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Ralph Metzner

Ralph Metzner Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Ralph Metzner Quotes

“Wars between people cannot be reduced or eliminated as long as the war with nature proceeds quite unconsciously. Both situations of war may ultimately be seen as externalizations of the conflicts and wars within human consciousness. If this is so, then our task becomes one of recognizing and confronting the 'inner enemy,' the inner antagonist. We need to recognize and withdraw the projections of this inner enemy onto external agents or forces—whether this be other human beings or the world of wild nature.”

“We were all wild humans before we became civilized in that peculiar process of self-domestication known as the Neolithic agricultural revolution. The word 'wild' is related to the word 'will'; the wild creature is self-willed, autonomous, not domesticated, living by nature's ways, not the laws of human beings.”

“The reckless application of technology, harnessed to greed, degrades and destroys the ecosystems in which the energies of the elements are maintained in exquisite balance. Since the elements constitute us, we are also being degraded in the process. We are engaged in an ongoing assault on the planetary elements, the decimation of species, and the relentless suicidal degradation of our own habitats. In short, the situation can be called ecocide. Humankind is at war with nature.”

“We were mothered out of the substance of this planet. Her elements, her periodicities, her gravitational embrace, her subtle vibrations still mingle in our nature, worked a billion years down into the textures of life and mind. Logically, the individual human being is a living organic system that exists as part of the larger living organic system that we call the biosphere, or Earth.”

“I noted that I was feeling a profound affection and admiration toward these people, whom I don't know and can't even understand. I also felt affection emanating from them toward me and toward each other. Those not participating in the ceremony were also included in this empathic web, as were the creatures and plants of the forest all around us—indeed, the whole world of sky and earth, rain and sunlight, wind and rocks, and trees. It seemed that by not understanding the words being said, I could concentrate totally on the waves of positive feeling that were washing through the group.”