The Mirror Test
One of the ways we test consciousness in animals, including humans, is to show them a mirror. Animals capable of self awareness can recognize themselves and respond to changes in the reflection as if they recognize that the reflection is their body. Animals who are incapable of self-recognition attack or hide from the reflection, treating it as if it is a real animal.
This is a simplified explanation. Go fill the box with details from the link if you like. It’s not the only test for self-consciousness and it’s got a bit of cultural bias, but it’s a useful metaphor.
The mirror test applies well to one of the fundamental ideas in vodou: when you look at the world around you, do you see things which are fundamentally separate from you, or do you see something which has to do with you?
If you see things which are fundamentally different from you, things which cannot share a nature with you, you do as any animal does. You attack or hide—but humans tend to attack. They do what any social animal will do: they dehumanize (or treat something as if it is from a completely different category of thing which can and should be exploited). They deprive, removing access to resources from the different thing. And they physically attack, typically in small groups.
Rationale is far less important here than behavior, but it’s typically something visual: they look funny, it looks funny, etc.
If, however, you don’t see everything in terms of fundamental differences, it tends to result in accommodating and investigating behaviors. You can afford to be curious, in a world that isn’t full of things that are alien to you and boundaries you must uphold.
Don’t mistake this for a generic invitation to consider how we’re all alike. There is no particular attempt here to argue peace, love, and universal brotherhood. That which looks like you or that which you can acknowledge some similarities with can still kill you quite dead. To look alike or even to be alike is no assurance of safety.
God knows (other) white people have done me wrong over the years.
Instead, it is a question about perception: do you see a world of careful boundaries which must be maintained? Or do you see a world which has many similiarities without being generically the same?
If you see the second, you are a lot closer to vodou than the first. Just be aware that the mind does a lot of deceptive things with what the eyes can show you.
