Little Shop of Knowledge

 
Bohm closes his book by inquiring deeper into the nature of thought and the essence of humans and existence. He distinguishes two types of thought and language. These are; Participatory thought and Literal thought. In ancient times it was believed that everything that was similar was just a representation of the ONE thing. Eskimos, for example, used to believe that seals were only a sort of “manifestation” of the “one seal”. In literal thought we think that there are many different seals. We even apply some of this kind of thought today. When we hear and see someone we are perceiving two different experiences, however we come to think that both experiences come from the same origin. This is participatory thought. Literal thought is a more scientific kind of thinking, in which we really don’t have much influence and whatever we do or say doesn’t really affect this thing that is “apart” from us.
 
Bohm suggests that we start looking at the world in a more participatory way. Why? Because he explains three dimensions of the human being. The first one is the physical one. Where does the body begin and end if it’s always being formed by the air, water and food that come into it? He says that the individual is a “focus” of life at a certain place. He then describes the second level as the collective. Where we exist in a society and culture. Both of these aspects are only real because of the consciousness of individuals that merge to form such “society”, society is not something objective that exists apart from us. Finally, he enters the cosimic dimension, which related to “The Unlimited” he mentions in the title of the chapter. What I understood is that this “unlimited” is nature, it’s existence. And when we realize that we’re “partaking of” and “partaking in” every single one of this dimensions we’ll see the world differently and begin to transform our consciousness.
 
I find this extremely interesting because they are matters that really do extend beyond human thought. Many believe that science will attain everything and that’s why in many places Religion, Philosophy and appreciation of Nature have been set aside but I agree with Bohm in that our being can be unlimited. Literally we are just matter reformed. However there is that something else that breaks every system and we seem to not understand. What is that sense of self that we have? What is the “I”? Is it even real? How do we truly exist? Will we ever be able to understand this? Asking myself all of this questions can sometimes be confusing but beautiful as well because it makes me re-organize my list of priorities. Sure, we’re all trying to survive and succeed in our time and place, however there is something that keeps going on beyond time and place, and if we do have a cosmic dimension then we’re part of it.
 
I’ll propose that we take a second look at this chapter because it is not only fascinating but it could truly spark a real change in the way we dialogue.