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Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st Century
Revolutions are generally thought of as large-scale, bloody upheavals involving whole countries and societies. But there are quieter revolutions that begin in the individual mind and create the kind of change that may be even more significant. By deliberately changing their internal image of reality, people are transforming the world. Right now we are living through one of the most fundamental shifts in history -- a change in the actual belief structure of Western industrial society.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 27, 2018
Lots of food for thought here. Literally. This book is about changing the way we perceive ourselves and the world using a paradigm which extends our scientific understanding of the world.
the scientific revolution amounted to a new way of seeking and validating knowledge but it neglected the area of subjective experience. A dual relationship has developed which separates the experienced world from science.
Consciousness has somehow to be factored into our total scientific picture of the universe.
However, I can't see it happening any time soon!
the scientific revolution amounted to a new way of seeking and validating knowledge but it neglected the area of subjective experience. A dual relationship has developed which separates the experienced world from science.
Consciousness has somehow to be factored into our total scientific picture of the universe.
However, I can't see it happening any time soon!
March 24, 2012
Willis Harman’s Global Mind Change is really two books. One of these two books is a cogent and well-written examination of some of the most tenacious problems facing our planet, and the ways that modern industrial capitalism is exacerbating those problems. This book is persuasive and engaging to the political scientist and the layperson alike, owing to the well-crafted prose and clear-eyed diagnosis of problems that are deeply complex and difficult to solve. The second book is a science-fiction novel wherein people around the globe resolve to think of the world differently, and their thoughts literally transform the world into a better place. The first book will have many readers vigorously nodding their heads in agreement, while the second will leave them scratching their heads that such an obviously intelligent writer as Harman will willing to entertain such fabulist stories.
Applying the rigorous standards of academic research to Harman’s book is perhaps unfair. It was not published by an academic press and was not intended for a purely academic audience. Instead, Harman published Global Mind Change in conjunction with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), of which he was president from 1975 until his death in 1997. Much of Harman’s life work was dedicated to the concept of science promulgated by IONS, which seeks to combine traditional scientific methodology with notions of intuitive knowing and spiritual understanding. Though IONS purports to be a scientific organization, much of the phenomena they set out to study are intrinsically difficult to quantify for scientific study. This is certainly true when it comes to Global Mind Change.
Harmon develops three worldviews which he suggests are competing for dominance in Western societies. These worldviews are Materialistic Monism (“M-1,” the positivistic view), Dualism (“M-2,” science and spiritual understanding coexisting different spheres), and Transcendental Monism (“M-3,” consciousness shaping reality). He suggests that M-1 has been in a position of dominance, but that M-3 is being adopted by increasing numbers of people, and that it will ultimately be a key to creating a more livable planet.
The central tenet of Harman’s book boils down to something that is easy to digest. The universe is more complicated than we can possibly know, and it would behoove us not to rule out any activity—especially activity that has a long history of being considered real in various human cultures—just because current science does not validate that activity. He raises several examples for the reader to consider: the ability of the mind to both cause and cure illness, the uncanny abilities of animals to perform certain tasks through instinct, and the idea that some learned behaviors may be transferrable to succeeding generations in the same way that genetic material is transferrable. Harmon proposes some unusual explanations for these phenomena, but in essence there is no disconnect from normal science. We could scientifically explore the amazing abilities of the human mind to control the body, whether morphogenic fields exist, or Lamarckian biology occurs.
Then we come to the first difficult to defend set of assumptions. Harmon tacks many phenomena for which there is considerable skepticism—extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and mediumship—onto has argument, suggesting we believe they are real phenomena simply because many people have believed in their reality in the past. Harmon says, “Yet the plain fact of the matter is that…all of these have been reported in a variety of societies, over dozens of centuries, and all have been investigated by careful and scientifically sophisticated observers,” (p. 52). Harman uses this tactic often in his text, suggesting there is a voluminous scientific literature supporting his claims, yet offering little or no exploration of that literature. Even the claim that these phenomena have been reported over dozens of centuries in various cultures is open to scrutiny. Does Harman mean “reported” in the sense that it is described in ancient religious texts alongside other miraculous happenings? How often does any individual phenomenon have to be depicted in order for us to be credulous toward it?
Harman takes this already obtuse assertion, and adds an additional layer of difficulty when he further suggests that, since these phenomena involve consciousness, objectivity and replication are not appropriate measurement tools to assess the success or lack thereof of experiments testing their reality. In one sense, Harman’s point is imminently understandable: replication and objectivity are difficult even in mundane circumstances, let alone when we are examining the abstract powers of the human mind. But to unmoor the scientific process from these values is a move of desperation, of taking one’s ball and going home.
From there Harman sets out to prove the existence of a human “soul” of some kind that exists after death, and may even communicate with mediums, and once again asserts that a body of literature supports this notion. He cites the “perennial wisdom” of religious traditions, and even Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (the text from which the rock band the Doors took their name) as supporting evidence of his claim. As Harman sees it, parapsychology, evidence of life after death, and acknowledgement of human consciousness affecting reality, are all linked together in the M-3 metaphysic, which is gaining strength around the world. Yet, Harman never clarifies why any of these three concepts should logically be linked, or by what mechanism M-3 is expanding, if it is in fact expanding. He says that “society will, only a few generations from now, be as different from modern industrial society as that is from the society of the Middle Ages,” (194) [emphasis in original]. This extraordinary conclusion is left to stand alone. Harmon does not predict how the world will come to be different. Both the process and practical meaning of converting to M-3 remain completely opaque.
One reason this is so frustrating is because Harmon’s description of world problems is largely accurate. Harman is quite clearly correct when he states that our desire for a sustainable environment and an economy built on permanent economic expansion are not compatible. The same is true for his point that for all of our obsession with national security, we have created a fundamentally unstable state of world security, whereby any one conflict between nuclear powers could yield worldwide destruction. These are some of the enduring problems of our age. Great statesmen and thinkers alike have approached them, and found there are no simple solutions. Huge bureaucracies such as the Department of State and Environmental Protection Agency employ thousands of people on a daily basis that work, little by little, to try to ameliorate the worst effects these problems, not to mention the work of academics and activists.
Harman’s concept that we can all turn our faces toward the sun, feel the interconnectedness of all things, and obtain a new understanding that unties the Gordian Knot is a slap in the face to those that spend their lives doing the actual hard work of solving these problems. When change comes, it comes through sustained struggle, and a promise that change can come easily is empty.
For all of that, Harman is undoubtedly right that, having spent our lives in a culture that values positivist thinking, many are too fast to disregard anything that does not fit into the world as they understand it. It is strange that throughout Global Mind Change, Harman is focused on the conflict between M-1 and M-3, but spends very little time on M-2, which seems like an obvious compromise, or at least stepping stone on the way to M-3. The line between M-2 and M-3 is a thin one; once a researcher believes in spiritual world, it is not a large leap to imagine that the spiritual world might interact with the observable world in some way.
Global Mind Change is an antidote for political scientists that may get trapped in their own heads from time to time. If we view Harman’s language as metaphorical in some key passages, there is a great deal of insight in his text; nonetheless, the global mind that he imagines remains highly elusive, and determining whether that mind is changing, even more so.
Applying the rigorous standards of academic research to Harman’s book is perhaps unfair. It was not published by an academic press and was not intended for a purely academic audience. Instead, Harman published Global Mind Change in conjunction with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), of which he was president from 1975 until his death in 1997. Much of Harman’s life work was dedicated to the concept of science promulgated by IONS, which seeks to combine traditional scientific methodology with notions of intuitive knowing and spiritual understanding. Though IONS purports to be a scientific organization, much of the phenomena they set out to study are intrinsically difficult to quantify for scientific study. This is certainly true when it comes to Global Mind Change.
Harmon develops three worldviews which he suggests are competing for dominance in Western societies. These worldviews are Materialistic Monism (“M-1,” the positivistic view), Dualism (“M-2,” science and spiritual understanding coexisting different spheres), and Transcendental Monism (“M-3,” consciousness shaping reality). He suggests that M-1 has been in a position of dominance, but that M-3 is being adopted by increasing numbers of people, and that it will ultimately be a key to creating a more livable planet.
The central tenet of Harman’s book boils down to something that is easy to digest. The universe is more complicated than we can possibly know, and it would behoove us not to rule out any activity—especially activity that has a long history of being considered real in various human cultures—just because current science does not validate that activity. He raises several examples for the reader to consider: the ability of the mind to both cause and cure illness, the uncanny abilities of animals to perform certain tasks through instinct, and the idea that some learned behaviors may be transferrable to succeeding generations in the same way that genetic material is transferrable. Harmon proposes some unusual explanations for these phenomena, but in essence there is no disconnect from normal science. We could scientifically explore the amazing abilities of the human mind to control the body, whether morphogenic fields exist, or Lamarckian biology occurs.
Then we come to the first difficult to defend set of assumptions. Harmon tacks many phenomena for which there is considerable skepticism—extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and mediumship—onto has argument, suggesting we believe they are real phenomena simply because many people have believed in their reality in the past. Harmon says, “Yet the plain fact of the matter is that…all of these have been reported in a variety of societies, over dozens of centuries, and all have been investigated by careful and scientifically sophisticated observers,” (p. 52). Harman uses this tactic often in his text, suggesting there is a voluminous scientific literature supporting his claims, yet offering little or no exploration of that literature. Even the claim that these phenomena have been reported over dozens of centuries in various cultures is open to scrutiny. Does Harman mean “reported” in the sense that it is described in ancient religious texts alongside other miraculous happenings? How often does any individual phenomenon have to be depicted in order for us to be credulous toward it?
Harman takes this already obtuse assertion, and adds an additional layer of difficulty when he further suggests that, since these phenomena involve consciousness, objectivity and replication are not appropriate measurement tools to assess the success or lack thereof of experiments testing their reality. In one sense, Harman’s point is imminently understandable: replication and objectivity are difficult even in mundane circumstances, let alone when we are examining the abstract powers of the human mind. But to unmoor the scientific process from these values is a move of desperation, of taking one’s ball and going home.
From there Harman sets out to prove the existence of a human “soul” of some kind that exists after death, and may even communicate with mediums, and once again asserts that a body of literature supports this notion. He cites the “perennial wisdom” of religious traditions, and even Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (the text from which the rock band the Doors took their name) as supporting evidence of his claim. As Harman sees it, parapsychology, evidence of life after death, and acknowledgement of human consciousness affecting reality, are all linked together in the M-3 metaphysic, which is gaining strength around the world. Yet, Harman never clarifies why any of these three concepts should logically be linked, or by what mechanism M-3 is expanding, if it is in fact expanding. He says that “society will, only a few generations from now, be as different from modern industrial society as that is from the society of the Middle Ages,” (194) [emphasis in original]. This extraordinary conclusion is left to stand alone. Harmon does not predict how the world will come to be different. Both the process and practical meaning of converting to M-3 remain completely opaque.
One reason this is so frustrating is because Harmon’s description of world problems is largely accurate. Harman is quite clearly correct when he states that our desire for a sustainable environment and an economy built on permanent economic expansion are not compatible. The same is true for his point that for all of our obsession with national security, we have created a fundamentally unstable state of world security, whereby any one conflict between nuclear powers could yield worldwide destruction. These are some of the enduring problems of our age. Great statesmen and thinkers alike have approached them, and found there are no simple solutions. Huge bureaucracies such as the Department of State and Environmental Protection Agency employ thousands of people on a daily basis that work, little by little, to try to ameliorate the worst effects these problems, not to mention the work of academics and activists.
Harman’s concept that we can all turn our faces toward the sun, feel the interconnectedness of all things, and obtain a new understanding that unties the Gordian Knot is a slap in the face to those that spend their lives doing the actual hard work of solving these problems. When change comes, it comes through sustained struggle, and a promise that change can come easily is empty.
For all of that, Harman is undoubtedly right that, having spent our lives in a culture that values positivist thinking, many are too fast to disregard anything that does not fit into the world as they understand it. It is strange that throughout Global Mind Change, Harman is focused on the conflict between M-1 and M-3, but spends very little time on M-2, which seems like an obvious compromise, or at least stepping stone on the way to M-3. The line between M-2 and M-3 is a thin one; once a researcher believes in spiritual world, it is not a large leap to imagine that the spiritual world might interact with the observable world in some way.
Global Mind Change is an antidote for political scientists that may get trapped in their own heads from time to time. If we view Harman’s language as metaphorical in some key passages, there is a great deal of insight in his text; nonetheless, the global mind that he imagines remains highly elusive, and determining whether that mind is changing, even more so.
July 27, 2009
This is perhaps the best book I have read regarding the human condition, the transitions we have undergone, the hopeful direction we are headed, and the difficulties we face in moving forward globally.
I highly recommend this book followed by:
Everybody's Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution Suny Series in Philosophy and Biology by Loyal Rue.
Followed by:
Blessed Unrest: How the Larges... Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken.
I highly recommend this book followed by:
Everybody's Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution Suny Series in Philosophy and Biology by Loyal Rue.
Followed by:
Blessed Unrest: How the Larges... Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken.
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November 7, 2010An important book as we prepare for the next 30 years!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews