Van Ness, John

THE INTERNET AND THE NEW TRANSFORMATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

Jane Goodall, who spent 40 years studying the life of chimpanzees in Tanzania, has discovered that the chimps display many qualities that we had thought were uniquely human: personality, the ability to reason, the capacity for love and altruism as well as violence and cruelty. However only humans have developed a sophisticated spoken language. Could it be that language and communication constitute the uniquely human quality that separates us from the higher primates? In a remarkable study of the evolution of religion, Ewart Cousins (1), a Catholic theologian, shows that what he calls an axial transformation of human consciousness occurred between 800 and 200 B.C.E. That was the time of Lao-Tze and Confucius in China, the Buddha in India, Zoroaster in Persia, Hebrew prophets Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in the middle east, and Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Greece. That was also the time of the development of written language, which made possible the transmission of the wisdom of these teachers, religions, and philosophies. Citing the work of paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Cousins declares that humanity is in the midst of a second axial transformation in which "The forces of planetization are bringing about an unprecedented complexification of consciousness through the convergence of cultures and religions." (Cousins, p. 9). In a study of the effects of the Internet on human consciousness, the late professor of English, Alan Purves (2) finds that the Internet is a major cause of this transformation into the post-modern world, which he calls the world of hypertext or the world of cyberspace. He finds that speech, written language, and electronic communication have emerged as major driving forces of human evolution and consciousness.

We intend to explore this axial transformation of consciousness as it affects our individual functioning in the world, our spiritual and religious awareness, our social and business connections. As we are caught up by "the forces of planetization" and seem to be hurtling along into the strange new world of cyberspace, how can we use our own intelligent creativity in a responsible way to shape the future of life on spaceship earth?

We will present three interactive Web sites using text, art, photographs, moving pictures, animation and sound, as Creative Demonstrations of this axial transformation of consciousness. Attached are abstracts of each presentation. Each author will participate in the session. We will need Internet access, an RGB projector or large monitor and speakers.

Panelists include:

* Session Organizer: John H. Van Ness, M.Div., Ph.D., 11 Jaquith Road, Jaffrey, NH 03452, U.S.A. (email: jpvn@monad.net) Licensed Pastoral Psychotherapist and Senior Staff Therapist at Monadnock Area Psychotherapy and Spirituality Services, Keene, NH; Senior Adjunct Faculty in Applied Psychology, Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, NH; Senior Global Program Mentor, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

* Peter W. Van Ness, Founder and President Van Ness Group, Inc., Co-Founder myStockOptions.com, hi-tech entrepreneur since 1984, elected to the Boston Computer Society's first member services council.

* Vickie S. Van Ness, Chief Media Officer, Van Ness Group, Inc.

Notes:

(1) Cousins, E. (1992). Christ of the 21st Century. Rockport, MA: Element.

(2) Purves, A. (1998). The Web of Text and the Web of God. New York: Guilford.