The Role of Mystics, Artists and Scientists in Human Evolution

When we study human history, we realize that human beings have been evolving over the centuries. In every generation there was a majority that blindly followed traditional beliefs and practices. Such traditions gave birth to religions whose leaders gained power in their communities. They ruled the masses by directing their personal and social lives. Some of those leaders became intoxicated with power and began misguiding their communities socially, economically and politically. As those religions and traditions became more institutionalized, the abuse of power increased. But in every generation there was also a minority of creative personalities, whether mystics, artists or scientists, that questioned those traditions and challenged those religious leaders.

Over the centuries there have been many mystics from different cultural traditions, be they sufis or sadhus, sants or saints, who followed their own hearts rather than the highway of tradition. Since they were perceived as threats to religious and political establishments who abused power, these mystics were called heretics and were penalized, persecuted, even executed, because they were sympathetic to common people. Kabir Das, Bullay Shah, Sheikh Saadi, Maulana Rumi, William Blake, and Walt Whitman all challenged the religious and social traditions of their time and paid a heavy price. Mansoor Hallaj, the famous mystic, was crucified for saying analhaq [I am truth] . Many priests, rabbis, maulanas and pundits, who are the privileged religious elites of their communities, are threatened by these mystics who accept rather than judge people. Common people always loved, respected and cherished mystics of their communities, who were not concerned with the concepts of sin and guilt and burning in hell, but instead, led simple lives and served their communities. Mystics established the value of human experience and personal truth over traditional beliefs and scriptures. Their philosophy can be summarized by the sayings of two mystics. Buddha, the ancient mystic said,

“ Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it
Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held
Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books
Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin
Believe nothing just because someone else believes it
Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.”

The modern mystic of 20th century J Krishnamurti stated, “Truth is a pathless land”

As humanity evolved, many creative personalities who challenged the traditional beliefs became artists. They developed different forms of expression, creating poems, plays and paintings to challenge traditional morality. Endowed with rich imagination and non-traditional ways of seeing the world, they suggested that scriptures were part of folklore and wisdom literature and that we need metaphorical rather than literal interpretations of holy books. Artists connected with the masses at an emotional level and inspired them to challenge traditional morality based on scriptures. Traditional religious leaders and institutions, who were challenged by mystics also felt threatened by artists whom they also penalized and persecuted.

Artists redefine our concept of good based on aesthetic rather than moral values. Artists help us to appreciate the beauty of nature and humanity and to get in touch with our inner beauty. They helped us develop our Right Brains in order to appreciate words, colours and sounds and in doing so, touch the artist inside in all of us. They help us keep alive our inner child who loves to play and enjoy life. In our stressful lives full of family, work and social responsibilities, artists help us enter an imaginary world where we enjoy their creative products. Whether they are the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen, the paintings of Picasso and Van Gogh, the novels of Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka or the poems of Mirza Ghalib and Pablo Neruda, they all inspire us and we find them entertaining as well as enlightening. The creation of art and literature has been a major step in human evolution.

In the last few centuries, human beings have crossed another milestone in evolution through the disciplines of Science and Philosophy. Scientists question not only religious leaders but also mystics and artists. Scientists insist on logical and rational proof before they accept anything. Scientists believe that there are two kinds of truth, subjective truths and objective truths. For any truth to be accepted universally it has to be proved to others. They use microscopes and telescopes to prove their theories. Scientists and philosophers have explored different aspects of life—biology, psychology, economics, sociology. In the last couple of centuries, the discoveries of scientists and philosophers like Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein have changed how we see ourselves, other human beings and the universe around us. It appears as though mystics and artists challenged religious traditions from inside while philosophers and scientists attacked them from outside. While mystics and artists helped human beings to develop their Right Brains, scientists and philosophers stimulated the growth and evolution of the Left Brain. In the twentieth century writings of scientists and philosophers like Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud and Stephen Hawking took the rational understanding of human life and the universe to new heights and depths and emphasized that human beings can solve their personal and social problems without the help of God, religion, scriptures and divine revelations.

As the disciplines of science and philosophy have grown, not only have human minds developed but also human communities. In schools, colleges and universities education is based on scientific values, while at the state level, laws have been made on secular and humanistic principles.

Many scientists and philosophers have remained mentally prepared to follow the tradition of Socrates, who had to drink from the cup of poison for inspiring young people to question their religious and cultural traditions.

In the twentieth century many humanistic psychologists have studied the creative and mystic encounters from a secular and scientific point of view. Psychologists like William James and Julian Jaynes broadened the horizons of human psychology, attempting to prove that our spirituality is part of our humanity rather than part of divinity. Abraham Maslow proved that to have peak experiences (creative and mystic experiences) human beings need not believe in any God or organized religion. Such experiences are more related to the stimulation of the Right Temporal Lobes; they are products of the human unconscious mind rather than of gods and angels. These psychologists developed a secular discipline of human psychology, following a humanistic tradition in which our understanding of the human mind and personality is based on our scientific and secular principles rather than holy scriptures.

As we review communities around the world in the 21st century we become aware that there are many that are still guided by religious traditions and where religious leaders have wide-ranging social, economic and political powers. These leaders still demand the practice of their brand of holy scriptures in everyone’s personal and political lives, and insist on theocratic states deriving laws from holy scriptures on which no two sects agree. On the other hand there are communities where religion has become a private concern, and social and legal matters are guided by secular, scientific and humanistic values.

I am of the opinion that blind faith and religion were our past and science, psychology and philosophy are our future as human beings. On the journey of human evolution we are gradually evolving from religious communities and theocratic states to secular communities and humanistic states where all citizens will enjoy equal rights and privileges. On this journey mystics, artists, scientists and philosophers, with their personal, creative and rational truths have been paving the way for social change over the centuries and paying a heavy price for challenging age-old traditions. In spite of their differences, they all worked towards human liberation focusing on personal truth, creative imagination and rational thinking. All these groups have reformed their communities, bringing about social change by challenging blind faith and inspiring people to achieve social consciousness and enlightenment. Mystics, artists, philosophers and scientists, they all suffered but their sufferings paved a way for future growth.
They blazed their own trails but their trails became the highways for future generations. Such creative people have been in a minority but that minority has been leading the majority on the journey of human evolution. Arnold Toynbee, a famous historian, once wrote, “ To give a fair chance to potential creativity is a matter of life and death of any society. This is important because the outstanding creative ability of a small percentage of the population is mankind’s ultimate capital asset.”