Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG http://www.esonet.ORG 1
Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG http://www.esonet.ORG 1
Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG http://www.esonet.ORG 1
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<strong>Biblioteca</strong> <strong>Esoterica</strong> <strong>Esonet</strong>.<strong>ORG</strong><br />
<strong>http</strong>://<strong>www</strong>.<strong>esonet</strong>.<strong>ORG</strong><br />
beginning to balance the urge that for several centuries has driven classical Western<br />
science to use analytical procedures to discover ever more about ever more restricted<br />
wholes — to know, as Einstein said, "more and more about less and less." This new trend<br />
may mean knowing less and less about ever more encompassing wholes, but it also should<br />
provide a more balanced and realistic understanding of the processes implied in vertical<br />
relationships, because these processes work two ways. Entities or systems active at lower<br />
levels affect entities or systems active at higher levels, just as those at the higher influence<br />
and in various degrees control the behavior of wholes at the lower levels.<br />
In addition to vertical relationships linking greater and lesser wholes, horizontal<br />
relationships link units operating at a basically similar level of activity and consciousness<br />
(always using the term consciousness in its broadest sense, not merely with reference to<br />
the self-consciousness or objective consciousness of human beings). Such levels may be<br />
defined, not only at the biological level, according to the usual biological classification of<br />
family, genus, species, and so on, but also at the sociocultural level in terms of nations,<br />
religions, social castes or classes, income groups, age groups or generations, education, or<br />
even neighborhoods. Today the peer group has become especially important, because of<br />
the general trend toward an increasingly egalitarian and popular society and popular<br />
culture. This trend, which is fostered by the media and by a constantly spreading concern<br />
with problems of strictly personal relationships and personal growth in terms of material,<br />
social, and individual success, is the latest aspect of the drive toward individualism and<br />
theoretical democracy in Western culture. The latter have been developing since the<br />
Renaissance and in science and philosophy have taken the form of an "atomistic" rather<br />
than "holistic" approach to reality.<br />
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