Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG http://www.esonet.ORG 1

CHAPTER ONE
Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG
http://www.esonet.ORG
Prelude to a New Interpretation of Reality - 1
Any systematic interpretation of correlated facts of existence — be it a primitive, magical
interpretation of natural events, a "great religion," a philosophical or cosmological system,
or the application of the "scientific method" — is undertaken to fulfill a collective human
need. I use the term need in its broadest sense here, and it includes what is usually
considered play: children and animals play to satisfy biological needs. For adult human
beings, play satisfies not only physical but, more especially, psychological and
sociocultural needs; collective games and sports strengthen the community spirit. The
Hindu interpretation of the totality of world events as the Play (lila) of Brahma in turn can
be interpreted as a theistic symbolization of the cyclic fulfillment of an ever-repeated
cosmogenic need. As we shall see throughout this book, the actual appearance and
existence of the objective universe also meets a fundamental need which takes a multitude
of forms and which can be metaphysically interpreted: the need of Wholeness.
The primary need of any form of existence is survival as a whole, that is, as an integral
system of activities. The basic imperative for all biological species is to survive in the
harsh, competitive conditions of the biosphere. At the human level, this need can be met
only through cooperation — in acts and thinking — thus through social organization and
culture. As mankind has evolved from a primitive, unselfconscious, and compulsive state
of quasi-animal, instinctual group activity and awareness, and has reached its present
condition of highly technological and intellectualized existence in complex social and
multi-national systems of organization, a great variety of psychic, emotional, personal, and
intellectual needs have taken ever-changing forms. Especially today new ones are
emerging, engendered by the extremely rapid transformation of the way of life of most
human groups and individuals. This transformation has been occurring under the
pressure of the industrial and electronic revolutions, which in turn both resulted from and
intensified the development of a historically new kind of consciousness — the
personalized and mentalized consciousness of "individuals" intent on asserting a
centralized and autonomous type of activity.
A descriptive, personalistic psychology such as Abraham Maslow's speaks of a
hierarchy of human needs. This is practical and valuable when dealing with the results of
the frustration of these needs. But all psychological systems are based on a philosophical
and ontological approach to the total set of human experiences called reality. We may
speak here of metaphysics, but this term is unfortunate and today rather meaningless, for
it has been used in several ways. The basic question is not how to interpret what is beyond
(meta) the physical world, but to define the approach one takes to the fact of being — thus
to what is.
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