Jean Gebser - The Ever-Present Origin - Article Example

Jean Gebser - The Ever-Present Origin Biography of Jean Gebser Jean Gebser was born in the year 1905 in Posen, Germany and is most famous for his works in the field of human consciousness. He was a poet and a linguist as well. He left his native land in the year 1929 so that he could resist the urge to fight with the fascists. He moved on towards Italy and then later on in France. After this, he shifted to Spain and tried his hand at learning the Spanish language after which he was inducted into the Spanish Civil Service. He became a Senior Officer in the Spanish Ministry of Education. The Spanish Civil War resulted in his leaving the country in the year 1936 and his next destination was that of Paris, France. Since the debate was rampant of the German invasion on France, he further moved on towards Switzerland in the year 1939 where he spent the rest of his life and satisfied his writing skills whilst being a resident of Bern’s outskirts. He wrote a number of books when Gebser visited India, the Far East and North and South America. He was an expert with science, arts as well as the field of mystics. In fact he was a mystic himself if seen from another perspective. He did not advocate the fascist ideologies whereby usage of cultic symbols and myths is a common phenomenon in order to follow the self-justification regimes. He wrote a number of letters as well as different publications which are documented at the Gebser Archives at the University of Oklahoma History of Science Collections. Jean Gebser’s Thesis and The Ever-Present Origin Jean Gebser’s major work was his basis of stress and anarchy which was rampant within Europe from the year starting 1914 and ending in 1945. a structure of consciousness, according to him was having its symptoms within the relevant regimes and thus it had the end of the effectiveness related with the consciousness structure so to speak. This indeed brought a fresh lease of life to the new form of consciousness which was thus devised by him. He immediately provided evidence to the same fact by making use of the new language and literature whereby he included the changes that usually occurred in the fields of both arts as well as that of sciences. His thesis discovered the basis of one form of consciousness failing in the wake of giving birth to another form alongside the first one asked questions as to whether this had ever happened before. His work Ursprung und Gegenwart (German, Origin and Present) was the result of this very query and indeed it opened a number of doors into the questions which were asked all this while. This work was repeatedly published in a number of different editions starting from the year 1949 and continuing till the year 1953. The same was translated into English as The Ever-Present Origin and thus the basis was more or less the same when seen from the other language’s perspective. Gebser worked on a number of different subjects within The Ever-Present Origin and he touched down aspects like poetry, visual arts, music, physics, religion, architecture, natural sciences and last but not the least, philosophy. He, somehow or the other found out relations with the emergence (efficiency) and collapse (deficiency) of a number of varied structures that were linked up with the consciousness levels dating back into historical times. Five Stages of Development of Consciousness Jean Gebser’s theory emphasizes the point that human consciousness is usually always on the move – and that these movements or transitions are indeed “mutations” and not mere continuous forms. What these moves and transitions brings to the fore are the basis of the different structural changes that usually happen within the mind and the body and exist at a number of different levels – the archaic structure, the magic structure, the mythical structure, the mental structure and lastly the integral structure – thus accounting for the five stages of development of human consciousness. These different structural levels or stages coming under the human consciousness regimes are divided by their relationship with regards to time as well as that of space. What this means is the fact that there is a strong enough basis for the linkage of these factors here. As Gebser suggested, the mythical structure manifested within it the time aspect as being one of a cyclical or rhythmic one and the space aspect is enclosed within the very same. The Mental Structure Accordingly, the mental structure, being the fourth developmental level within the human consciousness regimes is linear when the relationship is with the time factor, space takes the shape of a homogenous geometry or just simple vacuum. As and when each of these consciousness stages come out, the same starts becoming collapsed or deficient. This is what Gebser has remarked as the ‘rational’ structure within the human consciousness regimes. This rational structure aims to forbid the different other structures from having a claim on the humans right of being exclusively rational and forthright so to speak. The mental structure is also known as the rational structure as discussed previously. It usually aims to find out for the extremes in a number of different “nothing but…” statements. The Integral Structure This form of developmental stage within the human consciousness structure provides evidence for a new relationship with regards to both time and space. In this structure, Gebser found a series of evidences for his human endeavors and attempts that usually took place from time to time. The relation was made strong with the incorporation of time as far as the field of physics is concerned as well as the struggle to paint the basis of time with the linkage of the same to the visual arts field. Gebser examined that the integral structure was more focused on the eruption of time and that it was encompassed within a fixed-reality regime within the mental structure. As far as the relation with the man’s consciousness is concerned, certain aspects related with the thinking habits and language usage are studied in a head on manner within this developmental stage and the basis of objectivity is also manifested back and forth so as to make a complete understanding of the behavioral and/or physical sciences which exists even in the current times. Systasis, Synairesis and Eteology The term systasis and synairesis are pretty much difficult to segregate in the wake of their close linkage with each other. Such a fake separation between these concepts suggests that there is a mental-rational methodology apparent. The analytical separation is indeed not possible, as it leads to death. The approach that Jean Gebser has advocated is one that which is based on the ideology of eteologeme which was brought into picture in the earlier times. Thus his approach must not be, at any point in time, be thought of as the basis of constructing a system that leads to the mental-rational approach. Systasis is thus the integrating dimension through which the three dimensional spatial world is integrated into a single whole in a way under which it can be stated. It is thus not an ordering schema which somehow or the other runs parallel to the said system. Systasis is both process as well as effect and hence has an effective character within a particular system. Similarly, it is neither a mythical image nor a mental concept. On the other hand, synairesis takes its basis from synaireo which essentially means the basis of synthesizing or collecting all the things which have been seized or taken into the stride by the mind as well as the spirit. Synairesis is an integral act of completion which basically takes into perspective all the different sides as well as perceives in a manner that is more aperspective than anything else. Lastly, etiology is a term which is pretty comprehensive in its definition and thus it looks towards the basis of describing Gebser’s approach more than anything else. Eteology in essence replaces the aspect of philosophy just like the same replaced myths at one point in time, hence making for a strong relationship with that of myths. Eteology is at the same time not related with just ontology which is the theory of being and has no linkage with the theory of existence as well. Conclusion The role Jean Gebser has played to the modern day philosophy is immense to state the least. His works have formed the basis for a number of different studies that have been carried out every now and then. His philosophy is linked up with the New Age thinking regimes about the novel shifts in the consciousness in the book by Daniel Pinchbeck titled The Return of Quetzalcoatl. He has provided for a modern foundation of man alongside his desire to study and understand the different consciousness levels, occurring at different stages of his lifetime and thus providing him a way or two to comprehend the way in which his life will eventually shape up in the future as well. Gebser has examined the basis of the transformations that are related with the structure of consciousness itself as the same are concretized in a number of different artifacts coming from the historical times. The need of the hour for the students of philosophy is to understand what he has actually said and thus examine the basics of his work and structures of consciousness too. All said and done, Jean Gebser has provided a window of opportunity to all concerned as far as his works in the field of human consciousness is related since the fundamentals are just so properly aligned that the building on which it is rested seems pretty strong. BIBLIOGRAPHY Mahood Jr., Ed. THE PRIMORDIAL LEAP AND THE PRESENT: THE EVER-PRESENT ORIGIN - AN OVERVIEW OF THE WORK OF JEAN GEBSER, Synairetic Research, URL: http://www.gaiamind.org/Gebser.html, 1996 Word Count: 1,624 Read More