The Spirtualization of Science Etc.

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The Spiritualization of Science, Technology, andEducation in a One-World Society

Martin Erdmann* (DOI 10.3884/0002.7)

Abstract

Western Christianity has always provided a rational and moral basis for the development of science and

technology, including clinical Nanomedicine. Yet this sensible basis has been strongly disputed for about

hal a centry. This paper will tline sme the pivtal reasns why inential intellectals in England

and America, mostly in the later part of the 20th century, concluded that irrationality would be a better

ndatin r the scientic enterprise.

Aldous Huxley envisioned a future world society totally controlled by an elite group of scientists. His best-

knwn ctinal wrk explicating this dire prspect bre the title Brave New World . Years later he would

“revisit” his prognostications only to conclude that he had underestimated the rate of change realizing

his darkest fears. Turning to mysticism, both in its meditative and drug-induced varieties, he prepared the

way for the burgeoning Human Potential Movement which was initially formed at the Esalen Institute, Big

Sur, CA in the early 1960s. The electrical engineering professor at Stanford University Willis W. Harman,

wh had gtten invlved in researching the cgnitive and scietal eects LSD cnsmptin, cndcted

seminars at Esalen on “Human Potentialities”. Under his directorial supervision at the Stanford Research

Institte a scientic stdy entitled “Changing Images Man” was carried t rm 1972-74 with the pr-

pse changing the “cnceptal premises nderlying Western sciety”, inclding a radical mdicatin the rational worldview of western scientists. As the president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences from 1977

t 1996, Harman advcated penly a mystical tlk n lie claiming that a spirital apprach t scientic

research and technological development would greatly enhance our understanding of the monistic unity of

the universe. Erdmann, M Eur J Nanomed 2009; 2:31-38

Keywrds: Alds Hxley, Brave New Wrld, The Perennial Philsphy, mysticism, LSD, Captain Albert M. Hbbard, ttalitariani-sm, scientic research, Stanrd Research Institte, Changing Images Man, Willis W. Harman, Grbachev, csmic cnscience

IntroductionIn bygone centuries, science, technology,

and education in Western society havebeneted greatly rm the ndatin rational thinking which the Christian faithards. It seems lgical, therere, thatthe development of a highly sophisticatedand cmplex eld sch as clinicalNanomedicine will be best facilitated bya cntined armatin the Christianview of a rational and moral universe.However, a strong thrust to discard thisfoundation is observable since the early1960s.

Inspired in part by Aldous Huxley’s pub-lications and his advocacy of psychedelicdrugs, intellectuals such as Willis W. Har-man have begun to emphasize irrational

“intuitive knowledge” (gained usually bymeditative — mind-emptying — exercises

or the use of hallucinogens) as a morecngenial basis r scientic and techn-logical progress. Calling for a new meta-physic of science/technology, the propo-nents of the Human Potential Movementperceive the religious heritage of theWest, based on Christian premises, as thegreatest impediment of an evolving “cos-mic conscience”. In gaining a more com-prehensive understanding of the spiritualand material processes of the universe, amystically inclined elite of technically en-

hanced human mutants would be able tousher in a homogeneous world socialistsciety, perhaps nt altgether dierentfrom the one envisioned in Brave New World .

Brave New WorldThe famous novelist Aldous Huxley

(1894-1963) expressed his growing dissat-isfaction with Western civilization in thedystopian satire Brave New World (1932).a Despite its rightl tne and hrric t-look, it was destine to become his mostacclaimed literary work. Masterfully de-picting the inhumanity prevalent in a tech-nocratic society — which had outlawedart and religion while intimately control-ling the private aairs its citizens — the

* Dr. M. Erdmann,

Patrick Henry College,

Purcellville, Virgina, USA

Email: [email protected]

Implications of Nanomedicine

EuRoPEAN JouRNAL of NANoMEDICINE 2009 Vol. 2 31



author’s disdain for the spiritual empti-ness of modernity broke frequently tothe surface in his narrative. The noveldepicted the dark side of futuristic totali-tarianism. To distract the people’s atten-tion from the grim reality of being serfs,the governing regime entertained themin the movie theatre by “feelies”.b Menwere allowed to enjoy the questionablepleasures of “pneumatic girls”.c In ordert prdce an articial sense bthtranquillity and ecstasy, an ample supplyof the potent psychedelic “soma” washanded out regularly to the suppressedpopulation.d It was an “[e]uphoric, nar-cotic, pleasantly hallucinant … all theadvantages of Christianity and alcohol;none of their defects.”e While perverted

sexual behaviour was encouraged, nor-mal human reproduction was consideredimmoral and embryos were producedby articial ertilisatin in actries; alife-support mechanism referred to asa “bottle” took the place of a mother’swomb.f

In Brave New World Revisited (1958)g,Huxley expanded on his earlier prognos-tications of a dictatorial future societyin which the ruling elite would employhighly eective brain-washing tech-

niques — “orthodoxies drummed in bynightly courses of sleep teaching”h — tosubdue their subjects’ rebellious inclina-tions. To submit willingly to the imposedcnnes a cmpletely rganized s-ciety, the hapless victims a “scienticcaste system” would undergo “methodi-cal conditioning”.i These mind-bendingprocedures would be supplemented by“regular doses of chemically inducedhappiness”. The need to use unmitigatedviolence would then be a disagreeableaspect of past tyrannies:

Under the relentless thrust of acceler-ating over-population and increasing over-organization, and by means of ever more eective methods o mind-ma-nipulation, the democracies will changetheir nature; and quaint old forms – elec-tions, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest – will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-vio-lent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will re-main exactly what they were in the good

old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and ed-itorial – but democracy and freedom ina strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhilethe ruling oligarchy and its highly trained

elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see t. j

In 1961 the University of California, Sanfrancisc Medical Center spnsred acnerence t discss the scietal eectsof technology. Never wont to pass up anopportunity to point to his anticipatedvisin a “scientic dictatrship thefuture”k, Aldous Huxley, one of the fea-tured conference speakers, said the fol-lowing: There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of mak-ing people love their servitude and pro-ducing dictatorship without tears, soto speak. Producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societ-

ies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be dis-tracted from any desire to rebel – by propaganda, or brainwashing, or brain-washing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the nal revolution.l

Chemical EcstasyIn The Doors of Perception (1954)m, Hux-

ley published the detailed elucidations

of his mystical experiences after theBritish psychiatrist Humphrey Osmondn had introduced him to the hallucinatorydrug mescaline (derived from the cactuspeyote) a year earliero: The man who comes back through theDoor in the Wall will never be quite thesame as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less cocksure, happier but less sel-satised, humbler in acknowl -edging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the

unfathomable Mystery which it tries,forever vainly, to comprehend.p

Hxley explicitly reerred t H. G. Wells’phrase “Doors in a Wall” which had origi-nally described the taking of drugs indeath cult rituals. Both authors knewthat the use of hallucinatory substanceshad always been an essential part of theinitiatory rites of ancient mystery cults.The priesthood of the Isis Cult was espe-cially keen on using drugs to induce inits initiates euphoric and transcendental

experiences. Nearly a decade earlier, in1946, Huxley’s annotated anthology of mystical writings had appeared underthe title The Perennial Philosophy indi-cating his intimate knowledge of the

mystical tradition of ancient, medievaland eastern spirituality.q

Captain Albert M. Hbbard and GeraldHeard were present when Huxley tookanother dose of mescaline in 1955. Atthe time he was writing the sequel to TheDoors of Perception, which he named lat-er Heaven and Hell .r In a letter to Dr. Os-mond he wrote, “Your nice Captain trieda new experiment – group mescaliniza-tion … Since I was in a group, the experi-ence had a human content, which earlier,solitary experience, with its Other World-ly qality and its intensicatin aes-thetic experience, did not possess … Itwas a transcendental experience withinthis world and with human references.”s Shortly thereafter Hubbard convinced

Hxley t try LSD. In Acid Dreams Leeand Shain state, “Huxley and Hubbardshared a unique appreciation of the re-velatory aspect of hallucinogenic drugs.It was Hubbard who originally suggestedthat an LSD-indce mystical experiencemight harbour unexplored therapeuticpotential.”t

Huxley harboured a deep-seated aver-sion to Christianity. In a conversationwith Timthy Leary, a rmer lectrerin psychology at Harvard University and

front man of the Hippie counter-culture,Hxley seemed cndent that his adv-cacy of psychedelics would overcomeany resistance to his ideas of large scalesocial engineering: “These brain drugs,mass produced in the laboratories, willbring about vast changes in society. Thiswill happen with or without you or me.All we can do is spread the word. Theobstacle to this evolution, Timothy, isthe Bible.”u flly agreeing with the pin-in his mentr, Leary, in his atbi-graphical account of the Harvard Univer-

sity Psychedelic Drug Project Flashbacks,added the following remarks: We had run up against the Judeo-Chris-tian commitment to one God, one re-ligion, one reality, that has cursed Eu-rope for centuries and America sinceour founding days. Drugs that open themind to multiple realities inevitably lead to a polytheistic view of the universe. Wesensed that the time for a new humanist religion based on intelligence, good-na-tured pluralism and scientic paganism

had arrived.v

Human PotentialIn 1960 Huxley was diagnosed with can-

cer; his delicate constitution, ravaged


32 EuRoPEAN JouRNAL of NANoMEDICINE 2009 Vol. 2



already by his drug-habit, began to dete-riorate visibly in the years following. Un-deterred the British littérateur acceptedin the same year he fell sick an invitationby the university Calirnia, San fran-cisco Medical Center to deliver a lectureon “Human Potentialities”. Although“we are pretty much the same as wewere twenty thousand years ago,” saidHuxley, we have “in the course of thesetwenty thousand years actualized an im-mense number of things which at thattime for many, many centuries thereafterwere wholly potential and latent in man.”fllwing these remarks, he pt rththe theory that humans possess withinthemselves still other unrealized abilitieswhich need to be discovered and actual-

ized by utilizing appropriate techniquesand chemicals. “The neurologists haveshown us that no human being has evermade use of as much as ten percent of allthe neurons in his brain. And perhaps, if we set about it in the right way, we mightbe able to produce extraordinary thingsout of this strange piece of work that aman is.”w Soon thereafter Aldous begant write his nal wrk, the tpian nvelIsland , and lecture regularly on “HumanPotentialities” at the Esalen Institute.

Esalen InstituteAttending the “Human Potentialities”

lectre at the San francisc Medical Cen-ter, Richard Price was fascinated by Hux-ley’s appeal to explore the hidden powersof the human psyche. In a letter to Hux-ley, Price’s friend Michael Murphy wantedto know how to tap into the hidden pow-ers of the mind. In response Huxley high-lighted the complementarity of scienceand mysticism and pointed to the writingsof ancient mystics and eastern swamis as

the source of his own inspiration.In 1962, Price and Murphy established a

retreat centre, the Esalen Institutex, at BigSur, California and asked Willis W. Har-man, knwn r his LSD research, t leadthe rst cnerence n hman ptentialitycalled “The Expanding Vision”.y In the late1950s Harman had volunteered to be oneof Captain Albert M. Hubbard’s early testcases in psychedelic drug research.z Hub-bard, a high-level oSS cer in the Sec-ond World War and an undercover agent

r several agencies inclding the fDAand fBI in the 1950s, was pt in chargeof studying the therapeutic potential of LSD. o particlar interest t him werethe drug’s mind-altering potencies, sup-

posedly producing a harmonious state of being. The societal implications of an ex-tensive se LSD in redcing civil striewere considered advantageous if scien-tically prven. T be able t cndct hisresearch mre eciently, Hbbard askedMyrn J. Stlar and Pal Krtz t setp the Internatinal fndatin r Ad-vanced Stdies (IfAS) in Menl Park, CAas an institutional base.aa Also involvedwith the IfAS were Charles and Ethel Sav-age, Rbert Mgar, and James fadiman.Stlar served as its president rm 1960to 1970 while being the executive admin-istrator for a research group conductingclinical stdies n the cgnitive eects psychedelics.ab The research ndings the experiences of about 350 volunteers,

wh had taken LSD and Mescaline nderstrict supervision, were published in sixscientic papers.ac

Quickly moving from the experimentalstage to an administrative post, Harmanaccepted the vice-presidency the IfASand guided the organisation throughmounting public criticism in the early1960s. The exorbitant fee of $500 for asingle session of high-dose psychedelictherapy had stirred up bad publicity at atime when the fDA began thinking abt

tlawing the sage LSD.

ad

In late1962, the fndatin released its rstacademic paper “The Psychedelic Experi-ence: A New Concept in Psychotherapy”.Its abstract read in part as follows: The authors, by the simultaneous admin-istration of massive doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and mescaline, tried to produce a unique experience for thepatient which is to be so profound and im-pressive that it changes the patient’s ownevaluation of his past life experiences and consequently may lead him to establish

new values and a more realistic frame of reference than had been established be-fore. The experience, in a broad sense, is not unlike a religious conversion.ae

Hubbard’s connections to the politi-cal establishment in Washington, D.C.,aided by his secret service credentials,strengthened Harman’s resolve to contin-e the research prgram at IfAS ntil itsnal demise in 1965. Keenly interested incontinuing his sociological studies of thepsychedelic subculture and its relation-

ship to the political upheavals of the NewLet, Harman accepted the directrial p-sition at the Stanford Research Institute’sEducational Policy Research Center.

Stanford Research InstituteThe Stanford Research Instituteaf (SRI;

later renamed SRI Internationalag) wasincorporated by the trustees of Stanforduniversity in 1946 as a nn-prt researchinstitute similar to the more establishedMellon and Battelle Institutes. Originallya centre of innovation to support eco-nomic development in northern Califor-nia, it became one of the world’s largestcontract research organisations. Someof Stanford’s major clients included atrst dierent branches the uS military— such as the Department of DefenceDirectorate of Research and Engineeringand the U.S. Department of Defence Of-ce Aerspace Research.

SRI quickly assumed a vital role in the

development of new military technol-ogy being used by the Defence AdvancedResearch Projects Agency (until 1972and from 1993-1996 known as ARPA:Advanced Research Projects Agency).Its computer network, a precursor of theInternet, linked thousands of processingconsoles, including those of the CIA, U.S.Army Intelligence, The oce Naval In-telligence, Bell Telephne Labratries,Rand, MIT, Harvard and uCLA, with neanother. The Institute’s database func-

tioned as the ”library“ of the entire sys-tem, cataloguing all DARPA documenta-tion.

Outside of the defence sector, the Insti-tte ered a diverse palette researchprojects such as the SRI Business Intel-ligence Program to a growing number of prestigious clients. Among corporationscontracting its advanced research ser-vices were Bank of America, Bechtel Cor-poration, Blyth, Eastman Dillon, HewlettPackard, McDonnell Douglas Corporation,TRW Cmpany, and Wells farg Bank.

Bereft of the invaluable services of Cap-tain Al M. Hubbard, who had semi-retiredand moved to British Columbia, Willis W.Harman succeeded in reactivating his for-mer mentor in October 1968. Outliningthe reasons for his invitation to Hubbard,Harman wrote:

Our investigations of some of the cur-rent social movements aecting educa-tion indicate that the drug usage preva-lent among student members of the New Let is not entirely undesigned. Some o

it appears to be present as a deliberateweapon aimed at political change. Weare concerned with assessing the signi -cance of this as it impacts on matters of long-range educational policy. In this con-





nection it would be advantageous to haveyou considered in the capacity of a special investigative agent who might have ac-cess to relevant data which is not ordinar-ily available.ah

Hubbard agreed to work as a well-paid“secrity cer” at SRI. “‘Althgh,’ Har-man admits, ‘Al never did anything re-sembling security work.’ Hubbard wasspecically assigned t the Alternativeftres Prject, which perrmed tre-oriented strategic planning for corpora-tions and government agencies. Harmanand Hbbard shared a gal ‘t prvide the[LSD] experience t plitical and intellec-tual leaders around the world.’ Harmanacknwledges that ‘Al’s jb was t rn thespecial [LSD] sessins r s.’ Accrding

t Dr. Abram Her, ‘Al had a grandiseidea that if he could give the psychedelicexperience to the major executives of thefrtne 500 cmpanies, he wld changethe whole of society.’”ai Six years laterHarman explained why he had appreci-ated Hubbard’s expertise as a “special in-vestigative agent” so highly: “His servicesto us consisted in gathering various sortsof data regarding student unrest, drugabuse, drug use at schools and universi-ties, causes and nature of radical activi-

ties, and similar matters, some of a clas-sied natre.”aj In meting out high com-pliments to Hubbard, Harman was wellaware of the invaluable service the Cap-tain had rendered to the research team atSRI — which was commissioned in 1972to write an academic study identifying,“insofar as possible, what changes in theconceptual premises underlying Westernsociety would lead to a desirable future”.ak

Changing Images of Man

The Charles f. Kettering fndatinal

provided the funding for the May 1974 re-port ”Changing Images of Man“. SRI’s Ur-ban and Social Systems Division preparedthe 319-page mimeographed reportam un-der the general guidance of executive di-rectr Harvey L. Dixn and Willis W. Har-man, by then director of the Center forthe Study of Social Policy. Twelve yearslater Pergamon Press published the aca-demic study in its Systems Science andWrld order Library series.an The originalreport was prepared by a team of thirteen

researchersao

and supervised by a panelof six advisors, including anthropologistMargaret Mead, Yale University physicianHenry Margenau, and British Intelligenceperative Gerey Vickers.ap Although

the nal editrial respnsibility lay withthe SRI sta, the reprt was thrghlyreviewed by eighteen additional academi-cians sch as Ervin Laszl, Carl R. Rgers,and B. f. Skinner, bere it was released.aq

Spiritual DimensionIn pointing to Elise Boulding’s essay in

Appendix Aar (”An Alternative View of History, The Spiritual Dimension of theHuman Person, and a Third AlternativeImage of Humanness”as), the report prog-nosticated a seismic change in the think-ing of Western intellectuals. The obsoletepursuit of industrial progress, said the au-thors, needed to be abandoned in favourof a renewed dedication to religious mys-ticism. They concluded that despite its

abndant material benets, the incessantquest for industrial and technological de-velopment in modern society was harmfulto the anticipated future of humankind’sspiritual evolution:

Many of our present images appear tohave become dangerously obsolete, how-ever … Science, technology, and econom-ics have made possible really signicant strides toward achieving such basic hu-man goals as physical safety and security,material comfort and better health. But

… many of these successes have brought with them problems of being too suc-cessful – problems that themselves seeminsoluble within the set of societal value-premises that led to their emergence. Im-proved health, for example, has caused population increases which exacerbateproblems of social organization, food distribution, and resource depletion. Our highly developed system of technology leads to higher vulnerability and break-downs. Indeed the range and intercon-nected impact of societal problems that

are now emerging pose a serious threat to our civilization … If such projections of the future prove correct, we can expect the problems associated with multifold trend will become more serious, moreuniversal, and to occur more rapidly thanwill growth of the trend itself.at

Therefore, said the SRI report, a funda-mental and radical alteration of the in-dustrial-technological self-understandingof humans would be needed to create amore harmonious world society: ”Some

characteristics of an adequate image of humankind for the post-industrial futurewere derived: (1) by noting the directionin which premises underlying the industri-al present would have to change in order

t bring abt a mre ‘wrkable’ sciety;(2) from examination of the ways in whichimages of humankind have shaped soci-eties in the past; (3) from observation of sme signicant new directins in scien-tic research.“au

Willis W. HarmanWillis W. Harman (1919-1997) was the

leading social scientist and futurist atSRI in the late 1960s and early 1970s, andpreviously a professor of electrical engi-neering and system analysis at StanfordUniversity. He led the Institute of NoeticSciencesav from 1977 until late 1996. Apol-lo astronaut Edgar Mitchell and oil billion-aire Paul N. Templeaw had established theInstitute of Noetic Sciencesax in 1973 to

promote the vision of ”expanding knowl-edge of the nature and potentials of themind, and applying that knowledge to theadvancement of health and well-being forhumankind and the planet.”ay As the au-thor of several books — including CreativeWork: The Constructive Role of Businessin a Transforming Society (with John Hor-mann), An Incomplete Guide to the Future,and Global Mind Change and co-editorof The New Business of Business: SharingResponsibility for a Positive Global Future

(with Maya Prter) — Harman’s inenceas a prime change agent of his time in sci-ence, technology, educationaz, and busi-nessba was felt around the globe.

The central ideas of Harman’s urgentplea to adopt a holistic outlook on life canbe gleaned from his essay “Bringing Aboutthe Transition to Sustainable Peace” (PartOne: “A Changing Worldview”): This emerging trans-modern worldview,involves a shift in the locus of authority rom external to ‘inner knowing.’ It has basically turned away from the older sci-

entic view that ultimate reality is “un-damental particles,“ and trusts percep-tions of the wholeness and spiritual as-pect o organisms, ecosystems, Gaia and Cosmos. This implies a spiritual reality,and ultimate trust in the authority of thewhole. It amounts to a reconciliation of scientic inquiry with the “ perennial wis-dom” at the core of the world’s spiritual traditions. It continues to involve a con -dence in scientic inquiry, but an inquiry whose metaphysical base has shifted

from the reductionist, objectivist, positiv-ist base of 19th- and 20 th-century scienceto a more holistic and transcendental metaphysical foundation. … The core of the current challenge to





the scientic worldview can be taken tobe ‘consciousness,’ which has come to bea code word for a wide range of human ex-perience, including conscious awareness or subjectivity, intentionality, selectiveattention, intuition, creativity, relation-ship of mind to healing, spiritual sensibil-ity, and a range of anomalous experienceand phenomena.

.... The epistemology we seek will rec-ognize the partial nature o all scientic concepts of causality ... In some ultimatesense, there really is no causality – only aWhole evolving.bb

„Spaceship Earth“In 1972, the Centre for Educational Re-

search and Innovation (CERI)bc, an inter-

governmental organization connectedwith the UN, published Alternative Edu-cational Futures in the United States and in Europe.bd The frd fndatin andthe Royal Dutch Shell group of compa-nies financed the study. In this book,Willis W. Harman stated that educa-tors had a responsibility to preside over”a shit rm a parchial t a ‘ne wrld’view ‘Spaceship Earth’ ... Emergentchange, not homeostasis, is the order of the day ... It is apparent that ‘new’ vales

are currently challenging the traditionalones.“be Harman was remarkably success-ful in bringing about this dramatic „shift“.In his capacity as consultant to the WhiteHse Natinal Gals Research Sta, he„formed and led a team to assist the U.S.oce Edcatin in erts t apply thenewly emerging discipline of futures re-search to guiding the nation’s policies ineducation and educational research.”bf Harman has been a prominent partici-pant at Mikhail Grbachev’s ”State theWorld“ forums. In a PBS interview in April

2001 the former chairman of the Sovietpolitburo revealed that his vision of ”per-estroika“ was inspired by the “spaceshipearth“ concept.bg

In 1992, the Esalen Institute sponsoreda lectre tr Mikhail Grbachev in theunited States. on 6 May 1992, Grbach-ev delivered a speech in fltn, Missriwhere Winstn Chrchill had identiedthe ideological and political barrier sepa-rating the capitalist from the communistnations as the “Iron Curtain”. Speaking to

the more than 20,000 people gatheredon the campus of Westminster Collegeand thousands more who listened to thespeech live in 132 countries around theworld, former Soviet President closed the

curtain on the Cold War with his speech,“The River of Time and the Imperative of Action”.bh At this histrical site the Gr-bachev noted that “[a]n awareness of theneed for some kind of global governmentis gaining ground, one in which all mem-bers of the world community would takepart.”bi After pointing out the grave prob-lem of “exaggerated nationalism” whichhad “already led to much bloodshed” hepresented the solution of a “global inter-national security system”.bj Yet the worstof dangers faced by every human beingwould be the accelerated destruction of the envirnment. Grbachev reerred spe-cically t the llwing eclgical crises:“Glbal climatic shits, the greenhseeect, the zne hle, acid rain, cntami-

nation of the atmosphere, soil and waterby industrial and household waste, thedestruction of forests.”bk Grbachev cn-cluded his speech with an appeal to im-bue the United Nations with indisputableauthority: “However, I believe that thenew world order will not be fully realizedunless the United Nations and its SecurityCouncil create structures, taking into con-sideration existing United Nations and re-gional structures, which are authorized toimpose sanctions and make use of other

measures of compulsion, especially whenthe rights of minority groups are beingparticularly violated.”bl At the September1995 “State the Wrld frm” in Sanfrancisc, which was rganised by theGrbachev fndatin, the rmer Svietleader called for a “global brain trust” con-sisting of great thinkers “who are widelyrespected as well as global citizens”. Theyshould be put in charge of monitoring“social change” and “focus on the presentand the future of our civilization”.bm Theseproposals were identical with those of

the Esalen Institute which had suggestedfor some time the creation of a Councilof Wise Persons. To accomplish this im-mensely important work, the future worldrulers would need to tap into the cosmicreservoir of a higher intelligence.

“Cosmic Consciousness”Turning to the subject of psychedelic

drugs, the SRI study Changing Images of Man referred to Masters and Houston’swork Varieties of Psychedelic Experience

(1966).bn

In producing changed levels of cnscisness certain eects hall-cinogens on the brain are perceived “astranscendent experiences of a religious orcosmic nature”:bo

In the last 15 years there has been in-creased interest in chemical substances that change the quality and characteris-tics of normal everyday consciousness,particularly through such drugs as lysergic acid, mescaline, psilocybin, and others.These drugs, referred to as psychedelics,hallucinogens, or psychoactive chemicals,expand or contract the eld o conscious -ness; they seem capable of enhancing perceptions and sensations, giving ac-cess to memories and past experiences,facilitating mental activity, and produc-ing changes in the level of consciousness,including what are reported as transcen-dent experiences of a religious or cosmic nature.bp

In Alternative Educational Futures,

Harman stated further that what AldousHuxley had called ”The Perennial Philoso-phy“ is ”present in the Rosicrucian andfreemasnry traditins and meant that”man can under certain conditions attaint a higher awareness, a ‘csmic cn-sciousness,’ in which state he has imme-diate knowledge of a reality underlyingthe phenomenal world.” Harma n furth erhighlighted Lawrence frank’s remarkthat ”a social order which toleratessuch wide-ranging pluralism of norms

must seek unity through diversity.“ Toachieve this goal: Nothing less than a new guiding philoso-phy will do. ferkiss [1969] outlines threebasic and essential elements for such anew philosophy ... a ‘new naturalism,’ ...‘the new holism,’ ... and ‘the new imma-nentism’ … Educational experiences must be contemplated which are akin to psy-chotherapy … that result in a felt realiza-tion of the inevitability of one inseparableworld, and a felt shift in the most basic values and premises on which one builds

one life. In a sense, this means bringing something like ‘person-changing tech-nology’ into the educational system (e.g.,meditation, hypnosis, sensitivity training,psychodrama, yoga, etc.).bq

The “modus operandi” of how Harmanenvisioned this “new guiding philoso-phy” to mould the thinking of the world’spopulation was outlined by him in a WorldGdwill (Lcis Trst) occasinal Paper,”fr a New Sciety, a New Ecnmics,“published in the April, May, and June

1987 isses Develpment frm, bythe United Nations Division for Economicand Social Information and the UnitedNations University. In this essay, Harmanreferred to Abraham Maslow’s ”self-ac-





tualization“ theories and postulate that”a respiritualization of society is takingplace, but one more experiential and non-institutionalized, less fundamentalistand sacerdotal, than most of the histori-cally familiar forms of religion. With thischange comes a long-term shift in valueemphasis.” In conclusion, he averred that“there may indeed be a cnict betweendogmatic esoteric religion and positiv-istic science. However, there is not aninevitable cnict between the esteric‘perennial wisdm’ the wrld’s spiritaltraditions and a science based on certainmetaphysical assumptions.”br

ConclusionSince the publication of the academic

study Changing Images of Man in 1974[1982] the spiritualization of science,technology, and education has unques-tionably made great strides. Its proposedchange from a traditional value systembased on analytical and rational thinkingto a holistic view which imagines all as-pects of intellectual pursuit to be in har-mony with the mystical underpinningsof monism has let to the emergence of aglobal community having a heightenedsense of cosmic spirituality that suppos-

edly permeates all existence. We believe,however, that a scientist or technicianwho is dedicated to the advancement of the theoretical and practical knowledgeof humankind, especially in the areaof clinical Nanomedicine, should avoidadopting an irrational methodology inthis research. Otherwise, Aldous Huxley’sdystpian visin a “scientic dictatr-ship of the future” may come true afterall.

References

a Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (Lndn:

Chatto and Windus, 1932).

b Ibid., 37, passim; see also online edition:

http://www.huxley.net/bnw/index.html

c Ibid., 47.

d Ibid., 55, passim. See also Aldous Huxley,

“The ultimate Revltin”, Berkeley Langage

Center - Speech Archive SA 0269, March 20,

1962; http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/mrc/

search_vod.pl?avr=1; http://www.archive.

org/details/AldousHuxley-TheUltimateRevo-

lution: “But then there are the various other

methods one can think of which, thank heav-en, as yet have not be used, but which obvi-

ously could be used. There is for example, the

pharmacological method, this is one of the

things I talked about in BNW. I invented a hy-

pothetical drug called SOMA, which of course

could not exist as it stood there because it was

simultaneously a stimulant, a narcotic, and a

hallucinogen, which seems unlikely in one sub-

stance. But the point is, if you applied several

dierent sbstances y cld get almst all

these results even now, and the really interest-

ing things about the new chemical substances,

the new mind-changing drugs is this, if you

looking back into history its clear that man

has always had a hankering after mind chang-

ing chemicals, he has always desired to take

holidays from himself, but the, and, this is the

mst extrardinary eect all that every nat-

ural occurring narcotic stimulant, sedative, or

hallucinogen, was discovered before the dawn

of history, I don’t think there is one single one

of these naturally occurring ones which mod-

ern science has discovered.”e Aldous Huxley, Brave New World , 55.

f Ibid., 4, passim.

g Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

(Harper & Row, 1958; online edition; http://

www.huxley.net/bnw-revisited/index.html).

h Ibid., I. Over-Population.

i Ibid.

j Ibid., XII. What Can Be Done? See also Aldous

Huxley, “The Ultimate Revolution”: “Tradition-

ally it has been possible to suppress individual

freedom through the application of physical

coercion through the appeal of ideologiesthrough the manipulation of man’s physical

and social environment and more recently

through the techniques, the cruder techniques

of psychological conditioning. The Ultimate

Revolution, about which Mr. Huxley will speak

today, concerns itself with the development

of new behavioral controls, which operate

directly on the psycho-physiological organ-

isms of man. That is the capacity to replace

external constraint by internal compulsions.

… [Huxley] Well now in regard to this problem

of the ultimate revolution, this has been very

well summed up by the moderator.”

k See Aldous Huxley, “The Ultimate Revolu-

tion”: “Whereas my own book which was writ-

ten in 1932 when there was only a mild dicta-

torship in the form of Mussolini in existence,

was not overshadowed by the idea of terror-

ism, and I was therefore free in a way in which

Orwell was not free, to think about these other

methods of control, these non-violent meth-

ods and my, I’m inclined to think that the sci-

entic dictatrships the tre, and I think

there are ging t be scientic dictatrships

in many parts of the world, will be probably agood deal nearer to the brave new world pat-

tern than to the 1984 pattern, they will a good

deal nearer not because of any humanitarian

qalms the scientic dictatrs bt simply

because the BNW pattern is probably a good

deal mre ecient than the ther.”

l Cit. in Rbert Ellis Smith, Debrah Caleld,

David Crk and Michael Gershman, The Big

Brother Book of Lists (Ls Angeles: Price, Stern,

Sloan, 1984).

m Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

(Lndn: Chatt & Winds, 1954).

n osmnd rst ered the term “psychedelic”

at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sci-

ences in 1957. He said the word meant “mind

maniesting” (rm “mind”, ψυχή, and “mani-

est”, δήλος) and called it “clear, ephnis

and uncontaminated by other associations”.

o See Douglas Martin, “Humphry Osmond, 86,

Who Sought Medicinal Value in Psychedelic

Drugs, Dies”, New York Times, New Yrk, fri-

day, 22 Agst 2008; and als Martin A. Lee &

Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams. The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, The Sixties, and Beyond

(Grve Press, 1985) 44. http://qery.nytimes.

cm/gst/llpage.html?res=9803E0DA1E3Df9

31A15751C0A9629C8B63

p Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, 24.

q Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

(Lndn: Chatt & Winds, 1946) dstcver

ap: “The Perennial Philsphy is an attempt

t present this Highest Cmmn factr all

theologies by assembling passages from the

writings of those saints and prophets who

have approached a direct spiritual knowledgeof the Divine and who have recorded not only

the method of that approach but also the clar-

ity and tranquillity of sol they derived form

it. Mr. Huxley quotes from the Chinese Taoist

philosophers, from followers of Buddha and

Mohammed, from the Brahmin scriptures and

from Christian mystics ranging from St. John

the Crss t William Law …”.

r Aldous Huxley, Heaven and Hell (Lndn:

Chatto & Windus, 1956).

s See Martin A. Lee & Brce Shlain, Acid

Dreams, 43-46, 52.

t Ibid, 46.

Timthy f. Leary, Flashback: An Autobiogra-

phy. A Personal and Cultural History of an Era

(New York: Tarcher/Putnam, [1983] 1997) 44.

v Ibid.

w Cit. in Jerey J. Kripal, Esalen. America and

the Religion of No Religion (Chicago: The Uni-

versity of Chicago Press, 2007) 85. http://www.

press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/453699.

html

x http://www.esalen.org/

y See Walter Truett Anderson, The Upstart

Spring (Lndn: Addisn-Wesley Pblishing,1983) 68.

z Willis W. Harman dedicated his book Global

Mind Change (1998) to Hubbard among oth-

ers: “I wish to dedicate this book to four per-





awareness and to give the U.N. the authority

to act on behalf of the common will of human-

ity.

ba In 1988 Harman co-founded the World

Business Academy.

bb http://www.newciv.org/ISSS_Primer/semi-

nrzh.html

bc CERI was established by the Or ganization

for Economic Cooperation and Develop-

ment (OECD) in 1968.

bd Centre for Educational Research and Inno-

vation (CERI), Alternative Educational Futures

in the United States and in Europe: Meth-

ods, Issues and Policy Relevance (Paris: Or-

ganisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development, 1972). This report was pre-

pared by the CE RI as Volume 8, background

report No. 12, of Proceedings from the Confer-

ence n Plicies r Edcatinal Grwth, r-ganised by the oECD in Paris, france, Jne

3-5, 1970. Abstract: This book contains four

papers by noted educational planning experts

that, together, cover practically all the impli-

catins ndertaking ‘trlgical’ stdies

in edcatin. Lis Emmery, in his „Alterna-

tive Edcatinal ftres and Edcatinal Pl-

icy-Planning,“ summarizes the three papers

that comprise the remainder of the document

and stresses the importance of viewing alter-

native educational futures in the context of

policy planning or „second generation“ educa-tional planning. Torsten Husen then describes

three major purposes for exploring alternative

educational futures. In the third paper, War-

ren Ziegler develops a taxonomy consisting

ve mdels, which prprts t synthesize

the current practice of American educational

planning as it views the tre. finally, Willis

Harman focuses on alternative future states

of American society that represent, in some

sense, alternative dominant belief and value

systems. See http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWeb-

Portal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/de-

tailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_

SearchValue_0=ED072508&ERICExtSearch_

SearchType_0=no&accno=ED072508

be Ibid., 167.

bf Ibid., 171.

bg “The Impetus for Change in the Soviet

Union” – PBS interview conducted 04/23/2001;

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commanding-

heights/shared/minitextlo/int_mikhailgor-

bachev.html: „And therefore a reformist

leadership was necessary, and that leadership

came in 1985 when we started to lay down

our plans for our country, perestroika andnew thinking for the International Commu-

nity. The new thinking postulated [that] we

are one planet regardless of confrontations,

ideological and physiological struggles; we are

one planet, one human civilization. There are

others living in the world, so why should we

act in a way that could blow up our planet, our

spaceship Earth?“

bh Mikhail Grbachev, “The River Time and

the Imperative Actin”, fltn, Missri,

May 6, 1992 - http://www.churchillmemorial.

org/lecture/gorbachev/speech.html

bi Ibid.

bj Ibid.

bk Ibid.

bl Ibid.

bm See Keay Davidsn, “Grbachev: ‘Brain

trst’ shld gide r tre. Great thinkers’

meet in S.f. r 5-day rm t discss wrld

after the Cold War,” Fan Francisco Chronicle,

Thursday, September 28, 1995. http://sfgate.

info/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1995/09/28/

NEWS1255.dtlbn See also R. E. Masters & J. Houston, Variet-

ies of Psychedelic Experience (New York, New

York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966).

bo O. W. Markley & Willis W. Harman, eds.,

Changing Images of Man, 92.

bp Ibid.

bq CERI, Alternative Educational Futures,

173.

br Willis W. Harman, „fr A New Sciety, A

New Ecnmics, Wrld Gd Will,” The united

Nations Division for Economic and Asocial In-

formation, Development Forum XV, 3-5 (1987).

mplications of Nanomedicine


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