As a biological scientist who spends a lot of time engaging with people of a spiritual disposition, I quite often encounter individuals who are extremely distrustful of the biotechnological revolution. They are typically very happy to point out how science 'proves' the validity of the spiritual worldview, by quoting the work of people like Gregg Braden, Bruce Lipton, Dean Radin, Nassim Haramein and others. At the same time, however, they are quick to condemn biotechnological innovation, in general, because, in their view, the biotech research field is largely controlled by corporate interests (especially the pharmaceutical & agricultural industries) and is thus fundamentally dishonest.
While commercial influences may, in some instances, lead to abuses, and while it's quite true that there are serious ethical issues around the application of certain technologies (e.g. cloning), this hardly constitutes an intelligent reason to dismiss the entire biotech field. In my view, it's a fear-based response, not unlike the rabid anti-evolution sentiments that I often encountered during my years in the evangelical Church environment. My response to such sentiments was usually the comment that "God's not afraid of the truth", which was not intended to assert the 'truth' of evolutionary theory, but rather to point out that it doesn't really matter. I don't think God (if you believe in Him/Her/It as Creator) is the least bit offended by us remaining open to exploring the possibilities of how we got here. The truth remains the truth and if it turns out to be different from our prior assumptions, it's unlikely to throw God into a flat spin. In much the same way, I think that exploring the workings of the biological world and developing new technologies on the basis of what we discover is not inherently something to be feared.
To anyone who is interested in the issue of how new science-based technologies and emerging consciousness fit together, I recommend the short talk by Deepak Chopra on The Future of Wellbeing, presented at the Zeitgeist Americas 2011 event (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tpl2D7Gris&feature=youtu.be). One of Chopra's most admirable qualities is his ability to articulate a continuously evolving, rational synthesis of scientific and spiritual concepts, in a way that is accessible to those who lack in-depth knowledge of either domain. In the Zeitgeist talk, he presents a view which embraces technological advances and suggests that the transition from mechanistic, reductionist models of medical science into paradigms that are genuinely holistic is already well underway. Thus he speaks, for example, about the application of "stem cells and cloning, not from the outside, but using your own body’s inner intelligence, which is the ultimate and supreme genius and mirrors the wisdom of the universe. Your own cells that have evolved over billions of years, to formidable intelligence...."
An important corollary of the perspective presented by Chopra is that there is, in a sense, no need to fear the 'dangers' of new technology, because the transition will happen – simply because it must. During the 20th Century, science began progressively shifting further and further away from the independent, unrelated discipline approach, towards increasingly integrated models (e.g. neuroimmunology). And that shift is accelerating in ways that perhaps even the most open-minded scientist of the 20th Century would not have anticipated. Chopra proposes that the time is coming when the body will be understood to be an "energy and information field" and not just a collection of extremely well-coordinated cells. Mainstream medical science may not yet be ready for such ideas, but they are ideas that have already begun to permeate mainstream consciousness and are increasingly supported by the convergence of various streams of new scientific understanding. The tipping point may be closer than we realise.
