A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain (Part 4)

If it's true that every individual brain is like a single neuron in the global brain, we are all connected at an invisible level. In itself this isn't a radical statement: scholars of art and myth have discovered countless similarities between cultures that were historically isolated from one another. The hero's quest, for example, cannot be claimed as unique to any one civilization. On a more mundane level, there is the sudden emergence of copper mining and smelting in parts of the world that occurred at the same time in widely diverse locations. The old assumption that a new technology started in one region and spread in a linear fashion to other regions seems not to be true. The global brain has always been thinking on a world scale.

What remains is this question: What is the best way to participate in the global brain? This isn't a theoretical problem, because global warming, over-population, and pandemic disease are forcing us to think outside old boundaries. The following suggestions might make the transition to global thinking more feasible.

--Colonialism must end once and for all.
--Each nation needs to be sensitive to the values of other nations.
--Individuals need to think outside ethnic and national borders.
--Nativism and protectionism must be seen as outmoded reactions to diversity.
--Economic equality should be seen as good for the whole world, not as a loss to richer nations and a gain to poorer ones.

To the extent that these changes are welcomed, the global brain can think as a whole. Otherwise, we find ourselves in a repeat of the age-old struggle between the lower and higher brain. Nativism, as displayed by many opponents of immigration in this country, is the same primitive defensive reaction that the lower brain exhibits when a perceived enemy approaches, only writ large. Protectionism is the social equivalent of "us versus them" thinking that is another lower-brain response to external threats.

Colonialism is less primitive but equally outmoded, since it is based on a typical ego response. If I am better than you, then I need no other excuse to place you on a lower order of humanity. In many ways the Iraq war is an egregious holdover from colonialism, in that a "civilized" higher power (i.e., Christian white males backed up by technology) invaded another country to bestow democracy on lesser mortals.

A more pressing challenge is to evolve beyond nations and tribes. Both are closed systems and thus they stand in opposition to wholeness. The human brain will die if partitioned into separate regions without communication, and in turn the body will die. Translated to the world scale, our planet is slowly dying because divisions between states and peoples generates a lethal form of competition. The U.S. continues to be the leading polluter of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, for example, because we blindly follow an outworn concept (the nation state) that encourages selfish, uncontrolled growth no matter what harm that may bring outside our borders.

The good news is that switching into global thinking has happened with surprising speed, and emerging nations like China and to a lesser extent India want to expand into a world that has a future, as opposed to the reactionary U.S. administration whose chief goal is to protect the privileged lifestyle of the past. No doubt that will soon change. The majority of Americans understand that global thinking is the only survival mode we have left to us. When we are willing to change, there will be even more rapid response from collective consciousness.

Click: www.intentblog.com

www.deepakchopra.com

Comments

[mommamia526]

How does one switch to global thinking on an individual level? And, Dr. Chopra, if you speak of the global brain, and global thinking, are you referring to a mind or mindset which includes the whole globe, instead of community, country, region, etc. To me, global thinking is a way of being open, hearing, seeing, awareness. It is a creative mode. In such a mode solutions, creations (such as music and stories) appear to come not from inside, but rather from a source outside of us. Judaism has the Sh'ma, and one says, every day, Hear, oh Israel. One must hear first. And see, and meet the other, not through a priority set standards. In the jewish bible, we see Abraham, with his tent, open on four sides, running out to greet the stranger. We also see how strangers are welcomed and turn out to be angels with a message. We do this on a less lofty level as well. Connect to the other through the eyes to the soul. As for a practical issue, there are many similarities I have noticed between Indian customs and jewish ones, although I do not know what the Indian ones mean. For example, the cow is holy in India, and in the bible the cow also represents holiness. Those who study and practice kabbalah may wear a red string to ward off the evil eye, and Indian sikh girls wear exactly the same red string coming from a wedding ceremony. Kabbalah, by the way, is not in its origins jewish; it is much older. Ying and Yang, opposites which make a whole. Gypsies told me that if one is too good, one attracts the opposite, namely evil. That is about balance. Global thinking is also something else, namely the capacity to make leaps and connect things in a different way than is obvious to most. That is a process of the intellect, but also creativity.

[Dap]

Dear Dr. Chopra,

A great healing series, enjoyable. Agape.

[ljsfolly]

I have come to see that the world is like the human body with all pieces working together as one. When different pieces of the body fall ill we care for it until it heals. If we fail in that then other things around the ill portion start to fail then we have more and more wrong with the body. Like our bodies the world has come back from very bad things and still gone on perservered to the next time or it goes on to become like a cancer. We have failed the earth as caretakers and there are too many that have failed to understand our role as those who should care for the earth as we should care for ourself. The earth has sustained us as our body has and spoiled children that we are ignore what is in front of us breaking down and dying. Unless we recognize our responsibilities as caretakers and healers of the earth for not us but for future generations the healing must start now. There is no time to ponder or stand apart we must hand in hand work to save what has given her life for us and those who have passed before.

[RachelK]

While I agree that the US is clinging to an old way of thinking and imperialism that does nothing for the global brain but hold it back, I wonder if emerging countries such as China can truly help the global brain if free speech and expression is supressed. Great thoughts and innovation is coming out of these nations, but problems persist.

This article was very thought provoking, I especially like the image of each brain as a neuron of the globaly brain.

[REWilkinson]

Both Deepak Chopra and Al Gore have succeed in describing a complex array of disturbing physical symptoms which they have extrapolated into a shocking doomsday scenario, but have they really gotten to the core of the issues that lie behind the stresses on the Earth"s environment? Unfortunately not, and without a deeper understanding of the Earth"s occult anatomy, her Soul, Spirit and Destiny, they fall tragically short of discovering the necessary measures to counteract these worrisome environmental changes.
For those initiated into her mysteries, the Earth is a Being, our Mother, and like her human inhabitants, she has many layers; a Body, a Mind, a Soul and a Spirit. The environmental symptoms that Dr. Chopra and Al Gore have described deal only with her physical and mental body. They apparently have no knowledge of, or appreciation for, the more subtle realms of her being in which these evolutionary changes and alarming physical phenomenon have their origin. In order to understand her ancient ways we must first discover them in ourselves, for both Individual and Earth are simultaneous and interrelated expressions of the same Being. Confirmation of this hidden truth lies in penetrating into the depths of one"s own consciousness and its many levels of correspondence. This alone provides the means of direct insight into the true nature of our being and its power to heal, be it an Individual or the Planet.

Suggestions that the planet is slowly dying are incorrect and irresposible. There is an natural and long foreseen intervention taking place saving the planet from destruction. This unknown Plan, Purpose, and its Mechanism is described in Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's book "The New Way".

Robert E. Wilkinson

[bethinCary]

What we have come to at this place at time-is that we are all standing at a the ledge at this point in time-and all of us are being urged to JUMP by the cosmos-that there will be featherbed at the bottom to break the fall.
We don't have to have the answers right now-just know that they'll be there at the bottom.
We just have to agree that what we're doing is not working.

A leap of faith?
You bet.
Hate change?
Lots of people do-but that's no excuse.

But when you turn around and look behind you-you realize-you really don't have a choice at this point.
ready......set.....

[TMAN]

I concur. Some have seen this as a viable paradigm for some time now. The trick it seems to me is to bring this elevated notion to the awareness of all peoples so that that power can be practically seen, first, then used. The individual must see the results at an individual level first, as sustaining evidence of the individual"s causal actions in the world. In this way there is no need for people to change we will already have changed through the act of awareness. This might mean removing the present rationale for our beliefs, justifications, our actions and thus our splintered and competing world views.

In this state bereft and stripped of all the props supporting our agreed upon version of "truth" we may once again approach the nub of meaning with renewed clarity.

Our very lives may well depend on this confrontation with our self.

Thanks once again Dr. Chopra for all your thought provoking inspirational posts.

[jeskiley]

Nations and tribes don't need to be done away with, afterall it's the way we are "collected" in the first place. The passion that comes with belonging to a group is what needs a proper channel, a clearer pathway made toward what can be achieved together.

I learn so much from Italians, their different pace and humor, their loyalty to tradition. I have less insight on India, my bad. Every culture is an important ingredient to the whole. Every language stresses life in a different way, the verbs and nouns used in an order that conveys their unique truth.

We need more fluent leaders, that's all. The common thread of our biology could work wonders, every organ system understood at the political level. These barriers between us likened to a healthy immune system. If one nation has AIDS, who're we to suggest change before we've learned the cure. Intelligent Design doesn't make things up as it goes along.

We need responsible leaders to keep working on these problems, pinpointing the glitch that allows AIDS to enter. I thought you, Dr. Chopra, were at the forefront of this awakening. Is there something in particular standing in your way?

[ponderman]

Dear Mr. Chopra,

I have thoroughly enjoyed your series of articles on the "Global Brain".

I sincerely wish I could find a way to spark that brain with the concept of human-powered electricity...as a solution to most of the world's problems. It would solve most of the energy problems, and the pollution that goes with them, but most of all, it would end poverty.

[peterg76]

The trick is to anticipate changes when changes outside your borders can't be controlled, whether you think they can. There's no choice but to "think globally", but how much thinking is enough? Competition between nation states under NAFTAesque "free" "trade" is as barbaric as medieval vassalage, and unconstrained 'communication' has led to homogenization and threated diversity, both cultural and ecological, like never before.

[jesusquintana]

Thank you for a fantastic post. This has been a great series of articles. You don't get many comments, Mr. Chopra (probably because there's nothing to add to what you're saying), but I suspect a lot of us read your blogs with great interest.