Dualism – two yet one

>> Dualism states that one can recognise two sides of things and perceptions, which appear to be either opposite or complementary, such as day and night, sun and moon, light and shadow, dream and reality, loyalty and betrayal, affection and aversion, good and evil.

Dual perception begins with the development of the ego (around the age of one) through the demarcation of "ego" and "non-ego". Until then, the infant lived entirely in symbiosis with its mother and its environment, completely unconscious and still without distinct individuality – quasi "in a paradisiacal state". At that time there were no questions, no distinctions and no polarities. Completely in the moment, in being, in the web of life^[1] in oneness and in natural connectedness, life flows, if survival is assured, quite simply. In Spiral Dynamics^[2] it is the first, beige mem.

On the long path to an independent awareness and personality, the child (now in the purple mem) detaches itself from this dependency. Still entirely controlled by impulses, the brain gradually learns to recognise, interpret and separate the initial correlations: subject or object – people and things are either good or bad, clean or dirty, nice or mean. With the onset of individuation and socialisation, dual perception expands into the view of "either-or": either light or dark. This distinction and separation into partly irreconcilable opposites on the one hand, and partly conditioning and complementary polarities on the other, forms the prerequisite for conscious, intellectual thinking and cognitive learning in our Western culture and society (this in the red, blue and orange memes hereafter).

In the course of ageing, a young person drifts out of the flow of natural connectedness, so that the memory of the former unity begins to fade. What remains is a feeling of lack/emptiness and a deep inner longing for this original unity. Both feelings often remain unconscious for many years or even for a lifetime^[3].

These pairs of opposites are evident in the nature of this Azorean volcanic island, in people, in manifold forms and colours, and in our two hemispheres of the brain with their different functions. Like two sides of a coin or like siblings which is also referred to by Caribou Azores: for example, through silence, meditation as well as the 5 core capacities, these polarities can be brought closer together again and the initial unity and natural connectedness beyond the subject-object separation can be experienced again to some extent – no longer unconsciously like as an infant, but now consciously – according to the development (in the green, yellow and turquoise mem) through holistic learning, perceptive thinking and the reconnecting "as-well-as".

Urban