The ancient Hermetic adage is so true: 'As Above, So below'.

Go to this link to witness the holistic nature of the cosmos: a wonderful journey.

With Thanks and Warmth to A. for this link.

As we witness this important transformational stage in sociocultural evolution, we see that both diversity and integration is necessary:

'An evolving social organism will tend to be characterized by the balanced unfolding of increasing levels of integration and differentiation, both within and across every level and are of society (from the local to the global scale).' Duane Elgin's Voluntary Simplicity (1981)

One response towards a networked global world is to see a shift from embedded, or mechanical, consciousness towards a self-reflective consciousness as a new basis for social relations. In the words of writer to Duane Elgin:

'A social system is composed of individuals. Thus, the behaviour of our social systems must of necessity mirror and embody the behaviour of the individuals who inhabit those systems... In contrast, the predictable outcome of self-regulating behaviour that flows from self-reflective consciousness seems to be a more gentle touching of people and the environment, coupled with a more self-organising social order at the grassroots level... the growth of social systems complexity is making the Conscious Evolution of consciousness necessary... as a society becomes ever more complex, and demands for self-regulating behaviour grow commensurately, that society must begin to draw out of its citizenry more expanded dimensions of human consciousness if it is to cope with that complexity democratically. In short, the growth of social complexity creates the necessity for an unfolding of human consciousness. This means that in order for a civilisation that is experiencing growing social complexity to continue to allow individuals to be relatively self-regulating, the individuals therein must develop their capacity to be effectively self-regulating at a pace at least equal to that at which the social order is becoming more complex.

Self- reflective consciousness moves from the status of a spiritual luxury for the few in a more rudimentary and fragmented social setting to that of a social necessity for the many in a highly complex and enormously enlarged social setting ... Self-reflective consciousness represents both a simple and a complex response to the problems of mounting social complexity.'

Here, we are seeing a call for increased social agency through an increase in social learning due to the increased availability of information. We are being encouraged to become more self reflexive, which in turn implies more individual self-remembering and to be more conscious in our moment-to-moment lives. In this manner, we can be more creative, constructive, and influential both in our own lives and within a more networked, collective life. This is maybe one approach towards what has been referred to as the 'collective social Mind'.

It is worth examining the phenomenon of blogging and mobile information users / receivers/ transmitters within this context of a more Conscious and Self- reflective, networked global world. It is my opinion that we, as individuals, need to become more conscious of our actions and to increase our self-consciousness within a participatory world.

There is now a snowballing movement to retell the flawed Darwinian story of evolution - a re-telling. This is one that involves cooperation over competition; collective mind over the individual-egoist; of conscious participation over powerless player.

I would highly recommend viewing The Darwin Project: they have a wonderful reading list for this area. Also, check out the General Evolutionary Research Group - GERG - also linked from that site:

'The General Evolution Research Group (GERG) began with a secret meeting in Budapest in 1984 of scientists from both sides of the Iron Curtain during a critical juncture in the Cold War. Spurred by the mounting threat to our species of rapid nuclear proliferation and overkill, the purpose was to see if it might be possible to use the chaos theory then coming into vogue to develop a new general theory of evolution that might serve as a road map for our species out of the mounting chaos of our times to the reassuring order of a better world.'

This 'emerging' worldview of our planetary evolution as an integrated system in no longer in the realm of the few: it is already a movement.

It is positive, uplifting, inspirational - and fully human.

The following is an extract from Barbera Marx Hubbard's 'Evolve' webpage.

What is Conscious Evolution?

Conscious Evolution is a new worldview that is now emerging rapidly and garnering worldwide interest and support. It acknowledges that humankind has attained unprecedented powers to affect, control and change the evolution of life on Earth.

In simple terms, Conscious Evolution means that we must improve our ability to use our powers ethically and effectively (consciously) to achieve a positive future (evolve).

Conscious Evolution is a new social/scientific/spiritual meta-discipline. This worldview has progressed from Einstein's early admonitions that humankind cannot solve our problems from the same place of consciousness in which we created them, through noted scientists and philosophers such as Julian Huxley, Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo, Abraham H. Maslow, Jonas Salk, to today's social scientists such as Bela H. Banathy, Hazel Henderson, Riane Eisler, Ervin Laszlo, Jean Houston, Duane Elgin, Edgar Mitchell, Ken Wilber, Peter Russell, Elisabet Sahtouris, Don Beck and many others who are building frameworks for practical application in health, governance, education, management, environment, science, the arts and media.

Bela H. Banathy, author of Guided Evolution of Society, offers this understanding of what Conscious Evolution is:

"It is a process by which we can individually and collectively take responsibility for our future.

It is a process of giving direction to the evolution of human systems by purposeful action.

And, most importantly, Conscious Evolution enables us, if we take responsibility for it, to use our creative power to guide our own lives and the evolution of the systems and the communities in which we live and work. It is a process by which individuals and groups, families, organizations, and societies can envision and create images of what should be, and bring those images to life by design."

Conscious Evolution is at the core a spiritually-motivated endeavor. Its precepts reside at the heart of every great faith, affirming that humans have the potential of being cocreators with Spirit, with the deeper patterns of nature and universal design.

Conscious Evolution is a social movement, a call to action that offers real hope for the world. In fact, it is a "movement of movements." It connects positive, life-enhancing initiatives and insights in every field leading toward a higher level of cooperative action. It stimulates learning, personal mastery and systems theory applied to social change. Above all, it brings forth practical visions of hope and fulfillment of humanities most profound aspirations.

Conscious Evolution as a new world view is a context for a meta-discipline composed of the growing edge of all disciplines seen as parts of a living whole. It may even set the framework for a “meta-religio,” an all-inclusive space in which the great faiths and wisdom traditions can contribute their unique gifts to the conscious evolution of humanity.

The promise of Conscious Evolution is nothing less than the emergence of a universal humanity capable of co-evolution with nature and cocreation with Spirit.