THE LAWS OF LIFE.

AN EVALUATION OF HUMAN CULTURES IN BIOLOGICAL TERMS.

Dario Colombera

Pages 100

INDEX. PREFACE. 4 INTRODUCTION. 5 FIRST PART. UNDERSTANDING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOLOGY. 6 LIVING BEINGS: misleading definition of living being and its psychological conditionings. GENETICS: the genetic bases of evolution. The role of imperfection in evolution. The adaptive significance of cancer. Wars in biological terms. ECOLOGY: fundamentals and deductions. The evolution of habitats. ETHOLOGY: the adaptive value of the following behaviours: insane, tactical, strategic and intuitive. The diffusion of insane behaviours in modern societies. Positive and negative aspects of tactical behaviours in modern life. Analysing the adaptive value of some fundamental strategic behaviour. Sciences and religions as the most advanced strategic behaviours. Beauty as an aspect of the evolution toward freedom. Understanding art, science and religion in evolutionary terms. Intuitive conducts occur when the activity of subconscious has been stopped and we can perceive the utmost reality. EVOLUTION: random and adaptive evolution. Tactics and strategies of adaptive evolution. The evolutionary significance of the natural capitalism of living being is that of maintaining a high selective pressure. Evolution as the only way to survive. Why animals are by far more numerous than plants? Infra specific competition is more severe than inter specific struggle. An evolutionary paradox: the losers will inherit the earth. Adaptive evolution is a choral process which proceeds toward an increase of freedom from the original niches. The apparent exception which occurs in evolution toward parasitism is explained. The costs and times of ontogenetic and phylogenetic evolution cannot be avoided. Lamarkian and Darwinian interpretations of evolution can support each other? Women are much more evolved than men. SECOND PART. RELIGIONS AS THE ULTIMATE SCIENCES 36 Introduction. CHRISTIANITY: the Gospel according to St. Matthew BUDDHISM: the Dammapadha; Buddhism as religion or as mental hygiene? TAOISM: The Tao Te Ching HINDUISM: The Bagavhad Gita. The Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali The Tantra Yoga. The Karma Yoga. The Evolutionary Yoga. The Multiple Middle Path. FINAL REMARKS: In all main religions we find the same fundamental teachings, all implicating sound ontogenetic evolution. The core of the most evolved religious teachings: stop the subconscious activity of mind. Most common but wrong religious myths. The contribution of inner search to the understanding of the ultimate reality. THIRD PART. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ADAPTIVE, EXISTENTIAL AND EVOLUTIONARY VALUE OF MUNDANE LIFE. INTRODUCTION: a soft and efficient method of teaching. NATURAL SCIENCES: Chemistry and its hazards. Engineering with biological meanings. 2 67

The fundamentals of classic medicine and hygiene revised in biological terms. Epistemology, biological and religious contributions. ETHICS AND JURISPRUDENCE. Ethics is a must to achieve social behaviours. Have our laws any biological meanings? True bioethics must be based on biological laws and principles. The biological fundamentals for a jurisprudence with sound adaptive and evolutionary contents: some contingent observation. The negative significance of punishments in adaptive terms. The occurrence of criminal associations and criminal Institutions in biological terms. ECONOMY. All living beings are capitalistic. Evaluating the impact of human activities on the environment. Sustainable development together with partial sustainable regression, this is the question. The true riches in biological terms. The correlation between environments survival and ethics.. POLITICS. A biological definition of politics. Labour and conservative parties in biological terms. Why left wing parties are losers in modern societies. The adaptive and ethic value of modern democracies. The fundamentals for a politics with sound biological values.

PREFACE If we compare the concepts found in old religious texts together with the fundamentals of modern biology, we make the surprising discovery that religious teachings, often written over two thousand years ago, suggest the same winning evolutionary behaviours, that have recently been discovered by our biologists. Unfortunately, religious wisdom is nowadays not much esteemed and the principles of biology have been not yet considered in mundane terms. Therefore in this book I present those religious and biological principles which may be useful, in order to understand and cure the causes of our present ecological and existential crisis. On the hypothesis that our present ecological and existential hazards are due to our cultural, religious and biological inadequacies, the main objectives of this book are: 1. To make bearable to Westerners a biological criticism of their culture, by showing that the same criticisms have been expressed by several religions, including Christianity. 2. To prove to Westerners, that they societies are in danger of extinction, if they do not overcome their wrong myths and their mental paradigms and do not know and respect the laws of life. 3. To suggest new mental categories and a new biological approach to our people, in order to improve our evolutionary potentialities. 4. To demonstrate that our dualism between religion and science is totally wrong and must be replaced by another dualism, that between scientific and superstitious attitudes. 5. To consider the messages of the Bible and of other religions in biological terms. 6. To evaluate the teachings of the Gospels in the light of other religious traditions. In order to avoid any superstitious attitudes, the reader is advised to consider the information given in this book as working hypotheses that must be personally tested with a scientific attitude and through comparison with other sources of information. Since during catastrophes, there are always the upper classes which firstly disappear, this book should interest more the lords than the commons. I offer this book to those people who: A. Ignore the laws of life. B. Cannot control their muscles and mind. C. Are unhappy, ill and unsatisfied of their present life. D. Ignore that religions bear sound adaptive significance.

INTRODUCTION There are several handbooks teaching us how to survive in jungles, deserts and equatorial forests, but there is a lack of manuals about surviving in our home cities. In fact, most people, if not everybody, not longer known what they really eat and breathe, what they really need and are not any more able to produce what they consume and use. Even worse, we have lost our capacity to enjoy beauty and to be happy, conditions which are necessary for the survival of all living beings. We do possess the biological knowledge, which is necessary to revise our behaviours but unfortunately, as far as I know, this operation has not yet begun, though the time is running short. For instance, it has become extremely urgent to vulgarize biological laws at any level, a task in which our Universities might have an important role to play. But, as a matter of fact, the study of biology tends to specialize and to become biotechnology and biochemistry. Moreover in all Faculties, including the Faculty of Science, there is a total lack of courses offering the understanding of the various aspects of human cultures in biological terms. But I fear that even widespread biological knowledge, would be insufficient to change the course of man's' present suicidal perpetration of abuse on nature. Without a bio-oriented philosophy of life, without a culture which promotes mental health and a proper inner maturation, how our academic science and culture could enable us to prevent the ongoing disasters? Knowing this book , everybody can realize and correct his main cultural mistakes, such as: 1. The biological and semantic inadequacies of our languages. 2. The absence of a scientific attitude in our every day life. 3. The lack of a widespread knowledge of the fundamentals of biology. 4. The general lack of objective physical and mental health of the so called normal people. 5. The lack of any true apprehension for the ecological and social significance of the present general environmental and existential degradation. 6. The absence of a positive attitude toward alien cultures and toward new scientific data, if not in accordance with our myths and mental categories. 7. A philosophy of life, based upon myths and of mental categories, which are totally wrong in biological terms. 8. The fearful lack of time.

I PART.
UNDERSTANDING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOLOGY.
This part presents those biological laws which enable us to outline the characters of a winning evolutionary strategy.

THE LIVING BEING. Misleading definitions of living being and its psychological conditionings.
An integrated definition of living being might be as follows: I. A living being is an entity which is capable of synthesising its constituents, of reacting to stimulation, of growing and multiplying (metabolic definition). II. The living being is compound of water, proteins, amino acids, nucleic acids, fats and sugars (chemical definition). III. Living beings are organized into operative units called cells (structural definition), bearing microscopic dimensions. Each cell is formed by an external membrane (appointed to communicate with the outside world) an internal cytoplasm (a pseudo solution of proteins containing salts, amino acids, etc. together with several differentiated working units, such as mitochondria for respiration, ribosomes for the synthesis of proteins, lysosomes for digestion, and a nucleus, which contains most of the genic information, and so on.). IV. Its chemical constituents varies in time, but its basic metabolic activities cannot ever stop. Living beings are very peculiar working units, since they disintegrate and perish if they stop acting. Therefore, their true and only state is not that of being but that of becoming in the present instant and because of the second thermodynamic law, this process is irreversible. Another fact, which is often ignored, is that the basic living being, the cell, is always very small, usually about 20 microns in diameter. There are exceptions, but only morphological, not functional. When we see elephant, ants, oaks and daisies, these are only well integrated colonies of elementary living beings. The explanation for this peculiarity is simple: living processes are due to a chain of very complicated chemical reactions, which can be only correlated and controlled in very small volumes. This condemnation to remain bound to very small dimensions has been overcome by the formation of multicellular individuals which can be considered as integrated colonies of elementary living beings. The genetic information remains stored in the nuclei of each cell (what an incredible redundancy of genetic information and with the theoretical possibility of reproducing an individual starting from a single cell) and each cell acts as a more or less specialized living unity (with the due exceptions). By becoming multicellular, cells have reached the target of living in a very stable environment and this evolutionary tendency toward more and more stable inner environments is universal and it reaches its maximum within mammals and birds. 1

An analogous evolutionary trend continues at a higher level with the onset of sociality, since the specialized functions, which are performed within single cells, are then also performed by specialized individuals or groups of individuals. After four billion years of evolution, all living beings have had the time to adapt themselves to the external environments so that this correlation between living beings and their habitats has reached its best. Of course this result does not mean that nowadays external environments do not cause problems to cells. More or less sudden, unexpected variations of the environmental parameters are always possible. Even in normal conditions, there are several realities which are dangerous for all living beings: Cosmic rays, Ultra Violet rays, ionizing radiations, the very sun rays, predators, parasite, environmental changes, pollution, scarcity of resources and lack of space are the usual problems that both animals and plants must face and solve since ever. Although in the history of life there is evidence of an evolutionary trend toward the increase of independence from the environment for all living beings, cells can still live only in a water solution and this necessity represents a severe unavoidable conditioning. Two other fundamental problems that living beings have had to face are those of ageing and dying. At a molecular level, ageing can be defined as a degradation or alteration of proteins and nuclei acids, which makes the cells less and less effective in carrying on their activities. Death is the ultimate consequence of ageing or is due to environmental accidents. The problems of ageing and death have been solved in two different ways: in the case of multicellular beings, individual death has become necessary for the very survival of life on earth, therefore it cannot be avoided. In the case of unicellular ageing and death can be postponed and even overcome by cell division. In fact, only the degradation of the DNA molecules can be directly repaired, whereas the injuries of cytoplasmic proteins can be neutralised only by diluting old cytoplasm with newly synthesized cytoplasm. This phenomenon is mainly achieved by cell division and it will be explained in some detail in the next chapter . It can be only observed here that the myth of Faust, eternal youth and immortality for the individual, is totally wrong in biological terms since all animals would disappear from the face of earth if this aspiration were to be achieved. In fact individual mortality is a necessary requirement after the passage from unicellular to multicellular organization and since this organization assures an enormous advantage in the struggle for life, it cannot be lost. Finally we should remember that the term living being represents a semantic error, since it is not the static to be but the dynamic to become which represents the true status of life. Not "to possess" (where I live), not "to be" (what I believe I am) but "to become" (what I am doing at the present instant) represents the only true reality for all living beings. Therefore the deep conviction that we are something stable and everlasting, which appears so natural to human beings is totally mistaken in biological terms. Summing up, we can observe that: 1. Living beings bear microscopic dimensions. 2. If multicellular organisms are colonies of living beings , there are a lot of reasons for considering the hypothesis that this kind of evolution has occurred at higher level too, so that many populations of social species might behave like living unities after a consistent evolution of their sociality (this might be the case of some social animals, like social fishes, bees, termites, ants, and so on). In particular, because of the primitiveness of mankind's sociality and the present ecological emergencies, it has become of vital importance to understand the evolutionary significance of our interpersonal relationships. 3. Living beings are morphological and operational realities, which cannot be considered as separated from their environments. Therefore we must take care of our environment and of its 2

natural evolution. 4. Multicellular beings are immortal (in biological sense) as regards their sexual cells only and must die as individuals and as species in order to survive as populations. Therefore we must cast off any ill-advised hope for eternal life. 5. The course of life and evolution is irreversible because of the second thermodynamic law . Therefore we can only move forward, since the past cannot return. 6. Living beings are realities which cannot stop acting and therefore changing, even in a fraction of a second, in accordance with the times of molecular reactions. Therefore our common feeling of eternal somehow static permanence should be considered as unlikely.

GENETICS
In this chapter we only report those topics, such as cell division, homozygous individuals and mutations, which are necessary for the understanding of adaptive evolution. Moreover an evolutionary evaluation of cancer is given FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS Most of the genetic information contained in cells is packed into the chromosomes, the nuclear bodies bearing the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acids). During maturation, sexual cells reduce their chromosome numbers from 2 n (diploid number) to n (haploid number), so that during fecundation they reach their primitive diploid number again. During fertilization, the female cell (oocyte) fuses with the male cell (spermatozoa), so that the chromosome number is doubled again. The annotation 2 n indicates that there are n couples of chromosomes called homologous which possesses the same substructure and bear the same genes (for instance those determining the colour of the eyes, the length of the arms, etc.). The n chromosomes are all different from one another and carry different genes. These chromosomes are called heterologous. The gene can be defined as a structural and a functional unit of the DNA molecule, which is capable of codifying protein synthesis and these proteins are responsible for the structures and for all the functions of cells. Every gene can express several different alleles. For instance if a gene determines the colour of the eyes, in some chromosomes it may possess the allele for blue, in another the allele for green, and so on. In addition to nuclear heredity, there is a cytoplasmic heredity, which is transmitted through the cytoplasmic organelles. Unfortunately it has not been much studied, but it is well known that it is mainly transmitted by the mother. In natural conditions, the two homologues, one of paternal the other of maternal origin, normally bear different alleles by virtue of mutation and other chromosomal changes. The grade of identities of the homologous is defined as the grade of homozygosis. Monozygotic twins (developed from the same fertilized egg) reach the maximum of homozygosis, since all homologues bear the same alleles. Another way to achieve high homozygosis occurs when the parents are brother and sister. The minimal homozyosis is reached when the parents belong to different races. Usually, homozygosis is not a positive condition for the individual because: I, more homozygosis means less genie variability and less adaptability to changing conditions; II, defective genes are always recessive and they express their activity only if both homologues bear the same alleles. It follows that in condition of heterozygosis, selective pressure cannot eliminate recessive, defective genes. Therefore they are present in all living beings, thus increasing the total number of different alleles, either efficient or not, which occur in a population. Because of their potential deficiencies they are known as the genetic load. Homozygosis is naturally reduced by mutations (irreversible changes of the structure of genes), which can alter at random every gene of a genome (the total amount of genic information in a cell). Moreover chromosomes can alter their structures and therefore the functionality of their genes during maturation of the sexual cells and by fecundation. Usually, the offspring of parents belonging to different races tend to be more vital and more resistant 4

than homozygotic children. The advantage of having 2 n chromosomes, codifying the same genes, lies in the fact that the deficiencies of a defective gene do not cause metabolic imperfections, when the "healthy" corresponding homologue can perform all the necessary synthesis. Therefore most animals and plants have a very short haploid phase in their lives, normally limited to ripe sexual cells. The hypothesis that a certain degree of homozygosis can be useful for some species cannot be rejected. It has already been known that mating between relatives is dangerous for most of species, included mankind. Even in very primitive societies, this genetic knowledge was common and weddings between people of the same village often were taboo. On the contrary, weddings between individuals of different cultures and races are often prohibited because of social and cultural misunderstanding, although they represent a genetic advantage. This law is not always valid, such as in those species where we find a Rassenkreis (individuals from bordering populations can mate successfully but not those from disjoint populations of distant geographical regions). Mankind seems to be a species without any Rassenkreis, but this hypothesis requires further confirmations. It follows that the dimensions of populations in which all individuals may mate freely must exceed a lower limit, in order to avoid accumulation of homozygotic conditions. For instance, the inhabitants of an alpine village, the community of European nobles of the previous centuries, the inhabitants of a small village in the south of Europe, represent too small populations, to remain sexually isolated. The historical reports about the Pharaohs, who used to marry their sisters, more than a genetic exception, seem to indicate that morganatic offspring could often inherit the throne. Another fundamental aspect of the genetic structure of living beings is represented by the fact that, with rare exceptions, every creature represents a unique, unrepeatable phenomenon as far as his genetic structure is concerned. The only exceptions occur when a fertilized egg splits into two in an early stage of its development or when sexual reproduction occurs without the contribution of the male or in the case of asexual reproduction. In all these cases new identical copies of the same individual are reproduced. But even in these cases, a different ontogenetic evolution occurs, since the twins are compelled to grow in different niches. It follows that twins remain genetically the same but become phenotypically differentiated. The genetic code is not perfect. The genetic code, considered as a machine for the reproduction of information, is far from being perfect, mainly because of random mutations and of the chromosomal transformations, which can occur in all cells. All these mutations generally damage the individuals, producing a high costs for the species. But, because in a few cases, random mutations bears a small advantage in selective terms, these imperfections become indispensable for that fundamental mechanism of survival, which is known as biological evolution. Nature is ready to pay such high prices to achieve evolution, because trough adaptive evolution life is perpetuated and improved.

Cellular division and its significance for survival.

The fundamental topics of genetics are: I. The transmission of characters from one generation to the next. II. Cell division and its evolutionary significance. III. The genetic control of the synthesis of proteins. In this book we consider only the significance of cell division. The importance of cell cleavage is essential since it increases the probabilities of survival of every living being from nil to eternity through: 1. Rejuvenation of the cytoplasm; 2. Increase of genetic variability; 3. Diminution of the risk of a total accidental extinction of a population through the increase of the number of individuals; 4. Increase of selective pressure, with consequent decrease of the dangers of degeneration (ontogenetic involution) and the accumulation of negative mutations (phylogenetic involution). 5. The adaptation to the ever changing environments in the long term through evolution. 1. Rejuvenation of cytoplasm. First of all, let us to look at a definition of ageing: ageing is an irreversible process, due to the lapse of time, which is characterized by progressive reduction of the efficiency and of the capabilities of the individuals. The problem of ageing has been solved in different ways. For instance, the genetic information stored in the molecules of DNA can be protected by self-repairing mechanisms, which are still under investigation. On the other hand, cell proteins cannot be repaired when they degrade. The only way to invert the ageing of cytoplasm, is to dilute it with newly synthesized proteins. This result can be practically achieved in three ways. One is artificial: partial elimination of the old cytoplasm by severing a cell. The other two are physiological: I. Partial elimination of the old cytoplasm by extrusion. This phenomenon has been only observed in some unicellular organisms, but there is no reason or evidence why it should not occur in multicellular organisms, only because it would be very difficult to observe. Since the specialization of cells in multicellular hampers cellular cleavage, this rejuvenation by extrusion of the cytoplasm would be more important in multicellular than in unicellular; II. By cellular duplication. In all three cases rejuvenation of cells is due to the same physiological mechanism. Because each cellular species has the same constant ratio between the volume of the nucleus and that of cytoplasm, when this ratio is altered, either as after extrusion or removal of the cytoplasm or by cell division, new cytoplasm must be synthesized in order to re-establish the initial specific ratio. Because multicellular organisms cannot rejuvenate, their multiplication and the consequent death of older individuals is indispensable for the very survival of the species in question. From these discoveries we can discern a deep-rooted mistake in modern humans' psychology: the hope for individual immortality. 2. Increase of genetic variability. Because the random mutations of the DNA molecules and of chromosomal structures are unavoidable, in all living beings a casual genetic variability is constantly produced and this variability is further augmented by the random distribution of chromosomes, which precedes cell division and even more by the crossing over which occur between chromosomal segments during the maturation of gametes. In fact it seems that any conceivable event can happen to chromosomes before reproduction: loss of 6

segments, doubling of segments, loss of an entire chromosome, doubling of chromosomes, inversion, exchange and transposition of chromosomal segments, and so on. 3. Decrease of probabilities of accidental extinction . It is obvious that in condition of environmental stability and consequent similar probabilities of death for all individuals, the increment in number of these individuals lessens the probability of a casual extinction of the population in question. 4. Increase of selective pressure in the environment. In the next chapter, we will explain the apparent paradox that the increase of selective pressure due to reproduction is necessary for the survival of a population. 5. Evolution. Again we will consider this phenomenon in the next chapter. It should be remembered that the cells capacity to divide is inversely proportional to its specialization and somehow to its age. Usually, highly specialized cells cannot divide at all and only recently it has been discovered that some divisions are possible in a few cases. Anyhow, the process of division can only occur in not differentiated or in de-differentiated cells. The biological significance of carcinogenesis. If we try to give an evolutionary definition of cancer, we must say that: carcinogenesis represents the only way a specialized cell can survive and achieve biological immortality in prolonged condition of stress. In fact, cancers arise mainly and normally in aged individuals, when stressing conditions have been acting for long time and the defensive capacities of their immune system are reduced. Therefore cancer represents an extraordinary accomplishment, at a cellular level. Unfortunately, in order to become tumoral, cells must de-differentiate and in consequence they become true parasites of their own organism. Cancers can be also defined as a multicellular organism with a low degree of specialization, which has achieved eternal life in a highly selective and specialized environment . There is no cellular mistake in carcinogenesis. The gloomy destiny of a cancer, bound to the destiny of its host, lies in two fact: first, cancers achieve the fatal targets of evolving in a short during niche (of course this is only an anthropocentric and not a cellular point of view). Considering the time in function of the generational span, it would be easy to prove that the strategies of cancer cells are very rewarding. Of course a cancer is phylogenetically so archaic that we cannot exclude that it may have had arisen even before the onset of pluricellularity. For unicellulars, cancer-like divisions would be also useful in highly selective and changing environments, since it can ensue a larger genetic adaptation. In order to understand why and how a cell may become carcinogenic, we can admit that a cell under prolonged condition of stress undergoes precocious ageing, because its metabolism has been forced. In fact, before becoming carcinogenic, cells first become hypertrophy. Then, as for all aged or stressed cells, the only way to survive is represented by cell division. The occurrence of higher and variable chromosome numbers represents an advantage in conditions of stress, because a higher genetic variability may ensued. A cancer-like ontogenetic evolution occurs in cells reared in vitro. Because broths of culture do not depict natural conditions, cells adapt themselves to these new stressing conditions by becoming cancerlike cells. The demonstration of the high value of this adaptation is proved by the fact that both tumoral cells and in vitro cells are immortal (of course in biological term immortality is not ever lasting, since environmental living conditions are not eternal). It is interesting to point out that this ultimate achievement can be attained in conditions of very severe stresses and not in conditions of low or normal selective pressure. 7

At last, the hypothesis must be advanced that cancer, at least in some cases, so as it can occur in other ancient relationships between host and parasite, may have become a symbiont with its host. Anyway, all deaths from cancer represent an advantage for the population, since they eliminate individuals who are old or over stressed. Then there are other types of cancers, for example those due to chemicals or radiations. In this case the cancer can arise in a very short period of time, months or weeks. It follows that a cure of cancers, based on biological principles, can be articulated along two distinct lines: I. To eliminate the conditions of cellular stress. Wrong diet, absence of mental hygiene and stressing environmental conditions must be considered as the most important causes of a cancer. II. To reinforce the defences of the organism. For instance, it possible to stimulate the defence of an organism through artificially induced infections. In fact it has been observed, that some infectious diseases can stop and even reverse the growth of a cancer. On the other hand, it might be totally wrong to cure cancers if it is not clear that: 1. A cure which weakens the organism, may enhance the growth of a cancer. 2. In ecological, physiological and evolutionary terms, cancers may be important for the welfare of the species if not of the individuals. 3. Carcinogenesis is based on basic defensive cellular mechanisms, which might be very difficult, if not dangerous, to eliminate. 4. Every illness is an effect due to bad environmental or mental conditions. The agent of a sickness, whether viruses, cancers or microbes are just a subjective expression of objective sufferance. 5. Is has proved that usually harmless cancers can become dangerous for an organism, when it becomes weaker or because of some stresses. Therefore, the only cure of the effects of cancers is absolutely wrong if it is not accompanied by the elimination of their causes.

Genetic engineering.
The recent development of genetic engineering has made possible a powerful and simple technique which allows mankind to create new species at will. The potential impact of this technology upon evolution and human life is simply enormous and a final evolutionary disaster might be its consequence, if our actual ethics (consider in ecological terms the practice of deregulation, the growth of riches and the race to comforts) is not revised. In fact: 1. It is beyond our capability and will to build new species, which may be evolutionarily integrated with the those already existing; 2. A catastrophic evolution is already occurring and there is not possible to forecast when and how a new ecological balance will occur. 3. The technologies of genetic engineering are simple, cheap and available, therefore they cannot be easily put under any control.

Final remarks.
From this chapter we can deduce some general revisions about certain common beliefs and myths: 1. our faith in perfection may be mistaken, since: I. Survival of all living beings is based on the imperfection of the genetic code. II. Highly specialized forms have not the time to evolve any further if the environmental conditions change abruptly. 2. The concept of the superiority of a pure human race must be revised, because extreme homozygosis is highly deleterious and because of the advantages linked to our high individual variability. 3. The hope for individual eternity is erroneous, since individual mortality is a must for thesurvival of the species. 4. Specialization and reproduction, in other words, work and sex, are somehow contrary to each other at a cellular levels of organization. 5. In physiological terms, cancer represents the most efficient defence for cells put in conditions of stress. As in all ancient parasite-host relationships, the hypothesis should be checked that cancer, at least in some cases, may evolve in a positive relationship with its host.

ECOLOGY
Modern ecology is a relatively young science, both descriptive and experimental, which deals with the relationships between environment and living beings. The importance of this discipline is obvious, since the interrelationship between living beings and their habitats is such, that living beings have no operative meaning out of their environment. Therefore saving the genomes of endangered species in banks when their habitats have disappeared, has not any practical meaning. In order to protect the welfare of a species, its evolutionary rate, thus the original conditions of its environment, must be maintained. In other words, evolution of the environments must be congruent with the evolutionary speed of the genomes of all species. This is why every rapid change in the environment determines a severe sufferance for all its inhabitants. If this point of view seems too pessimistic, even without travelling, most adults can judge on the basis of their own experience, how far the alteration of our planet has gone. How many old people can deny that the habitats of their childhood have been totally destroyed? DEFINITIONS AND GENERALITIES For a better understanding of this text, some common ecological terms are explained. Biocenosis defines an association of living beings, which occupies a certain area. Biotopes is a space which is characterized by specific physical, chemical and biological conditions. Habitats indicate those environmental conditions, which can be described as a landscape (with definite communities of living beings) such as savannahs, prairies, lake, etc. The niches of a species represent the elements of a habitat with which the individuals of this species interact. Therefore the niches express an operative, more than a spatial concept . I vary my niche when I change my habits, my residence, my hobbies. Normally this concept is badly underestimated. For instance, of three brothers, who live in the same family, it is the second that occupies the niche with the highest selective pressure. Father and mother occupy different niches as well and all these niches change all the time, as everything in the world unceasingly changes. By virtue of the uniqueness of the genome of each living being and its profound dependence on the environment, it follows that each individual possesses a unique ever-changing personal niche. This or these niches vary in time and interact with niches of other creatures and individuals, thus modifying them. Of all the potential niches of an individual, he utilizes only a small part of them, and this part tends to become more and more limited, because of the rise of cultural and physiological conditioning and by virtue of infraspecific competition and ontogenetic involution. At times our niches are very small, for instance when we cannot pay attention to our surroundings. This may happens during sleep, an illness, sexual intercourse, eating, deep meditation and in this cases every sane creature selects a protected place where he cannot be seen and/or assaulted by enemies. Something similar occurs with ageing or during fits of inattention. All living beings in an environment, if not of all environments, are bound together by a trophic chain, which is so complicated that the term trophic net would be more appropriate. This chain starts with the producers of proteins, i.e. plants, and continues with parasites and predators, i.e. animals, and ends with the waste eaters. This elementary chain describes an 10

energy cycle (the waste of one species being food for another), which does the sun supply. In this cycle there is a total recycling of alimentary resources and catabolites. The concept of trophic hierarchy or alimentary pyramid implies that more energy is needed to produce a gram of protein of animals living at the top of the pyramid, such as carnivores, than a gram of protein of herbivores. Therefore, it would be more economic if everyone eats plants instead of animals, herbivores instead of carnivores, etc.. The consequences of the alimentary cycle are: 1. The welfare of a species is important for all the species, which belong to same chain. 2. If we introduce a poison into an alimentary chain, this poison will be accumulated in the animals at the top of the chain. Therefore it is probably safer to eat vegetables rather than animals, herbivores than carnivores. 3. There is an equilibrium between consumers and producers which keeps an environment stable. If this equilibrium is lost, usually there is a reaction which re-establishes the initial conditions. Mankind can be a primary producer of proteins, but generally he manipulates the production of vegetables. In recent decades, extensive monocultures and the consequent use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers have produced a deep and rapid alterations of our habitats. Then another important concept must be considered: the principle of competitive exclusion: if two species occupy the same niche, the less competitive, such as the less cheap or the less independent from its environment, will die out in a few generations. Out of two species, only the more independent from the parameters of the environment, such as time, temperature, energy, etc., will survive. This principle implies that infraspecific competition is always more severe than interspecific competition. In consequence, similar populations try to live in different niches. For instance, of two predators living in the same habitat, only the one that requires inferior density of prey will survive. It can be suggested that direct competition, such us wars, struggles, etc., lead to co-evolution rather than to extinction, whereas indirect competition dooms one of the contestants to extinction. Because all environments are finite, there is an upper limit to the number of species and individuals that the earth can support. It has been observed that the number of species and the dimensions of the individuals become smaller if the environment falls below certain limits. For instance I remember the dwarf elephants on the island of Malta, the dwarf seals in the Baikal Lake, the dwarf pigs of Formosa, the dwarf hares of Scottish islands, just to give some personal examples. The number of species that can be supported in a certain area can be expressed by the following equation: if the dimensions of the habitat are increased ten times, the number of species can be increased by two (Wilson, 1989). Moreover the dimension of individuals and the number of species in a niche are a function of latitudes and longitudes, with fewer species and larger individuals in cooler environments. Finally we should remember that the inferior limit of an environment is fixed either by trophic limitations than by increasing homozygosis. EVOLUTION OF ECOSYSTEMS. The biological evolution of an ecosystem can be defined as progressive, regressive and indifferent when the total biomass and the number of species respectively increase, decrease or remain constant. 1. Progressive evolution. This evolution is due to genic adaptation and selection of the species due to the selective pressure of 11

the environments. It is characterized by an increase of freedom from their niches for all the species through adaptation and co-evolution (see the following chapter). The times of this evolution can be measured in thousands and millions of years and the growth in the total biomass is the obvious consequence of this situation. 2. Regressive evolution. This evolution occurs because of rapid changes of the environment such that genomes cannot adapt themselves to the new conditions, such as: I. Reduction of environmental productivity through poisoning, destruction, desertification of the soils, etc.. II. Reduction of the number of individuals who can freely reproduce themselves. This limitation has often occurred in our species because of social or racial privilege, religious habits, geographical conditioning, etc.. III. Overcrowding. Disasters due to sudden overcrowding have been observed in several species, from insects to mammals. IV. Rapid changes of the habitat due to invasions of alien species, volcanic activities, thermal variation, isolation, etc.. 3. Indifferent or silent evolution. This term is adopted here when the basic evolutionary events, like genic evolution, causes no evident changes in the environment. Of course this kind of evolution depicts more human inadequacies to perceive subtle evolutionary events than a real evolutionary phenomenon. Other fundamental concepts concerning the evolution of environments are: the point of no return, environmental stability and evolutionary indeterminacy All these principles can be tested experimentally. The point of no return means that beyond some level of degradation, no habitat, or living being will be able to return to a previous state or it will evolve as before after the present degradation. The mistaken concept of environmental stability may be attributed to man's very brief perception of the passage of time and to some homoeostatic- like reactions of the alimentary chains when they suddenly become altered. Continuous ever ongoing biological evolution rules out any environmental stability. In my opinion, the term environmental stability depicts an erroneous concept, and should be replaced by "environmental adaptive evolution". Evolutionary indeterminacy is due to random mutations, to the extreme richness of genomes and to the fact that infinitesimal differences are important in the course of evolution, so that it is quite possible to reproduce two seemingly identical biotopes but not two identical evolutions of them . After this short revision of the most elementary fundamentals of ecology, it is quite easy to detect those human shortcomings that make it difficult to face and solve a number of the present ecological threats. For instance, we like to speak about the environmental point of no return from pollution as if it were something that will happen in a far off and hypothetical future. But the point of no return already belongs to our past, as far as evolution is concerned, and with all the risks that this implies for our survival. Moreover, we suffer from a severe semantic inadequacy when we try to describe our present ecological difficulties. For instance we do not realize that we ourselves do not live in our natural environments, since we occupy niches which are becoming more and more similar to those highly simplified habitats we give to prisoners or slaves, with bad food and water and with small, ugly, overcrowded and degraded 12

environments. Even the very rich can only live in degraded habitats and nobody is able to enjoy those natural environments that were available to all a hundred years ago. Moreover, it cannot be denied that Westerners today would be incapable of surviving in their original niches. The current drop in birth rate to be observed in the most highly developed countries is surely proof of the biological decadence of individuals livings in overcrowded, contaminated and indulgent environments. Other ecological confusions arise from the inadequacies of perception. For instance, humans are not equipped to perceive the presence of most of the poisons that burden our surroundings. Likewise we believe we live in stable habitats, but these are changing and evolving all the time. It would therefore be nonsense to defend a non-existent environmental stability. All we have to do is to preserve the timing of genetic evolution by remembering that: I. Co-evolution indicates that the evolutionary times and activities of the most different genomes of eukaryotes are more or less correlated. II. The evolution of characters due to the evolution of genomes cannot be confused with behavioural and physiological adaptations. These latter changes can occur very rapidly, are very limited and they do not depend on genic evolution. We seem to suffer from a strange psychological indifference toward the evident degradation of our natural niches. This apathy is probably due to moral inadequacies, so that we prefer our artificial but rewarding and effortless world, full of compensatory satisfactions, to more natural conditions.

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMY AND POLLUTION

It is well known that all living beings degrade their niches with the production of catabolites, such as urine, faeces, carbon dioxide, exploitation of natural resources, occupation of territory and its transformation. This degradation is unavoidable since it has ever been part of metabolic activity of all living beings. Over the millions years of evolution this problem has been solved positively with the formation of niches where the waste is zero; i.e. the catabolites of one species are food for another and so on. In other words, natural pollution has become indispensable for life and it becomes a problem only when its quantity is not maintained within the usual limits. In fact only over-production of catabolites produces a catastrophe. Therefore neither pollution nor exploitation but rather rapid changes may be dangerous for the survival of habitats. These tragedies are quite common in nature but are usually limited to single habitats and previous-like conditions can be rapidly restored. But it is time to correct a dangerous semantic mistake by distinguishing the natural pollution from the present human poisonings of the environments, that are totally different phenomena. Today we talk of pollution but we do so in the face of a new event, i.e. the destruction of living beings on a planetary scale, with the progressive extinction of millions of populations of both plants and animals. Classical examples of ecological catastrophes as a result of human activities can be seen in the colonization of Australia, the destruction of tropical forests, the expansion of desert areas. But nowadays even more severe disasters occur everywhere, from Europe to Asia, from pole to pole. Today we are dealing with: 13

1. Massive emission of poisons into water, soils and airs by industries, traffic, heating, and agriculture. An unexpected consequence of this poisoning has been the fading of the ozonosphere, a mortal danger for life itself, which is beyond any control. 2. The rising temperature of the earth owing to the enormous production of carbon dioxide and heat, with all the danger that this sudden alteration produces for evolution and physical balance. 3. Massive destruction of habitats on a planetary scale. A few litres of chlorine are sufficient to kill most of the living beings in a pond or in a streamlet. If we raise the temperature of the sea by few degrees, we destroy thousands of populations. The pesticides normally sprayed on a field annihilate or damage all the populations present in that area. 4. The presence in soils and air of radioactive atoms from industry and research, with the fatal expectation of a drastic rise of radiations as a result of military intervention. The term pollution is not adequate for these situation. We should coin new terms, like poisonpollution and ecodestruction. In biological and existential terms we should consider this poisonpollution as an attempt against coevolution and this means against the survival of all living beings. In legal terms, considering the effects of this universal killing on humans, we should speak about generalized random and delayed killing and lesions, sometimes even genocides, perpetrated for the most futile interest: the power of money. In religious term we should consider any ecokilling as an attempt against that ontogenetic evolution of humans which can be achieved through a religious discipline. For even under natural conditions, in order to start an inner search, sophisticated physical and mental preliminary practices are necessary, in order to establish suitable conditions. Therefore the question arises: how many chances have we to pursue an inner search in a poison polluted world? We can now summarize the ecological dangers and consequences correlated to the present massive poisonpollution: 1. Reduction in the number of species and in the total mass of living beings. 2. Reduction of environmental stability, i.e. destruction of any adaptive and progressive evolution. 3. Both sudden increases and decreases in number of humans with psychological and physiological pathologies and sooner or later, irreparable economical crises. 4. Concealed and unpredictable synergistic effects of the chemicals poured in the environment. 5. Unavoidable regressive evolution. 6. Ontogenetic degradation, both psycho-physiological and cultural in human communities. 7. Mankind has already reached his point of no return in evolutionary and ecological terms, since: I. He could not longer survive in his original niches because of cultural and physical inadequacies; II, Most of our original niches are no longer available, they have been destroyed; III. Man may stop the destruction in progress, but the question is, how to avoid economic disaster. After these considerations we can start to summarize the fundamental ecological concepts which are necessary to ensure the survival of any species: 1. All species of a habitat are interdependent so that damage to one affects the others. In other words it is nonsense to speak about harmful, useless, inferior species, etc.. In consequence we should respect all living beings, included mankind. My son asked me few days ago which is the use of mosquitoes, since he see them like useless nuisances. Mosquitoes, like all other livings are the results of adaptive evolution, which compels every species to exploit all possible source of energy (our blood in this case) and present an important source of food for several animals. 2. The present natural ecosystems can be considered as the best of all possible worlds, since they are 14

the result of millions years of selection. Therefore we must respect the present balance between species. 3. An environmental change which is too rapid for genomes to be able to adapt to, causes catastrophes. We must therefore exploit the environments over a period compatible with the speed of adaptive evolution. 4. We cannot hope to fix lower limits of poisopollution which can be absorbed by the environment without endangering life. 5. Poisoned living beings cannot express their potentialities. Therefore poisonpollution is a crime against the highest endowments of all creatures and consequently it must be convicted and avoided. 6. Other factors, which may be disastrous for the stability of the environment, are travelling for commerce or tourism as well as wars, and therefore they must be reduced if not eluded. Since the beginning of the 1800s, an enormous number of alien species have been imported, mainly from America and Asia into Europe, with severe damage to ecological equilibrium and economies. 7. We cannot reduce the dimensions of a habitat beyond a certain limit. 8. If we are very rich and powerful, we live in highly protected but simplified niches which, in case of disaster will disappear earlier than the others.

CONCLUSIONS AND FINAL REMARKS.

1. Each species is of equal importance for adaptive evolution. Of course this rule may bear exceptions. 2. Each species has unique niches and has a unique influence on all the niches of other living beings. 3. All niches are always and for ever irreversibly changing. 4. All environments are finite. 5. Food and energy saving is of threefold importance. Firstly in order to minimize self-poisoning. Secondly for hygiene and thirdly for both infraspecific and interspecific competition and coevolution. 6. The minimal dimensions of habitats are determined by trophic and genetic conditioning. 7. Knowledge of our natural environment is fundamental for survival but can be achieved only by overcoming cultural and semantic limitations. 8. The terms poisonpollution, totalpoisoning or universalkilling describe our present ecological situation much better than the inadequate word "pollution". 9. There are several hints which indicate, that in a poison polluted world, inner, or religious research becomes exceedingly difficult to achieve. 10.An overall picture of poisonpollution cannot be foreseen because of synergistic effects and the absence of a minimal threshold to protect living beings against any levels of chemical pollution. A single molecule can harm a living being. 11. Mankind has already reached its point of no return as far as evolution is concerned and a new condition compatible with survival must be found. 12. High variability at every level is a must for most living beings, including Homo sapiens.

15

ETHOLOGY
Assuming that it is time to start an human ethology, in this chapter let us consider those aspects of human behaviour which are interesting for an analysis of the capacity of the various human cultures and individuals to adapt themselves to changing conditions and thus survive. In order to facilitate this task, all our conducts and attitudes have been distinguished into five different groups, according to their aims and urgencies and to their adaptive value: A: two somehow opposite categories I. Tactical behaviours are primitive actions, necessary to solve present, more or less urgent needs. II, strategic behaviours are more evolved actions, which are performed in order to prevent future needs. B: three modalities. I. Insane or irrational behaviours, always negative in the long term. II. Rational behaviours, negative or positive according to our knowledge of the environment. III. Intuitive behaviours, seemingly always positive. Insane behaviours. Behaviours due to subconscious, irrational conditioning such as habits, superstitions, prejudices, pride, irrational fears and so on. They possess neither a tactical nor a strategic value, since they cannot solve any real need or challenge. These behaviours therefore have a negative adaptive significance since they consume energy and produce false and irrational responses. They may be defined as insane because of their irrational nature and because of their negative adaptive significance. Of course, even irrational behaviours can be successful by chance or in conditions of very low selective pressure, so as in some niches of modern societies, but never in long lasting habitats and in natural conditions. Because of their negative adaptive value, they cannot be primordial but they can be expected to occur in conditions of low selective pressure. When these behaviours express the usual ontogenetic involution of normal human beings (the accumulation of karma in Hindi philosophy), they undergo a continuous growth in the course of ageing, if no mental discipline is practised. Under this hypothesis, estimation of these behaviours would be important to measure our insanity in objective, evolutionary terms and not in relative social terms, as is normally done. It follows that partial but consistent subjective insanity should be expected to be normal in modern human beings. Therefore we must face up to the need to develop suitable mental hygiene to counteract this normal ontogenetic involution. Unfortunately, at present we ignore the fact that our subconscious and therefore our irrational behaviours can grow or lessen according to the quality of our self-control. Another category of irrational behaviours, which is directly related to the occurrence of second-hand knowledge, is represented by the so called superstitious attitude and both the negative and positive significance of this attitude will be reconsidered when dealing with exploration (see strategic behaviours).

16

Rational behaviours Rational behaviours are well known in our culture and are referred to as scientific, so they are highly estimated. But, I would like to add only one observation: these conducts have a positive significance in adaptive terms, if and only if : firstly, they are based on sound knowledge of our environment; secondly, if they are the product of a sane mind. In fact, in condition of ignorance, mental conditionings, lack of ethics, madness, rational behaviours may possess a lower adaptive value than irrational conducts. Intuitive behaviours I would like to define intuitive behaviours as those which become operative when the subconscious mind is silent, so as it occurs during deep attention ad meditation (samyama in yogas). These behaviours enable us a direct perception of a broader reality, such as the capability of foreseeing, of healing, of direct mental communication with other living beings, and so on. This aptitude is highly positive in adaptive terms, since they are based on a direct and broader perception of reality, beyond rationality and languages limitations. There are hints that intuitive behaviours are normal in very primitive cultures. As far as I know, they have been reported as normal for native Australian, Bushmen of the Kalahari, American natives. Moreover, there are hints that even animals can display intuitive behaviours as foreseeing (Shelldrakes book : animals that knows when the master come home). Therefore these "powers" should be considered as primitive. But, in the ambit of highly evolved cultures, these behaviours have disappeared and seem to occur only as the outcome of difficult and highly sophisticated techniques of meditation and or concentration. Because this mental state is not considered as important in our culture, I shall speak about them only in the chapter devoted to religions and inner search. Tactical behaviours. These behaviours aim at adjusting our inner balance when it is threatened or altered by new environmental or physiological situations. Tactical behaviours can be defined as those behaviours which resolve an urgent need by responding to a physical or psychical stimulus . These behaviours occur in all living beings and characterise their most important and primitive conduct: reaction to a stimulus. Of course these behaviours implicate decisive strategic advantages since, if we do not eat, drink, sleep, defecate, etc., we will not be ready to react properly in the future. These behaviours respect a hierarchy of urgency and gravity. They substitute and postpone strategic actions as well as less urgent needs. Although these conducts are necessary for the survival of every animal species, as far as mankind is concerned, they must be considered with suspicion for three reasons: I. Because they often preclude important strategic attitudes, without the justification of any contingent urgency. II. Because they become suicidal when they are not restrained, as happens in conditions of low selective pressure; III. Because of their cultural magnitude. In fact, in human kind, evolution of these tactical behaviours has been so extensive that they have accomplished a cultural dimension. For instance, we can consider the following as tactical attitudes: 1. The propensity to solve the effects and not the causes of problems; 2. The preference to make compromises in human relations; 3. The tendency to disregard social rules; 17

4. The lack of interest in effective hygienic disciplines. 5. The search for easy niches.. Strategic behaviours These can be estimated as our most evolved behaviours, both ontogenetically and phylogenetically. Their function is to reduce the selective pressure of the environment in a more or less distant future. Evolution of these behaviours is characterised by: I. The tendency to depend on a conscious choice rather than on internal or external stimuli; II. The accomplishment of more and more ample functions; for instance the relationship between father and son which becomes the relationship between teacher and pupil; the development of sociality, etc.. III. The convergence of a number of strategic behaviours. For instance let remember two cases: First: the social relationships which develop through playing together, sexuality, scratching (grooming) one other, bathing together, parental care, etc.. Second: the evolution of the instinct of exploration into a scientific mentality. I would like to classify strategic behaviours as follows: 1. Diet. 2. Sexuality. 3. Playing games. 4. Exploring and investigating. 5. Hygienic disciplines. 6. Decency (not necessarily bound to social relationships); 7. Social behaviour; 8. Parental care; 9. Code of politeness. Lastly let us recall three attitudes with strategic significance, which are essential for the best behaviour, whether tactical or strategic: I, a rational and scientific attitude; II, an artistic disposition; III, a disposition for love (see sexuality). 1. Sedimentation. Eating may be considered a tactical behaviour for most animals but nowadays it is often a strategic or insane conduct for people in Western societies. For eating is a tactical action when we are hungry or starving: Eating becomes an irrational habit when it provides compensatory gratifications, i.e. eating chocolate in order to forget love sorrows. On the other hand, we are acting strategically when we eat in order to gather the energy or cure some health problem, perform a hygienic practice and socialise. 2. Sexuality. Sexuality can be considered as a very primitive strategic behaviour since it is phylogenetically primitive and because it is always due to a strong physical urge. Normally sexuality only means fertilisation for most living beings and therefore it accomplishes a strategic purpose. It is interesting to observe that sexuality has high costs for the individual but, because it speeds up evolution, it represents a must for the survival of nearly all living beings. In fact parents usually pay for their sexual performances with a more or less delayed death. Sexual competition, exposure to attack by predators during copulation, demands extra energy strain, competition with the 18

new generations, etc., are all conditions which increase the selective pressure on the parents. Even worse, in several cases, for example in salmon, in numerous insects and molluscs, reproduction is paid for by prompt parental death after fertilisation. Only in some highly evolved species, such as mankind, the burden of reproduction on the parents is lessened by the integration of the newly born individuals into a family and a society, where all individuals collaborate. 3, Play If we study how mammals play, we find that usually they mainly play in childhood and that this behaviour persists into adulthood only in a few, highly intelligent animals. Play is partially codified by genes but it can be developed by learning and practice. Its significance is to learn the art of survival at a relatively low cost. In fact most games mime the actions of attacking, defending, struggling, escaping and pursuing. In mankind this behaviour has evolved from childhood to old age, with the invention of thousands of games, which often substitute physically dangerous competitions. Play can be defined both as a behaviour and an attitude, when "play is performed for the pleasure of acting, without aiming at any target or reward". For instance, if I play chess or wei-qi as a professional, I am working but, if I do it only for fun, and this does not exclude the possibility of getting money out of it, I am playing. Therefore the act of playing can characterise any action, when it is done for its own sake. Because playing makes actions very efficient in any situation, a playing attitude is both important and necessary in any situation. It is therefore a pity that in our schools playing is not normally regarded as excellent developmental training. For instance, the game of Go ( Wei-Qi ) should be used to achieve a highly rational and winning personality, but unfortunately it is still ignored in most of Western schools. The game of rugby is outstanding for developing several important aspects of children personality but in Italy it is still disregarded by our educational Authorities. For instance, all the games of yoga tradition, devoted to improving memory, concentration, muscular control, and so on, are totally ignored in Western countries. 4, exploration We can define as exploratory all those actions, which are performed without any immediate justification other than the pleasure of experiencing both our outer and inner worlds. Thus exploration can be considered as a game. In any case exploration helps us both to distinguish between self and not self and to acquire a working knowledge of the world. An innate interest for the environment obviously increases our capacity for survival in the long term. Exploration is very common in young mammals and birds, although it proves to be very expensive in terms of loss of lives. In mankind, playing and exploring have undergone an incredible evolution and all sciences can be considered as the ultimate accomplishment of this conduct. Playing and exploring are very important because they allow us to improve our perception, knowledge and comprehension of outer and inner worlds, without the conditionings of existential interests. This activity is a prerequisite of whatever culture, since our normal understanding of reality is operative and symbolic and our awareness of the outer and inner world is symbolic, narrow and often wrong. Of course, our human constitution puts a limit to our perceptions. Moreover, our knowledge of the outer world and of our mind is not only limited but it is often deceived by our senses. It would be enough to recall the mistakes we make when we feel we live in a flat world, with the sun spinning around the earth. Moreover it has been experimentally proved that, a person fitted with permanent 19

goggles, which give a topsy-turvy vision of the outer world, in a few days will perceive it exactly as before. In fact, we do not directly perceive the outer world but only the neural modifications produced by sensory perceptions. And the same intellectual knowledge is based on relative concepts and not on an absolute perception of reality. However, science, as it will be defined in these pages, represents the only way we have to overcome our natural physical, mental and psychological limitations if we wish to know a more extensive truth. I would like to define as scientific whatever approach to knowledge which is based on the habit of considering every piece of noesis as a working hypothesis, which must be tested, when necessary, with the tools of logic and experimentation. Scientific knowledge is much younger and less appealing than superstitious knowledge because its mainstays are that: 1. Scientific truths are neither definitely certain nor final, whereas religious revelations are definitive and unequivocal. 2. Scientific methods are difficult to perform. They need time and energy consuming practices, which are not within everyone's reach. 3. Sooner or later scientific truths will prove wrong our firmest convictions, myths and beliefs. For a better understanding of the concept of science, it is important to define superstition as: the attribution of supernatural causes to phenomena which can be rationally explained . But a more comprehensive definition of superstition would be a refusal a priori to test scientifically our experiences or hypotheses. Therefore the pillars of superstition are: 1. The love for authority. This attitude is firmly established in our every day culture and the authoritarian impersonal command is deeply rooted in our subconscious and lexicons. See our submissive attitude to the printed words, our common expressions used to children, our rejection of unfamiliar truths, and so on. This bend for superstition is fixed and supported by traditions, economical interests, languages and cultures. 2.The love for absolute truths, which cannot be questioned or even changed and therefore doesn't need any personal responsibility. It is a relaxing feeling to possess absolute truths, but it represents a mortal burden for our ontogenetic growth. 3. The love for average ideas. It is very consoling to believe as everyone else. Of course, this attitude represents a particular case of superstition based on identification. Because we live in a world where reported information is quantitatively more widespread than direct knowledge, we cannot cast off superstition (as knowledge based on certain authorities and accepted as it is) as a source of knowledge. But this aspect of superstition may be definitely positive if we learn how to control it. In particular, in order to avoid the risks which are implicit in the utilisation of superstitiously acquired knowledge, it will be enough to consider our information as working hypotheses to be revised scientifically in case of doubt. If follows that both academic science and religion are partially based on superstitiously gained knowledge and in their most evolved forms, both science and religion can be defined as scientific searches for truth, although traditionally they explore different fields of knowledge and they aim at different targets. It is unquestionable that at present, in our societies, academic science enjoys a reputation, which it does not always deserve, whereas all religions are undoubtedly and a priori underestimated and despised, forgetting that whatever search becomes superstitious when it refuses scientific inspection. But, let us look again at the evolution of that strategic behaviour we called exploration, as can be 20

described by the following facts and results: 1. Its tendency to evolve from emotional stimuli to rational choices. 2. Its evolution through the convergence of different strategic behaviours, such as play, exploration, parental care, social communication, analytical, rational and scientific attitudes, and so on. 3. Through science we have greatly increased our capacity to perceive and understand our outer and inner world by: I. Employing rational and scientific methods. II. Enlarging of our capacities to perceive reality through instruments. But religious science (as inner search) has evolved beyond academic science (see part II) since: I. It integrates three strategic behaviour, still absent in our culture and therefore in academic science, such as severe mental disciplines, highest morality and holistic hygiene. II. It aims at direct perception of reality by overcoming the limitations of the intellect, thus acquiring outstanding epistemological importance. III. It let us to perceive a wider reality by activating otherwise dormant senses; IV. It increases our chances of survival in both lower and higher conditions of selective pressure. In particular, through religious science it is possible to reduce that ontogenetic load, which is normally increased by age (karma in Indian philosophy, subconscious in western terms). It will be recalled that this karma may be the primary source of our personalities and selfhood as well as of irrational behaviours. V. It can only be gained by personal exertion and brings with it superior morality and welfare as fringe benefits, thus there is no possibility that insane or immoral persons might misuse this knowledge on large scale. I never met a Westerner scientists who practice an inner discipline or rehearse a scientific attitude in this daily life. On the other hand, as far as academic science is concerned, I remember that there is no any objective control over the sanity and honesty of students entering an University. Moreover the results of science are freely published, so that the average person can acquire and then misuse the enormous power inherent in scientific accomplishments. In fact, western academic sciences are debasing our very chances of survival but, without sound common sense and deep inner search, we cannot realise that technology implies a loss of happiness, a reduction of our evolutionary capacities and the debasement of nature. Therefore academic and religious sciences should be integrated. In particular, from religions and sciences we may: 1. Learn the necessary techniques to start a winning ontogenetic evolution. 2. Hinder mischievous people from becoming scientists or from misshandling the .works of scieentsts. 3. Judge the achievements of academic sciences in bioethical (as later defined) and evolutionary terms; 4. Accomplish an objective criticism of science based on the understanding of our mental functions. This synthesis between "religious sciences" and traditional, accademic science will be very difficult to accomplish in Western countries because of mental greed, a lack of a diffuse scientific mentality and the habit to sectarian, by both academic and religious authorities. 5, hygienic behaviours The significance of hygienic behaviours is very simple to explain. By reducing our chances of becoming ill, we reduce the selective pressures of the environment upon us in the future. Therefore both illness and curative medicine bear a hygienic significance and all three together represent complementary and sometimes opposite ways of solving conditions of stress. Although hygiene expresses the most evolved and economic solution for welfare and illness is the most expensive and primitive, they assume different relative values in diverse conditions, and therefore they 21

should be integrated. The enormous importance of hygienic behaviours can easily be proved observing how widespread these practices are amongst animals. Their most common hygienic behaviours are: washing and scratching themselves or each other, stretching their joints, yawning, eating special food, fasting and so on. In some human cultures of the Far East we find very sophisticated hygienic techniques, both mental and physical, whereas in Europe our hygienic habits have often become useless, or even detrimental. This regression can be explained by the extraordinary success of technologies in curative medicine, by the ignorance of biological laws, by the decline of ethics and by the love for tactically oriented choices. Let us give some examples: the use of pesticides, such as DDT, has been a huge failure because it altered natural niches with negative results, such as indiscriminate poisoning and producing more resistant insects, thus putting out of balance natural habitats. We believe in producing germ free food, although these condition does not exist in nature. To take a shower every day and use soap is certainly an erroneous hygienic discipline, since it has been proved that the ecology of the skin suffers from this treatment. However, what we lose in hygiene, we gain in social success, because bodily smells are not accepted in our societies. The same can be said about the mania to get tanned. How many people are aware that even slight browning is a sign of suffering for the skin? Exposure to the sun's rays is nowadays complicated by the hole in the ozonosphere but, even before this, people working in the open, like sailors and peasants, were affected by skin cancers much more than other people. The very healthy habit of starving has been abandoned in Western countries, just when we mostly eat too much and our food is badly polluted, impoverished and monotonous. On the whole, I would say that the most highly evolved hygienic practices, both mental and physical, we know today, can be found in those sophisticated disciplines which have been developed in the Far East, often born in order to achieve the best conditions to start a inner (religious) research. 6, Decency Decency is a strategic behaviour, which is very common and evident among mammals, and there is no reason to believe that is should be less common in other groups of animals. Decency is mostly the act of hiding when in conditions of more or less relative impotence . For instance, to hide when eating, copulating, defecating, sleeping, and so on.. In mankind, decency has become a social habit and as such, it has often assumed unhealthy expressions. Just to give an example, it is well known that there is a correlation between cancer of the prostate (and why not of the uterus) and sex-phobic cultures. 7, Social behaviours The origin of social organisation can be traced back to the very beginnning of sexual reproduction and of cell fusion among unicelluars, to the formation of colonial forms by bacteria and to pluricellular organization in eukaryotes. At present, the oldest and most evolved social eukaryothes' socialties can be found in insects such as bees, termites and ants. Of course the most evolved form of social relationship is that which brings together different species. Therefore adaptive evolution can be defined as the highest example of social behaviour, since it is assure increasing freedom from their niches to all. Generally, by sociality we mean a stable relationship of collaboration between individuals of the same species. It is obvious that the rise of society implies the presence of ethics, since it is only through 22

ethics that the sacrifice of personal advantages for the welfare of all can be attained. The success of social behaviours can be easily explained, since it represents one of the most effective ways of reducing the selective pressures of the environment upon a population. Sociality is so effective in reducing selective pressures that it can enhance wars, regressive ontogenetic evolutions and the destruction of the habitats. Iin mankind, ethics is very difficult to achieve because of the primitive nature of our sociality. It follows that moral degeneration must be considered as possible, starting from the subpopulation with the lowest selective pressures, i.e. in the upper classes. On the other hand, it has been proved that the loss of sociality, due to the growth of criminal conduct, occurs mainly in conditions of general psychological stress, such as those due to overcrowding, altered environmental conditions, emotional frustration. So as in mankind, it has been proved that criminal regression of social behaviour, such as loss of social hierarchies, formation of criminal gangs (normally formed by males), which attack other males and rape the female, and so on, can be triggered in rats when they are kept in conditions of overcrowding. Under such conditions, social behaviours can be very dangerous, since criminal gangs are far more effective in destroying sound social behaviours than single criminals. The political, cultural and economic consequences of the presence of criminal organisations in a society are easily detectable: the decline of ethics and the spread of criminal behaviours at all levels; the corruption of courts; the decline of language, culture, science and religions, with the rise of general superstitious attitudes; the pollution of the environment; a general regression of the fundamental qualities of life; imposition of exceptional taxes; aggressive foreign politics, if any, and so on.. In order to avoid any involution of sociality, I would like to advance the hypothesis that the moral regression, which occurs in conditions of low selective pressure, can be avoided if tactical behaviours are recognized as less rewarding than strategic actions and sound inner disciplines are divulged. As far as I know this highly evolved attitude can only occur in societies where the science of selfrealization is well known and practized. It is interesting to note that a state of poverty may be due to personal choice in religious communities, whereas in criminal communities poverty is considered proof of lack of fitness, capacity and intelligence. 8, Parental care Parental care represents another example of a strategic behaviour, which have been mainly studied in vertebrates. This behaviour progressed with the evolution of unfit progeny and with the development of sexual relationships between parents. In mankind this behaviour has further evolved when children are tutored in schools and medical care is given by the authorities. 9, Good manners Good manners are highly important in reducing infraspecific and interspecific competition in societies with a sound biological culture. In fact, respect may also be shown toward animals and plants, in order to optimize our chances of survival. In India, traffic stops before disturbing a cow or a serpent sleeping in the middle of the road. In Buddhist countries, birds or monkeys are allowed to eat part of the harvest. In African countries, hunting copulating animals is unthinkable. But in Western countries, when animals become a nuisance or represent an economic burden, they are killed without any remorse. When animals are reared for their meat, there is not any consideration for their natural needs. In these societies we can find common but mendacious examples of love for animals, which are due to lack of human affection. In fact, laws 23

are necessary to protect animals against maltreatment. When birds, cats and other domestic animals at large are spontaneously fed by some people, I daresay that these are the only positive example of human pity towards animals. Good manners, like ethics, accompany the evolution of socialization but only when good manners are extended to all the other living beings, do they reveal an understanding of the laws of ecology and of the correct role of mankind in nature. Good manners can be considered as a further evolution of ethical conducts and in mankind their absence is the first step toward a general deterioration of social organization. We find that good manners, such as helping other people, forgiving and comforting one's neighbours, and so on., are all taught by most religions. Moreover, good manners such as preserving one's self-control, not expressing negative feelings, keeping calm when stressed, are aspects of a personality which are greatly esteemed in all highly evolved secular societies. In conclusion, it is important to evaluate the positive significance of good manners not only in existential, but also in economic, hygienic, social, evolutionary and cultural terms. Three fundamental attitudes of behaving. Three attitudes characterize and optimize all our behaviours: loving aptitude, rational and scientific attitude and artistic attitude. The aptitude for love Even in highly evolved animals, love and sexuality are deeply bound together, since the same hormones activate them. The aptitude for love is very important for our evolution and survival, since it can improve the efficiency of all our actions. It enhances our evolutionary potentiality because of the extreme elation that this feeling provokes, enabling us to accomplish tasks at the upper limit of our possibilities. For love we can give our life with joy, we can perform tasks otherwise impossible; we can experience extreme happiness. On the other hand, it has been proved that depression, hate and fear reduce our capacity to produce antibodies, to act in the most rational and efficient way, to think positively. It has also been demonstrated that overcrowding, the lack of environmental beauty, philosophies and religions with a negative adaptive value and excessive competition produce unhappiness, illness and insanity. In such conditions our capacity for loving is erased and chances of survival are likely to become very low. In other words, there is more than a working hypothesis to attest that: 1. Lliving beings must be happy in order to survive. 2. Environmental beauty is necessary for our welfare and mental sanity. 3. Social harmony has a higher selective value than social competition. Of course infraspecific and interspecific competition are necessary for coevolution (see the chapter on evolution) and therefore cannot be eliminated, but hate always is the wrong attitude, in order to win a fighting. The rational attitude. Rational acts can be defined as: any behaviour which has been designated on the basis of proper knowledge and logical reasoning, free from emotional conditionings. It must be said that this conduct is not always positive. For instance, a bee will die in a glass turned upside down, because it associates light with open space. On the other hand a stupid fly, in the same conditions, will rush in all directions and so it finds a way to 24

escape. Like the bee mentioned above, we too live in unknown niches, because of our misleading information and in these conditions, if deprived of a unconditioned science, our intelligence is more a risk than an advantage. Therefore intelligence and rationality, without a scientific attitude and a correct knowledge, are not enough to survive in the present world. In fact, beyond rationality, the scientific attitude is the next step we must take in order to recognize our world and our ecological misunderstanding. Unfortunately, neither rationality nor scientific attitude is inborn behaviours in mankind but they are the outcome of hard personal work within a sound culture. The artistic attitude. First of all let see a banal definition of beauty: everything which is capable of inspiring pleasant sensations because of its aspects or interior qualities or unusual behaviours. By this definition, beauty is a subjective concept without any evident biological meaning. We might however define beauty in an objective, operative term: both individals and their actions are beautiful, when they achieve something original and efficient in the most effective, brilliant and economic way. In fact I feel that it is important to consider as artistic not only the product of actions but also the action itself, since the above "artistic" behaviour represents one of the most efficient ways to enhance our hidden potentialities. Admiring a masterpiece is not enough to become an artist, just as no one will become an rxpert futballer, merely by watching and enjoing matches of soccer. It is interesting to observe that evolution certainly achieves beauty, but this aobviously occurs without any artist aim. This statement can be supported a priori because in order to survive it is necessary to act in the most efficient and economic way, and a posteriori because we observe that in the ambit of a phylum, the most evolved species appear always more beautiful than primitive forms (see the chapter on evolution). Similarly, the same trend toward beauty might be observed in the evolution of planes, cars, boats, trains, and so on. Of course one can object that not all highly evolved animals are beautiful, and probably he would like to recall snakes, snails and worms. But it is easy to explain our inability to see beauty in some animals. You have probably been conditioned against them, as in the case of the snake. Then, there are animals who live in niches which are totally dissimilar from your own, as in the case of snails. Worms, are ugly when they are very primitive or possess a parasitic specializations. Inside human contests, a new style of painting or making music has been often considered ugly by normal people just because they live in different niches from the artists. Because it is quite difficult to define the concept of art I would like to suggest a simplified, operative definition in order to enable everybody to recognize a masterpiece in objective terms. We certainly need to evaluate art with new criteria if we dislike to see paintings with no information, to hear music at intensity beyond human tolerance, to see people with no enthusiasm and discipline. I suggest an analytical criterion, easy to apply, based on four parameters, in order to enable everybody to recognize at least a common, vulgar product, if not a masterpiece: 1, weight: the quantity of information or of action. 2, beauty: the quality of action and of its results. 25

3, truth: the originality and the finality of the action and of its products. 4, technique: the skilfulness of the artist in expressing himself, which has been acquired through learning and discipline. Of course, if the case occurs, that one of these parameters has a negative or nil value, the work in question cannot gain a positive judgement. Now let us examine these four parameters in some detail. It is very easy to define the weight of a product. The weight of a masterpiece is given by the quantity of information it contains. For instance a white canvass, a long silence or a deafening music, a random life should be weighted as equal to zero. The parameter beauty can be defined as the most functional, economical, simple and elegant solution of any problem. In fact nature accustoms us to correlate functionality with beauty. Let say that beauty and functionality are two aspects of the same truth. In the first case we perceive truth by reasoning, in the second case as an emotion. Of course, the beauty we see in nature is not a fraud because it is due to a thousand million years of evolution, which have selected the most efficient strategies of survival, extinguishing the less functional, less economical and more flexible species. Even physical evolution can produce beauty. See landscapes, old monuments and ruins. Through intelligence, awareness and knowledge, mankind, unlike nature, can create beauty without doing millions of erroneous trials, as nature does. There is an example I like very much: the ancient game of Wei- Qi, since it is a perfect, over simplified model of coevolution (see the following chapter and the second volume), which consists in a harmonious combat between two opponents for more territory. Well, the patterns that are shaped are harmonious, beautiful and elegant, if the two players are skilful and serious. On the other hand, these patterns will appear heavy and ugly if the players are beginners. Similarly, the mentality necessary to play a reasonable game must be efficient and artistic, purged of passions, greediness, fear, and so on. In this game beauty is the expression of study, patience, calculated courage, intelligence, self-control, rationality and equanimity. Ugliness is due to lack of experience and absence of any mental discipline. The parameter truth is very easy to understand but difficult to evaluate, because it is strictly bound to the personality of the artist and that of the admirer. A masterpiece with truth is an original product of a research pursued with honest and principled finalities, devoid of trivial means and vulgar aims. A masterpiece is truly when it reflects the urgency of the artist to reveal his inner elation. Unfortunately, this aspect of a masterpiece can only be recognised by people who have achieved a remarkable cultural evolution. A work produced in order to gain money, fame and admiration does not contain truth. It has become a job, fine as you like but nothing more. When the artist ceases to search for truth, he becomes the forger of himself. The parameter technique describes the skill of the artist in transmitting his ideas and his feelings through discipline and learning. Of course some artists are more gifted than others are but the initial conditions are by no means the most important. What matters is the necessary discipline to acquire extreme skilfulness, since this effort depicts artistic behaviour in itself. With these criteria it is possible, although not easy, to evaluate the artistic value of any action or product. Of course the arts suffer from a certain degree of subjectivity. I cannot appreciate what is alien to my world and to my culture. Therefore all behaviours which increase our capacity to perceive the outer and inner world, either through academic or religious sciences, tend to give a broader and a more objective value to the arts we can produce. 26

At last, I would like to spend a word about the importance of practice an art (over all I recommend landscape painting) in order to fulfill our every day lives. In particular, the study and practice of Karma yoga has suggested me that an artistic attitude may be necessary to sooth the pains and terrors bound to the discoveries obtained thorugh inner search. Moreover, I dare advance the working hypothesis that we need to live in a natural incontaminte environment, because living in modern towns and cities hurts our emocional and mental health in the most hidden and devious way. It is amusing to observe that the same virtues are necessary to become an artist, a saint, a scientist or a winner in the every day life: 1. Great effort and proper discipline. 2.Utmost efficiency. 3. Constant growth and evolution. In conclusion: 1. There are no human behaviours which are successful a priori in any conditions, because some factors can always interfere and nullify the outcome of the best action, so as reward the worst performance. However, according to the probability theory, strategic behaviours are superior to tactical behaviours, true intuitive conducts seem to be the most secure conduct and irrational behaviours are mostly dangerous. Through inner search, modern man can speed up his ontogenetic evolution and learn to deal with these four types of conducts, intuitive, irrational, tactical and strategic, in order to reach a maximum of proficiency. 2. Our usual knowledge of the world must be verified from time to time because of our sensory blunders and limitations and because of our mental conditioning. Therefore a scientific attitude is necessary for the proper understanding of our outer and inner worlds, but religious sciences are mandatory for inward and direct knowledge and epistemological criticism of academic knowledge. 3. Loving, artistic and scientific attitudes are conditions which are essential to mankind, if he is to express all his potentialities. 4. Severe discipline and inner search are vital conditions for achieving positive ontogenetic evolution. 5. Ethics, decency, good manners, hygienic practices bear a precise biological significance but they can produce negative effects in societies deprived of any biological awareness. Therefore these strategic behaviours must be evaluated in objective, biological terms. 6. The gratifications that appease archaic biological needs, such as the craving for love, for sex, for friendship, for natural beauties, for playing, and so on, are pleasures which should not cost money. These gratifications are beneficial and should be freely available to everybody in natural niches, since they have evolved there for thousand years. These pleasures are fundamental and necessary to the happiness and therefore to the welfare of individuals. When these pleasures are not freely available to a population, it means that the individuals in question live in a degraded environment, in a ignorant society or in captivity-like conditions.

27

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Although the concept of evolution is not difficult to grasp, it is not self-evident. In fact, many people refuse to believe in this natural law because the times of evolution are so long that it cannot be perceived with our experience and senses. Other people refuse it because they do not like truth or because the idea of evolution menace their artificial vision of reality or their illusional interests. Of course, we get the impression of living in a stable world, repetitive in its seasonal variations, where living beings do not undergo any evolution, but it is not a novelty that our senses deceive us very often. In any case science can help us and today it must be admitted that: I. Although the reality of evolution has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt, evolution is not known in all its details and the rules that govern it have not been definitively worked out. II. Because evolution is an event which has lasted over four million years, it cannot be directly tested and reproduced on a large scale. Fortunately microevolutionary events can be experimentally investigated and embryos, biochemical comparisons and fossils offer historical proof of evolution. Understanding evolution is very important for our survival, since by using this knowledge, we can suggest sound evolutionary strategies and predict the probabilities of future existence for any species. I like to define evolution as: " a fundamental strategy of survival, which is achieved by increasing the freedom of all living beings from their niches through ontogenetic adaptation and genic selection". In other words, through adaptive evolution species can achieve new conditions of life by increasing their independence from their niches. Because environments, habitats and niches vary all the time, ontogenetic, i.e. cultural and psychophysiological evolution represents the only method of survival in the short term. Phylogenetic evolution, due to genic mutations and environmental selection, needs much longer times, since it depends on fortuitous and rare positive mutations, parental transmission of characters and good luck. EVOLUTIONARY MECHANISMS So, as we saw in the chapter on Genetics, the molecules of DNA suffer from frequent and unavoidable casual mutations. These alterations (or imperfections) represent the necessary condition for evolution and they accomplish an evolutionary step on their own when they are not too damaging and therefore mortal or neutering. Because they are fortuitous, most mutations are indifferent or harmful for individuals, thus representing a severe waste of energy. In other words, evolution is possible because the genetic code is very deficient as a machine for reproducing information and the cost that every species must pay for these deficiencies is certainly higher than what was believed by geneticists in a recent past. Even now, some ignorant scientists assert that the increased rate of mutations due to the use of atomic power and consequent increase of radioactive atoms in the environment would be beneficial to living beings because this condition would speed up evolution. They forget that: I. Ionizing radiations are also mutagenic, so they increase the number of tumours. II. One would expect that mutations and evolutionary rates had yet reached their optimum after four millions years. III. If most mutations are harmful for the individual, the more sensitive species to radiations (not all species are equally affected by radiations) would become less competitive and this would upset co-evolution. Just to give some examples, human beings would certainly be at a disadvantage in comparison with ants, reptiles, etc.. IV. The course of evolution would be altered rapidly and would therefore be catastrophic.

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ONTOGENESIS During his life span, every individual, animal or plant continuously changes by learning, conditioning, ageing, and so on. This process, which begins with fertilisation of the egg and ends with death, is known as ontogenetic evolution. In mankind this process is very important because, seemingly more than most other living beings, we can choose amongst several niches and in consequence amongst the different selective pressures which will mould our phylogenetic evolution. HISTORY OF EVOLUTION Evolution can be considered as a historic event that is characterised by the extinction of old species and the appearance of new forms. In general, all species tend to die out, with very few doubtful exceptions, which are called living fossils. In fact, this concept is quite inadequate, since: I. The belonging of an individual to a certain species is often difficult to determine, on the base of fossil remnants. I remember that the only safe method of determining whether two individuals belong to the same species is to verify whether they can mate and produce offspring that in turn are capable of reproduction. II. There are proofs that evolution never stops at a molecular level, and this phaenomenon cannot be individuated in fossils. Unfortunately, the study of evolution is mainly based on fossils and these are normally rare, difficult to find and are impossible to mate. We have however been able to follow step by step the evolution of several groups and it has been possible to observe that relatively primitive species are normally less sophisticated and less efficient than later forms. Exceptions to this rule often occur but they can be explained by periods of low selective pressures and lack of co-evolution, as we shall see later. In general we get the impression that evolution pursues a goal of superior beauty and functionality, as if it were guided by a superior mind. But this hypothesis can be discharged. Evolutionary finalism is very improbable because: 1. Most species die out without leaving any descendants. Therefore if a Mind were to guide evolution, it would be acting against a fundamental law of biology, namely that of sparing. 2. To see evolution as a search for perfection is wrong because of the previous consideration and because perfection is a function of the niches where the species in question live. Outside their niches, just because of their specialization, perfect forms find very difficult to survive. In other words, more a species is perfect, less it is apt to survive in long terms. Because it is obvious that greater the independence from the habitats, higher the probability of survival, evolution can be considered as an event which increases the independence of individuals and populations from parameters which describe the environments, such as space, energy, temperature, food, and so on. Now let us see how evolution can be considered from different cultural backgrounds. The men in the street, clergymen, politicians, and so on, does not perceive evolution and therefore they refuse it and they do not care about it. In fact, even among scientists, only few biologists, are sometime involved in evolutionary questions. For chemists, evolution is mainly due to random mutations, whereas naturalists, who believe in selection, hold just the opposite view. We shall suggest in the next paragraph (see silent evolution) how this misunderstanding might have arisen. For zoologists, comparative anatomists and palaeontologists, evolution is characterized by extinction of old forms, which have been replaced by newer, more efficient ones. 29

It is interesting to underline that all the main types of organization, from the most primitive (like prokaryotes) onwards, continue to cohabit, although in different quantitative relationships. For geneticists, every mutation that remains fixed in a population may be considered as an evolutionary step and the temporary unit of evolution is that of a generation. Moreover, with the recent discovery of homebox genes and after the latest comparisons of genomas in apes, the distances between different species and humans have been drastically reduced. For embryologists, ontogenetic evolution recapitulates phylogenetic evolution Ethologists and ecologists would conclude by saying that ontogenetic evolution conditions phylogenetic evolution, since different environmental selective pressures select different mutations. Therefore the classic principle: ontogenesis recapitulates phylogenesis should be completed by the concept: and addresses it. This influence is twofold: 1. All past events have a decisive effect on every subsequent evolutionary step. 2. Different existential choices determine different selective pressures. EVOLUTION AS A STRATEGICAL PROCEDURE Three fundamental types of evolution can be distinguished: silent, progressive (co-evolution) and regressive. Let us consider this classification as hypothetical, since all scientists may not accept it. 1. Silent evolution. When mutations do not cause evident changes in the behaviour of the subjects in question because its genome continues to work as before, this evolutionary process can be defined as silent, since it only bears hidden potential effects for future adaptations of DNA. Owing to the enormous dimensions of proteinic molecules in comparison with those of their active sites, it can be expected that most mutations alter molecular structures which are not involved in physiological activity. Indeed, it has been seen that evolution at a molecular level happens to be directly proportional to time. More precisely, the total number of mutations which hit a genome over a certain period of time is the sum of many silent, several negative and a few positive mutations. Because they are all random and most of negative mutations get regularly lost, it is no wonder that the sum of molecular changes appears to be somehow directly correlated with time. 2. Progressive evolution. Then there is the evolution due to the selection of the ever-changing genome through the contingent selective pressures produced by the various niches. Adaptation and co-evolution characterize all species involved in this kind of evolution. Because any biological advantage in the struggle for life can be considered as an increase of freedom from some niches, progressive evolution expresses a fundamental and unique evolutionary strategy: to increase individuals' freedom from their niches . Because the whole of evolution consists in the sum of progressive, silent and regressive evolution and considering that the latter two types are random, the strategy of evolution as a whole is progressive. The idea that selection might produce a regressive evolution must be discharged a priori. But there are examples of apparent regressive evolution due to natural selection, for example when evolution proceeds toward some extreme specialization, such as parasitism. This apparent paradox occurs when evolution is directed toward smaller, easier, more specialized niches. But there is always an increase of freedom in comparison with the old niches. In fact, the consistent loss of most of the old organs we observe in parasites represents a great advantage in these new conditions, the blood of the host for instance, since old organs would be burdens without any usefulness in the new niches. A general increase of freedom from the environment and a consequent rise of the total biomass is 30

the obvious consequence of evolution. 3. Regressive evolution. Regressive evolution occurs either because of the absence of selective pressures or because of rapid environmental changes, when genomas do not have time to adapt to the new conditions. When absence of normal selective pressures occurs, a certain amount of negative mutations can be accumulated and sooner or later degenerations can be expected. This hypothesis could be experimentally tested. In the case of natural catastrophes, the genome variability of all populations is randomly reduced, so that there a loss of genetic information and evolutionary potentialities occur. A few examples of catastrophes can be easily given: I. Massive reduction of environmental productivity by poisoning, destruction, desertification of the soils, avalanches, flooding, volcanic eruptions, and so on. II. Reduction of the number of individuals who can freely reproduce themselves. This limitation has often occurred in our species because of social or racial privilege, religious habits, geographical conditioning, wars, sclavery, etc.. III. Overcrowding. Disasters due to overcrowding have been observed in several species, from insects to mammals. IV. Rapid changes of habitats due to invasions of alien species, sudden isolation, and so on. At this point it is possible to analyse the crucial question: which, if any, is the winning strategy in evolution? The question is not futile since most of the species die out. A priori a general evolutionary strategy can be suggested for each species: i.e . to increase freedom from their usual niches. But because niches vary in time, this strategy might be satisfactory in the long term only if , by chance, species evolve by increasing their freedom in larger niches. Let us therefore define the best winning evolutionary strategy for all living beings: to increase the independence from old niches, through an over whole adaptation to a larger number of niches. For instance, adaptation to niches with wider temperature ranges, less food, more competitors, and so on. But how could this winning strategy be achieved? Because competition is higher between individuals with similar needs, it is obvious that infraspecific competition more severe than interspecific competition. It is also indisputable that individuals are selected by their niches in order to increase their probability of survival in the immediate. Therefore all individuals, independently of their contingent nature, will prefer those subniches where selective pressure is at its minimum. Tactical necessities are demanding whereas strategic needs are not perceived. In the case of most animals, because of infraspecific competition, some individuals will be able to occupy the most favourable niches, whereas others will be compelled to adapt to more severe conditions. It follows that the so-called winners of infraspecific competition will occupy smaller and easier niches and occasionally they will specialize in shorter living niches . This choice certainly implies an evident tactical advantage at present, but a poor evolutionary strategy in the future. On the other hand, the losers of infraspecific competition, or rather, those of the losers who survive, will be obliged to occupy larger niches, to survive under higher selective pressures and will therefore start an overall adaptation to the environment. Of course they will be less advantaged in short times but will have better chances in the long term. By the way, it is exciting to realize that correct evolutionary strategy somehow recalls that reported in the Gospels: the last will be the first. 31

I obseerve that, according to their adaptive and genetic pre-eminence, animals cab chose different niches, i.e. evolutionary trends, whereas plants, which cannot occupy new territories at will, can undergo a more limited number of evolutionary paths. This consideration might explain the presence of a grater number of animal species than vegetal. The evolutionary evidence that all living beings struggle for their extinction, seems a paradox, but this enigma can easily be explained: 1 Tactical solutions must prevail over strategic behaviours since nothing is more urgent than to survive at present. 2. Living beings cannot forecast their future. 3. The easiest solutions are the most preferable for all. 4. All living beings try to start a capitalist grow, but normally they cannot normally achieve this suicidal aim, if they cannot strongly reduce the selective pressure of their environments. At this point we can put forward those fundamental suggestions which are necessary to increase the probability of survival for mankind. I. It is dangerous to destabilize the natural niches in the short term, i.e. in a decade or less, because this change would cause a catastrophe. II. Only through knowledge and stamina can an individual start a winning evolutionary strategy. III. Strategic needs must overcome tactical wishes. IV. The laws of ecology and evolution must be respected and a bio-ethics (see the chapter of ethics) must be developed. Now, let us consider some of our normally mistaken concepts about evolution: the point of no return of actual evolution is still in the future; environmental stability must be achieved; evolutionary determinateness is evident; predators and competitors must be eliminated. The point of no return occurs because of the second thermodynamic law, no evolutionary step can be reverted. It follows that: A. The probability of recovering a lost gene is practically nil. B. If the course of evolution has gone astray, as in the last century, previous conditions cannot be recuperated. Of course we probably cannot say that humans have reached their point of no return as far their survival is concerned, but certainly adaptive evolution has surpassed it. Anyhow, the present catastrophic conditions lessen our probabilities of endurance. Environmental stability is a mistaken concept. There is no environmental stability because there is no evolutionary stability. Evolution means change and it never pauses. Evolutionary indeterminateness is due to the fact that infinitesimal differences are important in the course of evolution so that it is practically impossible to reproduce in laboratory two identical Biotopos. What appears us evil in existential terms, can be good in evolutionary term. For instance, poisonpollution, wars, overcrowding and other catastrophes of any sort are perverse in terms of survival. On the other hand some subjectively devilish subjects, such as wolves or tigers, food shortage, even some starvation, are not negative in evolutionary terms, because they are necessary to our coevolution. One must make a distinction between what is evil for the individual and what is evil for the evolution of the species, as we have seen before, when dealing with evolutionary strategies. For instance, any dream for a peaceful world, a terrestrial paradise, where wolves and lambs live together in peace is nonsense since co-evolution would collapse and become catastrophic if there were no fighting competition.

32

LAMARKIAN AND DARWINIAN EVOLUTION Lamarkian and Darwinian concepts about the fundamental mechanisms of evolution were born in antithesis to each other: for Darwin evolution was based on the selection of the fittest, whereas Lamark proposed a direct transmission of the characters. Of course, in the second case ontogenetic evolution acquires outstanding importance, but nowadays this hypothesis has been casted ff and the neoDarwinian evolutionary model is by far the most generally accepted. But today, with the progress in molecular genetics, it may be possible to conceive a model of Lamarkian evolution which might be theoretically plausible and which might merge with the Darwinian evolutionary model. For instance, if the loss of non-active genes were promoted more frequently (by a still ignored cellular mechanism) than that of normally working genes, the negative statement of Lamark: "the disuse of an organ causes its decline and then its loss in the future generation", would become possible at a molecular level. On the other hand, if superactive genes might duplicate with higher frequency than normal working genes, the positive statement of Lamark: "the use of an organ invigorates it in the future generation", would be achieved. If these considerations might be experimentally proved, the criticism to Darwin theory, that random evolution could not justify the prompt rise of new species we see in natural history, would collapse. THE EVOLUTION OF MANKIND (Homo sapiens sapiens or Ape nudus faber demens). First of all, let say that it is at least improbable that mankind represents the best product of biological evolution. Yet this myth seems to be long lasting because of vanity, ignorance and anthropocentrism, since we know too little about other living beings to state that we are the best among them. Anyhow why Homo sapiens sapiens, if only a handfull of genes separate us from the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). I suggest the genus Pan or Ape as a better collocation for humans, or Homo for the chimpanzee. Of course nudus and faber would be good specific and subspecific indications. But the only second subspecific term for a species, which firstly, uses his intelligence to destroy himself and his habitats, instead of evolving and secondly does not possesses any free will, should be demens. If we need a parameter to measure the superiority of one species over another, it would be difficult to discharge the character age of survival and under this consideration, several species are superior to us. Several human species occurred on Earth, but they all disappeared very soon and the only genus still present has started an evolutionary trend that science indicates as suicidal. As a monkey, humans are very peculiar. They have no fur and they are not specialized at all. In fact, human beings can do everything: running, climbing, jumping, swimming, whereas all other monkeys and apes are far more specialized. Of course mankind is less efficient than specialized forms but he can beat the swimmers in running, the runners in swimming, and so on. Moreover, he is very well able to adapt to new situations because of his intelligence, his individual variability, his sociality, his capacity to use and to forge instruments, his memory. As a result, humans have colonized all habitats since the Stone Age. However it was only with the transition from animal labour to machinery that man has achieved the dream of all living beings: to become free from predators, hunger, cold, hazards and, unfortunately, even from co-evolution. These achievements are probably due to his past pedogenetic evolution ( i.e. becoming sexually mature at an earlier ontogenetic age ), to a prehensile hand and consequent high adaptability. By the way, an evolutionary tendency toward pedogenesis can still be observed in humans. Some populations seem to have progressed further along on this evolutionary line, such as the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc.. In fact more than Europeans they maintain childish features: they are smaller, less hairy and have roundish bodies. But, within all populations and races, women 33

normally have more childish characters than men, such as smaller and more roundish bodies, childish faces, less hairiness, and so on. We can now reconsider the erroneous myth, although still supported by habit, culture and certain religions, that women are inferior to men. Of course men and women are different, have different duties and the very concept of a superiority of one sex upon the other can be argued but, in any case, it must be admitted that women: 1. Possess more chromosomal information that men. One may argue about the importance of these differences but they are not negligible, since even infinitesimal advantages are important in biology. Moreover, cytoplasmic heredity is mainly transmitted by mothers. 2. They live longer and remain young longer, as is proved by the superior flexibility of the ankles, skin resilience, etc.. 3. They are more important than men in the economy of reproduction. It costs a population much more to lose a female than a male. 4. Have a superior brain weight in relation to the whole body weight. 5. Show a more advanced phylogenetic evolution toward pedogenesis. 6. Possess greater cultural importance. Firstly, a woman transmits culture to her children in the most important period for the developing personality. Secondly, living longer with reduced sexuality in old age, women continue to play a cultural role in the community. In other words matriarchy seems to be more efficient than patriarchy in adaptive and evolutionary terms. 7. Display greater adaptability, both physiological and psychological. 8. Become intellectually mature earlier than man. 9. Display a superior dialectics and communicativeness. 10. Exhibit superior manual ability for jobs of precision. 11. Exhibit more functions than men, and therefore it is not by chance that they are more beautiful. If someone ask me why females should be superior to males, I just observe that they are sumitted to a higher selective pressure. On the other hand, men are superior to women in that they are stronger, quicker to react, more inclined to explore, perhaps better fit for abstract reasoning, and so on. All these considerations about possible male or female superiority should be taken cautiously, because the human species is highly polymorphic, so there are lots of males with female characteristics and vice versa. After these few considerations it is evident that to believe in the superiority of males or females may be quite ridiculous but to underestimate women is a big cultural mistake which costs us a lot in existential and evolutionary terms. THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF SOME COMMON MYTHS There are several common myths and certainties in our culture, such as the search for a comfortable life, our concept about the defence of life, the search for conclusive security, the indifference toward ethics, etcetera, which can easily proved to be foolish in evolutionary terms. As regards the search for security and for a comfortable life, we have already pointed out that this dream is rubbish in evolutionary terms, since this does not produce co-evolution but regressive evolution. As regards the general indifference toward ethics, it can be said that only through a inner search is it possible to avoid mistaken evolutionary strategies in the absence of natural selective pressures. And in order to defend life, it appears obvious that the defence of evolutionary trends toward larger niches is the best choice to achieve this hope. It is very easy to prove that it is nonsense to protect the 34

reproductive capacity of whatsoever species, but expecially Homo sapiens sapiens, because he will destroy all habitats in few decades. Every population has an optimum number of individuals, determined by its environmental selective pressure and its biology. Every species produces more individuals than can be nourished by the environment. If we wish to coin a proper motto for the defence of life, we should consider all the living beings and not just single individuals or even a single species. For instance: "I n order to defend life, both ontogenetic and phylogenetic evolution of all beings must be respected". AN EVOLUTIONARY MODEL: WEI-QI At last, but not least, I would like to recommend the readers to get acquainted with a marvellous evolutionary model, which will be described and taught in the next volume, because it represents both the best way to achieve a winning personality and to understand what might be our best evolutionary behaviour. I speak about Wei-Qi, (better known as GO in Europe) one of the four major Chinese arts, that of harmony. In this game the struggle for life is extremely simplified. The goal of the game is to acquire more territory than the opponent, starting from conditions of parity and with infinite evolutionary potentialities. Because the rules are very simple and the game has been deeply studied in China, Corea and Japan in the last centuries, its fundamental strategies have been fully explained. Moreover these strategies are very effective in everyday life and personal ontogenetic evolution and therefore learning and playing the game will represent a quick way to achieve a winning personality. For instance: 1. Co-evolution occurs when competitors have similar opportunities or equivalent strength. In other conditions the game becomes senseless and a catastrophe occurs to both, winners and losers. The same conclusion has been verified by evolutionists. 2. Emotions upset the way you utilize your knowledge. Therefore self-control is a must. 3. Economy is essential to win a game. Again biology proves that out of two competitors, the more economical survives 4. Attack and defence must alternate. Who only defends cannot win, who only attacks looses. 5. Never play where you are much stronger than your opponent, it would be foolish. 6. Never play close to where your opponent much stronger, it would be risky. 7. In order to overcome one's opponent, look for small advantages but take the chance of a consistent styroke when possible. 8. Prudence is a must. We never see an animal looking for trouble, unless compelled to. 9. The best move of your opponent is probably your best moved. 19. Keep your play as flexible as possible . In other words, keep the number of your opportunities as high as possible and drive your opponent into smaller niches. In evolutionary terms, avoid specialization. 11. Love your adversary if you want to manifest all your playing potentialities . In other words, play against yourself, against your tactical wishes and conditionings and thank your opponent for the chance to improve yourself. 12. Make the effort to find the best move at any step, as if it were a matter of life or death.

35

II PART
RELIGIONS LIKE SCIENCES
With the comprehension of the first part, the reader should have acquired sufficient information to be able to evaluate the adaptive significance of all the various aspects of his culture. In this second part, a biological approach to religions has been attempted, in order to investigate their existential and evolutionary significance and their deep, but ignored value as sciences. I regret that the culture and the philosophies of ancient Greece are totally absent from this book, because it would be interesting to underline their closeness to those of modern India more than to those of contemporary Europe. Similarly, I must apologize that several important religious texts, such as the Koran, the Old Testament, the Upanishad, the Veda, and so on have not been here considered and biologically evaluated. I beg the reader's pardon for these omissions, which are simply due to my cultural conditionings. This new approach to religions offers five fundamental novelties to a western reader: 1. The attempt to understand and justify a religious discipline even in the absence of faith, merely because of its scientific, existential and biological value. 2. The discovery of the high epistemological value hidden in true religious searches. 3. The realization that inner search is essential for the accomplishment of the hidden potentialities of human beings, otherwise neglected. 4. The inconsistency of that narrow attitude, which considers all religions in opposition to one another. 5. The lack of a sound definition of religion. 6. The inconsistency of the dualism science - religion, focusing a new category of opposites: scientific attitudes and superstition. In fact, these two mental dispositions occur in all fields of human activity, included sciences. Moreover, with these new mental categories, the bombastic, stupid and dangerous contraposition between true religion and false religions, loses any significance. At the same time academic science is deprived of its undeserved fame, as if it were a priori free from any demerit and superstitious attitudes, thus doubting about the prominence of academic science over those inner searches that we find in several religious paths. For instance, I would not classify as scientific those academic researches, which are not honestly dedicated to a scientific pursuit, because: I. They are devoted to solving deceitful or irrelevant questions. II. They do not answer any question, but they are merely trivial copies of other researches, which proved to be important. III. They provide false or forced experimental data, in order to support some hypotheses. This attitude is far more widespread than what people think. In the same way I would not consider as true scientists those who: I. Publish papers for the only sake of their carriers. II. Do not touch questions, when they involve religious, academic or economic taboos. III. Pursue researches which are dangerous for the life on Earth, thus proving their mental superficiality and lack of morality. On the contrary, a religious search bears the significance of an exceptional academic study when: I. It broadens the researcher's capacity of perception and comprehension of inner and outer realities. 36

II. It increases the researcher's independence from the environment. III. It produces high existential happiness for the researcher. IV,. It utilizes methods, which can be recognised as scientific by academic scientists. At this point it is important to underline some aspects of whatsoever true science. I. Sooner or later, whatever true science becomes a nuisance for Churces, Governments and other Authorities, because an unavoidable consequence of all sciences is the broadening of our knowledge. It follows that these new knowledges, whether transcendental or not, oblige us to reconsider the inadequacies of our axioms and myths, mental paradigms, languages, economics and social life. Therefore academic science and even more religious sciences are always potentially revolutionary. It follows that decadent Authorities will try to control both science and religions, by confining them within the limits of technology and superstition respectively. II. For all researchers of truth it is difficult to communicate their achievements to normal people, until they have not personally achieved thw due rational and / or transcendental experiences. III. It is obvious that the achievements of science may appears like miracles for people who cannot understand them. In other words, when we talk about miracles, we only give the measure of our own ignorance of the phenomenon in question. INTRODUCTION Definition of religion At this point let us reconsider the definition of religion we find in our Dictionaries, since it appears to be imprecise and inexact for the prerequisites of this book. For instance, we accept the following (The new shorter Oxford Dictionary): belief in some superhuman controlling power or powers, entitled to obedience, reverence and worship, or in a system defining a code of living ...; acceptance of such belief (as represented by an organized Church ) as a standard of spiritual and practical life . Under this definition, religions are justified and supported by those godly messages that teach humans how to conform their behaviours to the will of God or Gods. By their nature, these messages cannot be disputed, debated or verified and therefore they fall into the mental category that I would define as superstitious. It follows that we implicitly consider religions as inferior to sciences and, no wonder, if we keep them in separated compartments. The above definition of religion is by no mean precise and satisfactory. For instance, we are used to nominate as religious certain disciplines which aim at the direct perception of a transcendental truth which can be totally disjointed from the world of Gods. Buddhism and Taoism would fall into this category. On the other hand, other disciplines, such as several Yogas, which are certainly based on scientific methods, are not considered as religions, although they admit the existence of Gods and they teach methods aiming to get a direct knowledge of broader realities. Therefore we must coin another definition of religion which might include all these teachings from different traditions, aims and methods, which could not be defined as other than religious. For example, let us define as religious as: " whatever inner search" and disciplines, scientific in their praxis (if not, they cannot be safe and successful) aiming at the perception of those broader realities which transcends our normal senses and intellect. In this way not the source of a religion but its methods and aims are underlined. The axiom what is good at one level of the organization of matter is good at all levels of organization, allows us to verify scientifically the validity of any transcendental research. Indeed, if a religious novice is accurate in his discipline, very soon he will also enjoy the finge benefits 37

of better body and mind functionings. Moreover, adopting a scentific attitude, nobody would further pursue an inner search or a faith, if he get negative or irrelevant results. At this point, we also need a broad-minded definition of superstitious attitudes, such as: the passive acceptance as true of any idea, either based on an outer authority or on personal believes, so that doubts and consequent scientific testings are never considered and adopted. It is therefore correct to speak of superstition when truth is imposed or accepted from above, either in science or in religion, whereas it is appropriate to speak of science, when a religious message is presented as a working hypothesis to be personally and scientifically tested. However, it is important to underline that superstition cannot be banned from our culture. We need it, since it would be too expensive or impossible to investigate the validity of every piece of information we receive. The trouble with superstition is that it can be misleading. For instance, the usual lectures delivered at the University have a historic and superstitious character. Only when the student personally starts to investigate, his studies and his mentality become scientific and indeed, for the first time, he will realize the numerous deficiencies of his academic learning. Superstition and science must be balanced in the sense that a certain amount of information must be accepted as true for the sake of convenience, but a scientific attitude must be the last judge of the validity of our knowledge at any time we feel the moral or intellectual necessity to revise it. Evolutionary aspects of religion as scientific knowledge. On examining the evolutionary aspects of religion, all religious teachings can be evaluated as efficient strategic behaviours, when they improve all our capabilities and imply a broader perception of our reality. It is ovious that this acquisition is a must for evolution toward ampler niches and are necessary for survival in conditions of extreme selective pressures, too high or too low. With academic science also, we increase our capacity to perceive and understand the world. But in this case our understanding is confined within rationality and our perception of the outer world is increased by the use of instruments. To give an example: if we want to survive on ice, academic sciences would fit us with ovens, isolated tents and hot water-bottles, whereas religions would teach us how to raise our inner body temperature. The advantage of knowing both ways of surviving is obvious. Moreover, modern academic science does not teach us how to survive in those conditions of low selective pressures, which are generated by technology and industries. In other words, scientific achievements are highly appreciated both by scientists and common people, forgetting that they hide the mortal danger of involution. Only religious researches can express strategies capable of ensuring evolution towards larger niches, even in conditions of whatever extreme selective pressure. Fortunately, a population can increase its probabilities of survival if even only a few individuals are successfully involved in a religious search. Of course, both true religion and true science are evolving and regressing continuously. Sooner or later science turns to technology and religion becomes superstition. In fact, true religious men and true scientists are always very few, because these blessed conditions are difficult to achieve. In fact, from science, common people want only the products of technology and from religions they only demand easy but improbable aids. Therefore it is necessary and urgent to compare the methods and the results of science with those offered by religions, in order to reduce the harm of both and to develop the evolutionary potentialities of mankind. 38

Characteristics of a religious research. First of all let see the fundamental aspects and needs which characterize any serious inner search. 1. In order to achieve a successful religious search, it is helpful, often essential, to achieve appropriate a a physical and a mental status. In fact, normal people are by no means fitted to start an inner search and to become religious because of their cultures, their poor health's condition and their mental conditionings. 2. Because a steady, free and a noble will is an indispensable prerequisite for a search for truth, nobody can become religious by allurements, conditioning or impositions. 3. The importance of a scientific attitude in a religious search has been proved a posteriori, since otherwise the risk of going astray at any step is very high. 4. All true religious searches possess the same virtues and advantages, which are indispensable for achieving a winning evolutionary strategy: I. Sparing. Since inner researches is a very frugal activity, this commandment is at reach of everybody. II. Stable and healthy environments. Poisoned, polluted and sick people are not fitted for inner search. Therefore a incontaminate habitat is a must. III. A sophisticated mental hygiene in order to overcome the normally poor efficiency of modern human minds. IV. Owing to the fact that whatever religious search or faith must be controlled with a scientific attitude, our normal tendency to superstition, which is so common in our daily lives, is strongly reduced. At this point might be interesting to underline some existential, social and evolutionary benefits due to inner search: 1. The achievements of this science cannot be used against humans because: I. Religious knowledge is a personal acquisition which cannot be understood, obtained and exploited by persons still bearing normal mental conditions. II. The searcher for truth acquires a superior ethics, which makes any abuse of his power unthinkable. 2. The differences between social classes are irrilevant , in the sense that there is no direct correlation between the social position of the disciple and his chances of succeeding in this search. Buddha was a prince, but Jesus the son of a carpenter, Lao-tse a teacher, Ramakrishna the illiterate son of poor peasants, etcetera. 3. All religious disciplines aim to overcome those tactical behaviours, which reduce both our inner energies and our probabilities of survival. As a matter of fact, phylogenetic adaptative evolution and inner evolution need the same attitudes. These considerations should persuade Westerners that religious research might by far be superior to academic science in both existential and evolutionary terms. In particular, because of the dangers and the damage already produced by academic science on the environment, it is urgent and necessary that scientists start a meditation training, since its fringe benefits are both a high mental health and ethics. In the light of these considerations, we examine here the existential and evolutionary value of some religious teachings, which belong to the traditions of Christianity, of Buddhism, of Taoism, and of some Hindu philosophies. This second part is dedicated to those friends of mine who, having refused Catholicism because of their frustrating experience with some false prophets, have abandoned any religious interest, ignoring that this denial is based on bigotry, lack of religious knowledge and cheap prejudices, such as " religions are the opium of nations. In my opinion the basic deficiency of modern Christianity is only that: although it proposes highly valuable teachings, it does not offer proficient tools to achieve them. Finally I wish to warn the reader that in all these translations I have paid more attention to the meanings rather than to the words. 39

CHRISTIANITY
FROM THE GOSPEL OF S.MATTHEW 5, the beatitudes Matthew 5v. 5, " blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." In the chapter on evolution we suggested the hypothesis that the better evolutionary strategy is not that of the winners of infraspecific competition but that of the losers. In interspecific competition also, to elude fighting turns out to be more advantageous than fighting, if the latter can be avoided. The winning strategy is that of pursuing a more economic life more than that of winning battles. Four thousand million years of biological evolution have proved that it is better to avoid risks in order to survive and in fact animals never fight for their lives, when they can escape. Praise of heroism is a Western motto, which has low evolutionary validity. Matthew 6v, 19, 24 the true treasures Lay up not for yourself treasures upon the earth..... Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Here we find a total and definite condemnation of the pursuit of richness. In existential and psychological terms, richness represents false stability, easy life and seemingly safety, all mistaken options in a world that is in continuous evolution. In ecological terms, richness produces individual degradation, together with destruction of the environment, leading to catastrophic evolution. In hygienic terms, richness implies a source of sickness because they offer an easy life, food at will and nothing to struggle for. The body is a friend who betrays and therefore it must be kept under restrain. Matthew 7v, 13.Enter ye in by the narrow gate....... Once again a condemnation of the wish to live in easy niches. In these conditions co-evolution towards larger niches cannot occur. Matthew 8v, 21. And another of the disciples said unto him, Lord suffer me first to go and bury my father.......... This observation makes it clear that setting out on a religious path requires total abandonment of previous affections, habits and wishes. This severe teaching does not occur in all religions but the austerity of the religious path is always out of question. Matthew 15v, 11. not that which enters into the mouth defileth the man...... Here we find a very modern hygienic concept, namely that mental hygiene is more important than 40

physical hygiene. Of course this aphorism does not mean that physical hygiene can be ignored. Matthew, 19v, 17 but if thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commandments. ............. v 24.....and again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. There again is some fundamental teaching to appease the mind. Because we are living beings with a primitive sociality, these teachings suggest the right relationships we should keep with other people, in order to achieve the proper attitude to religious discipline. The famous precept is against richnesses, because they are implicitly evaluated as a burden if one wish to realize his ontogenetic evolution. All what humans need in order to maximize their probability of survival in the long and the short terms, is to achieve their potentialities and to be as happy as their nature allows. Few possessions are necessary for life and progress. In the Gospel and in some oriental cultures, the only indispensable belongings for a searcher for truth are a bowl for food, a garment to wear and the present to live.

41

BUDDHISM
Before presenting the Dammapadha, I would like to clear up a common misunderstanding about the first of the four noble truths (Dukkha) enunciated by the Tatagatha. Too often Dukkha has been interpreted as the universal sorrow that characterizes the life of all beings. But this concept is closer to a Christian rather than to a Buddhist interpretation of life. Through study and meditation, Dukkha can be understood as impermanence and imperfection. For Buddha, life is not a valley of tears but a place to achieve fulfilment and freedom. Buddhism therefore does not contradict the hypothesis, which everybody can verify directly and personally, that all living beings, in order to survive, must be naturally happy in the ambit of their own natural niches. If today human beings seem able to achieve a natural inner happiness only after meditation, this is because they live in strikingly alien, unnatural niches. The hypothesis that truth and knowledge can be only obtained by removing the interference of our fiddling and cheating minds is the most outstanding contribution of Indian phylosophies to human evolution. DHAMMAPADA. The Dhammapada can be considered as the Buddhist Gospel, where Siddharta offers his teachings to everybody with kindness and simplicity. For Westerners, this book appears more like a treatise on mental health than a book on religion. Indeed, the absence of any dogma and any God makes the Dammapadha useful both for atheists and pious people of other religions. It would be difficult to find an honest reason for denying the value of this mental hygiene to non-Buddhist subjects, since this method helps to realize a better mental functioning and to broaden our understanding of reality, without interfering with any faith. We have here reported only certain sentences, which carry an immediate biological meaning whereas poetic repetitions have been excluded. Unlike the Tao-Te-Ching, the Gospels and the Yoga aphorisms of Patanjali, the Dhammapada can be easily understood in both operative and rational terms. Chapter 1. What we are is the result of what we have thought. If a person speaks or acts with deceitful thoughts, sooner or later he will suffer the consequences. ................. These speculations must be interpreted in psychological and evolutionary terms. Because our thoughts and emotions do not vanish but linger in our subconscious, they continue to influence our conscious mind, our body, our personality and our destiny. Moreover, if we are accustomed to indulge in hate, envy, fear and other negative feelings, our body will react both by reducing the production of antibodies and by creating involuntary and permanent muscular contractions These contractions reduce the capacity of our respiratory system and the flexibility of our ankles and dissipate energies. Involuntary contractions of skeletal muscles and negative feelings form a vicious cycle, one evoking the other, so that our response to environmental demands is no longer optimum. Besides, our personality and behaviour is influenced by these thoughts and in this way our subconscious mind constructs a virtual niche, which is consistently detached from reality. In this virtual niche, the illusory selective pressures produced by our imagination becomes real to us, thus reducing our physical and mental adaptive capacities. Of course, if we cultivate positive 42

thoughts, we construct another artificial niche but, in this case, we reduce those selective pressures that are due to our negative interpretation of the world. Someone has cheated me, robbed me, beaten me, and defeated me. If you cultivate such negative thoughts, hate can have no end. Hate can cease only through love and not through hate. .......... Any negative thought causes damages at any levels. Because these thoughts operate in the subconscious, they continue to cause harm even when the reason for their existance has long since disappeared. Thus one should realize that to be right or wrong does not matter for mental hygiene; the damages induced by negative thoughts remain the same, independently of their justifications. Only the development of a loving attitude can eradicate the permanence of hate from our subconscious. For instance enjoy nature and its beauty, they are always at your hand. As rain cannot drop through a well-constructed roof, so negative emotions cannot enter a reflective mind.................... One needs to devote constant attention to avoid unconscious negative activity of the mind. A mind with no control tends to reinforce old negative conditioning and the subconscious is active twenty-four hours a day. Therefore if one wishes to be free of this conditioning, one must labour to invert the autonomous tendency of the mind with constancy and intensity. In other words, in order to realize a positive ontogenetic evolution we need: 1. Strong determination and a long discipline. 2. To achieve those personal virtues which are the result of a severe discipline. 3. To cultivate positive thoughts in order to optimize our behaviour. The virtuous person is happy in this world, he is happy in the next world. ........... A fringe benefit of mental control is a state of happiness and this happiness distinguishes the virtuous person. The adaptive significance of this state is obvious. Whatever evil is done against you by a merciless enemy, it is less harmful that what is made by an unrestrained mind. No mother, no father, nor other relative can be more beneficial than a restrained mind................. These are unusual concepts in the West. Who really understand that we ourselves can be our own worst enemy and that our ontogenetic evolution is entirely in our own hands? These concepts are still familiar in modern India but they seem not to have reached Europe at all. On the basis of my experience as a teacher, I can say that my students have found this concept to be far the most disquieting. Chapter 5. A stupid person will never understand the value of a saint even after a whole life, likewise the spoon can never perceive the flavour of the soup...................... Truth can be revealed only to those who are ready to understand it. These words imply that we need mental discipline and proper knowledge in order to recognise those truths that are beyond our daily life. One is the way leading to wealth, another is the way leading to freedom. .................. Here again we find the usual condemnation of riches, which occurs in all religions. This distinction is useful in detecting false prophets in all faiths.

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Chapter 17. Hatred must be overcome by love, evil by goodness, greed by generosity, lies by the truth. Here we have a fundamental praxis for mental health and social behaviour. Emotional reactions and punishments do not represent the methods of the sage; he prefers to influence others by the gentle example of his life. I would like to compare this strategic attitude with that tactical teaching of the Bible " eye for eye and tooth for tooth", which reveals a primitive tactical attitude, full of resentment and hatred. It is evident that this Buddhist view about social questions, which is higly efficient and valid in biological terms, should substitute the biblical foundation of our laws, which is still confined to the banal and unsuccessful routine of punishments. Conclusions The teaching of Buddha is of great merit because: 1. It proposes a very simple technique, which everybody can follow, to achieve mental health independently of religion, race or social status. 2. Although the final aim of Buddha is to transcend the normal conditions of our mind, in order to reach the realm of peace, faith in God is not needed. 3. Better than any other discipline, Buddhism reduces the distance between man's daily life and the transcendental realm, which can be reached by meditation. Modern Genetics has drastically reduced the distance we were used to put between mankind and other living beings. Physics and physiology (Ch. Bose, Nobel Price 1933) have likewise reduced the distance that separates living beings from the inanimate world. Religions, as above defined, has reduced the distances between mankind and the realm of Gods . In conclusion, there are hints that through science mankind will finally realize the understanding that matter, living beings, humans, and "Gods" (that aspect of reality that can be only perceived after a long discipline) belong to an integrate community.

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TAOISM
From the TAO TE CHING The Tao The Ching can be considered as the Taoist Gospel because of its fundamental and exhaustive aphorisms. Unlike most religious teachings, this text suffers from a number of severe linguistic difficulties because of its antiquity, later manipulations and its extreme conciseness. To those who would like to delve deeper into this argument I suggest they compare different translations and interpretations, and meditate upon what cannot be otherwise understood, leaving out the few aphorisms which are difficult even for Chinese experts, since they are not necessary to the understanding ad practising of Taoism. There are many very interesting and easy concepts of high social and religious value. Here we present a free translation of a few aphorisms in order to give an idea of this pearl of religious literature, to point out its biological significance and to encourage the reader to continue this study on his own. Chapter 1. The Tao (God, the Way, the ultimate truth, etc.) that can be named is not God itself. ............................................. Since God is an absolute, it cannot be described by relative concepts. Therefore Tao remains beyond dispute, beyond any attempt at rational understanding. Taoists therefore do not face any questions about the existence of Gods, because they know that transcendental reality cannot be spoken about. Chapter 2. When humans know what is beauty, they can recognize ugliness. When humans know what is good, then they know evil. ................................... The world of mankind is depicted by relative and opposite concepts. It follows that our comprehension of reality becomes distorted and we do not realize this misunderstanding. It is absurd to try to separate good from evil, cold from warm, short from long, etc.. For instance, let me give an example suggested by the physiology of perception. If we submerge a hand in water warmer than the hand, we perceive the water as warm. But the same water will be perceived as cold if the hand is warmer. Another aspect of our subjective understanding of reality can be explained as follows: if all our wishes were fulfilled at once, in few days we would be as unhappy as before, because our emotional conditionings did not changed. Finally, there is evidence that reasoning based on opposite concepts is quite misleading. For instance, evil cannot be considered as the opposite of good because: 1. It denotes the absence of some subjective goodness. 2. It depends upon the niche in which we live. 3. What we consider as evil may be necessary for our evolution and therefore for our survival.

40

Chapter 3. If nobody knows what is best, there will be no competition. If precious things are not considered, there will be no more thefts. If the heart does not desire, minds will not be confused any more. Therefore the wise guides men by emptying their mind and filling their stomach. ................................................................. Desires bring a sea of troubles because wishing implies grumbling about the past and dreaming of the future. In this way our minds are not merged in the present and thus we linger out of our niches. Of course dreaming, planning and wishing are often necessary activities of our normal minds. The point is: not to let them to compell us out of reality. Chapter 7. .......... forgetting himself, the sage find his true reality. ....................................... Our inner reality cannot normally be perceived because of the invading presence of our personality, which is continuously fed by subconscious activities. Therefore, only when we become able to detach ourselves from our mental activity can we know our true nature. This working hypothesis unites all the most evolved religions and any form of meditation can verify it. This achievement is very important in ethological terms, since it allows us to react in the most proper way to our external stimuli. Chapter 8. The best men are like water, which offers resistance to none and is beneficial to all. It remains down under, where nobody wants to settle. Therefore water is close to the Tao (the true way). Therefore I prefer to live humbly..................... I prefer kindness in relationships with others. In words I like truth; From governments I beg good order; I esteem ability in business; in order to act I wait for the favourable time. Because I never argue, I cannot be reproached. This is a description of the ideal conduct of a Taoist. Taoist humility implies poverty and non-resistance, which give a feeling of freedom, together with the detachment obtained through inner knowledge. To be content is similar to the yoga's concept samtosha and Taoist benevolence is very similar to Buddhist piety. The mundane invitation to use one's common sense and to be pragmatic expresses the attentions of Taoism to the human world.

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Chapter 9. .................................. a very sharp blade cannot last for long. a mansion full of treasures cannot be defended Honours and pride lead to ruin. When merits and honour have been achieved, then retire. A praise of modesty and self contentment. I would like to underline the important biological teaching implicit in the disapproval of perfection. Perfection hampers evolution. Chapter 10. ............................... Can you concentrate on the breathing and become innocent as a baby? In all evolved religions we find methods aimed at overcoming our personal ego. The most common techniques of meditation are based on breathing. Chapter 17. When leaders and teachers are very good, people ignore them. When leader and teachers are good enough, people praise them. When leaders and teachers are mean, people fear them. When leaders and teachers are rotten, people disdain them. This simple method of evaluating the virtues of our authorities, superiors, teachers, etc., is available to all. Thus lovers of truth can easily detect the false prophets of politics, economy, religion and culture. Of course this method losses a lot of its value if we do not live in the same niches of our leaders and we get of them only the virtual images they want us to see. In present time we passed from ignorance due to illiteracy to a new kind of ignorance, much more dangerous of the previous because unperceived, misleading in ecological and existential terms, cultivated through the control and the misuse of mass media. Chapter 19. Relinquish science and you will avoid sorrow. Abandon wisdom and for the people it will be much better. Reject benevolence and justice and there will be love among people. If you reject artifice and gain, there will be no robbers or thieves. Because a culture , which practises science, wisdom, benevolence and justice, is not adequate, look for something else. For instance, be clear and simple. Refrain from selfishness and social climbing. We seem to be hearing the suggestions of a modern ecologist more than a teaching of two thousand years. 42

If these recommendations seem absurd, consider them in ecological and existential terms and they will become easy to understand. Of course in this context science means technology and never inner search. Chapter 27. .............................. .................................. A good reckoner does not need a calculator. The best closure has no bars or locks, yet it cannot be to opened. Why should bad men be rejected? ................................ ................................. Sages are good rescuers of bad men and nobody is rejected. Bad men potentially are very good subjects. This is called double enlightenment. ............. .............. ................. In order to keep away from troubles, it is much more efficient to avoid the accumulation of riches than to use bolts in order to discourage thieves. Love fastens better than chains. We should not create negative categories for anybody because we are ever changing entities, because this attitude creates criminal niches and because with proper care and attention everyone can be taught to offer the best of themselves. This approach respects the high variability of humans, enhances their ontogenetic evolution and reduces social injustice. Chapter 30. To govern through Tao means not to compel others with weapons. ........ ......... .......... ........ Respect for ontogenetic evolution and personal freedom is here asserted. Chapter 31. ........... ....... .......... ........ wars are followed by scarcity victory is only the bloody conclusion of a disagreement, therefore there is nothing to boast about. .......................... ....................... We here encounter the winning strategy of no contending which is correct as well in evolutionary terms. Chapter 33. He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened. ........................... 43

he who knows contentment is rich. ........................ Here we find a mental category that does not belong to our present culture: knowledge of the external world is less important than knowledge of the self. Here again we are taught an important evolutionary strategy, which brings happiness: giving up of riches and the hope for riches. Chapter 36. Before contracting something, you should first expand it. In order to weaken something, you should strengthen it first. ...................... before receiving, you should give. This is called subtle wisdom. The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong. ................. To contest force by force occurs to be natural for humans but this is a primitive and a poorly efficient behaviour. We here find the high principles of oriental martial arts. These principles are of general evolutionary significance and in order to master them, the simplest way is to learn the ancient Chinese game Wei-Qi (Go). Chapter 45. The greatest perfection seems defective ....................... .............. ......................... It is a mistake to seek perfection in an ever-changing world. What is perfect in one niche may be quite incapable of evolution in other habitats. Chapter 46. .............................. ................ there is no grater mistake than seeking pleasure; there is no worse misery than ignoring contentment; ................................ Therefore the happiness of knowing contentment will bring contentment. When inner knowledge has been reached, loss and gain, pain and pleasure can no longer be a burden. The adaptive significance of this achievement is obvious and is taught in all religions. Moreover we here find a way of recognizing false prophets from good teachers. Chapter 57 ................. ............................ .................. the more restrictions, the worse the condition of the people; ..................... ...................... the more the arts and crafts, the more illusory objects are produced; the more the laws and regulations, 44

the higher the number of robbers and thieves. .............................. ....................... Therefore the sage ruler follows the way of non-action and people can evolve. When rulers are free from desire, people return to their original simplicity (in harmony with nature). It is useless to rule with restrictions and to threaten punishments. Morality cannot be achieved by force. Rulers must govern by the example of their own lives, enriched and ripened trough meditation. Using technology, useless objects are multiplied and this occurs to the detriment of the our happiness environment. Chapter 64. It is easy to hold what is motionless; It is easy to solve problems before they become urgent; what is fragile can be easily broken; .................................. deal with a thing before it has gone astray ............................................... We are here invited to look far ahead, to become a strategist. Problems can be more easily solved before they grow too much. For then it may be impossible to solve them without great affliction. The present poisonpollution of the world and the destruction of entire regions, cannot be fully recovered and even worse represent unbearable challenges to normal minds . We should remember the Chinese popular saying: when a fool has dropped a precious vase in the ocean, hundred sages cannot retrieve it. Chapter 67. ................................ I own three treasures, which I keep safe: the first is the ability to love; the second is moderation; the third is my refusal to get ahead in the world. By love I become brave; by moderation I become supreme; because I am not ambitious, people listen to me. .............................. We should note that these three fundamental Taoist virtues are essential for the development of personality, sociality and wisdom. I fear that in Western countries we have lost the ability to love. A small, preliminary and personal enquiry among my students has lent support to this pessimistic hypothesis beyond all expectations. Everybody can verify this pessimistic result on his own with very little introspection. Chapter 73. He who is brave in daring will perish; he who is brave in not daring will survive. understand this and you will know the difference between harm and benefit. 45

........................ Here again we see one of the fundamental strategies for our survival which does not exist in our cultures. An animal will never risk a fight if this can be avoided. This attitude is just the opposite to that of Westerners, who have been accustomed to appreciate a courageous death in battle since before Roman times. This chapter offers a profound new teaching for the West: to be meek and prudent needs courage too. Chapter 80. A small state with few people. ........ ................ ........... ................. Little is nice, because humans are adapted to live in small groups, otherwise they get stressed and become mad. Mankind's sociality resembles that of wolves, deer, bison and wale more than that of penguins, corals and ants. There is no denying that our present ecological disasters started when this fundamental natural condition began to be disregarded. Chapter 81. He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know. he who is truthful is not showy; he who is showy is not trustworthy. he who is virtuous does not dispute; he who disputes is not virtuous; he who is learned is not wise; he who is wise is not learned. Therefore the Sages do not display their merits. This is probably the most famous chapter of the Tao Te Ching in Western countries. He who knows does not speak, because inner knowledge cannot be transmitted by words, since it goes beyond rationality. The other correlations indicate certain aspects of the personality of a sage taoist which are useful both to detect false teachers and to learn better forms of social behaviour.

46

INDUISM
In this chapter we only report the core of Indian sages, which has already become popular among some youths in Europe.

Bhagavad Gita
First of all, I would like to warn the reader not to resent the presence of some contradictory affirmations. These can be easily explained because the text deals with different moments of our ontogenetic evolution. Therefore these pages should be read with a critical, but positive attitude, leaving aside for future consideration what we are unable to understand today. Chapter 1. The first chapter set the scene: the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where two opposing armies are drawn up ready to give battle. The hero Arjuna, chief of one of the two armies, speaks to his attendant Chrisna (who is a God): "this fratricidal war will bring death to both armies, in which I count several friends, teachers and sages, so that after this conflict my life will become so bitter as to be useless to me." Having uttered these words he threw away his bow and abandoned himself to grief. The scene has not been chosen by chance. The battlefield represents life and the responsibility of all humans to face inevitable contrasts and battles, which cannot be ignored for sake of honour, self respect and proper evolution. Chapter 2. Chrisna: where does this affliction come from at such a fatal moment, oh Arjuna? This mood is unworthy of an Aryan! Abandon this depression which serves not, and arise, terror of your foes. The God Khrisna scolds Arjuna because he objects to a fundamental duty of all living beings: to fight for life. Negative feelings support inertia, which is fatal for our survival. Arjuna:............ How could I fight against Bhisma and Drona, teachers whom I should venerate ................................. I would not be able overcome this anguish, even if I knew that by this victory I were to become the King of heaven and earth. Arjuna moans and tries to find rational excuses for his refusal to face his duties and fight.

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Chrisna: be as emotionally detached in victory as in defeat, in pain as in pleasure. If you will act so, sin will not stain you. .......... You have the right to act, but you have no rights over the results of your actions. Therefore be free from the results of your actions and from inaction. The sage who achieves indifference to the fruits of his actions, is freed from the chain of births and can reach that realm which is beyond all sorrows....................Equanimity is yoga ( in the sense of an attitude ).............. Ability in action is yoga (in the sense of a discipline).................. ...................................... When you are steady in the consciousness of the self, then you will accomplish yoga (as the fusion of the individual soul with the universal soul). We find here four fundamental teachings about what should be our attitudes in life. Firstly, humans are free to choose their actions but they must be detached from any expectations. The results of our actions also depend upon random and inscrutable factors, which cannot be put under control. Secondly, detachment is necessary if we are to act under the best emotional conditions. Thirdly, the best way to work dispassionately is to be aware of our real eternal self. Fourthly the concept of Karma is here explained. Our desires and our emotions create a subconscious heritage, which lasts beyond death. Only detached actions do not produce new karma and moreover they reduce the karma accumulated in the past. If you do not believe in life after death, the concept of karma remains limited to our present life but the way to get ride of its negative effects is just the same. The existential and evolutionary significance of these teachings is evident. Chapter 6. But yoga (understood as a discipline for self-realization) is not for those who eat too much or too little, for those who sleep too much or too little. Yoga can destroy all miseries if you are moderate............... Arjuna: it seems to me that it is impossible to control the mind, which is without peace and fickle like the wind. Chrisna: of course the mind is difficult to put under control but this can be done with emotional detachment and long practice...... We are here offered some fundamental suggestions as to practise correct mental discipline through patience, moderation and emotional detachment. It is interesting to note that the idea of a middle path seems to have arisen independently in different cultures, from India (see Buddhism) to Italy (read the Latin poet Horace). Chapter 17. ................... the proper discipline (of body and mind ) is: purity, simplicity, continence, and non-violence. the proper discipline of speech is: words that are not harmful, but truthful, agreeable, well disposed and useful for the study of the holy books........ We can find a more extensive description of these virtues in the Yoga aphorism of Patanjali.

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RAJA YOGA (FROM THE YOGA APHORISMS OF PATANJALI).

This is another fundamental text of Hindu culture. It must be clear that Patanjali stated that he did not invented yoga. He only wished to give a concise and complete exposition of Raja Yoga. Because of the difficulties of this text, which often deals with experiences that only expert advanced yogis can achieved, we report only those aphorisms, which can be rationally understood or intuitively appreciated. This book is divided into four parts. According to my opinion, the number of aphorisms here reported for each part gives an indication as to the number of aphorisms which can be rationally understood: eight from the first part, six from the second, three from the third and one from the fourth. The Sanskrit terms have been used here only when they cannot be translated into any Western language. Because this book is addressed to normal persons and not to advanced yoghi, only those topics which can be faced by a rational mind have been reported. Part I. 2. By practising yoga, modifications of the mind are eliminated Raja Yoga is here explained in the most concise form. Because a new method of knowing is here put forward for Westerners, this sutra needs ample explanation. For a Westerner, the most reliable knowledge is scientific knowledge, which is acquired through speculation and experimentation, always remaining in the field of rationality. Therefore through science it is possible to test our hypotheses about the links between causes and effects and general natural laws can be deduced. It follows that this kind of knowledge remains bound to our rationality and culture and therefore it is itself a particular interpretation of reality. The knowledge achieved through raja yoga is rather different in that it can be gained only by direct perception of that ultimate reality, which can be perceived only when the subconscious mind remains silent.It must be said that cessation of mental activity does not belong to any normal experience and it has nothing to do with mental dullness; on the contrary yogic mental inactivity is characterized by a state of alert consciousness which cannot be experimented in normal conditions. This is why yogic research is so difficult, because a tremendously inflexible discipline must be observed in order to bring to a stop our mental activities. Yet a yogic discipline can be justified in terms of mental health, because it brings about a progressive reduction in the activity of our subconscious, leading to a better functioning of the mind and a feeling of well being. One of the main aims of this discipline is to perceive our volitional self, which is normally hidden and conditioned by mental activity. Now let us analyse the Sanskrit terms of this sutra. The philosophical foundation of yoga can be taken as a working hypothesis if we wish to operate in scientific terms: there is an aspect of all living beings which is not mortal - jivatma (or individual soul) - and this entity belongs to another immortal omnicomprehensive reality - paraatma - (universal soul, God, etc.). The conscious union of jivatma with paraatma is the target of Raja Yoga. It follows that first of all we must perceive jivatma, which normally remains hidden to us by virtue of 49

our mental activity. This task can be achieved by the cessation - nirodah - of all mental activity -Chitta vritti -. Chitta is the organ by which jivatma perceives the outer world and therefore this term has a broader meaning than mind. Vritti are the contents of the mind, such as conscious and subconscious thoughts, sensations, emotions, memory, etc.. It is easy to verify the working hypothesis of Patanjali that the activity of the normal mind is principally oniric, although this activity it is perceived as dreams only during sleep. In this way the yogi learns to distinguish his own permanent volitive self from that self who identifies itself with contingent emotions and with his personality. An elegant analogy, which explains how chitta vritti nirodah can bring a new kind of knowledge, be seen in the following: the bottom of a lake - the true self - cannot be seen when the surface of the water is rippled by the wind - chitta vritti . Only when the waters are still - chitta vritti nirodah - can the bottom be seen - yoga: the union between jivatma and paraatma -. 12. Modifications of the mind can be eliminated by means of emotional detachment (vairagya) and constant discipline (abhyasah). This sutra defines the general method to achieve yoga. Discipline is a well-known concept in our culture and it can be only said that the severity of this discipline is very high. On the contrary, emotional detachment must be explained. Under the normal circumstances, emotional detachment always reflects some negative aspects, such as inhumanity, indifference, laziness, etc. On the contrary yogic emotional detachment (vairagya) represents an emotional detachment from the results of our actions but implies existential happiness, emotional balance and peace. It is interesting to observe that discipline and emotional detachment are the right attitude to maximize our probability of achieving success in whatever activity. 14. Abhyasah can be achieved with enduring diligence, without interruptions and with deep devotion. Another brief description of a yogic discipline. "Enduring" means that these exercises must last for several years. "Without interruptions" means every day, for several hours. If you stop for a day, it is not a tragedy but if you interrupt your exercises for a month or more, you lose all your previous achievements. "With deep devotion" means that they must be performed with an intense positive feeling, such as love and enthusiasm. Without this attitude, asanas, meditations and others practise of mental health are useless. It is implicit that wishes for the results disturb concentration and therefore must be avoided. 15. When Vairagya is achieved, we become totally indifferent to the outer world. Because desires provide the fundamental energy that aliments mental activity, vairagya must be cultivated in order to stop the mind's activity. Vairagya is the correct attitude in the beginning and one of the final achievements of yogic practice. 30. Illness, weakness, doubts, carelessness, laziness, illusions, worldliness, failure to make progress in the yogic practice, failure to maintain the targets already achieved are all hindrances to the practice of yoga. This sutra suggests what must be avoided if we are to achieve the results of successful yoga training. To be healthy is essential because without good health the body represents a hindrance for the yogic life. To be healthy means to be free from pain and sorrows, to live in an environment free from pollution. 50

Weakness is a great obstacle to yogis since yogic exercises require a lot of energy. Because the targets of yoga can only be accomplished with great enthusiasm, all doubts must be banished. This can be done quite easily within the limits of rationality. Our normal carelessness, which is so common in our daily lives, can be dangerous from the very beginning of a yogic discipline, because for Westerners it is difficult to keep the right emotional and rational attitudes. Laziness is a mortal enemy for every discipline, which needs dedication and a long time, as yogic practices do. Illusion is the mistake of considering as important those unusual but mean experiences that can be experimented through meditation. A mind interested in worldliness will sooner or later divert its owner from the yoga's disciplines. The neophytes may abandon their yoga because they are frustrated by endless practice with no results. Another source of troubles for students of yoga is that the results are never stable at first. It is one thing to discover a new continent, but it is another to settle down there. 31. Sorrow, depression, nervousness and irregular breathing are symptoms which reveal a distracted mind. This is one of the most important sutra because it allows us to recognise a distracted mind. It is depressing to find that this kind of mind is the most widespread in all Western countries and in all social classes. We normally blame the outside world for our sorrows, but outside reality merely activate our otherwise dormant inner conditionings. This sutra could be very helpful in revising our thoughts about sorrow. As pains are symptoms of bodily infirmity, so are sorrows for the mind. It is interesting to observe that through yoga, otherwise unperceived pains can be detected. And there is no doubt that ignorance is a mortal infirmity with no painful symptoms, which can be recognized only when we overcome it with appropriate yogic disciplines. Lastly, I would like to point out that the seeming indifference of yogis to pain and sorrow is not due to insensitivity but to a superior consciousness. 33. The mind can be purified by considering happy, unfortunate, virtuous and bad subjects with respectively friendliness, compassion, happiness and detachment. What is meant by purifying the mind? Simply to make the mind more suitable for yoga practices. There is no moral significance in this suggestion. A disciple can practise purification of the mind in the same way as a driver can repair his car in order to avoid nasty surprises on a journey. In the eyes of normal people, yogis seem to be very virtuous and honest but yogis do not pursue morality, but impeccable actions and inner knowledge. This teaching implies that a student must accustom his personality to reacting in a new way and this discipline needs constant consciousness of his own self. It is important to remember that these attitudes are not meaningless mental exercises. For instance, compassion must be tangibly expressed to unfortunate persons and detachment from evil subjects must be positive, being based on patience, pity and optimism. The most evident manifestation of a purified mind is existential happiness. The significance of this achievement is very important since we lessen the selective pressure of our niches, or rather we move to niches with a lower selective pressure. Unfortunately, very often we exchange our potential happiness for lower pleasures. In India we find a very competent definition of pleasure. There is an immediate happiness, that of the 51

senses, which is like nectar at the beginning and like poison at the end. Then there is the happiness of meditation, which is like poison at the beginning and like nectar at the end. 39. Or by meditating upon any positive subject. Patanjali suggests a few different techniques for meditation ( I-34-3-36-37-38 ) but he states here that there are innumerable different techniques of meditation. A correct attitude toward any meditation is essential, because meditation is a mighty mean to change our personality and our abilities and if it is wrongly performed, it creates endless trouble. Part II. 15. with the development of the power of discrimination, it is possible to realize that every experience can bring sorrow because the world is constantly changing, whereas our personality is very conservative. This concept represents one of the fundamental achievements of oriental thought, which is wrongly considered as pessimistic by Westerners. Very little reflection is needed to understand the existence of this painful condition of mankind but much more meditation is needed if we are to realize that it can be eliminated by detachment. 30. Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya and Aparigraha are the five Yama prohibitions. The raja yoga is divided into eight steps and yama is the first. We can define yama as those restrictions, which are essential to start a yoga discipline. Ahimsa is normally translated as non-violence but it has nothing to do with the similar Christian proposition: to offer the other cheek to the offender. Ahimsa can be achieved by loving feelings towards all living beings and thus it achieves the right emotions to deal with a fundamental law of ecology: all creatures are necessary to one another. Ahimsa cannot be theorized and rules cannot be fixed, since Ahimsa must be practised according to our present personality. The social and the evolutionary values of ahimsa are evident: 1, it favours social harmony even at an interspecific level. 2, it contrasts aggressive attitudes, which are harmful at any level. 3, it creates a culture of respect for all aspects of life so that destruction of the environment becomes inconceivable. Satya cannot be translated as truthfulness because a truth, when harmful or useless, is not Satya. If I go around saying that Menelaos has been betrayed by Helen, this is not Satya. Satya is that truth which is benevolent and positive. It represents a fundamental virtue in maintaining good social relationships and in pursuing the path of yoga. If we lie to others, we develop a lying personality, which is extremely dangerous during meditation. Asteya does not only mean "not to steal" so as it is understood in western terms. In fact, maximizing the gains is not Asteya, destroying the environment is not Asteya, a job damaging others is not Asteya. The social and biological significance of Asteya is obvious. Brahmacharya is the shunning of sensual pleasures and both physiology and ethology can justify it. Human beings, like many other animals, seek bodily satisfactions. But the body is a friend who deceives. If we eat and drink whatever we like, sooner or later we shall fall ill, etc.. A lack of the Brahmacharya discipline is a burden for all followers of yoga paths, because it may be the cause of illness, weakness, laziness, worldliness and the consequent failure to achieve yogic aims ( see part I, 3o). But Brahmacharya is not a discipline against our sexual life. We need sex to beget children, to maintain social and personal relationships, such as those expressed by the family and to keep healthy 52

our psychological and physiological conditions. And indeed, only when all our energies are needed for a specific purpose, such as preparing for a boxing match or practising a religious discipline, we must keep absolutely to Brahmacharya. It follows that Brahmacharya cannot be imposed. Lastly I would remind Westerners that: 1, self-importance is much worse than sex in dissipating our energies; 2, a negative attitude towards sex lessens our evolutionary and adaptive capacities. 3, sex phobias create mental conditions, which are incompatible not only with the efficient pursuit of asceticism based on sex (see Tantra Yoga) but also with customary meditation practices. Aparigraha or no possession is certainly the most ecological teaching of Yama observances. If I am content with what is necessary for survival or for pursuing a religious path, the damage to the environment is minimized. Of course the main aim of Aparigraha is to calm the mind and therefore the mental detachment from possession is more important than the real absence of ownership. It is interesting to note that these rules are perfectly fitted to protect our social life, to improve our personal relationships and to avoid ecological disasters. 32. Saucha, Samtosha, Tapas, Svadhyaya and Isvara pranidhana represent the Niyama precepts. Saucha, which is translated as purity is easily misunderstood. In fact in a culture where the entire universe is considered as an emanation of God, nothing can be impure. For yogis, the evil we see in the world is just a mistaken interpretation of reality, which depends on our conditionings and on our personalities. Saucha embodies a discipline for mental and bodily efficiency, but there is no moral significance in it. For the body, Saucha can be achieved through the cleanliness of external and internal organs, proper diet and physical training. For the mind, Saucha means to reduce the dimensions of the unconscious through proper meditation. There is probably no other discipline of health more sophisticated and efficient than Saucha, and together with the yamas austerities and niyama commandments, ancient Indians developed the most complete system for perfect and total health. Samtosha is generally translated as contentment but this term is incorrect, since Samtosha represents a contentment, which implies existential happiness. In evolutionary terms Samtosha means the acceptation of Nature as it is, without aiming to possess easier niches with lower selective pressures. Because Samtosha creates a happy emotional mood, it increases our ontogenetic evolutionary potentialities. In practice Samtosha suggests us enjoy our life but with detachment since everything, even what is unpleasant, may be useful for the practice of Yamas and Tapas. Of course attraction to sorrow and pain is not Samtosha but masochism. Tapas can be translated as an attitude full of impeccability, virility, strong will and courage. Tapas are essential in order to increase our chances of survival under whatever selective conditions. Svadhyaya is both the study of the Holy Scriptures and inner search. Svadhya represents the ultimate evolution of that strategical behaviour we defined as exploration in biological terms. Isc'vara pranidhana means: total surrender to the God Isc'vara. To me and to others who do not have a Hindu culture, this surrendering to Isc'vara is difficult to understand and to accepted. Anyhow, we can surrender to the God of our traditions. We should not however concern ourselves too much about this potential hindrance, but everybody should find out his favorite meditation. 46. Asana: the posture of the body must be steady and pleasant. These asanas (positions of the body) are certainly the better known aspect of yoga in the western countries but very few people know that asana does not belong to the realm of normal experience, but concerns an extraordinary psycho-physical state which does not occur under normal conditions. In fact, during this exercise, the body is no longer perceived and it is possible to remain sitting cross53

legged for days without damaging the knees or becoming stiff. The hygienic and existential significance of this practice is evident because in this posture the consumption of energy is reduced to a minimum. Of course asana is indispensable for the controll of mind. 49. After asana, the control of prana ( Pranayama ) must be performed. We are not going to discuss Pranayama in detail in this text because neither me nor the usual reader can perceive the prana, a kind of energy associated with breathing. I would only warn you that his exercise may be very dangerous and can be performed only under the supervision of qualified teachers. In order to make clear what the hazard involved in this practise is, I would mention only that in order to achieve pranayama, breathing has to cease. 54. Pratyahara is achieved when external sensory impulses can be excluded at will from the conscious mind. Lastly something that belongs to our normal experiences. How often you have you concentrated so heavily upon a book or a problem that you did no longer hear the clock in the room, the noise in the street, or the pain of a wound. In the case of Pratyahara, this detachment of senses must be achieved by the will. The adaptive significance of this capacity in conditions of extreme selective pressure is evident, although these conditions are rare in our present niches. Part III. 1. Dharana is achieved by keeping the mind steady upon a single object. In order to stop the mind from working, it must firstly be confined unto a single, simple subject, such as a colour, a flower, an emotion, and so on. In this phase, the control on the mind is very precarious, since this mental state is continuously disturbed by unwanted thoughts. If you do not practise yoga and can keep your mind steady for ten seconds on the subject you have chosen, you possess an unusually calm mind. 2. Dhyana is the unfluctuating practice of Dharana. By practising Dharana, little by little the mind becomes steady and can remain focused upon the same subject without flickering: this process is called Dhyana. 3. Samadhi occurs when we perceive the object but not the perceiver. This is an experience that will scare you, since you prove a strange feeling of bodily not existence. With no dissolution of continuity, after Dharana comes Dhyana, after Dhyana comes Samadhi. Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi (Samyama) are powerful instruments for moulding our personalities and achieving those abilities which are hidden by normal mental activity. Part IV. 1. Siddhis are obtained by birth, by drugs, by Mantras, by austerities or through the practice of Samadhi. Remarks. It is interesting to observe that for Patanjali, miraculous power can be achieved in several ways, sometimes with a supreme effort, sometimes with neither fatigue nor discipline. It is implicit that for Patanjali miracles do not demonstrate the morality or the purity of the subject who 54

perform them. In fact these powers can be obtained by birth, without any effort and the true searcher of infinit. At last I remember that who achieved these siddhis through meditation, is not showy.

55

TANTRA YOGA
Like the Raja Yoga, the Tantra Yoga also aims to extend our perception to its furthermost limits. Tantra Yoga is peculiar amongst inneer disciplines because: 1, it suggests meditations that can be performed during any mundane activity. Using these techniques we can therefore save a lot of time. Moreover they do not require isolation from the world, change of habits, and so on. Our total reality and personality can be accepted as it is since, as it is, it can be used to attain the same freedom and knowledge, which can be obtained, using disciplines of other religious traditions. 2, unlike all other religions, sexual intercourse is recommended as a form of meditation. 3, deep love between disciples and teacher is considered as a necessary condition for learning any discipline. To tell the truth, this attitude is common in other disciplines too but in Tantra Yoga this kind of relationship can be expressed erotically. Of the few hundred methods known within literature, only the few I have personally experimented are reported here. 1. Perceive each part of you as unlimited. This is a meditation on the infinite, which has the advantage that sensory feelings can be utilized as reference points. A similar meditation is based on the mental concentration of the infinity of a starry sky. It is very useful to master asanas. 2. When you are in full activity, pay attention to what you are doing (even) in the two pauses of breathing. I prefer this exercise to all the others I know because: 1. It is very suitable for active people and you do not need any extra time to spend. 2. Its physiological and ecological significances is easy to explain. You learn to perceive very small instants of time, thus improving your awareness of the environment and, at the same time, you reduce the activity of you subconscious mind. 3. It offers fringe benefits that you can appreciate very quickly, often immediately; i.e., the functions of your brain and body can be improved at lot by this kind of attention. 4. Becoming aware of infinitesimal times, any fear of death disappears, because life is perceived as extremely long lasting. 5. It increases the savour of life. 6. It is easy to understand, can be practiced without the assistant of a guru and it needs only patience and endurance. 7. Through this exercise, even those moments, that we consider as boring, can reverse their emotive significance and they become vivid and interesting. 8. It has the value of an unsual pranayama. In the case you find it difficult to practice, I suggest: first of all, sit dawn confortably and pay attention to the rithm of your breathing. When you get accustomed to this, perceive your nostrils in the pause between the two breaths. Then try again the above mentioned tantric attention during a passive activity, like listening to a lesson or to some music. At last try it when you are playing a sport. 3. When you are caressed, experience these moments as eternity. Exercise n. 2 would be a great help in this case. Of course deep love is a must in order to achieve the 56

fruits of this practice. 4. From the beginning of sexual intercourse, be careful that excitement does not progress towards orgasm. Because we are not used to concentrate our mind as we should, this exercise may be difficult to master. In any case you will not lose anything even if you are unsuccessful and intimacy with your partner will improve. Of course, exercises based on sex are difficult to perform if you have been conditioned against it. 5. When you feel the urge to do something, stop at once. This is another marvellous technique for self-control, since you learn to act strategically instead of tactically. Personally I recommend a stretching (uttanasana for instance) for seven breaths before starting a new activity, in order to remove first any mental urgency and then any tactical attitude. Of course this suggestion is not valid for those physical needs which cannot be delayed. 6. In order to be happy, look at the world as it were an exhibition of picture. The world can be a valley of sorrows only if we are not emotionally detached from it. The exercices 2 and 5, together with a tantric attitude and the strategies of Wei Qi form an inner discipline, the Multple Middle Path, which has been totally deduced from modern zoology.

57

KARMA YOGA
This yoga is based on the observation that: when deep attention is paid to action, the activity of the subconscious mind tends to stop. Since this is the only yoga we normally practice to some extent, even ignoring anything about Indian culture, I dare say that it would be a great advantage for our ontogenetic evolution if we may enrich this normal attitude practising some techniques belonging to the Tantra yogas tradition. The core of this teaching is: 1, to pay total attention to your activity (see the second exercise mentioned in the above chapter). Probably you have already experimented in your normal lives, that those senses which are not involved in action, are switched off, if you are deeply concentrated, so as it happens during deep meditation. In biological term, the only possession you have on this earth is the capability to be consciuos at every instant of your life, since the past is over and the future, even the next seconds, is by no means assured. If you are content and happy with your everlasting present, you fulfill all your truly duties and hopes: to be free from sorrows, to optimize your capabilities, to achieve your best ontogenetic evolution. 2, to live in the present (again see Tantra yoga) looking to the future. In other words, you cannot only relay on your experiences and knowledges in order to respond to the appalling coming unknown with the right behaviour. Right attitudes need a continuous struggle, a lot of energy, courage and detachment from our own mental conditioning and knowledge. When you stop the activity of subconscious through concentration, intuition will immediately suggest you the right behaviour to face whatsoever situation. 3, to remain totally detached from the results of action. As a matter of fact, Karma Yoga is not only a tool to reach transcendental knowledge, since it represents a basic discipline to improve our efficiency in whatsoever action. Unfortunately, in our culture this attitude is never considered as a must for optimizing our conducts and therefore it is difficult to master by westeners. Conclusion. All forms of meditation lead to happiness and to their ultimate target: peace. Happiness and peace are of great evolutionary and adaptive significance and happiness follows that state of peace, because it is inherent in life.

58

THE MULTIPLE MIDDLE PATH.

Studying evolution and ethology, I discovered a laic and optimal inner discipline, much easier than those we known from religions or from other cultures. This discipline is based on four distinct practices. I. Pay attention to what you are doing in the present instant. Thus you will perceive infinitesimal fractions of time, thus improving at once all your actions and stopping the subconscious activity of your mind. (see the Appendix) II. When an inner stimulus pushes you to change activity, halt yourself for seven breaths (about a minute) and reconsider your purposes. Thus, you will overcome your tendency to react to stimuli before pondering and you will become a strategist and the master of your life. III. Move yourself with harmony and ampler gestures, relaxing your antagonist muscles and keeping a slightly deeper, smoother and pleasant breath. Thus, you will optimize your actions, improve your health, rejuvenate and facilitate the two above mentioned exercises. IV. Live with those strategic attitudes, which are deduced from adaptive evolution and are depicted by the art of Wei Qi (GO). This discipline is very apt and useful for Westerners because: I, it is the only inner discipline I know, which springs from our modern Westerner culture. II, it is not bound to any faith or religion. III, it optimizes whatever action. IV, it enables us to speed up our ontogenetic evolution and to become capable of strategical behaviours. V, it is both scientific and artistic in its praxis and mystic in its ultimate results. I suggest you to play Go for other reasons. It is a fantastic and healthy game, it can become a job and it is very useful for socializing. Unfortunately, since Wei Qi may occur to be too alien, too arduous and time wasting for most Westerners, I assure you, that Go can be substituted by an easy meditation on its strategies. I remember that both biology and Wei Qi suggest the same strategies, and that Wei Qi proved to be a very simplified model of adaptive evolution. Wei Qi apart, this discipline: I, needs infinitesimal extra times only, therefore proving to be optimal for the busy Westerners. II, is within everybody's reach, whereas the targets of most religious disciplines are beyond the capability of normal people. IV, gives very significant existential advantages in the present instant and brings forth a total ontogenetic evolution in a matter of few months or weeks. V, is partially confirmed and supported by antique tantric and karmic teachings, which can still be very helpful. Thus, you achieve consistent existential advantages, since you will optimize all your endeavors and actions in very short time and your only duty is to behave and live with your utmost attention. In existential term, the first exercise shows us how to accomplish a brimful life; the third exercise helps us to optimize a brimful life. The second exercise teaches us, how to live as strategists; the fourth exercise, accustoms us to optimize our strategies. 59

I define this discipline as "The multiple middle path" or "Evolutionary yoga". "The multiple middle path", since it is soft, specific and suggests to everybody to pursue his own previous religion, aims and life. "Evolutionary yoga", since it is deduced by contingent biological considerations, it speeds up our ontogenetic evolution and it is partially supported by tantric and karmic teachings, which would senseless to ignore, since they proved their efficiency for over four thousand years. The most astonishing, but somehow obvious result of this discipline is that the Ultimate Reality, God, Tao, the Infinite, call it as you like it, can be perceived when the mind is concentrated in the present instant and its sunconscious activities are annichilated. You find an ampler descrptionf of the Multiple Middle Path in my book. "LA PROFEZIA DELL'ACQUARIO".

60

Final remarks. Positive and negative aspects of religious teaching.

Teachings having positive biological meanings.
1. The disapproval of riches and of attachment to riches. The most generally execrated niche, which is condemned by all religions, is that brought about by riches. And this disapproval has been overcome in the Baghavad Gita and Dammapadha by warning us that even any emotional attachment to riches must be avoided. In fact in these religions, the most elated way of living is not that of a secluded hermit but that of a man carrying on a normal life without any attachment to it. In biological terms, to be rich imply to live in niches with low selective pressure and in this condition regression can be avoided only practising a very demanding, therefore improbable, discipline. Moreover the simplified niches produced by riches cannot last for long thus bearing the danger of a catastrophic future. A measure of riches based on physiology and psychology can be the following: to have a comfortable and sure life. 2. Love and respect for all livings. Not all religions recommend a loving attitude toward all creatures. This attitude has a twofold meaning: I, a loving attitude achieves a mental health that can be rarely accomplished in a highly competitive society. II, this loving attitude should be obvious because all living beings form a highly integrated community, where everybody is important to guarantee for all an adaptive evolution. 3. Mental and physical discipline Without adequate mental discipline it is not possible to recover any mental sanity, to start a positive ontogenetic evolution, to broaden our perceptions. In fact, without any discipline, our psychological and physiological needs compel us to struggle for easier niches and, at the same time, our unconscious mind increases its predominance upon our personalities. Usually, this mental degradation grows with ageing, but it can be delayed and even reversed by a proper discipline. Such disciplines are often taught as necessary for practising a religious path. A scientific attitude and proper self-control are indispensable, since these disciplines can be easily misunderstood For instance, sexual restrain can be very deleterious at every level. It must clearly be understood that the usual prohibition of sex, which is taught by all religions, has one fundamental function: to gather all your energies, when and only when you are involved in a severe religious discipline. Moreover it cannot be forgotten that we suffer the worst loss of energy through personal importance and this is the reason why all religions teach us how to overcome our own Egoicity. 4. The ethical conduct For the searcher of a religious truth, ethic is only a tool to pacify the mind, a necessary condition to practice any mental control. On the other hand, it has been proved that those who have achieved an inner realization and have overcome their mental conditionings, practice an impeccable behaviour, which is perceived as moral 61

by people who are still in a normal mental state. In biological terms, ethics represents the fundamental behaviour to protect social organizations, expecially when they are primitive so as those of humans. 5. The teaching of overcming and abandoning the Ego In all the religions here considered, the fundamental aim of pious persons is that of becoming free from his own ego, intended as the sum of his own personal habits, wishes and conditionings. In the New testament, the Raja Yoga and Bhagavad Gita, this target is accomplished by the fusion with God. In Buddhism, it must be understood that the Ego is an artificial construction of our mind, which fades away after Vipassana. In the Mexican shamanism, in order to gain power we must reject our personal importance. For the Taoists, we must overcome the illusions of a world constructed upon relative concepts. Practizing the Multiple Middle Path, we can verify that the sound behaviours for achieving a winning adaptive evolution are also optimal for ahieving an inner growth and an ontogenetic evolution. In existential and biological terms, practizing whatever inner path, we can realize that our own sensorial and emotional interpretation of the outer and inner worlds coerces us in illusory niches which do not exist outside our mind, thus possessing a very low adaptive value. If we achieve a detachment from our ego, the idea of death acquires a new positive and broader dimension. It is not a case that in the Far East, religions are more devoted to extricate mankind out from his terrestrial life instead of helping him to acquire an eternal life, where our foolish wishes will be finally fulfilled. 6. The positive significance of evils and devils. It is inspiring to consider the deep significance of religious teaching about the positive attitude we must keep in front of any evil subject. Considering evil with a positive emotional detachment has not the only significance of appeasing our mind. The devils are much more, they are the necessary opponents which compel us to evolve toward larger niches. Therefore a balanced struggle with the demons cannot stop. Sickness, environmental adversity, mischievous individuals, dead, are all enemies we must fight but which cannot be dismissed, because life can only be saved trough co-evolution. As far as I know this positive and necessary function of demons for human evolution is recognized only in Hindu mythology and Mexican shamanism. 7. The relative significance of good and bad. Our senses coerce us to act tactically but this behaviour has a low selective value in long terms. Therefore we must be careful about what we like or reject. If we gratify our body as much as we like, we damage it, thus entering a negative ontogenetic evolution. On the contrary, the pleasures obtained with meditation and disciplines are highly recommended because they have a strategic value. This difference between tactical pleasures and strategic happiness must be understood in order to avoid ontogenetic regression. The hope for a heavenly paradise is erroneous since the aim for a terrestrial like paradise is based upon our disregard about the biological significance of death, our hedonistic wishes and our ignorance of the laws of evolution. 62

What is good for a species, included mankind, cannot be obtained with the irrevocable elimination of what is bad for its individuals, such as hunger, illness, cold, predators, parasites, and so on.

Common mistakes produced by the misunderstanding of religions.

The main source of religious mistakes are: I. Religious teachers often said too much about their transcendental experiences, forgetting that these experiences cannot be explained by words to normal individuals; II. The misuse of religions by false prophets, false followers and\or ignorant people; III. The difficulties to accomplishing whatever religious path, so that only few people can pursue it with success. IV. The realization of capability to perform miracles before to become free from mental conditionings. In particular we here consider some usual blunders, such as the concept of God, the belief that religious truth can be revealed, the importance given to ceremonies, the belief that our religion is the only true, the habit to impose religious faith, the dichotomy between good and bad, the hope to solve existential problems through religious practice, poor understanding of scientific and superstitious knowledge, the definition of faith as superstition, the myth of eternal life, the mourning that life is a valley of sorrows and pains, the usual misunderstanding of transcendental virtues in rational term, and so on. 1. The concept of God. It may seem a paradox, but believing in the existence of one or more superior beings, as Gods for instance, is not necessary to perform a religious path, so as it has been defined in this book. In several religious schools, like some Yogas, Taoism, Buddhism, Mexican shamanism, any psychological submission to Gods is considered a dangerous superstition, which caused infinite pains and sorrows, wars, hate and intolerance. Even as working hypothesis the idea of God contains three main dangers, which are difficult to overcome. In fact: I. It creates psychological subjection and this result would hamper any true inner search. A submissive attitude generates fear, not love, and without love no religious search can succeed. II. The presumption the Absolute can be described in relative terms produces ideas of Gods with human attributes, therefore culturally distorted and thus wrong. These conceptions instigate quarrels between peoples and the consequence is cultural isolation and regression. In fact this attitude push the searchers for truth to achieve the nightmares of their Egos instead of overcoming them. III. As seen before, miracles can be performed before the understanding of the Ultimate Reality is achieved, because of deeply rooted cultural conditionings. IV, t. The most evolved inner disciplines prove the existence of an ultimate reality, where our concepts of God have no place. V. Anyhow, it is obvious that it is safer to start an inner search without the aid of concepts we cannot grasp. 2. The revelation of transcendental knowledge. The most noble revelation does not mean anything to whom is not equipped to understand it. Before to reveal a truth, it is necessary to prepare the apprentice to be capable to understand it. It follows that all trascendental messages have been misunderstood now and then and the quarrels between religious 63

peopleof the same faith prove it. 3. The presumption that ceremonies are adequate to achieve transcendental religious knowledge. Because religious achievements can only be realized trough the overcoming of our own normal mental limitations, this presumption is based on the ignorance about the nature of our subconscious. In order to stop the growth and influence of our subconscious mind, a long, continuous and severe effort is indispensable. Therefore, it is a naive illusion to believe that religious knowledge and virtues can be just achieved through religious celebrations and offers. 4. There is only a true religions and the others are false. This preposition seems obvious since is based on a logic assertion: if A is true, what is different from A must be false. But it is easy to realize that whatever religious search, when scientifically justifiable is true, since all inner searches are very similar to one another, suggest similar targets and bring to the same results. In fact: I, all religions suggest ethical, hygienic, evolutionary teachings; II, because we are all different, everybody has his own ideal way to transcend; III, the starting point of a religious search is always subjective and therefore it is not very essential. IV, by comparison with different religions it becomes possible to individuate the inevitable blunders that occur in our own religion. These misunderstandings are usually not perceived until we remain inside the ambit of our religious traditions. V, there are valid prophets and searchers for truth in all religions thus proving the adage: is man who makes his religion great and not religion man (Confucius). 5. Religious teaching can be imposed. This attitude reveals a total ignorance about the fundamentals of a religious search. In fact, in order to succeed along a religious path, enthusiasm and love are necessary and therefore this task can only be achieved in absolute freedom. When a religious teaching is imposed, this teaching has a social and not a religious connotation. In this condition, serious search for truth cannot be achieved and the consequence is superstition, absence of religiosity and ignorance. 6. Good and evil are two separated realities, which can exist independently from each other. This proposition has been proved wrong from psychology, physiology, semantic and logic. Evil is just what we consider bad. Darkness, incapability and ignorance cannot be perceived if we do not know what is light, skilfulness and knowledge. Moreover we live in a world where co-evolution occurs because of balanced competition. It follows that these concepts are totally relatives, dependent from each other. At last I remember that evil can be connotate the absence of something else and in this case evil does not exist. 7. Religious disciplines can solve our existential problems. Very often people believe that a religious discipline can solve their existential wishes, such as obtaining health, wealth, honours, extraordinary powers, and so on. This is not true because religions teach us to overcome our tactical, hedonistic desires and not to fulfil them. In fact, meditation, aiming to overcome the limits of our personalities and perception is just the opposite that praying in order to solve our religious and mundane problems. Therefore I dare say that praying, so as we know it, has not the connotation of a true religious pursuit. 64

On the other hand it cannot be denied that the practice of a religious discipline, when it brings to a stop the activity of subconscious mind, improves our psychical and physical fitness. 8. Wrong understanding of the operative significance of science and superstition. As we see before, a scientific attitude is superior to superstitious dispositions and the risks of being superstitious are overcome only when we know how to deal with superstitious knowledge. As a matter of fact we must live with a lot of second hand knowledge and it would be impossible neither to reject it nor to check it all. Examine your knowledge with autonomy, equanimity and common sense and superstition will not harm you. 9. The semantic misunderstanding of faith. The term faith indicates two very different concepts. For instance, belief without any evidence or proof (see the Oxford Dictionary) is a concept which belongs to the realm of superstition. This faith represents the surrender to that kinds of superstitious knowledge which should be scientifically verified, in order to avoid dangerous existential mistakes. On the other hand faith is a power which can enable us to move mountains (Gospels), thus accomplishing tasks which cannot be rationally and scientifically understood. This kind of powers is normal by-products (miracles for Westerners, siddhis in the Hindu literature) of any religious search and they offer subjective proofs of the validity of a certain discipline. 10. Detachment as resignation, ahimsa (non-violence) as cowardice, sexual renunciation as unjustified loss of elation. There are several religious terms, which have different meanings in the normal and in the transcendental mental state. As a consequence, people understand these teaching in negative terms. In all cultural traditions we find examples of these misunderstandings. For instance who knows that non violence needs the highest courage, that the abandonment of the sensual pleasures is done for the attainment of higher pleasures, that the correct emotional detachment is accompanied by enthusiasm and not lethargy, that the worst behaviours are committed by cowardice and ignorance more than by wickedness, etc.. 11. Life is a valley of sorrows This concept is clearly erroneous. Without happiness it is not possible to optimize our behaviours and so our fitness to survive. Therefore let suppose that after four million years of evolution, all living beings have learnt to be happy. When this positive emotional attitude is lost, it means that we are not living in normally evolving niches but in catastrophic niches. It is interesting to point out that the practice of a religious discipline brings several fringe benefits, such as superlative existential happiness and therefore comport a high adaptive significance. 12. The myth of eternal life. A few religious achievements and all biological knowledge suggest that the hope for eternal life is a gullible utopia, due to the incapability to accept the idea of death as a useful and inevitable reality, which characterises all living beings. A sound religious search, sooner or later, destroys the fear of death and any hope to eternal life, since: I, the aims of a religious search is the overcoming our own Egoicity; II, through a religious disciplines, everybody is learning to perceive time in such details that life seems to be eternal; 65

III, knowing that truth which is beyond the perceptive capabilities of normal mind, the fear of death disappears; IV, when religious research comes to its end, death is experimented like a positive experiences and not like a punishment. 13. The myth of perfection of saints. This is probably the most ignored fact about inner search and religions: a person can acquire miraculous powers before obtaining wisdom, honesty, humility and perfection of his personality. In fact there are numerous, well known saints in all religious traditions, who did not overcome their cultural conditionings. It follows that miracles, treacherous fringe benefits of inner search, cannot be presented as proofs of the validity of a religion. Therefore it should be important to add to meditation those disciplines which cure the imperfection and unbalance of personality, such as Astanga Yoga, Buddhist Vipassana, Wei-Qi, and so on. 14. Miracles prove the truthfulness of a faith This common and general belief can be easily proved to be wrong from several points of view. I. First of all let see which is the cultural significance of considering an act as miraculous: it is only a attestation of ignorance. In fact, levitation for modern man is a miracle, so as is television for a person who still lives in a stone age culture. II. There is evidence that after long inner disciplines (their deep operative significance is always the same: aiming to bring to a stop the activity of normal mind), everybody can perform similar miracles in the most different cultures and religions. Therefore miracles cannot be considered as proof of truthfulness of a certain faith. III. Mystics can perform miracles far before becoming able to overcome their own cultural conditionings, as above mentioned. It follows that they are unable to understand and to judge correctly the significance of his own powers. In consequence, in all cultures we find immature mystics who believe to have proved through their miracles the truthfulness of their own Gods. IV. There are examples that miracles can be performed without any discipline, as a gift of nature. I personally remember that some decades ago, some Italian magazines reported the case of a man in Treviso, a town in the north east of Italy, who was able to performed levitation, telekinesis, and other unusual powers. He was looking for someone who might be able to explain him the nature of his powers, but he died before knowing that nobody would have been able to explain these facts in rational terms. V. In several so called primitive cultures, (all characterized by a high selective pressure) like those of Bushmen of Africa, native Australian and some Indians of America, miracles like transmission of thoughts, healing and foresight were considered as normal. VI. Very recently, an English researcher (R. Shelldrake. See: Dogs that know when their owner are coming home) collected scientific proofs that even animals can display some extra senses, as premonition and thoughts transmission. VII. The power of doing miracles can be due to the assumption of chemicals. In fact, according to Patanjali (see the classic of Indian literature: the Yoga aphorisms of Patanjali) miracles can be performed just assuming drugs, like soma in antique India, or plants (Datura innoxia), cactuses (Lophophora williamsii) and some mushrooms of the genus Psylocibe in Mexico. VIII. Miracles can be the results of cheats. There are several examples, all over the world, that miracles can be the result of deceitful actions. I give only an example of some years ago in Italy: a statue of the Virgin was crying blood, but this blood contained male limphocytes. 66

In conclusion, even when miracles are the results of devotion and meditation, owing to the fact that they occur in all religions and cultures, their cannot be considered as a proof of the existence of a certain God or faith but they are just the proofs of powers bound to human nature. Moreover, because religious miracles belongs to a dimension were our mental paradigms and languages are helpless, there is nonsense trying to explain them. 15. The significance of pray in evolutionary term. All the thousands disciplines (lets define them as meditations) aiming to perceive a broader reality, have proved that they can be successful only when they bring to a stop the unconscious activity of normal minds. In other words, we must overcome all our conditionings, believes and myths before to become able to perceive that ampler reality which surrounds us and that we cannot usually notice because of the specialization of our senses to limited niches. Therefore praying, aiming to the fulfilment of some more or less elated personal wishes, occurs to be just the opposite of meditation, since it bounds us more and more to our usual conditionings and believes. If we evaluate our behaviours in operative and evolutionary terms, we can say that: I. Pray (as quest) is the most easy but untrustworthy and defective action that mankind can do in order to fulfil his wishes. II. Rational action can be as the most valid way to test our conducts and to achieve our targets, but we normally forget that it is valid only if we possess a sound knowledge of our niches. III. Meditation is the most difficult but useful strategy to understand, judge and achieve our targets. Unfortunately this way is still unwanted and ignored in our advanced but unsophisticated and debased cultures.

67

III PART.
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE ADAPTATIVE VALUE OF ACADEMIC SCIENCES, ETHICS, LAWS, ECONOMIES AND POLITICS.

ACADEMIC SCIENCE
NATURAL SCIENCES
INTRODUCTION. The first three paragraphs of this third part concern only those academic sciences, like chemistry, engineering and medicine, which have the most consistent impact on the environment and on human welfare and evolution. Chemistry will be examined first for several reasons: I. Usually chemists do not make a distinction between biology and biochemistry, thus ignoring the fact that the level of organization of living beings is superior to that of molecules. As a result of this mischievous or naive attitude, evolutionary problems tend to take a back seat because evolution at a molecular level appears very dull, whereas chemical questions are much more interesting and economically rewarding. II. The universally catastrophic effects produced by flooding the earth with chemical poisons produced by the economies of the so called "advanced" countries. III. The massive use of chemical aids for all kinds of suffering, from headache to constipation, from curing to preventing infections, from killing parasites to feed plants, is an indication total ignorance of the significance of coevolution and ontogenetic promotion. IV. The infinite inferiority of sensitiveness of chemical tests in comparison with biological tests. Civil engineering is here considered in ecological terms because of its impact upon the environment and the general welfare of human beings. Medicine and hygiene are presented because several reasons suggest that the fundamental bases of these sciences need to be biologically reconsidered. Lastly it would be interesting to examine the epistemological potentialities of biology on the basis of the legitimate suspicion that all our cultural paradigms and axioms, may be proved as totally wrong after a biological revision. It therefore follows that we will never be able to start a winning evolutionary strategy until we overcome our present cultural limitations! There are many reasons for re-evaluating the importance of biological knowledge in order to improve our existential necessities. Lack of awareness about our real niches, lack of respect for biological laws, together with the failure to exert any control over the morality and the sanity of scientists, can be considered as the main sources of our present ecological and existential sufferance. For instance I do not know of a single University in the world, where the ontogenetic growth of students is checked and supported, so that: (i), active exercises of introspection and self development become a part of normal training (ii), all human behaviours are evaluated in evolutionary terms; (iii), where a severe and honest selection of teachers and students is achieved; (iv), where scientific knowledge is protected from abuses. On the contrary, everybody utilizes scientific knowledge at will. The present ecodestruction, the use of 64

science against mankind, mass experimentation upon unsuspecting populations, production of terrible weapons capable of sudden and total ecodistruction and so on, are only some examples of the misuse of science by normally sane people. But let us think in biological terms. At present there are very few products of technology that are not against human welfare and evolution. Everything we produce causes environmental devaluation, human degradation, and unnatural alteration of selective pressures, with consequent unbalanced growth of populations and ontogenetic involution. In other words, western science has caused a general lessening of our probabilities of survival in niches that are becoming more and more hazardous, easy but short lasting. We behave as parasites that ignore the fact we are killing our hosts, the Earth. Therefore it is important to point out some of the difficulties which prevent any biological revision of western culture. For instance: 1. The present fragmentation of scientific knowledge raises a high barrier between scientists. Even if they are working in very related fields, thyey find difficult to understand themselves. Moreover, because of extreme professional competition and the general trend toward specialization, must researchers have neither the time nor the ambition to extend their interests into other fields. As results, to my knowledge there is not a single University where the students are taught the existential significance of the fundamentals of biology. Indeed there is not course in which academic sciences, religions, economics, politics and cultures are biologically evaluated and in which a modern science for the survival of mankind has been developed. 2. To explain the laws of biology to scientists, clergymen or laymen is very frustrating, not because there are rational difficulties but because this information sounds alien, menacing and disquieting to the ears of most of Westerners. The warnings some biologists would like to give to the laymen are obvious and easy to grasp but unfortunately they are against their myths and axioms. As a matter of fact, the laws of biology are contrary to the fundamental economic maxims of our society: to improve, to progress, to compete, to overcome our antagonists once and for all. We believe that we can seek an easy life and safety and to establish a representative democracy. But which is the significance of defending civil rights , or the struggling against poverty and illnesses, if survivals rights are not assured? 3. The catastrophic present and the gloomy forecast advanced by some biologists cannot be defined in details, because of the vast number of parameters involved in this game and because of the indeterminacy of evolutionary processes. The fact, that biologists are unable to predict the future of evolution with any degree of precision, has allowed a number of ignorant or hypocritical scientists, to dispute the present alarming biological signals. But the biologists' message is like that of a traffic expert who predicts that the crazy driver, who likes overtaking on corners, will sooner or later have a crash. Of course nobody can predict when, where, with whom this crash will occur, but it is certainly only a matter of time. (By the way the mathematical law of catastrophes introduce a further menacing parameter in the estimation of the date of our economic crash). If the traffic becomes heavier and heavier, all drivers will increase their number and speed day after day and they become less fit for driving, it should be evident to everybody that car crashes will become inevitable and soon. Moreover, although the evidence of the present ecological sufferance of mankind and the mass extinction of living beings, optimistic scientists are more listened to than those who are realistic. And in addition to the catastrophes we can read about in our newspapers, such as Bhopal, Seveso, sinking tankers with their poisonous cargoes, etc., I would like to recall those forgotten daily catastrophes, such as the rise of cancers in children, the normal and general diffusion of physiological and psychic suffering, the continuous degradation of natural environments, the occurrence of repulsing drinking water and of stinking air, the loss of beauty and joy of living. 4. Then there are other psychological difficulties, which reduce our capacity to react to what is 65

happening to our inner and outer environment. It is difficult to convince an engineer that his purification plan, which now reduces emissions of gas from a furnace to one part over a million, may be not safe enough in ecological terms. Similarly, how can one convince a politician to support antisocial and expensive measures for the protection of nature, if future perils appear only hypothetical and some experts dissent? A totally new politics and morality are needed if we are to admit the ecological and existential dangers that can be produced by our activities. 5. The average person is not in a position to distinguish between deceitful and truthful authorities, because todays authorities: a, produce a specially debased culture for common people; b, live in separated niches; c, control all information; d, produce dishonest citizens through deceitful selection. 6. Because everybody is very busy with his every-day life, he prefers to ignore questions which are too big for him or out of his daily interests. There are plenty of examples in history of men's failure to face difficult or desperate situations. We could recall the Greek rulers' compensatory but silly discussions during the siege of Bisantium by Turks in 1453, or Hitler's projects during the siege of Berlin in 1945, and so on. 7. Naturalists have always been in a condition of inferiority with regard to their colleagues, such as physicists, chemists, mathematicians and doctors. This is due to their inferior technical and economical prestige. It may seem incredible, but the laws of biology have been underestimated by other scientits because they have been discovered using simple, inexpensive methods. It is obvious that there is not, a priori, any direct correlation between the importance of the results of a research and the money spent on it. Yet in a society where money is a fundamental parameter for measuring the value of a person, this misleading attitude is common. We have forgotten that what is very valuable for mankind can have no price in money: a beautiful dawn, an enchanting sunset, true love, deep friendship, the teachings of sound ontogenetic evolution, cannot be bought. 8. It is obvious that the ecological and the existential disasters produced by modern science are due to the culture in which this science has evolved. Cultures informed by Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism proved to be safer and less harmful, unless they were free to express themselves. 9. Academic researches are directly or indirectly controlled by ignorant politicians, industrialists and magnates, who can only think in short terms. 10. The only biological researches which are developed in western countries, such as genetic engeneering and OGM, should be banned since they produce monsters and slaveries. At present we should realize that science becomes suicidal if we do not: A. Support it by an inner search; B. Face whatsoever question, independently from economic, religious and cultural taboos. C. Recognize our own cultural and rational limits; D. Face the great and eternal questions of humanity by mean of modern biology. E. Free ourselves from conditionings of whatsoever nature. HINTS FOR A SOFT AND EFFICIENT SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF LEARNING AND TEACHING. Because this book aims to help the reader to recognise and practise a method of survival, there are many reasons for proposing a proper attitude to learning. For instance, a scientific attitude is necessary in order to understand our present reality and the consequences of its rapid changes. In fact: 1. At present there is too many false prophets who spread superstition and ignorance and in our culture there is not any science for proper ontogenetic progress and inner knowledge. The enormous success of 66

so numerous disreputable persons in politics, religions, economy, and so on, is certainly supported by the fact that normal people are easy victims of misleading mass media. Even worse, in our culture it is not enough to be a genius if you are a scientist out of fashion or if you contradict the myths of your society. See the academic indifference toward the researches of Ch. Bose, noble prize winner in the thirties, the silence about the researches on the sensitivity of plants, the difficult survival of the School of Summerhill, England, and so on. Although we believe in science more than in God, we fail to realize that our submissive attitude toward information is just a form of superstition. Therefore a scientific conduct is needed in our everyday life, together with the honesty and courage of facing true problems. To act properly is not possible, if you lack courage and do not know when and why. 2. We live in a society were the principles of biology and the basic knowledge for survival are totally ignored. 3. It is evident that we are not able to understand the obvious if it is disquieting or too far from our common beliefs. Therefore the art of survival must be learned little by little, through a proper inner maturation. 4. Our schools, ignoring that enthusiasm is a must for successful teaching, are more efficient at producing indifference or refusal rather than love toward culture. Considering the results obtained in the school of Summerhill through love, direct democracy, respect to pupils and absolute honesty, it is time to change our poor teaching methods. 5. In our society we are not used to consider the need to protect our total health, since our hygienic practices are useless or counterproductive, and we believe we are healthy when we are normally ill and sick. For instance, in a simple and preliminary enquiry, limited to six parameters, among 3 hundred students from the University of Padua (all in their twenties and who consider themselves as healthy), it was found that: eighty per cent were suffering from tooth decay; over fifty per cent were normally constipated; over fifty per cent of females suffered from painful and irregular menstruation. Depression and anxiety were normal and frequent in most of the students. They were all over fed and very sedentary; only a few practised a sport; and all, with two exceptions, suffered from colds and influenza during the winter. 6. No one practises mental hygiene, although it would be very easy to prove the objective insanity of normal minds. Of course it is probably that they underestimated they poor bodily conditions. Considering this poor health conditions as a cultural handicap, it is important to bear in mind that: I. Scientific attitudes are not innate in mankind; they must be learned and the task is difficult. A certain amount of superstition (in the sense of knowledge based on an authority) is necessary and unavoidable since we cannot directly verify all that we come to know second-hand. We must accept authority and therefore superstition in our learning but we must avoid superstitious attitudes. Even in our Universities, most of the data learned in the classrooms are supported by the authority of books and speakers. Only if and when students start to investigate a scientific problem directly, do they deal with actual science and start to build up a scientific personality. II. Fortunately, if you wish to react to the present catastrophes from poisoning of the environment, overcrowding and our established ignorance, you have several favourable conditions at hand, such as: (I). Biology is a science, which is not difficult to understand; (II). To behave as a scientist is easy because there are a lot of very efficient mental disciplines which can be performed with a simple scientific attitude; Correlate the results of your activities at a psychological, physical and social level, both before and after the practice of a discipline. Remember the axiom that: "what is good at one level is good at any level " and even the value of religious practice can be scientifically evaluated. 67

In the school of China and Japan, the danger of developing a superstitious attitude is overcome by encouraging children and students to verify directly and actively what the teachers assert; (III). If you master your subconscious through proper mental discipline, you can no longer be cheated by false myths, false prophets and mischievous appetites. (iv), respect the limits of the human mind. The mind gets fatigued and distracted very quickly. It must therefore be stimulated through love for the teachers, interest for the subjects and proper training. III. Remember that normal people tend to react negatively to exceedingly stressful situations and/or fear of catastrophes. People tend to forget or to ignore the fact that since the Congress of Rio de Janeiro, held in summer 1992, the highest authorities of the world were unable to do more than coin a ludicrous, if not tragic term " sustainable development " whereas it would have been much more to the point to have propose a "sustainable decrease of consumes in order to help human survival. IV. The first aim of a science should be to help achieving ontogenetic evolution. At present, in 2001, the conference of G8, hold in Genova, did not make a step forward the understanding and the solution of real ecological problems. The biggest leaders of the world limited themselves to give up the debits of the poorest Countries (in other world they waived the money they would not be able to draw back). They promised money to the poorest country in other to help them to develop industries (in other world, to pollute directly their territories). They promised to invest millions in order to cure AIDS in Africa, but not a penny was promised to understand and eliminate its causes. CHEMISTRY AND ITS HAZARDS. At present there is widespread conviction that a chemical approach would be the best way to study living beings. But this is the same as believing that chemical questions can be solved by physical methods alone. In both cases we would be working at an inferior level of organization. Of course, nobody denies the importance of physics and chemistry in facing problems of living beings, but physics and chemistry are not biology. If we study the fall of heavy bodies by throwing cats from the tower of Pisa, we are not biologists but physicists. If we study the structure of haemoglobin, we are chemists, not biologists. To be true biologists we must investigate questions which are peculiar to living beings, such as: what they are, how they work, where they live, how they behave, how they survive, evolve and develop, etc.. Chemistry can tell us a lot about what living beings are like and how they work at a molecular level, but there is no decisional freedom at this level. Moreover, when we climb the staircase of the organization of matter, i.e. from atomic particles to clusters of galaxies, new laws have to be added. Of course, if you have been trained as chemist, it will be very difficult to recognise the all over importance of biology in questions of survival. For instance, there is a tendency to face the problem of pollution using chemical methods. But this approach is erroneous a priori for several reasons: I. Serious evaluation of the levels of chemical poisoning compatible with life is impossible since it would require total monitoring of our habitats. II. An inferior limit of poisoning cannot be determined because: (I). A single molecule can harm a living being; (II). What is the good of a chemical analysis in evaluating pollution if the sensitivity of living beings is superior to that of chemical methods? (III). It is not possible to monitor and predict all the effects of environmental chemical poisoning because: firstly, some effects can be delayed; secondly, synergist effects of different poisons are beyond any control; thirdly, pollutants can be accumulated slowly in several tissues, and lastly; fourtly climatic, biological and physical changes of the environment can mutate the effects of a poison. And 68

indeed, any actual monitoring is concerned only with the maximal levels of pollution tolerated by humans, i.e. the levels at which we become sick at once. III In a society void of ethical principles, where science caters only for the needs of industries, how could we achieve a serious determination of the minimal level of poisoning compatible with life?

ENGINEERING WITH BIOLOGICAL MEANINGS.

Now, let us evaluate in biological terms the two fundamental questions about the settlement of any species: how to avoid the reduction of productive areas and how to protect the various habitats in order to secure co-evolution. In this optics, the contingent ecological problems of engineering are: 1. To find a proper space for human dwellings; 2. To build roads for purposes of communication; 3. To eliminate waste: 4. To deal with industrial settlements. In more details: 1. First of all let us look at the way in which other, more evolved social species, numbering thousands or millions of individuals in a single dwelling have dealt with the problem. All the solutions are based on the same fundamental guideline: locate the dwelling outside the productive areas. For example: bees build their hives in holes, on rocks, on trees; termites build skyscrapers, or makes nests on trees or build subterranean dwellings; ants construct their nests in the soil. It is interesting to note that primitive humans too often followed this rule, locating their settlements in caves, on piles or in trees. Only when the productivity of the habitats was low or very low in relation to their economies, did primitive humans dwell in their productive niches, such as Eskimos on frozen soil, hunters, gatherers and shepherds in deserts and savannahs, etc.. It is surprising that, when the number of individuals exceeds the natural limit, as happens today, no attention is paid to the severe reduction of productive areas now taken up by dwellings and industries. Other problems caused by our present settlements are: (I). Dimensions of the inhabited areas. (II). Pollution. (III). Social life. (IV). The distance from dwelling to work. (V). Free time. Once again these challenges are not considered at all in strategic and biological terms. Usually only tactical solutions are adopted. For instance: the dimensions of the towns and cities have not been biologically planned. Consequent pollution and hygienic conditions are beyond any control; the distances between dwellings and place of work are so high that hours are lost everyday buy travelling backwards and forwards. Hobbies and social life tend to be neglected and their place is taken by a solitary merging into virtual realities on television and in video games. 2. Improved traffic conditions could be achieved by constructing under passes or fly-over and by using vehicles, which do not emit poisonous fumes and do not endanger life. Our roads today are fatal traps for the people and the animals living in such areas. Insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds die by the million every day on our roads. But modern inhumanity is bothered by this problem only when the roads become disgusting and/or slippery because of the amount of corpses produced by vehicles. 3. The problem itself cannot be solved without considering the need to reduce the production of waste. In any case it is more a problem of philosophy of life than a question of costs. Recycling waste again represents a partial solution to this problem but even in the short term, some recycling has proved to be 69

more valuable than the dispersion or accumulation of waste. 4. The problems of industrial settlements should be mitigated by: (I). Concentrating industries in already degraded territories; it should be forbidden to expand them into uncontaminated territories; (II). Reducing and limiting their activities and dimensions without producing an economic crisis; (III). reducing their impact on the environment. In any case the disasters caused by engineering are mainly due to: 1. Technical progress. 2. Lack of respect for the quality of life of people and the spread of common criminal behaviour. 3. Lack of cultures in which happiness, ontogenetic growth and survival represent a pre-eminent target. 4. Lack of a spread biological knowledge, with the result that engineers remain totally ignorant of the biological effects of their choices upon the environment and the evolution of mankind.

MODERN MEDICINE AND HYGIENE IN BIOLOGICAL TERMS

INTRODUCTION I would not be surprised, if the teaching of hygiene in modern Universities suffers from heavy biological inadequacies, since the concept of an hygiene based on biological principles does not exists all over the world.. As a matter of fact, if we examine the effects of modern Medicine and Hygiene upon environment and mankind, we can support the view that both these sciences are based on some erroneous principles and methods, which need correction. First of all, we require a new definition of mental sanity, which may be efficient either in evolutionary than in adaptive terms, independently from contingent cultural and economical conditioning. For instance, in the Oxford Dictionary we find insane: 1, in a state of mind that precludes normal perception and behaviour and ordinary social interaction. 2, causing insanity. 3, extremely foolish, irrational. In these definitions it is implicit that, when insanity becomes normal, it is not necessarily considered as such. But craziness does not offer better chances of survival when it becomes prevalent. Of course a population of mad and deeply inhibited individuals might resemble a sane population at a superficial look and who since ever lives in this condition, cannot realize how much he is hopelessly insane. But, in our case, the absence of diffused existential happiness, the degradation of the environment and the normal occurrence of disgregated personalities and irrational minds, should give us some doubts about our real mental and physical conditions since they are symptoms of diffused insanity. Anyway, you can easily and personally realize by meditating, that your subconscious mind (so as that of all other normal people) never stops, compels you to irrational thoughts, to negative feelings and to erroneous behaviours, moreover causing permanent localized contractions of skeletal muscles, thus wasting energy and limiting your breath and movements. In this condition, the so called free will (an axiom in Christian cultures) does not exists, because it is out of the reach of normal people. As a matter of fact, you possesses a free will, only after the practice of whatsoever discipline, when it enabled you to stop the activity of your subconscious minds.

70

Biological considerations about medicines and hygiene. From ecology we know that, when living beings are deprived of their natural niches, sooner or later they becomes stressed and, in this condition, illness cannot be avoided. Therefore, for the well being of whatever species it is necessary: 1. To avoid suddenly changes of their habitats, because: I. These changes will produce niches with an excessive or a too low selective pressure. II. These conditions encourage an invasion of alien creatures of every kind, from bacteria and viruses to mammals, so that new and therefore unbalanced relationships occur between parasites and hosts. In these conditions, the survival of several species, if not of the whole habitat, can be menaced. For the same reasons, it is a mistake to eliminate usual carnivorous and parasites from our niches because of four reasons: firstly, we eliminate old niches, where coevolution between parasites and hosts has been established. Secondly, we open new niches to alien invaders and this is a risk, as we have seen above. Thirdly, it is impossible to eliminate a species without destroying the previous dynamic balance, which characterized the habitat in question. Fourthly, previously innocuous species can become patogenous in new environmental conditions. For the same ground, immunization must be considered with scepticism. Moreover, the very prerequisites of mass immunization is mistaken because it aims to cure the effects, mass epidemics and not their cause, overcrowding. In other words, immunization has made possible the rise of enormous communities and the development of industries, with consequent general environmental and existential degradation. Other indirect but disastrous effects of overcrowding are represented by loss of environmental beauty, healthy life-conditions and generally reduced muscular activity, with the results of an increase of every kind of illnesses. 2. For every species there are both minimal and maximal dimensions of their niches that must be avoided. Smaller the niche, easier its alterations. Moreover homozygosis can become dangerous in this conditions. On the other hand, huge niches, so as those of today, which have been enlarged by travelling and international commerce, are very dangerous because it is not possible to avoid the invasion of new species from one continent to another with consequent catastrophic effects, such as epidemics, diffusion of parasites, destruction of inborn species, etc.. 3. Overcrowding and human populations of huge dimensions represent a risk for mankind (If I recall correctly, the first big cities, with a population around the million of individuals certainly appeared only after the sixth millennium b.C. and they have reached a global diffusion only in the last three centuries). In fact human genomes are not apt to react positively to these recent situations and the consequences are regression of social behaviours, diffusion of sicknesses and insanity. Extreme poisonpollution and consequence loss of efficiency of our immunosystems is another obvious side effect of overcrowding. Moreover, overcrowding and global traffics accelerate the evolution and the diffusion of pathogenic vectors, increasing the danger of the rise of new deadly parasites. From Genetics we know that: 1. Marriage between relatives must be avoided, in order to avoid the accumulation of homozygosis, with consequent degeneration of mental and physiological capacities. This is certainly the only and better known law of biology since ever. 2. All huge human settlements allow the accumulation of defective genes together with behavioural and physiological decadence. The rise of the frequencies of cancer and other diseases proves the occurrence of heavier stressing conditions. From ethology we learn to revalue the importance of strategic conduct in comparison with tactical behaviours and in this contest hygiene represents one of the most useful defence of human welfare. In fact, the importance of hygiene can be deduced from the following facts: 71

I. The enormous diffusion of hygienic behaviours in all main animal phyla. II. The hygienic prevention of physical and psychical disorders represents a solution which is more economic than those achieved by cure or illnesses. III. Sound mental and physical hygienes can increases the adaptation of human beings to larger niches, so as it has been demonstrated by the hygienic disciplines of the Far East. IV. In condition of increasing poisonpollution, both curative medicine and hygiene become more and more important but only a bio-hygienic approach can represent the most economical and therefore the best evolutionary solution, since it consider the whole environment and not the single species. From evolution we learned that: 1. Hygiene is important in reducing too high selective pressures in the most economical way; 2. Infectious diseases are due to a relationship between predators and pray, where predators bear microscopic dimensions. These relationships, as those between parasites and hosts, tend to evolve to conditions of mutual advantage. In any case all the outcomes of an illness are positive for the well being of a population, if it does not bear the character of a pestilence. In more details, infectious illnesses: I. Stimulate the immune system of the individual and reinforce its response to present and future attacks. II. Kill individuals which are counteproductive for the survival of their populations. III. Oblige a debilitate individual to rest in a protected niche. IV. Increase through fevers a depressed metabolism. The curative importance of fever should not be forgetted. It speed up recovering and in some cases they bring to death malignant cells. Therefore an illness possesses a curative and a hygienic magnitude and therefore it cannot be considered as an inconvenience or an annoyance that must be eliminated as soon as possible. Infectious diseases, when they are not due to newly imported agents, represent a fundamental factor of coevolution, whom evolutionary significance and curative importance cannot be forgotten. Hygiene, illness and therapy are three important factors for human well being which must be balanced, according to contingent environmental conditions. For instance, in condition of poisonpollution and overcrowding, the frequency of an illness can become very dangerous for the survival of a population. A proof, that these dangers often occur, is represented by the pathogenic activity of viruses or microbes, which otherwise would be inoffensive. At last, I remember that every living beings represent a source of food for other creatures (see alimentary pyramids), so that parasites, predators and pathogenic agents are just compulsory behaviours for heterotrophic animal and this interdependence is necessary for the co-evolution and therefore to the survival of all living beings. 3. Because of the evolution between predators and preys, even in the most natural conditions, food must be considered as a more or less light poisoning. In fact, every mutation, which make a plant less appetising and more poisoning for herbivorous guests, will represent an advantage. Accordingly, there will be a correspondent co-evolution of the stomachs of herbivorous. This poisoning aspect of natural food is further evidentiated in over fed humans. In natural niches, therefore in more hygienic conditions, humans were used to fasten a lot or to be normally under-nourished. The physiological advantages of fasten has been experimentally proved for mankind and several other species. On the other hand it has been observed that overfeeding heavily compromises our health. From these considerations we can deduce that for mankind: I. It is dangerous to live with an unlimited abundance of food. II. It is harmful to eat food, which is less various that in natural conditions; III. Nowadays food is different from that we were used to for over thousand years because it is more 72

refined, full of poisoning additives and terribly impoverished. In such alimentary niches we must expect a progressive reduction of the functionality of our immunosystem so as of all other physical and mental capabilities. From psychophysiology we know that: 1. All emotions cause an immediate effect on the activities of the whole organism. Just to give an example, since the beginning of immunology, it has been observed in several mammals and birds that emotional stresses, like fear, unhappiness, depression, and so on, reduce the efficiency of the immunosystem. Therefore it is obvious to expect that opposite positive feelings, like love, enthusiasm, serenity, happiness, should increase the efficiency of the whole organism. Therefore in a society based on competition, where apprehension and insecurity are normal, everybody becomes physiologically less apt to survive. Of course this danger is further increased by the debasement of the physical parameters of our niches. 2. When environmental stresses, both physical and emotional, exceed their guard level, the immunitarian system looses its capacity to react and to produce antibodies, independently from the presence of AIDS s viruses or other less celebrated pathogenic vectors. Conclusion. It would be useful to point out the proper hygienic behaviours would be necessary to increase our well being and our survival's probabilities. There are three levels of intervention: cultural, political and personal: A. To learn and to divulge the fundamentals of biology and the disciplines of inner search. B. To compel political authorities to take into consideration and to oblige everybody to respect the laws of biology, as far as the welfare of others is concerned; C. To follow a discipline with a sound biological significance, remembering that in this case infinitesimal but repeated behaviours are important. More precisely: I. Find out and practise a correct hygienic discipline, both physical and mental. I suggest those hygienic teachings we inherited from the Far East cultures, mainly from China and India. II. Follow a natural diet, live in unaffected environments and practize satisfactory muscular activity. Of course, in order to achieve a proper diet, a sound habitat and a correct activity, personal efforts are not enough. Political actions and cultural engagement are also necessary in order to speed up the accomplishment a biologically better world.

73

EPISTEMOLOGY
In the Oxford dictionary we find the following definition for epistemology: the branch of philosophy that deals with varieties, grounds, and validity oh knowledge. Therefore, any epistemological investigation about our sciences should also start by considering the validity of our cultural paradigms. In fact, aims and methods of each science are influenced by cultural conditioning and therefore epistemology, reviewing our knowledge, myths, certainties and limitations, can contribute to individuate the source of our existential and evolutionary mistakes and troubles. To develop a scientific attitude, to study unfamiliar cultures and to go beyond intellectual knowledge through meditation (samyama), are three different approaches to knowledge, which should work together, in order to express their high epistemological significance. General biology among academic sciences is in my opinion the approach to knowledge with the highest epistemological significance but unfortunately, very few scientists seem to be interested in such a painful criticism. In fact, the most disgusting truths to Western ears are: 1. From the study of the living beings we learn that they are entities in continuous transition so that there is not any static, stable or permanent reality in them. Therefore, if conscious and subconscious reality is not static and permanent, our feelings and hopes about a somehow personal permanence result erroneous a priori. 2. The perception of our environment is fundamental for our survival but normally we do not realize that: firstly, our temporal consciousness of the inner and outer world is very sporadic; secondly, the wish to live in a pleasant, virtual reality represents a mortal mistake in evolutionary term; thirdly, our niches changes at the moment we change our mental attitudes. 3. When we sum living beings we cannot forget that the result equal zero if the total amount surpasses a certain ecological and trophic value. In other words, the result of this sum depends on the characteristic of the species and of their outer conditions. 4. Infinitesimal achievements are essential for survival and therefore they cannot be overlooked. 5. There are several hints which suggest that living beings display an organization where every part contain the whole, like in a hologram. It follows that our very logic must be reviewed. On the other hand, religious searches for truth, such as those suggested by Buddhism, Raja Yoga, Taoism, Mexican shamanism, an so on, aiming to free mankind from his mental conditionings and therefore distorted knowledge, support the above mentioned truths and enunciate the most effective and amplest method to analyse the constitution and the validity of our total perception and knowledge. At last, I would like to suggest that the deepest studies of epistemology and the fundamentals prejudices on which we base scientific researches, should take into consideration the achievements and the opinions of mystics and not only those of scientists.

74

ECONOMY
Using the information contained in the first two parts of this book, it would be easy to analyze the evolutionary value, both ontogenetic and phylogenetic, of whatever economy. For instance, ecology suggests that: 1. A plurality of co-existing cultures and economics, in accordance with the pluralities of niches and habitats, increases the probability of survival of any species, because it represents the most economical way of living. In the case of mankind, this plurality is perfectly fitted to his high individual variability and adaptability and to the plurality of his habitats . Unfortunately, most Governments prefer monotonous, not ecologically stabilized economies, and the present political imposition of a unique planetary market, worsen the already tragic situations of the poorer nations. 2. When alien economies and cultures interfere with one another, the worse economy ousts the better. In fact, experience shows that anti-ecological economies, aiming to immediate high gains push out by force those that were biologically compatible. 3. An economy, in order to express a winning evolutionary strategy, must respect the environment and the ontogenetic evolution of all living beings. Although I did not examine the course of human economies as a function of the usual parameters which economists consider, it is obvious that this function reaches nil when environments cannot support any human life, i.e. when adaptive evolution has been stopped . Therefore to disseminate industrial polluting settlements in natural unpolluted habitats, instead of concentrating them in already debased areas, represents an erroneous strategy. In fact, only the concentration of factories will compel us to find a technical solution for pollution and overcrowding. For instance, the development of industries and economy should aim to utilize renewable resources and the use of non-renewable resources must contemplate reuse, reduction of consumption and waste and utilisation of alternative sources. In other words, the dimension of the populations and the consumption of energy must respect some upper limits and cannot grow indefinitely. In practical terms this means that in western countries consumption of products and energies should decrease, starting from a respect for those few economies which are still in harmony with the course of evolution. This is the time to counter the slogan "sustainable development" with another, more realistic in evolutionary term, sustainable regression with the operative program of "the recovering of most environments through a sustainable (not catastrophic) regression of economic activities". For instance, let us look to the case of radioactive fuels. At first glance it seems that these fuels are far more ecological than classical fuels such as petrol, coal, wood, etc.. But we must calculate: I. The future risks for the environment, in virtue of the enormous quantities of energy obtained in this way. Even without risk of radiation, the employment of such a huge quantities of energy would be fatal. II. The danger of radioactive contamination; so far it has been proved that accidents cannot be avoided and that the best protection against these disasters, that the Authorities offer to the public, is silence. III. The problem of the elimination of radioactive waste. How to avoid the temptation to drop radioactive waste into the ocean, in containers of shorter life than that of the radiation activity of their contents? 81

IV. The development of technologies and competitions, which would enable more and more States to produce nuclear weapons. Moreover, with the present widespread lack of any morality, as defined in the first and second part of this book, together with a total absence of any control over the mental sanity of the persons entitled to decide the use of this power, it is obvious that these technologies will continue to produce disasters, as they have already done. Even worse pessimistic forecasts may be made about genetic engineering and the normal activities of most of our industries and so on. It cannot be said that these disasters have occurred because of the criminal silence of the mass media, but the latter did not induce people to change their attitudes toward this problem. I dare say that this failure is mainly due to the fact that normal mental sanity is not secure enough to procure a proper use of scientific achievements, since it is too distant from that objective sanity, which can be achieved through the techniques described by Jesus, Patanjali, Budda, Lao Tse, and other outstanding teachers. For instance, technicians tell us that today the use of alternative soft energies cannot be economically competitive with other resources. But this statement is true only if we do not consider the present ecological costs of modern industries. Soft technologies to obtain energy from the sun, the wind, tides, rivers, etc., are urgently needed now for at least five economical and biological valid reasons: I. These energies would at once reduce consumption of non-renewable sources and diminish the present pollution. In biological terms remember that even infinitesimal advantages are substantial for survival. II. These technologies can be developed with low costs and they have already proved that they can become advantageous very soon in any conditions. III. Diversifying energy sources is always a saving. IV. The transition from traditional to soft energy fuel must be made sooner or later, and therefore it is better to do it when we can afford it, before the inevitable collapse of our economy in a close future. V. Soft energies favour the development of small communities and this condition guarantees enormous ecological and existential advantages. Of course this choice has political connotations, as we will see in the next chapter. Moreover, ecology teaches us that: 4. No global disaster can be caused by a small population with a soft or a primitive technological culture. On the other hand, the huge dimensions of present populations are sufficient to degrade any environment whatsoever. Nowadays, both poisonpollution and the huge dimensions and densities of urban populations represent heavy economic burdens, due to the growth of physical and mental diseases of all kinds, loss of ethics, cultural degradation and loss of natural habitats. After these considerations, I believe that it is reasonable to be pessimistic about the future of mankind because: I. Mankind can invade and destroy all the habitats of this earth. II. When successful, our technologies, our tactical aims and our reproductive potentialities doom to death any and every specie whatsoever. III. Insanity represents a normal mental condition for mankind. I would have like to quote the words of an old Red Indian hunter who remarked:" the white man will realize what is the true value of money when he will have eaten the last fish of his lake and will have burnt the last tree of his wood". But these disasters have occurred again and again and white men have not yet realized what he is doing. 82

To take just three examples of Western attitudes toward pollution in capitalist countries, I would invite the reader to bear in mind that: I. There are a large number of projects and propositions about the need to eliminate waste, whereas no project face the real problem, start to reduce its production, II. In the World Conference on the environment, held in Rio in the summer 1992, the highest political authorities in the World were able only to coin the ridiculous term " sustainable growth". But there is no possible sustainable growth of industries compatible with the environment, because the industries already present have been very successful in destroying or damaging, directly or indirectly, all our biotopes . In the World Conference of Kyoto in 1997, it was the question of the ozonosphere, which did not find there any practical solution. In 2000, the eight richest countries of the world, proposing the slogan global economy, with the other mortal slogan deregulation put a gravestone on any serious attempt to face present ecological questions. There is no time left to wait for another World Conferences suggesting more plausible survival strategies, such as:

" each habitat, its economy", pursue happiness and health instead of richness, inner growth is the most important gain.
III. In many countries some upper limits of pollution have been fixed by law but: A, only in the cases when evident and immediate sufferance occurs to humans and therefore they cannot be ignored. Thus the true question is ignored: to individuate and respect the lower limits of pollution, i.e. the limits beyond which natural evolution is deteriorated . Therefore, what is the sense of fixing upper limits of tolerable pollution if the lower limits cannot be determined; B. No synergist effects due to different contaminants have been ever considered; C. These limits are changed or simply forgotten when necessary for political and contingent economic reasons; D. Delayed effects are not calculated; It is evident that these restrictions are only sinful propaganda, void of any biological meaning. A strategic approach to an economics aiming to avoid environmental involution, should be based on the following considerations: 1. Productive systems, which need a high concentration of persons, are dangerous for the sanity of mankind. This correlation between the growth of insanity, the regression of social behaviours and the concentration of millions of individuals in degraded areas has been proved beyond any doubt. But, when insanity becomes normal, it creates an insane demented culture, that cannot be perceived as such from inside, thus lessening our probability of survival. Unfortunately, general dementia and ignorance occur to be mortal illnesses without painful symptoms. 2. Humans are highly adaptable but, if they are compelled to perform boring, long lasting, uninteresting jobs, their mental and perceptive potentialities will be reduced. In natural conditions of co-evolution, human beings were hunters, gatherers and primitive farmers. In order to survive they needed much more knowledge, intelligence, courage and imagination than they do now to survive in the modern world. Life was often at stake but our enemies of old were easily detected: famine, cold, large carnivores, men from other clans, and so on. Even farmers, until a few decades ago, were able to survive in their niches because they knew their enemies and so they were able to adapt. They were all meteorologists, botanists, zoologists, ethologists, carpenters, hunters, gatherers, and so on. Modern professions, even the most sophisticated and intelligent, such as those of scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, and so on, are usually much less demanding and interesting than the activities of a Stone Age hunter. Nowadays, most people are compelled to endeavours and professions, 83

which an inferior vertebrate might easily execute. 3. Ethics and socialization are necessary for the survival of every social species but modern mankind is specializing in niches where competition is more necessary than collaboration in order to be successful. In fact humans are suffering from an upside down selective pressure or by a selection which rewards the results of actions and not the actions themselves. " The aims justify the means " and " money is my only friend " are common mottoes, which merely produce mediocrity, asocial behaviour and delinquency. 4. Humans have been living for millions of years in stable environments, where co-evolution was the norm and their genomes co-evolved with their habitats. Today, on the other hand, we are living in a world of a catastrophic involution. Mankind is evolving like a parasite of his own niches, so that his habitats cannot last for long. 5. Another aspect of our present Western economy that has proved so disastrous is represented by massive travelling on a world wide scale. As a result it is impossible to avoid migration of several species, from viruses to mammals, from one geographic region to another. The consequences have been catastrophic since several habitats have already been destroyed and destabilized. There are many historical examples such as the colonization of Australia with the introduction of cats, sheep and rabbits, or the continuous invasion of Europe by viruses, microbes, parasites and pest insects from Asia and America. Similar effects can be attributed to intercontinental tourism, but in this case the species transported are mainly infectious agents and exotic pets. Think of the number of persons you know who have contracted tropical diseases during their holidays and you will get a rough idea of the dimensions of this harm. 6. The wealth produced by modern industries causes unavoidable environmental degradation and is against every sound evolutionary strategy, since in nature, every winning strategy is based on saving and our richness is correlated with biological misery. Do not forget that of two species ( or populations), performing the same functions, only the groups , which is more economic, survives. Another aspect of our present wealth is that it produces further degradation of the environment. We have reached the paradox that in highly developed countries, workers can enjoy more culture and comforts than a king of two hundred years ago but, even the richest and the most omnipotent personalities of today cannot avoid living in unnatural, poisonpolluted niches. 7. Specialized technology has gone so far in the so-called developed countries that no single individual can personally produce what he consumes and uses. At the same time, our technology produces environmental instability and because of our debased style of life, we would be incapable of surviving in any other niches. 8. The absence of a bioeconomic conscience must be overcome. (As far as I know only in ancient China has a science been developed where the growth of mankind settling, rural areas and nature were considered as an integrated unity). For instance, in Western countries, nobody seems to evaluate the biological costs of the objects he buys. Just to give an example, let us consider the case of the car. When you buy a car, you must consider: I. The gain of the producers, which must be invested in the growth of the car industry, thus producing more environmental degradation. II. The poor quality of life of the workers involved in the construction of your car. III. The pollution due to the use of your car. IV. The exploitation of non-restorable energies due to the manufacture and use of your car. V. Your personal impoverishment due to the producer's high profit so that the economic and the ecological distances between producers and workers are further increased. 84

VI. Your existential debasement if your economies cannot afford a car without renouncing to important necessities. V. The harm to your health and ontogenetic evolution. VI. Your personal risks and the further inevitable increment of damages, injuries and loss of lives, due to cars' crashes. 9. The myth of security and stability supported by insurance companies and Governments, even through compulsory insurance, an so on, produces enormous damage to individuals and society. For instance let us consider old-age insurance and health insurance. If the morality of Governments is not absolute, and we have already seen that these conditions cannot be achieved in our societies, it will important or necessary, for our Authorities that workers die as soon they reach the age of retirement. Poisonpollution, environmental and social stresses, bad hygienic habits represent a solution to this problem which would be perfect with a little increase of these stresses. In fact death from pollution often occurs just after the fifties because of cancers and other diseases. Moreover these effects are strengthened by the fact that retirement is such a stressing experience, that many workers cannot survive it for long. Poisonpollution therefore may have some positive economic effects for morally debased Authorities. As far as health insurance is involved we can observe two facts: I. Most illnesses are psychosomatic or due to environmental stresses, such as overcrowding, poor living conditions, poisonpollution, and so on. So, when a worker pays his health insurance, his economic damage is doubled because he has to pays for medical assistance, because he has been deprived of healthy conditions of life. We must not forget that several bad habits are due to environmental stresses. II. Doctors have at their disposal an enormous number of paying guinea pigs on which to practise, in order to become professionally skilful. III. When health insurance, or old-age insurance, becomes too costly, because of the prize of medicines, the costs of hospitalization, the aging of the population and the general poor health condition of people, this service is simply reduced. Some preliminary suggestions in order to start a bioeconomy. On the base of the above mentioned observations it would be easy to sketch the fundamental outlines of a bioeconomy: First of all, it must be remembered that it is not possible to put a stop immediately to the activities which pollute the environment nor is it possible to go back to previous unpolluted conditions, because these solutions would cause an economic catastrophe and because the point of no return of evolution has already been trespassed. Humans are born to be hunters and gatherers but this primitive economy would can sustain only a few million and not billions of individuals. Again a strategic approach and a plurality of solutions would be the only possible manoeuvre. For instance, if we cannot go back to a primitive economy in the West, at least let us respect the few primitive economies still existing. We have reached the absurd situation that there are natural parks where the natural course of evolution is protected but humans are not allowed to live in such places. Then we should respect the will of the few Westerners who try to go back to a soft science, a soft technology and a bioeconomy. We should therefore refrain from taxing life in uncontaminated land. Of course, this question should be faced on a planetary scale, but present and past experiences do not lead to any optimism. For instance, why we do not control birth rates, when baby booms cause evident economic, ecological 85

and cultural tragedies? We have arrived to the absurd of contrasting the physiological birth regression which occurs in the richest countries, thus renouncing a priori to that sustainable regression which nature is already pointing out. Only ignorant, dishonest, mischievous and pitiless Authorities, used to gain advantages from existential and cultural disasters, may be against birth control. Because capitalist economies express winning strategies which cannot be overcome by other economic systems, I doubt that the following saving measures, which would be necessary to save our environments, will be imposed by our Authorities in useful time! Of course common sense, graduality and love are the necessary attitudes to achieve these changes without undergoing economic catastrophies. I. he transformation of industrial and agricultural productions so as to reduce first and then to avoid poisonpolluting methods. II. The minimization of profits instead of their maximization, thus recovering that natural capitalism which leads to coevolution; III. The foundation of sanctuaries where all living beings, including humans, can survive; IV. The elimination of useless goods and the search for a most economic and pleasant way of life. Let us not forget that, in natural conditions, the fundamental physiological and psychological pleasures of mankind do not cost a penny. In other words, our Authorities should be worrying about the happiness of peoples and not about the rise in their incomes; V. The development of an economy and a culture which pursue those disciplines leading to an inner realization; VI. The raise of a bio-morality in the society.

86

POLITICS
Considering the definition of politics (Oxford Dictionary): the art or science of government, dealing with the form, organization and administration of a State...., and with the regulation of its relations with other States, we do not find any hint about what should be the most fundamental function of politics: to increase the probabilities of our survival. In order to define biopolitics, it would be enough to add to the above-mentioned definition: in order to defend the evolutionary potentialities of all environments and all living beings, included mankind. With this new definition and employing the biological knowledge already at hand, many political questions, such a the causes of the endless involutions of left-wing parties, the biological significance of ethics and democracy, the real biological significance of right and left parties, might be easily understood. In other words, the fundamental pairs of opposites which should be debated in order to understand what biopolitics should be, are: 1, democracy or despotism; 2, ethics or convenience; 3, labour parties (the left-wing) or conservative parties (right-wing) 4, what about the question of the cultural qualification of politicians: ignorant or technically prepared? Before to continue, let us remember that pairs such as democracy or despotism, ethics or convenience, left or right, etc., depict an evolutionary dialectic which cannot be eliminated at once without a great risk for co-evolution. 1. Democracy or despotism. First of all, let us see when and if modern democracies can bear positive evolutionary, ecological and existential results. In conditions of low selective pressure, lack of widespread knowledge and in the absence of a culture, where virtues are the outcomes of an inner research, the hypothesis can be advanced that true democracy cannot occur in modern countries and, if would do, it would not be defensible in biological terms. In fact, even our imperfect democracies proved to be disastrous, because the sum of the individuals' wishes can only beg for immediate tactical solutions, forgetting our habitats and our future. Most of normal people would never give up their present advantages for some doubtful future benefits. In other words, democracies would always enhance that natural but calamitous capitalist growth based upon our unlimited reproductive potentiality and our unlimited wishes. In any case, a representative democracy is doomed to degenerate when it is in the hands of an upper class which controls information, economics and culture and which is subject to lower selective pressures than other social classes. A posteriori there are several evidences which support this negative evaluation, such as: (I). The present increasing poisonpollution and the progressive destruction of the ecumene; (II). The lack of ethics in politics all over the world; (III). The failure of all international meetings of Governments, from summer 1992 to summer 2001, on Environment and Industrial growth; (IV). The increasing economic and political split between individuals of the lower and upper classes, and so on. The ultimate reason why modern democracies cannot last for long and must fall down is due to the fact that our politicians, as selected in the so called modern democratic States, cannot produce any politics with a positive biological meaning, because of their own lack of any biological ethics and because of their ignorance about the laws of nature, which is the same of common people. 87

On the other hand, even in culturally debased conditions, it would be theoretically possible for a dictator to be sane, to possess sound scientific knowledge and to be interested is protecting life on earth. In this condition he might pursue a biological politics. 2. Ethics or convenience. If someone were to ask whether there is any chance of developing a bioethical politics in Western countries, I would answer "barely". This negative view can be supported by the following observations: I, convenience and not ethics is a must in our society. II, for definition and habit, in western countries, politicians are by far less moral than normal people. III, in capitalist countries, culture and mass media tend to offer virtual and false images of reality. IV, the usual greed for wealth and power produces individuals, which evaluate their neighbours, included relatives, as belonging to another species, in the nature of prey. V, leaders of the left have the same culture of the leaders of the upper class. VI, human involution occurs because, in order to survive, capitalism must grow at the expenditure of natural habitats. VII, in all universities a scientific method has been developed in order to maximize the gains of producers and salesmen and only these kind of capitalistic economies are accepted and studied. But this strategy ignores any fundamental scientific attitude. 3. Left wing parties or right wing parties. Right-wing parties originate from the hierarchical organization of societies and cosnequent parcelling out and control of knowledge. Parties on the right tend to produce dictatorial governments in order to protect their privileges. The not said aims of a right-wing party right will be: A. Genetic separation between different sub-populations, in order to maintain social stability and to protect economic power and social privilege. This goal can easily be achieved when people of different classes live in different disjoint niches; B. With the excuse of protecting social and economic stability, science will be limited to the ambit of technology, whereas pure science, sciences of self realization and soft technologies will be banned from schools and mass media by misleading common concepts, deceitful institutions and silence. Moreover, Religions regress to void ceremonies and dangerous superstitions. Today, ignorance of the lower classes is maintained, by controlling information better than through illiteracy. A hundred newspapers stating a lie will find more supporters than a truth claimed by a single voice. At the end, the line of defence in modern upper classes can be seen in the negation of any ethics. Ethics must be banned in the lower classes and substituted by conditioning. Ethics is not necessary in the upper classes either, since it can be substituted by obedience or personal relationships based on affection. In order to avoid turbulence among the lower classes, they must be conditioned to accept the degradation of their habitats and the dishonesty of their leaders. This is achieved by offering to the masses a culture based on superstition, the cult of personality and by inviting admiration for the upper class representatives. Of course, in these cultural conditions no revolution can occur and trustworthy left-wing parties cannot exist. No true revolution but only a change of the upper class is possible in these conditions, because there are no any real leftist culture at hand. Left-wing parties are evident and natural in primitive societies, since everybody knows everybody and everything, since there are no advanced technologies. As a matter of fact, in this condition leftwing parties has already achieved their goals and true democracy is unavoidable. In the vast communities of today, where most people ignore the truth about their economical conditions, their mental conditionings and their environment, these parties have lost their natural 88

niche and therefore they cannot be successful. In fact, they develop a political and economic dialectic with right parties with the only target to moderate the requirements of the upper classes. On the contrary, in order to regain their natural function, true leftist parties should: Firstly, protect life by: A. Defending the environment, the differences between lower and upper classes will decrease. B. Supporting birth control (see part 1, ecology) in order to protect the economic value of the workers and the future of the environment. Secondly, divulge all strategic behaviours, such as hygiene, ethics, science and religion (as defined in the second part). In particular, they should develop: A. Supporting pure science, in order to achieve a valid criticism against the culture of upper classes, and superstition will not be longer a peril; B. Promoting soft technologies, mental and physical hygiene and more natural economies; C. Protecting ethics, because democracy needs sociality and there can be no social life without ethics (see the following d, III, IV, V and VI paragraphs); D. Inventing a biologically oriented cultures. Thirdly, to practise bioethics through the refusal of any kind of patronage, favouritism and consequent debased selection. IV. To spread the practice of direct democracy in small subpopulations, as those of a quarters or villages. V.Trade unions should defend the quality of life and the excellence of workers' responsibilities. To fight for better wages is useless if you cannot control banks' and goverments' politics. VI. The supporters of leftist parties cannot afford politicians who are not absolutely honest (see the significance of ethics for social species: I part, paragraph on ethology). I remember that exemplary behaviours, which is due to that inner maturity, which is the outcome of an inner discipline. Of course this statement will sound absurd in Western countries, since this concept of morality does not belong to our cultures. VI. Develop and accept a culture for the people and not against them. Right-wing parties need emotional responses, superstition and technology. True leftist parties need rational thinking, soft science and inner searching. Anyone can see how far the left has strayed from its natural and obvious tasks, because of their biological ignorance. As far as I know, only in Cuba exists the concept of a biological communism and this reality let me hope that they tray to develop their society in accordance with the laws of nature. Of course, total success of right-wing culture can occur only in the present conditions. It is not by chance that leftist parties, when they were successful, have become similar or worse that the right-wing parties they contested: see for example socialism, which become fascism in Italy and nationalsocialismus in Germany, the evolution of the communist government in the USSR and in other countries of Easter Europe, which have become anti- democratic and authoritarian and have produced mass pollution and ecological disasters worse than in the capitalistic countries. In my opinion, the failure of leftist parties all over the world, can be attributed to their lack of biological knowledge and the absence of any inner qualifications of their supporters and leaders. On the other hand, the same deficiencies are obvious and almost prerequisite tactical virtues for the leaders of the right. The main trouble with the present parties is that they accept and support that particular capitalist growth (which needs to be infinite in order to survive) in a finite world, althoug the several examples of its failures we can see in natural history. In any case, both left and right wing supporters and politicians must first survive, if they are to accomplish their targets and therefore they both should be engaged in a sound ontogenetic 89

evolution. 4. Ignorant or expert politicians. The debate, whether politicians should be experts or not in the areas they control, does not arise in our society. In fact it seems an axiom that politicians must be ignorant about their duties. Of course, if politicians pursue only personal advantages, they do not need to be competent in politics. But, if they wish to produce any politics, they must be experts of the topics they are called to decide. If you are totally ignorant on the arguments you must face, you need advisers. But, in these conditions, you will never get an impartial, unconditioned understanding of the subject in question. The outcomings of this ignorance are puppet Governments and the real rulers of the country will never be under any political control.

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