We know it seems counterintuitive, but is it possible that the reason our species finds itself “in the soup” so to speak is that we have become over-reliant on our intellect? British actor John Cleese thinks this might be true. In speaking of Iain McGilchrist’s book The Master and His Emissary, Cleese says: “This book more than any other, explains things I have been puzzled by for decades, in particular the shortcomings of pure intellectualism.”[i] We are about to see what we already knew about the British, namely that they are given to understatement.
Our much-vaunted intellect is a barrier to creating a sustainable community and an obstacle to transcendence. Outrageous, but true! It is our heart that will guide us out of the valley of the shadow of death. “The act of physically putting your hand on your heart is vital … to coming to peace. ‘There’s a network of neurons in the heart area. When there’s warmth and pressure on it, it actually calms the sympathetic nervous system and reduces the fear centers in the brain.”[ii]
The dominant worldview in the Global Village has us threatened by nature, other people and even the contents of our subconscious. We live in a narrative characterized by existential fear. “That fear of [heartfelt] feeling makes us inflict on one another the little murders of the soul that anesthetize the spirit and shrivel the heart.”[iii]
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Supplemental Reading: Mind, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
#65 Beyond Matter
[i] New York Times Book Review, The. “By the Book.” September 6, 2020, p. 8.
[ii] Fingersh, Julie. “When Older Relatives Flout Social Distancing.” The New York Times. April 17, 2020, p. A4.
[iii] Schama, Chloe. “Once More, With Feeling.” The New York Times. February 23, 2020, p. 18.
