As another example, consider: the Big
Story called Scientism is itself sourced in an initiating ritual
practice. The seemingly simple personal act of imagining the “scientific
method,” namely,
imagining that you can emotionally remove yourself
from a relationship
with something that you can sense is, itself,
a ritual practice that enables one to break-out of
the everyday world of common-sensing and
break-through to the extraordinary world
of scientific sensing.
This practice—often symbolized and activated by
putting on a white jacket or lab coat—is not unlike the
clearing of the mind that many meditaters practice as they prepare
to “sit” and initiate their breakthrough to a deep
state of bliss.
Customarily, a scientist readies himself
by getting into this peculiar frame of “scientific
thinking” by clearing and quieting his
mind, disciplining his reasoning with logic and
rationality, and putting a controlling damper
on his emotions. If successful, his peers will
agree that he has realized “scientific objectivity.” Being
in this state of detached objectivity—clearly
a state of an extraordinary and altered state of
consciousness and of emotional control—gives meaning to
his being a scientist and enables him to belong
to the "scientific community."
As part of their ritual practice,
scientists/scientismists have special places—the
laboratory and academia, don an identifying vestment—white
jacket, assume honorific titles—customarily
Doctor or Professor, and communicate with special language and imagery—the
core language of mathematics and all the dialects of the numerous
specializations.
Continue—Ritual
Living
