Assagioli defines spirit as a transcendent, superior, and creative force that leads individuals to transcend selfishness and recognize a higher reality.
By Roberto Assagioli, Published in La Cultura nel Mondo, Bologna, Anno XVIII, No.6, 1962. Doc. #24024, Assagioli Archives – Florence[i]. Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm[ii].
Abstract: The article discusses the spirituality of the 20th century, acknowledging the materialistic and anti-spiritual aspects of the time. It highlights the rapid development of technology, the pursuit of material well-being, and the cult of money. The world wars and post-war troubles are seen as further evidence of the lack of spirituality. However, the author argues that there are signs of spirituality amidst these phenomena. He defines spirit as a transcendent, superior, and creative force that leads individuals to transcend selfishness and recognize a higher reality. The article explores various manifestations of spirituality, such as courage, love, responsibility, cooperation, sacrifice, and understanding. It also discusses the rise of anti-materialistic movements and the recognition of spiritual forces in fields like psychology and physics. The author emphasizes the need for balance between the collective and individual aspects of society and the importance of spiritual education and collaboration among spiritual workers. Assagioli believes that the 20th century offers an opportunity for the birth of a new civilization and the advancement of spirituality. The article concludes by urging awakened souls, enlightened minds, and generous hearts to seize this opportunity and establish a glorious new Age of the Spirit.
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The title of this study may seem paradoxical. Indeed, I believe that the pessimists, the detractors of contemporary life and the prophets of decadence such as Spengler (and there are many, too many of them) will regard it as sadly ironic. We can impartially acknowledge that the most conspicuous and resounding aspects of the first half-century that has already passed seem to prove them right. The external landscape presents distinctly material and often anti-spiritual features.
For at the outset we observe a rapid development of technology, an increasing appreciation and pursuit of material well-being, the cult of money and its growing prestige and power, and practical success regarded as a sign and proof of the individual’s value. There is an expression that seems satirical to us, and yet it was and is still used without full awareness of its enormity. To signify that a man possesses a million dollars they say, “He is worth a million dollars!” Such “Americanisms” quickly invaded Europe, where the cult of money certainly did not become more spiritual, due to the fact that it does not take on such flashy external aspects but was often covered with veils of hypocrisy!
The thirst for profit and domination, individual and collective ambitions, dreams of material power, rivalry, misunderstandings, and mutual fears among nations, culminated in the terrible world wars. After these ended, we had the postwar troubles: unbridled economic greed, sexual license, thirst for enjoyment, squandering of easy profits, and bitter conflicts in every nation and among nations.
On the cultural side we find lack of interest in traditional values and ideals; growing appreciation of science, vital interest turned almost [completely] toward the outside world; conscious and unconscious philosophies of materialistic, positivistic and realistic types. In individual and social life [we have] enormous importance assumed by sports, the cult of the physical body, its strength and dexterity. Today a boxer can charge millions for a match, and a soccer game can attract a hundred thousand spectators!
Even the movements of national and social redemption and reconstruction, while they have been spent animated by an idealistic spirit, have had material qualities and manifestations: they have been pugnacious and violent; they have been mass movements; they have reaffirmed values of a distinctly telluric or earthly character: attachment to land, to race, the celebration of physical labor; they have put political, economic, and organizational problems in the foreground.
This quick overview shows that I have no illusions and certainly do not idealize the 20th century. But simply noting the phenomena is not enough — much less criticizing them, deploring them. It is the duty of every scholar and observer of life to understand the facts he glimpses, and in order to understand them it is necessary not to stop at their most conspicuous manifestations, not to consider them in isolation, and above all not to immediately take positions for or against them. One must not have prejudices, and put aside personal reactions and positions. If we try to do this with regard to the 20th century its face takes on a quite different expression: in those harsh and troubled features we can discern a new soul, in its eyes we see a new spiritual light shining.
First of all, we must consider the 20th century as an outgrowth of the 19th century from which it originated. Let us remember that the 19th century, especially in its last decades and behind its humanistic varnish and its verbal idealism, was anything but spiritual. The bourgeois conception predominated in social life, which is distinctly anti-spiritual. Philosophically it was either materialistic or positivistic or skeptical. In literature it was “realistic,”[i] sensual, romantic, and decadent. In general its culture was intellectual, and intellectualism is not spiritual — indeed it is one of the most insidious obstacles to spirituality.[ii] In short, the 19th century had lost contact with living forces, both natural and spiritual; it had got itself into a dead end. Hence the revolt of the telluric (or earthly) forces, as Keyserling succinctly calls it. The awakening of the primal, irrational but healthy and living instinctive forces, constituted a reaction, a return to the origin that was necessary to abandon that dead-end street, to save civilization from dangerous decay and decomposition. But this justification is not enough to characterize and value the 20th century. We must ask ourselves two precise questions regarding it: Are there clear signs of spirituality alongside the phenomena mentioned above? Is it possible to spiritualize the telluric forces unleashed? And in what way?
Before answering these questions, it is necessary to make it clear what we mean by spirit. As the ancient Chinese sages have rightly said, and as the new science of semantics is reaffirming, it is necessary for the purpose of any serious study, any exchange of ideas, any fruitful discussion, to specify designations; that is, to clarify well the meaning one attaches to words. How often do we set out solemnly, with a mental spear ready, to fight windmills! And how often does one unconsciously create a caricature, an unreal image of an opponent, a theory of an idea, and then report a victory over them, as easy as it is empty!
If there is one word that lends itself to misunderstandings, to confusions, to misconceptions, it is precisely the word spirit. This is not strange; if misunderstandings and errors arise with regard to other words designating more definite and more generally accessible facts and concepts, so much the more can they arise, and in fact they have arisen, with regard to a word indicating a reality so lofty, so difficult to grasp and experience, and almost impossible to formulate rationally. All the more, therefore, must an attempt be made to clarify and specify it.
Let us first see what spirit is not.
Confusion is often made between spirit and intelligence, a confusion fostered by the ambiguity of the words esprit in French and geist in German that are used to designate both of these two different realities. Other times spirit is used in the sense of psyche, or psychological character, as in the expression “the spirit of the times” — even speaking of times that are not spiritual at all!
In trying to rightly designate what “spirit” means, we must clearly distinguish its essence and its ultimate reality from its manifestations; that is, from the characteristics by which it reveals itself to us, the ways in which we perceive and recognize it in ourselves and others, in nature, and in history.
Spirit in itself is the supreme “Reality” in its transcendent, that is, absolute aspect; devoid of all limitation and concrete determination. Spirit therefore transcends every limitation of time and space, every constraint of matter. Spirit is in essence eternal, infinite, free, and universal. This supreme, absolute Reality cannot be known intellectually, since it transcends the human mind; but it can be postulated rationally, grasped intuitively, and to some extent mystically experienced. That being said, let us consider the manifestations of spirit that are most accessible to us and that affect us most directly.
Spirit is the element of transcendence, superiority, permanence, power, freedom, “interiority,” creativity, harmony and synthesis in every manifestation, whether individual or social. Thus spiritual (to some extent) is everything in man that induces him to transcend his selfish exclusivism, his fears, his inertia, his hedonism; everything that leads him to discipline, to master and to direct the disorganized, instinctive and emotional forces stirring within him. It is everything that induces him to recognize a wider and higher reality, social or ideal, and to move himself into it, crossing the limits of his own personality.
In this sense these are — to some extent — spiritual manifestations:
- courage, which [even]overcomes the instinct of physical preservation;
- love and dedication to another human being, to family, to country, to humanity, as overcoming selfishness;
- the sense of responsibility;
- the sense of cooperation, sociality, solidarity;
- disinterestedness, and even more so, sacrifice;
- the will in its true sense, as the principle and power of self-mastery, choice, discipline, synthesis;
- understanding, which is enlargement of our sphere of consciousness, sympathetic identification with other beings, with other manifestations of universal life, recognition of its meaning and purpose; of an intelligent, wise Will and of a loving Power, from which the universe comes, directing its evolution and guiding it toward a glorious goal.
Not all of these manifestations of the Spirit have the same value; that is, they are relative to the individual or social group in which they are revealed; so those that represent a transcendence, an overcoming, a liberation for one individual or human group, may instead be a limitation, a barrier, a passive adaptation for another and thus represent something unspiritual or even-anti-spiritual for others. Here one cannot put labels or make absolute, static judgments. We are in the field of concrete differentiated life, embedded in time and space, in matter and therefore in a field of relationships, perspectives, scales of values, hierarchies, developments.
Thus, for example, physical courage, which enables one to face dangers, is a genuine expression of spirituality; but it is primitive and elementary in comparison with moral courage. The love of the family, which helps the isolated man escape selfishness, which enables one to accept duties and responsibilities, is an appreciable form of spirituality; but it is inferior in comparison to a love, a solidarity, a dedication that is aimed at a whole people with its millions of individuals, or to a community of similar people, or even to humanity. It should be noted in this regard — to avoid misunderstanding — that these ever-widening circles of spiritual life do not nullify or exclude the other levels; on the contrary, they presuppose them. Only by degrees can man recognize and realize the various forms of spirituality.
Having thus designated the main spiritual “notes,” in a necessarily quick and purely summary way, we can move on to consider whether and which of these notes have manifested themselves in the 20th century.
From this broader, more profound point of view, the appearance of the 20th century changes. Thus we recognize that the unleashing of telluric or earthly forces that occurred in the world wars, and in the various revolutions that followed them, gave occasion for countless acts of individual and collective valor and courage, sacrifice, solidarity, altruism, and love.
Note that for millions of primitive individuals, physical courage, defiance of danger, endurance of pain, endurance of hardship, solidarity, and dedication were the forms of spirituality appropriate to the level and to which they could rise. It is unfair to demand from people forms and types of spirituality for which they are not ripe, for which they also lack the necessary means and psychophysical organs of expression; such a demand would reveal
a lack of understanding, and thus a lack of spirituality.
Thus for millions of individuals those experiences, those elementary acts have produced a great acceleration in the development of their personalities. Imagine a peasant farmer of 1924, who was locked in the narrow circle of his monotonous and anxious life, almost more vegetative than human, limited to the satisfaction of a few elementary instincts and interests, illuminated only by the glimmer of his attachment to his family. Imagine this peasant caught and swept up in the whirlwind of war, trained in the various military activities, thrown on various fronts in contact with comrades and superiors of all kinds, with enemies and allies, exposed to bombardment, in the harsh life of the trenches, a participant in victories and defeats, obliged to [learn] discipline and self-mastery — sick, or wounded; in contact with a thousand aspects of life — What a difference! What intensification of experience and life, what mental enlargement![iii]
Let us turn to consider the mechanical and technical developments of our civilization. The appearance, as we have mentioned, is materialistic. But we must first consider the treasures of intelligence, of tenacity and will, the hardships, the risks, and the sacrifices lavished by men in the conquest and domination of matter. Then the elevation of the collective standard of living. Finally [we consider] the great promise contained in this dominion of matter; that is, the liberation of humanity from the most burdensome and brutalizing labors, the decrease of working hours and thus the opportunity for everyone to have time and energy available to devote to cultural, artistic, spiritual activities.
Another characteristic aspect of the 20th century, which on the surface is anti-spiritual, but instead contains seeds within itself, and already has promising developments in a spiritual sense, is that of the prevalence of the collective and social aspect over the individual one. Appearances here also show the worst side. The human masses are primitive; their dominance seems to threaten higher spiritual values. Now here a major misunderstanding must be eliminated. The amorphous mass, the crowd is one thing; the organized collectivity and the new forms of social life that are developing within various national bodies are another thing; they are two things that are not only different but largely opposite.
The crowd is atomistic, undifferentiated, regressive, atavistic. The individual is lost or diminished in it, maybe having the illusion of freedom, but is actually dominated by the leaders, the demagogues.
The organized collectivity is organic, divided into increasingly larger and larger groups; it is hierarchical, so that individuals in it are at the same time giving and receiving direction, subordinate and managers; they learn [both] to obey and to command; they have precise and real duties, responsibilities and powers.
In the new social life, however, there are mixed aspects. There are numerous individuals, poorly evolved and poorly differentiated, who bring into the new social groups the old passive attitude. But this is inevitable: they would have been there anyway. Rather, one must openly recognize the danger of an excessive prevalence of the social and collective element over the individual. There needs to be balance between the two, or rather, what Keyserling calls “creative tension.”[iv]
Returning to the problem of human masses, there is a need to move men from the crowd, the “herd,” to the “group” as quickly and as well as is possible. This is essentially a problem, a task of individual and social education: a responsibility and a definite duty of the most educated and spiritually awake men and groups. With this we ascend to a higher and more differentiated level of spiritual life. And here immediately arises the problem of the tasks and functions of the elites,[v] the spiritual aristocracies — tasks that are more than ever great and urgent.
It is a matter of containing, mastering, disciplining the telluric earthly forces so that they do not erupt into destructive torrents; elevating and channeling the elemental, semi-conscious spirituality of the masses that is intermingled with “tellurism,” with a firm hand, leading it to increasingly conscious high, pure, and constructive manifestations.
It is a matter of creating the new art for the people, but not “popular” in the old, bad sense of the word. Such tasks seem very difficult to implement, but we must recognize how great is the shaping and creative power of the spirit. On the other hand, the multitudes by their very passivity are very receptive and plastic. Carlyle and others have clearly shown how heroes and geniuses by themselves, by their influence, have permeated and transformed a whole people, a culture, a century. Now the new media of dissemination and [social] penetration make such influences quicker, easier and more extensive. Moreover, the rare superiority of individual power (heroes and geniuses are not manufactured) can to a considerable extent be compensated by the harmonious and well-organized group collaboration of spiritually active men of good will. It is therefore necessary that such understandings and collaborations among spiritual workers be established as soon and as effectively as possible.
But before discussing the formation of this [spiritual] elite, it is appropriate to consider other features of 20th century spirituality. In the early 1900s lively movements arose in every area of culture in reaction to the materialistic and positivistic tendencies which had prevailed in the 1800s. In the biological sciences, the mechanistic interpretation of Darwinian evolution was successfully challenged by broader conceptions. A rapid transformation is taking place in medicine: the purely anatomical, pathological orientation, in which the greatest importance was given to external pathogens (microbes, etc.) and local lesions, is giving way to a dynamic conception of organic life that takes into account individual constitutions and the action of psychological and spiritual forces on the body.
This action, indeed sometimes the supremacy, of psychic and spiritual energies has been studied, and in many cases conclusively demonstrated, by a new science: parapsychology, or the science of supernormal phenomena.[vi] Serious and rigorous studies have demonstrated the existence of such phenomena and powers and, according to eminent scientists, such as the physiologist Richet,[vii] physicists Lodge[viii] and Barret[ix] and various others, the survival of the individual psyche upon the death of the body has been demonstrated with great probability or even certainty.
But on the scientific front, perhaps the most victorious and decisive offensive [against materialist and positivism] was that of physics, which made “matter,” that is, that entity to which they attributed certain characteristics of mass, density, and inertia, literally disappear before the astonished eyes of the materialists.[x] And physicists have not only demonstrated that all energy phenomena are accomplished according to complex and precise mathematical formulas: well, this means — and they say it openly — that the basis of all those phenomena is an act of thought, since a mathematical formula is essentially thought, reason, spirit.[xi]Thus the insight of ancient philosophy is shown to be true and brilliant: “God geometrizes.”[xii]
In the philosophical field, positivistic and rationalistic metaphysics[xiii] have been effectively defeated by the various idealistic movements, spiritualistic revivals, and strong anti-intellectualistic currents, the latter of which constitute the most general and typical attitude of the new generation. [xiv]
A special discipline that stands between the natural sciences and philosophy, namely psychology, has had a rich and eventful development in the twentieth century: Enslaved at first to positivism, it is rapidly becoming disengaged from it, orienting itself in a broader and more spiritual sense. [xv]
In the more directly spiritual and religious field, the 20th century brought important developments and undoubted progress. Three main trends can be noted here, which are becoming increasingly widespread and vigorous.
The [first] trend [is] toward enlargement, universality, and synthesis. Anti-intellectualism has also established itself in this field, in the form of anti-dogmatism and anti-formalism. There is a growing recognition of the relativity of all doctrinal formulations and formal belief systems, and there is a growing understanding of their indicative and symbolic character. [These formulations and belief systems] are not denied or suppressed by this, but put in their proper place; and much has been gained by the increased knowledge, both in depth and extent, of the spiritual conceptions of other peoples, especially those of the East, and in the forefront, of the Indians. A true cultural and spiritual synthesis between East and West can be said to have begun, the scope and consequences of which may be immense and lead to a unification — not formal and external — but internal and significant for humanity.
The second trend is that toward inwardness, toward direct spiritual experience, which is manifested in the growing interest in mysticism and in methods of discipline and inner conquest: concentration, meditation, enlightenment, yoga, etc..
The third trend is to bring spirituality into lived life, both in individual daily life and in social life.
- This is a move toward an integral spirituality, which includes the whole person, without compartmentalization, without conflict between heart and mind, soul and body, inner life and practical life, and which extends to social life (it can be called spiritual psychosynthesis).
- The rapid spreading of spiritual work, search and awakening to an increasing number of human souls. Of this there are mostly no conspicuous manifestations and that is natural, because these are internal occurrences and many [who do this work] prefer to remain concealed. But I can give you a significant testimony; that of psychology and psychiatry. C.G. Jung, in one of his books that has in the English edition the significant title, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, makes the following statement:
During the past thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of the earth have consulted me I have treated many hundreds of patients . . . Among all my patients in the second half of life — that is to say, over thirty-five — there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. [xvi]
It may well be said that mankind, taken as a whole, is not only in the midst of an economic, political, and social crisis, but also in the midst of deep spiritual travail, despite the fact that this is not consciously acknowledged by many; in fact, many sick and restless souls ignore the deep cause of their maladies until they are helped to understand it.
This travail is the greatest sign of the nobility of our times and at the same time the highest hope and promise for the future. According to the most enlightened observers, it is truly the travail that will lead to the birth of a new kind of civilization, to the advent of a new Human Age. With this general view we are able to understand what the urgent tasks of the present hour are and resolutely set about their implementation. Let us look the situation in the face. The present moment is most difficult. It is a period of transition.
Here are briefly some of the current problems and duties:
- To understand what is happening. This forms the indispensable basis.
- To persist by enduring hardships, setbacks and inconveniences of all kinds with a strong and happy spirit.
- To collaborate actively in building the new civilization. To be builders.
This, like any construction, cannot be accomplished by isolated individuals. Hence the need for the formation of elites, of groups of “spiritual workers.” These groups must have new characteristics: they will have to be free, flexible, and universal.
The uniting of these individuals will be of an entirely inner character; it will be established by a common understanding, a common fervor, and a common impulse to serve humanity; but there must be full freedom of particular conceptions, methods and fields of work. This union will have the character of a profound spiritual friendship and fraternity, not an external organization. The work of this elite will consist above all in giving guidance, in provoking initiatives, in educating, enlightening, elevating, in every field of human life and activity. What will thus be able to be done is incalculable. Here is how Herman Keyserling talks about it:
The whole hereditary organism is disconnected and disrupted; the soul naturally unfolds, a general recasting takes place which awaits only the spiritual mold from which it will receive its new form. Precisely this immense possibility, glimpsed, presented by millions of men, ultimately nourishes all the enthusiasm, all the fervor, all the eagerness for sacrifice that we see at work in the countries of revolution. This is because man, even if he consciously believes only in earthly data and values, is at bottom Spirit.[xvii]The possibility that the Spirit has at this time of history, of taking a giant step forward in its process of breaking into the telluric or earthly order, is definitely unique. Everything now depends on the spiritual and therefore personal initiative of men. If this is so — and there are many of us who are firmly convinced of it — we express the fervent wish and the resolute purpose that all awakened souls, enlightened minds, and generous hearts will be worthy of the present admirable opportunity, so that the glorious new Age of the Spirit may be established.
[i] Assagioli here refers to the verismo movement in literature and art, which claimed to portray “life as it really is” but which focused largely on detailed descriptions of the gritty underside of lower-class life with direct, unadorned language. —Ed.
[ii] (See Keyserling, Vie Intime, p. 213-16 and 220) —Author’s Note. This refers to the French edition of Hermann Keyserling’s book (1933), which was translated into English as The Art of Life and published in London by Selwyn & Blount in 1937.—Ed.
[iii] It may be that Assagioli here writes from first-hand observation, for he was a doctor attached to the Italian army at the Austrian front during World War I. —Ed.
[iv] See Keyserling, Hermann, Das Buch von persönlichen Leben, pp. 139. See Assagioli Archive doc. #16301, which cites “creative tension and contrast between the individual and the collective.” —Ed.
[v] It is important that recognize that Assagioli uses the word “elite” only to designate people who have achieved some level of genuine advancement, excellence and ability who put their resources, expertise, wisdom, experience, etc. at the service of others. In our time the popular usage of the word “elite” has become mostly associated with people who maintain positions of exclusive and entrenched social or political privilege, which is not at all the sense that Assagioli uses.—Ed.
[vi] In this sentence Assagioli uses the Italian word supremazia,which is literally translated as “supremacy;” however the meaning seems to be that sometimes psychic or spiritual energy is powerful or efficacious enough to override or supersede the effects of mechanical, organic, electromagnetic or other types of physical energy. —Ed.
[vii] Charles Robert Richet (1850-1935), a French physiologist and pioneer in immunology, was co-discoverer of the phenomenon of anaphylaxis, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1913. He devoted many years of study to paranormal phenomena and coined the word “ectoplasm” in this connection. He was President of the Society for Psychical Rsearch in the UK and of Institut Metapsychique International in Paris. —Ed.
[viii] Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851-1940) was a British pysicist whose work was part of the development of radio. He was also know for his parapsychological research and published a book which was a detailed account of his messages from his deceased son, who had died in World War I. —Ed.
[ix] Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844-1925) was a British physicist and parapsychologist. He was active in societies for psychical research in UK, USa, and Ireland and published books in both physics and parapsychology. —Ed.
[x] This is a reference to the work on energy and matter equivalence, such as the famous equation developed by Einstein, e=mc2. —Ed.
[xi] Famous physicists such as Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Max Planck and others held ideas such as that mentioned, and Planck was quoted as saying, ” I regard matter as derived from consciousness.” —Ed.
[xii] Attributed to Plato by Plutarch in Convivialium disputationum, liber 8,2. A similar thought was expressed in modern times by mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who said “God arithmatizes.” —Ed.
[xiii] In academic philosophical writings “metaphysics” was largely considered “meaningless” by positivists before 1950, and was bypassed, ignored or scorned by them. Positivism is still considered relevant by some, especially by “philosophers of science,” since the field of academic philosophy has fragmented into various segments, each of which specializes in some area, such as science or language. Many scientists still adopt a positivist, materialist or “rationalist” approach, and many people in technological fields are de facto “positivists,” but the philosophical trend known as “logical positivism” has largely been rejected among most modern philosophers. Philosophers such as Karl Popper have shown that metaphysics cannot be eliminated from thought, even scientific thought. —Ed.
[xiv] At the time of this writing existentialism was probably the most widely followed popular philosophy in the western civilization, and its nihilist and absurdist aspects especially appealed to a lot of young people. —Ed.
[xv] In the decades just before this essay was written, behaviorism had been the dominant trend in psychology, only gradually giving way to humanistic and other person-center and consciousness-oriented psychologies. —Ed.
[xvi] from the original English in Jung, C.G. Modern Man in Search of a Soul, translated by W.S. Dell, London, Kegan Paul, 1933.—Tr.
[xvii] Source Unknown. Translation is from Assagioli’s Italian rendition. —Ed.
[i] Earlier versions of this essay were published in the magazine Il Loto in 1935, and by Assagoili’s Istituto di Cultura e di Terapia Psichica, also in 1935. This version of the published essay is taken from a typed manuscript prepared by Istituto di Psicosintesi in 1962. —Ed.
[ii] Editor’s Interpolations are shown in [brackets]. —Ed.
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