But how many of us would care to fall in love and pursue a romance in a laboratory? And what have we come to logically understand about the process of falling in love? What songwriter could conceive and compose new music under carefully monitored laboratory conditions, over and over again? And what have we scientifically proven and patented about the creative process that artists go through? Even the process of scientific discovery itself often proves elusive, with benzene rings showing up in dreams, and physical laws arising in bathtubs. Many of the best things in life [are] anecdotal, unverifiable, and unrepeatable (on demand), but that does not make them any less real, important, or capable of illuminating the human condition.
Along these lines, one scientist that I corresponded with suggested that I come into his laboratory and lie upon a table as he carefully applied specific measures of heat to the soles of my feet, thus providing what he thought of as a clear and unequivocal test of the firewalk. I find it difficult to explain to such a person that without the grass under foot, without the moon and stars overhead, without a circle of people holding hands, singing songs, and radiating loving support to one another, without our ancient friend the glowing wood fire, that without all of these elements you would not have the firewalk I’ve written about, and therefore could not actually study and learn anything about it.
There is therefore no reason to put a limit to evolutionary possibility by taking our present organization or status of existence as final. The animal is a laboratory in which Nature has worked out man; man may very well be a laboratory in which she wills to work out superman, to disclose the soul as a divine being, to evolve a divine nature. —Sri Aurobindo
The possible human consistently springs from negative circumstances, consistently arises out of the fearful energies of illness, danger, conflict, injustice, and strife. The possible human takes frequent risks, and chooses life on the razor's edge. Not comfortable with a comfortable life, the possible human instead feels the need for energy boiling challenge every bit as urgently as the needs for food, water, and shelter.
The intention of the universe is evolution. Each of us is involved in the grand enterprise....To further evolutionary purposes, human intentionality will some day use tools that do not now exist and will operate in dimensions that confound our present day science. —George Leonard
We live in the age of the possible human precisely because life on the razor's edge has become the norm.
