I, for one would like to think so because the possibility of such a transformation has been the central message of the great teachings of past messengers: Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Lao-Tzu, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and others that are not known to many.
In What Does It All Mean, Nagel has opened our eyes to a side of the world many of us rarely consider and has also awaken us to become philosophers ourselves; after all, we all have opinions about everything and luckily it does not require formal credentials.
In my work, I have long held the intention to help clients to be in alignment with their mind, body and soul. I do not think it is accurate or sufficient to just think we are mind and body, the element of soul exists and I called it consciousness (with a small ‘c’) and the big ‘C’ Consciousness is what I have come to learn and believe to be the collective whole.
It is not well known that in 1871 Darwin wrote his first book about human nature, and he said when you think about how we have evolved as a species, we are not fast, we are not strong, we do not have big fangs, we do not have the muscle mass that our primate relatives have. But what we have is the ability to cooperate and to take care of others. He also said that sympathy is the strongest instinct in human nature. (i.e. volunteers in the disaster zones). It is a pity that historically, the people who popularised Darwin ignored that part. There are really sound reasons, deep survival, reproduction-related reasons for why we have evolved to be good to others. If we do not have some sense of community, then the human race would never have persisted. So, I would like to believe that it is wired in us as well.
Since the 20th Century (although there is contradictory study recently) science finds mirror neurons as an underlying neuroscience reason for why we would be empathetic with other people. The great apes, along with dolphins, and possibly elephants have something called a mirror neuron. And what was discovered was, if a monkey observes a behavior that it itself has performed in the past, the same neuron lights up as if it itself is doing the action. In other words, there is something in the brain that does not distinguish between self and other, kind of a mystical premise in some ways, and also underlies empathic behaviours. When you see somebody suffering, you feel it — that is the mirror neuron.
A good example would be not just Americans but also the world’s population felt the pain of the victims of 9/11 on that fatal day eighteen years ago Emma Seppala PhD in Psychology Today wrote, “Research by neurobiologist Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia suggests that seeing someone helping another person creates a state of “elevation.” Have you ever been moved to tears by seeing someone’s loving and compassionate behaviour? Haidt’s data suggest that elevation then inspires us to help others — and it may just be the force behind a chain reaction of giving.
