Many of the esoteric disciplines and religions emphasize the hierarchical nature of reality. Reality is described as composed of levels, each embedded in, and guided by, the next level up. If this reflects a structural truth, what should we make of it?

There are those who deny anything beyond the mundane, and so deny any hierarchical structure other than that of the physical and biological worlds. Yet the view of hierarchy beyond the physical is an ancient one, worth contemplating as an important element of human thought. Equally, there are those who would deny the significance of the mundane. Yet that is the most evident level of experience. Why should we be so deeply involved with life if it is irrelevant? Our speaker this month illustrates the hierarchical view, finding the life patterns of the individual on the palm, spiritual guidelines in the unchanging fingerprints. Hierarchical structure is present in many systems of thought. As examples, we can mention the chakras, each conceived as the link to a particular level of being; or astrology where each planet is seen as relating to a particular aspect of the individual; or even the Christian doctrine of the one God manifesting as the Trinity and sometimes further elaborated through the Virgin Mary, the Saints, etc. Other examples could be listed easily. This view seems almost, if not quite, universal as a way of seeing reality.

Yet there is only one reality. There must be flows both ways across the boundaries, or the different levels would not be integrated into a single whole. What we mean by a level, then, is not a separate subsystem, uninfluenced by the rest. Rather, the idea of levels means that coupling between adjacent levels is indirect, and most of the influences visibly operating at any one level come from processes and sources within that level. Yet the neighboring levels also exert influence, albeit, perhaps, in subtle and hidden ways, or there would be no unity.