Synopsis of the
History of Consciousness
The interest in expanding consciousness occurs in all eras and shows up often in the art, poetry, dance,
and music of the time, as well as the philosophical and literary writing of the day. It also is manifested in
the lives of significant individuals. Certainly Plato was writing about expanding conscious awareness in The
Meno, recognizing that we are not the constructs of our mind. His analogy of the cave shows this in a very
illuminating way. Dostoevsky moved into a powerful exploration of the deeply entangled mind in order to
come to grips with his larger personal existence. The poetry of Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine, and
Mallarme’ all engage us in a vast exploration of consciousness through the penetration of emotion.
The paintings of El Greco, coming when they did, clearly challenges the structure and perception of the
day and lead, centuries later, to the paintings of Cezanne and to the expanding view of reality that the
Impressionists, Cubists, and Expressionist finally move towards. The musical exploration of Bach,
Beethoven, Mozart, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky are calling for us to grow into a wider more cosmic
musical life. The dance of Isadora Duncan and Nijinsky manifest what the body can contain and express as
consciousness. History is peppered with individuals who exemplify this expanded awareness in their
personal existence: Lao Tzu, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, Gandhi, Saint Theresa of
Avila, Swedenberg, Walt Whitman, Joan of Arc, William Blake.
The modern interest in wholistic consciousness coming after World War II seems to be the first attempt
to extend these experiences in the west beyond the confines of the community of artists and special people
and into the larger community, though there certainly has been a roll back recently, this still goes on; young
people are still on the quest. And yet other cultures may have integrated such a move many centuries ago.
The Balinese people seem to have such an integration of the spiritual and esthetic; the paleolithic cultures of
old may have; the contemporary aboriginal cultures of Australia and the shamanic cultures of Latin
American may have. Allen Ginsburg’s reference to India in this regard is quite interesting. “Indians, really
sophisticated as far as letting everybody be as crazy as they want and taking it as formal personal method
of relating to Gods, all very proper and dignified.”1 (footnotes in Appendix I)
The question of the nature of consciousness and its significance to the culture’s life has been much
debated along with the method of attainment, particularly around the use of mind-altering drugs. But it
seems clear that people will use a wide variety of methods in order to reestablish the link to a sense of unity
that is at the basis of the quest for expanded consciousness; legislating what can and cannot be used has
little impact on what in fact will be used. The benefit to a culture is exemplified in the reverence we show
to those individuals who have embodied this sense of the unification of life. Also there is a curious tension
between the experiential aspect and the presentational aspect. If the unitary nature of consciousness is
likewise the central aspect of being, can that aspect of being be transmitted through art, poetry, music,
dance, philosophy? If no, then what are there purposes; if yes, to what extent and to what end.
Lao Tzu was reluctant to write anything down, Christ and Buddha did not, yet we have their words.
Poets and artists are reluctant to explain their work and music is peculiarly experiential in a way other arts
must strive for. The experience of dance can really only be had by the dancer. Philosophy seems to be the
furthest from the experience yet it may have the most impact on how cultures have organized themselves,
for better or for worst, consider Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Hegel, Marx, Lock and Jefferson.
Mind altering drugs have convinced artists at times that the product of art is superfluous because we
cannot convey through any medium the true nature of the spiritual experience. Ginsburg went through
such a period, unsure whether he should write poetry any longer. And yet poets are intrigued with “in the
beginning was the word” as a recognition of the power of words, the voice, music, and sound as the
generators of reality. Artists in general are particularly enthralled by the work itself, less so it can be said,
by the profession of art. Through the writing of a poem, the painting of a picture, the production of music,
the experience of higher consciousness is had; to this extent art of all sorts is closest to dance. The
presentation of art then has another function. It can be used to recall, to point a direction, to be a reminder
and a catalyst for the experience, and at special moments to be a poignant link that generates the experience
anew. Ginsburg’s reaction to reading Blake; “I suddenly realized that this existence was it!” “This was the
moment I was born for. This initiation, this consciousness of being alive unto myself. The spirit of the
universe was what I was born to realize.” 2 Blake was successful in transmitting his awareness.
I vividly remember, after spending time reading Dylan Thomas, his poetry, plays, biography, and being
taken with his life and work, how he spoke to me, not as Blake spoke to Ginsburg, in a trance, but in the
way I could create Dylan Thomas poetry, seemingly at will. Particularly while driving in the car, I could
begin to speak out poetry that had the inflection, the language, the word play, and the images of Thomas’
poetry. My voice would sound like his in that very personal, musical, rhythmic cadence that he spoke so
recognizably. And I realized in this way the excitement of language, the beauty of words, the joy of
creation, and the way in which ordinary life was imbibed with the magical qualities that we so often give
only to the extraordinary because I would speak of things you might see while driving in a car. He spoke to
me so well that his voice came through me in these moments of poetic outbursts. I’ve had to give this up
for the most part in order to find my own voice, but it is still a wonder to me.
What all of these experiences of consciousness do is to let us know that we, as human creatures, are
more than our provincial view of reality has lead us to believe. Carlos Castenada’s explorations into a
seeming parallel world of sorcery has, it seems, finally allowed us to accept the cosmology of native
peoples on this continent, and recognize that their world, though different from western European based
reality, is valid. We now explore with native people their shamanic relationship to nature and its powerful
ecological understanding.
So what we have in all of these explorations is a growing awareness that may, if it does nothing else,
give us the opportunity to live more harmoniously as people and as creatures on this planet because we
gained a glimpse of our place in the cosmos, and it is a far larger place than we previously imagined. It is a
place that is connected to others in a far more intriguing way than our mundane life would have us believe.
The unity that is the basis of consciousness gives us far more possibilities in the way in which we live and
in the manner of our creations. We are open to the assemblage of artistic expression on a much vaster
scale. We now have a better understanding of where all this created beauty comes from and why it is such
an endless pursuit.
Introduction
The Beat Literary Movement, as exemplified by Jack Kerouac, Gary Synder, Michael McClure, Allen
Ginsburg, and others, embarks on a study of consciousness through their work. Its evolutionary history,
beginning as early as 1944, has roots in many sources, particularly the tenets of Eastern spiritual thought,
the spiritual poetry of Whitman and Blake, jazz - particularly bebop - the natural world, and the social
struggles of the times. During the 50s and 60s, and into the 70s, inquiries into consciousness were
occurring in many disciplines. John Lilly was applying isolation experiments, and computer theory with
psychedelics and the study of dolphin language to form new ways of understanding human consciousness.
Spiritual masters such as Oscar Ichazo were exploring various ancient spiritual disciplines using the
methods of science to come up with models and forms for understanding and organizing consciousness in
the contemporary world. Western trained academics like Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and others were
experimenting with hallucinogenic agents. Claudio Naranjo, Charles Tart, Robert Orenstein, John White,
and others, were advancing the enquiry.
There was a renewed interest in Eastern thought by some members of academia during this period,
and an extraordinary surge in the development of new psychological tools. Ed Maupin, published the first
study of the effects of Zen Meditation. Transcendental Meditation was vigorously studied in the late 60s
because of the Beatles interest in the form, as was yoga meditation which lead to the breakthroughs of
biofeedback as a medical discipline. Much of this exciting growth in human understanding was going on
against the backdrop of the popular use of, and popular exploration into, the mind altering qualities of
various chemicals, as well as the scientific and academic inquiry into their effects, exemplified by Lilly,
Leary, Alpert and others. Out of this inquiry and out of the renewed interest in such seminal works as
Henry James’ Varieties of Religious Experiences, Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy, the body of
Jungian psychology, and the unorthodox work of Wilhelm Reich, as well as the Buddhism of Alan Watts, a
new understanding of consciousness as larger, more encompassing, and more exquisite than was thought
possible was gaining entrance to a new generation of people.
For this paper’s application of wholistic forms of consciousness to poetics I use the metaphor of
human consciousness loosely based on the work of Oscar Ichazo called Trialectics and I look at how the
Beat Literary Movement developed from the perspective of these new wholistic forms. I’ll put forward,
as well, an approach to poetics using in part the lens of Ichazo’s work. The Beat Movement encapsulates
during its history the elements that Ichazo describes in the development of the historical and psychic
movement from formal, to dialectical, to trialectical (wholistic) forms of consciousness. I make no claim
that these are the ideas of Ichazo only that they are an understanding that I came to as a result of some
early work with Ichazo’s spiritual systems.
Oscar Ichazo is a Chilean, trained in a wide range of spiritual forms from Buddhism to Sufism, new
psychologies and martial arts. Ichazo sees occurring the next development of consciousness that is more
in concert with a condition of unity. 3 I am here employing Ichazo’s Trialectic Logic in an interpretation of
literary forces. This new Logic develops out of wholistic thinking and arises out of necessity as tenets of
formal (Aristotelian) thought, and dialectical (Hegelian) forms fail to account for our present world and fail
in aiding us toward the solution of problems in our personal, social, and philosophical life. Trialectic Logic
is both a combining of formal and dialectical elements, and a further development of a wholistic, or a meta-
logical view (Ichazo idea). 4 There has always been a prejudice against using logic, as it has been
understood, in looking at the arts. Ichazo and others have taken logic out of the confines of a linear
perspective and recognizes in trialectics a method of operating in a unified dimension, it brings in elements
that historically have been dismissed in logic. John White in his introduction to the seminal 1972 volume
The Highest State of Consciousness talks about enlightenment and the brain and says “the result is a new
state of consciousness. This in turn creates a new mode of perception and feeling which leads to the
discovery of non-rational (but not irrational) forms of logic, which are multi-level/integrated/simultaneous,
not linear/sequential/either-or.” 5 He is describing a wholistic logic found most often in poetry and the arts.
The arts have always been the most unified presentation of reality.
Trialectic Logic employs, in its basic method, four primary parts that can be applied to poetry and art
in general: the attractive element, the active element, and a function leading to a result that moves from one
manifestation to a more coherent place where one gains a more complete understanding and a more unified
experience. Trialectic Logic accounts for a growing change in conscious perception throughout the culture
as exemplified by the Beat movement. The outline here is a very basic look at this approach as it applies to
poetry and the arts in general and Beat poetry in particular.
This section unfolds in the following manner. The first section is a brief discussion of the Beat
influences on consciousness and how consciousness has evolved over their history. Section two is a
discussion of the four elements of Trialectic Logic: attractive, active, function, and result, and a brief
discussion of what Trialectic Logic is about. More will be elaborated on in the sections that follow. The
third section is a look at poetry and it’s grounding in language, music, and the natural world. Section four
looks at formal elements of poetry and their historical function and limitations. Section five will do the same
for dialectical elements. Section six will elaborate on wholistic logic and its application as a poetic. Section
seven draws all of this together with a discussion of poetic elements, the statement of a poetic, and the
highest resolution of the Beat sensibility.
Beat Sensibility
The Beat poets offer in the body of their work a dramatic presentation of the movement from the
collapsing formalist poetic world, (the Beat sensiblites assisted this collapse) to the chaos that welled up in
their work as they experimented, through their lives, and documented through their work, the profound
dialectical struggles of the post World War II period. The play of their work had, early in its perception,
the transcending quality of Buddhism, which showed up in their developing poetic and social experience.
Jack Kerouac wrote a sutra in 1956 at the urging of Gary Snyder called The Scripture of the Golden
Eternity:
16
The point is we’re waiting, not how comfortable
we are while waiting. Paleolithic man waited by
caves for the realization of why he was there,
and hunted; modern men wait in beautified
homes and try to forget death and birth. We’re
waiting for the realization that this is the
golden eternity. 6
Buddhism provided the third impulse to a poetry that crossed to a new awakening consciousness. The
first impulse, in the early years, was an intuitive recognition that the formalist elements, in the poetry of the
day, needed to be overthrown. The second impulse was the prophetic insight that the social matrix was a
death machine that would only succumb by a fierce head on struggle.
The elements of conflict in their work and lives had the saving grace of the Buddhist transcendent
quality of ordinary experience. They were constantly reaching for a frame of reference that left behind the
tangle of the formal and dialectical world. Alan Watts, the Buddhist luminary amongst them, writes, “For
the highest expression of Buddhism, both in life and art, is concerned with ordinary, everyday things, with
birds, trees branches and wisps of grass, with gathering rice and drawing water.” 7
The development of the Beat poetic vision anticipated the social move to a new kind of consciousness.
Ichazo likens the development of the previous forms of consciousness historically to the opening of new
kinds of conscious perception in the psyche of the community where they arise. 8 He says that with this
view we can see that Europe functioned inside of the conscious tenets of formal, static logic, from the
time of Aristotle until Hegel - and then Marx and Engels - realized that the problem of movement
(particularly historical movement) needed a new logic, dialectical forms of thinking developed out of this.
Consciousness in the west is changing and growing and the tenets of conflict, within a dialectical
framework, do not account for the process that we see occurring, and the need we see arising; the need
for cooperative forms of social interaction. Here develops new forms of consciousness, and new forms
of conscious processes, closer to poetry and art.
The Beat movement anticipated and acted to facilitate this profound move to a new consciousness
that was already awakening in the unconscious life of the people. William Burrough’s wrote, “The Beat
literature movement came at exactly the right time and said something millions of people of all nationalities
all over the world were waiting to hear. You can’t tell anybody anything he doesn’t know already.” 9 The
Beats looked to Buddhism, and other Eastern spiritual disciplines, and found in them the form necessary to
open, or relate, this new consciousness in the culture. A spiritual philosophy of process, the ordinary, and
complementarity arose in the Eastern mind well before the Western.
The Beats brought this consciousness into the cultures life at a seminal time. Ichazo’s work has acted
to extend it in another way and give it a systematic form. It is interesting to note that what Ichazo sees as
the historical move from formal to dialectical to trialectical consciousness was going on simultaneously in
the Beat work. Almost, it could be said, a recapitulation of these conscious forces in a particular
movement, all going on simultaneously, manifesting first as one, then as the other, all elements occurring
at once, one long convoluted poem that encapsulates the process of consciousness going on in the whole
society. The Beats then present it back to the society as the necessary reflection of the society’s psychic
life. Again from Burrough’s, “There is no doubt that we’re living in a freer america (conscious life) as a
result of the Beat literary movement.” 10
Exploring
the
Poetic Matrix
Poetic Creation and Consciousness
Body, Mind and Nature
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