Holism

Citation

Bloom, W. (2005), "Holism", European Business Review, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2005.05417aab.002

Holism

Holism

Purpose – To outline a new and multi-dimensional approach towards spiritual and religious expression, which impacts upon economics, politics and business practice, in which the emphasis is on wholeness and integration, rather than separation and compartmentalisation.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is adapted from the author’s most recent book, Soulution, and sets out a “manifesto” for the holistic approach to spiritual and social issues.Findings – The author chronicles the development of a new consciousness evolving in spite – or more likely because – of the decline of churches, political parties and other traditional forms of association in Western society. He describes this new consciousness as holism and sees it as a replacement for the failed ideologies of the recent past.Originality/value – The body of ideas associated with the “New Age” is having an increasing influence on areas such as politics and business. This article fuses the main New Age themes into a practical programme, accessible to those who wish to understand a growing cultural movement.

Keywords: Core beliefs, Philosophical concepts

Something new is emerging and we can see evidence of it all over the world. It is a new philosophy; a new spirituality. It has no organization and it makes no claims to exclusive truth. At the moment it has little status alongside the other religions and faith communities that claim public and official space, but it may well become the major form of spirituality on our globe. This new spirituality and philosophy, Holism, is hugely hopeful, intelligent and practical and, I believe, should assert its right to substantial informal and formal status.

We know our contemporary situation:

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  This beautiful blue-green planet is challenged by the expansion of a single species.

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  We have a population explosion – six billion people and growing.

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  We have a rolling revolution of technological and social transformation.

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  We have electronic and digital information everywhere.

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  We have a global village – connection and interdependence.

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  We also have conflicts, wars and genocide.

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  We have prosperity – wealth and opportunities never previously imagined.

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  We also have tragedy – poverty, starvation, pollution and injustice on scales equally unimagined.

Traditional religions are not equipped to solve these contemporary challenges. They are part of the history that has created them. In particular, their own claims to exclusive spiritual truth exclude them from being morally useful in a modern world whose keynote is diversity. A thousand different cultures meet in the great cooking pot of modernity and any claim to a monopoly on truth is both offensive and Neanderthal.

Equally, secularism and intellectual materialism, which deny the awe and spirituality of existence, are of little help. The atheistic approach may reject formal religion, but it cannot cynically discard our instinctive spirituality and our experience of meaningful beauty and mystery in nature and the universe.

1. What is Holism?

Holism is a new approach to spirituality that integrates and transcends the usual polarity of religion versus atheism. It could be described as a third way, paralleling a similar emergence in the world of politics. It is not only an idea, but also a way of thinking and understanding that perfectly fits the modern world with its endless changes and flows of new information. It is able to frame and organize the whole gestalt of postmodern, planetary village razzamatazz out of which it has itself evolved.

Here are some of its key characteristics. Holism:

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  Is open-hearted and open-minded.

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  Welcomes diversity.

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  Perceives the connections and interdependence of all life.

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  Respects that all life is growing to fulfil its potential, and that all life is worthy of our care and support.

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  Is uncomfortable with the dogma and certainty of traditional faiths.

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  Recognizes that there is a sacred and wonderful mystery to all life, that nature and the universe are spectacular.

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  Asserts that the essence of spirituality is to connect with and experience the wonder and beauty of all life.

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  Acknowledges that we are all beings in a developmental spiritual process.

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  Welcomes and respects that there are many ways of exploring the meaning, purpose and mystery of life – all of them equally valid.

2. The word “Holism”

To call this new spirituality “Holism” is pragmatic and appropriate. The movement needs a label that can be used when it is appropriate. When filling in forms that ask our religion, what word can we use to express an open-hearted approach to spirituality? If we want to sit on committees or decision-making boards where other faiths are represented, what are we to call our body of ideas? “Contemporary, open-minded spirituality with no leader or dogma” will not fit in the box.

Holism is a great word and concept for the modern context. Originally coined in 1926 by the statesman and naturalist, Jan Smuts, it is derived from the Greek holos, meaning whole. It is also a term already much used by people who want a more humane and well-rounded approach to healthcare, education and politics. It catches, in a modern way, the most profound spiritual instincts:

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  To become a fulfilled and whole human being.

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  To create healthy and whole communities – local and global.

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  To include all elements and dimensions.

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  To connect with and feel that we are part of the whole meaning and mystery of existence.

As a scientific idea, it also has a more precise meaning that is also relevant and useful:

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  Nothing can be fully understood unless we see the whole system of which it is a part.

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  A whole is always more than the sum of its parts.

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  Random elements are continually emerging and self-organizing to form coherent wholes.

Jan Smuts himself was fully aware of the spirituality of Holism. His book Holism and Evolution was as much concerned with consciousness and metaphysics as it was with natural science. He himself wrote:

The idea of wholes and wholeness should not be confined to the biological domain; it covers both inorganic substances and the highest manifestations of the human spirit.

Holism also describes a natural universe in which everything is constantly changing and new elements are emerging. The structure of wholes is never fixed. The model is not static, but always expanding and shifting to absorb new dynamics and factors. As such, it not only describes the evolutionary forces of the cosmos, it also describes what it is like to live in the modern world: connected and ever changing.

Understanding all that, Holism is careful about its own ideas, cautious about getting fixed in beliefs, always open to new insights and explanations. In this way Holism is a child of the modern world and not like other faith communities, which are centred on particular teachers and creeds. It is a mass movement that has emerged out of the diverse and fluid circumstances of the global village. Unlike traditional faiths, which are anxious about competing claims, Holism welcomes all additions to the great party of life. It celebrates the new and yet cares for the coherence and harmony of the whole system.

In the coming years, when people are filling in questionnaires and national census forms, it is foreseeable that a majority of people, when questioned about their faith, might name themselves as “Holist”. They will want to acknowledge that they have a spiritual perspective on life, but equally want to assert that their approach is open-hearted and respectful of the many paths of enquiry. Along with this, there may be many people who are content in their traditional faiths, but want also to show that they are open-hearted and open-minded, and thus might describe themselves as “Holistic Christian”, “Holistic Muslim”, “Holistic Atheist” and so on. Equally, there will be many people in commerce, education, politics, healthcare and all the other major aspects of society, who will want to describe themselves as holistic, affirming their care and respect for the whole of which they are a part.

3. The size of the holistic movement

In the UK an opinion poll was conducted for the BBC in 2000 about faith in the nation; 70 per cent of those polled asserted that there was something sacred and spiritual about life, and most importantly that there were many ways of exploring this, all of them equally valid. Regardless of the respondent’s background in a particular religious faith (or no faith), this indicates that two-thirds of the British are instinctively holistic and respect other spiritual approaches.

Other European and developed nations are similarly inclined. In Norway, Holism has such momentum that it now has state recognition as a faith and worldview. In fact, even in those countries where there is a general adherence to traditional faiths, the educated urban elites also demonstrate this trend towards a more holistic outlook.

In the USA, although there is a large and powerful evangelical Christian movement, there is also a huge movement of people who are holistically inclined. Research describes, for example, a mass movement of “cultural creatives” and a grassroots spirituality that takes an holistic approach. Statistics show that in 1965 there were 5 million of these cultural creatives and that by 2002 the number had grown to 50 million.

4. The cultural evidence

The formal research statistics are also substantiated by just a cursory glance at what is happening in the mass media. Today nearly every newspaper and magazine carries regular columns, pages and sections devoted to aspects of Holism, usually under the rubric of complementary health, personal development or lifestyle choices. Broadcast media is also filled with it. There are several television channels and many chat shows devoted purely to holistic approaches. The richest female in America, Oprah Winfrey, has earned both her bucks and her status from her explicitly holistic and inclusive stance. Her open-hearted and intelligently open-minded style set a global trend. (It also suggests that evangelicals in the privacy of their own homes are more inclusive and tolerant than their public and congregational utterances might demonstrate.)

In book publishing, the holistic field has developed into a substantial slice of all books published. The richest woman in Britain, another media heroine, J.K. Rowling, has also made her money through a hero and scenario that distinctly belong to an alternative spiritual dimension. I don’t think it is stretching the point too far to argue that if Oprah represents the new Holism, up to date with the latest trends in spiritual development and psychological insight, then Harry Potter represents the traditional Holism, which rejects traditional monopolies of faith, explores the mysteries of life in all available ways, recognizes the magical connections between all things and celebrates the sacred.

All across the world people are turning to holistic healthcare because it offers a more integrated and humane approach. Unlike the mechanical, bits-and-pieces approach of much western medicine, holistic therapies look at the whole person and encourage an individual’s total participation in their own healing.

The holistic approach also spans the usual political divisions. Wherever there is a respect for the connections and value of all life – conservatives who believe in stewardship, communitarian socialists, anti-globalisation activists, environmentally aware liberals – we find a deep holistic instinct. The general spiritual experience of living in a beautiful and meaningful universe, and the desire to explore and more fully understand the spiritual dimension, belongs to everyone and cannot be constrained by the normal political boundaries.

Equally, in many religious institutions there are a growing number of clerics who are also proclaiming a more inclusive and multifaith approach, often provoking vicious attack from their more authoritarian colleagues. In 1893, for example, the first World’s Parliament of Religions was held, an event which has grown in size and influence over the last century.

In 2000, when a “God List” of the 50 most influential religious people in the UK was compiled by a multifaith panel on which I sat, it included several explicit holists including Anita Roddick, James Lovelock (originator of the Gaia principle), Jonathon Porritt and Eileen Caddy, one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation, the most significant holistic education centre in Europe.

5. An optimistic summary

I have written Soulution both for people coming anew to Holism and also for those who are already fully part of it. It makes two major claims:

1. 1.

   Holism – by whatever name it is known – will become the major form of world spirituality over the coming years.

2. 2.

   It is precisely Holism that can give meaning and integrity to the whole crisis of modern society.

These are glorious, perhaps vainglorious, claims. But humanity is a species that survives in such challenging times. In fact, the whole crisis of modernity may not be the fatal indifference of frenetic self-gratification, but the magnificent birth pangs of something far better than we have ever seen before. Imagine! A global community of six billion souls living in fulfilled ecological, social and spiritual harmony.

This is the vision and the hope of Holism: that we can indeed create such a world community. At the very least, this noble aspiration needs to be honoured.

(William Bloom, a prolific writer and speaker on New Age themes, is the author of Soulution: The Holistic Manifesto (Hay House, London 2004). Visit www.hayhouse.co.uk

This paper was adapted from an article published in The Cygnus Review, No. 10, 2004, www.cygnus-books.co.uk)

William Bloom