What Darwin Lost

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Trish and Rob

Here’s a synchronicity from Australian futurist Marcus Anthony. The same evening that he alerted us to the story below, I had downloaded the Inner Tradition edition of his book, Discover Your Soul Template. In the foreword, Ervin Laszlo’s mentions a book by David Loye, “Darwin’s Lost Theory of Love.” I had never heard of it and paused to Google it to read more.

A few minutes later, the e-mail from Marcus arrived in which he suggested looking at his current blog post about a synchronicity. To my surprise, the synchro dealt with Charles Darwin and was about something else that he lost.

With that introduction, here’s Marcus’s story.

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Synchronicity is a fascinating subject. Firstly, we can dismiss it as pure coincidence, as mere projections from minds that are, by their nature, pattern recognisers. This is the standard way of looking at all coincidences, from the perspective of modern science. The second way to look at synchronicity is to assume that the coincidences emerge from an intelligent cosmos, or intelligent agents of the cosmos. In this sense synchronicity implies that the universe is playful, and has an inbuilt directionality. It suggests that there is an intelligence(s) which “wants” us to move in a certain direction.

Two weeks ago, I gave a talk at the Hong Kong TEDx gathering at the HK Polytechnic University. My talk was called “Cosmos, Psyche and Our Brilliant Futures”. In my allotted eighteen minutes I made an argument for an intelligent cosmos, and predicted that soon the mechanistic paradigm that still dominates much of modern science will be replaced by the metaphor of an organic universe. Machines are unconscious, while organisms have intelligence and intention.

Part of my talk was about synchronicity and how it indicates just such an organic universe – where consciousness is a central component, not just an accidental bi-product. Fascinatingly, there was an intriguing synchronicity which occurred in regard to my talk. The Polytechnic Uni offered me the services of a student assistant, and her job was to make my slides as attractive and readable as possible. Part of my presentation was looking at the way that modern education and learning destroy certain natural abilities, and I used Charles Darwin as an example. Here’s the slide I put up for this particular part of the speech.

 

To go with this slide, the preceding slide was an image of Darwin. Below is my original slide, which I gave to my assistant.

 

However, when my assistant returned my PP file to me with the adjusted slides, my Darwin slide looked like the one below.

 

Darwin really had lost half his head! Later I was speaking to my assistant, and I said it was a clever idea. However she then confesed that it was all a mistake, and she hadn’t realised the slide had come out this way! I ended up leaving the slide exactly this way for my presentation, and using it as a great example of synchronicity.

 

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22 Responses to What Darwin Lost

  1. Marcus T. Anthony says:
    March 28, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Thanks for putting this up, Trish and Rob. I don’t normally like to even read comments about my work, let alone comment myself! There’s probably already too much of my input here without my adding more!

    And Daz, sorry I didn’t respond about that point. Please don’t take it personally. I just completely forgot about it. It has been a very, very hectic time of late. And there’s a bit of truth to what Trish wrote: if it feels like there is strong energy on something I will do it, but the energy isn’t there in the moment I may not ever get round to it!

    • Darren B says:
      March 28, 2012 at 6:01 pm

      No worries Marcus.
      I wasn’t taking it personally,I’m pretty thick skinned,I just hoped I hadn’t somehow offended or embarrassed you in some way by leaving a comment on Katherine’s blog about you and your site.
      Good luck with your new book,it looks like it is generating a bit of interest on this blog post.
      Might run into you again,if you are heading to the Byron Writer’s Festival in August this year?

  2. Darren B says:
    March 27, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    Re:
    “Part of my talk was about synchronicity and how it indicates just such an organic universe – where consciousness is a central component, not just an accidental bi-product”.

    Sounds a bit like what Lyall Watson’s book “Supernature” was trying to convey,to me.
    I have just bought a secondhand copy and started reading it .I thought I had read it years ago,but don’t remember that much about it
    (I’m now trying to read five books at once) .
    His niece Katherine Lyall Watson lives in Brisbane and has a blog which is half dedicated to Lyall.
    Katherine who is a play-write wants to write a play about her relationship with him and is also thinking about writing a book about him.
    https://katherinelyallwatson.wordpress.com/lyall-watson/#comment-1343

    • Rob and Trish says:
      March 27, 2012 at 10:14 pm

      Wow, Lyall Watson. His books are great. Supernature is fascinating. His niece? Intriguing. Thanks for the link.

    • Rob and Trish says:
      March 27, 2012 at 10:15 pm

      Daz – I may have asked you or Natalie this before – does australia have universal health care?

      • Darren B says:
        March 27, 2012 at 10:45 pm

        It sure does.
        It’s like Canada’s and Britain’s health schemes.
        We still have private health cover as well,which is a bit like flying first class,instead of economy.
        See Michael Moore’s film “Sicko”,when he goes to visit Canada and Britain…that’s the same system that we have.
        Your health ‘scheme’ in the States scares me,to be honest.

        • Rob and Trish says:
          March 27, 2012 at 10:53 pm

          I cheered at the end of all his movies. But Sick-o was particularly scary. There is no health care system in this country. For self-employed people like us, you either pay anywhere from 12,000-15,000 a year – or go without. We have gone without since just after Megan was born. We had insurance then and her birth still cost us $8,000. She was covered under a fantastic state program, Healthy Kids, till she was 18.

          Here, health care is about profit – not about wellness. One of the jobs my sister, a nurse, applied for some years back was with an insurance company. The job? Finds ways to deny care to customers. She turned it down.

  3. mathaddict2233 says:
    March 27, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    I have come to believe that when we remove or lose connections with the magic and mysteries in life, life loses its joy and lustre and we become robotic. One of the most magnificent facts about our dear Professor Einstein is that he never, ever lost his appreciation for and connectedness to the magic and mysteries of life, and his appreciation of those things that cannot be understood or explained by science or otherwise. His famous quote about “imagination” is a motto by which we may all choose to guide our lives. Poor Darwin. He missed so much….not to mention half his head! 🙂

  4. 67 Not Out - Mike Perry says:
    March 27, 2012 at 11:24 am

    Great post again, and a big smile about Darwin losing half his head.

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