Spiritual Renaissance

Human beings also function as energy nodes within the ‘human grid’. We receive, store, and distribute energy amongst ourselves. As open systems, energy is information, and vice-versa. In this context it is important to realise that this energy can be used to fuel individual self-development. The more focused a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, the finer the quality of energy. Much of our energy is lost daily through wasted emotions; when anger, fear, and other corruptive manifestations become assertive and exaggerated. At all times the negative seeks to embolden itself, to present itself as being greater than it is. Again, this is because there is always less negative inside us at all times in comparison to the positive. Thus, the negative needs to pretend it is worse than it actually is if it is to have any chance of great influence over the person. This is something to make ourselves constantly aware of: we can be food for the negative as well as the positive. As in ecology, everything is someone else’s food!

When confronted with an unpleasant event or issue we can ask ourselves: ‘is this a problem or a situation?’ It may help to remember that every problem is also a situation, but not every situation is a problem. By finding out which is which we will have a better basis from which to act upon. With an increase in information and awareness comes a parallel increase in responsibility. We have a responsibility to ourselves, to others, and to our earthly and cosmic environment. As each of us develops according to our own capacity we may feel a strong desire to pass this on to others. Yet it is important that we talk to others in accordance with their level of understanding. There are likely to be times when we feel frustrated that other people are not ‘seeing’ things correctly; that they are not ‘understanding’ the evident truths. In periods of chaotic change, people often search for the tried and tested, the trusted and secure. For many, notions of evolutionary transformation and energetic change will seem nothing more than abstract fantasy: the hallucinations of a mind losing its reality-grip. Fine: all things come to those in their own time. What is important is that necessary energy is not needlessly wasted through vain or egoistic efforts. Frustration and haste can easily eat away at one’s own energy reserves, resulting in the person becoming less effective and functional. This is of no benefit to anyone. As in all endeavours, preparation and timing are essential factors. As Ali (fourth Caliph of Islam) is credited as saying: ‘Three things once gone are gone forever: the word spoken in haste; the arrow once sped from the bow; the missed opportunity’.

Increased acceleration of events is upon us, yet haste will be against us. A spiritual renaissance in the minds and hearts of more and more people will spread as physical events unfold to reveal their duplicity. In this awakening let us be assured that when we strive to develop and lift ourselves, we indirectly yet significantly also lift our world and those around us. In essence, spiritual realization is about realizing the spirit of others.

 

Everything will change. Yet humanity will continue, albeit in a different way. Our material structures will change, be transformed, and from this we will have the opportunity to become more human. These are the words of Maya indigenous elders who have anticipated these changes for a long time. It is time for a renewal of the spirit. By this, it is not meant that people should flock to spiritual doctrines. The true spirit is within the heart of each person, and is the responsibility of each person to find their own contact. Each pathway of experience is unique to every person for there are as many ways to the spiritual centre as there are people’s hearts. Nor is the true spirit one of contemplation alone, for the spiritual ideal of our era now is one of considerate action. And through this action, things will change. How difficult or easy these changes will be depends much upon the response of each person. What is important is not the event itself but rather how each person deals with it. The changes we face may be out of our hands, yet each of us has the power to choose how we respond to them.

Willaru Huayta, a spiritual messenger in the Inca tradition, has been travelling the globe telling people that 'The world is at a critical point of transition, which is highlighted by the crisis in spiritual and moral principles. Nationality is no longer important...Human truth is one. The most important thing now is to awaken the consciousness in a positive form.[i]

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[i]  Mcfadden, S. (1991) Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth, Santa Fe, NM, Bear & Company.

Energy Flows & Functions

Our world then, as material and physical as it is, is nevertheless malleable. It can be affected by the strength of one’s own presence, intentions, questioning, and thoughts. Our cosmos is creative, endlessly renewing and replenishing itself. Within this energetic ebb-and-flow we can ‘fix’ ourselves (become the ‘attractor’ for the flux around us) by focusing our presence within each moment. Much of how we experience the future, specifically the coming earth changes, will rest upon how we perceive those changes. Our present generations are now required to direct themselves in accordance with their thoughts. A visionary impulse is necessary if we are to rise beyond these turbulent transition times towards a more constructive future. In other words, if we believe that the future changes will usher in a disruptive apocalyptic scenario, then this will be exactly how it plays out for us. This is the fear equation:  if we are fearful we are likely to attract the negative circumstances (again, like attracts like). And this fear equation has been holding back humanity from developing for far too long. If we perceive the world as life-threatening rather than life-promoting then this will influence how we interpret the changing times. Yet the fear equation is a mask: F.E.A.R. masquerades as False Evidence Appearing Real. To be prepared for the upcoming earth changes we are being asked, as sovereign individuals, which future we wish to embrace. Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner once wrote:

 

An additional way of training our thinking and feeling is by acquiring a quality we can call “positivity.” There is a beautiful legend that tells of Christ Jesus and several other people walking past a dead dog. The others all turned away from the ugly sight, but Christ Jesus spoke admiringly of the animal’s beautiful teeth. We can practice maintaining the soul-attitude toward the world that this legend exemplifies. The erroneous, the bad, and the ugly must not prevent the soul from finding the true, the good, and the beautiful wherever they are present.[i]

 

Another maxim in general literature says: 'Pigs grunt, dogs bark, penguins waddle, what do human beings do?’ Amusing perhaps, and poignant too; yet upon deeper consideration the answer is that human beings do a lot, or rather have the inherent potentiality to do a lot. One of these ‘potentialities’ is the power of focused and directed consciousness. Humans - homo sapiens sapiens - have the capacity to be as bridges between spirit and matter; between creative impulse and physical manifestation; between the angelic and the elemental. Again, to reiterate, we can function as transformers – as facilitators of energy.

 

Human beings can act as transmitters (like energy batteries), directing incoming energy across, into, and through the Earth; in a sense, grounding the energies. Like an ‘earth wire’ in electrical plugs, humans are able to ground energy that radiates from non-terrestrial sources into our earthly planetary body. We serve as mobile transducers, whilst the more static energy nodes are the ancient sacred sites, stone circles, megalithic sites, that can be found dotted all over our planet. Life, including human life, is a membrane layer of transmuting energy. The power of human thought and intention can play a great part in the process of energy transference. The function of the ‘human facilitator’ is thus one of the reasons behind the concept of human pilgrimage.

 

There has been much research upon how the world’s many megalithic sites were used for solar cults, religious worship, or similar activities etc. However, it is hard to find one overall unifying theory that relates to the exact, specific function of these various sites. In general, it can be said that a primary role of such sites is an energetic one. Stonehenge in the UK, for example, had a function to channel energy that was made available according to specific times/events of cosmic phenomena. Thus, the site had to be correctly aligned for these precise energy emissions. Various sites over the world show signs of their function as energy channels - be they stone circles, single stones (dolmens), sacred groves, hills, shrines, etc. Together they constitute an earth-grid that operates to receive and distribute cosmic energies along, and into, the earth. Many Christian churches, once considered pagan sites, are built upon these energy lines; this was part of a functioning knowledge system, now largely forgotten. Larger structures, such as cathedrals like Notre-Dame and Chartres, were constructed to function as energy-accumulators (like batteries), which is often indicated in their design by the use of spirals or labyrinths in their construction.

An important element for energy storage and transmission is correct timing; knowing when specific ‘cosmic energy’ is flowing. Thus, at particular times of the year certain areas are targeted by energy currents entering the Earth. Ancient knowledge made use of this in the original Christian calendars; this was reflected in the names of the saints to which different churches are dedicated (although the system has undergone some degree of corruption). For example, in some cultures there is a specific day of the year which is attached to a particular saint so that the original purpose was for the entire community to gather at the church for their ‘Saint’s Day’ - a day that represented the exact time when the maximum energy was available in that area during the year. Likewise, festivals in specific places in the countryside, along with established pilgrim routes, enabled a line of transmission whereby people would act as the channel, or conduit, for passing along the energy, thus maintaining the energy flow within the earth-grid.

This system is still in place, although the functional use of many sites and events has been weakened. However, the earth-grid is still an operative system and is pulsed regularly with cosmic energies, both according to natural cosmic alignments as well as specific and deliberate ‘energy-feeding’ from external interventions. So the question as what can humans do is partly answered by the concept of energy transmitters. And the more focused and balanced the ‘transmitter’, the finer and more effective the energies. Of course, we can also waddle too, and grunt occasionally!

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[i] Steiner, R. (1998) An Outline of Esoteric Science. Great Barrington, MA: Steiner Books.

Transforming Energy

The 21st century is the meeting point where the wisdom of ancient traditions shall find a synthesis with modern science. Our knowledge systems are converging now to help us synthesize and make use of our resources, to help us advance and continue forward. It is a reciprocal process, whereby assisting the cosmos with its evolutionary design we are given the opportunity to bring ourselves up, as a sentient species, towards greater knowledge and growth. Humans are a required resource within the greater evolutionary design. Several esoteric sources, such as Ernest Scott and Rodney Collin , have indicated the time lengths involved with the inception of cultures by conscious minds. They further explain how there is a set time designated for our present global civilisation to evolve enough conscious minds in order to assist, and/or provide enough energies, for the next planetary phase. This notion, whilst obscure and abstract to some, is not without its active adherents. One term that has come into context for this situation is that of Reciprocal Maintenance.

The term ‘Reciprocal Maintenance’ was used in the writings of philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff to denote humanity’s relationship with the cosmos. This relationship is one where each being exists to support each other, as well as the larger whole. In other words, everything exists to ‘feed’ something else. This term also explains how everything exists for a purpose; how each living organism can transform and supply energy for the whole. In this respect, the function of humankind is to transform energy whilst alive. And naturally, the best ‘quality’ of energy is that which is provided consciously rather than extracted unconsciously. For example, Algae functions to transform sunlight into more complex molecules; plants function to transform sunlight and raw matter into organic compounds; bees function not only for themselves but also to pollinate flowers and thus catalyze food chains.

In the scheme of things, we can say that humanity functions as a transformer of energy: for ourselves, the community, the Earth, and for the cosmos. Our possibilities, and capacities, as human beings may in some way be dependent upon the degree to which we are able to fulfil this function. We can say that this is one of our primary functions as sentient biological organisms. In an old Vedic allegory there is the story of the Horse (feeling), the Carriage (instinct), the Driver (thinking) which are at the service of the ‘Passenger’ or ‘Owner’. However, the problem is that the ‘Passenger’ has fallen asleep within the carriage so the Horse and Driver go where they please, and often at a speedy pace! Thus, the purpose and destination of the ‘Owner’ is being ignored. This allegory informs us that ‘Man’ is ‘asleep at the wheel’ and has failed to wake-up and take control of the situation; namely, to steer oneself to one’s correct destination. By ‘waking-up’, an individual can learn to contribute conscious energy, in greater or lesser amounts, through conscious creative living and purposeful participation in life. On the other hand, if not enough individuals are contributing such energies, other means may be employed to extract the necessary ‘fuel’ from us. It was Gurdjieff’s stated belief that the overall quality of humanity’s conscious energies has been deteriorating over several millennia - especially in so-called ‘civilized’ societies. Whereas we had been prodigious ‘energy-transformers’, we were now pale reflections of former capacities.

This suggests that humankind has been forsaking its ecological function in the world; has been reneging on its obligation of ‘reciprocal maintenance’. Many have speculated upon these ‘other means’ employed to extract the energies from humanity; usually focusing on events that release extreme emotions such as warfare and natural disasters. This view offers a radical, and unpleasant, reworking of human history. It suggests that warfare, disasters, calamities, etc are not the result of accidental, sociological, and/or political causes but may be interventions created to fulfil the needs of a cosmic evolutionary ‘eco-system’. However this may be, it is not my intention to speculate on these matters, but rather to focus on the positive aspects of how humanity may relate to conscious evolution. In this respect, evolutionary design does obligate humanity to function as good energy transformers (as in all living systems). In our own ways we can all ‘return some energies’ if we act according to the right kind of perceptions and behaviour. It would assist us also if we took to reminding ourselves that we are not alone, nor separate in our lives, but instead are interrelated to all processes social, terrestrial, and cosmic. We are, in all senses, a part of the unfathomable creative, universal fabric of life.

There is far more depth and wisdom to our lives than is taught in our educational establishments, mainstream media, or institutional religions. Yet this tyranny of perception is entering a transition period also, as increased information floods our physical and non-physical channels. The world of the glittery and gritty consumerist struggle is being invaded by change from all angles. Nothing is immune to these changing times; not even our own immune systems. Many of us have immune systems that have been conditioned and strengthened from birth to accept the perceived socio-cultural paradigm of our circumstances. Now, along with many systems and institutions, our own inner systems are beginning to desire alternative food, and more nutritious energies. We know something is amiss when there is an inner urge to start looking for pieces of a different puzzle, when external experiences increasingly fail to ‘sit right’ with us. In some sense these stirrings will indicate a struggle between powers: between your own inherent power of self-determination over the power from consensus social forces. Everywhere and in everything power is prevalent in society. It thrives upon the material energies produced. Yet there are degrees of power, and genuine power is the power to empower others. And above all: subtle energy is powerful and powerful energy is subtle. Let us remember that energy goes where attention flows – so, what’s your attention focused on? It is now becoming well-understood that like attracts like is a universal axiom. This relates more appropriately now with what the new sciences are telling us about the power of ‘intention’ to affect bio-information fields. We need to exercise our intentions to ask the ‘right questions’. As Grandmother Twylah of the Seneca Indian tradition has stated: ‘Each person should ask themselves four questions: i) Am I happy in what I'm doing?; ii) Is what I'm doing going to add to the confusion in the world?; iii) What am I doing to bring about peace and contentment?; iv) How will I be remembered when I'm gone?’

Conscious Evolution

Life is an evolutionary journey and humankind is on an evolutionary path. This journey towards more evolved forms of intellect, understanding, and creativity requires capacities that lie latent within our very selves. To accept conscious evolution then is to accept that individually and collectively we have a responsibility towards our future. This involves purposeful thinking and action; to use our creative capacities to guide our lives and the communities in which we live. To envision a creative, dynamic, and positive future is a preliminary step upon the path of conscious evolution. First, we make the choice for ourselves; then we give intention and commitment in order to give life to those choices. At its core, conscious evolution is a spiritual endeavour in that it affirms the potential capacity of each human to participate within a creative cosmos. It affirms our use and commitment of powerful physical and spiritual energies. It also gives rise to a new worldview – a new perceptual paradigm that views our evolutional process as a lesser step within grander processes. The opposite of this (which has been prevalent for far too long) is for unconscious human energies to be used without our knowledge or knowing participation.

 

Conscious evolution is also a very real social movement providing for a higher level of cooperative communication and action. It is a partnership understanding that offers personal development and learning, community building and assistance, and ways towards practical, positive social change.[i]

 

Conscious evolution also implies that each human, each part, is an integral and interrelated part of the whole. The following personal experience highlights this interconnectedness:

In 1983, after three days and nights of praying and fasting on a mountain top, I snapped a twig with my fingers and had a revelation. I saw that this simple action had changed the world, and that it would never be the same again. I could never put that twig back together the way it had been. This was a small change, but an important change nonetheless. As the sound of the snap reverberated within my mind, I understood how everything I said and did changed the world. What came with the snapping twig was not an abstract idea or a philosophical insight, but a living experience of how all my actions influence creation.[ii]

The new sciences have revealed that the concept of integral relationships is now a reality; that all living organisms are energetically integrated within a shared informational and creative field. As an evolving species, we are encouraged to work together towards this synergy, or gestalt: where the whole is greater than its sum, and thus leads to emerging properties of the collective. However, 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 inherent 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 thoughts, action, and behaviours through self-observation. We can learn to clear our minds of antiquated belief-systems and accumulated junk in order to allow these new thoughts to penetrate. We may think we learn, yet often we learn rote without the thinking. We should aim towards a conscious digestion of information: to learn how to learn; to know how to know.[iii]

In a similar way, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin talks about the collective, unified soul of humankind as a ‘conspiracy’ of individuals who conspire together to evolve to a new stage of life. De Chardin wrote tirelessly of how continued evolution towards cosmic spirit was a conscious duty hidden, sometimes forgotten, within humankind:

In us the world’s evolution towards spirit has become conscious. Our perfection, our interest, our salvation as elements can depend therefore on nothing less than pushing this evolution forward with all our strength. We may not yet understand exactly where it is taking us, but it is absurd for us to doubt that it is leading as towards some end of supreme value.[iv]

The over-arching question for de Chardin was how modern humanity could best organise, maintain, and distribute the vital energies required for this process. In this there are precise conditions necessary for the storage and utilization of energies. Referring back to what was said in Chapter Two concerning living complex systems, in order to defy entropy living organisms are required to absorb, store, utilize, and distribute energy. The human and the cosmos are both two examples of creative, dynamic, living complex systems; hence, the rules still apply. How we store and utilize our personal energies is of paramount importance and should become central to our lives.

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[i] For more information see - Banathy, B. H. (2000) Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View. New York: Springer.

[ii] Mcfadden, S. (1991) Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth, Santa Fe, NM, Bear & Company.

[iii] Recommended reads include Shah, I. (1996) Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality the Sufi Way London: Octagon Press. Shah, I. (1998) Knowing How to Know: A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition. London: Octagon Press.

[iv] Chardin, T. d. (1974) Let Me Explain. London: Fontana.

Periods of Energetic Expansion

My hypothesis is that evolution is not so much a linear progression of gradual ‘progress’ but rather cyclic periods of energetic expansion that incorporates all the lesser cycles within it. It is erroneous to think that by evolving we necessarily leave everything behind; instead, evolution incorporates and expands upon, discarding the detritus no longer functional. For example, consider how our earliest reptilian brain, at the base, has been added to successively as our species developed. We still have the reptilian brain deep within us yet 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.

It is required of us that we traverse two paths simultaneously: one path requires inward travel whilst the other requires that we balance our outer lives so our intellectual, emotional, and physical faculties are in a harmonious relationship. If we cannot balance the inner with the outer then we have lost our efficiency, our functionality. Humankind does not (and cannot) exist within a vacuum. We have evolved as a social species; our energetic connections enable us to operate as individuals whilst simultaneously having integral connections of meaning and significance. The Book of Mirdad, for example, reminds us that each thought and action exists within our energetic environment as if a billboard or mirror:

So think as if your every thought were to be etched in fire upon the sky for all and everything to see. And so, in truth, it is. So do as if your every deed were to recoil upon your heads. And so, in truth, it does.

What we are now being forced to recognize is that humankind has to serve a cosmic purpose; and that every individual life too has a cosmic function. Human function and capacity depends not only on how we interact with our environment but also our energetic – kinetic – relationships with others around us and, importantly, ourselves. Such was one of the functions of worship and ritual in the past; to enable a certain state of energy to be created in which the whole process of transformation is positively reinforced. The possibility for humankind to realize latent inner capacities and faculties relies heavily upon making a connection to a higher form of energy. So much depends upon us making contact with those great forces that lie as close, or as far away, as we make them. This is because progress within the self is not automatic; it requires the use of the right intentions and focus alongside stimulated capacity.

Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that entry into the future – into the superhuman – was open to everyone; that it was the destiny of humankind to advance together towards a spiritual renovation of the Earth. De Chardin believed that our evolutionary future awaits a consciously evolved being; and thus it is our responsibility to work towards a consciously evolved state. De Chardin was adamant in reminding people that ‘No evolutionary future awaits man except in association with all other men’.

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.

A Period of Regeneration

We, as a global humanity, may very well be undergoing a period of regeneration towards retrieving our birthright of inner realization. This is a significant step on the way of evolved consciousness. In this context known indigenous wisdom traditions have held these upcoming times to be portals – or cyclic renewals – towards heightened evolutionary growth along the cosmological journey. At present we title ourselves as homo sapiens sapiens – meaning doubly wise or doubly knowing – yet this suggests that we already ‘know that we know’. So what is it that we are supposed to doubly know? Or is it that we lost the capacity, or just plain forgot, what it was that we once knew? If we are undeserving of this title then this should catalyze us, as a collective species, into regaining our inheritance. A step on the way may involve that we re-evaluate the primary role and capacity of consciousness.

Instead of viewing consciousness as a by-product of biochemical processes in the brain, consciousness needs to be re-evaluated by our cultural norms and perceptual paradigms. We need to accept that consciousness is a creative and natural force that infuses the cosmos and interpenetrates the realms: material, biological, and spiritual. For example, the human nervous system is not the producer of consciousness, as many erroneously believe, but acts more like an antenna that receives consciousness from living energetic fields. It’s like the tale of the young fish who goes on a watery-pilgrimage to visit the old wise fish of the sea. When the young fish arrives to ask his burning inner question he says: ‘what’s this thing called water?’ It is harder to perceive that in which we are immersed, and thus the secret hides itself through its transparency.  We breathe it, yet recognise it not.

As the familiar world around us begins to shake, come apart at the seams and generally cause us concern, we need to take this rush of rapid air as a time for cleansing. Many of us for far too long have lived unbalanced lives; neglecting the self for the substitution of quick gratifications and commercial painkillers. It is necessary to restore the balance between ‘inner world’ and ‘outer world’ – a re-spiritualization of society that goes beyond the need for social forms towards a new understanding of our integral relationship within a cosmic context. In other words, we need to establish a healthy and vibrant cosmological unity between our inner and outer environments. The renowned historian Arnold Toynbee once said that ‘The ultimate work of civilisation is the unfolding of ever-deeper spiritual understanding’. For Toynbee, the suffering of civilized man was a reaction to the separation of sentient beings from their timeless reality. Many societies have lagged behind in providing the means for personal and collective self-actualization and self-transcendence. Perhaps what our industrial cultures have denied for too long is a way of experiencing the world that will open us up to ourselves and to our transcendental truths.

We are anchored in the Earth, which we must not forget, yet we simultaneously fail to connect our threads with the universal. Thus, we are all too often denied the awareness that we do not exist alone, but are an integral part of a vaster, mysterious order. By submitting to the authority of the universal, we can renew our partnership of the human, the earthly, and the creative spirit. Vaclav Havel famously said in a speech to the joint session of US Congress (in 1991) that ‘Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better’. Such a revolution is imperative if we are to be worthy of keeping our role as participants within a creative cosmos. Importantly, each individual needs to become aware that they are a part of a grand evolutionary process; a process that informs the very basis of our living benevolent and turbulent environment.  

Various esoteric traditions have referred to how a certain number of conscious individuals can assist the Earth to progress to the next level of evolutionary growth. A hundred conscious individuals, let us say, who are in conscious contact and communication, can create an exponential level of conscious force that influences the rest of humanity. It seems that such influences, which have been with us for epochs, are now shifting up a gear and raising levels of awareness on this Earth at unparallel speed. The needed shift in collective and planetary consciousness is unfolding, it appears, according to the law of evolutionary design.

The Next Stage?

Welcome to 2010... an interesting year indeed...and one which it is hoped will be inspiring as well as unpredictable and dramatic. Changes are afoot in that we can view the present era  as being of major significance in that it offers for humankind an opportunity to develop consciously in line with the accelerated incoming energies.

There have already been marked shifts in human perceptions and cognition, and the ‘new sciences’ of coherent energy fields and vibrational influences inform us of our inherent interconnectedness. Humanity is already thinking differently, impacted by the dramatic rise in new technologies. Many of us are accessing information at rapidly increasing rates; networking online in ever more complex relations, and knowing more about the global world at our fingertips. The neural mind is in overload, creating new connections both internally and externally. A new mind for a new world is underway – yet it needs assistance. Cultural forms and perceptions are not changing fast enough; the new paradigm of thought has not penetrated deeply enough into our social communities. It is imperative that for a viable future to unfold amidst these transition times we need to orientate our thinking to let go of the ways that no longer serve us. Our global future together lies within the hope for a more vibrant, creative, compassionate, and communicative environment.

The basis for this understanding is provided by new insights in the sciences of biophysics and consciousness. We now have validation that the human being is not a separate entity; it is a light-emitting energetic field of creative information that is in perpetual communion with all living energies. We, as a species, are an energetic constituent of the cosmos. Our story is a part of the universal story; our collective myths are the representations of a grander conscious order. As the cosmos writhes in dynamic energy, so do we shake and infuse the ripples that reach us. Quite literally, when the universe sneezes, we catch a cold. And our cosmic neighbourhood is experiencing a clean-out and renewal, in which we are involved, whether we care for it or not. It would be a shame to let the neighbourhood down, would it not?

More and more people are becoming aware of the idea hat a spiritual renaissance for the Earth and her living family could be waiting as our next evolutionary stage. Various indigenous wisdom traditions have talked of this epochal shift for centuries; and now the timelines are converging. Humanity has been in preparation (incubation if you will) for a very long time. There is now perhaps the potential for an energetic ‘upgrade’, to turn once again towards our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It is an opportunity to re-awaken our slumbering souls, and to put our house in order. The ‘master’ of the house has been away too long, and the unruly servants need turning out: time to clean-up and prepare.

Man didn't come into this world for nothing. Man is an extraordinary achievement that has required long and difficult preparation. This achievement is not complete. It would be quite a considerable cosmic disaster if this experiment with man on this earth were to fail, and for this reason much is being done to prevent this experiment from failing - not because man deserves to survive, but because he is really needed.

                                                                                                       J.G. Bennett

Know that all your relationships with things and men are determined by what you will of them, and they of you. And what you will of men and things determines what they will of you.

                                                                                                    Book of Mirdad

Our perceiving self is nowhere to be found within the world-picture, because it itself is the world-picture.

  Erwin Schrodinger - Nobel laureate

Festive Wishes

I wish to send warm greetings to each person during these festive times. And not only for those few days regarded as the Christmas period, but also for each day of 2010.

Step by Step we walk towards our future. May we walk together with sincere hearts, thoughtful minds, and positive consciousness.

FESTIVE GREETINGS TO ALL

A Change of Mind

God decided to come down to Earth for a quick look at how his creation was coming along.

He approached Earth and happened to look at a big tree full of howling monkeys. As He looked down, one of the monkeys happened to look up and saw him.

The monkey became excited and started to shout:

‘I see God.....I see God!’

None of the other monkeys paid any attention. Some thought the monkey was crazy or perhaps just a religious fanatic. They went on about their daily lives of collecting food, taking care of their young, fighting with each other, etc., etc. Not getting any attention, our monkey decided to try to get attention from God, and said:

‘God, Almighty, You are the Beneficent, the Merciful, please help me!’

In an instant, the monkey was transformed into a man living in his own human community. Everything changed, except for one thing: the monkey's mind. The monkey immediately realized *that* could be a problem.

‘Well, thank you God, but what about my mind?’
‘That, said God, you will have to change yourself.’

The psychological state of our minds

To summarise, the most pressing problem facing humankind is not only that of a planet in transformation, but also the perceptual and psychological state of our minds. As the transformation occurs, and the magnetic frequency of the Earth is affected, it is imperative that humanity retains, and focuses on, a balanced state of mind. It may be that we are in as much danger from ourselves as we are the chaotic environment. We should not allow the quality of our human mental and emotional perceptions to degenerate at a time when they are needed the most. Human psychological pollution can be a very real disturbance and threat to us at this time. After all, the pollution from human thinking - and behaviour - is far more poisonous than physical pollution. Disturbances of the human psyche is likely to interfere with (or may well disable) most people’s capacity to cope with the challenges facing them during the transitional times. In other words, our way of thinking is a far greater danger to us than we have ever given it recognition. We seriously need to address this if we are ever to be able to forge a correct balance between our external and internal ‘new worlds’.

Humanity is required to undergo a perceptual evolution as well as a physical one. As such, a critical mass is required to shift away from old and antiquated paradigm thinking towards a revitalized mental maturity. Without this perceptual shift, rapid and accelerating transitions will appear more chaotic than they need to be. A period of explosive development and change will greatly affect how we think. Likewise, stagnant mind-sets and beliefs may attempt to hold back the flood waters of transformation and cause unnecessary tensions. As a collective consciousness, we need to be psychically centred, balanced, and aware of potential turbulence. A deep psychological crisis may develop as people feel the guilt and shame of a weakened world that has diminished future opportunities for life. These are the thoughts that may be necessary to trigger a global mind change. As part of the transition we may realize the threshold between the paradigm of a stagnant and stillborn species, and that of a bruised but still relatively healthy evolutionary species. Our evolutionary growth, as Duane Elgin reminds us, ‘is not an abstract philosophical concept - it is a reality of the flesh that, at each stage, must be paid for in the blood and lives of countless individuals. There are no free gifts in evolution. We must genuinely earn access to each new stage of development’.

Already we are further along the road of reflexive consciousness than we might think: many of us are now aware globally of ethical issues and injustices. The world has seen the ‘Live Aid’ concerts for Africa and many ‘Earth Day’ groups and ‘Earth Summits’ that tap into our collective resourcefulness. We have begun to coalesce at ever more complex levels and scales of consciousness, and to voice our collective concerns when we ‘feel’ that things are not right. It is important we trust these feelings and give them stronger support. How we think affects everything around us, from our environment to our friendships. If we believe ourselves to exist on a lifeless rock within an accidental universe, then desire for material gains and environmental mastery appear logical. Our cultural development mirrors our perceptual capacities, and both influence each other: one cannot evolve without the other. Species, social, and individual evolution involve long periods of relative stability punctuated by windows of accelerated transition (often chaotic and turbulent) that create new paradigms of perception. Thus, our thoughts constitute a powerful language, and one that will become increasingly more active. With communication comes responsibility as we face a ‘crisis of civilizational consciousness and communication that is as critical as any of the material challenges we confront’.

Improving the Meme Pool

Psychologist and social thinker Timothy Leary, in his book The Intelligence Agents, discusses this need for a shift in social perceptions and ‘intelligence’ and offers the following advice on how to develop such capacity:

1. Continually expand the scope, source, intensity of the information you receive.
2. Constantly revise your reality maps, and seek new metaphors about the future to understand what's happening now.
3. Develop external networks for increasing intelligence. In particular, spend all your time with people are smart or smarter than you. We assume that you are the Intelligence Agent from you gene pool, so you will seek Intelligence Agents from other gene-pools who will stimulate you to get smarter.


Leary, in his characteristic playful manner, is drawing attention to the possibility for mental mutation. This refers to the capacity for a mutational process to occur within the neurological dynamics of a given society. Such a process is likely to mark the transition phase from our present species (homo sapiens sapiens) to the next (see Chapter Nine). Whereas in the past the evolutionary markers were first biological, then cultural, today’s evolutionary acceleration demands that rapid change be neurological and spiritual. In other words, the responsibility is on us to provide part of the participatory energies in the form of revitalised ideologies, understanding, and perceptions, if we are to engage successfully in the coming changes. Rather than just a change in the gene pool, we now need a radical upgrade to our species meme pool.

A ‘meme’, which as an evolutionary agent of change, can be anything from cultural linguistic artefacts, social laws and ‘truths’, to belief systems divine and/or dogmatic. In other words, a meme pool is a repository of ideas from which any given social collective drinks and refreshes – or against which they rebel. At the same time, ideas themselves can behave similar to biological viruses:


Consider the T-phage virus. A T-phage cannot replicate itself; it reproduces by hijacking the DNA of a bacterium, forcing its host to make millions of copies of the phage. Similarly, an idea can parasitically infect your mind and alter your behavior, causing you to want to tell your friends about the idea, thus exposing them to the idea-virus. Any idea which does this is called a ‘meme’…Unlike a virus, which is encoded in DNA molecules, a meme is nothing more than a pattern of information, one that happens to have evolved a form which induces people to repeat that pattern. Typical memes include individual slogans, ideas, catch-phrases, melodies, icons, inventions, and fashions. It may sound a bit sinister, this idea that people are hosts for mind-altering strings of symbols, but in fact this is what human culture is all about.


The externalization of human thinking – in ideologies as well as in icons – is both a threat to our growth as well as a means for our empowerment and development. Human language, the expression of our thoughts, can be both a virus and an antidote. Just as RNA protein molecules act as transmitters of information between DNA, that carry information to instruct the DNA to develop and act/function; so does language in the human sphere act as the transmitter of our thoughts between ‘human cells’ within the global body. If a bacterial virus spreads, such as cancer, it causes the cell to decay, and this infected cell is liable to spread the disease further. Similarly, if a segment of the human population gets a virus-idea (such as ‘kill all those opposed to our beliefs’), then this thought can spread rapidly through language and culture. Thus, people and populations, like cancerous cells, can be infected and destroyed. As one cultural critic remarked - ‘An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you’.

In brief, biology passes on genes whilst human culture passes on memes. And the condition of our memes, our species mindset, will determine to a large degree our evolutionary fitness in these transition times. It is thus imperative, crucial, that we establish a healthy and positive, forward thinking, mindset and perceptual paradigm. As described in Chapter One, we are all open systems that use information as energy; energy that is precious and required to fuel us as we press ahead as a collective intelligence. Discipline too is required to ensure that our mindful (perception) energies are not lost and wasted through emotions of fear, anger, and other inner disturbances that become enlarged, exaggerated, and then projected externally. It is useful to remember that negativity seeks to impress itself upon us to force us to believe it is more prevalent than it actually is. This is because negativity is always in a minority quantity in comparison to the positive; thus, it needs to pretend it is greater than it actually is if it is to have any chance of influence over us. These are the hallmarks of desperate practices. Our defence is the quality of our own thinking and consciousness - at all times. As Tom Montalk writes,


The surest way to work for the betterment of mankind is to improve yourself, educate yourself, become aware and skilled at delivering that awareness to others who are interested. It’s more about building up your potential to serve than just going out there and haphazardly trying to do good…Improving yourself means becoming ever more mentally stable and emotionally balanced, acquiring wisdom from observation and experience, taking great care to deal with people according to their level of understanding. Educating yourself means learning more about what really matters, what is really going on in this world and within yourself, the hidden things that manipulate people that could be stopped if only they knew about it, and the positive principles that if known and applied would allow one to progress more intelligently and powerfully yet compassionately through life.



To engage with the transition times does not require from everyone that they should take the role of direct action. Much can be given through more subtle interactions: by simply being ‘in presence’ with the right intentions and energy. The real evolutionary struggle we are facing now is a battle for our consciousness. The changing times of life on planet Earth now require that we take more responsibility with ourselves. After all, when we lift ourselves we also indirectly, yet significantly, lift the world around us.

Our Perceptions

The quality of our perceptions has perhaps never been more crucial to our cultural and social survival. Historians note that there are particular periods in history when society goes through a more fundamental, marked shift, which involves not only the people but also most of a society’s basic institutions. According to famed historian Lewis Mumford there have been no more than four or five such great transformations in the entire history of Western civilization. Mumford in The Transformations of Man (1956) writes that

Every (human) transformation...has rested on a new metaphysical and ideological base; or rather, upon deeper stirrings and intuitions whose rationalized expression takes the form of a new picture of the cosmos and the nature of man... we stand on the brink of (such) a new age: the age of an open world and of a self capable of playing its part in that larger sphere. An age of renewal, when work and leisure and learning and love will unite to produce a fresh form for every stage of life, and a higher trajectory for life as a whole...In carrying [human]...self-transformation to this further stage, world culture may bring about a fresh release of spiritual energy that will unveil new potentialities, no more visible in the human self today than radium was in the physical world a century ago, though always present.

It was prescient of Mumford to view the next epoch not only in terms of ideological renewal but also as one that brings about ‘a fresh release of spiritual energy’. Likewise, British historian Arnold Toynbee (in his A Study of History) referred to the possible ‘transfiguration’ of modern society into some kind of ‘re-spiritualized’ form. Toynbee coined the term ‘The Law of Progressive Simplification’ where true growth occurs as civilizations transfer increasing amounts of energy and attention from the material to the non-material side of life, towards increased self-articulation. In other words, the criterion of growth is a progress towards self-determination. Any significant shift in society thus requires a change of the incumbent dominant paradigm: today, this requirement is global – a total global mind change. Our historical record as a species is the story of our movement through a series of perceptual paradigms. This is the hallmark of transformation - a change at the deepest levels within our social structures.

Similarly, our own belief systems are themselves ‘social structures’ that have been reinforced throughout our lives, beginning in infancy and throughout childhood. We literally have any ‘anomalies’ ironed out of us so that we agree to a consensus picture of reality. In a sense we are more than nationalized; we are culturally hypnotized. Such processes are well-documented by cultural anthropologists who have shown how persons who grow up in different cultures perceive different realities. Yet now such an ideological base is fundamentally inadequate. One of our greatest inadequacies is that we have ‘agreed’ to a social reality that all but denies the presence and potential of consciousness. Our social affliction thus stems from an ‘omission of consciousness’ within our paradigm of reality. We are in effect deceiving ourselves. We have become blind (perhaps deliberately so) to the edict that ‘by deliberately changing their internal images of reality, people can change the world’.

A well-known story from the East tells of a fool called Mulla Nasrudin:

‘Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.

“What have you lost, Mulla?” he asked.
“My key”, said the Mulla. So they both went down on their knees and looked for it. After a time the other man asked: “Where exactly did you drop it?”
“In my own house.”
“Then why are you looking here?”
“There is more light here than inside my own house.”’

Individually and collectively, we often search where there is more light; which often means within the old paradigm, the old way of thinking. We need to start looking in the ‘dark’ for that which we think is lost - yet in truth it has only remained dormant: a way of understanding that will shift how we perceive of life, reality, and ourselves.

Collective Intelligence: The Need for Synthesis

To upgrade our thinking patterns is a beginning step to an upgrade in human consciousness, and is necessary if we are to succeed in adapting to our rapidly and inevitably changing world. In other words, if we don’t enact a change, or learn to adapt to the incoming energies of change and transformation, our presence is likely to be no longer required, or needed. It is a sobering thought.

The human species has entered a period of profound, fundamental, and unprecedented change. It needs to acquire new skills in order to co-exist with an environment that is itself undergoing profound change within the larger fabric of living systems - planetary, solar, and galactic. We need to upgrade our capacities in order to have the internal resistance to an upgrade in energies. Not to do so may result, quite literally, in us blowing a species-fuse! Whichever way we look at it, we are in need of preparation. If we are not prepared, that which manifests as truth may very well seem like science-fiction. And it needs to be stressed that our future depends to a large degree upon the ability to renew our perceptions about the world. It is a question of how our inner vision can be brought in balance with (and in support to) the impacts of a changing environment. If there is enough ‘critical mass’ of mind-change then there is a better possibility that shifting energies will be experienced less chaotically. Evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Sahtouris expresses the same sentiment when she writes


While people have always created reality out of their beliefs, until now a handful of powerful people dictated the beliefs of each human culture. The glory of our own time is that the news is finally out that each and every one of us has the authority, even the mandate, to choose the beliefs by which we live and create our individual and communal lives. To create the human future well we need good Vistas - consciously created belief systems comprised of worldviews and the values for negotiating them courageously and lovingly.




Our priority is to first change our perceptions and way of thinking. It is a challenge we face to adapt our thinking so that we ‘think-in-sync’ with our changing world.

Collective Intelligence: The Need for Synthesis

All living species are inherently connected in varying degrees of subtlety - the collective mind of humanity is no exception. Often we discover our ideas are simultaneously shared with our friends or associates as minds in close contact/proximity entangle together and share thought-forms. The collective mind of humanity is moving ever closer to being more awakened, yet we require triggers, stimuli, in order to activate latent capacities. Global communications have helped to increase our awareness of distant events and to trigger shared empathy and collective emotionality. This is part of what can be termed ‘collective intelligence’; others have named this the ‘global brain’, or the ‘noosphere’. The thought forms that we emanate go towards the state of our collective mind, and are functional in that an intentional act carries with it more force, power, and effectiveness than a non-intentional action.

A species collective intelligence can exist without being self-aware because it already exists. A collective consciousness does not require that all ‘components’ be conscious since a conscious entity produces an exponential effect, so only a relatively few conscious ‘nodes’ or ‘awake people’ can represent the many. This is why human history has progressed from the actions of the few; it is not surprising that many of the agents of human history have been conscious of the collective mind of humanity, or have been the agents of conscious entities. As proclaimed inventor Doug Engelbart says – ‘The key thing about all the world’s big problems is that they have to be dealt with collectively...If we don’t get collectively smarter, we’re doomed’. Likewise, the well-known thinker Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase ‘the global village’, sees humanity as a total global community. He wrote that where previously human evolution was about the ‘outering’ of physical tools and technology for progress, human acceleration is now concerned with the intensification of the central nervous system worldwide: ‘Evolution became not an involuntary response of organisms to new conditions but a part of the consensus of human consciousness. Such a revolution is enormously greater and more confusing to past attitudes than anything that can confront a mere culture or civilisation’.

The analogy is that of humanity operating as a planetary ‘nervous system’; a global brain, with each individual representing a firing neuron and our communications as conscious informational networks. Systems philosopher Ervin Laszlo defines the global brain as:



The global brain is the quasi-neural energy - and information - processing network created by six and a half billion humans on the planet, interacting in many ways, private as well as public, and on many levels, local as well as global. A quantum shift in the global brain is a sudden and fundamental transformation in the relations of a significant segment of the six and a half billion humans to each other and to nature - a macroshift in society - and a likewise sudden and fundamental transformation in cutting-edge perceptions regarding the nature of reality - a paradigm shift in science. The two shifts together make for a veritable “reality revolution” in society as well as in science.



What Laszlo refers to as the ‘reality revolution’ is simultaneously a ‘quantum’ shift in the species collective mind alongside a global transformation in perception regarding the nature of reality. For such a revolution to occur during our period of transition on this planet would be of tremendous value in terms of parallel evolutionary shifts. As famed Jesuit preist and ‘noosphere philospher’ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote: ‘…according to the evolutionary structure of the world, we can only find our person by uniting together. There is no mind without synthesis’. It is no coincidence that at the same time our planet, within its solar family, is experiencing a sudden evolutionary ‘jump point’ (or phase transition), our species is coming also to a peak in its collective mind. We must remember that throughout human history the real and fundamental changes have always come about from sufficient numbers of people changing their minds; rather than from governments or social decrees. By a deliberate change in the way people perceive reality, and thus the world, great shifts can be brought about. It is a dangerous flaw to take our own limits of perception to be the limits of our world, as Schopenhauer so ably noted.

Macroshift

Every epoch has fashioned its corresponding mind-set, some more functional than others. For example, 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 right on Earth developed into a hierarchical system of religious authority. This belief of a divinely-ordered cosmos then progressed into the Enlightenment’s mechanistic ‘clockwork’ view of the universe where science sought to prove that natural laws held the world under linear domination. However, this materialistic mind-set that has prevailed more or less intact up until the present moment is no longer of functional use to us. In fact, if we continue with it we are liable to become its victims. Thus, an ‘upgrade’ of our perceptive capacities is required in a very real and practical way. For the past 300 years mainstream western society provided its citizens with a worldview and belief-system that has encouraged ideas related to ‘survival of the fittest’; the sense of competition and conquest. Such ideals are now rapidly contaminating our social and cultural environment and leading us on a path to destruction. The next shift must coincide with the transition phase and involve a conscious decision to develop our understanding, worldview, and wisdom, through an intensive ‘inner evolution’. The focus of this shift is to replace such obsolete material beliefs with ones concentrating on connection, communication, and consciousness. Ghandi was right when he said: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. When you evolve your inner world you also change the immediate world around you, as well as those close to you. It is time to release, or abandon, obsolete and superstitious beliefs. Our newly emerging scientific paradigm, with its quantum theories of entanglement, reminds us that we participate within an integrally connected and living universe. This understanding of a living universe makes it more imperative that humanity lives in accordance with balanced needs rather than consumptive desires. It is more about living simply so that others may simply live. As Willis Harman puts it

Throughout history, the really fundamental changes in societies have come about not from dictates of governments and the results of battles but through vast numbers of people changing their minds - sometimes only a little bit...by deliberately changing the internal image of reality, people can change the world. Perhaps the only limits to the human mind as those we believe in.

Such a ‘macroshift’ in human thought requires a critical number of people in society to evolve their mindset. It is a radical, yet necessary, shift from a Cartesian worldview of ‘parts’ to one encompassing a connected ‘wholeness’. By way of paraphrasing what Einstein said, the problems created by the prevalent way of thinking cannot be solved by the same way of thinking. This is a crucial insight. Without renewing our outdated cultural attitudes and thinking we will be unable to regenerate today’s dominant mechanistic civilization into a rejuvenated and integral global civilization. Thus, the modes of colonization and consumption need to be replaced by connection, communication, and consciousness. This entails a behavioural shift from possessiveness to sharing; from separation to wholeness; and from outer to inner authority. Humanistic thinker Ervin Laszlo outlines what he believes to be obsolete thinking:
- Order through hierarchy
- Individual uniqueness
- Everything is reversible
- Economic growth is good
- New is better/Technology is the answer
- Our country is right

Late to the evolutionary party

Let’s be clear about this; we have arrived late to the evolutionary party. In a now well-known analogy that places the evolution of Earth within a single year calendar - from Jan 1st to Dec 31st – with each day of the year equal to 12 million years, then the first form of life, a simple bacterium, arose sometime in February. More complex life-forms arrived throughout Spring and Summer, and fishes came to the party around late November 20th. Then the bouncers – the dinosaurs - finally arrived around December 10th, only to disappear drunk on Christmas Day. It wasn’t until the afternoon of December 31st that the first of our recognizable human ancestors showed-up (typically late!). So when did we - homo sapiens sapiens – gate-crash the party? Well, we knocked on the door around 11.45pm; which makes all recorded history taking place within the final minute of the year. We are, in all respects, a rapid evolutionary phenomenon. And it’s going to get a whole lot more rapid. Which means we need to ditch the ‘old mind’ as fast as possible before we take too many wrong decisions or succumb to mounting insecurities. Our ‘old mind’ was set up to be on the look-out for insecurities and fear-situations: it was our survival apparatus. Yet this apparatus has continued to be reinforced through social conditioning, resulting in limited perceptual capacity. What is required now is a reinvigoration of vision: everything that we have culturally achieved has been the result of human vision. The human imagination is a primary force; it allows intervention of energies and guidance. It is both creative and destructive, and through it we are able to manifest the ‘world’ we envision. We now need to upgrade our visionary capacity, to open up more fully to inspired thoughts and guidance. To fail to do so will be a great loss for our species as these are critical times for the instinctive perceptual faculties, and we need to bring these ‘organs’ into being. As the revered Persian poet Jalalludin Rumi once wrote:

New organs of perception come into being as a result of necessity.

Therefore, O man, increase your necessity, so that you may
increase your perception.

Every change requires a change in consciousness; this has always been the case. Many of us are now slowly beginning to recognize this fact and to cooperate with the upgrade. The transition stage we are to experience in the grander evolutionary cycle will likewise affect the evolution of human consciousness, and may result in new capacities being catalyzed into emergence. Yet at the same time, it is important that we ourselves participate in an effort to shift our thinking patterns – to develop a new ‘mind-set’. If a person’s mind-set is rigidly fixed into the ‘old patterns’ of thinking, then these perceptions will feel threatened by drastic change. It may even try to resist strongly, as it fights to retain a familiar environment where it is ‘business as usual’. Yet the 21st Century will not be a place for ‘business as usual’; it will be a new epoch and as such it deserves a corresponding consciousness.

Ancient styles of thinking

Many of us are unsuspecting of the degree of insecurity that governs our perceptive abilities. We focus on the immediate and seemingly ignore the long-term, despite the long-term having the greater urgency in scale. Our social institutions and media continue to reinforce the immediate and short-term, thus stregthening our social myopia. As a telling example a recently published report in the UK, titled Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World, focused on the disproportionate attention given to terrorism in the ‘short-term’ compared to the threats that although resulting in more fatalities were classed as ongoing ‘long-term’ problems. The report stated that in 2001 in the US alone the following number of Americans were killed from various causes:
Malnutrition - 3, 500
HIV/Aids - 14, 000
Pneumonia - 62, 000
Heart disease - 700, 000+
Suicide - 30, 000+
Traffic accidents - 42, 000+
Fire-arms related - 30, 000
Homicides - 20, 000+

Whereas international terrorism stood at around 2, 500. This shows our ‘old mind’ at work, how it perceives and prioritizes events. It is also a mind that goes very far back into our species evolution; a mind that evolved to deal with a very different world. Our early history equipped us to live in relatively stable environments within small communities; challenges were short-term and nearby. The human mind thus evolved to deal with slow-impact short-term changes. The world that made our mind is now gone, and the world we have created around us is a new world; paradoxically it is a world that we have developed limited capacity to comprehend. It is fair to say that we now have a mismatch between the human mind we possess and the world we inhabit today. Most of the momentous changes in our cultural history have taken less than one hundred years; these days we don’t have that luxury of time as events are rapidly changing around us before human cultural evolution has had time to readapt. Cultural evolution has worked more or less well until the present century; now it finds itself hampered by an outdated human perceptual system. Contemporary society still relies too heavily – and unconsciously – upon ancient modes of thought and ancient styles of thinking. This begs the question: can a collective and rapid ‘change of mind’ occur on this planet? In the words of one neurologist, ‘conscious evolution needs to take the place of unconscious cultural evolution’.

A New Mind for a New World

We all share a common psychological environment which many of us, most of the time, take for granted. We have underestimated the impact of human thought worldwide, neglecting to consider the power of destructive thought and ‘mental pollution’ upon a sensitive and responsive biosphere. Within an integral world (and also within a total integral universe) – everything counts. How we are taught (or conditioned) to think will affect how our species manages cultural development and its subsequent intervention into Earth’s living systems. It can be stated that for the most part humanity unknowingly participates within a cultural hypnosis. From early childhood our experiences are established to conform to our specific ‘cultural norm’; any ‘anomalies’ are usually corrected and then reinforced through various socialising processes such as family, school, friends, etc. Thus, our ‘world’ is often given to us through the medium of particular cultural filters, and so each of us is literally hypnotised from infancy to perceive the world as the way people in our culture perceive it. This is a very powerful behavioural and perceptual socialising mechanism. To break from this indoctrinated perceptual environment is extremely difficult, and often beset with many personal problems arising from peer pressure and friendship-family ties. A ‘shock’ is often necessary in order to catalyse one’s own ‘change of mind’. Such experiences as a ‘near-death experience’ (NDE) are often cited as examples which radically change people’s life views. What we may be experienceing on a collective level through our planetary evolutionary transition is a species near-death experience. If this doesn’t shock us awake then we may as well sleep forever.

For a ‘new mind’ to emerge during the times ahead it will be necessary for people to take power back into their own perceptual mechanisms; to empower themselves by withholding legitimacy towards old and outdated modes of thinking. Social philospher Willis Harman has described this by stating – ‘by deliberately changing their internal images of reality, people can change the world’. This change then requires us to take back our legitimacy unto ourselves; to decide carefully on what we think, how we think, and which beliefs we choose to adapt. This also concerns our opinions, agreements, and support, which we have previously been all too-ready to give away. Our beliefs, perceptions, and state of mind are crucial for how we understand the world around us. Thus, by giving away our right over the power to choose how we wish to perceive the world serves to empower others over us. This, in essence, is the crux of social control, and this mechanism belongs to the paradigm of the ‘old world’ and will have no place in a world that is ‘post-transition’.

Time for a Mental Shift

The next series of posts will be extracts from one of the chapters from my new book:

The difficulty we find ourselves in at the present time is that parallel to the dramatic physical changes we are currently experiencing there is also pressure for a simultaneous mental shift. This is a shift in thinking as least as significant as was the Enlightenment shift from a heliocentric worldview to a humanistic one. The Cartesian view of a mechanistic universe is outdated and incompatible within an evolutionary paradigm. What is required is a total change in our human perception. For example, new findings in quantum biology inform us that in contrast to stories of evolution through competition and strength, evolution works by symbiotic relationships and co-operation. Inter-cellular communication and gene-transfer are processes that involve co-operation in information sharing. It is necessary that the findings in the ‘new sciences’ help to push forward a thinking more in-line with natural, environmental, and universal principles. Ultimately, change begins with one’s own mind-set and worldview: as the Delphic inscription instructs us to ‘Know Thyself’.

Schopenhauer famously said that ‘everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world’. If we can develop and expand the perception of our own limits we can go some way towards changing how we view the extraordinary capacity inherent in the world around us. There is an old Chinese proverb that warns us ‘If we don’t change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed’ - and where we are headed is as much as a collective situation as it is individual. Further, it is as much of an individual psychological responsibility as it is collective. What this suggests is that how we think globally reflects the reality of the world we inhabit. And as our once familiar world begins to readapt to a new phase so must our understanding; otherwise we may find life increasingly difficult, stressful, and not only incomprehensible but outright hostile. We have to accept that it is our responsibility – our imperative – to make ourselves adaptable to a constantly evolving natural and cosmic environment. Perhaps for the first time in history conscious evolution has ceased to be a choice open to humanity and has become a necessity on which our future depends.

Conscious evolution is about acquiring evolutionary consciousness - to think in terms of the macro, of the direction our species is taking. It is our evolutionary imperative to enagage actively in conscious and intentional evolutionary transformation if we are to remain as a viable living species upon Planet Earth. We need to bring forth a new mind in order to accept a new world.