Examining Jan Smuts' childhood experience provides further insight into human becoming.

In a presentation to a further conference, now focused on Jan Smuts' formative years, we will explore whether his childhood transcendental experience was the cardinal formative factor in his contribution to holistic perspective and practice.

At the coming September conference in South Africa hosted by the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies, I will present a paper challenging the notion that technology and artificial intelligence will address our existential challenges. Rather I will show that Smuts' deep and embodies spiritual perspective points the way to human salvation from its own hubris.

Jan Smuts’ extraordinary life, characterised by his abilities, vision, energy, and commitment, has been well documented, with most biographers focusing on his influence on world affairs as a soldier and statesman. This study, however, will explore how his formative childhood experiences sparked his lifelong religious and spiritual quest, shaping a process-oriented worldview that sustained him through extreme circumstances.

His resilience in adversity earned admiration from figures like Winston Churchill and King George. Despite this, the source of his inner strength is not well understood. His spirituality, the essence of his holistic perspective, remains an under-explored aspect of his character.

We will track five key childhood experiences that laid the foundation for Smuts’ worldview and capacities, considering how his gifted intellect may have integrated them into a coherent philosophy. These experiences include his close relationship with nature, mentored by a Khoisan herdsman, the absence of formal schooling until the age of twelve, his farm responsibilities as a herder, his personal religious conversion, and his ‘mystical epiphany’ on a mountain.

We will reconsider the extent to which this mystical experience on the summit of Riebeeck Kasteel mountain, which he later described as a guiding light throughout his life, might have enabled the synthesise his religious conviction with his unified experience of nature. We will explore how his deep immersion in the natural world prepared him for his later appreciation of Goethe’s concept of ‘natural process’ and Walt Whitman’s noble view of the ‘natural man.’

Drawing on studies of integrative neurological development and the evolution of consciousness, we will examine how Smuts’ holistic integration was influenced by these formative experiences. This synthesis may have laid the groundwork for his broad contributions to humanity that extends far beyond his political and military roles. It includes significant insights, drawn from his deeper understanding of Holism, to fields ranging from ecology to psychology.

We will evaluate the extent to which Smuts’ childhood development, rooted in the natural world, offers valuable lessons for personal and collective growth of humanity today. In an era of increasing reliance on technology, Smuts’ experience may provide deeper guidance for humanity’s evolution towards a more holistic consciousness.

?NB: Please feel welcome to RSVP to the book launch.

To RSVP [email protected]

For further information about the conference please e-mail Wikus van Zyl.

[email protected]