Guided by Instinct: Feeling Evolutionary and Political Patterns

Part 6/10 - Cause and Effect

“If you prove the cause, you at once prove the effect; and conversely nothing can exist without a cause.”

-Aristotle

Rousseau examines the relevance of a natural education in Emile, or on Education and the influence this mode of education has on one’s soul. I found it to be, more generally, a discourse on cause and effect and examining the nature of these relationships in the context of child development. In my opinion, Rousseau’s purpose in writing this, was to connect more accountability to the role of child rearing by bringing attention to some of the more ambiguous aftereffects of childcare that can sometimes result in unfavourable temperaments/habits. These are temperaments/habits that can often be incorrectly presumed to have occurred by mere happenstance when in truth, they have not. In fact, there is usually a very logical explanation for why they have occurred if one is willing to be honest with themselves in relation to their past. Emile, or On Education was created with the intention of illuminating the unique correlation between the individual and society and how ones’ understanding and interconnection with the natural world seems to be a strong determining element in the health of these relationships.

This text is relevant to my series because it can help us to deconstruct our animal nature in a way that may reveal some less popular truths about the goodness that exists within the nature of humankind and the soul family connections that can sometimes, unjustly, bond us to a presumed “role” in society. It also allows us to acknowledge (or re-acknowledge) our soul purpose individually and as a species while realigning our natural goodness with the beautifully diverse array of identities that we share this earth with.

Paradoxically, spirituality was something that was rather absent in my childhood. We didn't talk about "the soul" in my house growing up or acknowledge its existence in any way that validated its presence. Yet all the while, I believe (looking back now), that we were forming very strong soul connections with each other, which have guided us to the separate moments we are each experiencing now. This, I think, is a very profound thought to consider, especially perhaps, for those who still doubt the strength (and sometimes authority) of these family rooted “soul connections”.

Although I am still uncertain as to whether this lack of spirituality in my house growing up provoked in me, a curious interest in alternative healing methods (and eventually guided me towards a formal education in, which is the industry that I am currently employed in) or not, however, I am grateful for the journey that it did inspire. Working in the spa industry has connected me with a wonderfully unique group of people who inspire me every shift with their strength, confidence, spiritual guidance, and leadership. Furthermore, it has helped ground me to my physical health in manner that has encouraged/allowed me to experience physical/emotional pain with a greater constancy than I did before while lessening my health-related fears overall, I would say.

From my personal (and more updated) perspective, soul family connections are special because they can offer a sense of hope to seemingly hopeless circumstances and potentially, have the power to connect us with our loved ones in ways that may inspire each family member within that soul group to complete themselves. In previous blogs, I have discussed the necessitous nature of the soul/body connection and the function that reasoned speech has, in binding the body to the soul. This correlates to my discussion today because in my opinion, a natural education encourages a level of awareness/consciousness which can not only help to lay the foundation for a healthy bond between identity, thoughts, and emotion but it may also nurture the growth of virtue as well. And as Aristotle, himself, once said, “the body exists for the sake of the soul’s purpose” rather than the other way around.

“A soulmate isn’t someone who completes you. No, a soulmate is someone who inspires you to complete yourself. A soulmate is someone who loves you with so much conviction, and so much heart, that it is nearly impossible to doubt just how capable you are of becoming exactly who you have always wanted to be.”

-Bianca Sparacino

In Rousseau's opinion, a natural education is one that is generally void of any forced educational elements. It is allowing children to discover nature without a "tour guide" telling them what they are experiencing while they are experiencing it. It is allowing them to experience natural physical pain in the form of a natural fall or a natural tumble that they would naturally take on natural terrain, without preventing these experiences from happening. It's about allowing language to develop naturally rather than forcefully, so that their abilities to articulate do not exceed their understanding of what it is being said. This applies to the earlier years especially for Rousseau, who says that "a child becomes more precious as [they/she/he] advances in age". I think this is quite a refreshing way to look at child development, especially for Western societies perhaps, who are sometimes guilty of taking the reverse attitude about this notion.

Rousseau also does not hold back from sharing his forthright observations/opinions about doctors in Emile and seems to hold very strong views relating to the “empire of medicine” and its origins.

“This lying art, made more for the ills of the mind than for those of the body, is not more useful to the former than for the latter. It less cures us of our maladies than impresses us with terror of them. It less puts off death than makes it felt ahead of time. It wears out life more than prolongs it. And even if it did prolong life, this would still be at the expense of the species, since it takes from society by the care it imposes on us and from our duties by the terror it inspires in us. It is the knowledge of dangers that make us fear them.” (Rousseau 1762)

While I agree with many of the assertions that Rousseau makes in this quote and find that I align quite well with his philosophy relating to medicine in Emile, or On Education, I do think that it is still important to fairly acknowledge the uses/benefits of this practice and its contributions to modern science. This can help us to maintain a slightly more moderate attitude about this sector in the hopes of one day uniting/overlapping the spiritual elements of Eastern medicine with the more conventional methods of Western medicine, shaping a more universal health care system that offers a more rational approach to the maintenance of physical and mental health in our contemporary world.

I hope that my reflections do not suggest a level of insensitivity towards the present situation (COVID-19 pandemic) and the important role that healthcare workers have had as our guardians during this time. I am, of course, grateful for the thoughtful precautions/protections/extra measures being taken by the government to ensure the well-being and resiliency of our species. However, this will still not stop me from expressing my opinions about this topic or from helping to inspire a future that supports alternative healing methods (such as a universal/hybrid approach to healing/medicine) if I thought that it could boost the levels of hope among society while reducing levels of fear. After all, as the old adage goes, “desperate times call for desperate measures” and if there is one thing that I’m familiar with, it’s acts of desperation.

There is no point in sugar coating my upbringing. It was often hectic, dysfunctional, at times, very toxic. There was foul language, bad habits and misunderstood emotion. Hard work, exhaustion, alcohol, lots of highs, lots of lows and few in-betweens. Immeasurable levels of psychological damage embedded into each one us, inflicted by each one of us. Lots of laughter, little seriousness and lots of escape. Lots of unexpressed/unspoken love for one another. We didn’t discuss our “feelings” or share specific experiences that had upset us at the days end. Because when life is that out of control, there is almost no way to pinpoint any one specific experience that inflicted the form of emotional pain, never mind critique it. Wherever we lived, we had a revolving front door that was open all hours of the day, for anyone who wanted/needed us in any capacity. We were one the “yes”, “sure”, “absolutely”, “anytime”, “come in and make yourself at home” families in whichever neighbourhood we were living in. There was almost never not an outsider in my home from the time I can remember until the time my brothers and I all flew out of "the nest" and into the world. And if you can’t relate to this type of upbringing then quite frankly, it is very likely that “you don’t know the half of the abuse” because if you don’t know what it feels like to be reduced to the role of “bad guy” everyday for reasons out of your control, then you simply do not know what it's like for the minoritized, the marginalized and the misfits of the world.

However, I know that there are many humans out there who can probably relate to this “style” of upbringing, the levels of love that inspire these environments and the unbreakable bonds that form within these environments for various reasons only understandable to those raised in them. You want to talk to me about private property? When I have experienced what it feels like to have it, then I will tell you what I think about it.

To be honest, I don’t enjoy looking back very much because I am quite enjoying the present for once, but for the purpose of this post, I felt that it was in my best interest to do so. And as a very wise and now, very sober friend once said, “when it comes to family matters, I prefer my own special brand of dysfunction” anyway. It's true that my family environment was flawed in many ways growing up. It is probably quite atypical for every member within one family group to use self-deprecation in any/every environment (individually or collectively) to help highlight the goodness they see in others. But in all fairness, my family and I have done an awful lot of that in our lives and everybody should have the chance to be the “good guy" at some point in their life, shouldn't they? My family and I may be a lot of things, but one thing we are not, is sellouts. Therefore, I would never allow myself to experience new emotional freedoms and liberties without helping everyone that I could, in less auspicious circumstances, rise with me, in my newfound enlightenment. In other words, now that I have been released from my subconscious role as “bad guy” I will continue to do everything in my power to help release others from theirs. Because I learned to trust everybody during my childhood and youth and I did that for my survival, therefore, I know that everybody is worthy of this life/attitude which I am now fortunate enough to be experiencing firsthand.

It’s hard to say whether I would have had such a sharp perspective of cause and effect relating to child rearing and education if I was not able to look back at my very contrasting upbringing/history in relation to the way I navigate/experience life now and the “style” of home environment that I now, consciously create for my own children. I don’t agree with everything that Rousseau says in Emile; however, I do believe that is a fairly trustworthy starting point for advocates of a natural education, if one interprets it as philosophical piece rather than a parenting guide so as not to take his interpretations too literally.

I would like very much to end this discussion on a high note, maintaining my opinion that there is an equal amount of goodness in us all. An equal amount of virtue (effect) that is simply, effected by our political environments (cause). These reflections were simply meant to help us reflect on how our animal natures have been shaped and moulded starting from birth. The strength, the hardiness, the fighter, the guardian, embedded into the nature of all of us... even "the weakest”, like me. Sometimes, I like to think of myself as the pressure point where two vapours at different pressures are “mixed” (race). Where East meets West, where forces collide. The paradoxical tension between human race and core values. It is a fate that has, I think, forced me to find commonalities that bring seemingly, very different humans together, overlapping and interconnecting dots and patterns that bring us in unison as a family and as a species.

By: Heather Sakaki

Date: March 9th, 2021