Tom Hanna loved hippies. He admired their long hair, jeans and tie-dye T-shirts, marijuana and LSD experimentation, their protests against the Vietnam War, and, of course, their music. Thomas Hanna, in the 1960’s as professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Florida, worked daily with young people and was fascinated by their thinking. Tom insisted on experiencing the hippie culture first-hand and included his children along with him. Our family went to outdoor music festivals, inner-tubed down rivers with pot smoking students, attended parties with marijuana brownies and where LSD was freely available, and once, we even wrung the neck of a chicken, plucked its feathers, and cooked it to know where our food came from.
Tad, Wendell, and Michael Hanna being encouraged by Tom Hanna to be fully expressive. (1972)
Visiting with Tom Hanna’s beloved Aunt Ada and Uncle Lonnie in Tom’s hometown of Waco, Texas. (1972)
Tom and Wendell “taking off” in Waco Texas (1972)
Tom believed that young people would change the world with their unconventional ideas and non-violent ethics. He would pick their brains for how these counter-culture youths were thinking about the world and then thoughtfully combined those ideas with his own deep knowledge of philosophy, science, and social science. Many of his newly fermented thoughts were articulated in his primer on somatics titled Bodies in Revolt. A hugely important book for, as a primer, it presents the most basic elements of the science and philosophy behind the larger ideas of somatic fields today. In addition, it is extremely timely now considering all the extreme events happening in our world today with a colliding of the slow evolution of man and the fast evolution of technology endangering our very existence.
Bodies in Revolt begins with a premise that social injustice, hate, war, profound loneliness, and spiritual emptiness is being felt by humanity world-wide and there is an urgent need for our current reactionary culture to change. Unfortunately, things have not changed much since Tom wrote the book in 1969, indeed they have only worsened. We had Nixon back then, now we have Trump. We had covert racism then; now it’s overt, with “good people” on both sides.
We had the Vietnam war; now we have perpetual war, witness the current Ukrainian and Israeli conflicts. We rebelled against unhealthy foods back then and now organic foods are in every grocery store, but sadly, fast food still remains on every corner. Tom Hanna, if he was still with us, would be railing against all this with anger and deep sadness.
Bodies in Revolt, however, is a very optimistic book and is based on ideas from some of the world’s greatest philosophers and scientists who, in Tom’s mind, laid the groundwork for somatic thought in the 21st Century. The incredible progress of technological advancement has changed our environment to be less threatening and more in our control. Humankind has triumphed, for the most part, over wild animal attacks, lack of food resources, and lack of shelter from harsh environments. Unfortunately, despite this progress, social injustice, greed, fear, hate, and spiritual emptiness remain. It is the young people, Bodies in Revolt argues, that can clearly see this dichotomy between how far we have come and what still needs to be done.
Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Emma Gonzalez, and Tyler Okeke are examples of young activists that are working in areas such as climate change, women’s rights, gun safety, and voting rights and there are many other young activists working on important issues today. These young people are the “proto-mutants” that Tom Hanna discusses in Bodies in Revolt. These youth activists may be the first in human evolution to clearly see the dichotomy between our incredible technological progress and the frightening human practice of attacking our own environment. The bodies, and souls, of these young people are in revolt with the way things are and are demanding change. Tom Hanna would, undoubtedly, encourage us to listen and act on what they have to say.
Technology and Evolution
Today’s young people are different than their older generations having grown up with technologies that their parents never experienced as children. Ever since they can remember, children of today have had the internet, cell phones, every app imaginable, social media, and green energy technologies as a part of their lives. In this sense they are what Tom Hanna referred to as “protomutants” meaning they are first (proto) adaptors (mutants) to live life completely emmeshed with these advanced technologies.
“Technology is a wonderful and astonishing development in human evolution and makes it invitingly easy to explore the uncharted labyrinth of our sensual hungers, but – far more significantly – this possibility is an invitation to human beings to discover the nature and extent of human wanting.” Our ancient ancestors, on the other hand, were in survival mode 24/7 and they had little time to explore their deeper wants and desires.
Tom Hanna notes that mutation occurs when certain traits and abilities are no longer needed. “Since we no longer spend a great deal of time climbing trees in our bare feet, no one seems particularly disturbed by the speculation that our little toes seem to be mutating out of existence. In addition, no one should be disturbed to realize that – in a similar fashion – our concern for a highly rational and self-conscious intelligence will become considerably diminished. It will be diminished simply because it will no longer be a function which we, alone, can do: since machines can do it, we no longer need to do it.”
Case in point, Artificial Intelligence (AI). Chatbot “assistants” may soon replace some human workers and include multi-modal capabilities such as blending text, images, videos, and sound. Further, AI technologies will be used to evaluate and train other AI platforms until there will be little need of humans being involved at all for basic intellectual tasks. In addition, through self-play in unfamiliar environments, an A.I. can learn from experience and improve little by little until, as in the playing of chess, it can surpass every player, human or machine, without any prior programming at all.
In Bodies in Revolt Tom Hanna states, “The law behind this is potent: a somatic function which ceases to serve a practical need in environmental adaptation will not survive but will mutate out or, at the least, will diminish to whatever functional level is still needed. And so, the instrument of aggressive rational intelligence, which we once needed to conquer a recalcitrant environment, is now being successfully objectified; now we can turn our concerns toward other matters.”
So, if the abilities of AI may someday negate the need for basic human generated information, will this allow us to happily turn our concerns toward other matters, such as becoming more fully somatic beings? The answer may involve a revolt. A revolt against old human patterns of environmental domination and a move towards creating new patterns of understanding and inter-relationships with nature, and each other. For Tom Hanna it was clear, a somatic evolution-revolution is upon us.
Somatic Evolution
Evolution occurs through a gradual change to the DNA of a species over many generations. It can occur by natural selection when certain traits created by genetic mutations help an organism survive or reproduce. Such mutations are thus more likely to be passed on to the next generation, so they increase in frequency in a population. Gradually, these mutations and their associated traits become more common among the whole group. These evolutionary changes, however, occur so gradually that they are difficult to see clearly in the short span of our lifetimes.
But perhaps we can see some changes if we look closely at the behavior and interests of today’s younger generation. For instance, look at the popularity of the movie Oppenheimer which warns of the dangers of man and technology to the future of the planet, alongside the Barbie movie which highlights the need for more progressive gender norms. This huge interest and success in both movies show the revolutionary thinking of younger people. In Bodies in Revolt Tom Hanna states, “It is without question that the achievement of a technological environment is, simultaneously, the fulfillment and the destruction of the traditional culture of the West. And with equal emphasis I must announce that the only option left open for the survival of mankind is the rapid development of a radically different relationship to our environing world – the development of a radically humanistic culture.”
Perhaps our newest generation, Gen Alpha (born 2010- 2024) are capable of leading the development of this radically humanistic new culture. Generation Alpha are the first born entirely in the 21st century and the most diverse in US history with 47% non-white. In addition, 96% of Gen Alphas believe that everyone should be treated fairly no matter what they look like and 67% say they want to have a career someday that helps them save the planet, save lives, or to use technology in their future professions to make the world a better place.
It appears we are at a tipping point in our evolution. Our perception and understanding of ourselves, others, and our environment is changing. Technology is helping us control things around us, but unfortunately, these positive changes are not being felt deep inside of us. Human beings are increasingly lonely and feeling spiritually empty. People stare at their phones while in public instead of talking to each other, fewer people are getting married and having families, and less people are feeling like they are a part of any type of a truly loving community. These sad facts of inner emptiness and lack of meaning beg the question of how we might tip the evolutionary curve toward the somatic evolution that Tom Hanna envisioned?
Piaget and the Human Need for Cognitive Equilibrium
In Bodies in Revolt, Tom Hanna highlights the importance of somatic accommodation for a somatic revolution-evolution to begin. Accommodation, according to the work of developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, involves altering one’s existing ideas (schemas) about how the world operates in response to new information and experiences. Tom Hanna explains, “If we recognize that, at this exact moment, you and I and our race are still involved in the mutation and evolution of our somatic beings, an evolution which has brought us to where we are and is continuing to take us beyond this – when we recognize this, then we are compelled to recognize that these organized structures of perception and understanding studied by Piaget are not fixed and final; they are mutable. And, as mutating somatic structures, we have been perceiving and understanding a slightly different world with each successive generation of humans.”
This new understanding that the environment that we live in is no longer a threat to us, but quite the inverse, that we, ourselves, have become a threat to our environment, has created within humans what Piaget terms as disequilibrium. Disequilibrium occurs when new information and experiences do not align with one’s current understanding.
This prompts a person to seek a remedy by one of three ways,
1- Ignore the conflicting information because you are simply not ready to deal with it.
2- Assimilate the information by making it fit into what you already know and understand.
3- Accommodate the information by updating your understanding into something entirely new.
Climate deniers, for instance, acknowledge that there are more weather-related extremes today but they assimilate that knowledge into their understanding that drought, famines, floods etc. have always been a part of cycles within human history. Other people simply ignore, or do not think they can do anything about these issues, so discount them altogether. But many other people, especially the younger generation, are accommodating this information into a completely new understanding of the dire situation we are now in and the importance of advocacy and action in our relationship with our environment.
Homeostasis
According to Bodies in Revolt, the next step for a positive somatic evolution to occur is the development of an expanded parasympathetic awareness of the inner somatic self.
Tom Hanna explains, “If one's conditioning is in the traditional kind of perception and behavior typical of the Western fear-aggression approach of constrictive conscious control, then an attempt to cultivate the somatic experience of accommodative, sensual behavior will be somatically repulsive if not literally convulsive. It will be so because the avenues of a parasympathetic energy expression have been so long atrophied and constricted that the musculature is incapable of relaxing and becoming a medium for sensual-accommodative energy expression.”
‘Without a doubt, the parasympathetic functions of the autonomic nervous system are beginning to undergo an intensive period of development and application, but this in no wise means that the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system will cease to exist.” For Tom Hanna, “To learn, to communicate, to exchange information are of the very essence of adaptation. Through balanced somatic adaption a soma can engage in communicative interchange with his environment, as if he had literally become an organic part of that environment, like two wheels of creation totally engaged one with the other.”
Evolutionary Tipping Point
It seems that we are in a difficult place right now – a tipping point. Disequilibrium is being felt among all of us on some level. In America the rise of the MAGA movement may be due to assimilating social injustice, greed, hate, and loneliness into one’s embedded belief system that the “other” is taking away privileges that should belong only to their tribe. Not just here in America, but democracies around the world are increasingly delicate and the appeal of authoritarians are seductive to many.
But seeking answers from outside authorities is not the way for a somatic revolution-evolution to occur. The answer, instead, is inward.
Sensual Accommodation
In order to achieve these new accommodative abilities, parasympathetic awareness is essential; we need to learn how to use our parasympathetic systems to interact with the environment in a symbiotic manner. In past human history the soma has evolved by using the assimilative drives of fear and anger. In Bodies in Revolt, Tom Hanna argues that we instead need to adapt the accommodative drives of acceptance, openness, and with lack of fear. Tom Hanna explains, “Necessarily, training in perception is central to this mutant educational process. Human beings must finally learn what it is to really see and hear and touch without editing and monitoring these perceptions through the constrictions of conscious focusing or unconscious fear. Very few persons know how to relax and surrender to the entire in flooding panorama of the environing world. To do so, just once, is a revelatory and never-to-be-recovered-from experience – this is the profound effect of psychedelic drugs. But one does not need drugs in order to perceive; all that one needs is one's self and some guiding fellow human being, or beings, who can explain how they have learned to perceive in a sensual-accommodative manner and what this feels like to them.”
“The sensual-accommodative experience is the experience of being adapted to some person or some situation that is near you, and in order to be molded and adapted to other beings and other situations, the soma must be loose, in happy surrender and relaxation down to the last synapse and muscular fiber. Such an experience is, obviously, unafraid; it is unashamed, honest, blatantly expressive of the motor drives that have been evoked by that given environmental presence.”
And so, we circle back to the hippies. They were the first (proto) adaptors (mutants) to consider the idea of becoming sensually accommodative to themselves, others, and to the environment. Now we have a new generation of “mutants” who understand both the wonders of advanced technology and the possibilities of accommodating, not assimilating, our environment with our fellow humans in a symbiotic and mutually beneficial manner.
Bodies in Revolt is more than a primer in somatic thinking. It is a guidebook on how to evolve somatically into the next stage of human flourishing. To continue to develop proprioceptive awareness of ourselves, of others, and with our symbiotic relationship with our natural planet- this is the somatic evolution-revolution.
On a personal note, Tom Hanna, if he were still with us today, would be so thrilled that my niece and Tom’s granddaughter, Lynnea Hanna, is studying environmental science at UC Davis. Lynnea is passionate about learning how best to develop a symbiotic relationship between ourselves and our environment.
While this may seem idealistic to some, that a few young people can create a positive revolution, Tom Hanna has some advice: “Relax and enjoy the struggle which you will win. In the past revolutions required work and anxiety; the evolution-revolution, however, requires only play and confidence.”
References
Hanna, T. (1970). Bodies in revolt. Free Person Press, Novato, CA.