Dr. Andrew Wile on Human Chauvinism and Consciousness

       This year, I received some bad news, the specifics of which are irrelevant (nothing that affects my physical state of health, only personal career goals).  After telling me the bad news, the Indian man, seeing me on the brink of tears, said an amazing Freudian slip which fit my life perspective precisely.  He said, in broken English, “Aaron, everything happens for no reason.”  I smiled and shook my head because I couldn’t agree more, for I have always reminded myself that good things seems to emerge from the worst of circumstances (and vice versa), that even in death there shall spring life. 

        On Wednesday I heard a 1998 speech from holistic health hippie, Dr. Andrew Wile, broadcast on KPFA as part of their fall fundraising drive.  Wile seemed to have had a similar “everything is going to be okay” perspective insofar as humanity’s  fate on Earth.  I would highly encourage you to listen to the whole speech (start at the 35 min. point of this video).

Dr. Andrew Wile:

            It’s nice to be among friends.  I wish I could tell you, I wish I could join in all the warmth of this occasion to tell you that the revolution in consciousness is moving right ahead, and that we are about the transform government and external reality as a result of that, but, know you, it ain’t so.  And I say that as somebody who goes through the Iron Range of Minnesota and passes through airports and looks around me, and I have to tell you that I feel that the majority of human beings that I encounter operate mostly out of fear, guilt, and when people operate from those emotions, they are dangerous to themselves and to others.  We are very small minority, a very small minority – and have no illusions about that –  and whether our minority will grow fast enough and be able to influence humanity fast enough to avoid the catastrophe that is certain to come if we persist in the ways that we now persist, I don’t know. 

          And if we can’t, if it may be, as it appears – that our ability to manipulate the environment – our technological ability – is disparate with our ability to control our own emotions, that may be a fatal flaw in our species, it may be.  If it is that has to be alright too because I feel, and this is based on a lot of my experiences with substances that we all know and love, that deep down everything is all right and it’s the way it’s supposed to be, and there may be a lot of drama in between, but it’s all alright.  I upset people a lot when I say – but this is true – that I am not a human chauvinist.  If our species destroys itself, which is a possibility – I don’t think there’s any way that we can destroy life, by the way, or the life process, or consciousness, which I think preceded life and preceded the human organism and the human brain – if that happens, it’s okay with me if something else gets a chance, and if the life force experiments with a another form; that’s fine, that’s okay, too. 

                I hope that doesn’t happen, I will work to try to keep it from happening, but either way it’s alright.  Now, if there’s any hope of keeping that from happening, it has to involve basic change at the level of consciousness.  And particularly it has to involved basic change in the nature of science and technology, which has become the religion of our society…

Painting by Alex Grey