The mental structure also coincides with the "discovery" of "causality," Abstraction becomes a key word to describe mental activity and we find man using his mind to overcome and "master" the world around him.
Monotheism almost universally replaces the plethora of gods of bygone days; dogma replaces the symbols of previous times; method replaces the mysteries as man develops an ever-increasing desire to penetrate, and master nature. Some have described science as the dominant religion of our time. Time itself is conceptualized (spatialized) as an "arrow" that points from the past to the future by way of the present.
About the time of the Renaissance, man came into his own and mastered space. This was the time that perspective was actually introduced into art. Since that time, perspective has come to be a major part and aspect of our mental functioning. Perspective is the life blood of reasoning - and the rational structure of consciousness, which Gebser considers to be only a deficient form of the mental structure.
Mental ordering and systematization of thought becomes the real dominant mode of expression. The myths have lost their vibrancy and existential connection to reality. Greek thought followed later by the Scholastics and finally the Enlightenment are all periods in which this particular structure of consciousness flourishes and strongly manifests. By the time of the Renaissance, this structure had firmly established itself and was just beginning to move into the next phase of its development. As we come to the end of the mental/rational mode three dimensions have been established and we are prepared for the next significant step -- beyond the deficient mode in which we are immersed now.
The Rational Structure
Gebser called the deficient form of the mental structure the 'rational' structure. The rational structure of awareness seeks to deny the other structures with its claim that humans are exclusively rational.
The rational structure is known for its extremes as evidenced in various "nothing but..." statements. Extreme materialism claims that "everything is nothing but matter" -- atoms and subatomic waves and particles. Philosophy, the "love of wisdom", is replaced with instrumental reason, and the ability "to make". Contemplation --looking inward--is devalued in relation to what one "can do". "Wise men" fall out of favor and are replaced by the "man of action."
The predicament is that successes re-shaping matter offer solutions to some problems but also give rise to severe problems of their own making. Mechanized slaughter of two world wars and the new atomic weapons exemplified and symbolized the full expression of the of the rational/mental structure and its sense of disconnection with nature and humankind.
Living becomes highly stress-full and hard to bear in such a consciousness structure. Some saw the cause of this despair as a lack of values or ethics. Gebser perceived that it is the very consciousness structure itself which has played out and reached its inherent end. He saw that its metaphysical premises and presumptions necessarily led to this ethical dead end. A "value-free" ontology like materialism leads of necessity to living "without value".
What we have currently is the full development of the ego and its related centeredness. We conceive things, events and phenomena in terms of our own perspectives, often at the expense of others. The eye becomes the spiritual organ representative of this structure. Our language, our entire imagery and dominant metaphor takes on visual, spatial character. Space is finally overcome, in the true sense of the word. With the supercession of space, man finally accomplishes his egoistic, individual separation from nature.
This rational structure essentially has "no god but logic and technology;" it is by definition nihilistic. Because the foundation is not built on ontologically solid ground (it is "furthest from an awareness of the 'Ever-Present Origin'"- or Source) any attempt to remedy the situation by a return to "values" would be bound to fail, as long as we remain limited by the walls of this box.
This is a time of the concretization of the "I," we become very aware of our existence, of our beingness, of our individuality. But in a deficient mode, the outcomes are simultaneously loneliness, isolation, and alienation, which are characteristic of our own American culture. In fact, our current materialistic approach to understanding reality is perhaps the final stage of this structure. There is also much everyday evidence to indicate that we have already begun moving through a great transition at this time.
According to Gebser we are now at a cusp or turning point between structures; our time reveals elements of both. It is not surprising that the present era -- with its seemingly endless production of weaponized technology (consider our ongoing -- and classified -- biological and chemical warfare projects, not to mention those about which we know almost nothing) is perhaps the most dangerous our species has ever faced.
But it was through this very quagmire and "the decline of the West" upon which it rests, that Gebser saw the emergence of a new structure of consciousness which he termed the integral. Once again, the decline of one structure current (the rational leads us into the next one.
The integral structure
Gebser concluded that we are on the threshold of a new structure of consciousness, which "transcends and includes" all that has come before. In this stage of consciousness, we begin to behold the gradual revelation of the transcendental source of ongoing Creation -- that which we traditionally (but often misleadingly) refer to as "God." This is one of the meanings of Gebser's contention that the integral state of consciousness is marked by diaphany and transparency. The appearance of "separate things" is seen to be an illusion often disguising the oneness and living Divinity that are, as it were, behind the appearances.
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