July 16, 2011
Defining “Interiority”
in·teri·ori·ty n.
1. The inner depth dimension of the manifest evolving cosmos.
2. Subjective consciousness as distinguished from objective matter.
From the third-century Greek sage Plotinus to the twentieth-century English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, many of history’s most influential thinkers have recognized that the universe is far more than a merely physical process. Hidden beneath the outer appearances of the material world there is, in the words of Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “a within to things.” This other half of reality, a mysterious space unperceivable by our five senses, has been variously called consciousness, spirit, sentience, prehension, or subjectivity. But when speaking about the great story of cosmic evolution, it is often useful to describe it as simply interiority.
Viewed from the outside, the evolution of the universe appears to be a gradual unfolding of increasingly complex forms of matter and energy—proceeding from atoms to stars to amoebas to human beings. But if we look below the surface of things, we realize that in addition to producing increasing orders of exterior complexity, the force of evolution has also been giving rise to greater and greater depths of interior sensation and awareness. Like two sides of a single coin, explained Teilhard, “the Physical and the Psychic, the Without and the Within, Matter and Consciousness, are all found to be functionally linked in one tangible process.” And the interior dimension of this process, Teilhard believed, pervades the entire universe, extending all the way up and all the way down the evolutionary scale to include “every kind of psychism, from the most rudimentary forms of interior perception imaginable to the human phenomenon of reflective thought.”
“In this awakening to the inherently integral nature of the entire process,” writes Andrew, “something changes at a soul level. We recognize our significance. We see that our human capacity for deep interiority — the fact that we have a consciousness that has developed the capacity to reflect upon itself — is the very leading edge of the inner dimension of the evolving cosmos.”
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Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
I’m confused by how the degree of “interiority” is determined. Humans construct their consciousness with more or less interior depth depending on their inclinations; there’s no ready metric to determine this depth in any consistent sense, however. But it becomes even more difficult to assess on an interspecies level. I’ve known people who would swear that their dogs were smarter than they were (some of whom I’d agree with); however, even in this closely bonded interspecies pairing there’s no possible way to determine interiority. It becomes truly an impossible task when it comes to assessing the interiority of, say, a giant sequoia or a colossal squid – how do we know that their interiority does not far surpass our own? And suppose that we do meet up with an active Gray, or even a Reptilian – how do we compare to them?
The poinr, such as it is, is that “interiority” is such a subjective, or even sub-subjective, term that it doesn’t really advance the dialogue much to toss it around. I’d love to be convinced otherwise, but I don’t see how the problems that I’ve identified here make it possible.
We humans tend to confuse interiority or consciousness with rationality, and sometimes even with knowledge. Descartes said “I think, therefore I am”, when he should have said “I feel, therefore I am”. We say that we are rational animals, that what we have special is reason. Some people think that if we manage to make a super capable computer it would eventually have an “I”, consciousness itself.
Rationality and knowledge are pragmatic tools of life in the world of matter, tools of the ego; a PC certainly add greatly to these tools.
Consciousness is in the other side, at its purest, it has no ego, no rationality, it just is at the timeless dimension of Self, subjectivity or interiority.
I see the wave/particle duality as the foundation and microcosm of the matter/consciousness duality. Consciousness is a wave and it exists at every level of existence. The atom, the molecule, amino acid, protein, cell, organ, etc., all have an interiority which is the wave aspect of themselves. Thus, everything is conscious at the level of its field of motion and activity. Notice that this wave grows to contain higher order levels of connected matter–or rather, the connected matter combines their waves into one.
Therefore, all consciousness is knowledge based because, by definition, consciousness is what penetrates the environment and assesses the relationship between it and the entity. Human consciousness is in a continuous process of development since its range of motion is ever expanding. There really is no reason to think that this growth will ever stop.
So my definition of interiority is different than that which sees it as an internal state, since to me there is no separation between external and internal. Once we see that the interior exists outside of ourselves in everything, then we will understand that fact.
Very nice and may be true!
Yet how could we explain cruelty, inhumanity of certain people against other humans or animals? Not only historical figures but in our everyday life.
Why inner evolution does not happen to these also?
Irene
Human interiority is such a new idea that it is great to begin discussing it. The wave/particle analogy is certainly useful and i agree that the interior and external are clearly interrelated. Exterior words and ideas have and do clearly impact what i perceive as my interiority. However, i am not concerned about measuring the degree of interiority nor comparisons with that of other humans or other species. What i know most clearly about my interiority is that my sense of self or I’ness has strongly changed from something like “I am me, a separate entity, with past experiences that have shaped who I am” to something like “I am part of a deep-time evolutionary process; I have a body and freedom of choice in how i use that body/mind/spirit; and my consciousness has been shaped by much more than just my personal past experiences.” This profound interior shift has totally changed my understanding of who I am, why am I here, and where are we going? Basic to this change is a responsibility acknowledging that i am not just an individual driven by egoic needs and cultural conditioning, but a small particle in a deep time developmental process that is going somewhere. Understanding this change in responsibility seems to have caused a rather profound shift in my interior as reflected in the choices i am making. This external “choice” evidence confirms to me that there has been a shift in my interiority.