The victory in the last centuries of a scientific, democratic and humanistic approach over monarchy and religion is to be cherished and upheld. The holistic movement can look just like another spiritual confidence trick, especially at its more illogical, superstitious and self-obsessed edges. The only fundamentalist notion of holism is that the universe and consciousness are diverse but intimately interconnected and that it is healthy and meaningful to explore it all. The accusation that the movement is shallow is also often accompanied by the assertion that, because of its diverse base, it has no clear morality. Post-modern relativism is all very well in art and fashion, but it cannot be applied to personal, social and spiritual behaviour.
Relativism is too dangerous a morality.
Holism provides no guidelines. There is a false supposition here that the holistic movement has, for some reason or another, ditched all the ethical guidelines which humanity has thus far found good and useful. Whilst the holistic movement has not generally articulated its moral guidelines, they are implicit in and fundamental to the holistic way of thinking. They derive from various sources and, certainly, the movement needs to articulate them more clearly. Another source is the clear moral codes of the world s religions.