Animism,1 Empathy and Human Development
Michael W. Fox The Humane Society of the United States
That people do feel pain when the earth is damaged is afflI1Iled by a Wintu Indian woman ofCalifornia who said, "We don't chop down trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything. The tree says, 'Don't. I am sore. Don't hurt me.' ... They blast rocks and scatter them on the ground. The rock says, 'Don't. You are hurting me."'} Such empathy lcads to a feeling of kinship with all life. Lakota ChiefLuther Standing Bear wrote: "Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water, was a real Surely it is time for us all to make every effort to evolve and active principle. For the animal and bird world there as a species and become more fully human. To be fully existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe human is to be humane. To be sub-human is to be among them and so elose did some of the Lakotas eome inhumane. In order to evolve in this way and become to their feathered and furred friends that in true more fully human we must defme and refine our ethical brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.,,3 Chief and spiritual responsibilities and sensibilities. And we Luther also asserted that lack of respect for growing, must redefine what it means to be human. 'Ine origin of living things soon led to lack ofrespect for humans also. the word human is rooted in such terms as humus, Australian aboriginal elder Bill Neidjie in the book humility and humane. Then we may evolve socially and Kakadu Man (Angus and RobertsOn NSW Australia biologically, as our behavior, appetites, needs, values 1986) puts it this way: and relationships change. I feel it with my body, with by blood. Feeling Feeling for Others: Panempathy all these trees, all this country. When the wind blow you can feel it. Same for country... You The word religion, like the word yoga, means to become feel it. You can look, butfeeling... t/zat make spiritually reconnected. But by what means do we you. Feeling make you, out there in open establish this connection? And to what exactly do we space. He coming through your body. Look become connected? Our inherent divinity is not actualized or released until we become truly religious, developing the yoga of body-mind integration and harmonic resonance with the inherent divinity in all sentient beings. The powers and potentialities of becoming a fully human, panempathetic being, are RELIGION realized once we begin to reconnect will} the sacred, numinous dimension of reality.
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while he blow and feel with your body... themselves to be intimate with the woods let the trees Because tree just about your brother and become their teachers and healers. father and tree is watching you... lfyoufeel sore headache, sore body, that mean some The "Powers" of Animals and Nature body killing tree or grass. You feel because your body in that tree or earth Nobody can Certainly without the ability to empathize, our ancestors tell you. You got to feel it yourself. would have learned very little about the ways and "powers" of animals. The success of gatherer and What and how we feel about trees, grass and all the hunter, and later agricultural communities would have living and pre-living elements and components of our depended as much on objective, instrumental know life community affect" our perception and behaviorand ledge as on empathic resonance with and understanding is greatly influenced by our beliefs and spirituality. Bill of animals, plants and ecosystems. Neidjie is a believing animist who lives and breathes in Indeed, much ecosystem and animal knowledge was a way of feeling and sensing, and therefore of knowing incorporated into the laws, rituals, taboos and religion and understanding, that is alien to most western of earlier peoples. Many of their ills-{;ollective and "civilized" minds. He sees through feral eyes. To see in individual, were (and still are) often correctly diagnosed this way, the late Sioux medicine man Fools Crow told and treated because an ecological or environmental me, is to see in a sacred way. element was identified and corrected: like killing too Philosopher Martin Buber is one European with such many deer, felling too many trees; having too many vision. In his book I - Thou he writes that, "It can also cattle and offspring. We and our domesticated animals happen ifwill and grace are joined, thatas I contemplate developed new diseases, and the surviving wildlife also, the tree I am drawn into a relation and the tree ceases to when we dammed rivers and made swamps, developed be an It... What I encounter is neither the soul of a tree unnatural monocultures (biologically and conceptually) nor a dryad, but the tree itself." Or as the Buddhists and when we depleted the soils of their life and nutrient say, 'The thing in itself." value to what we grew and ate. The "otherness" of an animal Buber describes Animism facilitates an empathic rather than an eloquently in Between Man and Man when he strokes objective mechanistic and reductionistic approach to a horse at his grandparent'" estate..."I must say that human health and prosperity. And it leads to empathic what I experienced in touch with the animal wa" the knowledge, the vital complement, catalyst and Other, which, however, did not remain strange like the corrective for our scientific, objective knowledge base. otherness of the ox and the ram, but rather let me draw We have, regrettably, developed significantly in the ncar and touch it. ..and yet it let me approach, confided latter rcalm socially, economically and technologically. itself to me, placed itself elementally in the relation of Satellite systems and computer nets, along with our Thou and 1110u with me." In my book The Soul o/the prowess at manipulating the atoms of matter and the Wolf, I described this as communion with a significant genes oflife to serve the illimitable wants ofindustrialism responsive Other, the wolf being 'the otherness of I.' and consumerism, become an assault on the biosphere This is the essence of communion. and OIl humanity when there is no ethical temperance Our spiritual autism has now become so severe, and reverential respect for life. Enlightened animism and our egotism and anthropocentrism so alienating constrains us, along with empathic knOWledge, from from the rest of the Earth's life community that we commoditizing life and from becoming a global parasite. wantonly destroy whole forests, watersheds, and What do the materialists and instrumental rationalists wildlife habitats and unique plant and animal species who applaud our splitting ofatoms and splicing ofgenes without any feeling or sense except to make paper for think animists might feel, emparhetically about nuclear computers and raise cattle for hamburgers. Such trivial fission and transgeneic animals and plants? ends to millions of years of biological evolution that Wedmve"power" from our totems, like thePueblo lIXlian is being irreplaceably obliterated, along with the saying, ''My help is in the mountain that I take away with peoples who for generations maintained a more me." This spiritual power or JlSydJic energy can be drawn sustainable, if not also a gentler way of life, must be upon in times of need. Animals and pl,U1ts, thunderbolts stopped. There is no future in it. Tho~ who allow and mountains, serve variolls symbolic functions today
Summer & Fall 1995 13/ Between the Species Animism, Empathy and Human Development
on coats ofanns, national, regiooal and milituy flags, logos, My help is in the mountain stunps, emblems, etc. Their toIemic use therefoce rontinues Where I take myself to heal in modem society while their powers and animistic The earthly wounds significance have h:'.en variously forgotten, forbidden, or That people give to me. deln<;OO. Itiii no mincidence, for example, that the lion, once I find a rock with sun on it apure totemic symbol ofpower, was coopted as a symbol of And a stream wherc the water runs gentle power by the British monarchy, among other rulers, and by And the trees which one by one give me company. various manufacturers and product advertisers from So must I stay for a long time motorbikes to tea and syrup! Until I have grown from the rock I recently asked a Tanzanian tribal elder and wildlife And the stream is running through me ecologist Prof. Dco-Gratias Gamassa whatis the deepest And I cannot tell myself from one talI tree. significance of animals, like the lion and elephant, to Then I know that nothing touches me Africans. His immediate response was, "Power." Nor makes me run away. This generic "power" has many dimensions, from My help is in the mountain using various animal parts for healing and divination That I take away with me. to rites of initiation, ceremonial purposes, and calling Earth cure me. Earth receive my woe. up the spirit of the totem animal in order to gain psychic Rock strengthen me. Rock receive my weakness. energy from its particular attributes. A feather, tooth or Rain wash my sadness away. Rain receive my doubt. bone can therefore embody to the animist, much more Sun make sweet my song. Sun receive the anger than the "realist" or materialist can ever sense or from my heart.4 appreciate. That an eagle's feather, ivory amulet, or wolf-bone flute would be worth far more than money Animism plays an important role in healing, as when can buy and more than a perfect dianlOnd or gold nugget our soul (or higher Self) and personalities are not to the animist, attests to the very different realities and integrated, and when our relationships with others, value systems that people live by. lacking spiritual resonance, cause harm and suffering. Hyemeyohost Storm in his book Seven Arrows says The prevention and reversal of many diseased that, "Any idea, person, or object can be a Medicine conditions, as conventional medicine demonstrates in Wheel, a mirror, for man. the finest flower can be such its limited, rcductionistic and mechanistic/materialistic a mirror, a wolf, a story, a touch, a religion, or a approach to healing, depend upon understanding the mountain top." In his book, The Sacred and The spiritual and psychic components of disease and well Profane, The Nature of Religion, Mircea Eliade being. As the late Dr. Edward Bach observes, "Disease explained the shift in perception from profane to sacred is in itself beneficent, and has for its object the bringing that occurs when we have feral vision as follows: 'The back of the personality to the Divine will of the Soul."5 sacred tree, the sacred stone are not adored as stone or He sees the real primary diseases ofman as such defects tree; they are worshipped precisely because they are as pride, fear, cruelty, hate, self-love, ignorance, hierophanies, because they show something that is no instability and greed. longer stone or tree but sacred, the ganz andere or 'wholly other.'" Spiritual Development
Nature Heals; Natural Healing Animals, plants and Nature have played an immeas urable role in our psychic and spiritual development. Just as the earth and living things can be banned and Like the infant who instinctively strives to achieve suffer in their ways, so they can be healed and heal us. the physical transformation from crawling to walking, We should therefore also consider that if the healing so there seems to be an instinctual urge to achieve powers of Nature can help heal us, then when we have spiritual self-transformation. The "powers" of animals, harmed them, made them sick, they will probably harm plants and Nature therefore not only heal, inform and us and make us sick. inspire. They can also playa role in our spiritual A Taos Pueblo Indian poem expresses how Nature transformation and acquisition of feral vision by (as heals him in the following words: the above self-healing statement by the Taos Pueblo
Between the Species 132 Summer & Fall 1995 Animism, Empathy and Human Development
Indian attests) literally getting us outside of our Art ofLoving states that "The Aristotelian standpoint ego-centered, anthropocentric consciousness. Such led to dogma and science, to the Catholic Church and transcendence and way of being is facilitated by to the discovery of atomic energy." animism, and also totemism and panentheism. These The pathology of modem industrial consumer should not be confused with anthropomorphizing. society is a combination of objectivism, materialism Anthropomorphic thinking, narcissism and anthro and narcissism that is self and Earth negating and pocentrism are coins of the same currency of destroying. The antidotes this age is beginning to awareness and perception. Animism and pancntheism6 rediscover, as in ages past is that we will only be well, enable us to begin to develop a whole new currency as Black Elk said, "when we learn to live in harmony of awareness and understanding ofanimals, plants and with the Power of the World as it lives and moves and Nature which, from the analogy of the infant learning does its work." Two of our powers, the ability to have to walk, is a more mature and enlightened stage of empathy and to believe in animism, arc our for the human consciousness. taking: but not the genes and lives of other species, or In letting go our attachments to things, ideas, fears the integrity and future of Creation. and desires, and believing that trees and other natural The human species, in its present state (and creations are sentient, we become open to them. When developmental stage) has regressed in its evolution we are open, we are able to empathize, to communicate from predator to parasite, and from parasite to a self at a pre-linguistic level with other sentient beings. consuming Plague. Until it begins to develop feral They "talk" to us when we have communion with vision, empathize and embrace animism and panen them. Our lives are then not only enriched. Our entire theism in spirit and action expressed in reverential perspective changes and the human ego is cast aside respect for all life, the human species will not evolve. like the shell or case of a more immature life-form It will not pass the test of becoming a fully human, and stage in our metamorphosis. New powers and rather than some chimeric, schizoid, half-god, possibilities are gifted to us, some as inconceivable half-demon, half-mother, half-murderer, half-lover, as flight and great distance must seem to caterpillars half-rapist monster. yet to become Monarch butterflies. It is as unfair to blame Aristotle for tile legions of So it is with the development of the human spirit rationalists, the materialists and tile anti-animist'> a'> it and potential. Our collective development, bonnded by is to blame our parents and their generation for the the rampant egotism of our industrial consumer society, chaos and suffering on Earth today, and for our ills is being arrested, trapping us in a perniciously and unfulfilled longings. It is an immature humanity persevering stage of adolescence (or addled-essence). that looks to others-God, King, President, or Our liberation therefore entails liberating the rest of Government, to solve its ills; or worse, to instruments creation-trees, rivers, and all creatures great and of war, to improve their condition, zone of comfort, small-from the tyranny of human immaturity, that is and power. And it is an immature humanity that sees manifest as arrogance, ignorance and greed. those who are animistic empaths as being "over emotional," "irrational," "sentimentally immature" Balancing Mind and Earth and "unrealistic." Pity those who see empathy as an extrasensory, psychic ability and not a latent sense in Vice-PresidcntAI Gore has one picture in his book Earth all of us. Pity more those who see empathy and in the Balance. It shows Plato debating with Aristotle. empathizing as something illusory, unreal, mystical, What balancing the Earth entails (and which Al Gore pagan, subversive, and incomprehensibly alien to their did not fully address) begins with us not dismissing limited sense of self and unity with all life. Plato, and his nco-Platonic school of transcendental Albert Einstein described his vision of the unity of animism, and only embracing Aristotle's grounded life in a letter to the New York Post (November 28, 1972) rational and instrumental materialism, as Gore in which he wrote: unwittingly urges, but an integration of animism and materialism; of spirit and matter; body and soul; feeling A human being is part of the whole, called (and empathic knowledge) and objectivity (and by us the 'Universe', a part limited in time scientific knowledge). Erich Fromm in his book The and space. He experiences himself, his
Summer & Fall 1995 133 Between lhe Species Animism. Empathy and Human Development
tiloughts and feelings as something separate Right Relationship: The Spiritual Ethic from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of Though many people claim to be devoutly religious, prison for us, restricting us to our personal their lack of reverential respect for fellow creatures desires and to affection for a few persons and Creation-tile natural world-reflects a lack of nearest to us. Our task must me to free respect and devotion for tile Creator. Therefore we ourselves from this prison by widening our should inquire as to tile nature of tileir religion, and circle of compassion to embrace all living what ends it serves. creatures and the whole ofnature in its beauty. If we were in our right minds, we would be in Nobody is ablc to achieve this completely, right-relationship: In right relationship and right but the striving for such achievcment is in mindfulness with each other and Nature, we would itself a part of the liberation and a foundation enjoy world peace and thc benefits ofa healthy environ for inner security. ment; and with animals we would enjoy their gifts and powers, fmding no justification to cause them harm and Ecologist Gregory Bateson, in Steps to An Ecology suffering and dcath and extinction as wc do today. ojMind, gives a more ecological, ruther than a mystical 1M world'smajorreligions have always encouraged view of what animists see as divine intelligence in right-relationship, which is based primarily upon the Nature. He contends that: hallowing covenant of reverential respect, be it for the land, for our own kind or for plants and other animals. The individual mind is immanent but not only This is right mindfulness. in the body. It is immanent also in pathways Pre-industrial civilizations had various rites of and messages outside the body; and there is a initiation, rituals and belief systems (including larger Mind of which the individual mind is animism, totemism) and language structures that on ly a sub-system. This large Mind is enabled its members to develop their feral vision, comparable to God and is perhaps what some experience the S
Between the Species /34 Summer & Fall 1995 Animism, Empathy and Human Development
system "animistic." Yet as a culture, we still hold to some The earth has roots, and the rool" belong to the soil. If of the vestiges of animism when we make arbitrary (and you cut a hole in the wi! you have damaged the earth. often capricious) distinction between the living (wolves You must therefore be certain it is necessary."s and woods) and the non-living (rocks and rivers). Humanism, in its most pernicious and arrogant mode of instrumental materialism, leads to a non-sustainable economy and way of life. Animism, the antithesis of humanism, is no panacea, but a signpost pointing our way toward a different way of life and of seeing and conceiving our place and role on Earth. Religious reasons aside, a major reason for dismissing animism is because it is seen as being primitive superstition, which is unscientific. Since the "objective" tools of science cannot determine if rocks and rivers are alive or enspirited, and whether trees and lakes can suffer, or animals really have feelings, then it is reasoned that animism (also termed pansychism) is irrational. It is an anthropomorphic or anthropopsychic projection whereby we erroneously endow other non-human, "non-living" and "living" entities with feelings, spirit, divinity. However, I believe that animism is a less distorted and dysfunctional state of mind than humanism and scientism. Itis our natural, normal, healthy stale of mind that leads to a more life affinning, sustaining and self-actualizing way ofbeing that is the antithesis ofboth anthropocentrism and anthropomorphizing. It is the first step toward a more anthropo-cosmic world view. This worldview begins to take form when we are able to accomplish a kind of conceptual and perceptual integration and synesthcsia particularly in how we sense Animism: The God-Within and feel in relation to other beings as subjects/objects. (As a Taoist would say, when we objectify the To our ancestors, and to some modem thinkers, subjective, and become one with the object, then the biologists, ecologists and thc{)retical physicists, rocks way of harmony will be found). and rivers are as living in their ways and as giving to life as part of the life process, as are wolves and woods Integrating the Subjective and the Objective and whales and woodpeckers. But when we treat the seemingly inanimate (i.e., un-enspirited, dis-godded) We can sense, objectively, in a detached, impartial way, components of the life-community as non-living, but not completely until all memories and associations non-sacred, we disrupt the living [''Nth system and lkmn are set aside. Pure objectivity in the realm of the senses ourselves in the process. is thus extremely difficult to achieve, although it is one Reverential respect for Nature means avoiding of the blessings and memories of childhood. To see, causing wanton harm or injury. This principle of taste, touch, smell or hear anything as though for the nonviolence was of instrumental value since it helped frrst time is to open a new door every day. constrain actions that would be ecologically damaging. We can also sense subjectively, in a wholly selfless ATaos Indian, for example, advised, "Do not move the yet feelingful way. Through our senses we become aware rock or anything placed in its place by God. Not a leaf of and receptive to the feelings and conditions or state of from a tree nor a bird from its nest nor a spieler's silver being of others. The more selfless we are, the more tlrread. These things will fall soon enough in their time. "otherness" we can experience as we sense and feel and
Szwuner & Fall 1995 135 Between the Species Animism, Empathy and Human Development
know. In oilier words, ilie ego, our central point of A Simple Exercise conscious reference. is no longer exclusively in the self. or in the other (or object of one's attention). Railier. find a place where trees and shrubs have not been consciousness is relational and arises when iliere is planted by people and where ideally there is some free resonance between subject and object. I and 'Ibou. The running water or a pond or shoreline. or some cliffs or quality of that resonance is detennined by our senses gorge that wild creatures may still dwell. Just walk about and empailiy and by the balance between our dual yet slowly and carefully, mindful that your presence causes complementary modes of sensing and relating. namely the least disturbance to all iliat is around you, above the objective and the subjective. When these two modes you and beneath your feet. Let your breathing fall in are in harmony. like the strings on a finely tuned musical rhythm with your stride and the lay of ilie land. Feel instrument, anew dimension ofhuman porential is realized. the breeze. sniff the air. At comfortable intervals, stand Philosopher Martin Buber proclaims."SUbjectivism still and close your eyes. Listen. is psychologization while objectivism is reification of As you open your eyes. slowly turn in a clockwise God: One a false fixation, the other a false liberation; circle so that you face the Four Directions. When you both departures from the way ofactuality, both attempts feel like it, continue your walkabout, allowing ilie terrain to find a substitute for it." For Buber, "The demanding to guide you in whatever direction feels right. Stop and silence of fonns (of nature), the loving speech ofhuman close your eyes and circle any time you wish. beings, tIle eloquent muteness ofneatures---all ofthese Make a mental note of any particular sensation, are gateways into the presence of the word." natural formation or some plant or creature, or a Experience is the foundation of belief. Such is the particular stone, maybe a feather or a bone that power of the animist's feral way of sensing, feeling touched you in some way. If you feel an urge to take and knowing the sacred in woods and wolves. Belief someiliing iliat you found, or iliat found you, on your alone cannot be a viable basis for a meaningful and walkabout. take it with the understanding iliat it will fulfilling life wiiliout experiential affinnation. It is be returned in ilie future. If it is alive, like a cactus casicr to believe what we scnse and feel than to shape or a snail. it is probably best left where you found it and distort our perceptions, feelings and cognition to since even removing it for a short time might cause tit what we believe to be true. Is it not a perversion of hann. Bones. shells, rocks and dead portions of Christianity and of any religion to force certain beliefs plants, including roots and seeds, are all part of the on people that are contrary to their feelings and place you are visiting and should be returned at perceptions of something sacred in Nature? And to some future time. their intuitive understanding iliat all living beings are When you have returned from your walkabout, as ensouled and of the same divine process of empty your pockets and mind and ask yourself, what conception and manifestation as they are themselves? the particular things iliat caught your attention or that Animism and pansychism are belief systems derived you took back with you "said" to you. What from experiencing the sacred and that enable ilie sacred unexpected idea or meaning suddenly came to you as dimension of reality to be experienced. Through a "gift" from some natural object. Write it down and panempathy, our capacity to have feeling for other living if it has a powerful visual component, try making a beings, communities, systems and processes leads to sketch of it. the theology and spirituality of panentheism. This is This simple exercise is a first step into the the natural developmental progression from more experiential realm of animism, where natural things primitive fonns ofanimism, pantheism. and polytheism speak to you and where some iliings that find you have that in their ancient origins have more to offer us than a particular power or personal significance. These are contemporary monotheism. humanism, instrumental totemic objects. They give you power and "good rationalism and scientific detenninism. These latter medicine" a<; you find meaning and significance in conceptual fabrications of anthropocentrism are them. Your animistic relationship wiili your totem is a<; heretical and primitively crude compared to the unpremeditated as it is unmediated exceptby the power blossoming of a humanity that consciously manifests or spirit ofilie object itselfthat "caught" your attention its inherent divinity through right mindfulness and and via your senses evoked certain feelings. memories, relationship with all sentient life. associations and awakened your feral vision.
Between the Species 136 Summer & Fall 1995 Animism, Empathy and Human Development
Animism and Human Purpose all beings, a<; in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, we are in communion. Living in In the absence ofany appreciation for the intrinsic value communion, we learn how to become fully human. We of other living beings that are valued only in terms of cease to be the only mammaI thatbreeds before itmaturcs, their human utility, they are emptied of spirit; and then rarely. And we then follow what nativeAmcrican unensouled. Animism thus plays an important role in Indians call our "original instructions." Grandfather enabling us to reconnect with the spirit or divinity within David Monongye puts it this way: "The original other beings and Creation. It helps prevent us from instructions of the Creator arc universal and valid for all ultimately dis-Godding the entire cosmos, and ourselves time. The essence of these instructions is compassion in the process. A purely instrumental and materialistic for all life and love for all creation. We must realize that attitude toward life is the bane of contemporary we do not live in a world ofdead matter, butin a universe industrial-consumer society. When we deny life its of living spirit. Let us open our eyes to the sacredness of sanctity and divinity, we demean our own lives. Mother Earth, or our eyes will be opened for US."9 Animism, panempathy and panentheism help liberate us from the emotional, cognitive and perceptual prison Spirit and Soul of anthropocentrism. They help us regain our feral vision. Such liberation is the antidote to our spiritual The spirit is not in the body. Rather, the body is in the autism, freeing us to develop those human potentials spirit. The spirit is universal and is described by some that, through empathy and compassion, enable us to as being the essence of truth, beauty, goodness, hannony heal and to be healed. We thus make ourselves more and peace. We feel these things and experience the fully human and in the process enable our own inherent clarity of wisdom and tile compassion of an open heart divinity to shine forth. Our place and purpose in being when our consciousness is connected and at one with human is then revealed to us. As intermediaries or this universal spirit. interlocutors between the Creator and the powers and The mind is our bridge between the body (and the processes of Creation, our sacred purpose is given physical world) and the spirit. If we define "soul" as clarity and direction, and inspiration. How and what the union of body and spirit, what is ensouled or we feel about other living beings and Nature's clements cmbodied in us is universal spirit. The content of the and creations, determines how and in what way we soul is universal spirit, and our individual awareness of perceive, understand and relate to them. How and what the spirit or inherent divinity within is our soul we feel are profoundly influenced by our culture and consciousness. The degree of such awareness and by the example of parents and teachers. consciousness varies from individual to individual and Panentheism moves the Christian doctrine of from species to species. Enlightenment is essentially transcendence toward the doctrine of immanence. The the realization of the universal nature of the Self, the idea that Christ is within Creation (as the logos, the individuated soul being seen as a minute droplet in the ordering, informing and sustaining principle of the ocean of universal spirit or "Oversou!." cosmos that is manifested in all life and matter) is Animism, therefore, is a beliefsystem that facilitates expressed in John 1:34. "All things were made through an empathic and cognitive cOIll1ecting of the individual's Him, and without Him was not made anything that was soul with the universal spirit and with the souls of other made. In Him was life and the life was the life of men." sentient beings at a level that is consciously experienced The "child-within" is the soul-seed that is nurtured and directed by ethical considerations. by the God-without to become one as the God-within. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer saw the When we become opened to the world in this deepest world with feral vision like Bill Neidjie, stating: "My and most fundamental way, Nature becomes our teacher, own true inner being actually exists in every living healer. Her powers become ours as sacred gifts that creature as truly and immediately as known to my wisdom informs we cannot abuse or use for selfish ends, consciousness only in myself. This realization, for for then we harm ourselves. which the standard formula in Sanskrit is tat (vam asi, When our soul-consciousness is in resonance with (thou art that), is the ground of that compassion upon the Buddha-Light or sacred dimension of the life-force which all true, tllat is 10 say unselfish, virtue rests and and life-field around us, above us, beneatilus, and within whose expression is in every go(xl deed."
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Reverence is Absolute perversely anthropocentric form. It cannot be condoned on cultural or religious grounds since there My friend Thomas Berry says that reverence will be are pharmaceutical, herbal, homeopathic and other absolute or not at all. In one sense, it must embrace all effective medical alternatives like acupuncture and beings, plants and animals, ecosystems and "natural cleansing diets. resources." This is because when we start making There are other cultural and religious traditions and distinctions and exceptions, we begin to disrupt the practices that involve animal suffering and killing with sacred order, natural diversity and interdependence of an animistic component that are also unethical and life forms that we should not judge from the cannot be justified on the grounds ofreligious freedom anthropocentric yardstick of useful and useless, and cultural preservation. These include ritual slaughter hannful and beneficial. and mutilation, as in Voodoo and Santeria cults; public Reverence must be absolute in a bioregional sense torture, mutilation and killing of bulls in religious also. It's no use if one community is endeavoring to festivals (Saint's days), especially in Spain and Central establish a sustainable, hallowing covenant with their and South America; tying fuecrackers to foxes and ecozone while other communities occupying the same releasing them into the forests in India; killing lions watersbed/foodshed are trashing and polluting their own with spears in Africa as a test of manhood. ecozones that are part of the same bioregion. The The killing of animals for subsistence rather than "multiplier effect" of different communities beginning for commercial purposes by traditional peoples often to establish a reverential covenant of sustainable usc has ritualistic and animistic components linked with with the land and the natural resources in their region, religious beliefs and ceremonies. Animals should be is the only economically viable future for their spared suffering and endangered species protected. descendants. Ecojustice, social justice and transgen Commercial exploitation is unacceptable, even if it is erational equity are the ethical, legal and political fruits claimed to include animistic and otber culturally of bioregionally sustainable community organization significant components, since commercialism is and covenanting. Reverence will be absolute, or not at nontraditional and almost invariably nonsustainable and all. These fruits will be well earned. Now is the time to culturally eroding. sow the seeds and plant the trees. Since compassion and reverential respect are the most widely accepted spiritual principles ofall religious Primitive Animism faiths and denominations, the abuse and killing of animals on the grounds ofcultural tradition and religious A primitive fonn of animism persists today in the use freedom is unethical and barbaric. of amulets and in folk medicines made from various The increasing trade in various wildlife parts animal parts, especially in the Orient. Specific cures, turtle shell rauIe, decorated bear skulls and wolf such as relief from fever, rheumatism, or asthmas and pelts-for use in nco-pagan cult rituals that are more general 'tonic' effecL~ and increased libido are becoming popular with Western Caucasians seeking hased to a large measure on the animistic belief that a closer religious communion with animals and nature, one can gain physical and psychological benefits from is to be deplored. The taking ofany animal's life except assimilating various body parts ofanimals that contain when there is no alternative to insure one's own certain unique essences or qualities. Hence the cruel survival, is a total contradiction of the empathic trade in animal parts, from bear gall bladders and rhino animist's world view, since the real powers ofanimals horn to snake oil and tiger bone continues. This fonn arc in their being and not in their killing, or of animism should be eradicated since it is a disease dismembered parts. of anthropopsychism and superstitious belief that is surely far more serious than any of the ailments that Old Beliefs for New Ways these animal-based folk medicines might ever alleviate. To kill the last few rhinos and tigers on Life, to the animist, is the greatest gift and mystery. It Earth, to "farm" deer for their antlers and velvet and is divine process and presence. And it is from feeling to keep bears in captivity with abdominal cannulas to and sensation, that all thought and meaning, language collect their bile is animism in its most barbaric and and the great arts of imitation, celebration and
Between the Species 138 Summer & Fall 1995 Animism, Empathy and HUTl1nn Development
communion, arise. But when we do not feel and perceive and by the mnemonic catechisms of progress, t.he sacred, what ever arises from us in t.hought and efficiency and productivity as espoused by the action will be less than our full measure and potential. pundits and advocates of industrial growth and Animism helps us return to and rediscover our rool';, medical experimentation on animals. our Sacred Connections. This is as important to Every animist believes that the Earth is alive. The humanity as it is for the forests. Neit.her can continue Gaia hypothesis that proposes the Earth is a complex, wit.hout roots. living breathing and self-regulating organism is as Humanity is rooted in Crcation, and thus connected much a product of animism as it is of ecological wit.h thc cntire Cosmos of sentient life and immanent science. We are learning that the biosphere has an divinity. We will rediscovcr our humanity when we atmosphere that we are disrupting as we ravage resacralize all that we have desecrated, and with the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Animism shows us wisdom of Plato and Aristotle combined build lbe New another sphere of reality, the planetary empatMsphere Republic t.hat is centered in the boundless circle and which is the resonant dimension of feeling that sentient et.hics ofcompassion: And which will be the womb and life creates and participates in. Separated from the cradle for a more humane society. A society that is as empathosphere, our individual development and global in its scope of concern as it is universal in its species' evolution are crippled by spiritual autism. It truth and relevance. is from this cmpathospherc, through panempathy, that Ideas and beliefs are like genes. They are called the human spccics begins to rcalizc new powers and mnemes, and can affect human behavior and destiny wisdom to bring balance and harmony in every aspect as profoundly, and even override, the latent wisdom of our existence, and especially in our application of and pathology of our genes. Animism and panen scientific knowledge and technological innovations theism are significant mnemes, like ahimsa and that cannot be directed to serve purely materialistic reverence for all life. and egotistic ends. These mnemes activate our various feelings and influence what we think and sense. They influence how Postscript and what we feel, and how we behave, relate and structure reality. The realities of those who embrace 'Ibe New Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University animism, ahimsa and belief in reincarnation or Press, 1975) provides the following concise definition redemption are very different from thosc who cmbrace of animism as such notions as human superiority, animals not being cnsouled, or having fcclings, and all mattcr as being as belief that within every object dwells an devoid of any spirit as any landscape or place is void of individual spirit or force that governs its anything numinous and sacred. existence. It has been said that upon this This plethora of different and often conflicting concept rests the historic structure of religion. realities is part of the human process of development Since primitive man did not distinguish and evolution. We must embrace this plethora of between animate and inanimate objects or ideological and cultural diversity with the same between physical and mental processes, respect and enthusiasm as we are beginning to do everything in the universe was thought to with regard for biodiversity and its protection. have its own individuality. Men, animals, Otherwise we will not transcend the limitations of plants, stones. as weB as emotions, dreams, monocultures, monarchies, monotheists and and ideas alike, were regarded as having monopolists! Our plurality is our potentiality and our indwelling spirits. More generalized is the 10 future, hence the importance of not discarding such idea of mana which originated among ancient and valuable mnemes as ahimsa, animism and Melanesians of t.he South Seas. A kind of panentheism, that have helped sustain human transcendental force, mana is thought to be the communities for millennia. We will not be sustained spirit that pervades all objects and things and in body or spirit, by the many mnemes that have is responsible for the good and evil in the become culturdlnOfIlls, like anti-cUlimism, materialism, universe. In philosophy, the term animism is secular humanism, racism, sexism and speciesism; applied to the doctrine that the principle of life,
Summer & Fall 1995 139 Between the Species Animism, Empathy and Human Development
called the vital force, cannot be reduced to the mechanistic laws ofphysics and chemistry, but is separate and distinct from matter. Books Received Notes Carol J. Adams & Josephine Donovan, editors 1The belief that all life is produced by a spiritual force, or ANIMALS & WOMEN that all things in nature have a soul. Websters New World Feminist Theoretical Explorations Dictionary. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995 introduction, 352p with notes, bibliography, 2 Quotation in Dorothy Lee (1959) Freedom and Culture. Englew\xld Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, p. 118. notes on contributors, index $54.95 cloth/$17.95 paper 3 Chief Luther Standing Bear (1900) Land ofthe Spotted Eagles. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 195. Clay Lancaster 4Cited in Nancy Wood (ed.) (1972) Hollering Sun. New THE BREADTH AND DEPTH OF EAST York: Simon & Schuster. AND WEST A Survey and an Assessment of Civilization 5 P. 11 in Heal Thyself (1931). Walder, Essex, UK. c.w. Daniel Co. Ltd.. Ba"ed on Universal Considerations Salvisa, KY: Warwick Publications, 1995 6 Panentheism is the belief that divinity is in all as all is in preface, 547 p with notes, list of illustrations, God. For further discussion see M.W. Fox (1995), The index Boundless Circle: Caring for Creatures and Creation. $42.50 cloth Wheaton, Illinois. Quest Books.
7 J. McDaniel. Christian spirituality as openness to fellow Evelyn B. Pluhar creatures. Environmental Ethics 8:33-46. 1986. THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE Or HUMAN 8Cited in Nancy Wood (cd.) (1972) Hollering Sun. Ncw AND NONHUMAN ANIMALS York: Simon & Schuster. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995 foreward, preface, 301p, notes, selected 9 Letter to the United Nations, GcncralAssembly, in New bibliography, index Age, December 1988, p. 88. $49.95 cloth/$19.95 paper 10 In other cultures this vital force is called chi, prana, shakti, kundalini.
Between the Species 140 Summer & Fall 199.