It seems a little strange that despite all the information we have, the knowledge gathered and claimed from centuries of historical experience, that we still haven't found how to put theory into action. The world both produced us and is produced by us. As was highlighted by the Gaia Theory - James Lovelock - the world came into being as a self-regulating organism in line with parameters of existence/maintenance set up by biological requirements. So , the world in this sense is a product of the needs of our earliest biological ancestors. Likewise, we, as a species, are born into a world with physiological faculties adapted to the existing environment: so we are also a product of the pre-existing environmental parameters - taken together, this suggests that both we and our world are symbiotically linked: we are one functioning organic whole. We are made in the image of the Universe itself. Yet why do we act as if we are separate from it?
Our understanding of the world must come through our perceptions - if we do not change the manner of our thinking, the world will not 'appear' to change for us. In this way, in order to 'change the world', we must first change ourselves. Or rather we need to change our way of thinking - this is why it is crucial to shift from a mechanistic Newtonian viewpoint, from one of separate parts, to a holistic understanding where everything fits in as part of ever dynamic processes and relationships that form an organic wholeness. If this can be achieved, then a perception of a sustainable world in balance will emerge. Our thinking at times is barbaric, held in check by fossilised beliefs and out-moded dogmas.
We are often unwilling to change because certainty is safe for us. Well, it used to be. Now it is in danger of becoming our downfall, because if we do not change our way of thinking and behaving, our global world is in danger of large-scale rape and instability. Certainty and static-ness is no longer a viable evolutionary trait.
We need to move our conscious into evolutionary drive in order to educate our thinking processes into better understanding the needs of our global predicament. We, as conscious custodians, must press the evolutionary process forward, and deliberately.
Check out the Worldwatch website in terms of ecological sustainability.
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Friday, April 09, 2004
Marshall McLuhan, the prescient commentator on culture expressed the rise of our electronic age, over 30 years ago, as:
'the electronic age is the age of ecology. It's the study and projection of the total environment of organisms and people, because of the instant coherence of all factors, made possible by moving information at electric speeds. Such speed of synchronise information has rendered, for example, both wheel and assembly line obsolescent... the age of implosion is the reverse of expansion. We begin to realise in the depths of our involvement in one another as a total Human community.'(Counterblast: 36-7)
-'the effect of extending the central nervous system is not to create a worldwide city of ever expanding Dimensions but rather a global village of ever-contracting size... the globe becomes a community of continuous learning, a single campus in which everybody, irrespective of age, is involved in learning a living. In the global village of continuous learning and of total participation in the human dialogue, the problem of settlement is to extend consciousness itself and to maximise the opportunities of learning.'(Counterblast:40-1)
Here, McLuhan is correctly envisioning how our technology is able to create a greater ecology by synchronising information between humans in order to foster an implosion of connectedness towards a 'total Human community'. Further, this global Human community is for the purposes of extending our consciousness towards increasing and maximising upon our opportunities for learning - yet learning together within a more coherent social mind.
Not only is this optimistic, prescient, and intuitive - it is also highly humanitarian, visionary - and a possible future scenerio if we - as a community of global thinkers - work towards the increased dissemination of information, knowledge, and activities towards an active participation in our own personal, and later social, evolution.
This is not a fantasy - it is a very real and great possibilitiy. We no longer have to live and die within forces beyond our control. We can learn how to push the buttons - yet the right buttons.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
I said in a previous post that 'As we witness this important transformational stage in sociocultural evolution, we see that both diversity and integration is necessary' - the words I used here to denote our position - 'as we witness' are misleading as it suggests that the evolutionary process is out of our hands, out of our choice, and importantly is a process that we are passive too.
This misleads us into viewing the evolutionary journey as being beyond us or outside of us - this is incorrect. We are the evolutionary journey: evolution is a creative transformation that involves us now as active participants.
We have arrived at a stage upon this long drawn-out process that we have the perceptive faculties to understand the processes of which we engage. It is about an evolution of our own intelligence, of our own conscious thinking, decisions, actions, as well as our involvement with the world around us.
The renowned ecologist Gregory Bateson wrote that:
"Darwin proposed a theory of natural selection and evolution in which the units of survival was either the family line or the species or sub-species or something of the sort. But today it is quite obvious that this is not the unit of survival in the real biological world. The units of survival is organism Plus environment. We are learning by bitter experience that the organism which destroys its environment destroys itself. If, now, we correct to the Darwinian a unit of survival to include the environment and the interaction between organism and environment, a very strange and surprising identity emerges: the unit of evolutionary survival turns out to be identical with the unit of mind."
Our choice is one of a collective 'unit of mind' - this is our social mind, one that is inherently in touch in a global sense due to our rapidly evolving communication systems - our future evolution is one that must take into account 'the environment and the interaction between organism and environment'. We are not separate from our surroundings, nor are our actions free from responsibility to our environment.
It is our choice: as Ervin Laszlo stated (see 'Club of Budapest') - it is either Evolution or Extinction.
The evolving social mind requires our consciously evolved intelligence to guide the future direction and future goals. We can be co-creators now, as we co-evolve.
This misleads us into viewing the evolutionary journey as being beyond us or outside of us - this is incorrect. We are the evolutionary journey: evolution is a creative transformation that involves us now as active participants.
We have arrived at a stage upon this long drawn-out process that we have the perceptive faculties to understand the processes of which we engage. It is about an evolution of our own intelligence, of our own conscious thinking, decisions, actions, as well as our involvement with the world around us.
The renowned ecologist Gregory Bateson wrote that:
"Darwin proposed a theory of natural selection and evolution in which the units of survival was either the family line or the species or sub-species or something of the sort. But today it is quite obvious that this is not the unit of survival in the real biological world. The units of survival is organism Plus environment. We are learning by bitter experience that the organism which destroys its environment destroys itself. If, now, we correct to the Darwinian a unit of survival to include the environment and the interaction between organism and environment, a very strange and surprising identity emerges: the unit of evolutionary survival turns out to be identical with the unit of mind."
Our choice is one of a collective 'unit of mind' - this is our social mind, one that is inherently in touch in a global sense due to our rapidly evolving communication systems - our future evolution is one that must take into account 'the environment and the interaction between organism and environment'. We are not separate from our surroundings, nor are our actions free from responsibility to our environment.
It is our choice: as Ervin Laszlo stated (see 'Club of Budapest') - it is either Evolution or Extinction.
The evolving social mind requires our consciously evolved intelligence to guide the future direction and future goals. We can be co-creators now, as we co-evolve.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
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.
Go to this link to witness the holistic nature of the cosmos: a wonderful journey.
With Thanks and Warmth to A. for this link.
Saturday, March 20, 2004
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)
'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.
'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.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
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.
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.
Monday, March 01, 2004
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
If humanity does form a whole - a 'networked humanity', then what are the implications?
Synergy: "A release of free energy can occur when a group of parts or symbiants, inspired by a common aim, join together to form a whole" (Barry McWaters - Institute for the Study of Conscious Evolution).
Synergy is an emergent property that is greater than the sum of its intelligent parts. If each symbiant (part) has access to, and use of, shared information: then what are the implications for an emergence of a whole that is greater than such already globally-shared information?
It may be that this is a stage towards what is considered a new decentered democracy. A participatory global governance that will no longer tolerate the actions of a few narrow-minded elite bent on greed and childish domination? Perhaps the oft-mentioned 'New World Order' will be one of a finer perceptive consciousness rather than the linear and shallow one currently manifested by incumbent parties.
Optimistic? Sure - yet the world is a manifestation of energies that are themselves only thought-forms. Thus, what first begins within the collective imagination can have a life both within the physical realm of shared informational structures, as well as having an influence upon physical forms through an emergent synergistic energy.
That is something well worth 'thinking' about.
Synergy: "A release of free energy can occur when a group of parts or symbiants, inspired by a common aim, join together to form a whole" (Barry McWaters - Institute for the Study of Conscious Evolution).
Synergy is an emergent property that is greater than the sum of its intelligent parts. If each symbiant (part) has access to, and use of, shared information: then what are the implications for an emergence of a whole that is greater than such already globally-shared information?
It may be that this is a stage towards what is considered a new decentered democracy. A participatory global governance that will no longer tolerate the actions of a few narrow-minded elite bent on greed and childish domination? Perhaps the oft-mentioned 'New World Order' will be one of a finer perceptive consciousness rather than the linear and shallow one currently manifested by incumbent parties.
Optimistic? Sure - yet the world is a manifestation of energies that are themselves only thought-forms. Thus, what first begins within the collective imagination can have a life both within the physical realm of shared informational structures, as well as having an influence upon physical forms through an emergent synergistic energy.
That is something well worth 'thinking' about.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Much talk is now centered around our next great 'evolutionary step' forward. Whilst some have put this firmly in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) domain, there is also the argument of IA (Intelligence Acceleration). One way to see this is a merging of information technology and the human, so that a 'superorganism' will be achieved. One that will have instant access to information and thus the 'two heads are better than one' will be exponentially increased to a 'global' head.
An interesting essay to this end is Evolution & The Internet: towards a networked humanity.
It is possible that a symbiosis may be the result of the 'Technological Singularity' - a merging of intelligent humans/machines rather than as a race of machines that take over. The singularity could more likely be a mesh - a symbiosis - between humans and their use of intelligent artifacts in order to foster their own intelligence acceleration instead of passing the intelligence over to silicon agents.
In short, the human still has much growth left. Only if we consider the potential from an external point of view will the alternative of machine-intelligence seem the most plausible. If we can recognise the inherent possibilities within increased information within the human species, and the acceleration in intelligence this could produce, then the future of human evolution is with the wise.
As Jonas Salk - the Nobel discoverer of the Polio vaccine - put it: our future will be about the survival of the wisest.
An interesting essay to this end is Evolution & The Internet: towards a networked humanity.
It is possible that a symbiosis may be the result of the 'Technological Singularity' - a merging of intelligent humans/machines rather than as a race of machines that take over. The singularity could more likely be a mesh - a symbiosis - between humans and their use of intelligent artifacts in order to foster their own intelligence acceleration instead of passing the intelligence over to silicon agents.
In short, the human still has much growth left. Only if we consider the potential from an external point of view will the alternative of machine-intelligence seem the most plausible. If we can recognise the inherent possibilities within increased information within the human species, and the acceleration in intelligence this could produce, then the future of human evolution is with the wise.
As Jonas Salk - the Nobel discoverer of the Polio vaccine - put it: our future will be about the survival of the wisest.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Since we are on the subject of information, it is obvious to those of us who take a look around at our surroundings that we are immersed in information. And this information-atmosphere is increasing exponentially as communication flows are becoming increasingly networked. People are sharing information now like never before: and this has had, and will continue to exert, a profound effect upon social dynamics. Not only are people interacting with more people than they would usually in terms of physical meeting, but ideas - memes - are being transfered which, in turn, raises the level of shared awareness.
This notion of the shared 'personal' has been greatly enhanced with the blogging phenomena, as more and more blogs are getting linked. In turn I should like to mention the sites of two of my colleagues: Jyri; and Christian.
This notion of the shared 'personal' has been greatly enhanced with the blogging phenomena, as more and more blogs are getting linked. In turn I should like to mention the sites of two of my colleagues: Jyri; and Christian.
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Information is the key. Information is what emerges as the key to evolution. What is information? Is it knowing something about the dog races - which will win? Information is coded within each of us, yet its emergent capacities are only effective through connectivity. Just as the heart is essential to the overall fucntion of our body; take it out and both it, as a separate organ, and ourselves as a whole body, dies. It is this necessary interrelationship that allows information to be shared and conscious through its own connectivity. This is why we are all, each one of us, dependent upon connections that we are often not aware of. Thus, all matter is likewise connected. The property of self-consciousness emerges when the level of connectivity within any system is at a heightened peak of complexity. The human brain, with its hundreds of billions of firing neuronal connections is exactly this model of peak complexity. From this self-organised complexity comes our experience of adaptive cognition - self-consciouness. DNA has planned for this level of relational connectivity. As information in the world is likewise connected through greater networks of communication, eg. Internet, this will help to raise the information --> knowledge --> consciousness of society in general. This, it is hoped, will play a major role in guiding us towards our self-evolutionary future. This is the early stage of our expected transformation.
As has been previously mentioned:
We are at a crucial stage in our development and the time for thinking about responsibilities, yet not acting upon them is past. As President Harry Truman once famously declared: ‘The buck stops here.’ Well, that buck was on the desk of one man – today’s buck reaches to every one of us, irrespective of country, race, gender, religion, or status. This new ‘buck’ is the collective choice we face concerning the future evolution not only of our species, but also of the Earth and all living forms included.
Every epoch has fashioned a corresponding mind-set, and frames of consciousness that have provided a functional use. The earlier mythic conceptions of a sacred world dominated by unseen forces and humankind’s integral relationship with powerful nature developed into a theistic consciousness. Here, divine authority on earth was conscripted into hierarchical dynastic rule as a governing device. This theistic mind-set became assimilated into the Logos concept of a divinely ordered cosmos with an ultimate prime-mover. This belief of an ordered cosmos soon evolved into the Enlightenment’s mechanistic ‘clockwork’ view of the universe where science sought to prove that natural laws held the world under linear domination. This materialistic mind-set has brought us up to the present moment. Now it is no longer of functional use. Rather, if it carries us any further, we are liable to become its victims.
An evolution of consciousness is required. I don’t mean this in any mystico-esoteric sense. I mean it in a very real and practical way. For the past 300 years society has provided us with a worldview and belief-system that sees the ideas of ‘survival of the fittest’, the sense of competition, and of conquest, colonisation, and consumption, as the main ideals. This materialistic conception has seen a rapid contamination of the world we share and has placed us on an evolutionary path to extinction. The next shift must involve a conscious decision to evolve our understanding, worldview, and wisdom, through intensive evolution rather than an extensive one. Intensive evolution replaces such obsolete material beliefs with ones concentrating on connection, communication, and consciousness. The energy inherent in inter-connectedness works on an exponential scale: that is, it develops at ever increasing rates. This is why in history most of our profound innovations have been the work of single, or minority, action. A conscious action produces an exponentially increased effect. Ghandi was right when he said: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ When you change yourself, you change the immediate world around you; those close to you, and the events you participate in.
An increased degree of communication through connection fosters an increased involvement of consciousness – and consciousness evolves through use, and latent properties are more likely to emerge when stimulated, just like a car operates better when warmed up. Again, this lies more in the realm of common sense than ‘strange goings-on’. Our era has shifted where we need to unburden ourselves of these obsolete and superstitious beliefs. True knowledge is sense that is not yet common, rather than esoteric or otherworldly. Science today, with its quantum theories of the ‘zero-point’ and ‘quantum vacuum’ provides greater understanding of our place in the present universe than at any time in our recorded history. Should we not be making use of this information? It is time to educate ourselves and to do our duty by changing ourselves first.
Thus, human contact and communication --> co-operation. Co-operation gives us Synergy. And synergy is the effect of combined action which is greater than the sum of its parts. As a whole, with unity, we can achieve things beyond that available to us as individuals. The next shift on our evolutionary path requires an evolution in consciousness, and we can all play our part. It requires inner-reflection, mindfulness, co-operation, and living in a harmonious and respectful way with others and with our environment. It doesn’t require any great sacrifices or burning of books: simply, it is living in accordance with our developmental needs rather than our wants. As one thinker has put it: ‘Live simply so that others may simply live.’ And living simply is evolving ourselves – our conscious awareness and understanding - to be in a harmonious relationship within a grander cosmic harmony. The ‘buck’ stops with us. Let’s do a good job of it.
For a more detailed discussion of these ideas, see: Ervin Laszlo, ‘Macroshift’ (2001)
We are at a crucial stage in our development and the time for thinking about responsibilities, yet not acting upon them is past. As President Harry Truman once famously declared: ‘The buck stops here.’ Well, that buck was on the desk of one man – today’s buck reaches to every one of us, irrespective of country, race, gender, religion, or status. This new ‘buck’ is the collective choice we face concerning the future evolution not only of our species, but also of the Earth and all living forms included.
Every epoch has fashioned a corresponding mind-set, and frames of consciousness that have provided a functional use. The earlier mythic conceptions of a sacred world dominated by unseen forces and humankind’s integral relationship with powerful nature developed into a theistic consciousness. Here, divine authority on earth was conscripted into hierarchical dynastic rule as a governing device. This theistic mind-set became assimilated into the Logos concept of a divinely ordered cosmos with an ultimate prime-mover. This belief of an ordered cosmos soon evolved into the Enlightenment’s mechanistic ‘clockwork’ view of the universe where science sought to prove that natural laws held the world under linear domination. This materialistic mind-set has brought us up to the present moment. Now it is no longer of functional use. Rather, if it carries us any further, we are liable to become its victims.
An evolution of consciousness is required. I don’t mean this in any mystico-esoteric sense. I mean it in a very real and practical way. For the past 300 years society has provided us with a worldview and belief-system that sees the ideas of ‘survival of the fittest’, the sense of competition, and of conquest, colonisation, and consumption, as the main ideals. This materialistic conception has seen a rapid contamination of the world we share and has placed us on an evolutionary path to extinction. The next shift must involve a conscious decision to evolve our understanding, worldview, and wisdom, through intensive evolution rather than an extensive one. Intensive evolution replaces such obsolete material beliefs with ones concentrating on connection, communication, and consciousness. The energy inherent in inter-connectedness works on an exponential scale: that is, it develops at ever increasing rates. This is why in history most of our profound innovations have been the work of single, or minority, action. A conscious action produces an exponentially increased effect. Ghandi was right when he said: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ When you change yourself, you change the immediate world around you; those close to you, and the events you participate in.
An increased degree of communication through connection fosters an increased involvement of consciousness – and consciousness evolves through use, and latent properties are more likely to emerge when stimulated, just like a car operates better when warmed up. Again, this lies more in the realm of common sense than ‘strange goings-on’. Our era has shifted where we need to unburden ourselves of these obsolete and superstitious beliefs. True knowledge is sense that is not yet common, rather than esoteric or otherworldly. Science today, with its quantum theories of the ‘zero-point’ and ‘quantum vacuum’ provides greater understanding of our place in the present universe than at any time in our recorded history. Should we not be making use of this information? It is time to educate ourselves and to do our duty by changing ourselves first.
Thus, human contact and communication --> co-operation. Co-operation gives us Synergy. And synergy is the effect of combined action which is greater than the sum of its parts. As a whole, with unity, we can achieve things beyond that available to us as individuals. The next shift on our evolutionary path requires an evolution in consciousness, and we can all play our part. It requires inner-reflection, mindfulness, co-operation, and living in a harmonious and respectful way with others and with our environment. It doesn’t require any great sacrifices or burning of books: simply, it is living in accordance with our developmental needs rather than our wants. As one thinker has put it: ‘Live simply so that others may simply live.’ And living simply is evolving ourselves – our conscious awareness and understanding - to be in a harmonious relationship within a grander cosmic harmony. The ‘buck’ stops with us. Let’s do a good job of it.
For a more detailed discussion of these ideas, see: Ervin Laszlo, ‘Macroshift’ (2001)
As has been stated before: The concept of conscious evolution to a stage where each part, or human, is an integral and interrelated part of the whole is an idea that is organically evolving within our mass mind. Now science is able to embrace this concept through delving into the psi-field of an integrated whole reality. As an evolving species, we are encouraged to work together as a synthesis, towards this synergy, or gestalt: where the whole is greater than its sum, and thus leads to emerging properties of the whole.
One area of research here is the 'global brain' phenomenon. Once the vanguard of peripheral thinkers (see Peter Russell's 'Earth Awakening: The Global Brain'), it is now fast becoming the ken of respected researchers: one recent example being Howard Bloom's 'The Global Brain', or Gregory Stock's 'Metaman'.
As parts of a larger system, humans can evolve into a conscious network and, using an apt analogy, may serve to become a planetary nervous system. Since univeral order is within a hierarchy, each stage evolving in complexity towards the next, we all exhibit characteristics of those systems above and below us, thus echoing the Hermetic adage As Above, So Below.
What concerns us now is functionality. And we can only function in accordance with our level of knowledge and capacity. We cannot be told what is, or what needs to be done: we can only be guided until that understanding becomes an inherant part of ourselves. Then we have an organic sense of how we should act to fit in with the dynamic whole.
Yet we can modify our base behaviours through observation and monitoring of oneself; to clear one's mind of trappings and junk in order to allow these new thoughts to penetrate. To contemplate and to kick-start the mind into thinking, delving, probing, questioning, and reaching out further beyond the confines of flesh and received-knowledge. We may think we learn, yet often we learn rote without the thinking. We should aim towards a conscious digestion of information. Like eating good food, be aware of it going in and its digestion. Use our capacities rather than leaving them to the junkyard of the sapians.
Open oneself up to synergy, empathy, and an awareness beyond the confines of the self. Think in terms of generations rather than immediate moments; into stages of species life rather than the slide into one's own old age. Think beyond oneself whilst including oneself.
Be conscious of ourselves as a part and simultaneously as a whole.
One area of research here is the 'global brain' phenomenon. Once the vanguard of peripheral thinkers (see Peter Russell's 'Earth Awakening: The Global Brain'), it is now fast becoming the ken of respected researchers: one recent example being Howard Bloom's 'The Global Brain', or Gregory Stock's 'Metaman'.
As parts of a larger system, humans can evolve into a conscious network and, using an apt analogy, may serve to become a planetary nervous system. Since univeral order is within a hierarchy, each stage evolving in complexity towards the next, we all exhibit characteristics of those systems above and below us, thus echoing the Hermetic adage As Above, So Below.
What concerns us now is functionality. And we can only function in accordance with our level of knowledge and capacity. We cannot be told what is, or what needs to be done: we can only be guided until that understanding becomes an inherant part of ourselves. Then we have an organic sense of how we should act to fit in with the dynamic whole.
Yet we can modify our base behaviours through observation and monitoring of oneself; to clear one's mind of trappings and junk in order to allow these new thoughts to penetrate. To contemplate and to kick-start the mind into thinking, delving, probing, questioning, and reaching out further beyond the confines of flesh and received-knowledge. We may think we learn, yet often we learn rote without the thinking. We should aim towards a conscious digestion of information. Like eating good food, be aware of it going in and its digestion. Use our capacities rather than leaving them to the junkyard of the sapians.
Open oneself up to synergy, empathy, and an awareness beyond the confines of the self. Think in terms of generations rather than immediate moments; into stages of species life rather than the slide into one's own old age. Think beyond oneself whilst including oneself.
Be conscious of ourselves as a part and simultaneously as a whole.
Saturday, January 31, 2004
"We now enter a period wherein the goal of individual salvation is no longer appropriate. Our guidance calls for a collective transformation...The present recognition of our emergent collective consciousness represents a quantum transformation in human evolution."
"While much of human consciousness is still caught in a separative, alienated condition, significant numbers of individuals and groups are consciously working toward critical mass. When just the right quantity and quality of catalytic influence is reached, the entire process will be affected."
These are some quotes taken from Conscious Evolution by Barry McWaters (Evolutionary Press, 1982)
The movement has been growing for some time. As McWaters said - 'Applications accepted - inquire within!'
"While much of human consciousness is still caught in a separative, alienated condition, significant numbers of individuals and groups are consciously working toward critical mass. When just the right quantity and quality of catalytic influence is reached, the entire process will be affected."
These are some quotes taken from Conscious Evolution by Barry McWaters (Evolutionary Press, 1982)
The movement has been growing for some time. As McWaters said - 'Applications accepted - inquire within!'
FAITH TAKES YOU TO MANY STRANGE PLACES
You asked me how I came to be here:
Well, my friend, Faith in something or one
Takes you to many strange places.
10.38pm
14.12.98
TRAVELLING
There are places to travel to
And other places to travel from;
Understand what must be left behind
Before you can find the One.
9.40pm
27.12.98
You asked me how I came to be here:
Well, my friend, Faith in something or one
Takes you to many strange places.
10.38pm
14.12.98
TRAVELLING
There are places to travel to
And other places to travel from;
Understand what must be left behind
Before you can find the One.
9.40pm
27.12.98
Friday, January 30, 2004
Part of the journey of inner development is about attaining the correct balance: in our mental, emotional, and physical worlds. Since consciousness is the core of all materiality, then our mental, emotional, and physical spheres are merely the different states of consciousness. In this respect there is the great possibility of being dominant in one area for the detriment of others. We see this in ourselves and others: we may be too intellectual and suppress our emotional nature, or let the emotional centre steer us and over-ride mental common-sense.
Evolution is not so much a linear progression towards some 'end-point' but rather an expansion that incorporates all that we already have known, and more. By moving forward, this gives us the false 'human' impression that we are leaving things behind - evolution is rather an expansion that incorporates and not an acquiring and discarding step. Think of our brains, how since our earliest reptilian brain, at the base, has been added to successively as our species developed - we still have that reptilian brain deep within is - we have incorporated it within our expansion. So too is our awareness of conscious evolution an integration of the constant evolutionary process that has brought us to this point from our earliest cosmic beginnings.
What is important about the next stage is that we can participate as conscious actors. Yet to do so requires that we expand our thought processes, our mental set, our spiritual being, and expand our understanding of universal processes. One path requires inward travel: the other requires that we balance our outer lives so that all our faculties are in a harmonious relationship. We are neither too intellectual, emotional, or physical; nor are we too introvert or extrovert.
Nothing is separate -this is another fallacy. All is joined together: everything that exists is in constant interaction with multiple forces. In this sense we all affect each other - yet if you're looking for the cables....you won't find them.
There is nothing to lose but your self - and this is the self of separateness. There is nothing to fear except fear itself. Our conscious environment is inherently connected in all and every sense - nothing is left out. What we require is an expansion of understanding to incorporate this new perceptual paradigm. Everything we do comes back to us for all living, experience, thoughts, and emotions are entwined.
So, with right thought and right action we can influence both near, far, connected, and seemingly unconnected events and further this connectedness. It is about contact with the greater whole - maintain, and continue to maintain that contact - it is truly an expansion of the self into the Self.
Evolution is not so much a linear progression towards some 'end-point' but rather an expansion that incorporates all that we already have known, and more. By moving forward, this gives us the false 'human' impression that we are leaving things behind - evolution is rather an expansion that incorporates and not an acquiring and discarding step. Think of our brains, how since our earliest reptilian brain, at the base, has been added to successively as our species developed - we still have that reptilian brain deep within is - we have incorporated it within our expansion. So too is our awareness of conscious evolution an integration of the constant evolutionary process that has brought us to this point from our earliest cosmic beginnings.
What is important about the next stage is that we can participate as conscious actors. Yet to do so requires that we expand our thought processes, our mental set, our spiritual being, and expand our understanding of universal processes. One path requires inward travel: the other requires that we balance our outer lives so that all our faculties are in a harmonious relationship. We are neither too intellectual, emotional, or physical; nor are we too introvert or extrovert.
Nothing is separate -this is another fallacy. All is joined together: everything that exists is in constant interaction with multiple forces. In this sense we all affect each other - yet if you're looking for the cables....you won't find them.
There is nothing to lose but your self - and this is the self of separateness. There is nothing to fear except fear itself. Our conscious environment is inherently connected in all and every sense - nothing is left out. What we require is an expansion of understanding to incorporate this new perceptual paradigm. Everything we do comes back to us for all living, experience, thoughts, and emotions are entwined.
So, with right thought and right action we can influence both near, far, connected, and seemingly unconnected events and further this connectedness. It is about contact with the greater whole - maintain, and continue to maintain that contact - it is truly an expansion of the self into the Self.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
The present material paradigm, or mindset, is one that places matter as the primary source, with consciousness as a product of matter. Look at the universe – its atomic particles are the building blocks for all form. Consciousness then is a self-reflexive awareness that emerges from a specific level of intelligence – or is it? The popular explanation is that humans have such a complex degree of neuronal activity, such an intricate and complex brain activity, so that consciousness emerges from the firing of these billions of interconnecting neurons….
Well – lets look at a different hypothesis: matter is a product of consciousness. The universe is conscious because it is a manifestation of consciousness. All matter thus has the capacity to connect with this universal consciousness. How then are we conscious? The fact is, we don’t have consciousness – we only tune in to it. We don’t have consciousness any more than a radio has the music.
Our central nervous system is not the producer of consciousness, as some may think, but is the antenna for receiving the consciousness we are living within. It’s like the young fish who go to the old wise fish to ask where this thing called water is… we don’t perceive consciousness because, like the fish, we’re living in it – it is the medium of our existence, and our material form is the construction that our perceptions create for us. We breathe it, yet recognise it not.
Evolution may in fact not be concerned so much with material development but rather with a convergence towards consciousness. The growth of intelligence towards self-reflexivity and conscience can be seen, in an alternative way, as a precursor towards recognition and, finally, integration with the consciousness behind materiality; rather than as a tool for integrating with material structures. Seen in this light, our evolutionary trajectory is towards immateriality, rather than more evolved technological materiality.
Well – lets look at a different hypothesis: matter is a product of consciousness. The universe is conscious because it is a manifestation of consciousness. All matter thus has the capacity to connect with this universal consciousness. How then are we conscious? The fact is, we don’t have consciousness – we only tune in to it. We don’t have consciousness any more than a radio has the music.
Our central nervous system is not the producer of consciousness, as some may think, but is the antenna for receiving the consciousness we are living within. It’s like the young fish who go to the old wise fish to ask where this thing called water is… we don’t perceive consciousness because, like the fish, we’re living in it – it is the medium of our existence, and our material form is the construction that our perceptions create for us. We breathe it, yet recognise it not.
Evolution may in fact not be concerned so much with material development but rather with a convergence towards consciousness. The growth of intelligence towards self-reflexivity and conscience can be seen, in an alternative way, as a precursor towards recognition and, finally, integration with the consciousness behind materiality; rather than as a tool for integrating with material structures. Seen in this light, our evolutionary trajectory is towards immateriality, rather than more evolved technological materiality.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Evolution of consciousness and conscious evolution are two distinct concepts: the former deals with the development of consciousness through species evolution. The latter refers to the conscious participation within evolutionary processes.
It is with the latter that this site is dedicated to. Humankind are energy receivers-transmitters, and as such we are capable of receiving chaotic energies and transmitting harmonious one. Evolution, after all, is concerned with harmony. Despite the disorderly manner of evolutionary jumps, there is an inherent harmony, or equilibrium, with such disorder (see complexity studies). Part of our service within conscious evolution is to maintain this harmonious balance - the opposite of entropy - by dealing in the transmittance of positive and balanced energies, to ourselves, those around us, and the environment we are in.
Unity is a fundamental concept to this evolutionary process. So is correspondence - the idea that all levels of existence adhere to the same laws and principles: the 'As Above, So Below' of the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. Yet our first priority is to correspond within ourselves.
Do we function as a true human being with unity of harmony in all processes?
It is with the latter that this site is dedicated to. Humankind are energy receivers-transmitters, and as such we are capable of receiving chaotic energies and transmitting harmonious one. Evolution, after all, is concerned with harmony. Despite the disorderly manner of evolutionary jumps, there is an inherent harmony, or equilibrium, with such disorder (see complexity studies). Part of our service within conscious evolution is to maintain this harmonious balance - the opposite of entropy - by dealing in the transmittance of positive and balanced energies, to ourselves, those around us, and the environment we are in.
Unity is a fundamental concept to this evolutionary process. So is correspondence - the idea that all levels of existence adhere to the same laws and principles: the 'As Above, So Below' of the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. Yet our first priority is to correspond within ourselves.
Do we function as a true human being with unity of harmony in all processes?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)