Ancient pathway to our dreams

By Christopher and Sheila Cooke

The risk today is that we choose to remain entrenched in irrational inertia. Our myopia leads us to naturally reject disruptive, functional ideas, and see them as irritations. We are meaning-making creatures who are ready to move beyond traditional science, medicine and business, to fulfil our pathfinder role in an emergent Kosmos. The sooner we can discern the full range of choices we truly have, the more reliable, effective and compelling will be the realisation of our dreams.

There really is no choice. The choice has already been taken for us by nature. Our species is equipped with the abilities to move beyond domination of the physical world, to discover how to exist with, and take responsibility for all life.

The good news is that as a problem-solving species we have experienced and survived multiple epoch changes. There is nothing to suggest that we cannot find a way through. When we examine our species from a perspective of human emergence, there is most certainly hope. Our opportunity is to follow an emerging pathway illuminated by the "seed minds" of the last 100 years; in other words, those individuals who have demonstrated a pioneering way forward by inspiring action that leads towards planetary and species viability.

There are three predominant Human Pathways defining our present situation and inviting our future. According to the stage development theory of Clare W. Graves, and latterly, according to Integral theory by Ken Wilber, the three pathways are differentiated by distinct biological, psychological, cultural and social attributes. Culturally and socially, Human Pathway 1 is largely defined by the patterns of tribalism and feudalism; Human Pathway 2, by rationalism, scientific materialism and humanism. Human Pathway 3 is in formation, its integrative and stratified cultural and social patterns are still emerging. The pathways are woven together like a braid, as a meaningful story of the human journey, past, present and future.

Let us explore the seed mind-inspired field of microbiomic science, using food production as an example, to show a new way forward that will positively influence all three Human Pathways.

Since the late 1980s, the growing legitimacy of microbiomic science forces us to reframe our understanding of how all life works and how we manage everything from cleaning our teeth, to growing our food, to keeping hospital environments healthy. Hard science demonstrates the clear interrelationship between a healthy microbiome, the health of humanity and the vitality of all life.

Gone is the scientific imperative to be at war with the microbial world. So, why are we still at war with the microbes? Microbiomic science necessitates radical change across all aspects of commerce and society, and is a disruptive intelligence that triggers inertia. For example, the use of biocides, herbicides, pesticides and antibiotics continues to expand and boost the global economy, despite compelling evidence of dire consequences and the presence of new alternatives that are beneficial to all life.

Let us tell you the story of how we got to where we are now, and why we have certain hope.

HUMAN PATHWAY 1. For approximately 25% of global population, human interactions are defined by tribalism and feudalism. Both are effective forms of human interaction that, when exposed to the pressures of globalisation, may lead to an inability to cope, or to a reaction of extreme domination and control.

In Human Pathway 1, traditional methods of growing food are gradually being replaced by industrial agrochemical solutions, as the ways of the First World are propagated with the promise of financial and social security. The consequences of adopting First World technologies in agriculture have resulted in increased yields of questionable quality due to contamination, genetic modification and lower nutritional density; with unintended consequences of accelerated degradation of soil and ecosystem, and an increase in plant, animal and human ailments not normally found in Human Pathway 1 countries. In these life conditions, commercial operations are often challenging because of a cunning feudalistic power base that does not play by anyone’s rules, and a general cultural inability to utilize procedures or follow instructions on the package.

Over the long run of time Human Pathway 1 tends towards a natural expression of order and purpose that handles previous excesses, and brings forth new forms of security. Once established, this new capacity for order provides the basis for Human Pathway 2.

HUMAN PATHWAY 2. For approximately 70% of global population, cultures are typically defined by rationalism, scientific materialism and humanism. Since the Elizabethan Period, the full spectrum of the core social systems that define Human Pathway 2 have been continually refined to define the global benchmark of social structure and lifestyle.

Who dare challenge the established norms of industrial agrochemical agriculture? Food production and processing are largely manipulated to meet the commercial imperatives of multinational corporations. Well-meaning legislative frameworks attempt to protect the public good by enforcing scientific and commercial best practice. Many academics collude in the game through the provision of compelling scientific evidence of the size, colour and resilience of commercial crops, without reference to the loss of vitality and nutritional density, or the unintended ecological degradation. Across all domains, from the soil to the gut, the microbiome is under threat. Most especially under attack are the microbes that constitute at least 90% of the human being, and form the basis of biological and psychological immunity.

In Human Pathway 2, microbiomic science is being enthusiastically embraced by business-as-usual in a commercial drive to bring single-strain probiotic solutions and applications to market. The methods being applied are often reductionist, and do not exploit the full potential of the science.

Over the long run of time Human Pathway 2 tends towards a place of overwhelm and stuckness, where the emotional and financial cost of caring becomes unsustainably high, coalition governance generates ambivalence, inner and outer chaos ensues, and the whole situation requires a fundamental reframing of thinking. Out of this cloying and stuckness arises the impetus to move to Human Pathway 3.

HUMAN PATHWAY 3. Approximately 5% of global population have successfully made a transition that equips them to conceive and apply innovations and solutions that lead to planetary and species viability. These minds have the ability to sustain healthy life conditions for Human Pathways 1, 2 and 3. For these individuals the acceptance of complexity, and the magnificence of existence are paramount. “All life is important, my life is unimportant,” is their maxim. Here is the essence of the holographic thinking behind the seed minds of true microbiome science.

Human Pathway 3 legitimizes the pioneers of new forms of agriculture, forms that are beneficial overall and result in new social status and significance for all growers as they contribute to the fulfilment of the nutritional needs for biological and psychological health. The use of chemicals rapidly fades away, and is replaced by the use of natural biological inoculants that stimulate the regeneration and renewal of soil, plant, animal, and human immune systems.

Organic agriculture is an example of a transitional technology positioned between business-as-usual, and a new biological agriculture that is predicated upon the microbial health of soils. Human Pathway 3 solutions, such as biological agriculture, are able to uplift Human Pathways 1 and 2 through the provision of irresistible, life-affirming solutions that out-perform the earlier paradigms.

It seems natural that Human Pathway 3 science would rise to the occasion and lead; however, the irrational inertia promulgated by the success of Human Pathway 2 creates a social immune system that strives to annihilate Human Pathway 3 thinking. The contradiction, and clear evidence is that Human Pathway 2 thinking has outgrown its capacity to cope with the epoch-changing life conditions that we are facing. Rethinking what we legitimize is being invited. In essence, the change in thinking has already happened, and we are just learning to grow into it.

Our certain hope comes from the knowledge that the human capacity to value the continuance of all life, a form of thinking that is the basis of all Human Pathway 3 activity, has been stimulated, tested and refined for nearly 100 years. The seed minds and their followers have done their jobs. If we choose to look closely at the evidence, we find that 80% of all problems on the planet already have beneficial-to-all-life solutions. A key challenge is to get enough critical mass of these new ideas so that they outperform the antibodies of Human Pathway 2.

We invite you dear reader to step into this probability of a thriving future, by choosing to base all your decisions upon that which is beneficial to all life. In doing so you will activate Human Pathway 3 thinking that is latent within you. The resulting experience may oscillate from challenge to joy, but the overall flow will be one of certain hope.

References
Graves, Clare W. Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap. The Futurist, April 1974.

Wilber, Ken. A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and
Spirituality. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2000.

Christopher (Christopher.cooke@5deep.net) and Sheila Cooke (Sheila.cooke@5deep.net) are pioneers in the application of Integral theory and practice. Since 1998, their organization, 5 Deep (www.5deep.net), has served public, private and commercial leadership in the pursuit of innovation and change.