The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect - Human Connection (The New Millennium Library, V.5) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Joanne E. Lauck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0926524496 | ISBN-13: 978-0926524491 | Edition: 2nd

Understanding the Infinite in the Small is less a book about insect biology and behavior than it is about reinventing ourselves as a non-hostile species. It is a unique psychological and spiritual perspective on insects and the recasting of our relationship to this Lilliputian world. The popular culture never rises above issues of power. It is in this mode then that we are caught between opposites: either we kill the insects, or we are defeated by them. We rarely see a third possibility. We rarely put down our weapons long enough to consider the effect we might have if we entered their world with empathy and compassion. Perhaps we underestimate the powers of providence that would suddenly appear if we could align ourselves with the earth and the small creatures that serve it so faithfully. It's time to try.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lauck, an environmental educator, writes with infectious enthusiasm about everyday matters that may well determine the fate of the earth, namely, our relationship to its most numerous inhabitants: the insects. Following Rachel Carson and others, Lauck catalogues and critiques the pervasive mentality, ultimately suicidal, that places commercial concerns over all others. She invokes Jung, Rilke, Thoreau, Einstein, Robert Bly, Sam Keene, James Hillman and Suzuki Roshi, among others, to suggest an outlook more sensitive to human values. Lauck is a storyteller, too, and in her effort to replace our underlying adversarial myths about our relation to insects, she relates tales from cultures around the world in which insects are helpers, heroes, teachers, even gods. Sections on the mosquito, the spider, even the cockroach are insightful and inspiring, with implications both for large-scale agribusiness and for our daily comportment toward our tiny brethren. Our revulsion toward insects, she demonstrates, is conditioned, not innate, and we can learn other, kinder ways. Sections of detailed material on the lives of insects are surprising and fascinating. Here and there the science is spotty, as Lauck tends to accept with uncritical sentimentality the most bizarre shamanic anecdotes or New Age claims, and her secondhand pop interpretations of science are occasionally wide of the mark. At one point, for instance, she makes the incredible claim that "[s]tudies in quantum mechanics have demonstrated that objectivity in research is an illusion," a simplistic position destructive of all inquiry. Nonetheless, this is important material, informative and highly readable, a good resource book for teachers, parents and citizens, as practical as can be, personally and politically.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

An inviting read, Joanne Lauck pioneers a new vision for harmonious coexistence with this aspect of Nature that is at once practical and illuminating. I would recommend it. -- John Seed, founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia and co-author of Thinking Like a Mountain

At last, finally, a book that treats insects as fellow passengers (and beloved mythmakers) on the ride we call life on earth. It took courage and farsightedness for Joanne Lauck to speak out for a new relationship with the six and eight leggeds who travel among us. That she has done so with such clarity, means we shall all learn from her vision. -- Jim Nollman, author of Spiritual Ecology

Filled with fascinating facts and psychological insights, The Voice of the Infinite in the Small uproots the outworn attitude that insects are merely pests, instilling readers with new appreciation for the amazing arthropods and astonishing arachnids who populate our planet. -- Gary Kowalski, author of The Souls of Animals

In this excellent book you have the opportunity to visit with Oneness, learning that All life is One, and that the way we treat the tiny creatures in our lives affects the way we treat ourselves, the larger creatures. Oneness is not special treatment for certain selected animals or birds that register well on our scale of judgement; it is the recognition that all life walks with the sacred footprint of the infinite, and that within this footprint we step into our own future. -- Michael J. Roads, Author of Talking with Nature

Joanne Lauck has made a wonderful contribution to the healing of the disastrous split between humans and nature, by focusing on the most distorted relationship we have -- with insects. In a magnificent compilation of information and perspectives from science, mythology, history, ecology, indigenous traditions and folklore, she helps us re-connect with these unjustly neglected, feared and despised fellow citizens of the web of life. _The Voice of the Infinite_ opens up an amazing world of wonder and mystery. I can't recommend this book too highly. It has helped me feel more sane and at peace with the world. -- Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., Ecopsychologist, author of The Unfolding Self

Subtitled "Revisioning the Insect-Human Connection," this book effectively compels the reluctant reader to view insects as "a glittering, glistening mirror of divinity." How much more difficult is it for me to grab a spider and place it outdoors rather than simply smashing it! I believe that all life is sacred. I abhor war, and I'm a vegetarian, yet I kill most insects without a moment's thought. Sunrise spider webs covered in dew and twilight fireflies on summer nights are two of my favorite images. Still, I hate bugs for their germs, the discomfort they cause, and that they destroy food.

Yet which is worse, the threat of insects or the certainty of the poisonous insecticides now contained in much of our fresh vegetables and fruits? Insects have been made humanity's scapegoat. They share the planet with us. If we are committed to fully conscious living, we have a responsibility to reexamine our hatred for bugs. This captivating book is an excellent tool for that purpose. I am redefining my relationship with the insect kingdom. -- Michael Peter Langevin, Magical Blend, "Reviews" Issue #61 July 1998

Truly marvelous. Enthralling. A book full of wisdom. I feel as though I've been initiated into a purer, rarefied realm of awareness, where it IS possible to celebrate even the most painful events and to feel the Big Connection more often than not. -- Gwynn Popovac, author of Conversation with Bugs

With incredible sensitivity and astonishing insight, Lauck has tackled a subject many of us would prefer to tackle with a can of repellant. What 'bugs'us so about insects? Drawing upon myth, anecdote, history and research, Lauck weaves a compelling tale of the soul and psychology beneath our savage and unrelenting war on the nations of six-and eight-leggeds. Kinship with ALL Life? Even creepy crawlies? Lauck says "Yes," and says it with well-informed conviction. A jewel of a book-a classic. -- Susan Chernak McElroy, author of Animals as Teachers and Healer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: Swan Raven & Company; 2nd edition (July 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0926524496
• ISBN-13: 978-0926524491
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Stress > Mind-Body Connection

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Food for Thought on the Insect-Human Connection, August 24, 2005

By 

David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect-Human Connection (Paperback)

Joanne Lauck's book "The Voice of the Infinite in the Small," starts with the very intriguing premise that we humans tend to demonize the smaller six, eight and multi-legged creatures around us, while these have their place in nature and are often important in our own survival (where would we be without pollination!) As a professional biologist who has specialized in arthropods, I could not agree more on this point. Indeed, Lauck has brought together some most intriguing imagery and fascinating myths and metaphors into a discussion that I think was long overdue. As a professional I constantly hear complaints from people about some harmless or nearly harmless arthropod, such as any spider, certain innocuous true bugs and beetles, or house centipedes that they think should be immediately wiped off the face of the earth.

That said I think Lauck also makes some fairly serious blunders and depends too much on very questionable authority. I find some of her supposedly true stories (such as bees visiting the grave of a dead bee keeper or people making pacts with Japanese beetles) to be pretty difficult to swallow and she is totally wrong on several "facts" about flies and arachnids. One (perhaps minor, but none the less irritating) example is the old legend that male deer bot flies can fly hundreds of miles an hour. This tall tale was based on a totally mistaken calculation made by C. H. Tyler Townsend, a late nineteenth and early twentieth Century entomologist, who guesstimated that to be a blur a male deer bot fly had to be traveling at least 500 mph! In actuality they need only be flying no more than 35 mph! To be traveling at 500 mph, the bot flies would use up a huge amount of energy and the resulting turbulence would tear off their wings! On a more serious note I am quite reluctant to give blood to mosquitoes (although I have given my share involuntarily to be sure!) and am also a bit leery about being too cavalier about mosquito-born diseases. Eventually we may make our peace with a parasite like the malarial plasmodium, but it is only after a period of adjustment during which many of us may suffer as much as the insects. It is easy to contemplate these problems from a distance when one does not have to stand by the bed of a child dying from dengue, yellow fever or malaria! As to friendly scorpions, I would be willing (and in fact have done so) to hold a big black Pandinus (Emperor) scorpion (which are pretty docile and not especially venomous), but definitively not a "death stalker" (Leiurus sp.) or fat-tailed scorpion (Androctonus spp.) Only a fool would handle either of these two directly. Encouraging anyone to hold such dangerous creatures is a very bad idea!

I, indeed, would take the middle way (and I can only speak for myself in this). I believe that one should not go out of ones way to do harm to other creatures and that deliberately killing another organism is excusable for only three reasons (one being very human). The first is need for sustenance (including protecting food crops from pests, although not to the level of broad-spectrum pesticide use we have employed in the past)- I have heard that even the Delhi Lama eats meat every other day because of a metabolic problem. The second is to protect oneself and others from disease or envenomation - at least some, if not most mosquitoes, ticks, lice and fleas, as well as some scorpions and spiders, may fall under this- Bubonic plague or dengue are not fun diseases to get and I am not going to wait around for them to become more benign! The final reason I would grant (being a scientist) is to gain knowledge of the natural world, in part to help protect it in the long term and to maintain a body of knowledge that would help us understand the relationships and dynamics of the biota. I would put some constraints on this activity- as organisms become better known I see them being more valuable alive than in a collection. Thus most mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, marine mollusks and a few others, like butterflies, can currently be monitored without usually taking physical samples. The eventual goal would be to eliminate the need for collecting, although this may take more time for some groups like beetles or higher flies.

That said I admire Lauck for bringing the subject up and hope that some of her wonder and respect for the insect world would permeate society more than at present. We need not kill every creature that causes us fear. However, to discriminate properly in an all too imperfect world we need to arm ourselves with some knowledge.

Read this book for some inspiration for ways to get along with the insect world (which as Lauck points out, is also our own), but also with a carefully critical eye.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insects as Messengers, May 21, 2001

By 

Scott Hess (Petaluma, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect - Human Connection (The New Millennium Library, V.5) (Paperback)

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small has opened up vast new understandings in my mind and psyche, about the beauty, dignity and yes, the sacred nature of the Insect Kingdom. Joanne Lauck holds a mirror up to the unnatural aversion, the hatred, and the venomous attacks by human culture on that which it cannot manipulate and control. She reveals how afraid we have become of a genuine give and take with our fellow species and with natural systems in general. This is the life threatening Crisis of our time.

Lauck also points out with tremendous richness of reference, from Aboriginal myth to current expressions of the New Sciences, how the insect kingdom can reflect and communicate the Natural Intelligence that pervades all- if encountered with CLEAR, RESPECTFUL INTENT. This book is amazingly detailed and thorough. It is an example of a powerful intellect placed in the service of wholeness and the original, natural self we are longing to recover for our human survival and ultimate success. I could feel the peace surround me and the love rush in when absorbing these ideas. May this book be circulated, appreciated, amplified throughout the world! It is powerful medicine in a dark and dangerous time.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book That Will Change Your View of the World, July 29, 1999

By 

Robert N. Sollod "Bob Sollod" (Shaker Heights, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect - Human Connection (Paperback)

This wonderfully researched book is one of those books that comes along now and then that both can change your view of the world and confirm intuitions that had been buried. Respect and compassion toward all living things is makes the world a better place and us better people. Such compassion thus fulfills two of the major responsibilities of every human being on earth. I love Ms. Lauck for the vision, courage, and compassion which made it possible for her to write this book, which is destined to become a classic. Whether it becomes a best-seller or simply a perennial underground classic (like the One Straw Revolution) I cannot predict. But "The Voice of the Infinite in the Small" is going to be around for many years - until its message becomes apparent to us in the Western world.