native Americans view the world as
rooted in a greater reality. All things
play a role reflecting this greater spiritual unity—humans, animals, water,
plants, rocks, the sky, and the earth.
The human is a part of this sacred unity and she is one being in
relationship to a greater whole (Beck, et. al., 1977; Bellah, 1970; Hughes,
1983; Smith, 1991). In this way the
Native American world view has a fundamentally spiritual quality to it. All of the experiences that the traditional
Native people have in their life (all of which are in close relationship to
nature) have spiritual significance (Beck, et. al., 1977). They conduct their lives according to the
ethics of this deeply spiritual world view.
“They… explain their attitudes toward nature in religious terms, and
their religion [is] a religion of nature” (Hughes, 1983).
This is where the Native American’s relationship to the natural world
is so profoundly different. It is not
only different in the sense that they refrain from abusing nature, but their
fundamental philosophy about their relationship to it is different. Where
“modernity recognizes no ontological connection between material things and
their metaphysical, spiritual roots,” the traditional Native American world
view, “sees things of the world as transparent to their divine source” (Smith,
1991). The Native American sees all
things as reflections of the sacred whole of existence. Nothing to her is merely an object or resource
that can be freely exploited, abused or wasted. Each and everything element of her environment is part of the
whole sacred fabric of the divine natural world. (Figure 2 illustrates this entirely different conceptualization
of the native individual’s relationship to her environment.)
Figure #2
Relating to Our
Environment: The Modern vs. the Native
Where
the modern man sees his exploitation of nature as benefiting himself (perhaps
he also sees that it harms nature if he cares to stop and consider the effects
of his actions), the Native American woman sees the exploitation of nature as
the exploitation of a part of herself—an exploitation of the source of her
being[5]. The Native American does not abuse the
natural world because from her perspective she sees that in doing so she would
be abusing herself. Where the modern
individual fundamentally distinguishes himself from his environment, the native
fundamentally identifies herself with her environment (Callicot, 1982; Duran
& Duran, 1995). In this deep
philosophical difference between the western world view and the Native
American’s, we can see the fundamental reason for the two culture’s strikingly
different relationships with their environment.
It
is often difficult for those who look on the tradition of the Red Man from the
outside or through the “educated” mind to understand that no object is what it
appears to be, but it is simply the pale shadow of a Reality. It is for this reason that every created
object is wakan, holy, and has a power according to the loftiness of the
spiritual reality that it reflects. The
Indian humbles himself before the whole of creation because all visible things
were created before him and, being older than he deserve respect. –Quote from a friend of Black Elk’s (Quoted
in Smith, 1991)
As
a direct result of modernity’s inability to see the interrelationship of human
and nature, western culture has lost appreciation for the sacredness of the
outside world. The world has become
depersonalized, soulless …dead. With this image of a world stripped of
meaning, modernity has freed itself to ravenously exploit nature. In doing so, we have polluted our earth,
water, and air to such a degree that the health of both our planet and our
inner selves[6] is in
serious jeopardy.
In
addition to the present ecological crisis, the psychological health of our
society is in a frightful predicament as well.
Many of the most brilliant thinkers of modern time have traced this
epidemic of psychopathology to the imbalance in the modern world view. Rollo May sums this position up succinctly
writing, “…the Western absorption in conquering and gaining power over nature
has resulted not only in the estrangement of man from nature but also indirectly
in the estrangement of man from himself” (May, et. al., 1958). Exactly as the Native American knew all
along, modernity’s abuse of nature over the past few hundred years has led to a
malady on a societal level including both physical and psychological health
(Pilisuk, 2001). The split world view
of modernity and the unbalanced relationship between subject and object, self
and other, psyche and matter is the root cause of this epidemic.
Solution:
Regaining Balance in World View
The
psychotherapeutic work of contemporary Native American mental health workers
Duran &Duran (1995) is built on recognition of the necessity of a balanced
world view that respects the interdependence of the inner and the outer
worlds. Their approach to psychotherapy
reflects this understanding. “The
client usually comes for treatment because s/he is out of balance” (Duran &
Duran, 1995). For D&D the idea of
balance represents an individual having a relationship with her environment
that honors the sacred nature of one’s environment and recognizes her
interdependence with the natural world.
In order for the modern westerner to do this (as well as the modern
Native American whose traditional world view has been disrupted by the invasion
of western culture) one must rework one’s world view integrating the insight of
the interdependence of subject and object.
“The process of psychotherapy is an arena in which the integration of
worldviews is very important because psychotherapy attempts to restore balance
in human beings. The restoration of
balance demands that a relationship between psyche and matter (subject and
object) be one of harmony” (Duran & Duran, 1995). This idea holds true on a societal level and an ecological level
in addition to the psychological level about which D&D write.
Psychologists,
philosophers, sociologists, scientists, writers, teachers and religious leaders
all over the world have identified the imbalances in the modern world view and
are calling for a dramatic reformation (Bellah, 1970; Campbell, 1988; Edinger,
1922; Hillman, 1975; Jung, 1953; Lasch, 1979; May, et. al., 1958; Slater, 1970;
Smith, 1991; Tarnas, 1991; Whitehead, 1967; Wilber, 1995). If this reformation is to occur, it will
have to begin with an integration of the wisdom of the interrelation of all
things. Because the traditional Native
American world view holds this wisdom with such care, grace, and beauty, a
reformation can begin with an attempt to understand this more harmonious way of
being in the world. As the United
States Commissioner of Indian Affairs once said:
“They had what the
world has lost: the ancient, lost reverence and passion for human personality
joined with the ancient, lost reverence and passion for the earth and its web
of life. Since before the Stone Age they
have tended that passion as a central, sacred fire. It should be our long hope to renew it in us all” (Quoted in
Smith, 1991).
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