Читать книгу Essays: Volume One - Mark McGinnis - Страница 6

Mule Deer & Great Pine, acrylic on panel, 2007

The development of consciousness in human beings have left most with what seems to an incurable superiority complex in regard to the other creatures on this planet. Because we have the capacity to hold and develop thought in our minds, contemplate the past and future, and create tools which seem to be more sophisticated than those of other creatures, we happily put the other beings in an inferior to position to ourselves. This is one of the most glaring examples of the arrogance of our species.

What makes us believe that we understand the consciousness level of other creatures? The only way we can measure the level of other creatures is from our own level of consciousness. We can study them physically and determine nervous systems and brain capacities and development, but does that truly give us a sense of what their conscious capacity is? I think not. Not if we allow that consciousness may take many forms of which we have no way to perceive or understand with our capabilities. This seems true not only with mammals but with but with all beings and may even extend to non-living matter. How all matter interacts in our universe is symphony of mysteries of which we are just being to gain some understanding and that understanding can only be gained from the limited perception and consciousness that we possess as human beings.

I have rarely seen the word consciousness used where the word awareness would not substitute with no change in the meaning applied. The word awareness seems to be more generously applied to nearly all forms of life. Single-celled creatures are certainly aware on many levels, most especially of their environments and their survival. Their awareness rises to level of what we might call self-consciousness. In more complex organisms such as birds and mammals we are inclined to allow them a higher sense of awareness but not that of our own sophistication. Yet when the time is taken to study the true awareness or consciousness of a crow, a dog, an ape or any creature, the findings always seem to astound the public. I am dumbfounded that most people do not even believe that animals can experience emotions – it does not take a multi-million dollar study to perceive what is happening around you. I don’t think we can ever know the full extent of other species aptitude for awareness or consciousness as it seems more than likely that they have conscious capacities that differ from ours.

It used to be that people who attributed conscious qualities to plants were considered “whackos.” Now there is an increasing body of hard science that shows that plants are most certainly conscious both in their awareness of their environments and in some cases in their ability to communicate with surrounding plants. It is not consciousness in a “human” sense but it is undeniable consciousness and it is intelligent.

An area that again many people would claim human superiority is that of self-consciousness. As far as we can tell with our limited awareness, we do seem to be the life-form that is most focused on itself. I would question whether this is a quality of superiority. The outcome of this capability seems to be that we have set ourselves on a path to extinction while having increasing levels of mental illness. In most spiritual traditions accomplishment is measured by the degree of overcoming self-consciousness.