Is the UK Conscious?

Rejoining the EU is inevitable (Warning: Metaphysics on steroids!)

If the title and subtitle of this blog post caught your attention and you expect some sort of political, economic, or historical analysis of why and how the UK is supposed to rejoin the EU soon, then stop. That’s not at all what this is about. What follows will abstract from policy, economics, history, or any social aspects and will be based on purely metaphysical considerations. Most will perceive this as crazy stuff. So, if you aren’t already scared away, you have the choice to quit now or fasten your seatbelts and read about some weird metaphysics. Here we go…

Have you ever wondered why a bunch of biological cells, supposedly driven only by the infamous ‘egoistic genes’, could nevertheless form a single unified organism where, for some unknown reason, every cell collaborates for the survival of a higher-level organism? How and why do gazillions of cells not only leave aside their ‘egoism’, but self-organize into an organism that is a single conscious being, a sentient subject having a subjective experience?

Modern science tells us that even plants (multicellular organisms, but without a brain), and single cells, show to have some sort of ‘basal cognition’–that is, they can learn by association and possess some elementary predictive skills. Cells behave as if they have some ‘intelligence’ despite being devoid of a brain. Looking under a microscope at some cells, one can’t escape the impression that at least some of these tiny living creatures have some agency, will, and goal-seeking behavior (such as the decision-making Stentor roeselii, the environment-analyzing Lacrymaria olor, or the bacterium-chasing neutrophil.) And, who knows, perhaps cells have some sort of basal sentience, a ‘micro-subjectivity’, and a sort of more or less primitive consciousness and a subject having an experience.

Most biologists will tell you that the tendency to ascribe in the literal sense these behaviors to other living beings, let alone cells, is an anthropomorphic projection we should carefully avoid. But, in what sense is the opposite assumption that wants us to believe that agency, consciousness, will, intention, and cognition, are exclusively human psychological traits, or, at best, qualities that only primates or the most complex non-human animals can have? In my view, this is an even worse form of unconscious anthropocentrism that is unaware to reverberate the religious beliefs in human exceptionalism it paradoxically says it is trying to avoid.

Anyway, the fact remains that, during embryogenesis a single fertilized cell multiplies and ends up forming a body of innumerable cells interacting with each other, leading to the emergence of something qualitatively very different: A new consciousness, an individuality that feels like an undifferentiated subject having experiences but that doesn’t feel to be the sum of micro-subjects. It is like several oil droplets that lose their identity by merging and forming a much larger undifferentiated drop. But we are not just a large unconscious ‘oil blob.’ We are extremely complex organisms that are made of a huge variety of low-level subunits finally forming a higher-level conscious unity. How this is possible and why and how precisely this process of coalescence takes place nobody knows, but the fact is that at the end of this aggregation process, a conscious entity emerges.

The question is whether something similar occurs beyond the aggregation of microscopic cells, and may take place also at an even higher organizational level with the agglomeration of conscious individuals? For example, are countries, nations, states, regions, or groups of humans forming a conscious entity as well?

At first sight, this might sound like an absurd theory. How could a nation be conscious? What does it mean? Is there a subject, an individual, having one single experience emerging from the sum of all the experiences of its citizens?

For example, does the United Kingdom (UK) have experiences perceived by a unified sentient ‘super-being’ emerging from the subjective experiences of all its residents in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland? More in general, the question is whether we might consider countries or nations being, in one way or another, a ‘conscious subject’?

You might dismiss this as yet another pseudo-intellectual New Age woo-woo fantasy. Right?

Interestingly, however, there are some philosophers who are seriously considering this eventuality (see, for example, Eric Schwitzgebel in this video: link) or mystics that wrote about this (see, for example, Sri Aurobindo’s concept of ‘nation-soul’: link.)

In this view, also nations, or some more or less physically defined agglomerations of groups of peoples, and national or regional entities, have a ‘consciousness’, a ‘spirit’, a ‘soul’, or whatever you like to call it, that, at a metaphysical level, that goes beyond a mere aggregate of people. There exists an immaterial ‘spiritual body’ of the country that, despite its diversity in characters, personal histories, ideas, preferences, languages, religions, and cultures, constitutes a holistic unity that can’t be expressed as a mere sum of interacting material subunits.

Undoubtedly, we know that there is, a common sentiment that transcends the boundaries of the single individual psychological unity. It can be perceived by the individual at an internal level–that is emotionally, mentally, almost physically, and with which we identify.  It is an agglomeration of identities driven by selfish interests that, nevertheless, could form a single unified national identity where every individual collaborates for the well-being of a higher-level organization, we call our ‘nation’ or ‘country.’ A ‘group-soul’ where, despite our individual egoistic nature, we are willing to sacrifice something of our interests for the common good. This is something we cannot prove empirically, doing an experiment in a laboratory, but it is perceived and intimately felt by many at a more psychological and spiritual level. It is this which also gave rise to various (more or less desirable, or, at times, doubtful and even self-destructive) forms of nationalism and patriotism that display themselves selfish interests and egoistic tendencies towards other nations as well. But the same national spirit (why do we call it ‘spirit’?) can also confer to the individual an emotional and mental force for heroic actions, eventually also accepting self-harm or even overcoming the natural instinct of self-preservation accepting self-immolation for the common good. We know that there is a common sentiment that transcends the boundaries of the single individual psychological unity. People identify with a homeland or nation not only because of outer material interests but because there is an inner psychological connection and sense of unity as well. Russians and Americans speak of the ‘Russian soul’ and the ‘American soul’ respectively. Is this only a metaphor, an emotional fiction we like to tell ourselves, or does it reflect a deeper truth?

Notice that this sense of spiritual belonging to a group, country, or nation, must not necessarily coincide with the exact physical and political borders. Sometimes this spiritual feeling of making part of a unique and indivisible nation-idenity is even contradicted by a deep political and geographical polarity of two independent states. An example could be the case of the division of the post-WWII German state, under Allied occupation into two subjects, the  German Democratic Republic and the  Federal Republic of Germany. It took almost everyone by surprise how, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two entities almost immediately merged back into one single country.

Why? For common commercial interests? For political conveniences? Or because of higher-order decisions coming from the only remaining superpower–that is, the US? Well, all this has certainly played a role too. But were these the only and true reasons? Was there no deeper, we may say ‘occult’ reason? If we look behind the veil of appearances, we can see how, at a more spiritual level, the partition was only a fiction. It was a surface appearance imposed by the Allies after WWII. The German reunification wasn’t just a political process but the superficial manifestation of a truth that never ceased to exist under that surface. The true group-soul never ceased to exist. Once the outer conditions changed and the former Soviet Union could no longer exert its dictate, the immaterial nation-soul manifested itself on the material level and reunification became inevitable.

We see this process taking place all over the world and throughout history. Humans defined themselves first as individuals in families and tribes. Then these tribes merged into broader collectives, such as clans, regions, states, nations, countries, and increasingly larger unions and identities. It is a phenomenon that seems to have a fractal nature: At every level, we have a repeating ‘structure of consciousness’, by sub-identities and supra-identities, each one defining its own unity of consciousness at that level. And it is not difficult to see how this process is nowadays continuing in what we call ‘globalization’ and might, one day, lead to some form of world-union. But, for the time being, we are far from what, in my view, is nevertheless an inevitable destiny.

So, you might wonder what on earth has all this to do with the UK and Brexit? Well, whether you agree or not, perhaps you got my point.

It might be interesting to see from this ‘soul-perspective’ the example of the (more or less loose and confused) rise of the European identity. It is still not a real ‘soul-nation’, far from it. On the surface, the driving force standing behind the EU is mainly dominated by commercial motives, still. At this stage, Nature is using the commercial selfish interests of every nation as an ‘excuse,’ a ‘luring attraction’ to obtain that higher level of unity to form the European soul. Nevertheless, behind these superficial appearances, the real mechanism that has led to the formation of the EU is soul-based, not commercial-based. Commerce is a means to an end, not the end.

Thus, while the EU still is neither a ‘soul-union’ nor a political identity, it is beginning to become a conscious soul in formation. The embryo, and perhaps, a bit more than that, has already formed. (If you got into this intuitive way of seeing you might also understand why any dream of a real and genuine political union will remain a vain chimera if it is not preceded or at least goes hand in hand with a soul-union.)

Now, the point is this. There are nations who, at this ‘spiritual-occult’ level make more or less part of this emergent European conscious soul-identity. But, despite all the superficial appearances seemingly suggesting the contrary, the UK is one of its most spiritually embedded members. It still is. It never left the EU! On a subtle level, there has been no Brexit to begin with. No more and no less than there has been a ‘soul-partition’ of Germany under the two Allied occupations. It was only a matter of time before the outer conditions became favorable and the entity and its true state-consciousness would have inevitably manifested again.

So, is the UK conscious? Of course, it is.

Will the UK rejoin the EU? It is inevitable and a law of Nature. Like the law of gravity. Because on a subtler level, the UK never left the EU.

But why then did the UK leave in the first place?

There could be many different occult reasons. For example, it was necessary to increase its awareness of interdependence with Europe. The mind of the (perhaps too large part of) the, with its egoistic, nationalistic, and isolationistic populism, refused to recognize its already established soul-level interconnectedness with other nation-souls beyond its borders. Now it is learning to see things from a more realistic perspective and realizes how the dream of a self-sufficient island is completely anachronistic.

Another possible and, I would say, complementary reason is that the UK decided to leave, not only to learn a lesson but to teach one. Brexit has become a lesson for other country-minds that were nurturing the same EU-exit centrifugal tendencies. Now, however, after Brexit, all those who were so vocal in following the example of the UK, have suddenly become silent. They could see the consequences. In a sense, as an EU citizen, I’m very grateful to the British people and of Northern Ireland who accepted to make this ‘experiment’ to warn the other members of the Union.

Ok, I stop here, I’m already going too far.

Abstruse fantasies? Wild speculations? Naïve wishful thinking?

Ok, then let us meet here again in X years. The question is not if but when (I would guess about X=5 years.) It is only a matter of time but nothing and nobody can avoid it. It has already been decided. The UK will return to be part of the (still immature and messy, but existing and forming)  ‘European family.’ No policy, no event, no commercial interest, nothing can prevent it (except, perhaps, a war between the UK and France or Germany prevents it... but, please, give me a break!) At that point in time, I’m sure that many will wonder how it was possible that, despite all odds, all expectations, and all the averse outer conditions, everything developed extremely fast, almost in a miraculous manner, how that ‘rejoin-miracle’ could take place so quickly and so completely unexpected.

All this will be less mysterious once we become aware that what we see is only the tip of an iceberg, a thin surface of reality. Almost everything is going on behind the veil of material appearances. Whereas, the large-scale political, commercial, and cultural aggregates that appear to us so real, concrete, and material are driven by the consciousness and soul of the nations.