We all act according to our consciousness of the world around us, not to actually what there is, for nothing is what it seems .The whole creation, the things we take for granted because we can see, touch and feel them, are but one aspect of energy transformed into matter; matter itself is an illusive, whirling phenomenon of energy in the form of waves or particles. What creates the illusion of consistency is consciousness , the awareness of the surrounding to which all living things react.
If there had been a reality apart from our conception of the world, cultures would have been more uniform, instead every culture has its own interpretation, its own beliefs.
For instance, the story of creation, of how life came to be on this planet, presented by different cultures and science itself, is not the ultimate truth, but it gives meaning to the world we see as real.
Lately the speculations of philosophers, of scientists and of religious leaders have been converging to create one coherent picture of creation stemming from different points of view.
Every living thing has its own sense of the world that surrounds it and interacts with it through the information it takes in, chemical or otherwise. It is a sort of an environmental map that enables it to  survive and fulfill its function in the great web of life.

From microbes to all other living things , each is a system of its own, capable of interacting with its environment through what affects its behavior.
Microbes are directly linked with their surrounding, any stimulation from their environment triggers a behavior response.
 In animals an elaborate nervous system has been evolved to enable the creature to interact in ways that enables it to survive  and make its own contribution within the web of life. The nervous system became more complex with each stage in evolution.
 Every species, with the exception of human beings, act according to a built-in environmental map that determines its behavior. Humans are free to make their own choice and form their own beliefs, which in turn influence their behavior .
 In social species a whole chain of interactions comes into play between the senses and behavior as by a kind of social brain or language shaped by social interaction.
Language is at the heart of our humanity, it shapes our beliefs and view of the world around us through stored information passed on to subsequent generations.
Written language in particular has spurred the changes of our image of the world and of ourselves with stored information and new knowledge continuously adding to, or altering our concepts of reality.
Being free minded we form our own concept of the world around us according to our personal experience and cultural inculcation. A change in our ways of seeing the world affects all the structural pattern of information, which in turn affects our belief, our behavior  and our decisions.
Both religion and science not only influence our view of the world around us, they directly influence our belief, our ideas, our culture, our ethical and our political points of view. But knowledge opens our mind, and can change even our most sacrosanct belief, which in turn affect our behavior and the choices we make.
There is a powerful relation between people’s belief  and the society they form.
Disagreement between people who believe in a certain religion or political view has been the cause of wars and terrible human suffering since the era of the conquering nomads, which by imposing their own religion and mentality on the conquered people, changed the destiny of mankind.
 People are reluctant to change their cultural conviction because it makes sense to them, losing that belief is like losing their sense of the world they live in.
Communities  which for untold generations had been living peacefully and self sufficient, with rules and values that gave them stability and a strong sense of belonging, they fell prey to many social evils after  succumbing to the influence of the West through colonialism that affected their culture and weakened their social life-structure.

Consequently they became overpopulated, conflict ridden, miserable, dependent, poor and destitute.
The destruction of their sense of community was further aggravated by urbanization and industrialization, which made them totally dependent on wages. The end result of formally healthy, thriving community-systems has been  the urban slum and people on the edge of starvation.
Only those people, who in spite of everything have been retaining their belief and strong sense of community survived; in regaining their freedom they even thrive.
The great thing about our mind-brain is that “it is free”.
  We can learn from nature ,as we can learn from our different points of view and concepts; this is why cultural diversities are so important , indeed indispensable to our development.
Every culture has its own unique language, customs and beliefs; the sharing of cultural experiences could enrich us all.
In some niches of our planet there are some communities living close to nature, still untouched by modern civilization. They regard nature as sacred and behave with reverence and respect towards all living things and themselves.
 There is equity and peace among them; social maladies plaguing modern societies, such as cheating, corruption, crime and cruelty are unknown to them.
Indigenous observations over centuries, passed on to subsequent generations have generated laws of relationship from which modern man can learn, and would help him to regain harmony with nature.
For instance the geological and meteorological observations of the Hopi (people of North America) led to their understanding that underground copper deposits act as a lightening rod that draw down the lightening from the clouds, causing the rain to fall. When the European settlers began to mine the copper, they disrupted the connection and dryness set-in in the region.
The Amazon Kayapo and other rain-forest people, whose  techniques of burning small forest areas to grow their food for few years, then move on to other areas of the forest, was seen as a destructive practice, till  scientists realized that such a technique is actually promoting the health of the forest.
The Kayapo grow in their gardens plants and trees that ensures the rapid regrowth of the forest in such areas.
At the same time the charcoal produced during the burning of the forest, mixed with the soil makes the area very fertile.
 This observation led some scientists  to an important breakthrough  in disposing of city-garbage to produce green energy and use “Biochar”, the by-product of incineration with reduced oxygen, to fertilize the soil .

Biochar is not only an excellent fertilizer, it absorbs a higher quantity of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is the main cause of global warming. At the same time plants growing in the soil mixed with Biochar, emit a lower amount of carbon dioxide than plants growing in normal soil.
With the aid of the “Ayahuasca”, an hallucinogen made from several varieties of Banisteriopsis vine, Amazon healers can diagnose in details the physiological problem of their patients, curing them of even terminal illnesses. They also can transfer their knowledge telepathically to others, and communicate with other species of living things. 
The ancient Polynesian navigators could sail the Pacific Ocean for thousands of years without the use of compass. At night they navigated by the stars; by day they observed the position of the sun in the sky.
They also had sophisticated knowledge of both deep and surface currents, of cloud and weather patterns and of fish and birds migrations.

 They could detect magnetic fields directly in their own bodies to give them compass direction, as migratory birds and other animals do, and could sense their proximity to land.
All indigenous people have one thing in common — they all regard nature as sacred and reflect their sacredness of nature on to their contact with others.
 The sacred is to be treated with outmost respect. To have a sacred contact is to care for, to protect and to give back something useful to other species in a harmonious balance of interaction that can only promote stability and prosperity.

Diversity is essential for any living system’s survival and development.
Indigenous practices can be extremely useful to the survival of the human species, helping modern technology to achieve harmony with nature through an ecologically sustainable development.
For instance a sustainable agriculture based on traditional techniques has been proved to be far better than hi-tech farming, which when applied proved to be disastrous, besides being very costly.  Mutual, cooperative diversity is the secret of nature’s success.
The conflict between the individual and collective interest preceded the organization of individual bacteria into “Portists” (the Cell prototype) and the organization of multi-cellular creatures from “Protists.”
Each cell is a living system looking after its own interest, protecting and feeding itself and reproducing, but the organ of which it is part has also its own interest , as does the body of which the organ is part.
 Self interest at every level of interaction leads to negotiation and cooperation, it is a situation that benefit every part and leads to peace and prosperity.
Humanity has reached a stage of development in which it is opening its mind to the lesson it can learn from nature to regain stability through a harmonious interaction with nature and with its kind.