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EMERSON BICENTENNIAL 25 May 2003
EMERSON
Every
time I think I’m done with Emerson, I meet him further down the
trail where he’s set up an intricate campsite in what I thought
was total wilderness. I keep forgetting that he was not only ahead of
his time but ahead of our time as well. He
was ahead of his time not only in regards religion, not only in regards
writing — using the power of image to rattle our perceptions and
erode ego (see Marion Milner, “On Not Being Able to Paint”)
— but even in regards the current topic we call the biology of
belief. We’re
told that Emerson believed, “The true path to spiritual reality
lay in and through the structure of the human mind.” And Emerson
himself wrote: “The character of each man shall form his Imagination.
The Beings of the Imagination shall become objects of unshaken faith,
that is, to his mind, Realities.” (My emphasis) BRAIN
SCIENCE The latest in neuroscience as written up in books like “Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief” theorizes that the brain is an absolute-belief machine designed to take ideas or stories and produce deep feelings of certainty: Or as Emerson would say, to produce realities. Brain makes belief. In
other words, brain/mind studies suggest we have an almost overwhelming
instinct for belief. And that’s why God won’t go away, because
God can mean 50 different things to 50 different people, each
of whom thinks he’s dead-on right about his definition. If that
doesn’t indicate a huge problem in the area of belief then please
think again. Now
we come to Emerson — excuse me, now we come back to Emerson
— and find that his whole writing project was based on the idea
that we have an even stronger instinct for transcendence, for rising
above the relative and conditional ideas culture offers as raw material
for our belief. Maybe
I had to read “Why God Won’t Go Away” three times to
better understand the power of Emerson’s idea. Coincidentally,
the book that would have opened my eyes has been sitting on my shelf
mostly unread since June 1999, about the same time “Why God Won’t
Go Away” came into the house. “God in Concord: Ralph Waldo
Emerson’s Awakening to the Infinite,” by Richard G. Geldard,
is nothing short of amazing. EXPLORING EMERSON Geldard touches on many fascinating aspects of Emerson’s life and character: Emerson’s
problems with his church and his views on organized religion in general;
his fall from the pulpit and his personal flight over dogma; how he
wrote using powerful images to make spiritual assertions; the idea that
perhaps he wasn’t really a philosopher because he didn’t have
a system and never explained his assertions or defended his insights;
his theory of emanations; his creative stance (or belief) in the Over-Soul;
the idea that the laws of the universe and the laws of the mind are
the same; the belief that we are not fundamentally flawed but blessed
with an instinct and the ability for transcendence if only we’ll
get out of our own way, a very Hindu idea; his belief that to follow
the impersonal laws of the mind into the limitless and infinite spaces
of the Over-Soul leads to self-confidence, self-reliance, self-trust
and self-directed thinking, feeling and living; and the idea that you
can trust this impersonal force because it’s really a natural,
impersonal divinity within you, not just an ego trip. INSPIRED I
don’t pretend to grasp or endorse all these ideas. I am simply
responding the way Emerson would want me to, thrilled at the possibilities
he suggests, vibrating to his metaphors and assertions; in other words:
Inspired. Moreover,
how could anyone fail to be impressed that 150 years before the advent
of neuro-theology, Emerson saw what seemed to be a troubling instinct
for absolute belief and tried his whole life long to demonstrate its
opposite. Perhaps someone should write a book called, “Why Emerson
Won’t Go Away.” I’d
buy it. See
excerpts from Geldard’s book and read Emerson’s own words And don’t forget to celebrate the bicentennial of Emerson’s birth May 25. Think a new thought. Make a metaphor. 
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