On the cusp of the unnatural

Making sense of our essence

The distinction between the natural and unnatural is beset with paradox.  We are neither natural nor unnatural. Instead we should overcome the opposition and find a new place to be, writes Hilary Lawson

Problematic and depraved, dark and threatening, these are the characteristics traditionally associated with the unnatural. Morally offensive, even devilish, undermining what it is to be properly human. The natural in contrast has typically had the moral high ground. To behave naturally has been to act in accordance with our true instinct, to be at one with our nature.

Yet this distinction, between the natural and unnatural, so prevalent in our vocabulary, is beset by paradox. To be at one with our nature is also to be at one with our animal spirit, one might even say the bestial. And is it not there that many have claimed to find not the natural but the profoundly unnatural?

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Hugh Manbeing 7 November 2020

There are people who claim they live without any sense of essence, and that they can show what this is like - but for some reason these aren't invited to IAI, they go to Science and Non-duality festivals instead.

Hugh Manbeing 7 November 2020

"But this notion of essence is an illusion. It owes, as Wittgenstein identified, more to our language than to the world. In language we divide the world into things, and give them characteristics. It is another matter to propose that we have thereby uncovered the world itself."

Assuming language isn't an aspect of nature. What if it is ?