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Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything
An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber
Jóse Díez Faixat is an architect, non-violent conscientious objector, ecologist, rural community member. From 1979 he has focused on research into basic reality, of form both as experienced (mystical, non-dualistic) and as theoretical (study of spiritual traditions and the sciences of the New Paradigm). In 1993, he published his hypothesis in the journal of general evolution World Futures (ed. Ervin Laszlo), and later, in 1996, develops this work in the book Between Evolution and Eternity (Editorial Kairos). He later published Being nothing, I am All (Editorial Dilema).
A Response to Faixat's Musicological Musings on Evolution
BEYOND DARWINThe Hidden Rhythm of EvolutionAddendum 2: Further coincident researchJOSÉ DÍEZ FAIXAT
Thus, from our point of view, the ‘trick’ of evolution and of history will be definitively revealed at this forthcoming final instant.
When I started to develop this evolutionary hypothesis back in the early 1980s, it was truly upsetting to realize the utter solitude in which I found myself. I felt I had discovered something truly valuable and yet could not find others with whom to share the discovery and compare opinions. There were times when I was even tempted to throw in the towel. Repeatedly, however, the intuition that what I had found was worth the effort gave me strength to keep working on it. In recent years, though, the picture has changed completely thanks to the enormous possibilities offered by the Internet. It has been a wonderful surprise and great joy for me to repeatedly find references to numerous authors who, from very different perspectives, put forward very similar ideas to those I had been proposing for many years. To highlight these obvious similarities between research carried out from very different fields, we shall next present a chart (Fig. 10) which aims to summarize the proposals of a significant number of authors who have studied this clamorous phenomenon of evolutionary acceleration, in line with our own work. This chart will naturally include the three researchers cited in the previous Addendum Alexander Panov, Jean Chaline and Carter Smith, as well as the other two André de Cayeux and Ervin Laszlo cited in our article. We shall also include the proposals by the Greek physicist and futurist Theodore Modis, author of the article entitled Forecasting the Growth of Complexity and Change; the North American electrical engineer Richard L. Coren, author of The Evolutionary Trajectory; the American engineer, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near; the Swedish software engineer Nick Hoggard, author of Evolution and the Feigenbaum Number; and that of the Spanish biologist Miguel García Casas, author of Teoría de la vida embarazada y la reproevolución [Theory of Pregnant Life and Reproevolution]. It is truly wonderful to see the myriad similarities between the lists of the major evolutionary milestones proposed in all these works, to the degree that the charts that represent them whether linear or logarithmical are virtually identical in all cases. There is just a very slight difference of only one or two centuries regarding the date of the final pole towards which the trajectories lead. Yet what are a hundred or two hundred years after a journey of more than 13,500 million years? Clear differences of opinion do exist among these authors, however, concerning the valuation of this final pole of infinite evolutionary acceleration. From our point of view, it is a “singularity” of the same calibre as that of the initial instant of the Big Bang. If this original pole basically consisted in an explosion in the field of “energy”, the final pole towards which we are precipitously heading will essentially consist in an implosion in the field of “consciousness”. Note, however, as stated in the last paragraph of this article, both aspects “energy” and “consciousness” are not two different realities, but polar aspects of one and the same unique Emptiness, the objective and subjective aspects of ever-present, simple and full Self-evidence. Thus, from our point of view, the “trick” of evolution and of history will be definitively revealed at this forthcoming final instant. That is, the entire trajectory from the Big Bang to today has occurred in this eternal Now that we in fact are. It will thus be made manifest that our life has not been a mere fleeting fragment in the midst of an endless process, but that we have, in fact, always been the pure, timeless Self-evidence in which all worlds have happened, happen and will happen. There has been no “before”. There will be no “after”. There is only Now. Is it not self-evident? Attention, though! Of course, that final moment will not be a mere subjective experience achieved by some enlightened individuals. As we have seen, there is truly no subjectivity without objectivity, nor individuals truly separated from their universal environment. Therefore, the final experience will be simultaneously interior and exterior, both individual and collective. As it is now. As it has always been. (The following Addendum 3 will outline the evolutionary scenario from this integral approach). |