The Deviancy of Non-Natural Consciousness
According to primitive Buddhist texts, one of the first questions that was posed to an aspiring student was “are you really a man?” – a question that relates to an old Hindu belief that many humans are actually animals who have, via reincarnation, just recently made it to the human form, but who nevertheless remain “animal” in the sense of being locked in an unconscious and pre-programmed nature, and who have not in the least gotten a handle yet on the possibilities offered by this “being human” gig.
One of the great distinctions between the human and the animal realm is the complete lack of a “non-natural” consciousness from which an animal can perceive their own nature and behavior from a perspective that is “outside of” and “removed from” the dominant flow of their biological programming. Without this perspective and its ability to observe, analyze, and even judge the instinctual, genetic realm of biological craving and impulse upon which all organic life is based, evolution of consciousness towards willed self-transformation and self-direction is literally unthinkable, and therefore impossible.
Animals aside, all too many humans remain blind slaves to their own pre-programmed natures (as well as the early programming they received in the first few years of life) precisely because this “non-natural” perspective remains underdeveloped within them. The lack of this perspective directly contributes to their inability to conceive of and apply a higher standard of conduct and state of Being for themselves, let alone undertake the intensive and sustained work to achieve it. If a non-natural consciousness does not exist within oneself, there is no possibility of countering, controlling, sublimating, or channeling one’s nature. Without the ability to perceive oneself from “outside of” oneself (a perception that allows you to become contemptuous of any form of slavery to biological nature) change according to will is inconceivable.
Without a non-natural consciousness, no heroic vision is possible; that heroic vision by which one is able to conceive and articulate a superior form for oneself, and to undertake the necessary disciplines to achieve that form.
(as an aside, it is a merciful thing that most animals do not achieve this critical consciousness, for their rude place within the ever-present pressures of the food chain would become absolutely unbearable with its introduction, causing suffering far beyond what is experienced without it. The same can be said for a great many people as well, those who might easily die of shock, revulsion, and horror if self-awareness were to strike them out of the blue)
It must be admitted that this non-natural, self-critical consciousness has caused humankind some of its worst grief, and has been not only the source of, but a continuously open doorway for the infection of various religious and moral ideas that seek to set an individual at war against his or her self, a course that is not the same as a selective atrophying and emphasizing; an integrating, training, utilizing, and overcoming of one’s own nature.
As the first and at present only known animal to attain this level of consciousness that can, like an alien being, regard, analyze, judge, oppose, and creatively integrate and conditionally accept the biology that sustains it, human beings are the “deviant” species par excellence! Accordingly it should be examined to what extent the emergence and development of this critical, formative, non-natural consciousness comes from, causes, and is exacerbated and focused by what we call “deviancy”, in so far as this level of consciousness is itself a deviation from the predominant thoughtlessness of nature.
In other words – without the “non-natural” consciousness that makes it possible to wrench oneself free from the mindless flow of nature, deviancy (as an aberration and departure from a numerically accepted standard) would not exist. Could this consciousness itself have developed and “sharpened” itself without the reality of deviancy – a standard against which to rebel and hone itself? Can its very fight against the standard of “nature” and “conformity to a dominant standard” provide fuel for its evolutionary climb?
-Werbinox
One of the great distinctions between the human and the animal realm is the complete lack of a “non-natural” consciousness from which an animal can perceive their own nature and behavior from a perspective that is “outside of” and “removed from” the dominant flow of their biological programming. Without this perspective and its ability to observe, analyze, and even judge the instinctual, genetic realm of biological craving and impulse upon which all organic life is based, evolution of consciousness towards willed self-transformation and self-direction is literally unthinkable, and therefore impossible.
Animals aside, all too many humans remain blind slaves to their own pre-programmed natures (as well as the early programming they received in the first few years of life) precisely because this “non-natural” perspective remains underdeveloped within them. The lack of this perspective directly contributes to their inability to conceive of and apply a higher standard of conduct and state of Being for themselves, let alone undertake the intensive and sustained work to achieve it. If a non-natural consciousness does not exist within oneself, there is no possibility of countering, controlling, sublimating, or channeling one’s nature. Without the ability to perceive oneself from “outside of” oneself (a perception that allows you to become contemptuous of any form of slavery to biological nature) change according to will is inconceivable.
Without a non-natural consciousness, no heroic vision is possible; that heroic vision by which one is able to conceive and articulate a superior form for oneself, and to undertake the necessary disciplines to achieve that form.
(as an aside, it is a merciful thing that most animals do not achieve this critical consciousness, for their rude place within the ever-present pressures of the food chain would become absolutely unbearable with its introduction, causing suffering far beyond what is experienced without it. The same can be said for a great many people as well, those who might easily die of shock, revulsion, and horror if self-awareness were to strike them out of the blue)
It must be admitted that this non-natural, self-critical consciousness has caused humankind some of its worst grief, and has been not only the source of, but a continuously open doorway for the infection of various religious and moral ideas that seek to set an individual at war against his or her self, a course that is not the same as a selective atrophying and emphasizing; an integrating, training, utilizing, and overcoming of one’s own nature.
As the first and at present only known animal to attain this level of consciousness that can, like an alien being, regard, analyze, judge, oppose, and creatively integrate and conditionally accept the biology that sustains it, human beings are the “deviant” species par excellence! Accordingly it should be examined to what extent the emergence and development of this critical, formative, non-natural consciousness comes from, causes, and is exacerbated and focused by what we call “deviancy”, in so far as this level of consciousness is itself a deviation from the predominant thoughtlessness of nature.
In other words – without the “non-natural” consciousness that makes it possible to wrench oneself free from the mindless flow of nature, deviancy (as an aberration and departure from a numerically accepted standard) would not exist. Could this consciousness itself have developed and “sharpened” itself without the reality of deviancy – a standard against which to rebel and hone itself? Can its very fight against the standard of “nature” and “conformity to a dominant standard” provide fuel for its evolutionary climb?
-Werbinox
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