WHAT IS CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION? Due to the increased power given us through science and technology, we are learning how nature works – the gene, the atom, the brain. We are affecting our own evolution by everything we do. With these new powers we can destroy our life support systems …or we can move toward a hope-filled future of immeasurable possibilities.We are the generation of choice, and we do not have much time to choose!Conscious Evolution is the worldview that has arisen precisely at this moment in history to deal with the new human condition. It is a vision and a direction to help us navigate through this transitional period to the next stage of human evolution. As Einstein admonished, humankind cannot solve its problems from the same place of consciousness in which we created them. A new place of consciousness is required.In simple terms Conscious Evolution takes place when we intend to grow in consciousness and use our increasing awareness to guide our actions and achieve a positive future.Bela H. Banathy, author of Guided Evolution of Society, offers this additional understanding of Conscious Evolution: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.The promise of Conscious Evolution is nothing less than the emergence of a universal humanity capable of guiding its own evolution into a future of unimaginable cocreativity
While no company is perfect, it’s good to know that at least a few for-profit entities did some good things for the environment and society in 2011.
Occupy Wall Street has us all thinking about the bad things companies can do – and rightly so, because often those things are very, very bad. (The 2008 financial meltdown, anyone?How about the ongoing foreclosure crisis?) But sometimes some companies take steps in a positive direction, and it’s worth giving those efforts a look as well.
First, let me make one thing clear: a company’s inclusion on this list does not mean it is outstanding in every facet of its business. Quite the contrary. But each of these companies has done at least some things this year that are worthy of praise.
It’s also worth acknowledging that there are scores of companies that launched socially responsible initiatives in 2011, and many of them were surely commendable. But the purpose of this article isn’t to pat companies on the back for giving back to the world; really, every company should be doing that, at the bare minimum. Below you’ll find only companies that engaged in efforts that are changing – or at least have the potential to change – corporate America for the better. That’s a slippery metric, no doubt, but it offers a good starting point for examining corporate social responsibility.
1. Ben & Jerry’s
In October, when Occupy Wall Street was in its relative infancy, the Ben & Jerry’s board of directors recognized the power of the movement, and issued a letter of support. The letter, titled “We Stand With You,” read in part:
We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity. The issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us. These include:
–The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.
– We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed.
– Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.
– Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.
–Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.
Ben & Jerry’s is known for having maintained its social and environmental standards even after “selling out” to Unilever. But still, it was a bold move for a corporation to throw its support behind a movement that is largely defined by its anti-corporatism.
The company also gave out free ice cream to protesters in New York and D.C., where the company’s founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, did a little ice cream scooping of their own.
Some protesters have expressed concerns about Ben & Jerry’s co-opting the Occupy movement, and that’s fair. They have reason to be skeptical. But it’s noteworthy that Ben & Jerry’s is the only major company to have explicitly endorsed Occupy Wall Street. In fact, it’s hard to imagine another large company that would.
2. Patagonia
Outdoor gear and clothing company Patagonia made waves towards the end of 2011 when it rolled out an anti-consumerist ad campaign featuring the slogan “Don’t buy this jacket.”
Introduced on Cyber Monday (the post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday), the ad campaign is tied to Patagonia’sCommon Threads Initiative to reduce excess consumption. The five tenets of the initiative are to:
–Reduce: make useful gear that lasts a long time
–Repair: help consumers patch up their Patagonia products
–Reuse: help shoppers find homes for gear that’s no longer needed
–Recycle: take back old products that are un-fixable
–Reimagine: “reimagine a world where we take only what nature can replace”
The initiative isn’t new, but the advertising tactic is – and it got a significant amount of attention. Not all of the attention was positive, but at the very least the ads sparked a conversation about consumerism.
Despite some reports to the contrary, Patagonia says it did not donate any gear to the Occupy movement; still, one has to wonder if the company’s latest ad campaign was influenced by Occupy’s anti-corporate message.
3. H&M
In the past, H&M has been targeted for doing a number of irresponsible things, from making “disposable” clothing to stealing designs and destroying perfectly good clothes that could have been donated to people in need. But this year the company did at least one positive thing: itannounced that it would aim to procure all of its cotton from sustainable sources by 2020, which is considered an ambitious goal among major retailers.
As part of its new focus on sustainability, H&M launched its “Conscious Collection” in April. The line is available worldwide and features more environmentally friendly materials like organic cotton and recycled fibers.
Also, by the end of this year H&M will have replaced most of its hangers with multi-function hangers that are meant to reduce waste in the long term. As for the old hangers, H&M claims that 85% of them have been recycled.
These steps may be relatively modest, but they’re significant within the “fast fashion” industry, which is notorious for its waste. The hope is that H&M’s efforts will become the industry standard, and chains like Forever 21 and Zara will be pressured to follow suit.
4. Hewlett-Packard
HP topped Corporate Responsibility magazine’s 2010 list of corporate citizens, in part because of the company’s instrumental role in leading the electronics industry away from the use of so-called conflict minerals – materials mined in areas where human rights abuses are rampant.
In partnership with the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition and the Global eSustainability Initiative Extractives Group, HP has lobbied for legislation to curb the use of conflict minerals, especially from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Another result of HP’s lobbying efforts is that electronics companies now must report whether their products are manufactured using conflict minerals.
HP is recognized as a leader in this realm, in part because the company chose to dig deep into the conflict minerals issue even though a company review showed that its products could not be linked directly to conflict mineral sources. HP executive Zoe McMahon told CNET last year, “Because our suppliers are not using material from the DRC, that gave us some comfort. But to this day, there is still no certification mechanism that can assure us wholeheartedly that they are not sourced from the DRC. Once metals are with smelters, it’s difficult to know where the material comes from.”
Although HP’s conflict minerals efforts didn’t start in 2011, the company did advance its agenda by participating in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Due Diligence Guidance pilot program, which is focused on ensuring “responsible supply chains of minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.”
5. Method
Since it was founded, Method Products has been recognized as a ground breaking sustainable home care company. This year the popular maker of soaps and home cleaning products continued to revolutionize the way sustainable products are sold by helping them reach a broader audience – the Walmart- and Target-shopping set.
Method’s popularity is thanks in large part to its marketing strategy. Rather than tout the environmental benefits of its products (of which there are many), the company focuses on “rid[ding] your home of toxic chemicals” – something people of all political persuasions can get behind, rather than just the liberal and environmentally-inclined. This strategy helped Method get its products on the shelves of major chain and grocery stores, thus helping bring sustainable products to many more consumers. And unlike Seventh Generation, Method’s leaders so far appear to remain committed to the company’s sustainability goals.
Now this is kind of cheating, because this product was launched in 2010, not 2011, but Method’s super-concentrated laundry detergent continued to have a positive impact on the detergent industry this year. While other companies have been filling shelves with 2x concentrated detergents (which are better for the environment and consumers than non-concentrated detergent), Method went six steps further, releasing an 8x concentrated detergent. As Fast Company notes, the product may be “the greenest laundry detergent to ever hit store shelves,” and the only reason other companies haven’t followed suit is because they’re focused on selling consumers more product – not doing what’s best for the environment.
While no company is perfect, it’s good to know that at least a few for-profit entities did some good things for the environment and society this year. May we see broader leaps in the new year.
About the Author
Lauren Kelley is an associate editor at AlterNet and a freelance writer and editor who has contributed to Change.org, The L Magazine and Time Out New York
Whale & Dolphin Meditation Recording – January 8, 2012
Dearest Light Family,
Welcome to 2012 and my January Whale and Dolphin Cosmic Pulse. Today during my review of the energy for January we discussed the current energy trends for the coming year and the powerful timing the New Year has ushered in.
The deep inward review of December is still being felt as we gallantly enter this profound year of change. January is a month of feeling a little wobbly one minute and brimming with enthusiasm the next depending on your perspective and allowing. 2012 is a long awaited year and one all of us have our own perceptions and wisdom on what it will be. During my inner review at the end of December I had a very profound astrological chart reading done for my personal 2012 year by my friend Rick DiClemente. Rick has just written an amazing book called The Exquisite Zodiac www.theexquisitezodiac.com where for the first time there is a clear explanation on how each sun sign coheres with the one before and builds to the next. Each of of carry ALL of the archetypes and in this are united. I started reading this book and couldn’t put it down.
The Whales and Dolphins work with the planetary frequencies on a daily basis as they balance the ley lines and grid lines of our planet. 2012 will be a year where each Full Moon ( tomorrow Jan 9/2012) and New Moon will carry more of the inter-planetary frequencies required for our cohesive journey. They were quietly beaming frequencies that mirrored to us our unique divine light. Today they beamed a holographic inter-dimensional “attunement” to help with our endocrine system and balancing our neurological process.
This timing like last month is a time for “internal” mapping our frequency within our sacred heart space, and beamed an image of a floating crystalline temple or palace where we could cohere all of our unique frequency signatures into balance. The whales and dolphins offered a loving message of support and understanding as we move through these challenging times.
I want to thank ALL that were able to join in and participate with me today. The love and energy allowed a deepening to our connection with the “Whale Matrix” which will be the foundation for all further meditations. We aligned today with the powerful energy of January and the massive change that is occurring on all levels. The Whales and Dolphins showered us with the frequency of “Love” today, giving each of us a new found inner strength and a new level of trust.
We connected with our non-physical, multi-dimensional selves within a 5D crystalline sanctuary and the Whales and Dolphins played in our transcended “puddles” of light to fill each one of us with light filled awe and honour. We connected with the energy of this month and coming year and all its opportunity for change.
We are and will remain in dramatic times of change over the coming months, and our beloved Whales and Dolphins are within us offering a cohesive integration and interface between our sacred heart and our 3D/ 5D bodies. The Whales and Dolphins offered support for us and our beloved Mother Earth, by weaving the vibrational frequency of LOVE, uniting ALL in this NOW timing.
Our beloved Whales and Dolphins along with our Beloved Arcturians, Pleiadians, Ascended Masters, and Star-Seed families will continue to support the interface of our 3D/5D systems as we continue to surf the crystalline vibrational upgrades of 2012. The entire meditation was recorded, below are the links.
It takes a few seconds for the recordings to begin.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” is set at 6 minutes to midnight but may tick forward or backward on Jan. 10, 2012.
CREDIT: Galushko Sergey, Shutterstock
Humanity will soon be getting an update on how close we are to catastrophic destruction, as scientists and security experts decide whether to nudge the hands of the famous “Doomsday Clock” forward toward midnight — and doom — or back toward security and safety.
The clock, in use as a symbol of imminent apocalypse since 1947, now stands at six minutes to midnight. On Tuesday (Jan. 10), the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) will announce whether they will nudge the minute hand forward or backward to reflect current trends in world security. The last time the clock hand moved was in 2010, when the group moved the hand from five minutes to midnight back to six.
In making the decision, the Bulletin considers the current state of nuclear weapons, climate change and biosecurity, along with other issues that could influence humanity’s survival. The closest the clock has been to midnight has been 11:57 p.m., set in 1984 when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were in a diplomatic stand-off and tensions were high. The farthest humanity has ever been from destruction, according to the clock, was in 1991, when the Doomsday Clock stood at 17 minutes to midnight. That year, the Cold War over, the U.S. and Russia began cutting their arsenals.
The clock ticked back toward midnight at the next update in 1995, however, when hopes of total nuclear disarmament began to fade. That update set the hands at 14 minutes until midnight. In recent years, the clock has ticked closer to destruction as the Bulletin has focused on concerns about nuclear terrorism and climate change.
The 2010 shift away from doomsday was due to nuclear agreements between the U.S. and Russia and productive climate talks at Copenhagen.
The announcement of the new “doomsday time” will come at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday. The Bulletin is expected to consider factors ranging from Iran’s nuclear program to the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster to the state of policy on climate change.
With the energetic shifts and changes that are going on at this time, it is very important for everyone to know what is truly important for them. This involves talking time to sit down and review what it is that makes your life truly fulfilling. And this means prioritizing — what is it that you positively cannot live with and what are the things that are there because they are there, props and settings, cast members and contexts. IT is time to know the difference and make some decisions as to what you do and/or do not want. You get the idea.
This is not an easy thing to do. We spend much of our lives explaining why we have certain place, people, and things in our life and why they are important. We spend a lot of time justifying relationships, jobs, locales… But that is the world outside. It is time to get to know the world within. Once you are clear, centered, and focused on what it is that truly brings you fulfillment, then you can see all the other things as what they truly are. Moreover you can make informed and self-empowering choices as to what you do and do not want around you.
So get ready to sit down, center, ground and be with WHO you truly are. It is time to have some fun. It is time to make lists, drawings, songs, whatever it is that allows you to get in touch with your heart’s knowing. There are no rights or wrongs, no goods or bads. No one will be grading you. No one needs even be aware that you are brave enough to do this. This is all about you and being WHO you are. Give yourself time and intention as part of this exercise. Get some paper, pen, pencil, crayons, paints, clay, and let’s go:
Step One involves the intention. Find a comfortable place, where you feel safe and supported. Turn off the phone, all those external distractions and devices that give you excuses, that pass your time. Now, perhaps a bit of soft music. Tea, water, if you are so inclined. The important thing is that you feel safe and comfortable.
Breathe in, and go to your Heart center. Stay there for the time it takes to get to know how this feels and what this means. Then allow the wise one of your heart to take you to your core. Breathe in the energy of the core. and say hello to WHO you are. Sometimes approaching this as a dialogue makes it flow more freely. You might be a bit surprised to see your WHO, so strong, so capable. That is you in your own power. You are always there. It is time to be aware of that.
Now open, focus, and allow. You are safe here for you are in your own center where no external things can disturb or harm you. It is time to see things for what they are, behind the seeming and the gleaming of the physcial.
In your perfect world, where you are not trapped to the demands, schedules, rigors, schedules, bills, etc. of this life, what would you do, what are your deepest wishes, how do things look to you? Put aside all external elements, badges, definitions, etc. Go deep within to your heart. Be brave. This is not an exercise for the weak. You are strong. Know this.
Be centered in your core. Ask yourself what it is that brings forth your light and your joy. Then just experiences how this feels to you. Be with it for a time. Then come back to your body and record the place you went, the feeling you got, and the intention that goes with this. Breathe.
Take what you have created at the end of this exercise, and put it up somewhere that you can see it on a regular basis. It is your talisman. It is your key to unlocking that place where YOU are truly WHO you are, your YOU-WHO!
STEP TWO: In process.
Step Two is the action step. Now that you have the intention and the outline, it is time to know how to make this real in your life. THis is an important step, for once you accept and allow what you truly are to be WHO you truly are, then you can go about creating and manifesting this.
FInd a quiet space, and take time to center and ground. Express your intention and make it the focus of this meditation. See yourself as you wish to be with the things around you that bring your fulfillment.
Cosmic Symphony — A Deeper Look at Quantum Consciousness
by Ervin Laszlo on April 9, 2010
The rise of quantum consciousness could be the biggest step our species has taken since it came down from the trees. It would bring us to a new stage of species maturity — and could also enable us to surmount the problems that threaten our life and our future.
But just what is quantum consciousness — QC? I have spoken about QC in my previous posts, but the question merits a further, deeper look.
First of all, what is consciousness? The commonsense assumption is that consciousness is a stream of experience produced by the brain. As long as the brain functions, there is consciousness; when the brain shuts down, consciousness vanishes. This, however, is not necessarily the case. It could be that our brain no more produces consciousness than the radio produces the symphony that comes through its speakers. The symphony, too, disappears when the radio is shut down, yet we know that it’s not produced by the radio. Both the radio and the brain pick up signals, transform them, and display the result in our stream of conscious experience.
According to received wisdom, the things and events that make up our experience of the world originate in the world. People and things around us reflect light and make sound; for the most part they can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. The corresponding signals reach our eye and ear in the form of waves in the electromagnetic field, in the air, and in the physical, chemical, and biological fields in and around our body. Our exteroceptive senses transform this information into nerve signals, and the signals are analyzed, sharpened, and interpreted by our brain. The result is the experience that appears in our consciousness.
This is the gist of the standard scientific explanation of our perception of the world, but it’s not complete. It’s incomplete not only because it fails to solve the age-old philosophers’ puzzle, how physical signals can transmute into intimately felt conscious experience (is this transmutation the work of the brain, or does the brain also transmit forms of consciousness from the external world?), but also because it doesn’t account for all the things that appear in our consciousness. Some of the things that appear in our consciousness convey information about the world even though we cannot see how they could be based on sense-perceivable events. Happily, unlike the philosophers’ “hard problem,” this is no longer an unsolved puzzle. We now realize that our brain is not limited to capturing sense-organ conveyed information, for it’s not just a classical biochemical system. It’s also a “macroscopic quantum system,” and such a system can “resonate” with the world. On the quantum level it can capture and process signals that far exceed the range of the signals available to the bodily senses.
The quantum-perception of the world is just as real as its sensory perception. Here, in brief, is why.
All things in space and time emit waves, and these waves interact with the waves produced by other things. They create wave interference patterns. Pressure waves in the air, and electric and magnetic waves in the EM field diminish with distance and the patterns they produce are limited to our immediate vicinity. Quantum waves, however (waves that propagate in the nearly infinite virtual-energy domain that fills cosmic space), move instantly over any distance. The kinds of interference patterns they create constitute quantum holograms, and quantum holograms are “entangled” with each other — they are instantly connected. As a result the information carried by one quantum hologram can be transferred to any other quantum hologram. Thus a system that can “read” the information in one hologram has access to the information carried by all. Our quantum-resonance-decoding brain could in principle capture information on anything and everything that creates quantum-interference waves in the universe.
Evidently, to capture this kind of information our brain must have the corresponding receptivity. Scientists are now beginning to understand how quantum-hologram receptivity might be built into the brain.
It appears that quantum-level signals are picked up by microstructures in our brain’s cytoskeleton (the cytoskeleton is a protein-based structure that maintains the integrity of living cells, including neurons). The neurons in the brain are organized into a network of microtubules of microscopic size but astronomical number. There are about 10**18 microtubules in the human brain, and “merely” 10**11 neurons (though this number is still larger than the number of stars in the galaxy). With filaments just 5 to 6 nanometers in diameter, our network of microtubules — the so-called “microtrabecular lattice” — is believed to capture, process, and convey information.
Physicist Roger Penrose and neurophysiologist Stuart Hameroff claim that consciousness emerges from these quantum-level elements of the brain’s cytoskeleton. The microtrabecular lattice could be responsible for the quantum-receptivity of our brain, picking up, transforming, and interpreting information based on phase-conjugate resonance.
If this is the case, there is not just one mode of perceiving the world available to us, but two. We have what neuroscientist Ede Frecska and anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna call the classical “perceptual-cognitive-symbolic” mode, based on information conveyed by our bodily senses, and we also have the “direct-intuitive-nonlocal” mode, enabled by the quantum receptivity of our brain’s microstructures.
In today’s world we tend to perceive the world in the classical mode, yet we could, and sometimes do, perceive aspects of it in the direct mode as well. However, our left-hemisphere dominated perceptual mode represses information that doesn’t accord with our established ways of thinking. Only in spiritual, religious, or mystical experience does such information penetrate to our everyday awareness — and then, just fleetingly.
Yet our brain could operate in a more balanced way: the cerebral functions underlying our everyday awareness could be more embracing than those in the classical perceptual mode. Operating in this way is possible, and has already been achieved by a few people. This was the finding of British psychophysiologist Maxwell Cade, who in the 1970s examined the EEG patterns of more than 3,000 individuals. He had found four typical patterns, made up of specific combinations of alpha, beta, and theta waves. (He did not consider dreamless deep sleep, where delta waves predominate.) Each combination turned out to be associated with a particular state of consciousness. The consciousness accompanying dreamful sleep, the state between waking and sleeping, and deep meditation each exhibits a typical combination of EEG waves. Dreamful sleep, the transitory state between waking and sleeping, and meditation all show pronounced alpha and theta waves. Our state of ordinary awareness is dominated by beta waves.
But Cade also found a “fifth state.” This is the remarkable state that comes to light in the EEG-portrait of accomplished healers. Cade called the consciousness associated with this state “awakened mind.” Here alpha and theta waves are strong, much as in the meditative state, but there are also beta waves. In some healers this state has become the norm, maintained not only during active healing, but also in everyday life.
Just as remarkably, in the fifth state the EEG waves are balanced across the left and the right hemispheres. This is important. The brain-state underlying ordinary consciousness is left-hemisphere dominated, and we know that the left hemisphere filters out experiences that do not mesh with our established beliefs and expectations. We also know that deep prayer and meditation activate the right hemisphere, and tend to synchronize the two hemispheres. A hemisphere-synchronized brain can operate in the direct quantum-resonance mode: as experiments I have witnessed myself demonstrate, expert meditators synchronize not only their own left and right hemispheres, but can also synchronize their left and right hemispheres with the synchronized hemispheres of others who meditate with them. And this synchronization occurs in the entire absence of sensory contact among the meditators. They can be in different rooms, different cities, even on different continents. (I reported on these experiments in my book, Science and the Akashic Field, and in other books.)
Unfortunately, a state of deep prayer and meditation is not functional in the everyday context: in most cases we need to sit with closed eyes, detached from the world around us.
A truly evolved consciousness would have the quantum-receptivity of deep prayer and meditation, but it would operate also in the everyday context. It would display a broad EEG wave-spectrum, embracing alpha and theta as well as beta waves. And it would show that the two brain hemispheres are highly coordinated, so that the information processed by the quantum-mode receiving right hemisphere is readily communicated to the sensory-information processing left. An evolved consciousness is wider and deeper than the everyday consciousness of people today, and more functional than the consciousness of those engaged in deep prayer and meditation.
In the past this kind of consciousness has been limited to exceptionally sensitive and creative people: to healers and poets, prophets and spiritual masters. In the future it could spread to a wider segment of the population. Humanity could be evolving its consciousness.
In closing, let us return to the example of the radio. Tuned to the right station, our radio can pick up and bring to us a great symphony. Imagine what our quantum brain could bring to us when, in the expanded and balanced mode, it would be tuned to the information encoded at the heart of the cosmos. This would be veritably a cosmic symphony. Of course, we could never capture all of it — only God could do that — but we could capture far more than we do today. This would make us more empathetic as individuals, and more cooperative as citizens in our interactive and interdependent global community. The rise of these attributes in a critical mass could be the key to our continued survival. QC may be not only the next step in our species evolution; it could also be our collective salvation.
Deep Wisdom: The Marriage of Science and Spirituality
by Gregg Braden on May 30, 2011
During the last years of the Cold War, I had a front row seat as a senior systems designer in the defense industry to one of the most frightening times in the history of the world, and the thinking that led to it. During the last years of the most potentially lethal, yet undeclared, war in human history, the superpowers of the United States and the former Soviet Union did something that seems unthinkable to any rationally minded person today. They spent the time, energy, and human resources to develop and stockpile somewhere in the neighborhood of 65,000 nuclear weapons—a combined arsenal with the power to microwave the Earth, and everything on it, many times over.
The rationale for such an extreme effort stems from a way of thinking that has dominated much of the modern world for the last 300 years or so, since the beginning of the scientific era. It’s based in the false assumptions of scientific thinking that suggest we’re somehow separate from the Earth, separate from one another, and that the nature that gives us life is based upon relentless struggle and survival of the strongest. Fortunately, new discoveries have revealed that each of these assumptions is absolutely false. Unfortunately, however, there is a reluctance to reflect such new discoveries in mainstream media, traditional classrooms and conventional textbooks. In other words, we’re still teaching our young people the false assumptions of an obsolete way of thinking based on struggle, competition, and war.
While we no longer face the nuclear threat that we did in the 1980s, the thinking that made the Cold War possible is still in place. This fact is vital to us all right now for one simple reason: For the first time in human history the future of our entire species rests upon the choices of a single generation—us—and the choices are being made within a small window of time—now. The best minds of our time are telling us that we must act quickly to avert the clear and present danger of a host of new crises that are converging in a “bottleneck” of time covering the first years of the 21st Century.
The journal Scientific American released a special edition (vol. 293, no. 3, September 2005) to bring the world up to speed on the critical situation we find ourselves in today. The title, Crossroads for Planet Earth, says it all. The way we solve the simultaneous crises—such as our response to climate change, the unsustainable and growing levels of extreme poverty, the emergence of new diseases, the growing shortages of food and fresh drinking water, the growing chasm between extreme wealth and extreme poverty, and the unsustainable demand for energy—will chart the destiny, or seal the fate of our global family that is estimated to reach a staggering 8 billion by 2025.
The key here is that the way we address the greatest crises of human history is based on the way we think of ourselves and the world. Clearly, the thinking that led to the war and suffering of the 20th century is not the thinking that we want the delicate choices of our survival based upon!
Developing a new level of thinking is precisely what we need to do today, and the magnitude of crises that face us may prove to be the catalyst for doing just that! The emerging bridge between the sciences that tell us how the universe works, and the spiritual traditions that give such knowledge meaning in our lives, plays a vital role in the new thinking that heads off the darkest possibilities of our future. But while the crises of the moment may be the catalyst for such a shift in thinking, something even deeper is emerging.
The new shift in thinking is the gateway to human transformation. And because of the sheer number of people involved in the shift, and the growing magnitude of the crises that are driving us to change the way we think, we are standing on the threshold of human transformation at a level unlike anything ever before known on Earth.
The spiritual traditions that I’m describing are the core principles of ancient and time-tested understandings—principles now confirmed by 20th century science that include the interconnected nature of all things, the power of the human heart to positively influence the magnetic fields of the earth and all life, and the cyclic nature of life, climate, civilization and change. The spiritual traditions of our ancestors got these principles right and embodied them at the core of their lives in their time. It’s the marriage of these holistic principles with the best science of today that helps us to tip the scales of life, balance, and peace in our favor.
While the specifics of spiritual principles may vary from tradition to tradition, the essence of their message does not. It’s simple, direct and states that we live in a world where everything has meaning, and is meaningful to everything else. What happens in the oceans has meaning for the climate of the mountains. What happens in a river has meaning for the life that depends upon the river. The choices that you and I make as we express our beliefs in our living rooms and around family dinner tables have meaning for the people in our immediate lives, as well as for those connected through the coherence fields of the human heart living halfway around the Earth.
By crossing the traditional boundaries that define the science, religion, and the history of our past, we are shown the power of a larger, integrated, and holistic worldview. I cannot help but believe that our destiny and fate as a species are intimately entwined with our willingness to accept the Deep Wisdom of a spiritually based science. It’s all about the way we think of ourselves, our relationship to the Earth and to one another. When the facts become clear, our choices become obvious.
Everything is changing, and this week expect big, even huge, shifts in energy throughout. Even if you think you are not being affected, think again! Take a look at how you are reacting to things. Moods and emotions will be two major themes this week. You can find yourself reacting to things way out of proportion to what just happened. Because this will be a trait in all areas, it is good to keep centered and grounded. Take time, count to ten, breathe, whatever before you judge, criticize or react. Some of what you are thinking or doing is not what you truly feel, rather it is a momentary blip as you buy into all the ups and downs around you. Remember that we are all connected, and in this connection, we can mirror or even express the outside attitudes and opinions if we are not firmly grounded in our Cores. Also, be aware of what your body is saying to you. The energy is affecting the physicality, and as a result you may find yourself with body issues that can cause you some concern. This is a week also in which you can learn much about your strength and your personal power. Be aware for those lessons. Take them to heart, and use that as a basis for moving forward as this year progresses. And, as always, trust your intuition. And one further note, this is a time for doing what yu love. It must be your focus and your priority. If you are not sure what it is that you truly love, then take a look at what you are doing at any given time. Step back and see whether or not this is the thing that makes you feel yourself, your power, your creativity, and most of all your joy. If it is not, then it is not your true passion. Oftentimes we can only discover things through a process of elimination. Do not get discouraged if you cannot find your passion right away. Joy comes sometimes silently and unexpectedly. It will happen. Continue reading →
A dog walks among tons of dead herring that washed up on a beach at Kvaenes in northern Norway on New Year’s Eve.
January 4th, 2012
11:02 AM ET
Tons of dead herring that washed up on a Norwegian beach on New Year’s Eve are now gone, and no one is sure how they got there or where they went.
Local resident Jan-Petter Jorgensen told Norway’s TV2 he went to look at the thousands and thousands of fish after seeing a Facebook posting about them, according to a report on The Foreigner.
Joregensen said it was fortunate the icy cold prevented the mass of dead fish from raising a stink.
“It is 15 degrees below zero today, so the cold means they don’t smell. Nevertheless, the smell will be pretty intense in the long run,” he said, according to The Foreigner report.
Turns out that wasn’t a problem. Views and News from Norway reports that as of Tuesday, most of the dead fish were gone, perhaps pushed out to sea by tides and winds. The local mayor said they’ll likely sink in the ocean, according to the report.
Why they came to be on the shore remains a mystery.
Jens Christian Holst of the Institute of Marine Research in Norway told Norwegian Broadcasting the herring may have been chased ashore by predators, the Views and News report said.
“In this area, we know there is a lot of (pollock) that graze on (herring),” he said.
Seems like a reasonable explanation.
Of course, on the Web there are always more troubling theories around, including that the deaths could be the first sign the end of the world is coming in 2012, as some believe ancient Mayan prophecy predicts.
