ABSTRACT
My intention in this essay is to suggest that essentially the same account of existence is given by 1) the ecological world picture, 2) poetic analogy and metaphor, and 3) the world-view of mystical philosophy. This account of existence is not the one we are normally educated into taking for granted, nor the one we might most immediately associate with scientific method. And looking at any of the three areas in isolation we might expect them not only to have little in common but rather to exclude one another. However, the 'holistic logic'2 of ecology would suggest the contrary: its premisses apply not only to environmental issues but with equal force in culture and in the effects of culture on individuals.
