Conclusion

Over the past few months, I have looked at the different ways we view and understand the world around us. Through readings and videos and discussions I have come to the conclusion that, while there may be different elements of a world view, the scientific, aesthetic, spiritual, and intellectual ways of knowing are all connected and part of each other. 

One of the things I am very interested in and wish we had maybe discussed more in class is the intersectionality of these ways of knowing- the points where the lines between them blur and we end up with our most valuable insights. 

Many of the things we looked at had elements of this. Kate Tempest's work, Brand New Ancients, though clearly an artistic piece, took it's inspiration from spiritual materials. The cross over between art and spirituality is one of the more present, obvious examples of crossover, with religious subject matter being the basis for art for centuries. 

Another example is Jill Bolte Taylor's description of her experience with having a stroke. From one angle, it is a highly scientific experience, especially given that she is a scientist and so explains what is happening in a very scientific way. However many of the things she described could be seen as intellectual (the question of where we begin and where we end) and spiritual (the out of body point which she talked about). 

Even the documentary, Black Athena, deals with things that we know on not just a scientific level (such as with the finding and dating of artifacts, our knowledge of plants and such) but also an intellectual level (what would these societies have behaved like, how would these things have been used, etc). 

Everything exists together, connected to each other on some level or another. If we are unable to experience things in one WOK, then the other Wok's become limiting, not helpful. I addressed this in my most recent journal post:

"This in turn got me thinking about the things we actively choose to ignore. The things that disagree with our worldview and so we decide not to see them. It isn't always a conscious decision, but it is undeniably true that a majority of people will, when confronted with something that contradicts their way of viewing the world, rationalize it in a way that makes it fit.

For example, let's take an experience my mother has had. My mother, being a very spiritual person, might enter a house, feel the presence of someone who isn't alive, feel the temperature drop, and instantly know that what she has experienced is the presence of a ghost. Someone who has a more scientific way of knowing might have the same experience, but instead of the simple explanation of oh it's just a ghost, they would say it's just a weird house with drafty rooms. Even though the presence of a ghost is the simplest explanation, it is the harder one to accept because it requires the scientist to change their way of knowing. In it's exclusion of the spiritual, science becomes not a way of knowing, but rather a way of not knowing. It is a safety net to rationalize things without having to change your world view. "

The best way of viewing the world is through all 4 lenses at once, to a point where you no longer see them as lenses, but as one whole vision. 

My last example is the myths we listened to. Those myths were part of mythologies and religions that blended together all WOKs. They were there to explain how the world worked (science) and why people behaved as they did (intellectual), all the while being part of a greater spiritual belief system. These myths then inspired art and song (aesthetic) to create a whole balanced way of viewing the world. As our world has developed we have segmented theses things, pulled them away from each other, and lost our balance. In order to regain a balanced life and world view, we have to learn to blend all 4 ways of knowing back together into one.