Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



to grapple with. Yet the solution, the intelli- 

 gent solution and understanding of them is 

 in us ; only it involves a higher order of 

 consciousness than we usually deal with — 

 a consciousness possibly which includes and 

 transcends the ego and the non-ego, and so can 

 envisage both at the same time and equally — a 

 fourth-dimensional consciousness to whose gaze 

 the interiors of solid bodies are exposed like mere 

 surfaces — a consciousness to whose perception 

 some usual antitheses like cause and effect, matter 

 and spirit, past and future, simply do not exist. 

 I say these higher orders of consciousness are in 

 us waiting for their evolution ; and, until they 

 evolve, we are powerless really to understand any- 

 thing of the world around us. 



Meanv/hile, since we must have formulae and 

 generalisations to think by, we are fain to accept 

 our local views, and look on the world from this 

 side or from that. Sometimes we are idealists, 

 sometimes we are materialists ; sometimes we 

 believe in mechanics, sometimes in human or 

 spiritual forces. The science of the last fifty years 

 has, as pointed out in a preceding paper, looked 

 at things more from the mechanical than the 

 distinctively human side — from the point of view 

 of the non-ego, rather than of the ego. Reacting 

 from an extreme tendency towards a subjective 

 view of phenomena, which characterised the older 

 speculations, and fearing to be swayed by a kind 

 of partiality towards himself, the modern scientist 

 has endeavoured to remove the human and con- 



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