Is an awakening experience the result of nurture or nature?

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Neither. It’s the product of individual consciousness evolution, (ICE) which is outside of the nature / nurture paradigm.

Science cannot yet grasp the mechanics of individual consciousness evolution because its effects are localized to a single individual, while science can only know things by examining many many individuals.

Nature effectively refers to DNA, the collective results of evolution on an entire species. Nurture refers to environment, the collective effects of said environment that can be studied on individuals.

The third category, ICE, describes everything else. It has less ‘overt’ affects on individuals because it plays within the paradigms of nature, nurture, culture, and the like. Being of high ICE does not make you any less human, it does not make you completely disregard nature or nurture.

No, high ICE affects you in other ways. It affects how you see the world. It affects what kinds of responses you have to events both negative and positive. Such things are also affected by nature and nurture, and where it counts, those two win. Nature is more powerful than nurture, which is more powerful than ICE. This is why science can study them, because the effects are so powerful that they are observable in everyone.

But ICE matters where it counts to humans. It makes people stand out precisely because it has effects over and above the things that are predictable about people.

If you look at two people with similar backgrounds and similar genetics, but one is a brilliant scientist while the other is a low-functioning criminal, the scientific method doesn’t really have a whole lot to say about why. IQ has genetic components but isn’t completely understood. Huge swings in people with similar backgrounds and genetics are totally normal. Something else has to make up the difference.

I submit that the Buddhists are right on this one. Consciousness persists between lifetimes and people can be more or less conscious. Science can examine the differences but can’t tell us why they exist.

I’ve written before about spiritual awakening, it is a function of a being’s readiness as well as their level of consciousness. Consciousness affects what you can and can’t make sense of. If you can’t make sense of spiritual awakening, then you probably won’t have one. If you do, it will likely be processed as you going crazy. Minds are pretty resilient though, evolution made them that way. Spirituality itself doesn’t drive people mad.