The Human Duality
There is nothing new about the idea that the human-being is, by its very nature, a duality. “Flesh and spirit”, “body and soul”, etc., are ways of expressing the belief that to be human is to somehow be dichotomous. The ready acceptance of this paradigm seems to indicate that on some fundamental level it resonates for most of us and has the ring of truth. What this work will propose and encourage the reader to verify is that duality is the basis of every truth about the human condition. Without a full comprehension of what this means, we can understand nothing about ourselves.
In an effort to simplify the task of conveying ideas and information it is often helpful to use language to separate the new from the familiar in order to convey shifts in the meaning of words or the introduction of new material. In what you are about to read you will sometimes find this strategy employed. In using Essence and Animal as names for the two components of a human-being, for example, the intention is to provide the reader with words that come as close as possible to the true meaning of these central concepts. Throughout the exposition there will be times when it will be obvious that specific words are being used to emphasize an idea, but these words will be used interchangeably with ones that are more familiar to discourage the creation of those jingoistic terms that ultimately obscure the value of thought and foster the cult mentality that precludes real growth. Dogmatic adherence to any idea fosters inflexibility and is anathema to creative thinking and free expression. The point and purpose of this work is to stimulate inquiry and healthy skepticism and to encourage the reader to seek the singular, individual experience of being fully human.
The Animal that we refer to is the organism that is the end result of natural selection and the defining product of terrestrial evolution. The word is used to describe the oxygen-breathing vertebrate that possesses the unique DNA instruction that enabled it to survive and prevail in a biosphere that casually decimated thousands of other species. It is probable that the terms Hominid or Homo-sapiens could serve as perfectly adequate ways to conjure appropriate images of the Earth-bound human, and at times these words will be employed, but Animal is stark and free of the anthropological implications that might muddy the water. Human Animal is Human Animal. It is important to acknowledge that this extraordinary organism is a complete biological and psychological microcosm that is potentially much more than just a home for your spirit-self.
As Animal is Animal, so Essence is Essence. This is the name we will use to describe your essential self. Again, we could accurately use familiar, descriptive words such as soul or spirit, but previous experience colors these terms with religious and spiritual connotations that miss the mark and confuse meanings. Essence is used to describe something utterly unique and specific to you. In point of fact it is you, not metaphor nor allegory, but the self that is at your core and that is designed to manifest through your planetary form, your organism, your Animal.
As children, we were all subjected to the human processes of acculturation, socialization and education; processes designed by generations of ancestor Animals in response to random combinations of inner dictates and external circumstances. With the passage of time, and for reasons to be addressed, the organism responded to those circumstances by progressively overwhelming and restraining the role of the essential self in order to fulfill its evolutionary mandate to survive. Basic survival rarely requires the higher functions of Essence, and the array of complex, often contradictory strategies devised by Animal intelligence necessitated the stifling of what it perceived as the distractions presented by the true self.
So it is, that despite the fact that organism and essential self are intended to be partners in living your life, it is Animal that dictates most of the choices you make. Because the human animal is raised and educated within the Babel of conflicting voices that create the cacophony of most societies, large and small, our development is orchestrated by chaos rather than by conscious design. The evolutionary imperative to adapt, fueled by the need to belong and be nurtured, produces, in the sanest of Animals, a state of fragmentation. Rather than maturing as a unified being, each human organism is a multitude. Because the contradictions inherent in living by the demands of random circumstance are so disruptive to such a complex organism, the Animal adapts by splitting and adopting a variety of guises roughly proportionate to the number of significant influences it encounters during its formative years. You present one self to family, another to friends, a third to your teachers and so on, etc. Balance is maintained by sealing these “selves” within their discreet domains and presenting them as needed. Your true self becomes one within the many and presents itself when profound circumstances and powerful emotions call it forth in those times when life seems the most real.
In contrast to the fragmented and generally unconscious life of the organism that it must reside within, Essence has the potential to develop beyond the limits of biology and cellular inhibition and to access dimensions that are unthinkable to the Animal brain, alone. Although we have long been able to conjure up the idea of a “soul”, apprehension of its reality has generally eluded us. Failure to understand that soul and self are one and the same has given impetus to the split between science and religion as applied to the study of human kind and the true nature of psychology. Too often, the soul is seen as a winged treasure that is part of the inventory of possessions granted to us at birth. If we attend to it at all, it is most often through the auspices of one or another faith or belief system that offers the promise of salvation and forgiveness for the commission of acts that we see as wrong or “sinful”. The objectification of the true self that is the result of adherence to these ideas, reinforces the acceptance of our identification with the Animal and further distances us from the experience of living as integrated beings whose inner and outer lives are harmonious and mutually supportive. As a human-being, your primary obligation to the universe is to diligently pursue the evolution of your essential-self, using the organism that is the highest manifestation of terrestrial evolution in that pursuit.
To a contemporary individual, living in the midst of an increasingly baffling civilization, this Animal and Essence hypothesis may seem farfetched, but it is easily testable and provable within the boundaries of your own life. As the first step, you will have to take on the task of witnessing yourself. The dictionary defines the word witness as: “to see or know by personal presence and perception”. For this task your perceptions should be as objective and non-judgmental as possible in order to enhance your attempt to prove, or disprove, the existence of the critical schism between your essential self and the organism with which it shares your life on Earth.
In this exercise you are gathering evidence. If you choose to continue on this path, witnessing will become much more and will open your awareness to true marvels. But for now it is a specific, focused effort with minimal use for your personal transformation. That will come later.