pan·psy·chism
the doctrine or belief that everything material, however small, has an element of individual consciousness
As a young adult in the late 60s, the idea that plants seemed to have scientific evidence of consciousness hit my own innate beliefs like a thunder bolt.
Cleve Backster was actually an interrogation specialist with the CIA . His research there led him to believe that plants can communicate with other lifeforms.
Backster's interest in the subject began in February 1966 when he tried to measure the rate at which water rises from a philodendron's root into its leaves.
Because a polygraph or 'lie detector' can measure electrical resistance, which would alter when the plant was watered, he attached a polygraph to one of the plant's leaves. Backster discovered "the tracing began to show a pattern typical of the response you get when you subject a human to short amounts of emotional simulation.
Today, the very topic of the very topic of Consciousness is continues to be hotly debated. But this idea pansychism, came back into my awareness today as I was looking at this topic and realizing we hadn't actually even debated consciousness, itself under the Prophecy and Consciousness heading.
Many of us assume we know what it is, but we may have different understandings and experiences ranging from this table has consciousness to this table is an illusion to the wood, metal, glass, in this table had consciousness in original form.
I'm curious about your your experiences and beliefs systems. What about your pets, plants, stones and crystals? What about Ouija boards, tarot cards runestones and other divining methods like well witching wands.
Back in the 1979 our well-digger routinely used his wand and found our well at first drilling with a great gal/per minute. Could we use any object not just recognized divining tools?
I thought about my concept of who and what is alive and I guess I talk to just about everything, but do I recognize everything as having sentient consciousness? Innately perhaps, but truly with loving kindness? I just kicked my chicken coop door to get its warp unstuck!
Michele, thanks for this topic. When I was a child I didn't buy the theory that things without a brain were inanimate. I was convinced that everything could hear and understand me. I would spend time just staring at my stuffed animals trying to make a connection. Nothing ever happened but that didn't deter me from my belief that they were aware.
I never abandoned that theory and as an adult have come to the belief that everything has energy even when in apparent solid form. It's our perception that a table is solid that keeps it solid but in reality it's a bundle of energy holding a certain form in our mind's eye. I feel something from everything around me and I often vocalize my appreciation to something considered to be inanimate. I didn't realize until writing this that my relationship with objects around me has become connected in a way that "humanizes" them. It just seems normal that I connect with objects not as objects but as energetic forms.
I didn't know there was a theory behind this so, thanks for the information. That's one thing that I love about this group, so many ideas are shared which open doors to more exploration.
Peace.
Wonderful topic. I've not heard the word before, but have heard of this belief, and there are ancient belief systems and cultures that believe that everything animate or inanimate has a soul or energy of some form, although the level of 'consiousness' may be different if defining in terms of human consiousness. It's something I believe myself. Thanks Michele for the link to that article - it explains it much better than I could ever attempt to:) Very interesting that this idea is beginning to be taken seriously - something which some cultures have understood to be true for centuries, but which much of the modern world has forgotten and become removed from.
What KCKing said about his/her stuffed animals reminded me that I used to have a similar thought about my toys when I was young. I hadn't thought about that in a long time!
Blue, I so agree. it is nice to put a name to long held but nebulous feelings and understandings.
I seriously believed my dolls were alive and felt the energy of deceased beings in an old, unmarked, Alaskan Indian graveyard. To me, their spirits were in the earth, grass and trees....transformation or transmutation ....now corrected to transmigration. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust transforming into a morphogenic reincarnation of sorts?
When i spoke of these feelings it frightened others..even highly attuned people later as an adult.. And to be honest the dolls who I loved during the day..terrified me at night. A whole nother belief system than lovely sentient beings and joyful toy friends! The shadow shelves came out early perhaps!
The formal terms for souls going from one body to another is transmigration, or metempsychosis (change of body). Some religious systems believe soul can inhabit inanimate objects. You can see echoes of this in the Japanese pursuit of animate robots--they have always ascribed soul existing in dolls, mannekins.
If you take it all the way down to the basics in physics, some physicists describe the behaviors of quantum particles as demonstrating conscious awareness. An even newer theory says that consciousness is the fourth state of matter: solid, liquid, gas, mind.
So, yeah, treating your material objects with respect is a thing.
-R1-
Thank you R1. Hand to forehead. Should have taken the time to double check the correct term. Typing on a cell phone presents too many multiple pages, quotes, links, and human processing challenges ?
Michele - no prob, it's all good! Whatever starts a juicy conversation....
-R1-
I love that idea of your ambivalent relationship to your dolls. I've been very interested in the move of Object Oriented Ontology on this (OOO) and find Levy Bryant's book, Alien Phenomenology. There are many others, but they are primarily arguing for an ontological flatness among humans and non-humans instead of a hierarchy. Maybe the best way into their argument in through Jane Bennett's Vibrant Matters. I've been interested in this because of my work on statues whose occupants appear in dreams asking to be found or liberated. I remember reading about someone who kept dreaming about Mary whose icon was buried and she wanted it found. So, yes, who knows what is going 'bump' in the night. :)
Love this forum, I've been sneaking peeks for a while now.
Wow Karidad! Talk about new concepts, constructs, and understandings! You've certainly given me a lot of new things to read about, think about, and possibly gain some uniquely new understandings! Thanks so very much for commenting!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_ontology
Continued in my next comment box, i tried my best but could not get it to paste as an additional paragraph in this one.
The other was my decades ago reading of the original "Course in Miracles"...not the Marianne Williamson version of "A Return to Love. Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles" but the original channeled Helen Shucman text, but mainly the later workbook and manual for teachers of the course. It used a kind on mental conditioning and repetition process of looking at each object in a room and learning to basically not see it as real but a mental projection of your belief that they are real..very challenging process but fascinating.
As I am trying to understand Karidad's comment on Object Oriented Otology...
This quote by Graham Harmon was helpful.
Graham Harmon:
"If the human perception of a house or a tree is forever haunted by some hidden surplus in the things that never becomes present, the same is true of the sheer causal interaction between rocks or raindrops. Even inanimate things only unlock each other's realities to a minimal extent, reducing one another to caricatures...even if rocks are not sentient creatures, they never encounter one another in their deepest being, but only as present-at-hand; "
I love this discussion. I feel that everything is alive. Everything.
You’ve given me some new ways to explore it.
For years I’ve Had sessions with students in which we bring heirloom objects and pass them around without letting anyone know who owns what or any of the history.
We see with great detail moments from the lives of those who owned the objects. Some objects go back to when they were trees in a forest or metals in the ground.
We see bits of consciousness in everything. It is a miracle. I know that I’ve seen scenes from the lives of people who have long since passed just because they once were in contact with those objects.
I love that you believed your toys were alive. It delights me and I feel it is true. When they tore down my old Highschool it was really hard for me. I felt that the kids need the voices in those walls to keep them grounded in the wisdom that earlier generations can pass along to them.
What a fascinating thread. As an artist, I vest so much energy and spirit into my paintings and have grown to feel that this creative process imbues each work with my own vision and intuition. In fact, the creative process becomes an extension of my intuitive mind as I mix colors, reach for brushes and give way to the brush stroking oil on canvas. There's something transcendent about the process of making art. Virtually every artist I know has experienced being in that very different state of mind. The creation process is invigorating and absorbing. The level of concentration is so complete that you can lose track of time. Surely some part of the artist's spirit ends up inside the work.
Several years ago, my husband and I visited the Monastere St. Paul de Mausole in St. Remy, France which was an insane asylum in the late 19th century. The most famous patient there was Vincent Van Gogh and today you can walk the beautiful grounds and see the room where Van Gogh lived for a little over a year. During that brief time, he painted over 140 paintings. So while we walked through St. Paul de Mausole, I found myself absorbed by thoughts of Van Gogh's process. I don't think of his paintings as an expression of his mental illness, but rather as an expression of the part of him that was whole. While he didn't sell paintings during his lifetime, his spirit lives on in these works of art that are treasures now, held in every part of the world.
Isn't it extraordinary? But then, why shouldn't the everyday objects of our lives, the walls of our homes and workplaces become imbued with our life experiences, too?
In fact, the creative process becomes an extension of my intuitive mind as I mix colors, reach for brushes and give way to the brush stroking oil on canvas. There's something transcendent about the process of making art. -- Bluebelle
Love this, Lorie. Making art can involve the same process as using intuition - a creative process that happens in the body.
I love this! And as both a creative arts blogger and as a quilter, both styles of quilting I now do (freeform liberated and art quilting which basically means I use techniques not use patterns) are actually known as "intuitive quilting."
We are drawn to our hobbies and passions for a reason.
Why panpsychism is the Jedi Philosophy:
One of the most iconic elements of the Star Wars universe is the Force. That mysterious energy field that permeates the galaxy, which all lifeforms interact with but only a rare few can harness. It gives the science fiction series a mystical punch and serves to make our heroes a little more compelling. Not merely action heroes, they have a deeper connection to the cosmos they protect.
http://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/why-panpsychism-is-the-jedi-philosophy
"Panpsychism is the view that mentality is fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world. The view has a long and venerable history in philosophical traditions of both East and West, and has recently enjoyed a revival in analytic philosophy."
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/
When you see or hear the concept of animism or agency in the discussion of consciousness or nature, or art, or spirituality, or in relation to the natural world and consciousness, it is this same analytical expansion of consciousness and thought which gives the power of agency to all parts of our natural world and by extension all connections;if there is agency in a tree, extend it into wood, if there is agency in wood, extend it to the table, the chair, the fence post, the whittled wooden doll and do on.
Connected to animism:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism
This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related. Plato
Growing herbs is and has always been my transcendent passion. The physical yearning to mostly live for being outside, getting my hands in the dirt, and becoming part of nurturing and tending the growth of plants has always been a part of me. Early on I related it to my Mennonite heritage but later suspected it also came from my other parent’s ancient Irish and English roots, too. The simple kinetic need is entirely spiritual, too. It’s where I find absolute abandon, release, and peace.
I see and feel the energies of the herbs. There have been periods of time and places when and where some herbs grow and not others, and I believe it is because of the energies of the plants that I needed to connect with in that time and place. The herbs in my gardens are spiritual creatures; they energize me. When I drive sometimes I pull in the green living life through my palm chakras; it energizes me. Sometimes, I just soak up this energy and give it to others as called. I was blessed this morning to be able to send it to Vida for healing and strength.
Stones and crystals are similar, although I know others who are better at working with their energy, there have been times that just placing a large geode on my stomach has been so healing. Sometimes I sleep with rocks. I completely agree with all that Michelle has written and entirely relate to the Plato quote. I have never felt called to witchcraft, but I feel a very strong identification with the work of herbalists and midwives and feel my spiritual home is somehow elfin. You should see my ears! They’re like radio telescopes decked out on a flying elephant. I always sense there’s some finer listening element behind them, if that makes sense. I feel the earth as the Mother; the Feminine Divine, as expressed by Quan Yin and Mary, although I have a strong connection with a divine Father, too. I relate to the concept of Christ consciousness in its symbolic and energetic forms. To me, they are different forms of loving, healing, growing connection.
There have been times when I’ve worked with the energy and it has taken light and animal shape even transforming into dragon flame energy. I share it as light with the person’s higher soul self. I work in other people’s gardens, too; it’s my way of healing and sharing love; it brings balance. I deeply sense that my learning in this lifetime for next lifetime is related to this passion; the concept of it excites me and makes me happy and feel blessed.
Found a very informative article on Panpsychism, and I don't think it's already been posted here, so posting it now for safekeeping and reading.
https://awarenessact.com/science-now-believe-that-the-universe-itself-is-conscious/