Spirituality and consciousness: An emerging vision for the twenty-first century

The rise of science has brought intellectual and practical achievements but also contributed to societal problems: environmental destruction, commodification, inequity, transactional relationships, militarism, nuclear threat, and disenchantment. These problems are linked to the split between science and spirituality fostered by physicalism, a doctrine rooted in 19th-century physics that dismisses spiritual traditions as irrational. A path toward a different science-based picture of reality is described, one that takes consciousness as ontologically fundamental, celebrates spiritual experiences, aligns with leading-edge science, and could help prevent modern civilization from self-annihilation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The rise of science over the past four centuries has undeniably brought with it a wealth of extraordinary intellectual and practical achievements, but it has also arguably contributed to a host of serious and worsening societal problems including destructive commercial exploitation of our planet?s natural resources with its cumulative negative effects on the environment and global climate; relentless commodification, marketing and consumption; extreme and increasing inequity in the distribution of wealth and opportunity; the prevalence of zero-sum ?transactionalist? approaches to relationships at scales ranging from individuals to nations; widespread militarism and the ever-present threat of nuclear holocaust; and the pervasive ?disenchantment? of contemporary civilization. Numerous social commentators have connected these problems directly or indirectly with the deep split between science and spirituality that has been fostered in particular over the past century by advocates of physicalism, a philosophical doctrine anchored in late nineteenth-century physics that claims to speak for science as a whole and that sees nothing in our human spiritual traditions but irrational vestiges of our intellectual childhood. In this paper I will describe how a path has opened up toward a radically different but still science-based picture of reality, one that takes consciousness as ontologically fundamental and celebrates human spiritual experiences and capacities, that is more consistent than physicalism itself with leading-edge science, and that can potentially help prevent our struggling modern civilization from sleep-walking into self-annihilation.