droids wanted

[Guest guest]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too much mail too little time,

can¢t keep up. I'm reading your new mail in 3 weeks from now, I¢m 3 weeks behind. And I need time to filter them through my artificial brain, too many mails simply. You only have to read each other¢s mail, I have to read both of your mail, and all others must read, all of our mails, need some slave.Any droids?

 

 

 

 

Yes. Finally someone writes something sanguine and mature. But isthere such a thing as a reliable anything, guru, friend, mechanic, orotherwise? I'm offering just a slight provocation, hopefully, as away of saying that however may we label anyone or anything,unpredictability is never eradicated. Indeed, the more involved weare with something, the more unpredictable it is, almost bydefinition. Unpredictability is a function of our attention. Wedon't attend to the entirely predictable. So, say that a guru ispredictable and decent.

How fascinating is that?In any case, the source of our interest is not the object, but ourreaction to that object. We "shouldn't" ever be looking for a guru,we should be looking for a relationship with another that stimulatesour grace/disgrace, our compassion/contempt , our interest/boredom. Because it's precisely the energy and engagement demanded of us, inour struggle/dance with uncertain outcome that vitalizes us.Vitality always wins, either by dint of force and stamina, as when"evil" triumphs, or by virtue of love, beauty and grace, as when timelends patience its due. And whose vitality? Why yours, mine, thesubject's vitality. The eye of the beholder.

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ABSTRACTI have been bold enough to present a paper which is not theoreticallycomplex but is, instead, theoretically `back to basics'. I ask towhere did the rhetoric go about heightened or expanded consciousnesswhich was so predominant in the early 70s. To that end I look at thehistorical sources of this movement and what has happened since theearly `reconceptualist' days. I suggest that expanded awareness becameirrevocably linked to psychedelic self-indulgence and seen as selfishby the majority political wing of curriculum theorists. However, boththese views are mistaken. Instead, it is non-reflective politicalstances which are egocentric. Finally, I suggest thatcontext-expanding awareness cannot be a personal goal but a pleasantside effect of selfless service.Whatever Happened to `Heightened Consciousness' ?The uses of a great professor are only partly to give usknowledge; his real purpose is to take his students beyond knowledgeinto the transcendental domain of the unknown, the future and thedream—to expand the limits of the human consciousness. (Loren Eiseley,in K. Heuer, ed. The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley. Boston/Toronto:Little, Brown & Co., 118)Whatever happened to consciousness heightening as a curriculumobjective? Did it disappear because, as an expression for the naïveoptimism of the 60s counterculture, it became outdated or does itrepresent the losing ideology in a major confrontation in the annalsof curriculum theory? The evidence seems to point to the latter case.In the 70s, the schools finally awoke to what had been going on in the60s.(1) It was in the 60s, as all the world knows, that a youthmovement emerged which expressed disenchantment with the materialrewards offered by the establishment as an incentive to repress morevital instincts and participate in the social game of wealth building.Instead of playing the game and accepting socially defined roles, manyyouth fell into the nebulous counterculture movement through whichthey hoped to transcend daily, given consciousness. Whether throughthe use of psychedelics, meditation, prolonged rock jams, or all ofthe above, youth (and many who no longer fit this category) activelythrew off their obligations and sought higher states of awareness. Tothe horror and disgust of the GI generation, Timothy Leary's call to"turn on, tune in, and drop out" spread rapidly, promoted by cultheroes from the rock 'n roll subculture and by the underground passingof many a joint or hashpipe. Note: The call was to "drop out," not"man the barricades."To be sure, much of the mass of the movement was illusory since manyof those who appeared to be degenerate freaks to the straights were infact no more than weekend hippies out to get high, engage in some freelove, or just feel good vibes. Yet, despite their lack of commitmentto overthrowing the establishment, many of them picked upcounterculture values to do with tolerance for the lifestylesofothers, openness to new experience, and an almost spiritual "sensesublime / Of something far more deeply interfused"( 2) within themundane reality of daily life. All of this was tied in with themeaning of "heightened consciousness" : It referred to awakening fromthe isolated and narcissistic ego trip of the war of all against all.This new mind expansion promised escape from the prison-house of self(and self versus other) to see the world as though for the first time.It was a powerful image, involving as much unlearning as learning.There were exemplars everywhere of those who seemed to have reached,at minimum, Maslowian self actualization or some sort of psychologicalpeak experience. More intriguing yet were those who appeared to havebroken on through to the other side, to the oceanic bliss of universaloneness: nirvana. And, of course, there were those who had shatteredall contexts whatsoever and were ambiguously said to have blown theirminds. For many, this was a consummation devoutly to be wished: Ifonly the establishment would stop being so heavy!At length, elements of the counterculture became dissatisfied withmerely dropping out and sought instead to drop back in andrevolutionize the political system they felt to be imprisoning them.Heightened levels of awareness seemed both too esoteric and too boringfor many of those who had expected instant gratification. Thepolitical activists were getting all the media attention so most ofthe new disaffected wanted to go where the action was. With realsocial issues to deal with like war, racism, sexism, and poverty,those who had previously awaited private awakening became drawn backinto the social game with its zesty marches and mass confrontation.By the 70s, the radical political arm of the counterculture hadabsorbed some of the quiescent transcendentalism. Thenon-establishment quest for expanded levels of awareness becameabsorbed in the anti-establishment quest for expanded power. Theremaining seekers of heightened reality stole quietly away to theirashrams or mountain/desert communes, or they grimly acceptedestablishment jobs and families.Mind expansion had never been among the specific goals of educators,including the progressives from earlier in the century.(3) Despite ourpresent perception, there had been few attempts to suggest aneducational institution which openly pursued expanded individualconsciousness in the 60s. Experiments like A. S. Neill's Summerhill inEngland and Rochdale College in Toronto seem in retrospect more likeinvitations to anarchy than attempts to heighten consciousness. CarlRogers(4) and others suggested "humanistic" education but sucheducational personal autonomy and authenticity were not widelyattempted until the 70s when teachers at last were transformed into"facilitators" .(5) In any case, the humanistic connection withheightened consciousness remains unclear.The idea of expanded consciousness as an educational goal did enterthe literary arena by the late 60s, as indicated by two titles fromthat period which perfectly represent the conflict of interpretationwhich was arising. The radical political awakening perspective isexhibited by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner' s Teaching as aSubversive Activity(6) while the transcendent personal awakeningperspective is portrayed by George Leonard's remarkable Education andEcstasy.(7) Like the earlier conflict between John Dewey's childcenteredness and George Counts' social reconstructionism amongst theprogressive scholars, this conflict between the personal and politicalversions of consciousness expansion was to play a major role in theagendas of curriculum theory for decades to come.It was in the 60s that curriculum theory as we now know it wasessentially born. Among its foundational figures in this period wereDwayne Huebner,(8) James Macdonald,(9) and Philip Phenix,(10) each ofwhom became drawn into transcendental visions of curriculum in thenext decade. It was also in the 70s that this model of personaltransformation ran directly into the model of political transformationas Marxists and other radicals demanded that social revolution precedeany revolutions of consciousness. They saw the call for awakenedpersonal awareness as narrowly self-indulgent in its way as the megeneration disco groovers which surrounded them. How couldeducationists use their privileged positions to seek expandedawareness for themselves or for their students when so many of thesocially oppressed had no such opportunity? they asked with somejustification.Philosophers of education and theorists of curriculum found themselvesbeing to forced into one of two camps: Either they stood with thosewho dreamed of heightening personal awareness in an often metaphysicalsense or they stood with those who took expanded consciousness torefer to waking up to the inequities and injustices rampant in thesociopolitical system. It seemed to be a choice between "heightenedconsciousness" or "consciousness raising". The reconceptualistmovement(11) which appeared at this time attempted to draw thesedisparate voices into a unified protest against the status quo. Withsome bravado, William Pinar edited the results of the 1973 Universityof Rochester's College of Education Conference into a book whose titlebetrayed the schizophrenic nature of curriculum theorizing from thenon: Heightened Consciousness, Cultural Revolution and CurriculumTheory: The Proceedings of the Rochester Conference.( 12) Here in onefell swoop, curriculum theorizing attempted to promote both heightenedconsciousness and cultural (read: political) revolution.Pinar has since drawn a telling portrait of the divisions theconference revealed.(13) Among those representing the politicalresponsibility group, mostly Marxist, was Donald Bateman who directeda withering attack at humanist and, by implication, transcendentalistworldviews:Racism, sexism, classism—those deeply internalized socialvalues—are at the root of our problems. They are deep in our psyches,and they cause our liberal reforms to fail because they treat thesymptoms and not the causes. Even humanistic education ... tacitlyaccepts the class system with its racism, its gross commercialism, itsmale chauvinism, its institutionalized violence, its imperialisticwars—accepts them by failing to mention them, by pretending to beapolitical.( 14)Such a strong statement was probably enough to make anyone feelashamed for dreaming of a higher state of consciousness when there wasso much injustice all around. This put the political wing on the moralhigh ground and indicated that the seekers of consciousnessbreakthroughs were irresponsibly indulgent.It was precisely against such declarations of moral (and intellectual)superiority that led another participant, William Pilder, to declarethat all such social confrontations wereexternalizations— projections— of unresolved personal conflicts. Againstthe institutionalizatio n of well-intentioned reforms, he could onlyrecommend the inner journey in his presentation, "In the Stillness isthe Dancing":Here, then, is my despair as a professional: human survivalcannot depend on social programs directed at present institutionalstructures. Personal consciousness development and subsequent culturaltransformation cannot be programmed in a mechanistic fashion; acurriculum for consciousness development and cultural change is ablatant contradiction. (15)Though Pilder's view of the necessity for the inner quest beforepolitical engagement is clear, he does not believe that such an innerjourney to heightened consciousness could ever become a workablecurriculum objective.At this time, many stood with him on the inner journey aspect butstill believed in the potential for the curriculum to becomepersonally transformative. Paul Klohr, for one, listed nine"reconceptualist articles of faith," including the recognition of theresources of "preconscious realms of experience" and "personal libertyand the attainment of higher levels of consciousness. "(16) Pinarhimself early on opposed premature political activism and, instead,suggested "the design and evaluation of experimental curricula whichwill attempt to explore the inner life, hence to underscore andpossibly aid in an ontological shift from outer to inner."(17)After this, the walls came crashing down. Pilder was proven propheticbecause politically oriented scholarship presented much more to getangry over or pontificate about and provided a much clearer program ofaction. It filled the bookshelves and journals while the call toconsciousness did not. The call to work collectively for individualself-realization or higher states of consciousness became irrevocablyassociated with the 60s and drug abuse. As the culture veered awayfrom such countercultural activities, so did all educational thinking.Speaking for the mainstream, respected curriculum historians Danieland Laurel Tanner castigated the reconceptualization because, in theirview, "it favors mystical illumination ('heightened consciousness' )over reason and is therefore not curriculum knowledge but apromiscuous enthusiasm for whatever advertises itself as counter toour culture."(18) The whole consciousness approach was fast becomingtainted.To stay competitive and play the game of academic advancement—not tomention to retain the respect of their peers—scholars previouslycommitted to individual expansion of consciousness soon found otherthings about which to write. There was so little to say aboutexperiences which were so unpredictable and rarely visible to othersand which may be experienced as only a quiet aesthetic moment. As toactual transcendence, no curricularists dared write anymore ofpreparing the way for mystical experiences of no-self.Referring to the theme of the Rochester Conference, "heightenedconsciousness and cultural revolution," Pinar wrote in 1988 that suchterms "make one wince today," a statement he repeated in UnderstandingCurriculum in 1995.(19) In the latter book, the chapter titles clearlyindicate what Pinar considers to be the present state of the field.These include chapters 5: Understanding Curriculum as Political text,6: Understanding Curriculum as Racial text, 7: UnderstandingCurriculum as Gender text, 9: Understanding Curriculum asPoststructuralist, Deconstructed, Postmodern text, 10: UnderstandingCurriculum as Autobiographical/ Biographical text, 12: UnderstandingCurriculum as Theological text, and 14: Understanding Curriculum asInternational text. Nowhere to be found, however, is any chapterspecifically focusing on heightened consciousness. Clearly, curriculumtheory has become "issue-oriented" and the political agenda haslargely taken the field. Even the autobiography and deconstructive"texts" are somewhat justified in terms of political engagement.Part of the problem is terminology. The sheer vertical imagery of"heightened consciousness" points only up and leaves one with littlegrip on old Terra Firma. Theorists began to resist the celestiallyoriented, psychedelically suggestive notion of seeking "height." Asthe Tanners noted above, the entire idea seems to smack of 60s-eraaltered states—and we are living through times of excessive paranoiawith regard to "drugs." We have now [1998] reached the point wherenewspapers tell of one middle school girl being suspended for sharingMidol® tablets and another for offering a cough drop containing zincand yet another for having ibuprofen in her locker. Now anattorney-general, Joycelyn Elders, has been fired for merelysuggesting that the decriminalization of drugs might be investigated.The fear of experience is so deep that the selling of compressednitrous oxide capsules can be declared illegal even in the decadentFrench Quarter of New Orleans (despite no suggestion of side effectsor after effects in such small doses).(20)The whole view of 60s mind expansion is also tainted in public memoryby its unjustified association with the me generation of the 70s.Rather unexpectedly, the slick disco crowd emerged—a marketer'sdream—and took the values of free love and the quest for experience innew directions entirely. The 70s disco ducks reinterpreted the questto seek higher levels of awareness as the hedonistic urge forunbridled physical pleasure. This change is symbolized by the changeof the drug of choice from psychedelics to stimulants.( 21) Experiencewas still being sought but not heightened consciousness. This heavybeat, laser light, mirror-ball phantasmagoria has come to be the imagemany have of altered states of consciousness.It's interesting to note that my place of employment [at the time ofwriting], the State University of New York at Geneseo, declared the97/98 college term as "The Year of the Sixties," corny as it sounds.Judging by the antics that went on it seems clear that the era isregarded from this perspective as one of noble political engagement orexcessive self-indulgence. The youth of the time, it seems, wereeither carrying banners in protest marches or they were destroyingtheir minds by wallowing in sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. Nowhere wasthere mention of the more subtle and less public activity associatedwith "dropping out" and "tuning in" to context shattering,consciousness expanding levels of transcendent awareness.This whole sense of transcendence is much more than a carryover fromthe 60s, however. There has probably been a felt sense of worldsunrealized since the first shamans went on their spirit journeys andreturned to tell their tales. Even this sense of "beyond" has beendismissed by the public as an illusion deriving from the desire toescape from reality with all its problems. The Zen writer D. T.Suzuki, however, has made it clear that transcendence is not anescape: "To 'transcend' suggests 'going beyond,' 'being away from,'that is, a separation, a dualism. I have, however, no desire to hintthat the 'something' stands away from the world in which we findourselves."( 22)It is bitterly ironic that actual moves made toward transcendentawareness have come to be seen as politically or personallyself-centered. The first obstacle encountered by anyone seeking anawakened mind is the image of one's own self. Whether usingpsychedelics or techniques of meditation, this ego-self must be faced,accepted, and passed through. This is not an easy thing to do andthose who felt the need to cling to their old ideas of selfhood oftenhad horrifying LSD experiences when that mirror of identity on whichthey depended seemed to lose its reality. Meditators who cannot getpassed this barrier soon suffer unbearable agitation and must give up.The very experience of satori is sometimes described as one of"no-self."(23)Those who are one day politically naïve and the next come to see thefabricated moral structure of the greater part of society may suddenlyfeel the need to strike back against these perceived lies andinjustices. In its sincerity, this is indeed "fighting the goodfight." The problem here is that too often these white knights ofradicalism have never encountered their own moral ambiguity and theprevarications by which they themselves live. In fact, one of theirmotivations for striking out against the perceived conspiracies of thepower elite may be to protect their self-concept: By projecting theirfear and anger onto externalized agents of oppression, they maypostpone indefinitely critical self encounters which might make themfeel diminished. This stance is as egocentric on the Left as on the Right.In any case, by breaking through the contexts of one's sociallyconstructed egocentric defenses, political engagement may follow as anecessary consequence. "To awaken can be painful, for it opens us to apoignant awareness of the pervasive waste of life around us and inus."(24) Thus seeking consciousness from within expanded contexts isnever selfish, but is, instead, the way out of selfishness.How far can consciousness expand? What levels might it reach? Theextreme edge of awakening seems to be full blown mystical experience,beyond explanation or language of any sort, beyond even sociallycreated contexts of consciousness (and probably well beyond theargument of this paper). This is the experience which has beendescribed by various traditions as satori, nirvana, moksha, or oceanicbliss. "Surely," I can hear the protests now, "to seek such bliss foroneself and ignore the plight of those less privileged is the heightof selfish irresponsibility! "Without protesting in return that expanded awareness knows noprivilege and without calling up distant Buddhist traditions of thebodhisattva, we can find a spokesperson who is both a mystic and arespected philosopher. Franklin Merrell-Wolff who died not long agowas a contemporary American who underwent the profound awakening andwrote about it in clear, empirical terms. For him, transformingoneself was only possible by forgetting oneself and working totransform the world:[T]he seeking of this Attainment is not simply for the sake ofone's own individual Redemption but for the sake of the Redemption ofhumanity as a whole and, in addition, of all creatures whatsoever,however humble they may be. He who forgets his own Attainment and hisown Redemption in seeking for the Attainment and Redemption of allcreatures, is following the Path which is most certain to involve thatvery Attainment and Redemption for himself. The motive should alwaysbe the good of all creatures, not one's own private good.(25)It seems clear as light that expanded consciousness is a very goodthing both for one's own existence, for the society in which onelives, and likely for the world itself. Such enlightened awarenessneed not attain to the contextless levels suggestedby Suzuki andMerrell-Wolff above, but might begin with something as simple asguided self-reflection— perhaps autobiographical writing andsharing—and the encouragement to undertake empathic feeling andrelentless critical thinking.Aligning oneself immovably with a political stance—whether that stancebe called Marxist, Christian conservative, or critical postmodern—onlyhardens the ego in an us-against-them posture. The way ofself-forgetting, on the other hand, is the way of service, mindexpanding precisely because the other becomes a presence inconsciousness, rather than a vague threat kept unconscious.Notwithstanding, the purpose of this paper has not been to make anyonewince by suggesting a return to a curricular directive of heightenedor even expanded consciousness. Since such decontextualized awarenessis perennial and everpresent, it need not be promoted or sought as anobjective. Its eventual return need only be awaited. Curriculumtheorists in the meantime, I would suggest, should avoid shutting outsuch hopeful potentials.Notes1. I myself was suspended from high school in 1967 after returningfrom Expo `67 in Montreal until I cut my hair above the collar anddressed "more responsibly. " In 1971, that same high school with thesame principal began its liberalization policies which allowedstudents to dress as they pleased and to take their high schoolthrough individualized contracts.(back)2. William Wordsworth, "Lines: Composed a Few Miles Above TinternAbbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13,1798." L. 95-6.(back)3. Though it could be argued that Plato called specifically forheightened consciousness for his philosopher- kings in The Republic orthat such was the goal of education in the gnostic/alchemicaltradition. Certainly many Eastern religions developed educationaltechniques to bring about the awakening from illusion.(back)4. E.g.: Carl R. Rogers, Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill,1969.(back)5. Even then, the influence and ubiquity of humanistic education andopen schools have been grossly exaggerated (as was the progressiveeducation before that). Most schools seemed to fall into an uncertainsomnolence, drifting without guidelines between permissiveness andtradition.(back)6. Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner, Teaching as a SubversiveActivity. New York: Delacorte Press, 1969.(back)7. George B. Leonard, Education and Ecstasy. New York: DelacortePress, 1968.(back)8. E.g.: Dwayne E. Huebner, "Curriculum as Concern for Man'sTemporality. " Theory into Practice, 6(4), 1967, 172-179. [Reprinted inW. Pinar (ed.), Curriculum Theorizing: The Reconceptualists (237-249).Berkeley: McCutchan, 1975.](back)9. E.g.: James G. Macdonald, "An Image of Man: The Learner Himself."In R. Doll (ed.), Individualizing Instruction (29-49). Washington, DC:ASCD, 1964.(back)10. Philip E. Phenix, Realms of Meaning: A Philosophy of theCurriculum for General Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.(back)11. William F. Pinar, (ed.), Curriculum Theorizing: TheReconceptualists. Berkeley: McCutchan, 1975. The best elucidation of"The Reconceptualization " is in the recent magisterial tome: WilliamF. Pinar, William M. Reynolds, Patrick Slattery, & Peter Taubman,Understanding Curriculum. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. (See,especially, chapter 4, "The Reconceptualization of the Field1970-1979".) (back)12. William F. Pinar (ed.), Heightened Consciousness, CulturalRevolution and Curriculum Theory: The Proceedings of the RochesterConference. Berkeley: McCutchan, 1974. (back)13. Pinar et al. Understanding Curriculum, 218-226.(back)14. Donald R. Bateman, "The Politics of Curriculum." In W. Pinar (ed),Heightened Consciousness, Cultural Revolution and Curriculum Theory:The Proceedings of the Rochester Conference (56-68). Berkeley:McCutchan, 1974, 66. [Also in Pinar et al., 222](back)15. William J. Pilder, "In the Stillness is the Dancing." In W. Pinar(ed), Heightened Consciousness, Cultural Revolution and CurriculumTheory: The Proceedings of the Rochester Conference (117-129).Berkeley: McCutchan, 1974, 125-6. [Also in Pinar et al., 223] Pilderapparently left the field to become a Jungian analyst.(back)16. Paul Klohr, "Curriculum Theory: The State of the Field." Columbus:Ohio State University, College of Education, unpublished manuscript.In Pinar et al., 224.(back)17. William F. Pinar, "An Introduction. " In W. F. Pinar (ed.),Heightened Consciousness, Cultural Revolution and Curriculum Theory:The Proceedings of the Rochester Conference (1-15). Berkeley:McCutchan, 1974, 15.(back)18. Daniel and Laurel Tanner, "Emancipation from Research: TheReconceptualist Prescription. " Educational Researcher, 8 (6). June,1979. 8-12.(back)19. William F. Pinar, "Introduction. " In W. Pinar (ed.), ContemporaryCurriculum Discourses (1-13). Scottsdale: Gorsuch Scarisbrick, 3.[Repeated in Pinar et al., 219.](back)20. This, despite well-documented research by Ronald K. Siegel(Intoxication. E. P. Dutton, 1989) showing that almost all sentientcreatures seek altered states or intoxication on occasion. Still,there are no research programs planned to develop a safe, nonaddictivedisinhibitor or stimulant. Research is underway to find painsuppressants that avoid the undesired (by doctors!) side effect ofeuphoria. All research on LSD and other psychedelics has been illegalsince the late 60s in spite of protests by experts in the field whostate that psychedelics may have potentially healing benefits in suchareas as addiction therapy and mental illness. And despite the factthat a majority of Americans use some sort of "drug" for pleasure.(back)21. Psychedelics— LSD, mescaline and such—tend toward visionaryexperience, allowing for soul- quakes or self-transcendence (to thebliss or horror of the experiencer) . They are not known to have anyphysical after-effects. Stimulants on the other hand—speed, cocaine,etc.—simply crank up the nervous system into "emergency alert" soreality is experienced as extravagantly intensified. The nervoussystem and organs of the body eventually pay the price for thisartificial adrenaline.( back)22. Daisetz T. Suzuki, "The Awakening of a New Consciousness in Zen."In J. Campbell (ed.), Man and Transformation: Papers from the EranosYearbooks (179-202). Bollingen Series XXX · 5. Princeton UniversityPress, 1964. First published in Eranos-Jahrbü cher XXIII, 1954. 179.(back)23. Suzuki, previously cited.(back)24. George Leonard & Michael Murphy, The Life We Are Given. New York:Putnam, 1995, 202.(back)25. Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Experience and Philosophy: A PersonalRecord of Transformation and a Discussion of TranscendentalConsciousness. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994, x..b b.b. nixon