Consciousness & Development 2.0 - Spanda Foundation

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III,1/2012

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D E V E L O P M E N T 2 . 0

CONS C IOU SNE SS & DEVE LOPMENT 2.0

AN OPERAT ING MANUA L

EDITORIAL - S AH LAN MOMO

The Mesoteric Leap V

S TAN I S LA V GROF

2012 and Human Destiny: End of theWorld or Consciousness Revolution? 1

ROBERT AUGU STU S MA STER S

The Anatomy of Intuition:The Everyday Transmission ofNonconceptual Knowingness 13

AMI T GOSWAMI

Inner Creativity: A New Paradigmfor Adult Spiritual Development 17

A SHOK K . G ANGADEANSpiritual Transformations as the wakening of Global Consciousness:a Dimensional Shift in theTechnology of Mind 29

ERWIN LA SZLO

Two Ways of Knowing the World: Discovering the Reality of Non-sensoryPerception 37

ROGER NEL SON

Global Consciousness. Evidence foran Emergent Noosphere 41

T ERR Y PA TTEN

Integral Spiritual Practice:Becoming the Ones We Have BeenWaiting For 51

DANA TOMAS INO

Heart Intelligence and Emotional Evolution: A Next Step inConsciousness Development 57

PAUL VON WARD

Worldviews and Evolution ofHuman Consciousness 65

GA IL HOCHACHKA

Engaging the Play of Consciousnessin Sustainable Development 75

ROLLIN MCCRATY ~ ANNETTE DEYHLECoherence as a Catalyst for Personal,Social and Global Health, and the role of the Global Coherence Initiative 83

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g | CON T E N T

s p a n d a j o u r n a l

year III, no. 1 � January/june 2012

EDITOR SahlaN MoMo

EDITORIAL BOARD raDha barooah

ShEila EckErT ~ clauDE lorraiNE,SahlaN MoMo ~ JErEMy STaalbhoM

EDITORIAL AND EXECUTIVE OFFICE

laaN vaN MEErDErvoorT 70

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The designations employed and the presentation of the materialin this publication do not imply the expression of any opinionwhatsoever on the part of Spanda concerning the legal status ofany country, territory, city or area or of its attributes, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers or bounderies, or its economicsystem or degree of development. Designations such as ‘developed’,‘industrialized’ and ‘developing’ are intended for statistical conve-nience and do not necessarily express a judgment about the stagereached by a particular individual, country or area in the develop-ment process. Mention of firm names or commercial productdoes not constitute an endorsment by Spanda.

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T ERR I O ’ F AL LONDevelopment and Consciousness:Growing up is Waking up 97

F R ED A LAN WOL F

How to Identify with theCreator of the Universe 105

TORU SA TO

The Descent and Ascent upon theLadder of Consciousness 113

GEOFF F I TCH

Evolutionary Ethics 117

R I ANE E I S LE R

Breakdown or Breakthrough:Culture, Consciousness, and HumanDevelopment 123

MARC GA FNI

The Future of the Holy:From Sex to Eros 131

ANDREW COHEN

The Evolution of Enlightenment 141

A L LAN COMBS

Coyote Enlightenment. A Story of Evolutionary Spirituality 147

J EF FR E Y E I SEN

Clearing to Holosentience andLevel II Enlightenment 157

MATTHJ I S CORNEL I S S EN

Consciousness, Knowledge and thefuture of Humanity: A MiniatureOverview based on the work ofSri Aurobindo 163

CHR I STOPHER M. B ACHETeaching in the New Paradigm 173

M ICHA E L D . AU S T INDreaming Earth 181

RA YMOND TREVOR BRADLE Y

Nonlocality, Consciousness, andthe Eye of Love 193

WALTER BA ETS

Consciousness and Coherence inCorporate Success 207

CHR I ST I AN DE QUINCE Y

Embodied Mastery: Using Philosophyto Improve Performance in theMartial Art of Everyday Life 213

PETER GAR ETH WAL LACE ~ DENN ISP . H E ATONA Consciousness-based Approach toEliminating Poverty 219

CON S C I OU S N E S S & D E V E LO PM EN T 2 . 0 | C O N T E N T | I I I

JOHN RENE SH

The Conscious Organization:Workplaces for the Self-actualized 227

VEN I TA L . R AMI R EZLove, Consciousness & Evolution 231

MAR I LY N SCHL I TZ

Emerging Worldviews: Tools of Transformation forNoetic Leadership 241

ANGEL A BROWNE -MI LL ERSurvival Instruction: ConsciouslyAdapting and Enhancing HumanConsciousness 247

CHR I STOPHER HUGHTON BUDD

The Labyrinth of Finance:Consciousness and Money 259

ABSTRACTS :: SUMMARIES 263

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P | BACK NUMBERS

spanda.org/publications

1 | I, 1. 2007 Multicultural Youth2 | I, 2. 2007 Water-Wise3 | I, 3. 2007 Gender4 | I, 4. 2007 Death Penalty5 | II, 1. 2008 Hunger. A Clima(c)tic Perspective6 | II, 2. 2008 Education & Development. Africa7 | II, 3. 2008 Indegeneous Knowledge (IK)

& Environment8 | II, 4. 2008 Consciousness & Development9 | III, 1. 2009 Human Rights & Security10 | I, 1. 2010 Energy & Development11 | I, 2. 2010 Microfinance12 | II, 1. 2011 The Placebo Effect13 | II, 2. 2011 Indigenous Culture & Development14 | III, 1. 2012 Consciousness & Development 2.0

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http://spanda.org/publications.html/

E R V I N L A S Z L O | T W O W A Y S O F K N O W I N G T H E W O R L D | 2

Four years elapsed since the publication of our first assess-ment 1 on the state of consciousness we are leaping in; andagain the promising occasion to assemble friends and way-farers to share findings, insights and visions is at sight. Someof us know each other already since long, some other havenot yet met in this textual dimension but share the perspec-tive desire for a better humanity, a better way and place tolive – a unified state of consciousness in which the other isno longer ‘other’, but simply our deepest self, where duality isno longer the main bearer whilst oneness is not yet at bay.

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plit the whole into two to engender polarities,spanda 2 endures its course to fulfil its vocation,its call to manifest and to be manifested. alongthe same thread, but on a different plane,

emerging from the primordial androgynous chasm,each engendered side keeps its heavenly or earthlysignature, paralleled – in the twin-fissured dimen-sion – as a pro-tension, a gender advocacy to fur-ther differentiate. having been the first signaturegender-wise, the pivotal function of sex is ensu-ing. The vocatio attracting force generates andemanates form the fulfilled wor[l]d of con-sciousness, while a counterforce repels it. i amnot me, i am you.

“u’r beautiful, show ur light: nur upon nur… dou like to play the game of life? ;-)” “beauty isthe light that shines forth from within – i likeplaying my game with life because we are players.”“lol, gr8! ttyl.” “ok, i’m offline, bye bye.”

which kind of post-internet slang conversation isthis? it is up to the individual to inwardly change.The gravity centre of our being – that point fromwhich we chiefly act – and humankind’s centre of‘gravity’ are tuning in changing their permanentabode. humankind as a whole is leaping to a newevolutionary stage to permanently dwell in thenext dimension of consciousness right in betweenthe two worlds: the mesoteric dimension, amid theexoteric (.zahir) and the esoteric (ba.tin) planes whichlinks spirit to matter – barzakh, mundus imaginalis,parapara are the similes coming to mind to thisrespect – the dash in the spiritual-material experience

stationed in the true human soul (roh insani) rid-ing both worlds, a soul freed of self-interest – vastas an ocean used to say my mentor 3 – the per-petual substantial ontological entity ground of allbeing, indeed the seed of all expansion (unme.sa).a global expansion of the human consciousnessfrom the individual to the collective realm, fromduality to non-duality, from locality to non-locality, from profit to non-profit, in which timeloses its grip and everything holds present. it iscertainly not an altered state of consciousness,but indeed the real human realm through andfrom which the true human soul abides, compre-hends and intakes the ‘other’ into itself, recon-necting the original link between mind and body.in reality, expansion, indicative of the forthcomingdiversity, is itself the contraction (nime.sa) of theawareness of the unity of consciousness. conversely,contraction, corresponding to the withdrawal ofpreviously emitted diversity, is itself the expandingawareness of the unity of consciousness. Thus, theexpansion and contraction of consciousness, broughtabout by spanda, are simultaneously identical withboth as, in reality, they are merely the internal and theexternal aspects of the same energy. The plane, state ordimension, on which this becomes evident, is themesoteric locus where, in active contemplation, self-awareness emerges in consciousness. The mesotericbreadth is indeed an expression of a tendency of thehighest consciousness (uttavipara) to express itself inabsolute freedom, unbound to a fixed relative form,freed from being just one aspect and at liberty to be allfacets at once: formless and omniform, infinite andfinite, simultaneously unity and diversity, self-limitingbut unchanged.There is no time, time is a mind construct of memoryto enable us to deal with asynchronic events and con-ventions, to cope with the non-dimensionality of thereal human condition. There is more before and beyondthe space-time dimension than what we actually imagineor know, time does not exist, is a variable of existence.in the mesoteric present there is no loss of acquiredknowledge as a species, nor of memory; action unfoldsin the present tense, where where is here and notthere, when you are me and me is you – preciselyhere lays the real human dimension to be; not to be,is not to be here.

THE MESOTERIC LEAPE D I T O R I A L

When the wind of Change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.D u Tc h P rov E r b

S

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it is well known that in the ongoing developmentprocess, transformations, or stages ( .hal, a.hwal) aretransitory mansions of the same nature of the soul,unexpected and temporary gifts (barakah) manifestingon the same experiential plane, but of a different grada-tions, ‘tonality’, hue of being – even orgasm is a tem-porary stage, the shade of a briefly regained unity. bycontrast, transmutations, stations, places, states (maqam,maqamat) are acquired irreversible conditions belong-ing to the category of ‘act’, of a ‘state’ of consciousnessthat can neither be overcome until fully mastered throughits continual possession, nor by its privation; they con-note and identify a change of nature of the soul. growthand development are a modality of action, no growth ispossible with[in] inertia. in this respect, the mesotericplane is a maqam, an acquired tonal-spatial organiza-tion of the soul that acts as a tensorial membrane, anosmotic tensorium metaphorically placed between heavenand Earth, which maintains the awareness of bothplanes, and of the interplay of their unique action4. inreceiving the heavenly ‘impressions’ (eidos, ousìa) thetensorium acts as a selective filter: by vibrating at itown frequency it allows to percolate only those fre-quencies, vibrations, or energies finer or equal to itsown vibrational field, indeed it is that vibration itself,the individual vibration of life. No eidos can materialize– become matter, integrate with and regenerate Earth –without an action of will. when will and actionare paired much can be done and accomplished. inthis passage, freewill merges and becomes one withthe cosmic will (dharma) while the filtered vibra-tions transmute into earthly teophanic deeds inwhich freewill and dharma are but one, a symbol-sign, a living sign implanted into matter but activeon both planes. if no hiatus is amidst the twoand they are really one (in substance?), where thepersonal responsibility is gone? are we still respon-sible for ‘our’ actions if they are motivated andspring forth from no time and no where? whenthe energy flows freely through the tensorium itmanifests itself in informed actions, and aren’tthese an irreversible entropic utopia, ‘sacred’under certain aspect? once the inner and theouter are in a dynamic equilibrium, once formand content are one, indeed there is no higherresponsibility than to be oneself, to be.fantasies? Phantasis is an image that failed tobe, an image gone wrong. fantasy, converselyfrom creative imagination, a product of creativity,is made up of images devoid of substance, slippedaway from the tensorium to dwell in their ownrealm deflated of consistency, generated eitherwhen the original eidos did not adhere to the indi-vidual tensorial membrane because tuned to a dif-fering vibrational frequency, or because motivated

and initiated by one of the self-centred collabora-tive powers (nafs, nafas; nefesh) on the earthy side‘beneath’ the tensorial membrane. These powers,or energetic pattern or forces, are the expressionof the material, the vegetal, the animal and thehuman realms, or planes of existence in this splitdimension, each holding its own agenda andperspective. Depending on which plane we per-manently abide – that is our centre of gravity,willingly or unwillingly the permanent stationof our soul (the me) from we chiefly act – andthat bounds the ‘me’ to that plane, and we willbe ‘impulsed’ from that station. in any casemoved and bound to a stage where the ‘me’does not have the capacity of being reflexive, tobent back on itself (reflexus), to consciouslyreflect5 on itself, a potentiality to be actualizedwhen the me is properly installed in the i, at itsturn, lodged in the real human soul (roh insani).Sensations, thoughts, feelings and actions not‘received’ from the tensorium, but the outcomeof self-interest drives instead, will unavoidablyimprint all ensuing actions with their own specificvibration and leave a residual mark in the innerself and, a consequence of consequences, promotethe karmic process6. in the practice, as the amountof waste accumulated by the day-to-day self-cen-tred actions prevents fresh receiving, no furtheradvancement is possible if a contemporary innercleansing process fails to be activated for all the subtlemarks left in the inner self by the actions non attunedwith dharma. it is thus clear that there are at least twokind of actions under such circumstances: those inducedby the nafas; and those originated from a ‘clean’ karma-free source, embedded with spiritual-material energy,clean vessels for consciousness to shape deeds bare ofself-interest and of all the possible debris of the purifica-tion process. These clean actions, taking place contempo-raneously both at individual and collective level, free theindividual soul from the wheel of karma to ultimatelyinform the resurrection body (corpus resurrectionem, al-jismal-qiyamat) and avoid earthly re-birth; and, at the collec-tive level, prevent humanity from self-destructive anni-hilation. indeed much becomes possible when, activatedand cleared of all their residual influences, the mental,the emotional and the sexual human centres – respec-tively located in the physical head, in the heart and inthe sex, also corresponding to the homologous seats ofthe major abrahamic religions, Judaism, christianityand islàm7 – are aligned and perform in unison as one.in the same spirit, all faiths should work paired to onewill as they all aim at the same undifferentiated originwhose coarser manifestation is well appreciated byordinary eyes. but the proved mesoteric sightseer,centred right in between heaven & Earth where esso

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and exo meet, investigates further the atemporalpresent. an inner vision coupled with the ordinarysight could be very effective in empowering the tran-sition to a sustainable world, a world aligned withdharma, sustaining and sustained beyond generaliza-tions and assumptions, a wor[l]d through and bywhich we ascend and descend upon the joyful andpainful ladder of life. Jacob docet.Each revelation discloses a specific aspect of the whole,for the entire whole in unveil-able, unless knower,known and knowable are actually one. knowledge canbe of three kinds: it can be apprehended through thebodily experience of the world by means of learning, ofscience and so forth8; it can arise from within as intuitionand direct appreciation of the event, as a deep under-standing not mediated by the empirical data but shapedon the essence of the matter instead; or, at its best, it arisesfrom the combination of the two, an inner-outer, spiritual-material mesoteric knowledge. No sacred knowledge isfor sale, it is given for free, free of thought-constructs.Servants are we, servants of a knowable energy thatencompasses all, that cannot be accounted for if not asan immeasurable quality9 at the threshold of the ensuingstation, nothing but our own reflection, a reflection ofa reflective sentient being.a significant new feature of the mesoteric state –which, by the way, has always been there, hardlyattainable by the majority of us, but very dear andfamiliar to its habitual dwellers – resides in themodality of its access. while in the past a great dealof arduous practice was needed to accomplish theopening in the self of the diaphragm between spiritand matter, nowadays, in virtue of the global shiftof consciousness taking place at collective level, itbecomes more easily and widely accessible. Noguru, roshi, lama, master, teacher, trainer orcoach is needed, as the trainer is embedded inour own deeper Self. Post-metaphysical evolu-tionary spirituality, submission to the dharma,firm awareness of both the path and the world,metaperspective, with nothing but the intentionto serve for good, closer to vision than to fantasy,sustainable and deliverable.we are all migrants, exodusing from the cave toa new land to disclose issues of mutual interest,in eschatological terms, to launder the humankindkarma. Discovery is not a quadrant, is an ethicaltensor riding the tiger on a razor’s edge, a conicalwave-cycle spiralling from one station to the next.Time is really getting short, time is an illusion, aphantasis, an image gone wrong. The mesoteric‘time’, the ultimate present denuded of past andfuture, that our soul needs to experience whileimbedded in the space-time dimension in order to

perceive and ‘know’ matter, is a necessary gnoseo-logical step for the soul to progress to the unifiedconsciousness (insan-i-kamil; antropos teleios) wherethe i is installed on the true human level, whe[re]nthe individual and the collective merge in the per-fected humanity (kamal-i insaniyya), and soul, spiritand body become one. compassion, cum cordis.although the ‘why and how’ the Fiat Lux, theKun!, aka the Big Bang came into being has beendebated intensely among scholars and practi-tioners alike, no ultimate solutions have beenfound, yet. it remains harder to identify becauseit ‘happens’ in a dimension clear of space andtime, thus undetectable by our instruments cali-brated on it. but how and why the spiritual-material energy, transmutation after transforma-tions, in a process of gradual condensation (nime.sa,anado, yin, inspiration, regression, withdrawal,occultation, ba.tin, anábasi) loses mass and acquiresgravity to solidify into matter until its ‘spiritual’content is next to zero? and how & why then, atexactly that zero point, it reverts to gradually expand(unme.sa, catodo, yang, expiration, progression, man-ifestation, .zahir, katabasis) to re-acquire mass andlose gravity? This process of constant flow of thetwo polarities up and down the ladder of creation,known as the breath of the compassionate (al-nafasal-rahman) or the wheel of the absolute (anuttara-cakra) in a different cultural tradition, can be easilydetected in all segments of the creation from matterto spirit and from spirit to matter. we should bear inmind that in nonlocality, freed from the space-timeconstraint, expansion and contraction, exhalation andinhalation (pra.na, apana) are really happening at onceand are perceived as the polar aspects of unity. This why& how of the beginning – that some maintains due to a‘wish’ to manifest and be manifested, to be known; thatother ascribe to the will; or else as incomprehensible,because alien to the spatial-temporal dimension – is usu-ally rendered in languages with the sign a (अ; aleph; alef,;א alpha, α; alif, ا), the first letter of the sacred alphabetin which the creation expresses itself – it is worth keep-ing in mind that ‘sacred’ means to make or becomesacred through a sacrifice. This a is not a symbol, itdoes not stands for something other than itself – sym-bols symbolizes, they refer to a reality of a verticalorder, the symbolized10 – it is indeed the Principle, theabsolute, the beginning in the time-space dimensionof the energetic flows from the anode to the cathodeof the existence, from álpha to omega. from a followsb, in Sanskrit, the bindu, the dot without area at thethreshold of differentiation, the subtle vibration oflife, the principle of creation, the voiceless emission .h(visarga) from which spanda emerges; in arabic, it isthe ‘dot of creation’ under the letter b (b¯a, the ,(ب

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maximum condensation, the origin of the world,from which all powers emanate and into which theyall collapse, the union in a state of heightened potency,not yet divided to engender diversity.The instability of the spiritual-material experience,until its consolidation, partially resides in the alternatingperception of time – in both its historical/linear andsacred/circular aspects – and of its absence, of succes-sion and simultaneity11. The roulette of life does nothave stops, it goes right to its final goal in just one shot.The mesoteric citizen enlivens the imaginal geography,spring cleaning before resurrection between the tabulasmaragdina (lawh mahfuz) and Mount Qaf (Meru),strolling to and fro the cities of Jabalqa and Jabarsa, thenadir and the zenith united through their centres by theaxis mundi in a holy marriage of heaven and Earth. acollection of pearls, offered to enjoy the missing necklace.hermetic sounds, mesoteric utterances devoid of meaning.To be born, to grow up, to decay and die. a cycle anew,a new start, a new life. Don’t give it for granted, as it isgranted to anyone. The time of secrets is gone, lost andgone forever. The unveiling of the mesoteric realitybrings into being the real human kind, in whom theliving sign is manifested: a hierophany and a teo-phany at once on the plane of prophethood, spiritu-ality is flourishing outside of religions and each one isa prophet. in wording the unveiling, we ought tokeep firm the helm in the mesoteric dimension while‘temporarily’ off-centre our being to its exo side, attimes a painful, but necessary condition12. littledid we know of the impingement of reality onthese stances witnessing void and light as per-forming partners in shaping the universe. Theyare hard to keep at balance for of their perpetualshifting from quality to quantity in self-disclos-ing the visible-invisible cosmos. indeed a greatday the day of creation, no doubt. we startedfrom scratch and joyfully and painfully areleaping into a new state of consciousness, yetwe are compelled to use an obsolete languagehardly suiting the new. verily, we need to grantthis world a chance of renewal, a possibility tobe, and a purified, clear and refined thinkingmind to comprehend in depth the language ofthe new world is far better than a dull one.lapalace docet.

“;-) Do you mind?” “Not at all” said he, holdingher hand while strolling arm in arm. “goodluck!”, a sudden whisper at their back. “what?” “ididn’t say anything darling, just life.” Three dayslater death found them. “Shit! if it would have lastedjust a bit more… we were almost there…” “veryoften i do not recognize myself.” Period.

language is an expression of a people, of peoples,of their right to speak up in freedom by combiningand recombining with the rest of society, as lettersand signs recombine in assorted manner to castinto the world novel meanings and shades. Thesymbolical plane is one of the means to enablethe ordinary language to convey content other-wise inaccessible. Symbols are like diacriticalmarks wandering in the void, waiting for theright circumstance or for a favourable probabilityto plane upon letters and give them a differentmeaning, a different shade to their root – astorm of diacritical marks will certainly make alanguage hard to understand. Triconsonantalroots languages encapsulate in three letters thecore meaning of a higher order. The same threeconsonants, rearranged in a different pattern,unveil the diverse stratifications, aspects andshades of that root-meaning. in reality, the ur-meaning of the root dwells in each of its con-stituent individual letters, each phonema bearing aportion of the total meaning, also related to itssymbolical-numerical value. gematriya (’ilm al-huruf ) attempts to decipher these meaning byattributing to each letter a single numbered value,indeed an occasional device as numbers are expres-sion of ‘quantities’, even irrational numbers are stillsuch. in this vein, 1 is the unity, 2 the split of theoriginal dyadic unity into the two polarities of con-traction and expansion, the two genders, and soforth. ideographic languages combine and recombinesigns (ideas) around one single character to give newmeanings to a visual gestaltic root. Pictographic lan-guages make use of univocal well defines picture as let-ters, other languages arrange letters and roots in differ-ing fashions, but only some western languages displaycapital letters to confer value to certain concepts andwords – god, the love that transfigures reality, etc. –,in the hope that miniscule letters will not become arro-gant and step outside of the box – indeed their inferioritycomplex is unbearable, but being deeply aware of theold saying that “high heads will be the first to be cutoff”, they keep flat. Martyrdom is unacceptable; there isno other reality than the one we ourselves individuallylive. all the rest is illusion – an image gone wrong.in sacred languages letters and words convey at thesame ‘time’ multiple layers of meaning13. They are con-sidered sacred because they are issued by the timelessorigin and able to expresses a state of consciousnessnot necessarily related to logical categories and, like-wise poetical languages, to bear extra dimensionalmeanings. Even though these are based on the his-torical and literal sense and coexist and expressthemselves through it, they do not identify with.The beauty of a language nests in its capacity to

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convene both meanings and deeds, facts & wordsbreaking off their dichotomy to became one, one,with its own rhythm, a cadence between the innerand the outer in the hortus conclusus of our being.Nomina sunt consequentia rerum.

“i’m totally stupid, i don’t understand anything, iswear it, i don’t, i don’t…” “guess what, guess what!”“yessss, that’s what i like! y’r beautiful laugh!” “i’m totallystupid, i don’t understand anything, i swear it, i swearit!” “i like to hear u laughing! a waving sound comingfrom afar, ajar; then a pause, a diastema, an interval, andagain a new cycle, and so on and so forth.”

Style is that particular aspect of the individual imprintthat makes it recognizable from any other, a distinctivetrait of our essence, the hue we confer to reality and toour own actions, namely, our own individual way toexpress something, our own enterprise in this world dis-tinct from any another. To walk hand in hand is not nec-essarily trotting up and down the same way, but rather toacknowledge and respect others people path, whichmight greatly differ from ours. To acknowledge andrespect diversity is to acknowledge the ‘other’ in us andshare the intent of a direction. No colour of skin, incli-nations of gender, diverging of political or religiousviews would prevent delivery. resilience and patiencewalk arm in arm on the way, direction and intentionat the helm: who would ever dare to stop it?

“ah aha ah, indeed it seems a difficult task ... i said:‘to offer’ is ‘to give’ without expected or unexpectedreward, just give for the joy of giving”. “indeed u’rsmile is the glory of the universe unfolding itssplendour to the soul to depict the undepictable.”“com’on! i know who u’r and u know me, smile:the universe is infolding! i think u do under-stand me better than what u think u do, i’m u!!!”“ok, i told you my worldly age, but how old are u?”Delete conversation.

a sacred art, as a sacred language, is not theone relating ‘sacred’ or hagiographic themes,but the one springing from a sacred inner place,the origin of creativity, and which conveys inthe matter its original vibration. it is a creationof nature, as a leaf of a tree, channelling whatcan hardly be shaped into words and that, fast-holding its same meaning at all levels, fine tunesto its own aesthetic experience. it depicts thevisible and the invisible, morphism or abstrac-tions, processes, performances or situations withno limits – if not the hindrances of a split disso-nant conduit unfit to express an undivided reality14.The artist, dealing with ethical issue more thanwith esthetical ones, makes things with art, withtechné, with conscious knowledge and understanding,

performing an act of love, as the whole creation, andit is exactly this to make art so cherished by people,protected and conserved in the collective imaginaryas the goal of perfection... a banjan in a desert, arealroots a paradox. “we’re quite addicted to subtle discussions; / we’revery fond of solving problems. / So that we may tieknots and then undo them, / we constantly makerules for posing the difficulty / and for answering thequestions it raises. / we’re like a bird which loosens asnare /and then ties it tighter again / in order to per-fect its skill. / it deprives itself of open country; / itleaves behind the meadowland, / while its life isspent dealing with knots. / Even then the snare isnot mastered, / but its wings are broken again andagain. / Don’t struggle with knots, / so your wingswon’t be broken. / Don’t risk ruining your feathers /to display your proud efforts15”.

unless:“They scintillate with the diversity of sensations andresonate in the field of their awareness like the featherof a peacock unfurled and folded again in the ecstasyof its dance16.”

while human activity was giving rise to art, cul-ture and systems of thought, big business wascreating needs and tailoring the market to feedthem. while the western civilization is collapsingunder the pawns of a fierce mercenary financial-drive and the East is raising its rainbow over a sickplanet, gaea is capsizing under them both. Naturanatura and Natura naturata are at risk. resistancefrom the old falling apart, from the obsolete state ofconsciousness preventing transformation are felt at alllevels, from the individual to the collective plane andmanifest themselves as cracks in a bygone way ofthinking, of feeling, of understanding, all hindrance toa further development. wars and destructions are thewhisking strokes of an agonizing democracy dissectedby an unpurposeful society who has lost direction andwanders apart as a desperate visionless marginalized per-sona non grata. greed, selfish interest, lack of morality, theinability to welcome the other are just some of the cancerscorrupting our society, the result of a toxic self-centred with-drawing consciousness unsuited to nurture the demandfor an omni-directional development. with the ‘crises’contracting the moment and grinding into pieces thelast phase of this civilization, with an unpaired wealth dis-tribution and food supplies in danger, an uncomfortabledisrupting atmosphere is hovering our souls.complementary, from the union of spirit and matter,and as a natural outcome of the access to the collectivelevel, a new creative content is forging unprecedenteddevelopment models consonant with a society of indi-viduals, of real people. No more arrogance, but

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humility in an economy focusing on the commongood, not as a comfortable guise but as a real pro-tension to our own twin brother. recognizing, con-sidering and fulfilling the needs of the other is ulti-mately to recognize, consider and fulfil our ownneeds. There is no social development without indi-vidual development, adapt or perish. To empower atransmutation of consciousness entails being a con-scious agent of change devoid of self-interest. indeedactions performed not for the individual profit, but forthe benefit of the global community are the only wayahead. No re-enacting of old feelings and paths, cre-ative collaboration and not competition, a practice ofself-transcending service, an aperspective experience fora nonprofit society in which the rewarding awareness ofbeing helpful in co-creating a new type of economy isitself the real priceless profit. first person spirituality,authenticity, equal opportunity, social justice, humanand civil rights, collective intelligence, empowermentof nature in human affairs, ecological responsibility,gender concern, poverty alleviation in an inclusiveand participatory post-ideological democracy, multi-stakeholder and bottom-up approach, open source,copyright-free, nonprofit, unlucrative and solidarityeconomics and finance grounded on fair, responsibleand sustainable sharing of resources, are but the fewindicators and the decoded passwords driving thechange and paving the access to the new inclusivestate. Don’t ask around, ask your own self.indeed now, more than ever, while a focused con-scious attention attends a shifting humanity con-verging known, knower and knowable intooneness, higher spiritual food to re-balance andadvance further is needed. This time is crucial;time is an illusion, an image gone wrong. withthe sensitivity resonating at a higher frequency,we are collectively leaping into a new phase toenliven the human nature and make it perma-nently abide in the mesoteric dimension. Thenew state of consciousness, coessential withthe collective responsibility, is engaged in per-forming the best strategy to achieve new effi-cient shared solutions to sustain an initiatorypath of a novel planetary culture. in a global,enlightened and vivified humankind, natural,human and social capital are as important, ifnot more, as financial capital. with a parallelshift in global politics, governance and diplomacy,the uN should align its modus operandi to morejust and humane action. The current westernmale-centred society, having reached it maximumexpansion, is inverting polarity and, transmutinginto a more gender equitable society through theempowerment of women, will bear a predominantly

feminine signature. The surge of the feminine isalready taking place and will certainly lead for awhile before decaying to re-balance again. Thetensorial membrane is hymeneal. we are leaping,we are shifting, we are changing.

a sneeze in my ear, “god bless you!” ;-) bosons &mesons are displaying their cosmic nuclear dance.who will ever prevent light to be? “respect ourbody, our temple!” “why u didn’t tell me earlier?”“Too much information at the same time can per-turb the communication… too much noise…”“listen carefully now…”

To facilitate, from the individual to the collec-tive plane and viceversa, the attainment of ahigher state of consciousness, we individuallyand collectively need to be aware of the globalleap into the mesoteric consciousness in whichhumankind as a whole is engaged; we need tofollow and submit our own windmills to thewind (ruh, roh) of transmutation and start buildingour resurrection body here, in this basic twinneddimension, with patience and sincerity we oughtto be our own father and mother. The intentionis fundamental: a clear intent aligned with thedirection of action has great probabilities to deliver,if not, our actions will turn into entropy, the resultof a whatever energetic exchange not aligned withdharma.None of us individually holds the whole truth, wecan only savour a few particles of light in a darkroom, but collectively we can grasp the beauty ofcreation. Truth is self-evident, we recognize it as soonas it strikes within us a corresponding chord to which weunconditionally adhere with a sense of having known itever since before time, a sort of mild fulguration inwhich we cohere with our inner spouse, a sacred unionwithin the Self, a mesoteric hierogamy.

** *

These are some of the verbose considerations that came tomy spirit and that I wished to share with you. It took me aquite a while – a while into a while to be honest – torecord them down here. On account of we, of I and youbecoming one, we wish you the ongoing discovery andsavouring of an ever fresh knowledge.The ensuing visions displayed by companion wayfarers nar-rate the state of the art in consciousness studies. They all arecomplementary to each other, reflecting the diversity of theapproaches bound for the same goal: the mesoteric plane.Enjoy the leap. 8

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1 Consciousness & Development (2008). SpandaNews, ii, 4.2 Spanda is a Sanskrit term – derived from the root spadi: “to

move a little” (kimcit calana) – for the subtle creative pulse of theuniverse as it manifests into the dynamism of living form. The termis a key concept of the kashmir Śaivism monistic philosophy (ixcentury) according to which the entire universe is nothing but con-scious energy, and that everything in the universe is that conscious-ness expressed in different forms. Spanda can be translated as throb orpulse or to mean vibration, movement, or motion, referring to wavesof activity issuing forth from an unseen source of spontaneous expres-sion, emanating not only from the centre outward, but from every-where at once. it might be described as the essence of a wave in theocean of consciousness. an impulse or desire to create and enjoy,likened to an eternal spring, joyfully overflowing its inner essence intomanifestation and inspiration, yet ever full, complete and unchanging.

3 Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (1901-1987).4 a qualified representation of the peculiarity of the tensorium

is often embodied in art. for instance, in the wayang kulit art shadowtheatre, a wooden framed white fabric screen (kelir), on which arecasted the shadows of the leather puppets, stands between the per-formers and the audience, the two polarities within and of the per-formance. in older times, the gender chasm was maintained by themale audience attending the event from the same side of the per-formers, while women partnering on the other side of the kelir. Thepuppets, made of coloured and glided carefully chiselled thinleather and supported by shaped horn handles (cempurit) and con-trol rods (teteg), are enacted between the light source, a hangingbrass oil lamp (blencong), and the screen by the puppeteer master(dalang) sitting cross-legged in front of the kelir, with at his backthe gamelan orchestra. The blencong is shaped like a garuda, themighty mythological bird who, during the creation, possessedthe knowledge of the gods and brought it to Earth, serving as amediating messenger between the two – a homologous of theSimourgh, or of hermes, or Semar. in its capacity to unitehaven and Earth through and with knowledge, garuda over-sees the heavenly Mount Meru (analogous to Mount Qaf ),the psychocosmic mount focal point of the spiritual ascentfrom which top spring forth the elixir of life (see gilgamesh-utnapishtim). The performance, flourished with actions andnarrations (lakon) of gods, demons and humans drawn eitherfrom the Mahabharata, the ramayana or from indigenoussources, is mingled with the befitting gamelan music in thefive-tone salendro mode – the number 5 holds a specificsymbolical meaning in Javanese cosmology. The perfor-mance starts just after sunset to continue without a breakuntil dawn, a complete nocturnal cycle to coincide, atanthropological level, with the death and rebirth transi-tional rite. it begins and ends with the appearing on stageof the gunungan (mountain) or kayon (forest), a largeleather figure in the shape of a leaf on which traditionaliconography details the Tree of life (haoma, yggdrasil etc.)and that, in the Javanese variant presents, at its middlelower section, a gate flanked by the two guardians (demons)of the threshold – the two polarities – who deny or allow theaccess to Mount Meru. Palpably, to the kelir between theperformers and the audience – displaying on its surface theshadowy (umbra) reality to the audience – corresponds, in itsporous capacity, the osmotic mesoteric dimension between thetwo states of consciousness welcoming the eidos on its surface.undoubtedly, the blencong represents the source of the light ofknowledge ever shining on the world. in its visarga, (lime.sa,expansion), the light is prevented (absorbed?) to reach thesurface by a puppet manipulated by the dalang, and its shadow

– the opposite of the conscious i, the absence of matter – iscasted on the screen of the phenomenical world. in formertimes, an oil “not from the East nor from the west” was used,nowadays electricity is the source – a synchronic parallel layerof reality on the historical plane at the collective socio-politicallevel. Thus, while the audience is captured into a world ofphantasmata, the actors beyond the screen manipulate thepuppets. a metaphor. only when the dalang and the audi-ence meet and are one in a state of collective quasi-trancheactive and conscious contemplation, the aesthetic rasa kicksin. in fact, it is the quality of the state of the dalang, themediator – the ‘manipulator’ in its negative connotationwhen acting from a not clean source – to initiate the saqiby offering another round. by cultural dissemination, thecanvas of the painter, the stone of the sculptor, the body ofthe dancer and of the actor, the voice of the singer, in thelast instances the body itself, become the tensorium. inwestern medieval, as well as in Persian and indian miniaturepainting, objects do not cast shadows, they are a product ofand depict the imaginal reality and, as such, are deprived ofany material consistency. a shadow does not have mass, isthe region from which light is bound because of an obstacleinterposed between its source and the receiving surface, apenumbra in a black-hole. it is light to make things visible,like the granules of dust in a room in penumbra, made visible,enlightened, by a ray of light outcoming from a tiny open-ing in a wall, so does the light of consciousness: it enlightenour reality in touching upon the tensorium.

5 in neurology, a reflex is an involuntary response to astimulus when the nerve impulse from a receptor is transmit-ted inward to a nerve centre that in turn transmits it outwardto an effector.

6 for instance, an action moulded on the vegetal realm –where greed and fear are companions and really enjoy making thisworld a mass – will imprint all subsequent action with its seal.

7 islàm, by taking avail of a reversed physiological-symbolicalcorrespondence of the mental, emotional and the sexual centres withJudaism, christianity and islàm, maintains that by being itself the latestchronological revelation in the abrahamic prophecy cycle (nihayat-eadyan), and by seating at the bottom end (sexual) of the human ener-getic centres cycle, the prophecy cycle itself has come to an end.

8 Science investigates the gross aspect of reality, of matter down tothe infinitesimal neutrinos, boson and the like. a relic of an obsoles-cent state of consciousness, it verifies data against replicable events inthe space-time dimension, but is unfitting to investigate the spiritualenergy much finer than matter, for which a different set of tools specif-ically calibrated on it are needed.

9 Qualities are energetic patterns gravitating at collective level, akinto ‘angels’ – our own individual angel is actually our own intrinsic quality.

10 in this, symbols differs from metaphors as the former act onthe vertical plane of the language, they refer to a higher (spatial)

order, while the latter shift horizontally their meaning. Symbol andmetaphor come together only at the intersection of the orthogonalaxes, at the point of convergence where the vertical and the horizontalplane of our existence meet. This centre, depending on cultural vari-ables, has often been identified with the soul at the conjunction ofspirit and matter, or in the physical heart, or in the liver.

11 The frequency of the alternation of the two phases is the periodof their verification; the pace between one phase and the next is therhythm of their manifestation. changing the phase means, also,inverting the polarity of the frequency, to speed up its pace, toincrease its vibratory frequency to a higher and subtler rate to ulti-mately reach the limits of its own possible expansions to then trans-mute into it opposite: enantiodromia (ἐνάντιος + δρόμος, enantios +dromos, walk backwards). Talete docet.

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12 Pain is a side product of growth, to avoid pain is to preventprevent growth, but self-inflicting pain to foster growth is abygone practice alien to the current development process. Yet, tocause pain, wars and destructions are the symptoms of a souldeprived of collective sentience, bereft of its meta-individualawareness.

13 In Sanskrit, the insertion in the mesoteric position of theanusvara, the phoneme .M (subtle vibration, voiceless nasalization)between the syllables HA (nime.sa, prana, inspiration, inhalation) and SA(unme .sa, apana, expiration, exhalation) gives rise to the word HA .MSA

(HA, inhalation +> .M, subtle vibration +> SA exhalation) which means‘swan’, or the spiritual principle of the individual which reunites in itselfthe two polarities of expansion and contraction through and by a subtlevariation – the dash in the spiritual-material experience. Instead, the letterA (the origin, the retention, the suspended point in between inhalationand exhalation, kumbhaka) at the beginning + the HA (nime .sa, pra.na,inspiration, inhalation) + .M (subtle vibration, immission, unme .sa,bindu) at the final position, generates AHA.M (A, origin +> HA, contrac-tion +> .M, subtle vibration) which means the ‘Supreme I’, the transcen-dent Self. AHAM, in its mirror image reversed order, becomes .MHAA, theseed of contraction ( .M, subtle vibration at the beginning +> HA, con-traction +> A, origin) which connotes, evidently, the process by whichthe subtle vibration contracts to reabsorb the whole manifestationinto its origin, parallel to the process of spiritual development, backto the origin. The same contraction-expansion sequence occurs withthe practice, mostly performed silently in the inner chamber ofconsciousness, of the dhikr (mantra): la ilaha illa’l-Lah (there is noGod but God, non Deus nisi Deus), where the first half of the invo-cation, la ilaha, is remembered in exhaling – the expansion of thecreation; from which, after a short breath retention (kumbhaka),follows the second half, illa’l-Lah, in inhaling – the withdrawl of thecreation back to its origin. Here too, the focal point lays in the hiatusbetween the two phases, hypostatically corresponding to themesoteric dimension.

14 In a message, the information perceived from the pointof view of the medium, is the message itself, for the mediumitself becomes the message. If observed instead from the pointof view of the message, the information conveys a meaning dif-fering from the medium.

15 Rumı. J. (1994). Mathnawi, II: 3733-3738. Version byCamille and Kabir Helminski (New York: Threshold Books).

16 Vijñanabhairava, 32. (1979). English trans. by JaidevaSingh (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass).

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Stanislav Grof heads the GrofTranspersonal Training Pro-gram and teaches at theCalifornia Institute of Inte-gral Studies, US. He was for-merly Chief of PsychiatricResearch at the MarylandPsychiatric Research Center,

Assistant Professor of Psychiatryat John Hopkins University in

Baltimore, MD, and Scholar-in-Resi-dence at the Eselan Institute in Big Sur, California, US.He is editor of ancient wisdom and Modern Science andhuman Survival and consciousness Evolution, and author ofmany papers and books, among which realms of the humanunconscious, lSD Psychotherapy, beyond the brain, Theadventure of Self-Discovery, andThe cosmic game.

ince the publication of Jose arguelles’ bookThe Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology(arguelles 1987) brought to the attention oflay audiences the fact that the most impor-

tant of the Mayan calendars, the long count cal-endar, would end abruptly on December 21, 2012aD, there have been many discussions concerningthe possibility that this prophesised the end oftime or even of the world. Jose arguelles orga-nized in this connection what became known asHarmonic Convergence, the world’s first globallysynchronized meditation. it was held on august16-17, 1987, a date which marked the beginningof the projected twenty-five-year culmination oftwo important cycles of Mayan cosmogony –the 5,125 year great cycle of history, as well asthe 25,920-year cycle of Evolution, both of themending on the same day, December 21, 2012.as this date is approaching, the mystery of theMayan prophecy has become the focus ofmany articles, books, and conferences and of amovie entitled 2012. Similar prophecies aboutthe end of the great cycle can be found inmany other cultural and religious groups – thehopi, Navajo, cherokee, apache, iroquois con-federacy, ancient Egyptians, the kabbalists,Essenes, Q’ero elders of Peru, the SubsaharanDogon tribe, and the australian aborigines.however, the Mayan prophecy is unique and mostinteresting, since it involves a specific date.

with some rare exceptions, such as the Mayanscholar John Major Jenkins (Jenkins 1998 and2002) and a few others, the Mayan prophecyabout the end of the cosmic cycle, the fifthworld, has been interpreted in terms of actualdestruction of the material world and extermi-nation of humanity, in a way similar to theinterpretation (or better misinterpretation) of theterm apocalypse by christian fundamentalists,particularly the millions of american christianswho believe that at the time of this global destruc-tion they will experience “rapture” and be unitedwith Jesus. People who see it this way are notaware of the fact that the original and literal mean-ing of the term apocalypse (greek ἈποκάλυψιςApokálypsis) is not destruction but “lifting of theveil” or “revelation.” it referred to the disclosure ofsome secrets hidden from the majority of humanityto certain privileged persons. The source of the mis-interpretation of this word is probably the phrase“apokálypsis eschaton” which literally means “revela-tion at the end of the æon, or age.”i would like to suggest in this paper a radically different,more optimistic interpretation of the Mayan prophecy– as referring to the end of the world as we have knownit: a world dominated by unbridled violence and insa-tiable greed, egotistic hierarchy of values, corruptedinstitutions and corporations, and irreconcilable con-flicts between organized religions. instead of predictinga physical destruction of the material world, the Mayanprophecy might refer to death and rebirth and a massinner transformation of humanity. in order to explorethis idea, we have to answer two important questions,first: How could ancient Mayans two thousand years agoknow anything about the situation that humanity wouldbe facing in the twenty-first century? and second: Arethere any indications that modern society, more specificallythe industrial civilization, is currently on the verge of amajor psychospiritual transformation? i will try to addressthese questions in the following text.The Mayan prophecy concerning the 2012 winter sol-stice has an important astronomical dimension. over2,000 years ago the early Maya formulated a profoundgalactic cosmology. being excellent observers of thesky, they noticed that the position of the winter sol-stice sun was slowly shifting toward an alignmentwith the galactic axis. This movement is caused by

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so called precession – the wobble of the rotationalaxis of the earth. The Mayans concluded that majorchanges of cosmic proportions would occur at thetime of this auspicious solar/galactic alignment. Thisis an event that happens only every 25,920 years,which is the period required for the winter solsticesun to move through all twelve zodiacal signs. Thesunrise on December 21, 2012, would thus representnot only return of the light into the world, as it hap-pens every year on winter solstice, but also enlighten-ment on a large scale and of a different order.c. g. Jung used in his book Aion and in his other writ-ings the term “Platonic Month” for the period that ittakes the vernal equinox point to pass through one con-stellation of the sidereal zodiac and the term “Platonicyear” for the completion of the entire zodiacal cycle on amuch larger cosmic scale. Jungian scholar alice howellexpounded this perspective in her book Synchronicity inAstrological Signs and Ages (howell 1990). She pointed outthat the crossing of the vernal equinox sun into anotherconstellation has been regularly associated with a radicalshift of the dominant archetypes. This would then influ-ence, for example, the religious and ritual symbolism ofthat period, as exemplified by the importance of thebull in age of Taurus, of the sheep in the age of aries,and of the fish in the Piscean age.while the time of the annual solar return can beastronomically exactly calculated, what happensastrologically in connection with the galactic align-ment would not be a one-day event. Precessionshifts the position of the equinoxes and solsticesone degree every 71.5 years. because the sun is onehalf of a degree wide, it will take the Decembersolstice sun almost 36 years to precess through thegalactic equator. astrologically, the transits alsoare not momentary events; their influence fol-lows a bell-curve. Their influence graduallyincreases and reaches a maximum at the timewhen the angular relationship is exact; follow-ing this culmination, it gradually decreases. Theinfluence of the galactic alignment would thusextend over a period of several decades and theworld changes associated with it would alreadybe underway. The present form of galacticalignment occurs only once every 25.920 years.it is interesting that the last alignment of thiskind coincided with the time of disappearanceof the Neanderthals and emergence of the cro-magnon culture with radically new ritual andartistic expression.astronomers of the pre-classic Maya culture calledthe izapa culture devised the long count calen-dar consisting of thirteen baktuns (each lasting 394solar years) to target the time when the cosmicalignment would maximize – December 2012 aD.

To accomplish that, they had to place the begin-ning of this calendar to august 11, 3114 bc, manycenturies before their time. it is this 5125-year/13baktun cycle representing a wave harmonic of his-tory that ends on December 21, 2012. The cultur-al legacy of ancient Mayans includes also glyphsand images carved in stone monuments andpaintings on funeral vases, plates, and tripodsrelated to this auspicious alignment that conveyinformation open to interpretation (robiczek1981, grof 1996, 2006). i am not a mayologist, astronomer, astrologer,or psychic. i should therefore say a few wordsabout how i became interested in this area andwhy i should be able to say anything of rele-vance concerning the enigma of the Mayanprophecy. in my adolescence and post- adoles-cence, i was fascinated by Mesoamerican cul-tures and read many books about the Mayans,aztecs, incas, and other cultures of centralamerica ad South america. i also learned how topaint in the styles of some of these cultures. Myinterest deepened even further when i startedworking with psychedelics and discovered theimportance of the process of psychospiritual deathand rebirth. The stories about the Mayan heroTwins and Quetzalcoatl are prime examples of thisprocess. i later studied these Pre-hispanic mytholo-gies in some depth as preparation for my books enti-tled Books of the Dead and The Ultimate Journey(grof 1994 and 2006). i came to the conclusion that itis impossible to really understand the Mayan cultureunless we take into consideration the enormous impor-tance that psychedelics and other “technologies of thesacred” played in the ritual, spiritual, cultural, and evenscientific life of the ancient Mayans. and i believe thatit is impossible to seriously study the Mayan prophecywithout taking this fact into consideration.My own main area of interest in the last fifty years hasbeen research of non-ordinary states of consciousness or,more specifically, an important subcategory of thesestates for which i coined the term holotropic. This com-posite word means literally “oriented toward wholeness”or “moving in the direction of wholeness” (from thegreek holos = whole and trepo/trepein = moving towardor in the direction of something). These are states thatnovice shamans experience during their initiatory crisesand later induce in their clients. ancient and native cul-tures have used these states in rites of passage and intheir healing ceremonies. They were described by mys-tics of all ages and initiates in the ancient mysteries ofdeath and rebirth. Procedures inducing these stateswere also developed in the context of the great reli-gions of the world – hinduism, buddhism, Taoism,islam, Judaism, and christianity (grof 2000, 2006).

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The Mayans had a rich array of “technologies of thesacred,” procedures that can induce holotropic statesof consciousness. we have ample pictorial evidenceon Mayan stone stelae, sculptures, and ceramics thatthey used for this purpose the Mexican cactus peyote(Lophophora williamsii), magic mushrooms (Psilocybemexicana or coerulescens known to the indians as Xibal-ba okox or teonanacatl), and skin secretions of the toadBufo marinus. additional plant materials used in pre-hispanic Mesoamerica were Salvia divinatorum, alsoknown as diviner’s sage, morning glory seeds (Ipomoeaviolacea) called by the natives ololiuqui, balche (a fer-mented drink made from the tree Lonchocarpus longisty-lus and honey), Datura plants, wild tobacco (Nicotianarustica), and water lily Nymphaea ampla, Many of theseplants appear as stylized decorations on the beautifulstatue of the Nahuatl god xochipilli, lord of flowers.a powerful and specifically Mayan mind-altering tech-nique was massive bloodletting induced by using lancetsmade of stingray spines, flint, or obsidian to wound thetongue, earlobes, and genitals (Schele and Miller 1986,grof 1994). ritual bloodletting opened up an experien-tial realm that was not ordinarily accessible before thetime of biological death. The Mayans used the symbolof the vision Serpent for the experiences induced byblood loss and shock. This symbol represented thecontact between the everyday world of human beingsand the world of gods and sacred ancestors, whowere expected to appear in their visions in thesupernatural realms. The lancet was perceived as asacred object with enormous power; it was personi-fied in the form of the Perforator god.because of the extraordinary importance that these“technologies of the sacred” had in the Mayanculture, it is reasonable to assume that visionaryexperiences induced by them might have pro-vided inspiration for the prophecy concerning2012 and played a major role in its articulation.it is thus fully justified to look at this prophecythrough the prism of the discoveries of modernconsciousness research involving psychedelicsubstances and other consciousness-expandingprocedures.in holotropic states of consciousness, it is possi-ble to obtain profound revelations concerningthe master blueprint of the universe designed bycosmic intelligence of such astonishing propor-tions that it is far beyond the limits of our every-day understanding and imagination. individualsexperiencing psychedelic states, including myself,occasionally reported that they had profound illu-minating insights into the creative dynamics of thekosmos. More specifically, psychedelic pioneer Ter-rence Mckenna described in his preface to JohnMajor Jenkins’ book “Maya cosmogenesis 2012”

(Jenkins 1998) that he received his insights concern-ing 2012 in his mushroom sessions. These experi-ences provided the inspiration for his own book on2012 co-written by his brother Dennis and entitledThe Invisible Landscape (Mckenna, Mckenna, andTaylor 1976).individuals who had such revelatory cosmicvisions suddenly understood that what is happen-ing in the material world is formed and informedby archetypal principles, beings, and events exist-ing in dimensions of reality that are inaccessiblefor our everyday consciousness. They also sawthat the dynamics of the archetypal world is sys-tematically correlated with the movements of theplanets, their angular relationships, and their rel-ative positions to the fixed stars. This led to acompletely new understanding of astrology, itsorigins, and paramount importance. it becameclear to them that the sources of astrology werelarge-scale encompassing visions of the workingsof the kosmos and not tedious accumulation ofindividual observations of correlations betweenevents in the world and celestial bodies.richard Tarnas, amassed over a period of morethan thirty years impressive and convincing evi-dence for systematic correlations existing betweenthe archetypal world, celestial dynamics, and psy-chological and historical processes and presented itin his ground-breaking and paradigm-breaking bookCosmos and Psyche (Tarnas 2006). Tarnas’ astrologicalresearch has focused primarily on correlations withthe movements of the planets, but there exist astrologi-cal systems, which pay great attention to fixed stars;experiences in holotropic states can provide equallyrevealing insights in this regard.an important aspect of experiences in holotropic statesis that they transcend narrow linear time and make itpossible to see events in the universe on a cosmic astro-nomical scale. in all their grandeur, time scales like theMayan long count calendar or the great or Platonicyear are very modest as compared to others inspired byvisionary experiences, such as those found in Tantric sci-ence, in which the age of the universe amounts to bil-lions of years (a number similar to the assessment ofmodern cosmologists), or to those discussed in hindureligion and mythology – the kalpas or the Day of Brah-man – that also amount to billions of years. Thevisions of ancient Mayan seers could thus with thehelp of “technologies of the sacred” easily reach manycenturies into the future. The Mayan prophecy concerning the galactic align-ment is not limited to astronomical observations andastrological predictions; it is intimately interconnectedwith mythology, with what c. g. Jung called the


archetypal domain of the collective unconscious. forexample, the Mayan seers referred to the Decembersolstice sun as “cosmic father” and to the Milky wayas “cosmic Mother”. They envisioned the center ofthe galaxy, where modern astronomy places a giantblack hole, as her creative and destructive womb. Thetime of the galactic alignment was thus the time of acosmic hieros gamos, sacred marriage between the femi-nine and the Masculine.in the year 2012, the sun will have travelled to the edgeof a cosmic dust cloud known as the great Dark riftthat lies along the Milky way and seems to divide itslight into two paths. The Mayans called this dark riftxibalba be (road to the underworld) and saw it as aplace of birth and death and of death/rebirth. it was forthem the birth canal of the cosmic Mother creatrix,where the December solstice sun will get reborn in 2012.it was also a place of death, because it is the doorwayinto the underworld, the land of the dead and theunborn. These associations clearly were not products ofeveryday fantasy and imagination of the Mayans pro-jected on the night sky, but results of profound directapprehensions of the connection between the arche-typal world and the celestial bodies and processes.The Mayan prophecy has also an important mytho-logical connection to the story about the heroTwins, hunahpu and xbalanque, who were invitedby the death gods to visit the underworld xibalbaand play ballgame with them. The xibalba lordsput them through many ordeals and the brothersovercame them all and, finally, they died and werereborn as the Sun and the Moon (or according tosome interpretations as the Sun and venus). Thepart of the story that seems particularly relevantin this regard is the battle of the twins with thebird demon vucub-caquix (“Seven-Macaw”).he is a vain, selfish, and impulsive ruler, whopretends to be the sun and the moon of the twi-light world in-between the former creation andthe present one. he seems to represent the egoarchetype that is dominant at the end of thecycle. Seven Macaw seems to have an archetypalparallel in the New Testament – the Endtimeruler or the “beast,” also known as antichrist.hunahpu and xbalanque defeat Seven Macawand strip him of his teeth (the instrument ofviolence), of his riches, and his power. by doingthis, they facilitate the resurrection of theirfather, one hunahpu, a just ruler who repre-sents selfless divine consciousness that is holistic;it shows concern for all beings, and makes politi-cal decisions based upon future generations or –as Native americans say – with regard to how theywill affect seven generations down the road.

Mayologist and cardiologist francis robiczek believedthat many of the paintings found on Mayan funeralvases were actually illustrations to a lost Mayanbook of the Dead (robiczek 1981, grof 1994). heshowed that the images depicting xbalanque(infant Jaguar) in relation to a strange monstercauac can be arranged in a characteristic sequence.he believed that this trajectory might reflect amovement of a celestial body. cauac is a peculiarcreature who can change size and shape; in viewof the Mayan’s interest in death and rebirth, itmakes more sense to see it as related to biologi-cal birth. Many of the funeral vases, plates,tripods, and sculptures also portray specificallyscenes of death and rebirth (45-47). kukulkan,or Plumed Serpent, Mayan deity (equivalent ofthe aztec Quetzalcoatl), was a powerful symbolof death and rebirth. These facts seem to sup-port the interpretation of the Mayan prophecyas referring to a process of transformation ratherthan destruction. research of holotropic states – psychedelic ther-apy, holotropic breathwork, and work with indi-viduals in “spiritual emergencies” – made majorcontributions to the understanding of mythology.Myths are commonly considered to be products ofhuman fantasy and imagination not unlike the sto-ries of modern fiction writers and playwrights. con-sciousness research has brought convincing supportfor the work of c. g. Jung and Joseph campbellsuggesting a radically new approach to mythology.according to these two seminal thinkers, myths arenot fictitious stories about adventures of imaginarycharacters in nonexistent countries and thus arbitraryproducts of individual human fantasy. rather, mythsoriginate in the collective unconscious of humanityand are manifestations of primordial organizing princi-ples of the psyche and of the cosmos which Jung calledarchetypes (Jung 1976).archetypes express themselves through the individualpsyche and its deeper processes, but they do not origi-nate in the human brain and are not its products. Theyare superordinated to the individual psyche and functionas its governing principles. in holotropic states the arche-typal world can be directly experienced in a way that is asconvincing and authentic as the material world appearsto be, or more so. To distinguish transpersonal experi-ences involving archetypal figures and domains fromimaginary products of individual fantasy, Jungians referto this domain as imaginal. french scholar, philosopher, and mystic, henri corbin,who first used the term mundus imaginalis, was inspiredin this regard by his study of islamic mystical literature(corbin 2000). islamic theosophers call the imaginalworld, where everything existing in the sensory world


has its analogue, alam a mithal, or the “eighth climate,”to distinguish it from the “seven climates,” regions of tra-ditional islamic geography. The imaginal world pos-sesses extension and dimensions, forms and colors,but these are not perceptible to our senses as theywould be if they were properties of physical objects.however, this realm is in every respect as fully ontolog-ically real and susceptible to consensual validation byother people as the material world perceived by our sen-sory organs. archetypes are timeless essences, cosmic ordering prin-ciples, which can also manifest as mythic personifica-tions, or specific deities of various cultures. The figuresof Maya mythology – hunahpu, xbalanque, their fatherone hunahpu, Seven Macaw, Quetzalcoatl (kukulcan),and others - like those of any other culture are thusontologically real and can be directly apprehended byindividuals experiencing holotropic states. as JohnMajor Jenkins pointed out, giorgio de Santillana andhertha von Dechend contributed to the understandingof archetypes another important dimension that is rele-vant for the problem of the Mayan prophecy. Theydescribed in their book Hamlet’s Mill the deep connec-tion that exists between myth and astronomicalprocesses (de Santillana and Dechend 1969).in 1948, after many years of systematically studyingmythologies of various cultures of the world, Josephcampbell published his ground-breaking book TheHero with a Thousand Faces, which in the followingdecades profoundly influenced research and under-standing in the field (campbell 1968). analyzing abroad spectrum of myths from various parts ofthe world, campbell realized that they all con-tained variations of one universal archetypal for-mula, which he called the monomyth. This wasthe story of the hero, either male or female, wholeaves his or her home ground or is forcefullyseparated from it by external circumstances and,after fantastic adventures and ordeals culminat-ing in psychospiritual death and rebirth, returnsto his original society radically transformed – asan enlightened or deified being, a healer, seer,or great spiritual teacher.in campbell’s own words, the basic formulafor the hero’s journey can be summarized asfollows: “A hero ventures forth from the world ofcommon day into a region of supernatural won-der; fabulous forces are encountered and a decisivevictory is won; the hero comes back from this mys-terious adventure with the power to bestow boonson his fellow men.”campbell’s inquisitive and incisive intellect wentbeyond simply recognizing the universality of thismyth over time and space. his curiosity drovehim to ask what makes this myth universal. why

does the theme of the hero’s journey appeal to cul-tures of all times and countries, even if they differin every other respect?campbell’s answer has the simplicity and unrelent-ing logic of all brilliant insights: the monomyth ofthe hero’s journey is a blueprint for the transfor-mative crisis, which all human beings can experi-ence when the deep contents of the unconsciouspsyche emerge into consciousness. The hero’sjourney describes nothing less than the experien-tial territory that an individual must traverseduring times of profound transformation. Dur-ing the years of our friendship, Joseph campbellalso enthusiastically embraced the concept ofbasic Perinatal Matrices (bPMs), because theyprovided for him another important piece of thepuzzle, linking the process of spiritual death andrebirth to biological birth. and birth is an expe-rience that all humans share, irrespective of theirculture, geographical location, and historicalperiod. The story of the Mayan hero Twins is aclassical example of campbell’s hero’s Journey. itbelongs to a vast array of archetypal motifs thatwe can experience in holotropic states.i hope that the above discussion adequatelyaddressed the first question that i asked earlier inmy paper: “How could ancient Mayans two thou-sand years ago discover anything that would be rele-vant for humanity in the twenty-first century?” Thetheme of Joseph campell’s hero’s Journey brings usto the second question: “If the Mayan prophecy doesnot refer to the destruction of the world and to extermi-nation of humanity, but to profound collective psychos-piritual death and rebirth comparable to what Campbelldescribed on the individual scale, are there any indica-tions that such inner transformation is possible or that itactually is already underway.My approach to this question is based not only onobservations of the experiences of thousands of individ-uals in holotropic states of consciousness – psychedelictherapy, holotropic breathwork sessions, and sponta-neous psychospiritual crises (“spiritual emergencies”) –but also on extensive personal experience of thesestates. i would like to begin this discussion with anaccount of an experiential sequence from one of myown psychedelic sessions. it provided for me deepinsights into the archetype of the apocalypse, a motifthat occurs relatively rarely in holotropic states, but isparticularly relevant for the topic of our discussion.

about fifty minutes into the session, i started experi-encing strong activation in the lower part of mybody. My pelvis was vibrating as enormous amountsof energy were being released in ecstatic jolts. at onepoint, this streaming energy swept me along in an


intoxicating frenzy into a whirling cosmic vortex of cre-ation and destruction. in the centre of this monstrous hurricane of primordialforces were four giant herculean figures performing whatseemed to be the ultimate cosmic sabre dance. They hadstrong Mongolian features with protruding cheekbones,oblique eyes, and clean-shaven heads decorated by largebraided ponytails. whirling around in a frantic dance craze,they were swinging large weapons that looked like scythes orl-shaped scimitars; all four of these combined formed arapidly rotating swastika. i intuitively understood that this monumental archetypalscene was related to the beginning of the process of creationand simultaneously to the final stage of the spiritual journey.in the cosmogenetic process (in the movement from the pri-mordial unity to the worlds of plurality) the movements ofthe blades of the scimitars represented the force that is split-ting and fragmenting the unified field of cosmic conscious-ness and creative energy into countless individual units (mon-ads, jivas). in relation to spiritual journey, they representedthe stage when the seeker’s consciousness transcends separa-tion and polarity and reaches the state of original undifferenti-ated unity. The direction of this process seemed to be relatedto the clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of theblades. Projected into the material world, this archetypalmotif seemed to be related to growth and development(the fertilized egg or seed becoming an organism) ordestruction of forms (wars, natural catastrophes, decay).Then the experience opened up into an unimaginablepanorama of scenes of destruction. in these visions, nat-ural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes,crashing meteors, forest fires, floods and tidal waves,were combined with images of burning cities, entireblocks of collapsing high-rise buildings, mass death,and horror of wars. heading this wave of total annihi-lation were four archetypal images of macabre riderssymbolizing the end of the world. i realized thatthese were the four horsemen of the apocalypse.(pestilence, war, famine, and death). The continuingvibrations and jolts of my pelvis now became syn-chronized with the movements of this ominoushorseback riding and i joined the dance, becomingone of them, or possibly all four of them at once,leaving my own identity behind. Suddenly, there was a rapid change of scenery and ihad a vision of the cave from Plato’s republic. inthis work, Plato describes a group of people who livechained all of their lives in a cave, facing a blankwall. They watch shadows projected on the wall bythings passing in front of the cave entrance. accord-ing to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisonersget to seeing reality (52). The enlightened philosopheris like a prisoner who is freed from this illusion andcomes to understand that the shadows on the wall areillusory, as he can perceive the true form of realityrather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.This was followed by profound and convincing realiza-tion that the material world of our everyday life is notmade of «stuff» but created by cosmic consciousness byinfinitely complex and sophisticated orchestration of

experiences. it is a divine play that the hindus calllila, created by cosmic illusion or maya.The final major scene of the session was a mag-nificent ornate theatre stage featuring a paradeof personified universal principles, archetypes –cosmic actors, who through a complex inter-play create the illusion of the phenomenalworld. They were protean personages withmany facets, levels, and dimensions of meaningthat kept changing their forms in extremelyintricate holographic interpenetration as iwas observing them. Each of them seemed torepresent simultaneously the essence of hisor her function and all the concrete manifes-tations of this element in the world of matter.There was Maya, the mysterious ethereal prin-ciple symbolizing the world illusion; anima,embodying the eternal female; a Mars-likepersonification of war and aggression; thelovers, representing all the sexual dramasand romances throughout ages; the royal fig-ure of the ruler; the withdrawn hermit; theelusive Trickster; and many others. as theywere passing across the stage, they bowed inmy direction, as if expecting appreciation forthe stellar performance in the divine play ofthe universe.

This experience brought me a deep understandingof the meaning of the archetypal motif of theapocalypse. it suddenly seemed profoundly wrongto see it as related exclusively to physical destructionof the world. it is certainly possible that the apoca-lypse will in the future be actually manifested on aplanetary scale as a historical event, which is a poten-tial for all archetypes. There are many examples of sit-uations in which archetypal motifs and energies brokethrough the boundary that usually separates the arche-typal realm from the material world and shaped history.The giant asteroid that 65 million years ago killed thedinosaurs, wars of all ages, the crucifixion of Jesus, themedieval witches’ Sabbath and Dance of Death, theNazi concentration camps, and hiroshima are just a fewsalient examples. but the primary importance of thearchetype of the apocalypse is that it functions as animportant landmark on the spiritual journey. it emergesinto the consciousness of the seeker at a time when heor she recognizes the illusory nature of the materialworld. as the universe reveals its true essence as virtualreality, as a cosmic play of consciousness, the world ofmatter is destroyed in the psyche of the individual.This might also be the meaning of the “end of theworld” referred to in the Mayan prophecy.The observations from modern consciousness researchthat are most relevant for a positive interpretation ofthe Mayan prophecy are related to a phenomenonthat is much more common in holotropic states thanthe experience of the apocalypse; it is the experience


of psychospiritual death and rebirth. This experiencehas played a crucial role in the ritual and spiritualhistory of humanity – in shamanism, rites of passage,the ancient death/rebirth mysteries, and in the greatreligions of the world (see the christian concept ofbeing “born again” and the hindu “dvija” – a “twice-born person”). The process of death and rebirth is amultivalent archetype that manifests on many differentlevels and in various areas and ways, but in self-explo-ration and therapy it is usually closely related to thereliving and conscious integration of the memory of bio-logical birth. Psychospiritual death and rebirth is one of the mostprominent themes in therapeutic work using holotropicstates. when the age regression in the process of deepexperiential self-exploration moves beyond the level ofmemories from childhood and infancy and reaches thelevel of the unconscious that contains the memory ofbirth, we start encountering emotions and physical sen-sations of extreme intensity, often surpassing anythingwe previously considered humanly possible. at thispoint, the experiences become a strange mixture of thethemes of birth and death. They involve a sense of asevere, life-threatening confinement and a desperateand determined struggle to free ourselves and survive.because of the close connection between this domainof the unconscious and biological birth, i have cho-sen for it the name perinatal. it is a greek-latincomposite word where the prefix peri- means “near”or “around,” and the root natalis signifies “pertain-ing to childbirth.” This word is commonly used inmedicine to describe various biological processesoccurring shortly before, during, and immediatelyafter birth. The obstetricians talk, for example,about perinatal hemorrhage, infection, or braindamage. however, since traditional medicinedenies that the child can consciously experiencebirth and claims that this event is not recordedin memory, one never hears about perinatalexperiences. The use of the term perinatal in con-nection with consciousness reflects my ownfindings and is entirely new (grof 1975, 2000).The perinatal region of the unconscious con-tains the memories of what the foetus experi-enced in the consecutive stages of the birthprocess, including all the emotions and physicalsensations involved. These memories form fourdistinct experiential clusters, each of which isrelated to one of the stages of the birth process. ihave coined for them the term Basic PerinatalMatrices (BPM I-IV). bPM i consists of memories ofthe advanced prenatal state just before the onset ofthe delivery. bPM ii is related to the onset of the

delivery when the uterus contracts, but the cervix isnot yet open. bPM iii reflects the struggle to be bornafter the uterine cervix dilates. and finally, bPM ivholds the memory of the emerging into the world,the birth itself.The content of these matrices is not limited tofetal memories; each of them also provides selec-tive opening into a vast domain in the uncon-scious psyche that we now call transpersonal.Thisinvolves experiential identification with otherpeople and other life forms, ancestral, racial, col-lective, phylogenetic and karmic memories, andmaterial from the historical and archetypal col-lective unconscious, which contains motifs of sim-ilar experiential quality. Emergence of this materialinto consciousness constitutes the process of psy-chospiritual death and rebirth and results in deepinner transformation.Some of the insights of people experiencingholotropic states of consciousness are directlyrelated to the current global crisis and its relation-ship with consciousness evolution. They show thatwe have exteriorized in the modern world many ofthe essential themes of the death rebirth processthat a person involved in deep personal transforma-tion has to face and come to terms with internally.The same elements that we would encounter in theprocess of psychological death and rebirth in ourvisionary experiences make today our evening news.This is particularly true in regard to the phenomenathat characterize what i refer to as the third basic Peri-natal Matrix (bPM iii) (grof 2000).as i mentioned earlier, this matrix is related to thestage of birth when the cervix is open and the foetusexperiences the tedious propulsion through the birthcanal. This stage is associated with the emergence ofthe shadow side of human personality – murderousviolence and excessive or deviant sexual drives, scato-logical elements, and even satanic imagery. it is easy tosee manifestations of these aspects of the death rebirthprocess in today’s troubled world. we certainly see the enormous unleashing of the aggressiveimpulse in the many wars and revolutionary upheavals inthe world, in the rising criminality, global terrorism, andracial riots. Equally dramatic and striking is the lifting ofsexual repression and freeing of the sexual impulse inboth healthy and problematic ways. Sexual experiencesand behaviours are taking unprecedented forms as man-ifested in overtly sexual books, plays, and movies, gayliberation, sexual freedom and experimentation of ado-lescents, premarital sex, general promiscuity, commonand open marriages, high divorce rate, sadomasochis-tic clubs and parlours, and many others.


The demonic element is also becoming increasinglymanifest in the modern world. renaissance of sataniccults and witchcraft, popularity of books and horrormovies with occult themes, and crimes with satanicmotivations attest to that fact. Terrorism of suicidalfundamentalist fanatics and deviant militant groups isalso reaching satanic proportions. The scatologicaldimension is evident in the progressive industrial pollu-tion, accumulation of waste products on a global scale,and rapidly deteriorating hygienic conditions in large

cities. a more abstract form of the same trend isescalating corruption and degradation of political,military, economic, and religious institutions,including the american presidency and govern-ment. Scams, shenanigans, and embezzling ofastronomical amounts of money on the highestlevels of society have become commonplace andreached an all time high. ancient Mayans showed profound interest indeath and in the process of psychospiritual deathand rebirth. They saw it happening on an astro-nomical level every day watching the sunset andsunrise and every year during December solsticewhen the sun got “reborn” and its light startedreturning into the world. The highest octave of this

solar return was then the alignment of the Decem-ber solstice sun with the galactic centre, which theMayans saw as Sacred Marriage between the cos-mic Mother and the cosmic father. Much of the Mayan ritual and art was dedicatedto the process of death, from the soul’s entranceinto the underworld called xibalba to a finalrebirth and apotheosis. Mayan mythology andfunereal art described death as a journey whosechallenges were known and its important stages

were depicted on coffins, wall paintings, pottery, jades,and other objects that accompanied the deceased duringthe great transition. Mayan funeral vases of the classicperiod were decorated with paintings depicting rebirthof young lords from cracked skulls, giant turtle cara-paces, or other types of enclosures and many sculpturesshowed similar figures in the process of being rebornfrom water lilies.unfortunately, no specific eschatological texts compara-ble to the Egyptian or Tibetan book of the Dead havesurvived from the Mayan classical Period, since muchof the Maya literary legacy has been lost for posterity.only a few codices, accordion-like bark paper screen-folds with rich and colourful illustrations, survivedthe hot and moist climate of central america and


f. robicsek, The Maya Book of the Dead.Infant with jaguar tail and paws lies on Kawak throne (left); A Hero Twin make an offering or reading gesture

with a bundle and feathers and a codex. vessels from the Metropolitan Museum of art, New york.

escaped the ravaging of the Spanish invaders. how-ever, in the 1970s, mayologist Michael coe, follow-ing the suggestion of lin crocker was able to distin-guish a group of late classic black and white funeralvessels painted in the style of the Maya codices, proba-bly by the same artists (coe 1973). as i mentionedbefore, cardiosurgeon and archeologist francis robicsekwas able to assemble substantial evidence for his theorythat certain sequences of the vases of the “ceramic codex,”placed in proper sequence, actually represented a “Mayabook of the Dead” (robicsek 1981). The images on the funeral vases studied by robiczekportray the adventures of the hero Twins, hun hunah-pu and ixbalanque, and the story of their ordeals in theunderworld and eventual death and rebirth. The reliefson the stelae at izapa related to the prophecy concern-ing the end of the world link the galactic alignment onDecember 21, 2012, to the hero Twins journey and tokilling of 7-Macaw. They also show the sun deity in herift of the Milky way and his rebirth at the end of theage. This suggests that the Mayan prophecy referredto psychospiritual death and rebirth, rather thanmaterial destruction of the world. observations from the research of holotropic states ofconsciousness have thrown new light on humanpropensity to unbridled violence and insatiable greed– two forces that have driven human history sincetime immemorial and are currently threatening sur-vival of life on this planet. This research has revealedthat these “poisons,” as they are called in Tibetanvajrayana, have much deeper roots than currentbiological and psychological theories assume –biology with concepts like the “naked ape,” the“triune brain,” and the “selfish gene” (Morris 1967,Mclean 1973, Dawkins 1976) and psychoanalysisand related schools with their emphasis on baseinstincts as the governing principles of the psyche(freud 1955, 1961 and 1964).Deep motivating forces underlying these dan-gerous traits of human nature have their originon the perinatal and transpersonal levels of thepsyche, domains that mainstream psychologydoes not yet recognize (grof 2000). The findingthat the roots of human violence and insatiablegreed reach far deeper than mainstream academ-ic science ever suspected and that their reservoirsin the psyche are truly enormous would, in andof itself, be very discouraging. however, it is bal-anced by the exciting discovery of new therapeu-tic mechanisms and transformative potentials thatbecome available in holotropic states on the peri-natal and transpersonal levels of the psyche.we have seen over the years profound emotional andpsychosomatic healing, as well as radical personality

transformation, in many people who were involvedin serious and systematic experiential self-explorationand inner quest. Some of them had supervised psy-chedelic sessions, others participated in holotropicbreathwork workshops and training or variousother forms of experiential psychotherapy and self-exploration. Similar changes occur often in indi-viduals who are involved in shamanic practice orare meditators and have regular spiritual practice.we have also witnessed profound positive changesin many people who received adequate supportduring episodes of spontaneous psychospiritualcrises (“spiritual emergencies”). Thanatologist kenring referred to this group of transformativeexperiences as “Omega experiences” and includedin it near-death experiences and alien abductionexperiences (ring 1984). as the content of the perinatal level of the uncon-scious emerges into consciousness and is inte-grated, the individuals involved undergo radicalpersonality changes. They experience consider-able decrease of aggression and become morepeaceful, comfortable with themselves, compas-sionate, and tolerant of others. The experience ofpsychospiritual death and rebirth and consciousconnection with positive postnatal or prenatalmemories reduces irrational drives and ambitions. itcauses a shift of focus from pondering about thepast and fantasizing about the future to fuller aware-ness of the present moment. This shift enhances zest,élan vital, and joi de vivre and brings the ability toenjoy and draw satisfaction from simple circumstancesof life, such as everyday activities, food, lovemaking,nature, and music. another important result of thisprocess is emergence of spirituality of a universal andmystical nature that, unlike the dogmas of mainstreamreligions, is very authentic and convincing, because it isbased on deep personal experience. The process of spiritual opening and transformation typi-cally deepens further as a result of transpersonal experi-ences, such as identification with other people, entirehuman groups, animals, plants, and even inorganic mate-rials and processes in nature. other experiences provideconscious access to events occurring in other countries,cultures, and historical periods and even to the mytholog-ical realms and archetypal beings of the collective uncon-scious. Experiences of cosmic unity and one’s own divinityresult in increasing identification with all of creation andbring the sense of wonder, awe, love, compassion, andinner peace.what began as a process of psychological probing ofthe unconscious psyche conducted for therapeutic pur-poses or personal growth automatically becomes aphilosophical quest for the meaning of life and a jour-ney of spiritual discovery. People, who connect to the

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transpersonal domain of their psyche, tend to developa new appreciation for existence and reverence for alllife. one of the most striking consequences of variousforms of transpersonal experiences is spontaneousemergence and development of deep humanitarian andecological concerns.Differences among people appear to be interesting andenriching rather than irritating or threatening, whetherthey are related to gender, race, colour, language, politicalconviction, or religious belief. following this transforma-tion, these individuals develop a deep sense of beingplanetary citizens rather than citizens of a particular countryor members of a particular racial, social, ideological, polit-ical, or religious group, and they feel the need to getinvolved in service for some common purpose. Thesechanges resemble those that have occurred in many ofthe american astronauts who were able to see the earthfrom outer space (see Mickey lemle’s documentary TheOther Side of the Moon). it becomes obvious that our highest priorities as bio-logical organisms have to be clean air, water, and soil.No other concerns, such as economic profit, militarypursuits, scientific and technological progress, or ide-ological and religious beliefs, should be allowed totake priority over this vital imperative. we cannotviolate our natural environment and destroy otherspecies without simultaneously damaging ourselves.This awareness is based on an almost cellular knowl-edge that the boundaries in the universe are arbi-trary and that each of us is ultimately identicalwith the entire web of existence.in view of the fact that everything in nature runsin cycles and is based on the principles of opti-mum values, homeostasis, and sustainability, thetechnological civilization’s frantic pursuit of unlim-ited economic growth, exploitation of non-renew-able resources, and exponential increase of indus-trial pollution hostile to life appears to be dan-gerous insanity. in the world of biology excess ofcalcium, iron, vitamins, hormones, or evenwater is not better than lack of these elementsand compounds and unlimited growth is themain characteristic of cancer.it is clear that a transformation associated withthe experience of psychospiritual death andrebirth would increase our chances for survival ifit could occur on a sufficiently large scale. Thegreat german writer and philosopher Johannwolfgang goethe was aware of the importance ofthe experience of psychospiritual death andrebirth for the quality of our life and sense ofbelonging when he wrote in his poem Selige Sehn-sucht: “Und so lang du das nicht hast, dieses: ‘Stirb undwerde!’ Bist du nur ein trüber Gast auf der dunklen

Erde.” [Blessed Longing: “and as long as you do notexperience this: ‘Die and become!’ you will be onlya shadow guest on the dark earth”].in the same vein, the famous English poet, novelist,and playwright, D.h. lawrence, wrote in hispoem Phoenix: Are you willing to be sponged out, erased, can-celled,Are you willing to be sponged out, erasedmade nothing?Are you willing to be made nothing?dipped into oblivion?If not, you will never change.holotropic states of consciousness experiencedin a supportive environment and under respon-sible guidance offer thus an opportunity forprofound psychospiritual transformation of twodifferent kinds or degrees. an individual whoexperiences death and rebirth – usually in thecontext of reliving and integrating the trauma ofbiological birth – discovers his or her own divinity,sacredness of all creation, and oneness with otherpeople, nature, and the cosmos. Deeper explo-ration of the transpersonal realms and particularlythe experience of the archetype of the apocalypsethen radically changes the perception of the worldwe live in. we begin to understand that what weexperience as material reality might be what thehindu teachings refer to as lila – divine play createdby cosmic consciousness. both of these two forms ofspiritual transformation have profound positive effectson the individual’s hierarchy of values and life strategydescribed above.various methods of inducing holotropic states – “tech-nologies of the sacred” – have been an integral part ofancient and native cultures for millennia (grof 2000).Modern humanity has been rediscovering the healingand transformative power of these states in many differ-ent contexts. Meditative practices of the great Easternspiritual traditions and various shamanic techniques arebecoming increasingly popular, particularly among theyoung generation. Translation and publication of spiritu-al literature of many cultures, recording of their sacredmusic, and availability of competent teachers have greatlycontributed to this process. The isolation and chemical identification of the activeprinciples of many psychedelic plants, development ofnew synthetic psychedelic compounds, and increasingknowledge about these substances have been instru-mental in inner transformation of many individualswho have used these powerful tools wisely and respon-sibly. The use of psychedelics – the most powerfulmeans for inducing holotropic states of consciousness– is seriously hindered by legal restrictions, bad and

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misleading publicity, and difficulties in obtainingpure materials. however, there exist very effectiveforms of experiential psychotherapy, such as variousneo-reichian approaches, primal therapy, rebirthing,and holotropic breathwork, which can induce thesestates without the use of chemical agents. Their increasingpopularity represents a very promising trend.advances of modern medicine have made it possible tosave the lives of individuals involved in life-threateningaccidents and diseases and have increased the incidenceof near-death experiences (NDEs). The development ofthanatology, a discipline studying death and dying, hasamassed and spread information about these states andmade it possible for survivors to use them for positiveinner transformation (Moody 1975, ring 1982, ring andvalarino 1998, van lommel 2010). as the economic, eco-logical, and political global crisis escalates, it instils fearand diminishes hope for fulfilling and satisfying life inthe minds of hundreds of millions of people all over theworld. The resulting emotional turmoil seems to engen-der spontaneous psychospiritual crises (“spiritual emergencies”)(grof and grof 1989, grof and grof 1990). once main-stream psychiatrists recognize that these states have anextraordinary healing and transformative potential - ifthey are properly understood - and provide supportand guidance for this process rather than suppress itby tranquilizers, it could greatly contribute to innertransformation of many people. as gregg braden pointed out, the potential signifi-cance of 2012 can be supported by scientific obser-vations (braden 2007). astrophysicists have shownthat we are at the beginning of a new cycle of mag-netic storms (sunspots) that will peak in 2012 withintensity 30-50% greater than previous cycles.although the solar magnetic storms are cyclical,they have never occurred during the last 26.000years at the time of galactic alignment and withthe population and the technology we have today;it is therefore uncertain what effects this phe-nomenon will have on our future. Scientists also agree that the magnetic field ofthe earth has been rapidly weakening and thereare indications that we are in the early stage ofreversal of the magnetic poles, which couldoccur in 2012. historical analysis shows that peri-ods and areas of weak magnetic fields are con-ducive to greater acceptance of new ideas andchange. Magnetic reversals are rare in the historyof civilizations, but common in the history ofthe earth; at least 14 of them happened in the last4.5 million years (one of them coinciding with thesudden extinction of the mammoths). however,none of them happened at a time when the planet

had over 6 billion inhabitants with significantnumber of them depending on modern communi-cation technology – television, radio, computers, andsatellites. we can now return to the main subject of thispaper – the Mayan prophecy concerning 2012.whether or not this was predicted by ancientMayan seers, we are clearly involved in a dramaticrace for time that has no precedent in the entirehistory of humanity. what is at stake is nothingless than the future of humanity and of life onthis planet. Many of the people with whom wehave worked saw humanity at a critical crossroadfacing either collective annihilation or an evolu-tionary jump in consciousness of unprecedentednature and dimension. Terence Mckenna put itvery succinctly: “The history of the silly monkeyis over, one way or another” (Mckenna 1992). weeither undergo a radical transformation of ourspecies or we might not survive.The final outcome of the crisis we are facing isambiguous and uncertain; it lends itself to pes-simistic or optimistic interpretation and each ofthem can be supported by existing data. if wecontinue the old strategies, which in their conse-quences are clearly extremely destructive and self-destructive, it is unlikely that modern civilizationwill survive. however, if a sufficient number of peo-ple undergo a process of deep inner transformationdescribed above, we might reach a stage and level ofconsciousness evolution at which we will deserve theproud name we have given to our species: homo sapi-ens sapiens and live in a new world that will have littleresemblance to the old one. 8

L I T E R A T U R E

arguEllES, J. (1987). The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology(rochester, vT.: inner Traditions, bear and company).

braDEN, g. (2007). Window of Emegence, in 2012: Predictions,Prophecies, and Possibilities (boulder, co: Sounds True).

caMPbEll, J. (1968). The Hero with A Thousand Faces (Prince-ton: Princeton uP).

coE, M. (1973). The Maya Scribe and His World (New york:grolier club).

corbiN, h. (2000). “Mundus imaginalis, or the imaginaryand the imaginal”, in Working With Images (b. Sells, ed.):71-89 (woodstock, connecticut: Spring Publications).

DawkiNS, r. (1976). The Selfish Gene (New york: oxford uP).frEuD, S. (1955). Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

Standard Edition, vol. 18 (london: The hogarth Press).—— (1961). Civilization and Its Discontents. Standard

Edition, vol. 21 (london: The hogarth Press).

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—— (1964). Future of An Illusion (garden city, Ny:anchor books, Doubleday).

grof, c. aND grof, S. (1990). The Stormy Search for theSelf (los angeles, ca: J. P. Tarcher).

grof, S. (1985). Beyond the Brain. Birth, Death, and Tran-scendence in Psychotherapy (albany, Ny: SuNy).

—— (1994). Books of the Dead: Manuals for Living andDying (london: Thames & hudson).

—— (2000). Psychology of the Future: Lessons from ModernConsciousness Research (albany, Ny: SuNy).

—— (2006). The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mys-tery of Death (Sarasota, fl: MaPS).

—— aND grof, c. (eds.) (1989). Spiritual Emergency: WhenPersonal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (los angeles, ca:J. P. Tarcher).

howEll, a. (1990). Jungian Synchronicity in Astrological Signsand Ages. Letters from An Astrologer (wheaton, il.: Questbooks).

JENkiNS, J. M. (1998). Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (rochester,Ny: inner Traditions, bear and company).

—— (2002). Galactic Aligment: The Transformation of Con-sciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Tradi-tions (rochester, vT: bear and company).

JuNg, c.g. (1959). The Archetypes and the Collective Uncon-scious. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, vol. 9 (bollingenSeries xx, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton uP).

—— (1959). Aion. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, vol. 9.2(bollingen Series xx, Princeton, New Jersey: PrincetonuP).

MckENNa, T. (1992). Food of the Gods: The Search forthe Original Tree of Knowledge (New york: bantambooks).

——, MckENNa, D. aND Taylor, Q. (1976). TheInvisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the IChing (New york: Scribner Publishing).

MaclEaN, P. (1973). “a Triune concept of the brainand behavior. lecture i. Man’s reptilian andlimbic inheritance; lecture ii. Man’s limbic Sys-tem and the Psychoses; lecture iii. New Trendsin Man’s Evolution”, in The Hincks MemorialLectures (T. boag and D. campbell, eds.)(Toronto, ontario: university of Toronto Press).

MooDy, r. (1975). Life After Life: The Investigationof a Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death(atlanta, georgia: Mockingbird books).

MorriS, D. (1967). The Naked Ape (New york:Mcgraw-hill).

loMMEl, P. vaN. (2010). Consciousness Beyond Life,The Science of the Near-Death Experience (Newyork: harper collins).

riNg, k. (1982). Life at Death: A Scientific Investiga-tion of the Near-Death Experience (New york:Quill).

—— (1984). Heading Toward Omega: In Search of theMeaning of the Near-Death Experience (New york:william Morrow).

—— aND valariNo, E. E. (1998). Lessons from theLight: What We Can Learn from the Near-DeathExperience (New york: Plenum Press).

robicSEk, f. (1981). The Maya Book of the Dead: TheCeramic Codex (charlottesville, va.: university ofvirginia art Museum).

SaNTillaNa, g. aND DEchEND, h. voN. (1977).Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame ofTime (boston: godine).

SchElE, l. aND MillEr, M. a. (1986). The Blood ofKings: Dynasty and Ritual Art in Maya Art (Newyork: braziller).

TarNaS, r. (2006). Cosmos and Psyche: Intimationsof a New World View (New york: viking Press).

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Robert Augustus Masters is ahighly experienced psychother-apist and trainer of psy-chotherapists with a doctor-ate in Psycholog y, and ateacher of spiritual deepen-ing. His uniquely integral,intuitive work, developed over

the past 32 years, dynamicallyblends the psychological and physi-

cal with the spiritual, emphasizingfull-blooded embodiment, authenticity, emo-

tional openness and literacy, deep shadow work, and the devel-opment of relational maturity.Robert is the author of eleven books, including TransformationThrough intimacy and Spiritual bypassing. His essays haveappeared in magazines ranging from Magical blend to theJournal of Transpersonal Psychology, as well as in severalanthologies.

ntuition is something that we all have,whether or not we listen to it. it is as naturalto us as breathing – but we often tend not toregister it any more consciously than we do

our breathing. as central as it is to us, it all toooften assumes a peripheral or muted position inour consciousness.So what exactly is intuition? Some would define it as instinctive knowing,but intuition is more than instinct, carryinginstinct’s imprint in much the same way that asymphony orchestra carries the imprint – or atleast echo – of the first musical instruments. instincts are drives, innate and automatic, takingover with compelling authority when necessitycalls, whereas intuitions are readings, howeverinstinctually informed, inviting not our sub-mission but our attunement to and alignmentwith their message, however nonverbally struc-tured that might be. So instead of being driven, we are guided. where instinct is reflexive, intuition is responsive.intuition is the result of instinct learning to speak,to represent the reality of what is happening and/orwhat is needed through fitting messages, verbally,pictorially, and otherwise.

Instinct is a very fast takeover; intuition is a veryfast download.like instinct, intuition is nonrational (employingno reasoning processes, except perhaps as a clari-fying adjunct to its primary message), but whereinstinct is prerational, intuition can be transra-tional to varying degrees (transcending rationalitywhile retaining a functional intimacy with it). intuition does not require any dumbing downof intellect, nor an end to abstraction, but ratheronly enough adequately-lit space in the midst ofcognitive/emotional activity so that its messagescan be registered with minimal interference.like feeling, intuition is much quicker than thought,usually arising fully-formed while our thinkingprocesses are still busy arranging themselves andtheir platforms. This is highly practical, given thatmost of our thinking is just noise and clutter andrepetitive self-talk, while our intuitions are mostlyquite relevant, as well as being delivered withoutfluff, streamlined down to what’s essential. as five minutes or so of an unwavering witnessing ofour mind shows, much of our thinking is no morethan internal chitchat, featuring us talking to our-selves (and eavesdropping at the same time) andbouncing between various facets of ourselves (each ofwhich tends to refer to itself as “i”), whereas our intu-itiveness involves a much deeper sort of communication(whether verbal or not), conveyed from our depths toour surface. intuition is not a thought-out process, but an expressvisitation from within, as mysteriously formed as it’s fit-ting. Everyday revelation.it’s also important to realize that intuition is not emo-tion, even though it may at times seem intimately con-nected with emotion, as if swept in on tides of feeling.intuition is energetically and emotionally neutral, regard-less of its content. at the same time, however, emotional connection cansignificantly amplify intuition, not so much because ofthe fullness or intensity of feeling, but because suchconnection, with its multileveled richness of interplay,can provide more “meat” for intuition. The more thatis happening emotionally between you and me, themore that there is for us to be intuitive about; andthe depth and significance of our bond, the tacit

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importance and felt sense of it, not only makesmutual understanding and co-evolution moreimportant, but also the intuition that goes along withthem. but even though such intuition may carry anemotional wallop, it itself is no more an emotionalconstruct than it is a cognitive one.intuition is direct nonconceptual knowingness, rooted innear-instantaneous recognition of what is what and itsrelevance to us. an enormous amount of highly varieddata and impressions may be before our intuitive capac-ity, and it not only scans all of this extremely quickly,but usually also makes compelling sense of it almost asquickly, resulting in a noncognitive recognition of whatis actually happening or needs to happen. This recognition is ordinarily registered first, then felt.all in the blink of an eye. as fast as instinct and with amuch wider and deeper perspective. No wonder Ein-stein called intuition “a sacred gift.” A sense-transcendingtransmission that makes sense with palpable immediacy.intuition is more revelation than explanation or descrip-tion, shining its light with dispassionate accuracy. Sorevelation arrives, presented in whatever way best worksfor us (visually for some, verbally for others, a mixturefor others), usually followed so quickly by correspond-ing feelings/sensations – a so-called gut feeling beingprobably the best known – that it may seem that suchfeeling arose before the arrival of our intuition.Even when it concerns extreme difficulty, intuitionitself is not desperate. The information it conveys,the directives it clarifies, the situations it seesthrough, are all transmitted in a neutral fashion,no matter how strong the accompanying emo-tions may be.intuition is our innate wholeness broadcastinglive and unedited from our heartland, layingdown fitting tracks for us, even if to do so ithas to derail our train of thought or otherwisedisrupt us. intuition is not the voice of ourdisparate selves or thoughts or feelings, but thevoice of our essential uniqueness making itselfclear, and not necessarily in words. if we do not consciously hear it, it’s not becauseit is not happening, but because we are not suf-ficiently present to be aware of such hearing.intuition is always there, but we aren’t.at the level of pure survival, intuition is notmuch more than instinct, giving us immediatefeedback on how to handle danger or heavy-duty challenge or any situation in which we arevery quickly uncomfortable. for example, we aredriving through an intersection, and a vehicle toour left is fast approaching us, seemingly oblivi-ous of us; we take all this in – plus the fact thatthere’s another car right behind us and a bicyclist

40 or 50 feet directly in front of us – and know pre-cisely what to do, before any thought can arise.This is a level of intuition we all recognize, inwhich the optimal move usually makes itselfobvious in a split second. its mix of instinctualreflexivity and panoramic instant-scan allows usto navigate our situation as skilfully as possible(whether we succeed or not).but even when our survival is clearly not at stake,and we feel relatively unthreatened, intuition stillshows up very quickly, popping into being in afraction of a second. This does not, however,mean that intuition is necessarily without gesta-tion; like everything else, its arising depends onother conditions, which in turn depend on otherconditions, all of which (in staggeringly complexways) set the stage for the arising of a particularintuition. an extremely quick birth is still a birth.it’s just that intuition usually makes its appear-ance already fully formed, like athena, the greekgoddess of wisdom, springing forth fully adultfrom the head of Zeus.we can ready ourselves for intuitive flashes by 1)doing the ground work – gathering relevant mate-rial, quieting our mind, opening ourselves ener-getically and emotionally, listening deeply – andby 2) stepping back after we’ve done so. it’s no acci-dent that so many remarkable intuitions arrivewhen it seems as if there is nothing else to be done– we lay back, relax, perhaps nap or drift for a bit,with no ulterior motive. and then... shazam! aha! – atleast some of the time. No guarantees, but we increasethe odds by doing our part as fully as possible.for example, i may have an idea for a new book, andspend weeks writing whatever comes to mind regard-ing my topic, with no concern for structure — andthen one day, seemingly out of the blue, i simply knowthe structure, know the thread that runs through thechaos of writings, know where to begin and where togo from there. all in a second. and many intuitions don’t depend on anything in par-ticular for their arising. for example, we’re meetingsomeone for the first time, and in an instant knowplenty about them; we have “read” them, not fromcover to cover, but enough so that they are no longer astranger to us. This is akin to a chess game in whichwe rapidly scan the entire board, sensing the possiblemoves and countermoves of all the pieces in a few sec-onds, and then make our move, our pattern recogni-tion having been too quick for any analysis or reflec-tion to take hold. So what about when intuition doesn’t work, messesthings up, generates unneeded upset, does damage?i’d say that this is not our intuition’s fault, but rather

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the fault of how it was translated into action. intu-ition is a given; what really matters is what we dowith it. yes, listen to it, and listen closely, but also beas aware as possible of the filters it must pass throughas it shifts from realization to action. Thus far we’ve talked about intuition as a solo arising,but it is not limited to being only that. it can also becollaborative (just like creativity essentially is), as whenthe members of a group get so attuned that a sharedintuitive knowing “possesses” them. an obvious exam-ple of this is a basketball team getting so in sync thatwhatever they do – for a time – works beautifully,almost magically, lit by an effortless grace and coordina-tion between all the members. Pure flow, as naturallyelegant as it is efficient. i frequently have seen the same sort of thing in thegroups that my wife Diane and i lead, especially rightafter someone has done a piece of very deep, emotion-ally riveting work – group members usually enter sucheffortlessly rich resonance with this person that a kindof group intuition, individually flavoured, flows forthregarding that person. other times someone willrecount a dream they’ve recently had, and i will askthe rest of the group for their intuitions regarding it.at first such intuitions clearly come forth as solo shar-ing, but more often than not they start overlappingmore and more, morphing in and out of each other,until a few key intuitively-derived insights, collec-tively birthed, cradle the dream and its significancefor the dreamer.beyond solo and collaborative intuition is whatcould be called divine intuition, anchored in deeptransconceptual resonance with the ultimatedimensions of life. Such intuition is as grace-sat-urated as it is obvious, as subtle as it is lucid, asself-transcending as it is grounded. here, weknow without thinking, see without eyes, hearwithout ears, love without clinging, cultivatingintimacy with all that is.Divine intuition is what has just kicked in whenwe directly realize the answer to questions like:“who am i?” or “what am i?” Such answersare not mind-made, photocopyable, or evennecessarily true after their moment; they are infact not so much answers as raw aha! responsesthat indicate a radically full “getting” of thequestion, an undeniable “grokking” of it. greatjoy may accompany such realization; and if it isallowed to coexist with a wisely discerning eye,it becomes a sobering joy, a deeply groundednon-situational happiness (that is, a happinessthat does not depend on circumstances).So there are many levels of intuition, ranging fromthat of pure survival to that of the profoundest sortof spiritual illumination. we can intuit the best move

in a basketball game (kinesthetic intuition), we canintuit where to sit most comfortably in an uncomfort-able room (spatial intuition), we can intuit the under-lying motives of the person who is being overly help-ful to us (psychological intuition), and we can intuitthe presence of unspeakable dimensions of being(spiritual intuition). There is aesthetic intuition –sensing the essence of a work of art in less than abreath; and there is dream intuition – sensing thedeeper meaning of a dream in a flash. and so on.consider the role of intuition in psychotherapy.Much of psychotherapy, especially of the cog-nocentric variety, at best only assigns intuitiona peripheral role in the therapeutic process, as ifit is far less important than rational thoughtand analysis. Some psychotherapy, especially ofthe New age variety, tends to go to the otherextreme, overassociating intuition with variouspsychic capacities, while undervaluing rationality.between these extremes are psychotherapeuticapproaches that, to varying degrees, value bothintuition and rationality. The most effective ofthese are those that are truly integral in nature,working in real depth with our mental, physical,emotional, energetic, sexual, social, and spiritualdimensions.intuition plays a role, however marginal, in all psy-chotherapy. it perhaps flows most freely in approachesthat do not operate from behind preset methodolo-gies, approaches in which structure is allowed to arisein accord with clients’ needs and energies. when psy-chotherapists are not relying on a certain methodology,but are simply present with their clients, they are moreintuitively connected to those with whom they areworking, being therefore much more sensitive to subtlesignals which may, if attuned to, redirect the session inmore fruitful directions. intuition is revelatory nonconceptual understanding,lit by undeniable resonance with the deeper currents ofwhat is happening. when intuition shows up without any significant mentalor emotional interference, we know that we know withoutany need to prove that we know – intuition is that self-evi-dent, conveying opinion-transcending savvy, needing onlyadequate reception from us to fully download.Some call intuition our sixth sense, but it is more of ameta-sense, a sense-transcending attuning that encom-passes and employs the other senses in its translationinto meaningful messaging and corresponding action. Some overspiritualize intuition, treating it as somethingorchestrated by god, but it is simply part of our equip-ment, no more or less sacred than anything else thatconstitutes us. That said, intuition is a marvellousthing, a visitation for which we ought to be grateful,


a multidimensional navigational aid, a clear steadyvoice in the wilderness of our being. let us listen to our intuition very closely and withgreat respect, separating it from those thoughts andfeelings that would usurp or masquerade as it. intu-ition flows through all that is, speaking whatever lan-guage is needed, creating a communicative networkthat touches one and all. let us be grateful for it.and let us give our intuitive capacity more than ourear, until it is not so much an “it” as our unveiledunique essentialness absorbed in pure communication,transmitting what serves our highest good, regardless ofits reception. 8

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Amit Goswami is ProfessorEmeritus in the theoreticalphysics department of theUniversity of Oregon, Euge-ne, Oregon, US where he hasserved since 1968. He is a pio-neer of the new paradigm ofscience called “science within

consciousness”.Goswami is the author of the highly

successful textbook Quantum Mechanicsthat is used in Universities throughout the world. His two-volumetextbook for nonscientists, The Physicist’s view of Nature tracesthe decline and rediscovery of the concept of God within science.Goswami has also written many popular books based on his resear-ch on quantum physics and consciousness. In his seminal book,The Self-aware universe, he solved the quantum measurementproblem elucidating the famous observer effect while paving thepath to a new paradigm of science based on the primacy of con-sciousness. Subsequently, in The visionary window, Goswamidemonstrated how science and spirituality could be integrated.In Physics of the Soul he developed a theory of survival afterdeath and reincarnation. His book Quantum creativity is atour de force instruction about how to engage in both outerand inner creativity. The Quantum Doctor integrates con-ventional and alternative medicine, while in god is NotDead he explores what quantum physics tell us about ourorigins and how we should live.In his private life, Goswami is a practitioner of spiritua-lity and transformation. He calls himself a quantumactivist. He appeared in the films what the bleep Dowe know, The Dalai lama renaissance, and TheQuantum activist.He teaches fairly regularly at the Ernest Holmes Institu-te; the Philosophical Research University in Los Angeles;Pacifica in Santa Barbara, CA; and UNIPAZ in Portu-gal, and is a member of the advisory board of the Insti-tute of Noetic Sciences.

eople generally practice spiritualityunder the aegis of a religion. but reli-gions are based on a particular creed; notmuch consensus there about the nature of

reality or god – the head honcho of reality. Theword religion originated from the latin religierewhich means to reconnect. The idea of spiritualsalvation is to save oneself from sin (separateness)and reconnect with wholeness (god) in heaven.but how many people today do you meet who

interpret spiritual search this way? Different reli-gions tell you different things. also, most reli-gions talk about spiritual paths as if there is acharted path to follow and achieve your goal.Some religions even talk about a guru, an enlight-ened teacher-guide who can take you to thepromised land. Just follow him.if you try a continuous path, any religion, doesn’tmatter, you will most likely be disappointed, guruor no guru. what are the religions missing? Thegood news is that there is a new science to guideyou, you should see the path clearly with its help.according to the new science (goswami, 2008): ~ consciousness is the ground of all being.~ Manifest actuality is preceded by possibilities– quantum possibilities. conscious choice con-verts possibility into actuality. Since this choice isexerted from a non-ordinary state of consciousness“higher” than our ordinary ego, we call it down-ward causation. we will refer to this higher con-sciousness as quantum consciousness; spiritual tradi-tions refer to it as god.~ within one undivided consciousness, there arefour worlds of quantum possibilities wherefrom, viadownward causation consisting of conscious choice,come all our experiences: the material world that wesense, the vital world whose energies of movement wefeel, the mental world that we think and processmeaning with, and the supramental world of (Platonic)archetypes – truth, beauty, love, goodness, justice, etc –that we intuit, that give us values.~ conscious choice precipitates the collapse of the mul-tifaceted quantum possibilities (waves of possibility) inthe domain of transcendent potentia in each world tobecome actuality (particles of actuality) in the imma-nent domain of manifestation. The transcendent waveand immanent particle are complementary modes ofmovement in each world. The multiple parallel worldsdo not directly interact; consciousness mediates theirinteraction through simultaneous choice and collapse(change) of possibility into actuality.~ collapse is nonlocal meaning that it requires nolocal interaction, no local communication involvingthe exchange of signals. locality – the idea that com-munications require signals – holds true only forspace-time. Nonlocality is signalless communication

I NNER CREAT I V I T Y:A N E W PA R A D I G M F O R A D U LT S P I R I T U A L D E V E L O P M E N T

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taking place “outside” of space and time. Quantumconsciousness is nonlocal, choosing from itself, fromits own possibilities.~ collapse is discontinuous. before collapse, quantumpossibilities, waves of possibilities really, reside in tran-scendent potentia, outside space and time. collapsechanges the waves into immanent particles in space andtime. Do you see why discontinuity must prevail. howelse can you depict “outside” space and time? if “outside”space and time were continuous with what is inside spaceand time, we could just expand the boundaries andinclude it, couldn’t we? The word transcendent remindsus of both nonlocality and discontinuity.~ in transcendent potentia, consciousness remains undi-vided from its possibilities and there is no experience.This is what is called unconscious in depth psychologyalthough it has acquired a much wider meaning now inagreement with experimental data (see goswami, 2008).collapse produces “dependent co-arising” of an experi-encing subject and an object that is experienced. Thesubject is not a mere artifice of language. a subject is aperson with a brain with which consciousness identifies(see chapter 3). The self-identity (called the quantumself ) follows from a relationship of circular causality(called tangled hierarchy, hofstadter, 1980) that existsbetween brain apparatuses of perception and memory– perception requires memory, memory requiresperception.~ The subject of immediate experience is thequantum self which is universal, not individual.The individual identity (ego) results from condi-tioning (Mitchell and goswami, 1992).~ creativity is fundamentally a phenomenon ofconsciousness discontinuously manifesting reallynew (previously unmanifest and unconscious)facets of possibilities from the transcendent poten-tial to the immanent domain of manifest actuality.Now you see why in ancient traditions, creativityis referred to as a marriage between (transcen-dent) heaven and (immanent) earth. The dis-continuity of creative experience revealed as a“aha!” surprise is called a quantum leap of thoughtin analogy with the electron’s discontinuousquantum leap from one atomic orbit to anotherwithout going through the intervening space.~ creativity that we engage with today is men-tal creativity, it is about mental meaning. Themind gives meaning to the interaction of con-sciousness and matter. Think of yourself watch-ing Tv. all those pictures are simple electronicmovements on the screen. who puts into thoseelectronic patterns the picture of Jenny becomingangry with her boyfriend for paying too muchattention to violet? you do, with the help of your

mind (Sperry, 1983). it’s routine when we watchTv. but when our minds are leaping to somethingnew that brings new meaning via quantum leaping,we are creative.~ we value what we intuit, what Plato calledarchetypal contexts of thinking: love, beauty,truth, justice, goodness, stuff like that. what istruly new is new meaning invented or discov-ered using old or new archetypal contexts andcombinations thereof. This is the true natureof creativity.~ when creativity is directed toward produc-ing an outer product we call it outer creativity.creativity directed inwards toward transfor-mation is inner creativity. Spiritual develop-ment requires inner creativity.~ The creative process has four stages: prepara-tion, unconscious processing, sudden insight,and manifestation (wallas, 1926).~ The role of the brain is that we use the brainto make representations of mental meaning; inthe process we make software in the brain’s com-puter hardware.okay, we do develop an ego as adults, an individu-ality, a separateness. religions prescribe weakeningthe ego; this they say will make god (wholeness)the presiding master of your life. but animals haveweak ego; that does not make them particularly spir-itual. People have been following the religious pre-scription for millennia; where is the result? The truthis we cannot even follow the dictates of values likelove in our lives. There is no continuous path from theego-separateness of base emotions and reason-basedliving to the nonlocal wholeness of the land of a highervalue; it takes a quantum leap, often a lot of quantumleaps. and how do we do it? how else but by followingthe creative process? This is inner creativity, of course.Making this conceptual shift is a major achievement.continuous paths, a guru saving you from sin, soundso simple. and leaps are risky, especially quantum leaps;you don’t know where they will take you.relax. The new science is giving us some guidelines.ask yourself: what brought about the idea that youwant to try “religion” or “spirituality?” Most likely, youwill realize that it is a general dissatisfaction with life’ssufferings. Not enough pleasure to make up for them!Even if you are a creative person, your outer accom-plishments are not bringing much satisfaction.only by addressing our lack of satisfaction with outeractivities alone, do we make room for inner creativity,for transformation. and again, the religions and evenesoteric spiritual traditions have created much disap-pointments in our pursuit of spirituality by makingit an all or nothing proposition. connect to god or

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bust. god-realization (in some traditions the goal iscalled self-realization) is the only goal of life or at leastthe supreme goal! So kill the ego, the source of yoursin. Surrender to god or at least to your guru. andhumanity is pursuing this supreme goal for millenniatrying to kill the ego and surrender to god. lookaround. Do you see too many enlightened people? realize this. Ego-agendas are laden with many desiresto accomplish (the nature of the beast), and desires areoften conflicting. for example, suppose i have a desireto succeed in my search for god, and i want to workhard to that end; but i also want to enjoy life, spendtime with my friends, succeed in my job, and so forth –the desires are not compatible. The first requires killingthe ego; the others require keeping the ego in tact or evenenhancing it if the accomplishment requires creativity.This kind of conflict brings about tension, unease,more suffering not less.Now ask. what motivates you to engage in outer cre-ativity? The unconscious calling you! The archetypescalling you! The universe calling you! So you takeyour quantum leap, and made a representation of thearchetype as an outer product for others to share. real-ize that outer accomplishment is no longer enough.but your accomplishment orientation is still there.bingo! Turn your accomplishment orientation inward,toward making representation of those archetypesin your living. The product of manifestation of thecreative exploration of archetypes is now a newadult ego with an enlarged relatively conflict-free,positive relationship with the world, increasedemotional intelligence, an increased access to thequantum self.Do you see? you go about inner creativity firstwith this goal of embodying the archetypes inyour living and do it one after the other. Engagein relationships; discover unconditional love.Manifesting archetypes like love in your livingwill produce a brain circuit of positive emotion.follow this strategy to emotional intelligence –balancing your negative emotions with the pos-itive. Engage with ethics with the idea of livingethics and discover the archetype of goodness.Engage in deep ecology and teach yourself to bein harmony with your environment. and so on.Too much for one life? of course it is. but youcan do it over many reincarnations.This is important, so let me repeat. The creativeexploration of archetypes requires a strong ego.Moreover, these creative accomplishments, eventhough inner, always strengthen the ego. Surrender-ing the ego in favor of god or quantum self-identityrequires the weakening of ego’s narcissism. The twoprocesses are antithetical and must be done in steps.

Do you see that a day may come when you aretired of accomplishments, even inner ones. youhave done them all, been there, done that. Now isthe time to give up the ego. Now is the time to goall out, god realization or self-realization whatev-er you want to call it.one more comment. when you put your initialgoal of inner creativity as embodying the arche-types, you can easily see that you don’t neces-sarily need to be motivated from the negativeside of things – suffering. another intuitionthat can initiate the creative exploration of thearchetypes is curiosity: for example, what is itlike to love unconditionally?The truth is, under the aegis of scientific mate-rialism which holds that matter is the groundof being, in the economically advanced coun-tries, we have become experts in pleasureful liv-ing and have become very capable of hiding suf-fering under the rug. consequently, the negativepath draws few people to spirituality today exceptthat some people do get bored with pleasureseeking. if you are one of them, your call forinner creativity will come from the positive side –curiosity. hear the message that only a few peoplecan change the world that many of us are intuitingand that rupert Sheldrake first made into a scien-tific viability. are you one of these people? are youcurious to find out by engaging inner creativity? Ego development not only involves developing acharacter of habit patterns and learned contexts butalso developing a persona consisting of various masksthat tend to maintain a self-image. we want to pleaseother people, so we wear these masks to meet theirexpectations of who they think we are. The first stageof developmental inner creativity turns out to be shed-ding the self-image and becoming who we really are:our character, our authentic self. To the extent that wehave self-image, we are much like actors. richard feyn-man wrote a book named What do you care what otherpeople think? we make this our motto.

I N N E R C R E A T I V I T Y I N A C T I N G

is there creativity in acting? actors and actresses per-form in the outer arena, but they do not create any-thing new in the sense of outer creativity. however,they do delve into inner creativity (and perhaps even inouter creativity to the extent that their performancesprecipitate in the audience an encounter with meaningsand archetypes).in Shakespeare’s time, enacting a tragedy was theactor’s way to practice transcending the ego/personalevel to the authentic-self/character beyond themasks. The noble heroes of Shakespearian tragedies


suffer from inner conflict because of the masks thatthey wear. There is no resolution except to take offthe masks, which is portrayed as death.Take the case of hamlet. he is torn between the ethosof the time – the ego’s ethos – of avenging his father’smurder and a higher ethos – thou shalt not kill. bothwere expected of him and were part of his persona; butneither were part of his character. The only resolutionwas tragedy, the death of the persona, which in his caseoccurred through actual physical death.in primitive cultures, acting involves wearing masks, bywhich process the wearer becomes the god or animal thathe or she is portraying. but anthropologists have notedthat masks are worn to stimulate transformative experi-ences, they are vehicles for inner creativity, for findingbehind the masks the unity of the character/authenticself. “in these masks you continually find beings trans-forming into other beings. a man is a bear; a bear is akiller whale. The artist is showing a shared spirit – thatall beings are in some way the same.”Today, instead of Shakespearian tragedies, we are back toa more primitive form of acting, except that the actorsand actresses wear more subtle masks; the characters areusually ordinary people, not gods and animals. but thepurpose of acting remains the same – to discover foroneself the unity of the authentic self behind thediversity of different masks and their different melo-dramas. “at one point,” muses the actor louis gos-sett about a role that he successfully played, “i don’teven know who i am anymore. by the story’s endhe’s (the character) grown into his truest self, and ididn’t quite realize what a deep thing that would beto me. when you start to implement yourself anduse your soul, you discover more.”unfortunately, today many actors and actressesget caught up in living the life of many personasand the mind of many masks. instead of explor-ing deep into their psyches beyond the masks,they investigate horizontally, expanding therepertoire of masks they are capable of wearingto hide their authentic self from themselves.Thus their performances are no longer ones ofthe creative discoveries of his or her authenticunity but mere technique in the craft of acting. This then is the lesson. you can live life expandingyour repertoire of masks and go deeper and deeperinto illusion that these masks create or you can actthe masks out with always the goal of transcendingthe mask to unmask yourself. The more unmaskedyou are, the easier it is to begin the creative journeyof the authentic exploration of the archetypes.The truth is, the masks are also representations ofthe archetypes, but without any authentic experi-ence of them, we cannot truly live them; they are

based on what we think the archetypes are andmere thinking does not make brain circuits that wecan evoke easily without effort when we most needthem. Then we play act them and make them partof our false self-image. in the process of self-dis-covery, we play act them with the idea of gettingrid of them as part of the preparation stage anddelve into the rest of the creative process withauthenticity. a powerful (and perhaps indispensable) practicefor making life into a union with the authenticself is self-observation, a radical, unflinchinglyhonest, yet non-judgmental observation of yourplay-acting behaviour with others – specific ratio-nalizations, justifications, and other defences –coupled with self-inquiry into your inner motiva-tions, feelings, and thoughts while you are doingit. with ongoing awareness, you can penetratedeeper and subtler layers of defensive camouflage,a process that is by turns profoundly illuminatingand acutely painful. Do this practice with compas-sion for yourself, a compassion that, with advanc-ing practice, will deepen and extend to others.

I N N E R C R E A T I V I T Y

I N R E L A T I O N S H I P

while acting, we wear masks and assume someoneelse’s identity to explore and gain insight about ourown masks of self-image. in relationship, we havethe opportunity to be in somebody else’s shoes butmore subtly.The problem is, our ego thrives in homeostasis. Thisincludes not only our own habits and patterns, butalso the tendency to manipulate others in relationshipinto the mould of our own self-perception. and if weallow movement in a relationship, it is often a horizontalmovement within the contexts defined by our own ego.breaking through these tendencies is a creative chal-lenge, and the kind of creative acts that penetrate suchan impasse and restore fluidity to frozen or static rela-tionships has within them the capacity to catapult usbeyond ego. in other words, growing in a relationship isinner creativity.women’s spirituality traditionally has always emphasizedrelationship (anderson and hopkins, 1991). and thanksto the women’s liberation movement and, more recently,the men’s movement and the work of such people as thepoet robert bly, the demanding “r” word is no longeranathema to men, even in the west (bly, 1992).There are many kinds of relationships that we live andall of them afford us opportunities for exploring arche-types. below, i will take one such archetype – love –and examine how intimate relationship can act as acatapult for discovering love.


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in the 2012 election campaign, a conservative (repub-lican) presidential candidate laid out the republicandoctrine that sex must be used for reproductive pur-pose only. in contrast, liberals under the influence ofscientific materialism tend to use sex mostly for plea-sure. human evolution of consciousness demands moreof us than these two primitive use of sexuality.because of the instinctual brain circuits, our sexuality isaroused easily and often by a variety of stimuli. when weare teenagers and these feelings are unfamiliar we becomeconfused about our sexuality. Most societies have a tabooagainst educating the young about sexuality. in some spir-itual societies, the idea of celibacy is introduced for theyoung. unfortunately this is often done without muchguidance as to why or how. The original idea could havebeen good: remain celibate until you discover romanticlove when you will no longer be confused about the cre-ative potential of your sexuality (beyond procreation andpleasure). romantic love, the ancient traditions intuited,is the doorway of a creative journey toward archetypallove. but without any avenue for such education, howis the confusion going to go away?if a teenager goes into sex without understandingthe creative potential and purpose of sex (and now iam not talking about “the birds and the bees” repro-ductive aspect of sex here that is generally taught inschools as sex education), he or she will blindlyrespond to the brain circuits and look upon sexu-ality as a gratification, as a vehicle for a uniquekind of intense pleasure. Since the fulfillment ofsexual pleasure with a partner raises vital energyto the third chakra associated with the ego iden-tity with the physical body, a sense of personalpower enters the equation. hence it is commonto think of “sexual conquests” in connectionwith sex that is not associated with romanticlove. recall that sex in romantic love raises theenergy to the heart chakra.in the western world, the pattern that has devel-oped over the last few decades, at least for men, isthis early conditioning of sex for power. women,thanks to some protective (“conservative”) par-ents are somewhat exempt, although that is rapid-ly changing. what happens when we eventuallydiscover a partner with whom our heart chakraresonates? we enter the romantic love relationship,but we tend not to give up the habit of conquest.So when the romance runs out, which it doessooner or later because of our tendency to habituateevery new experience, the sex-for-power tendencyreturns. we then have a choice. we can look foranother romantic partner, or go deep in the existingrelationship to explore its creative potential.

hence the social custom of a man being the onewho asks his romantic partner to enter marriage. Toenter marriage is to change the equation of sex: iwill commit to change my pattern of using sex forpower to using sex always to make love. whichmeans we always allow the energy to rise to theheart after a sexual encounter, we allow ourselvesto become vulnerable. Marriage is a commitmentto make love, not war (to conquest). unfortunately, this vital body agreement concur-rently has to find agreements between the mentalbodies of the partners as well. for mental bodiesof a couple, the individual ego conditionings arevery deep; in the arenas of overlap of ego activitythere will be territoriality, and competitivenesswill emerge and bring the energy down from theheart chakra to the navel chakra once againresulting in a return to narcissism. a man says tohis wife when she expressed dissatisfaction withtheir marriage: “i don’t get it. your job is tomake me happy. i am perfectly happy. So what’sthe problem?”The competitiveness and other negative emo-tions will relent only when we begin to intuitivelyglimpse that it is possible to surrender the nega-tive emotions within the positive energy of love.a cartoon describes the situation with the narcissismof the ego perfectly. calvin says, “i am at peace withthe world. i’m completely serene.” when pressed byhobbes, he clarifies, “i am here so everybody can dowhat i want.” from this place, we can love only mag-nanimously, from the superior level in a hierarchicalrelationship. but this is not love and leads to isolation.when we become aware of our loneliness, in spite ofhaving friends and partners, we begin to inquire whywe are lonely, why we do not feel loved, and why, intruth, we cannot give unselfish love either. we have anopen mind. we become curious: if we give uncondition-al love, does the emptiness fill up? we can stoke the fireof curiosity until we have a burning question.it is then that we are serious about engaging the creativeprocess of discovering love, we have done the basic home-work, the basic preparation. The next step is unconsciousprocessing.

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T H E E X P L O R A T I O N O F L O V E

our conditioning does not allow incoming stimuli toevoke all possible responses in our mind-brain-vitalbody complex. instead our conditioning acts like a slitthat permits us to process the stimulus in the sameconditioned perspectives that we have seen it before. itis very much like the case of the electron passingthrough a single slit before falling on a fluorescentscreen. it appears right behind the slit, only a little


blurring of its image due to diffraction gives awaythat the electron is still a wave of possibility and notan entity of complete fixity of a point. but if we passthe electron through a double slit, the possibility poolof the electrons is enhanced enormously for additionalunconscious processing. in the double-slit experiment, a beam of electrons pass-es through a two-slitted screen before hitting a secondfluorescent screen. after passing through the two slits ofthe first screen, the possibility wave of each electrondivides into two waves that “interfere” with one another;the result is displayed as spots on the fluorescent screen.if the crests of the two waves arrive together at a place onthe screen, we get constructive interference – reinforce-ment of possibility – the probability for an electron toarrive is maximum that shows as bright spots on thescreen. crest and trough arriving together at a placemake destructive interference – no possibility of anyelectron landing there at all – and show as dark regionson the fluorescent screen. The total pattern, called aninterference pattern, consists of these alternate brightand dark regions. compared to the single slit pattern,there has been an enormous enhancement for the poolof possibilities available to the electron.what does all this have to do with the creativity inrelationships? unconscious processing always pre-cedes a creative insight. The more we are able togenerate quantum waves of many possibilities inour unconscious mind, the more is the efficacy ofunconscious processing.having a committed intimate relationship is likehaving a double slit to sift all your incoming stim-uli through in this way enhancing your possibilitypool for unconscious processing. The truth is,you may not yet consciously recognize your part-ner’s contexts for looking at things; but yourunconscious is already considering them, hencethe change. your possibility pool to choose fromis now much bigger, and chances are better thatnew possibilities for creativity are already therefor the quantum consciousness to enter the pic-ture and choose. with this strategy, sooner orlater, you will fall into a creative intuition of the“otherness” of the other (to use sociologistcarol gilligan’s language), not unconsciously,but consciously. you and your intimate “enemy”have seen the first glimpse that you can becomeintimate friends.

I N V I T I N G Q U A N T U M

C O N S C I O U S N E S S T O R E S O L V E

Y O U R C O N F L I C T S :T H E D O - B E - D O - B E - D O

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after it dawns on both you and your partner thatyour intimate enemy can be your intimate friend as

well, a truly respectful relationship can begin andyou can take more risks. it is in this process of risktaking that your intimate enemy-future friend canbecome a huge boon. your partner is already aboon because she/he introduces a second slit of adouble slit arrangement through which the stim-uli you process are sifted allowing an enormousproliferation of possibilities. is there any otherway to enhance the possibility pool to choosefrom even further? is there any way to guaranteethat there will be new possibilities in the pool? in the movie, The Wedding Date, to my greatsatisfaction the hero said to the heroine some-thing to the effect, “i want to marry you, becausei’d rather fight with you than make love withanother person.” To practice unconditional love,it is important to recognize your love partnershamelessly as also “the intimate enemy.” Thebehavioural advice is to use reason to settle thedifferences that cause fighting (“renegotiating yourcontract”). but unfortunately this amounts only tosuppressing emotions. or if emotions break outanyway, the behavioural advice is to leave thescene, to not to let things “get out of hand,” or “tokiss and make up,” which is usually a pretensionuntil sexual instinct takes over. These are perhapsgood advice for people who are not ready for uncon-ditional love. but for you the inner creative, yourchallenge is to love your partner in spite of your dif-ferences. and when these differences cause a fight,then so be it. remain in the fight explicitly or implic-itly until a quantum leap takes place or until the situa-tion become unbearable at your present stage of per-sonal emotional maturity.unresolved conflicts are guaranteed to bring new possi-bilities in your pool for unconscious processing, and whocan process the new but quantum consciousness/god?gradually, we become capable of waiting out unresolvedconflicts indefinitely until downward causation resolvesthem giving us experiences of tangled hierarchical quan-tum self and the archetype of love. in that experience, youdiscover self-reference as a couple: now not only are therethe individuals, you and he (she), but there is also we.The practice, to hold unresolved conflicts indefinitelyuntil resolution comes from higher consciousness is a dif-ficult practice, but the rewards of its manifestation stageare enormous. The conditions that you impose on yourlove now fall away with some effort as new brain circuitsof love take form. The making of a love circuit in yourbrain helps you to balance many of your negative emo-tions – fear, hate, competitiveness etc. The beatles wereright when they sang “all we need is love.”and then we have choice. once we can love uncon-ditionally, sex is a choice. we do not need it to makelove. we have a love circuit in our brain now. we can


still include sex in our love relationship if appropriateand if we so choose of course, but sex is no longercompulsory. we don’t have to engage in it helplessly.in this way, the whole world can become our family.

T H E A W A K E N I N G O F

S U P R A M E N T A L I N T E L L I G E N C E

There are many archetypes of the supramental: love;beauty; justice; goodness, and truth are some of themajor ones. in our journey of transformation, we have toexplore each of the major archetypes. Each creative explo-ration will give us upon fruition a brain circuit of positiveemotion that will help us balance the negative in our life.The primary objective is to move beyond mental intelli-gence that does not bring us happiness. The creative exploration of unconditional love helps usdevelop emotional intelligence – the ability to hold inti-mate relationships and maintain emotional equanimityin general.let’s talk about ethics. To be ethical, each of us has todiscover creatively the truth of “love your neighbour asyourself” which means “be good to your neighbour.”only when, in a direct quantum leap (an insight), youexperience your oneness with your neighbour andmanifest the truth in your life by making a brain cir-cuit, can you really live this truth with some genuineeffortlessness and consistency. being good to yourneighbour then becomes an ongoing renewal ofrelationship – grounded not in rote fixity but inpresent-cantered creative fluidity. you have discov-ered ethical living. you must similarly discover allspiritual themes of life – respect, humility, justice,and other time-honoured values – if you want tolive them.The ecologist arne Ness gave us the concept ofdeep ecology (Duvall and Sessions, 1985). Etymo-logically, eco comes from the greek word eikos(meaning place) and logy from the greek logos(meaning knowledge). So ecology is aboutknowledge of the place we live. but in truth, welive not only in our external environment butalso in our internal environment. Deep ecologyis about the knowledge of both our external andour internal subtle worlds and it appeals to us totake ethical responsibility for both our gross andsubtle worlds. as our archetypal accomplishments accumulate,there begins a shift of the ego-identity to a morebalanced relationship of the ego and the quantumself. i call this shift the awakening of supramentalintelligence, called buddhi in Sanskrit. Etymologi-cally, intelligence comes from the root word intelli-go that means “to select among.” indeed, with theawakening of supramental intelligence we begin to

become aware that we are choosing or selectingfrom among the possibilities available. only then,we begin to take responsibility for our choices. wegrow up, in other words.The supramental intelligence level of being bringsa welcome freedom from compulsive self-preoc-cupation. you may sometimes feel this freedomwhen you sing in the shower or walk in thewoods. but can you imagine feeling that kind offreedom during what you call chores, what youcall boredom, or even what you call suffering? itis like dancing through life. “will you, won’tyou, will you, won’t you, won’t you join thedance?” This exuberant invitation from lewiscarroll is always open to all of us, but we thrivein this dancing only when supramental intelli-gence awakens.The psychologist carl Jung (1971) also put con-siderable emphasis on inner creativity of adultdevelopment, which, he said, leads to “individu-ation” – a stage of development in which the per-son’s individuality is firmly established within acosmic unity. The concept of the awakening ofsupramental intelligence is similar.

I N N E R C R E A T I V I T Y :S E L F R E A L I Z A T I O N

accomplishing the brain circuits of positive emotionsand acquiring emotional intelligence, ethical conduct,deep ecology, and all that keeps us happily busy formany incarnations. Eventually, even this urge to explorebegins to habituate. we tend to become bored – beenthere, done that. Then what develops is a deep unendingunease that the buddha called dukkha. This is the real-ization of buddha’s first noble truth – life is suffering.Suffering comes from the duality of living in the two selfidentities – ego and the quantum self. any separationfrom wholeness, such as ego-identity itself, is experiencedas suffering. Now the inner-creativity initiate is motivatedto end suffering. To go beyond the accomplishment-ori-ented self to a state of “no ego-self.” This is the journey ofself-realization approaching from the negative side.accomplishments of supramental intelligence bring us sat-isfaction, but even more enticing than satisfaction is thespiritual joy (that hindus call ananda) that a creative feelsat the moment of the quantum leap, as a by-product ofthe unity with the quantum self. gradually, after manypeak experiences, the curiosity becomes intense, becomesa burning question: can i go beyond duality, can i shiftmy identity to the quantum self and forever enjoy thebliss of that union? To some explorers, the quantum selfreveals itself as an archetype – the self archetype –almost like any other archetype. This leads to theintense desire, to know the true self – the nature of


consciousness itself. This fuels the inquiry – whoam i? what is the true nature of my self? where is itrooted? This time it is via positiva.but either way, via negative or via positive, very soonit becomes clear that now the spiritual journey is verydifferent – we have to detach from the ego-identity,give up the accomplishment orientation, etc.There is a lasting myth in some spiritual traditions thatto be truly initiated into a path of self-realization, youmust have a guru, an enlightened teacher. but thequantum self, the holy Spirit, is the guru, as some ofthese traditions explicitly acknowledge, and it is notreally separate from us. if you are sinking into quick-sand, you cannot pull yourself up by your own boot-straps; a law of Newton prevents you. but it is possibleto bootstrap yourself out of the quicksand of ego-identity.This is because the ego-identity is not compulsory, onlysome of the ego-functions are. The ego’s simple hierarchyand its narcissistic perspective is an aberration (albeit anecessary one for the creative journey) on the clear con-sciousness that is the holy Spirit. To expect another,guru or not, to do your creative work for you is to per-petuate the aberration.The problem is that in inner creativity of self-realiza-tion you are trying to lift yourself beyond the simplehierarchy of the ego-identity to the tangled hierarchy ofthe quantum self. you cannot reach a relationshipbased in a tangled hierarchy through one that demandsa simple hierarchy, as in some power-based guru-dis-ciple relationships. if perchance you encounter oneof those rare individuals who understands andengages in tangled-hierarchical relationships withthe world, that’s different. in india, such a guru iscalled a sadguru.Now comes the quintessential question. howare the stages of inner creativity that catapult usinto the exalted realization of the quantum selfof being, the realization that i am the quantumself, different from the usual stages of creativity– both inner and outer?

I N I T I A L P R E P A R A T I O N

Part of the preparation for the spiritual jour-ney of inner creativity used to be the study ofthe literature in order to achieve an intellectualunderstanding of the philosophy of conscious-ness as presented by philosophers and mysticsthrough the ages. if you were part of a religiouslineage, you studied the scriptures with the moti-vation of understanding the meaning behind theform. you also investigated the meaning of par-ticular rituals and practices.you would also find a guru, and not necessarily ahuman guru, to surrender your ego. it took many

years of study, rituals, and meditation (much likethe creative process today) to break through andhave the realization that “i am the innermost self.”in hinduism this was called the culmination ofgyana (Sanskrit word for wisdom) yoga. in othertraditions, this goes by a different name. but thepoint is that this wisdom did not help much. youwould know the truth, but you still would notknow how to live it. So after the dawning of wis-dom, you went to practice love (bhakti yoga inSanskrit) etc., moving through the archetypes.Some traditions such as christianity and Sufismtried to reverse the procedure, love before wis-dom. but this did not work well either becausewithout wisdom it is very difficult to master theconviction (faith) in quantum consciousness totake on the journey of self-realization. Today, as the science of self-realization is becom-ing clear, it is becoming easy. we have discov-ered a new gyana yoga, western style. get yourwisdom from the theoretical resolution of quan-tum paradoxes (goswami, 1993); next convinceyourself that the important elements of the theorysuch as nonlocality and downward causation areexperimentally verified. in this way you will gainfaith that this new science is proper science and itdoes not fail you, it cannot. This is part of yourpreparation. This is, in buddha’s terminology, rightthinking.at the next stage of your preparation, you investigatethe archetypes. This takes many lifetimes, so in thislifetime if you already have detachment from accom-plishments (this detachment is called vairagya in San-skrit) and yet love, ethics, deep ecology, and emotionalintelligence come easily for you, then you know youare ready for the final journey of self-realization. youknow already how to live your right thinking. in bud-dha’s terminology, this is called right living.if some aspect of right living is still lacking, finish it.otherwise, the need for accomplishment will still bethere after you experience self-realization and will messup the all important manifestation stage. There aremany self-proclaimed gurus today accomplishing awayand enjoying the ego pleasures inappropriately causingmuch confusion. it does not mean that they are notself-realized; but it does mean that they have not beenable to take upon themselves the task of fully manifest-ing the quantum self-identity from which only befit-ting action would flow.The final preparation for the journey of self-realiza-tion is to find right livelihood for yourself. and thisconsists of the life of a renunciate, no less. Thismeans only one thing: you must not use your liveli-hood for accomplishing anything that leads to ego


building. Don’t worry! if you are ready, this stepwill not take much effort.

A L T E R N A T E W O R K A N D

I N C U B A T I O N :

W I L L A N D S U R R E N D E R

as with outer creativity and also with the inner cre-ativity of transformation, much of the work of innercreativity of self-exploration is unconscious. in innercreativity of accomplishments, during the stage of uncon-scious processing we relax from actively pursuing theproblem at hand. in inner creativity of self-realization, webecome quiet, silent; we want to kill the accomplisher.we surrender to the flow of life rather than trying topush the river.Moudgalyana came to buddha with many questions thathe had asked of all the teachers he had encountered. butbuddha saw that the striving student was ready for thenext stage. asked he, “Do you want to know theanswers or know the questions?” Moudgalyana wasstartled. he did not know what to say. buddha elabo-rated, “all worthwhile answers have to grow inside you[from your burning questions]. what i say is irrelevant.So stay with me in silence for a year. after the year, ifyou still want to ask, i will answer.” Moudgalyanawent into silence. after the year, when buddha askedhim if he had any questions, he remained silent. hehad understood the importance of silence in theunconscious processing for self-realization.Supplementing the unconscious processing withconscious striving to exercise the will is often advan-tageous. concentration meditation helps to assertthe will, to remind yourself your goal. you maysit in concentration mentally reciting a chant.you may stand with both your arms raised hori-zontally (the posture of cross of the gold) for anhour a day or whirl like the dervishes to increasethe power of your will.how hard do you have to practice? it depends.Some people are so entrenched in their egos thatthe heat of much hard practice is needed forthem to jump out of their trenches. others findit easy. in a Zen story, a spiritual seeker meets anextraordinary spiritual family in which all mem-bers have awakened to their buddha nature. inanswer to the seeker’s question, “is it difficult toawaken to our true nature?” the father says, “it isvery, very difficult.” but the mother says, “it’s theeasiest thing in the world.” The son says, “Neither.”finally the daughter says, “if you make it difficult,it is. if you don’t, it’s not.”

T H E E N C O U N T E R I N T H E I N N E R

C R E A T I V I T Y O F S E L F - R E A L I Z A T I O N

as with outer creativity and inner creativity ofaccomplishments, inner creativity of self-realizationalso involves an encounter between our ego andquantum modalities. The existentialist philosopherMartin buber has called this the i-thou encounter;the encounter is even more intense than in the cre-ativity in the service of accomplishments becauseyour purpose is the transformation of your self-identity, a radical change in the familiar home-ostasis of your adult ego. radical change requiresa radical intensity.a young man did not understand how it waspossible to concentrate on a mantra even for afew minutes. So his teacher, who happened to bethe king, ordered the young man to carry a vesselfull of oil three times around the palace. “andwhile you carry the oil,” cautioned the king, “becareful that not a single drop falls to the ground.a swordsman will follow you, and he will instantlycut off your head if any of the oil spills.” whilecarrying out the command, the young man easilyunderstood the intensity that is involved in success-ful concentration.The physician/spiritual teacher richard Moss (1981)recognizes impending surgery as fostering themeditative intensity that i am talking about. Thehealing path is a great one for self-realization. when the mystic/psychologist richard alpert workedon a prison ashram project, he was impressed with thelevel of awareness of the inmates on death row (Dass,1977). hospice workers too find that high levels ofintensity become available to people facing death. Suchintensity can forge the bedrock commitment that isrequired for your spiritual quest.it is not too difficult to build intensity. Many of usknow this from such “negative” experiences as broodingon anxiety. what prevents you from looking into yourpatterns with the intensity that develops from thesestates? we escape with Tv or light reading, or squanderour energy on imagined scenarios of triumphs and fail-ures, retaliation and vengeance. instead, suppose youvigilantly observe whatever comes up as precisely as pos-sible? This was the basis of the teaching of the mystic J.krishnamurti. Just observe, just look.ultimately, we are afraid of intense practice. it’s like thehungry chicken and the pig that were traveling together.They saw a diner with a sign advertising a bacon-and-egg special, and the chicken wanted to stop there. butthe pig balked, protesting, “you have to make only acontribution. but for me, that’s total commitment.”The mystic ligia Dantes suggests watching our fearand learning to discriminate between fear as a natural


survival instinct and fear as fantasy to perpetuate theillusions of the ego-identity. when you shed fantasyfear, you can more readily invite intensity into yourpractice (Dantes, 1990).“if i give up my ego, what is left of me?” This is theeternal question, formed entirely from our desires,fears, attachments, etc., that makes us shy away fromhonest self-scrutiny and prevents us from surrenderingto the quantum self. is there life after the shift of yourcenter of being beyond the ego? you have to ask thequestion with intensity and perseverance, to take a riskwith no surety of reward, and to accept the anguish ofwaiting for the “new life” to spring forth.

B I G I N S I G H T

The mystic franklin Merrell-wolff practiced the path ofwisdom (he was a trained mathematician/philosopher)for years with high intensity. Then two things hap-pened. one day, he came across the wisdom of the indi-an mystic Sankara while reading his book Crest Jewel ofDiscrimination. The wisdom was, atman (quantum self)is brahman (consciousness – the ground of being). hebegan to ponder this wisdom for days as if he hasfound his guru. Then one day, he realized that thereis nothing to seek. To his amazement, this realizationwas followed by an experience of the quantum self(Merrell-wolff, 1973).what actually takes place in awareness in thisdirect encounter with the quantum self? franklinMerrell-wolff is quite specific:The first discernible effect on consciousness was somethingthat I may call a shift in the base of consciousness. [...] Iknew myself to be beyond space, time, and causality. […]Closely associated with the foregoing realization there is afeeling of complete freedom. […] I did not attempt to stopthe activity of the mind, but simply very largely ignoredthe stream of thought. […] The result was that I wasboth here and ‘There’, with the objective consciousness lessacute than normal. (Merrell-wolff, 1973: 38-40.)in the moment of spiritual illumination of thiskind, primary quantum self awareness floods thefield of attention; secondary-awareness processesrelated to memory and ego continue but aregiven no attention or importance.Some people declare that they are “enlightened”as a result of the experience of self-realization.but there is a fallacy here. as lao Tzu used to say,“the one who knows cannot say, the one who sayscannot know.” So here is a genuine differencebetween inner creativity of archetypal accomplish-ments and the inner creativity of self-realization.in inner creativity of accomplishments, at themanifestation stage, the ego is the central player. Sothe subtle ego-boosting that is inherent in regarding

a product as an accomplishment does no harm tothe product. The ego identity needs to be stronganyway. but in inner creativity of self-realization,any such inflation of the ego is a detriment to theprocess and must delay or distort the manifesta-tion of the wisdom of the insight. The american mystic richard alpert (aka, ramDass) went public with his “enlightenment” onlyto realize years later how the declaration hadinterfered with the manifestation of the trans-formation of his being. after he corrected hismistake, his flowering resumed.in other words, humility is a necessary ingredi-ent of the inner journey of the manifestation ofthe insight of self-realization. humility is therecognition that a transpersonal consciousnessbeyond ego, beyond even the quantum self ispotentially in charge.

W H A T I S E N L I G H T E N M E N T ?

During the earlier stages of the process of innercreativity leading to self-realization, a movingaway from the world, a renunciation, takes place.During manifestation, there is a re-entry into theworld, but from no fixed centre of self-identity thathas shifted beyond ego. This re-entry problem isalluded to in the Zen saying, “before awakening[enlightenment], mountains are mountains and lakesare lakes. Then [during the creative process thatincludes manifestation], mountains are not moun-tains, lakes are not lakes. after awakening [enlighten-ment], mountains are mountains, lakes are lakes.”with the realization of no ego-self, the identity with theego more and more gives way to the quantum self as wetry to manifest that realization in our regular living. Theego now serves more and more as the functional agent ofthe quantum self. Quantum consciousness/god speaksto the quantum self which communicates to the ego; theego carries out the choices of the quantum consciousnesswithout interference. The East indian mystic ramakrishna used the analogy ofa salt figurine dipped into the ocean to make the samepoint. The figurine dissolves; its function, the saltiness,remains even though merged with the ocean, but its sep-arate structure and identity no longer exist. This is thegoal of the manifestation stage of the creative act of self-realization. The challenge is not to run away fromambiguities that arise or to escape into an action-ori-ented approach but to remain aware of the movementsof consciousness as they manifest reality.all three great East indian mystics of recent times,ramakrishna, ramana Maharshi, and Sri aurobindo,spent long years in silence after their ‘aha!’ insight ofself-realization. The sixth patriarch of chan buddhism,


hui Neng, was a humble cook for twelve years after hisenlightenment before circumstances catapulted him topublic life.as the center of the self shifts beyond ego, the direc-tion of action increasingly comes from the quantumself – primary awareness. at the cremation grounds inindia, an attendant stands by the pyre with a stick tosee that no part of the body escapes the fire. when thejob is done, the attendant throws the stick on the pyre.This is the destination.

S A V I K A L P A A N D N I R V I K A L P A

S A M A D H I

in self-realization, what one experiences is the onenessof everything, the subject, the object(s), the entire fieldof awareness, all seem to become one. in the yoga litera-ture (Taimni, 1961), this is called savikalpa Samadhi inSanskrit; samadhi means the balance of the two poles ofsubject and object. Savikalpa means with separation. inother words, in this experience, we become aware ofthe dependent co-arising of the universal quantum selfand the world (object) albeit the self (subject) isalready split from the world (object). we do not everexperience consciousness undivided from its possibil-ities. any experience, by definition, involves collapseof possibility into actuality and subject-object split.in other words, savikalpa samadhi is as deep (orhigh) as we can go in experience. we see clearlythat we are the children of god.very confusingly to the ordinary mind, the Easternliterature refers to another kind of samadhi callednirvikalpa samadhi. The Sanskrit word nirvikalpameans without split – without subject-object sep-aration. if there is no experience without subject-object split, what does this represent?To understand this, consider deep sleep. in deepsleep, there is no subject-object split, and thereis no experience. but there is no problem withaccepting that we sleep either. we all sleep andit is an accepted state of consciousness.So nirvikalpa samadhi has to be understood as adeeper sleep in which some special unconsciousprocessing takes place that is cognized at themoment of waking much like the experience ofa near-death survivor experiencing autoscopicvision and later remembering it upon beingrevived. This is what the East indian sage Patan-jali meant when he said, “meditate on knowledgethat comes during sleep.”what is the special vision that is revealed uponwaking up from nirvikalpa? The mystic sageSwami Sivananda (1987) describes it thus:

There are two kinds of […] nirvikalpa samadhi. In thefirst the jnani [wise person], by resting in Brahman [San-skrit word for Godhead], sees [processes] the whole worldwithin himself as a movement of ideas, as a mode of beingor a mode of his own existence […] This is the higheststate of realization. […] In the second variety the worldvanishes from view and the jnani rests on pure attribute-less Brahman.

clearly the first kind of nirvikalpa samadhi is theultimate state of unconscious processing whenwe as quantum consciousness – god in religiousjargon – process the entire world of quantumpossibilities including the archetypes. it is not anexperience but a state of consciousness.Sivananda’s second kind of nivikalpa state iscalled Turiya in the vedanta literature. Turiya isa deeper nirvikalpa state of non-experience. canthere be a (unconscious) state of consciousnessdeeper than the unconscious processor of quan-tum possibilities of the whole universe? whatwas before that? consciousness with all possibili-ties, no limitation – not even quantum laws –imposed, that’s what. when all possibilities areincluded, there is no quality, and there is nothingto process, a reason buddhists call this state of con-sciousness the great void and hindus call it nirguna,attributeless, without qualifications, and christianscall it godhead (prior to god).So what is the point of all this for enlightenment?There is a claim in the spiritual literature of indiathat people of nirvikalpa capacity are totally trans-formed, their identity completely shifts to the quan-tum self except when the ego is needed for everydaychores, for ego-functions.So what is enlightenment? for savikalpa creatives, thediscussion above has shown that the self-realization expe-rience requires an arduous journey, but it is not the endof the road. you have to manifest the quantum self inyour living.Now suppose you have the capacity for nirvikalpa state oftype 1 whenever you desire it. if your desires are tuned tothat of the creating consciousness, this would be quitenatural, wouldn’t it? in that case, doesn’t it make sense tosay that all your doings would be carried out preceded bygod’s unconscious processing and creative choice guar-anteeing appropriateness? and yet, the very fact that onehas desires compromises this exalted state of existence,doesn’t it?for the achiever of the nirvikalpa samadhi of the firstkind, now unconscious processing includes the process-ing of supramental possibilities. This means that tuningoneself to the evolutionary movements of conscious-ness and acting from it appropriately would now beeasy without effort. but, there is still “somebody” who


is walking his/her biddings in real time. a vestige ofego-identity remains.The situation is drastically different for a person onceturiya – unconscious processing in the attributeless –is the case. There is no longer any “thing” to manifest,all desires (vana in Sanskrit) of manifestation is nowburnt away. So this is nirvana, to use the language ofbuddha, the state of no desire. when nirvikalpa Samadhi becomes easy without effort,in a sense it is liberation, because since there is nothingmore to be accomplished, there is no need to takerebirth. So if liberation means liberation from birth-death-rebirth cycle, then liberation arrives with nirvana.but if you have the exulted notion that liberation meanstotal freedom, forget it. with embodiment, one cannotbe totally free of ego-conditioning, one cannot always bein the quantum self. hence the wise koan: how does theZen master go to the bathroom? a Zen master goes tothe bathroom the same way as every adult using ego-conditioning. and whenever the ego modality is used,the identity may come back and play out. So in esoteric hinduism there is the concept of libera-tion in the body that then is recognized to have somelimitations. only for liberation with death, there istotal freedom.Science is telling us unambiguously that only peopleof turiya consciousness are fully transformed in everywhich way imaginable. obviously, the great mysticsof the world, from reading the folklore around them,seem to qualify for this turiya level of being. butspeaking as a scientist, we must reserve our judg-ment until more data is available. 8

R E F E R E N C E S

aNDErSoN, S. aND hoPkiNS, P. (1991). The Femi-nine Face of God (New york: bantam).

DaNTES, l. (1990). The Unmanifest Self (bouldercreek, ca: aslan Publishing).

DaSS, raM. (1977). Grist for the Mill (Santa cruz,NM: unity Press).

goSwaMi, a. (1993). The Self-Aware Universe: HowConsciousness Creates the Material World (Newyork: Tarcher/Putnam).

—— (2008a). God is not Dead (charlottesville, va:hampton roads).

hofSTaDTEr, D. r. (1980). Goedel, Escher, Bach: theEternal Golden Braid (New york: basic).

MErrEll-woll, f. (1973). Philosophy of Conscious-ness with out an Object. (New york: Julian Press).

SivaNaNDa, S. (1987). Vedanta ( Jnana Yoga)(rishikesh, india: Divine life Society).

TaiMNi, i. k. (1961). The science of yoga (wheaton, ill.:Theososophical Publishing house).

a b


Ashok K. Gangadean is Mar-garet Gest Professor of GlobalPhilosophy at Haverford Col-lege (Haverford, PA, USA)where he has taught for thepast forty-four years. He is alsoDirector of the Margaret Gest

Center for Cross-Cultural Studyof Religion at Haverford, and has

participated in numerous profes-sional conferences on inter-religious dia-

logue and East-West comparative philosophy. His primary concernthroughout his career has been to clarify the universal logos or com-mon ground at the heart of human reason and rational life.He is Founder-Director of the Global Dialogue Institute, whichseeks to embody the dialogical powers of global reason in allaspects of cultural life and cofounder of the World Commissionon Global Consciousness and Spirituality, which brings emi-nent global visionaries together to facilitate the great plane-tary awakening.He is author of several books including Meditative Reason:Toward Universal Grammar, Between Worlds: The Emer-gence of Global Reason, Meditations of Global First Phi-losophy: Quest for the Missing Grammar of Logos andThe Awakening of the Global Mind.www.awakeningmind.org; [email protected].

P R E F A C E

E N T E R I N G A G L O B A L P E R S P E C T I V E

O N S P I R I T U A L A W A K E N I N G S

hERE ARE PERIodS In oUR hUMAn And

cultural evolution in which humanitypasses through such fundamental trans-formations that our reality shifts andnew patterns of thought are required to

make sense of our unfolding human drama.And when we stand back from our usual morelocalized perspectives and worldviews and dilateour minds to a more comprehensive globalvision very striking patterns come into relief.That we are in the midst of such a profoundshift is beyond doubt, and it is of the highestimportance to have the appropriate vision, lens,perspective, grammar and technology of mind toadequately conceptualize, articulate and narratethe nature of this transformation. I wish to suggest that the profound transformationwe are now witnessing has been emerging on a global

scale over millennia and has matured to a tippingpoint and rate of acceleration that has been andwill continue to radically alter our human condi-tion in every aspect. So it is of the highest impor-tance that we expand our perspective and callforth unprecedented narrative powers to ade-quately name, diagnose and articulate this shift. There are a growing number of frontier voicesthat in recent decades have emerged in announc-ing, pronouncing, languaging, conceptualizingand narrating this planetary shift in our evolu-tion. My own journey over the past four decadeshas converged at the same frontier and in thesebrief and summary remarks I shall try to focuson what, for me, is the most fundamental chal-lenge in processing the evolutionary shift thatchanges everything. If we can stand back and enter a more expansiveglobal perspective we readily find diverse visionaryvoices on a global scale throughout our evolutionwho are speaking from a deeper dimension of literacyand intelligence – a missing integral logic and technol-ogy of mind – that is the key to adequately processingtheir insight. In these brief remarks I shall focus on thismissing link that is, so to speak, an “access code” to the“enchanted” universe and to the remarkable global con-sensus that reality is an integral and holistic unified fieldof information and dynamic connectivity. This deeper integral logic of consciousness involvesnothing less than a dimensional shift in rationality anddiscourse that calls for a radical revision in our worldmaking, including of course our understanding of cul-ture, knowledge and the essence of scientific mindingitself. It is in this dimensional shift in rationalitytogether with its deeper disclosure of Reality that theexpanded and evolved space of integral science emerges.In my brief summary remarks I shall sketch the philo-sophical, rational and ontological foundations thisdimensional shift.

P R O L O G U E

A G L O B A L R E N A I S S A N C E I N S P I R I T U A L I Z E D

R A T I O N A L I T Y , S C I E N C E , R E L I G I O N

A N D C U L T U R E

As we enter the 21st century it is unmistakably clear thatwe are in the midst of a profound and unprecedented

S P I R I TUA L TRAN S FORMAT ION SA S T H E AWA K E N I N G O F G L O B A L C O N S C I O U S N E S S :

A D I M E N S I O N A L S H I F T I N T H E T E C H N O L O G Y O F M I N D

A S H O K K . G A N G A D E A N

T

S P A N D A J O U R N A L I I I , 1 /2 0 1 2 | CON S C I OU S N E S S & DE V E LO PM EN T 2 . 0 | 2 9

shift in the human condition – a global renaissancethat affects every aspect of our cultural lives, our selfunderstanding and, of course, our rational enter-prise. This evolutionary transformation, when seenthrough the global lens, has been emerging throughthe ages on a global scale. In this brief reflection Ishall suggest that the dimensional shift we are speak-ing of is of an order of magnitude that is so profoundthat the very concept of a person, of what it means tobe human, of our encounter with Reality, of the natureof rationality and all our hermeneutical arts, includingthe nature of science... are likewise taken to a higherdimension. I wish to suggest that this global contextalong with this evolutionary shift in the rational enter-prise is the appropriate context to situate the diversepioneering voices calling for a great awakening ofhumanity through the ages.In this global perspective we see the macro pattern of themost gifted minds seeking in one way or another to dis-cern, name, formulate and narrative that which is First,an inescapable primal Reality, Force, Energy, Being,Principle, Arche... that conditions and makes all exis-tence, experience, worlds... living realities possible.There is a clear global consensus on this, and if wepause to scan the spectrum of great teachers andteachings across the planet – Lao Tzu, Buddha,Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Socrates, Plato... to mention afew – it is already apparent that the heart of theirteaching flows from a profound recognition of sucha Primal First all-encompassing forcefield.Although the Primal Reality is named differentlyin the relatively localized grammars and textualtraditions – Tao, Aum, Brahman, Sunyata, Yah-weh, Christ, Allah, Logos... – it is immediatelyapparent that they all purport to name a PrimalSource that must be boundless, Infinite, and all-encompassing. And although I will not, cannot,develop this foundational point in this briefsummary reflection, it is all-important to rec-ognize that the Logic and ontology of thisInfinite First immediately implies that It mustbe one and the Same - there cannot be morethan one Infinite First. however, although ourgreatest teachers have seen and known that thePrimal First Infinite Source must be one andthe same, there has not emerged a truly Globalor Universal Grammar and Techno-Logic thatformulates and brings out this global truth. norhas it been clear that this Primal Source of allworlds and cultures implies an Integral UnifiedField of Reality that is the foundation and sourceof all possible worldviews and renderings of realitythrough the ages, including, of course, world-views that have emerged in the diverse sciences.Furthermore, this missing and eclipsed Primal Logicis nothing less than the logic of integral reason that

pervades the human condition, although it has beendeformed, repressed and most often eclipsed by cer-tain egocentric patterns of minding which, we shallsee in a moment, have continued to dominate ourdiscourse through the ages in all areas of our cul-tural life, including our scientific enterprise. Per-haps a main focal point in this brief reflection onthe profound dimensional Shift that is now accel-erating is that the depth and nature of humanreason has been deformed by these egocentricpatterns. here we see that the global consensusof our great traditions recognize that we humanmake our worlds, our living realities, throughthe conduct of our thinking- how we use ourminds- the technology of minding.And perhaps one of the grandest insights ofthe ages is that egocentric patterns of mind,which deform our true Rational nature, hasdistorted the true Integral and holistic natureof Reason, and thus deformed our humanessence and all of our hermeneutical or inter-pretive activities. A focal theme here is that ourdiverse sciences, and scientific method, scientificknowing, has likewise been stunted and deformedby these egocentric patterns of ego-reason. ourreflections here are seeking to correct this veryserious mistake, and open the way to the true andauthentic ground of coherent rationality and theeclipsed integral and holistic worldview that isobjective reality its, the global and universal cosmo-logical field that constitutes the missing UnifiedField of the Primal Infinite Source.Thus, the deep ontology of this Global UnifiedField is the holistic Worldview that has been discernedin diverse more localized ways through the ages, andits irrepressible Presence is what is now being mani-fested in the unprecedented dimensional shift that isin the offing. In what follows we will briefly sketch this shift from ego-centric reason to the present maturation of the GlobalGrammar of holistic and Integral Rationality – the logicof the sciences – of advancing scientific method andhigher scientific epistemology and ethics. Let’s thenlook a little more closely albeit in a sketchy and sum-mary fashion at the essence of this profound dimen-sional shift into Global Reason, Integral Science and itsholistic Worldview.

T H E K E Y T O T H E D I M E N S I O N A L

S H I F T T O W A R D S G L O B A L R E A S O N

TH E T R AD I T I O N O F “ F I R S T PH I LO S O PH Y ” A S P R E C U R S O R

TO G LO B A L I N T E G R A L S C I E N C E

our global lens, which is the aperture of IntegralReason and the awakened global mind, and whichwe now elucidate, makes immediately evident across

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diverse alternative narratives of The First – this iscalled the traditions of “First Philosophy”– that theprimal logic, onto-logic, of this Infinite Source encodesa profound consensus of Global Wisdom, of GlobalTruths – valid and vindicated through the ages acrosswidely diverse philosophies, religions, cultural world-views and hermeneutical disciplines. The diverse classi-cal traditions of “First Philosophy” across the planetwhich we just alluded to, have all sought to name andarticulate the Infinite Primal Source that constituteglobal rational space.

WE A R E A S W E M I ND - T H E G LO B A L H E RM EN EU T I C A L A X I OM

The collective global wisdom of this perennial traditiondiscerns a fundamental global axiom – that we are aswe mind, that we humans, through our interpretiveactivity, co-create our worlds, our living realities. Wemay call this the “hermeneutical axiom” – meaningthat the highest human art is the art of world making,of shaping the ecology of mind wherein we render ourworldview and narrative our reality. This global truth– that to be human is to interpret, that our experienceis essentially constituted in our interpretive activity,may be distilled as one of the major findings in theevolution of philosophical thought. once this is recognized, that every aspect of ourhuman condition is conditioned by how we areusing our minds, that we have no access to “reality”apart from our subjective, interpretive practices inthe conduct of our mind – it is an easy step to dis-cern that our technology of minding is all impor-tant in what appears before us as our living reality.This is the supreme unifying factor is everyaspect of our cultural life, in every disciplinarylanguage or field of interpretation. To experi-ence is to interpret, and to interpret is to renderall that appears through the lens of our mind,through our mental ecology and through ourtechnology of minding.

TH E EM E RG EN T I N T E G R A L S C I E N C E : CON S E N S U S O F

G LO B A L W I S DOM

It is in this consensus and convergence of thediverse traditions of “First Philosophy” – therecognition that how we use our minds is allimportant in shaping our living realities – thatwe find the early seeds of Integral Global Sci-ence. Aristotle, for example, one clear founderof “First Philosophy” in the Greco-Europeantraditions of philosophy and science was quiteclear that there is a primal science, grounded inlogic/ontology – the science of Reason itself –that conditions every other discipline, everyaspect of human experience and cultural life. And now we see precisely why this primal science ofReason conditions every possible aspect of experience,

hence every discipline, every perspective: it is thisvery recognition that how we operate in rationalspace – the space of Logos – conditions and pre-sides in all our experience. And clearly for Aristotle(and of course for his teacher, Plato, whose teacheris Socrates) the primal science of Logos – the for-mal sciences of Logic and ontology – structuresthe space and dynamics of consciousness whereinhuman experience in all its dimensions becomespossible and accessible.But this foundational science of Logos, as devel-oped in the twin formal sciences of Logic/ontol-ogy, which was the heart and pulse of First Phi-losophy, somehow got lost along the way. Logicis the formal science of consciousness that artic-ulates the fundamental laws of thought, thedynamics of rational space; and ontology isthe formal science of Being that is another pri-mal face of rational space. Together onto-Logicprovides the expanded and dilated rational lensof the mind together with the dynamics ofminding that frames all aspects of our interpre-tive activities. And these twin faces of First Sci-ence unfold in and through our technology ofminding a logistic of mental processing that opensaccess to the deeper global dimension of language,consciousness, experience and our dialogic encounterwith Primal Reality. So let us pause a moment in thisdepth probe of the heart of the dimensional Shiftin Rationality to focus further on the “technology orlogistic of minding”.

TECHNOLOGY OF MINDING AS KEY TO THE DIMENSIONAL SHIFT

In our global narrative across diverse worlds and tra-ditions through the ages perhaps the most remarkableand startling finding in the collective global wisdom isthe contrast between egocentric patterns of mindingand living, on the one hand, and the more matureholistic, and dialogic patterns of integral minding thatcomes with awakened reason. The great wisdom tradi-tions that speak from the Primal Forcefield of awak-ened consciousness concur that when humans becomeensnared in what may be called “egocentric” patterns ofprocessing self and world certain chronic existential,rational and hermeneutical pathologies ensue. It has been recognized and reconfirmed through the agesthat egocentric methods of minding separate the thinkerfrom the object of thought, severs from the holistic pri-mal field of reality, and sets in motion a dialectic ofdeep dualities, divisions, separations, reductions, reifi-cation, fragmentation, alienation and a vast range ofexistential, personal and cultural pathologies. The ego-centric mind takes itself to be a self-existent beingwhich tends to be monocentric, that is, to processreality through its localized lens or perspective and

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thus breaks the deeper rational circuits of the inte-gral field of Reason and Reality. By contrast, this collective wisdom in one way oranother recognizes and teaches that we humans have achoice in our technology of minding, and we canchoose to move beyond the egocentric stage of mind-ing and living, advancing to a higher dimension ofrational and enlightened life through holistic and inte-gral dynamics of minding wherein the thinker and whatis through remain in deep interactive and dialogic mutu-ality. The leading insight of the global wisdom traditionis that the Primal Field of Reality is the space of IntegralReason, the Unified and Unifying Field of Logos where-in everything is dynamically interconnected, interrelated,mutually constituting and co-creatively evolving.The basic insight is that we have the rational capacityto conduct our consciousness in sync with this dynami-cally interrelational, eventful universe. It is this verycongruence and correspondence between our technol-ogy of minding with the dialogic and nondual dynam-ics of the Field of Reality that constitutes matured andawakened rational coherence and integrity. And theglobal wisdom tradition recognizes that the mainevent in our human cultural evolution and develop-ment is precisely this shift from the more adolescentegocentric and monocentric patterns of reason tothe more mature and healthful integral, hologisticand dialogic technology of minding and living.For example, the deep insights of the Buddhaexpressed in the Four noble (I would suggest Global)Truths focuses on precisely this contrast betweenegocentric living and the rational awakening tothe higher Integral Technology of minding reality.The essence of Buddhist thought is the elabora-tion of the first noble Truth that ego minding isexistential suffering, in the generic sense of a dis-integral, fractured and fragmented life that livesin artificial or constructed realities. The otherside of this essence is the transformation andrehabilitation of habits of mind into the medita-tive, non-dual, holistic patterns that brings thethinker into integral connectivity with the fun-damental relational field of Reality. This awaken-ing of natural reason is seen as the essence ofhuman liberation, freedom, encounter with trueReality, hence scientific knowing and moralbeing. It is when our hermeneutical practices ofself-making and world making flow with the fab-ric of interconnected Reality that we can knowtrue reality as it is.In this tradition it was nagarjuna (150-250 CE), thebrilliant Buddhist dialectician, who demonstrateddecisively that egocentric “reason” or “logic” thatpresumes independently (non relational) entitieshaving self-existence is fundamentally incoherent,

unsustainable and self-contradictory. The heart ofBuddhist rationality is this recognition that ego-centric minding is the source of dysfunctions andpathologies in all directions and cannot be thelogistic or technology of natural reason. neverthe-less, cultures and diverse disciplines continue toremain deeply fixated and lodged in such ego-centric patterns of minding.Similarly the heart of hindu First Philosophy asreflected through the ancient Vedic teachingsand performed in the deep dialogue of theBhagavadgita, one of the pillars of the coreVedantic teaching, makes the same fundamen-tal critique of egocentric minding, reason andlogic. The rationality of Vedantic First Philoso-phy, as developed from Sankara (7th century,Ad) through Aurobindo (20th century) likewisefocused on demonstrated that egocentric mind-ing is the primary cause of fragmentation, dis-coherence, incommensurable dualities, selfalienation... that ultimately produces existentialand rational pathologies on the personal andcultural levels of experience. here, too, it is clearthat egocentric “reason” is pre-critical and pre-rational and is incapable to bringing us into directencounter with objective reality and truth. Bycontrast this tradition teaches that the meditativeawakening of consciousness brings us to an integralyoga of the mind, to integral intelligence and reasonwhich is nondualistic and hologistic in nature.of course this fundamental critique of egocentric“rationality” is played out at various highpoints in theevolution of Greco-European traditions of First Philos-ophy as well. We see early beginning of this Logos tradi-tion in the narratives of Parmenides, heraclitus, Socratesand Plato. And the move to the frontier of the funda-mental Primal Field is clearly reached in the inquiries ofAristotle, and plays out brilliant in descartes’ “Meditationson First Philosophy”. I should mention that through theglobal lens we find a very different descartes than theone found by those interpreters who are lodged in ego-centric “reason” with its dualistic and fragmenting episte-mology, logic and ontology. In our reading, descartes was, indeed, awakening hismeditative intelligence in pressing to the foundationsof knowledge, science through profound first philoso-phy. he was clearly breaking the egocentric barrier andcrossing into the deeper Integral and non-dual ratio-nal space of awakened meditative intelligence. In fact,descartes, if interpreted in the appropriate logistic ofIntegral Reason would have (could have) been a cru-cial turning point in the journey into the deeperfoundation of objective science and rationality. Thiswas the essence of his experiment. And in fact, hisdimensional shift continued to haunt the European


tradition through the explorations into the founda-tion of objective science in the radical writings ofhusserl and further developed by his eminent disci-ple heidegger, whose mature philosophy arrived atthis inevitable dimensional shift to meditative ratio-nal intelligence. Instead, descartes profound dimensional shift in reachingthe “I am” has been grotesquely distorted by predomi-nant egocentric readings of his meditations on first phi-losophy. And, unfortunately, descartes did not haveclarity on the need for the more advanced rational tech-nology of mind to express his vital insights and left him-self open to egocentric hermeneutical abuse by fallingback into the egocentric rational logistic in expressinghis findings. So the fate of descartes is emblematic andsymptomatic of the continued deformation and distor-tion of Integral Reason and genuine access to the funda-mental Field of Reality that is the foundation of all cul-ture and all disciplines. his primary objective was pre-cisely to uncover the deeper foundations of knowledge,reason, ethics, the sciences, and the encounter withobjective reality. his lifework stands as a confirmationof our main point- while his meditative journey intofirst philosophy took him into the primal UnifiedField, his reliance on the older egocentric logistic ofminding worked against this dimensional shift, mak-ing all the more poignant the absence of the univer-sal calculus or grammar of reason that he sought.And, of course, we can go on in narrating otherprime examples of earlier forms of the dimensionalshift- the founding of the Judaic Faith (another ver-sion of first philosophy) in the struggles of Abra-ham and Moses, and epitomized in the life andteaching of Jesus. From the perspective of theglobal lens it is quite clear that the life of Jesusbears witness to the urgency of the dimensionalshift to the Unified Field of Logos embodied inthe rite of passage of the “new covenant”. It maybe said here that Jesus, as Christ, the Logosmade Flesh, embodied the dimensional shift toIntegral Intelligence that finds communion andawakened moral-rational life in the technologyof the Logosphere.here, again, from the ontological point of view,the teaching of Jesus may be summed up asrevealing that egocentric life, the life of alien-ation from Logos, is the primal cause and sourceof existential disorders and hermeneutical mal-practice, while the crossing of the new covenantinto awakened Integral Consciousness – thelight of Reason – is the telos of human evolution.That Jesus’ teaching of First Philosophy and thetechnology of reconciliation with Logos weremis-appropriated in the lower egocentric technol-ogy of mind is just another tragic example ofrational and hermeneutical malpractice having direconsequences. And so on.

Suffice it to say in this brief sketch that a com-pelling story may be told through the global lensto document the irrepressible dimensional shift tothe fundamental field of Integral Reason on a glob-al scale. At the same time in this global perspectiveit is also evident that humanity still lacked a trulyglobal narrative, a global grammar and technologyof mind, to bring out the mature and genericform of this foundational transformation intothe space of Global Reason. In my research andpublications over the past three decades I havepresented the results of my quest for this miss-ing global grammar and logistic of awakenedrationality.

I N A U G U R A T I O N O F T H E G L O B A L G R A M M A R O F

LOGO S

I have here introduced some simple notation tomark the all-important distinction and relationbetween the egocentric technology or mindingand the holistic (dialogic, integral) technology ofGlobal Reason that embodies the dimensionalshift we are speaking of. In this context I havesuggested that the Greek primal word “Logos” beused as a generic “marker”, “place holder” or “vari-able” for the Primal Infinite Word that has beennamed and narrated in boundlessly diverse waysthrough the ages in diverse cultures, disciplines andtextual traditions. So Logos is a holonym (a newword, not just a “synonym”) for such Primal namesas Tao, Aum, Brahman, Logos, Christ, Yahweh, Allah,Nature, Spirit, Energy, Cosmos, etc.

T H E F U N D A M E N T A L ( ( N O T A T I O N ) ) F O R T H E

L O G O S P H E R E

Perhaps most important along with this stipulation ofa Global Primal name Logos for all possible worlds isthe notation which marks the two fundamental dimen-sions of consciousness, language, reality, experience, cul-ture and hermeneutical practice: I have found it useful,even essential to mark any item in the dimension ofLogos with ((...)) “double bracket” markers to makeexplicit the crossing into the logistic of Integral GlobalReason, and by contrast, to explicitly mark any word,utterance, phenomenon, experience, item situated inthe egocentric technology of mind: /.../ “single bracket”markers.So any word or utterance, “X”, spoken in the global lens, inthe Rational space of the ((Logosphere)), is marked withthe ((X)) ... as if ((...)) were “quotes” while any word, utter-ance “X” spoken in the egocentric lens, in the space of /ego-centric reason/ or the /Egosphere/ is marked with /X/ .

And the all-important dimensional shift we have beenfocusing on here may be ((symbolically)) rendered asthe shift from /ego reason/ to ((global reason)).


here it may be said that the evolution of cultureand consciousness through the ages may be symbol-ically summed up as the shift from /reason/ to((Reason)), from /logic/ to ((Logic)) from the /egos-phere/ to the ((Logosphere)), and for the purposes ofthis volume, from /science/ to ((Science)).

TH E E VO LU T I ON A RY D IM EN S I ON A L S H I F T F ROM / CU LT U R E /

TO ( ( C U LT U R E ) )

having introduced this fundamental ((notation)) weare in a position in this brief sketch to bring theseopening remarks to conclusion. We will not develophere the dialectical details of the dysfunction andpathology inherent in /egocentric reason/. We have sug-gested that egocentric /reason/ tends to be /monocen-tric/, always privileging its own subjective and localized“logos” its /worldview/ or /cultural lens/. In this /ratio-nal space/ the /thinker/ is existentially and logisticallyseparated from the /content of thought/:

/thinking subject/ vs /object of thought//egocentric “I”/ vs /content of experience//knower/ vs /known/

In this structurally and logistically dualistic severanceour /subjective field of consciousness/ is alienatedfrom the /object of consciousness/It is this chronic and pernicious divide, togetherwith the fragmenting logistic of egocentric logicthat generates the constitutive dualism, fragmenta-tion, objectification and /logocentrism/ that gener-ates not only the rational pathologies but thehuman and cultural existential pathologies aswell. In a real sense we may sum up this broken/rational space/ by saying that this dimension ofdiscourse in pre((rational)) pre((critical)) andpre((scientific)). For /egocentric reason/, inprivileging its own prejudiced, localized world-view or cultural lens is not able to cope withthe global turn in rationality that brings multi-ple alternative worlds and perspectives togetherin ((one rational consciousness)). Put different-ly, we may say that /egocentric reason/, being/monocentric/ (even when it alleges to sub-scribe to a /pluralism of worldviews/) has notmatured ((rationally)) to the level in which it isable to authentically entertain multiple diverseworldviews and perspectives in one deep-dia-logic consciousness. Ant it is in precisely this((global turn in rationality)) that our ((historicdimensional shift)) to the ((rationality of the glob-al mind)) may be seen.Again, /egocentric reason/ with its /monocentrictechnology of mind/ has not yet truly advanced to((critical thinking)) which is able to engage in legit-imate rational transformations between diverse

worldviews- the essence of the global turn in ((inte-gral consciousness)). For this reason, /egocentricminding/ is /reductive/, /fundamentalist/, /objecti-fying/ and privileges its own localized /conceptualframework/. By contrast, the transformation into((global rationality)) is essentially ((inter-perspec-tival)) in its rational capacity and enters the((rational common ground of the Logosphere))-the foundation of diverse ((worldviews)) and((perspectives)). It is in this foundational shift inthe ((technology of minding)) in awakening the((global lens)) that we arrive at the ((hologisticUnified Field of the Logosphere).In this light, the trouble with /egocentric sci-ence/ is not its /materialistic worldview/ or it’smisguided subscription to the dogmas of /egoempiricism/. Rather, and more fundamentally,it is the /egocentric technology of mind - /ego-centric reason/ itself, that /reduces/ and /objecti-fies/ itself, its conceptual structures, its world, itshermeneutical practice- and yields a dis((enchant-ed)) universe, irrespective of which “official”/worldview/, /cosmology/or /philosophy/ it alleges.And it should be evident that even those approacheswhich claim to be /holistic/ and /integral/ yet arelodged in the dis((integral)) logistic of /ego mind-ing/ have no true ((access)) to the ((hologisticUnified Field)). It takes the ((holistic technology ofminding)) to access and process the ((holistic Uni-fied Field of nature)).Thus, when the open mind of ((critical reason))awaken in the ((global lens)) we cross into a high-powered ((hermeneutical)) and ((epistemic)) spacewherein the ((thinker)) and ((what is thought)) areimmediately mutually constituted in a deep-dialogicand interrelational dynamic:When our “rational consciousness” advances from thedualistic and divisive space of /egocentric reason/ withits chasm between

/thinking subject/ vs /object of thought/

to the ((global rational and epistemic space)):

((thinker<====>what is thought))

we find the dimension of the ((Logosphere)) in whichthe ((thinker)) co-arises with the ((object of thought))or ((content of experience)), in a mutually constitutingand co-creative interactivity. It is in this ((epistemicdeep dialogic intimacy)) that the ((Knower)) encoun-ters the ((Known)) in all its mutuality and immediacy.

C O N C L U D I N G T H E M E : D I M E N S I O N A L S H I F T I N T O T H E

( ( E N CH AN T ED UN I V E R S E ) )

We may conclude this preliminary and sketch reflec-tion by returning to our opening theme – openinga ((space)) and setting a ((context)) in which best


to process, interpret and situate the diverse voicesof our evolutionary elders through the ages. For wehave been suggesting that the ((dimensional Shift))in ((Global Reason)) opens the deeper ((IntegralLens)) of global consciousness across and betweenworldviews which gives us ((access)) to the ((Logos-phere)). We have suggested that the collective ((globalwisdom)) of the ages have been witnessing, narrating,presenting the features of the ((Logosphere)) the fun-damental ((field)) of ((objective Reality)). We have been suggesting that the lower pre((rational))dimensions of /egocentric reason/ which have continuedto dominate our cultures, our hermeneutical life, our sci-entific practices, our academic disciplines do not have the((logistical access)) to the ((Unified Field of objectiveReality: the Logosphere)). And in this light of ((global rea-son)) it becomes more evident precisely how and why this((Logosphere)) is profoundly sacred and enchanted, why((consciousness)) pervades ((nature)), why the ((mind-body)) continuum is primal, why ((spacetime)) continu-um is a given, why the ((causal continuum)) holds allthings in ((dynamic interconnectivity)) hence manifest-ing the ((nonlocal)) or ((butterfly effect)), and so on.And here it is remarkable that the collective wisdom ofthe ages, expressed in – global first philosophy – dis-closes through the ((global lens)) a Primal ((Logos-phere)) of ((objective Reality)), beyond /objectifica-tion/ that fits the ((narrative)) of the ((visions andvoices) of a growing number of frontier thinkers inthis fertile interface between science, religion andglobal spirituality. The ((portrait)) of the ((EnchantedUniverse)) presented here is not just the “poeticvision”, “mystical insight” or “intuitive understand-ing” of various dreamy voices, but, when processedthrough the ((technology of natural reason)) pointsthe direction for the next evolutionary steps in((Global Integral Science)) grounded in the ((holisticLogic of the Logosphere)). 8

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Ervin Laszlo is considered theforemost exponent of systemphilosophy and general evolu-tion theory, and is also notedfor his work in futures andmanagement fields. FormerlyProfessor of Philosophy, Sys-

tem Science, and Future Stud-ies at universities in US, Europe

and Far East, Laszlo is the authoror co-author of 36 books, and editor of

another thirty volumes.Currently, Ervin Laszlo is Founder and President of the Club ofBudapest, Founder and Director of the General EvolutionResearch Group, advisor to the UNESCO Director General, ScienceDirector of the International Peace University of Berlin,Administrator of the International University of Paris, Fellowof the World Academy of Arts and Science, Member of theInternational Academy of Philosophy of Science, Senator ofthe International Medici Academy, Editor of the quarterlyWorld Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, andSeries Editor of General Evolution Studies, and otherbooks series in Germany and China.

hat is the experiential basis of ourknowledge of the world? What is thereal scope of human perception?Everyday experience is dominated by

the sights, sounds, smells, flavours, and texturesof the world around us: information conveyed byour senses. Until recently most scientists main-tained it is the only information we receive fromthe world. The motto of classical empiricism was“everything in the mind was first in the eye.”This reduced human experience to a combina-tion of sensory data. new developments in cut-ting-edge neuroscience show that the classicalconcept is obsolete. Sensory information is known to be processedby neurons connected by synapses in a neuroax-onal network. This network was considered thesole basis of our perception of the world. Itturns out, however, that the neuroaxonal net-work is not the only mechanism that can processinformation reaching us from the world. There isa vast hierarchy of networks below the level of theneuroaxonal network, extending all the way to

quantum dimensions, and these can likewiseprocess information, albeit in a different mode.Subneuronal networks in the brain includeensembles of cytoskeletal proteins organizedinto microtubules. Microtubular networks areconnected to each other structurally by pro-tein-links and functionally by gap junctions.operating in the nanometer range, the num-ber of elements in these subneuronal networkssubstantially exceeds the number of elements inthe neuroaxonal network: there are approxi-mately 1018 microtubules in the brain, comparedwith “merely” 1011 neurons.neurophysiologist Stuart hameroff and physicistRoger Penrose suggested that the networks ofmicrotubules process information on the quantumlevel. They realized, however, that microtubulesmay be still too coarse-grained for this function: itis more likely that it is the periodic lattice within thenetwork of microtubules that is responsible forquantum-level information processing. This “micro-trabecular lattice,” a part of the cytoskeletal lipopro-tein membrane, is a web of microfilaments seven tonine nanometer in diameter. Researchers Ede Frecskaand Eduardo Luna maintain that this is the structurethat responds to quantum-level signals from the envi-ronment.Whatever the networks that decode quantum-level sig-nals, there appear to be two sets of structures in thebrain processing information on the world: the macro-level neuroaxonal networks, and the subneuronal quan-tum-level networks. If so, there are two modes of experi-encing the world and not just one: the mode Luna andFrecska call “perceptual-cognitive-symbolic,” and themode they call “direct-intuitive-nonlocal”. Sense-con-veyed information gives rise to the sights, sounds, tex-tures, and odours that dominate our everyday conscious-ness, whereas quantum-resonance based direct-intuitive-nonlocal perception gives us more subtle effects thatoften do not reach our conscious awareness. Perception is a highly selective process. The brain is acollection of nerve cells that function as multi-layeredfrequency receptors, and these are selective as regardsthe signals to which they respond. due to condition-ing from early in life, each receptor becomes wiredto receive a particular frequency. The act of “tuning

TWO WAY S O F KNOW ING THE WORLD :D I S C O V E R I N G T H E R E A L I T Y O F N O N - S E N S O R Y P E R C E P T I O N *

E R V I N L A S Z L O

W


in” to the information coming to us from the worldmeans picking-out the frequency patterns that arefamiliar from an ocean of patterns and frequencies thatis unfamiliar – and thus unrecognized and ignored.As the receptors tune-in to a particular set of frequen-cies, a pattern-recognition response is generated: theinformation-processing networks of the brain inter-pret the given patternin accordance with theinterpretation establishedfor it. By tuning intothe same pattern timeand time again, a partic-ular interpretation is rein-forced. our sensory per-ception of the world iscreated moment bymoment as our brainscans the available fre-quency bands and pro-duces the interpreta-tions associated withthe familiar patterns. Selectivity based onrepeated patterns is typ-ical for all aspects ofour experience: we havedifficulty in recogniz-ing, even perceiving,unfamiliar patterns.This kind of selectivityoperates also in regardto the informationprocessed by subneu-ronal networks in ourbrain. Selectivity hereconcerns the transfer ofsignals from the quan-tum-level receiving net-works to the cognitivenetworks responsiblefor waking conscious-ness. Signals received through the latter are unfa-miliar and disturbing. They are mostly blockedfrom waking consciousness. But they can sur-face in non-ordinary states of consciousness.Quantum-resonance based information showsup in dreams, white-dreams, and day-dreams, inmusings and meditations, and in the hypnagogicstates that mark the transition between sleep andwakefulness. It also surfaces in so-called alteredstates of consciousness. Altered states are generat-ed inter alia in deep meditation and prayer, incalm introspection, communion with nature, aswell as in spiritual exaltation and profound aesthetic

enjoyment. They are also generated by unusualexperiences, often of a life-transforming nature. Weshould consider the intuitions that surface in theseexperiences not our sixth, but our first sense, for itwas available in nature long before humans evolvedthe capacity to use language and process infor-mation in the linear mode of the left cerebral

hemisphere. Entering altered states ofconsciousness, whetherthrough unusual experi-ences or through prayer,meditation, aestheticexperiences or the con-templation of nature,mitigate the dominanceof the left hemispherein our perception of theworld: they harmonizeour two hemispheres.Controlled, repeatableexperiments with elec-troencephalograph (EEG)waves show that inaltered states the left andthe right hemispheresbecome synchronized:the patterns that appearin one are matched bythe patterns in the other.This contrasts withordinary states of con-sciousness, where thetwo hemispheres func-tion quasi indepen-dently of each other.Moreover when peopleenter deep meditativestates together, not onlytheir own left and righthemispheres becomecoherent: coherence

extends to the entire group. In experiments by Italianbrain researcher nitamo Montecucco, eleven of a groupof twelve meditators achieved a level of cross-hemi-spheric as well as transpersonal synchronization thatexceeded 90 percent. Yet the meditators sat with closedeyes, in silence, and did not see, hear, or otherwiseperceive each other.The coherence effect obtains even when people in astate of meditation are at a distance from each other.With increasing distance the level of EEG-wave syn-chronization falls off, but it remains considerablyabove random probability.

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Experiences in deeply altered states have been reportedby scores of psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Theyinclude spontaneous contact with persons, thingsand events the individual could not have experiencein the classical sensory mode. Psychiatrists practicingregression therapy find that in these states manypatients can access people and events from what appearsto be a previous life. The experiences that surface inaltered states are distinctly nonlocal. Psi-phenomenaoccur more frequently in altered than in normal statesof consciousness; in such states also telepathic phenom-ena tends to surface.Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof found that in altered statespeople experience a loosening and melting of the bound-aries of their individual ego and a sense of merging withother people and other forms of life. In deeply alteredstates patients report an expansion of consciousness toan extent that seems to encompass all life on the planet.The classical concept of perception needs to be revised.We are not limited to seeing the world through our fivesenses. We can transcend the range of sensory experi-ences by becoming conscious of in-formation receivedthrough the quantum-sensitivity of our brain’s subneu-ronal arrays. In that mode our experience embracesnonlocal elements. Whether these elements remainconfined to the subconscious domains of our mind isup to us. In ordinary states these experiences seemstrange and disturbing; they do not reach our wak-ing awareness. But when we realize that they arebased on bona fide processes in our brain and arenot mere imagination we will pay more attentionto them. And if we promote this process of “con-scientization” by entering an altered state, we canlift our insights and intuitions to the level of oureveryday experience. The world we experiencebecomes enriched with feelings and sensationsthat lend meaning to life, and situate us in thecontext of the cosmos. We not only know, butcome to feel that we are an intrinsic part of theweb of life, an intrinsic part of an organicallywhole universe. 8

———* This article is based on the author’s forthcomingbook New Science for a New World: The Rise of theAkasha Paradigm, 2013.

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R O B E R T A . M A S T E R S | T H E A N A T O M Y O F I N T U I T I O N | 2

Dr Roger Nelson is the founderand director of the Global Con-sciousness Project (GCP) that hecreated in 1997. He was Pro-fessor of Psychology at JohnsonState College in Vermontbefore joining the Princeton

Engineering Anomalies Research(PEAR) team at Princeton University

in 1980. He coordinated PEAR’sresearch for 22 years, until his retirement

in 2002. He continues to manage and direct the GCP. Web: noosphere.princeton.edu, teilhard.global-mind.org,and gcp.grama.co; email: [email protected].

Now, if the cooperation of some thousands of millions of cellsin our brain can produce our consciousness, a true singularity,the idea becomes vastly more plausible that the cooperation ofhumanity, or some sections of it, may determine what Comte

calls a Great Being.J.B.S. hALdAnE

I N T R O D U C T I O N

ince August 1998, an international team ofresearchers has been working with a globallydistributed network of instruments respon-sive to the influence of intentions andemotions. The resulting evidence is sug-

gestive of a true global consciousness, an emer-gent collaborative intelligence in which we par-ticipate without awareness. This is not a newidea, but the experiment stretches current sci-entific models and we need to build somebridges to accommodate the data.Rare individuals hold special places in theminds of huge numbers of people around theworld. When they speak we pay attention, andwhen they suffer tragic deaths we share griefand compassion. If, like John F. Kennedy andItzhak Rabin, their deaths are doubly tragic andfearsome because they are victims of assassination,the instantaneous shock and consequent syn-chronous attention of millions is very powerful.Princess diana’s death was also tragic, though anaccident, and we were transfixed. She was a muchadmired figure and the sudden shock of her deathwas magnified by her stature as a humanitarian in

addition to her captivating presence as a royal,an inspiring woman, and a sometimes belea-guered public figure. Estimates of more than abillion people around the world were rapt insynchronous attention during her funeral.occasions like these have in common that hugenumbers of people come together in a sharedfocus and in powerful shared emotions. Thequestion arises whether this might matter otherthan in our mind’s eye – whether it could impactthe physical world in some way. Given a body ofscientific research such as that in Princeton Uni-versity’s PEAR lab (Jahn, et al., 1997) showing con-sciousness can affect the behaviour of physicalrandom systems, it is implicit that mass conscious-ness and emotion would also have a presence inthe world. The technology used in the lab shouldin principle be usable in the field looking at naturalmanifestations of consciousness interacting withphysical systems.Early in the 1990’s, we had built a system that regis-tered continuous sequences of random number data,day after day, 24/7. Thus, in 1995 when Prime MinisterRabin was murdered by a crazed young radical, wewere able to look at data collected during the time ofthe event. Though the tragedy took place half a worldaway from Princeton geographically, the psychologicaldistance was very small – this was clearly a tragedy withworld shaping consequences. I happened to be in Ger-many when the news was broadcast, but I made notesto enable a formal analysis. The results showed that thedata sequence generated in Princeton had a strong andpersistent deviation lasting half an hour, peaking just atthe time of the assassination.The next steps toward the eventual Global ConsciousnessProject (GCP) were actual prototypes. I asked colleaguesengaged in consciousness research using RnGs to takedata during a web-organized meditation called Gaia-mind in early 1997 (nelson, 1997), and a few monthslater during Princess diana’s funeral (nelson, Boesch,Boller, et al., 1998). We collected data streams from sev-eral locations in the US, Europe, and the UK. Themerged results were statistically significant, and sup-ported our hypothesis that the “network” of a dozenRnGs would show deviations during the events.

G LOB A L CON S C I OU SN E S S .E V I D E N C E F O R A N E M E R G E N T N O O S P H E R E

R O G E R D . N E L S O N

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These beginning efforts to study mass consciousnessfollowed decades of laboratory experiments, and yearsof field work with RnGs collecting data in group situ-ations. It seemed worthwhile to ask whether we mightbe able to detect faint indications of the “noosphere”envisioned by Teilhard de Chardin as the next stage ofour evolution (Teilhard, 1959). It is a provocative ques-tion, but one that is in principle amenable to scientificinquiry. Technological advances coupled with increasinglysophisticated experiments on human capacities promiseto yield at least tentative answers.

H O W W O U L D I T W O R K ?

Science has only recently engaged such mysteries, devel-oping instruments and measures that give us a roughpicture of mind/matter interactions. It turns out thatrandomness is our ally, for it seems to provide a field inwhich intention, wishes, and prayer can play. Random-ness in a system means that the process is not deter-mined, so its nature as it passes through time can’t bepredicted. If we build a good RnG, it follows the lawsof chance, and each sequential bit is independent andunpredictable. Yet, certain qualities or states of con-sciousness appear to change the behaviour of such adevice subtly but detectably. A true random source islabile, meaning its future is not determined, but abiasing influence can add information and increase itspredictability. While we don’t understand the com-munication mechanism, consciousness is evidently arich source of information potentially available tothe labile RnG sequence. Mind/machine interac-tion studies indicate that random systems arepreparations that can absorb informational struc-ture or bias to become detectors for effects ofconsciousness, not only in the lab but in thebroader world.We are far from having devised a mind meter,of course. The information linkage from mindto machine is faint and not very reliable. Thisis probably because we don’t know enough yetto create really good experiments. Though weunderstand the principles of our random devices,mind is far more complex and adds many vari-ables to the equation. We try to ask simplequestions in research with our RnG technology,but we have learned that when dealing withhuman consciousness there are endless degreesof reflection and refraction in the answers. ourbest tools are therefore those which summarizeand integrate information over many repetitionsof each question. We ask whether apparent depar-tures from random behaviour during major eventsare just chance fluctuations, or if the deviations arecorrelated with the questions in which we are

interested – if they correspond to mass conscious-ness. If replicated observations indicate a realdeparture from expectation and not just chancevariation, we take it as evidence that conscious-ness has touched the system and left a mark inthe statistics.

T H E P R O J E C T

Laboratory RnG experiments have been con-ducted over several decades by dozens ofresearchers, and they provide evidence for aninteraction of mind and matter (Jahn et al.,1987; 1997; Radin and nelson, 1989; 2003). Asmaller corpus of field experiments show thatgroup consciousness also can affect the behav-iour of RnGs. (nelson, et al., 1996; 1998; Bier-man, 1996; Radin, et al., 1996; nelson andRadin, 2003). But the next step is a big one.how do we make the leap from local experi-ments in laboratories and small groups to aworld-spanning network testing for signs of aglobal consciousness? This requires an unam-biguous non-locality that extends the lab andfield paradigms into little-tested realms. howcould there be any effect of a world-wide newYear’s celebration, or the beginning of a war, or abillion people watching a funeral ceremony, onRnG devices placed in far corners of the world?Attempting an answer to that question may be pre-mature, but it lays out the basics of the Global Con-sciousness Project, which is an international researchcollaboration of more than 100 people around theworld. We use the same RnG technology developed tostudy effects of conscious intention in laboratoryresearch and exploited also to look for effects of groupconsciousness. The GCP application is designed to regis-ter similar effects of consciousness on a global scale. Werecord continuous parallel data sequences from calibrat-ed physical random sources located in a wide geograph-ic distribution. our focus is on correlations of data devi-ations with special states of an operationally defined“global consciousness”. The idea is that when greatevents engage the attention and emotions of large num-bers of humans, there will be an interaction of our com-munal consciousness and the physical world resulting indetectable anomalies in the data. According to standardphysical theory, there should be no structure at all inthese random data. Yet, we find that many globalevents are associated with non-random deviations. We maintain a network of RnGs located around theworld in 65 host sites, from Alaska to new Zealand. Fig-ure 1 shows the network, which is a live Google map onthe GCP website, providing detailed information aboutthe host sites including location, equipment, history,

R O G E R D . N E L S O N | G L O B A L C O N S C I O U S N E S S | 4 2

and who is responsible for each of the nodes. Thesedevices send data for archiving and later analysis toa dedicated server in Princeton, new Jersey.

We collect data at the rate of one trial (a sum of 200random bits) per second at each node, day andnight, month after month, generating a history ofparallel synchronized readings from all over the globe.We thus have random data corresponding to everymoment, and naturally covering every momentousoccurrence on the world stage from August 1998 tothe present time. These data are the same kind asused in the laboratory and field experimentsshowing what appear to be non-local correlationswith human intentions and emotions. our centralarchive is thus a continuous history of nominallyrandom data that might show detectable structurewhen a major event stimulates an unusual coher-ence of thought and emotion focused anywherein the world.

The experimental protocol is simple: We registeran a priori hypothesis specifying the beginningand end of each event and the statistical proce-dure that will be applied to test for a departurefrom random behaviour in the correspondingdata. This is a classic and rigorous replication par-adigm. The results include both hits and misses,and the average effects are small, but they add upto a statistically reliable confirmation of the pre-dicted correlation.

our analyses establish that the non-random behav-iour cannot be attributed to mundane sources suchas electrical grid stresses, mobile phone activity, or

electromagnetic fields. The evidence suggests insteadthat the anomalous structure we see is related to peri-ods of coherent focus of human attention generated byextraordinary events. For detailed information, see theGCP website at http://noosphere.princeton.edu.

E X A M P L E S O F S T R U C T U R E

T E R R O R

Many cases of violent disruptions of the social fabrichave been assessed, and most, though not all of themshow the predicted effects. The clearest of these caseswas the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, where wesee extraordinary departures of the data from expecta-tion. The formal test specified a period of a little morethan four hours, and it did yield a significant result (Z =1.873 and p = 0.031). however, this limited view did notreflect the full impact of the 9/11 attacks and the world-wide reactions to them. In post hoc analyses, we took abroader perspective in order to learn as much as possi-ble about the effects a powerful event might have onthe network. Simply put, we found that the deviationsin a number of measures matched the intensity of thisevent which, without question, affected our globalconsciousness profoundly (nelson, 2002; nelson,Radin, Shoup, & Bancel, 2002; Radin, 2002). The measure used in most formal tests is called net-work variance, which is calculated for each second


FIG. 1 ~ GCP sites are located around the world, from Alaska to Fiji, on nearly all continents and in most time zones.More than 100 have contributed, and there are approximately 65 operational nodes in 2012.

as the squared Stouffer (average) Z across the RnGs. Itwas significantly large relative to expectation duringthe pre-specified formal event, but the post hoc analysisshowed the deviation continuing for more than two daysfollowing the attacks. The persistence and strength ofthis response is extraordinary, unmatched in the datacollected up to that time.Another measure looks at the variance among thedevices and reflects strong positive or negative depar-tures from expectation. Figure 2 displays this statisticover three days, in a format that emphasizes the extremedeviations on September 11 and makes clear that thisterrible day was different – unmatched elsewhere in thedata. We don’t have a definitive explanation for it, butthe timing also suggests a precursor response, with bigchanges in the statistics beginning some hours beforethe first plane hit.

R E L I G I O N A N D R I T U A L

The intuition that there is a deep sharing ofemotion during big events on the world stageleads to asking what states of consciousnessmight have manifestations in our data andunder what range of circumstances. Every fewyears there is a huge pilgrimage called the KumbhMela in northern India. Millions of people gath-er for ritual bathing in the Ganges. We havebeen able to take data for two of these events,and in both cases the results show strong devia-tions in the predicted direction. Similarly, we havelooked several times at the pilgrimage (hadj) toMecca, and though the results are variable, they

show an overall positive trend matching our pre-diction. An event that attracted a great deal of media atten-tion and was followed with positive regard bypeople everywhere was the week-long pilgrimagein March 2000 of Pope John to the Middle East,to sites that are regarded as the sacred locus oforigin for three of the world’s major religions.The data showed a persistent trend over the six-day period that was statistically significant. Wesadly note that the hope and good feeling sur-rounding the pilgrimage did not progress to aresolution of differences in the subsequentyears. But a liberal and optimistic interpreta-tion of the GCP network response is that ourhopes can have a subtle impact in the world.

C O M P A S S I O N A T E D E M O N S T R A T I O N

In early 2003, concern about a possible war in Iraq wasat the forefront of world news, and a focal issue for somany in the US and around the world that it seemedlikely to provide opportunities to test for the presenceof our hypothetical global consciousness. There were anumber of major demonstrations in the US and inother countries. on the 15th of February, enormousnumbers (literally millions) of people in the greatcities of the world came together in demonstrationsaimed to show worldwide support for peaceful reso-lution of the conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere in theMiddle East. The GCP network seemed to respond.The data shown in the following figure are clearly


FIG. 2 ~ September 11, 2001. Squared device variance across RnGs. A long period of high variancebegins early in the morning, then reverses around 11:00 and stays low for several hours.

The preceding and following days show normal fluctuation.

random for the first few hours of the GMT day, butaround 11:00, when people were assembling formajor demonstrations in Berlin, Rome, new York,and London, the composite measure departed fromexpectation with a steep trend that continued for therest of the day.

of course the deviation could be just a chancevariation, but the timing and the strength of thetrend are noteworthy. In the context of similaroutcomes for other major events with globalsocial impact, for example, the International dayof Peace celebrated each year since 1982, it seemsjustifiable to interpret the correlation at leasttentatively as an effect of many millions of peo-ple expressly sharing their concern and com-passion. on the other hand, although theremay be evidence of a subtle effect on the sensi-tive RnG network, the forces of politics andeconomics driving world events remain far morepowerful. nevertheless, it is fair to say that theseresults support the intuition people have hadfrom the beginning of culture that prayer andintention matter, that they can affect what hap-pens in the world.

C E L E B R A T I O N S

Perhaps the most obvious global event for whichwidespread engagement can be predicted aheadof time is the celebration at new Years, in whichthere always is great interest and participation prac-tically everywhere in the world, albeit with special

intensity in the west. one of the first items enteredin the GCP hypothesis Registry was a predictionof non-random patterns in the data to be collect-ed during the midnight transition from 1998 to1999. new Year celebrations are a time of sharedthought and feeling. People feel relaxed and easy

in groups whose focus is on friendship and on anoptimistic vision of the future. We proposed to lookfor changes around midnight in each time zone usingepoch averaging across all the time zones to computestatistics. We predict each year that the variance among theRnGs will decrease as midnight approaches and aftermidnight will return to normal. While there are someyears with unimpressive results, the composite outcomeis persuasive. Figure 4 shows the average over 10 yearsand all time zones, and the data clearly aren’t random;instead, they show a pattern conforming to our predic-tion. There is a decrease in variance centered on mid-night that is visually compelling and statistically signifi-cant. Permutation analysis yields an estimated p = 0.027that chance fluctuation accounts for the depth andproximity to midnight of the variance drop. The factthat this structure is linked with a physically abstractbut socially immanent transition through a moment intime is worth noting. I think this distinction makes itespecially clear that the effects in GCP data are associ-ated with consciousness on a global scale, as it focusesand gathers into a coherent form. What we are doingon new Years Eve may not be “important” but wecertainly are doing it together.


FIG. 3 ~ Gathering great numbers to show opposition to the Iraq war, and support for peacefulsolutions to political crises in the Middle East. A strong trend in the cumulative deviation

begins at midday, corresponding to the timing of the major demonstrations.

T H E B O T T O M L I N E

over the history of the GCP, we have identified two orthree major events every month, suited for testing thenotion that we may be able to detect the presence of ashared field of consciousness via effects in our data.Some results are as striking as the pictures of newYear celebrations or 9/11, while many show no sug-gestion of departures from expectation. during thisperiod, we have made over 400 formal predictionsfrom which it is possible to generate a bottom lineassessment of the project’s basic hypothesis.

The grand, composite result, shown graphicallyin FIGURE 5, represents the repeated confirmationof our general hypothesis in rigorous replica-tions. This clearly isn’t just a chance fluctuation.The graph shows the cumulative departure fromchance in 401 tests of the hypothesis that majorglobal events will correlate with structure in datathat should be truly random. It summarizes morethan 14 years of experience with the GCP networkresponding slightly but with statistical reliabilityduring events of importance to people around theworld. The odds that such a large accumulated departure


FIG. 4 ~ Changes in RnG device variance during the new Year transition. The midnight epochsin 37 time zones are signal averaged for each year and then across years.

The figure shows the composite of 10 new Years beginning in 1998.

FIG. 5 ~ Cumulative total deviation of results for 401 formal hypothesis tests comparedwith a distribution of 250 random simulations. The dotted smooth curves

show the 5% and 0.1% significance criteria.

from a random relationship would occur by chanceare less than one in a hundred billion. We might be able to ignore the data from a few cases,or argue that if we look long enough we must findan occasional remarkable pattern in random fields,but structure appears in the GCP data more often thanit should, and it does so in meaningful correlationwith global events. Though we have more work to do, itis clear that these correlations are material from whichwe can derive insights into the far-reaching capabilitiesof consciousness. FIGURE 5 also includes a cloud of random simulationsfrom the expected null distribution. This representswhat is expected for truly random data collected in thesame way as the formal events. The procedure repro-duces the sequence of Z-scores for 401 events drawnfrom the (0, 1) normal distribution, providing a back-ground against which the real data can be compared. Astill more rigorous simulation distribution can be cre-ated by resampling the actual data that are not used inthe formal events. This produces an essentially similardisplay and comparison background. In either case,the actual data definitely do not belong to the distrib-ution of random expectation.

A L A R G E R P E R S P E C T I V E

In recent years our analytical program has gonebeyond the basic proof of principle experiment. Thestatistical measure for most events corresponds tocorrelations in the RnG network. Specifically, thesquared composite Z-score across all networknodes is essentially equivalent to the average pair-wise correlation among the RnGs. Further analysisshows that in addition to this meanshift statistic,an independent correlation appears in a parallelchannel that assesses the variance among theRnGs. (Bancel & nelson, 2008; nelson & Bancel,2011). The next question to ask is whether theevent data contain further structure beyondthese correlation measures. For example, do thecorrelations depend on the location of RnGs,and does the correlation strength evolve in timeas an event unfolds? To consider spatial structure, we need a moretractable measure than distance from the event.Although we can localize an explosion or anearthquake relative to the network, the locus ofnew Years or Earth day is ambiguous. Beyondthis, for our purposes the “event” of interest isthe response of people all over the world. We do,on the other hand, have precise information onthe distance separating RnG pairs, and this pro-vides an indirect but powerful perspective on theeffect of distance. In spatially distributed complexsystems, correlations among interacting constituentstend to weaken as their separation grows. Thus we

predict that GCP effects will decrease as a function ofRnG pair separation, and test it with a linear regres-sion of correlation strength against the distancebetween RnGs. The prediction is that pairs ofRnGs which are closer to each other will con-tribute more to the average correlation – even ifthey are far from the location of the physicalevent. As an analogy, think of bobbing buoys inthe ocean: Those separated by small distanceswill bob together, but those separated by globaldistances less so because the swells stirred by theevent have limited wavelength compared to thedimensions of the earth.This analysis shows that there is spatial struc-ture. The inter-RnG correlations decrease asthe geographic distance between RnGs increas-es, with a distance scale on the order of 8,000 to10,000 Km. It is present in both the originalcorrelation of means and to a lesser degree inthe orthogonal variance correlation, and thecomposite across both measures has a signifi-cance level approaching 3s. The regressions thusgive empirical evidence for spatial structure andindicate that models will need to incorporatedistance-dependent correlations in order to ade-quately describe the event data. To address temporal structure we recall that theGCP hypothesis proposes that data correlations willcorrespond to the human response to events, whichfirst grows as an event becomes the focus of globalattention, then persists for a time while peopleattend to it, and finally dissipates as attention wanes.The GCP test cases (events) are likely to include nulldata before and after the effects because the formallyspecified periods are typically over-long in order tomaximize the likelihood that the full response isincluded. The expected temporal pattern in event datawill thus be periods of inter-RnG correlation duringthe effect, typically bracketed by random data. If thishypothetical picture is correct, we can devise analysesto characterize the time structure.For example, given two independent measures – themean and the variance correlation – which show effectsduring the events, it follows that both are driven in partby the same source. Assuming a temporal correspon-dence between the effect and whatever drives it, weexpect correlations between the two measures duringthe actual effect, but not otherwise. Testing this conjec-ture, we find that the average correlation between thetwo measures grows to nominal significance over thefirst 45 minutes to an hour of an event. The correlationhas a broad peak of roughly two hours and thendiminishes slowly. This pattern of correlated behav-iour of our two orthogonal measures of networkstructure indicates that the effects are not immediate(in terms of the defined event), but take time tobuild up to detectable levels, after which they persistfor a substantial period.


our ongoing work seeks to establish linkages withother indicators of broadly shared perceptions andemotional states. Although ratings and assignmentsare necessarily subjective and have intrinsic variabili-ty, it is possible to sort the events into categories thatrepresent various questions. For example, we can esti-mate the numbers of people engaged by the eventsand sort them into small, medium, and large categorieswith sufficient reliability to make useful comparisons.Simple t-tests of differences in effect size reveal thatlarge events contribute most of the anomalous effect inthe database; the difference between large and small issignificant (p = 0.02, two-tailed). This accords with mostobservers’ intuitions; it makes sense and acts like com-parisons of a similar nature in psychology and sociology.It is perhaps more interesting to look at emotions repre-sented in the events. doing so, we find that events cate-gorized as having a high level of emotional impact aremuch more likely to affect the GCP network than thoserated as low in their emotional content (two-tailed p =0.002). When we ask about types of emotions, we findthat both negative and positive feelings (e.g., fear andlove) are associated with effects in the GCP data; neutralevents are much less potent. Looking at specific emo-tions, we find that some stand out. For example, thoseevents that evoke or embody a high level of compas-sion have a much larger effect size than those with alow rating (two-tailed p = 0.025). To summarize thefindings in such investigations of the GCP data, itappears that our hypothesized global consciousnessresponds to events in ways that are recognizable,indeed quite familiar (nelson, 2008).There are also more general ways of assessing thedata to see if there is any unexpected structure.This has not been thoroughly explored, butsome probes show promise. For example, a newsintensity measure is correlated with the effectsize of the events (Radin, 2002). Retrospectiveanalysis of repeated similar events is also possi-ble, given the permanent archive of continuousdata. In 2006 we identified all major earth-quakes of magnitude 6 and greater, dividingthe 600 quakes found over the time we hadbeen collecting data into those on land wherepeople are affected, and those in the oceans.The quakes that affect humans show signifi-cant structure in the corresponding data, whilethe ocean quakes have no effect on the GCP net-work (nelson and Bancel, 2006).

W H A T A R E T H E I M P L I C A T I O N S ?

our primary results are based on correlating spe-cially chosen moments, usually drawn from worldnews headlines, with data recorded at the sametime by our network. These sequences tend to bedifferent from what is expected of random data,

leaving only a few possibilities to consider. It may bethat the interest and desires of the people involvedin the project produce what is called an “experi-menter effect” which is registered by the network.But the multiple indicators of structure (two cor-relations, spatial and temporal parameters), andretrospective findings like the earthquake differ-entiation are inconsistent with any simple ver-sion of an experimenter effect. Convergent evi-dence indicates that the anomalous deviationsare primarily correlated with widespread humanattention and emotion.As for how it might be explained, the bestquantitative models for the data are field-like.My personal, informal model sees us immersedin a consciousness field. It is made of vast num-bers of individual fields, and is generally quitechaotic because the components are uncoordi-nated. now and again, some factor that influ-ences the structure and rhythm of individualfields may be common to many of them, andthis can produce something like a resonance orcoherence. The ripples in our separate conscious-ness fields overlap and build upon each other tomake a ringing chord of shared, coherent activity.This allusive description goes well beyond the data,of course, but metaphors can help guide our searchfor understanding. When we think and feel in concert, there seems tobe a new creation for the moment, a larger con-sciousness that is at once independent of us, itssource, and on the other hand dependent for its exis-tence and nature upon us. When our coherence dissi-pates, the common field weakens and fades away,though there may be a trace of it remaining in the uni-verse, a template to allow it more readily to form. overtime, eons perhaps, such a collective constructionshould grow stronger and more used to itself, and weshould expect it to develop self-reflection, just as in thedistant past our forbears gradually adjusted to their ownawareness and began to see themselves as observers. Philosophical speculation aside, what should we takeaway from the scientific evidence of interconnection? Ifwe are persuaded that the subtle structuring of randomdata does indicate an effect of human attention andemotion in the physical world, it points to a creativequality of consciousness. one implication is that whatwe envision is slightly more likely to happen, and thisconfers on us a responsibility for shaping our future asparticipants in a conscious evolution. This time at thebeginning of a new millennium seems to vast num-bers of people to be critical. We have developed newconnectivity through high-speed travel and instantcommunication. We are stimulated by the samenews, and we rapidly adopt the same attitudes and


music and fashions widely over the whole world. Itshould not be surprising that there are signs of adeeper interconnection beyond the physical link-ages, in which we participate without knowing it. Jung, Bergson, Teilhard, Russell, and others of likemind have suggested that because humanity is reflec-tive and creative, we can make decisions and takeactions that will direct and shape our own evolution.There is little doubt this is true, but we have only begunto sense this power, just in time to take better controlof ourselves so that we may accelerate the maturationof a “noosphere” or layer of intelligence for the earth.The integrity of our only possible home is in great dan-ger from our own destructive and careless misunder-standing, and it is time for us to see ourselves growingtoward the next stage of humanity. The future of manis reaching toward us, drawing us into an awakeningearth mind which can begin healing the wounds ofpeople and planet. 8

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

Greg Nelson and John Walker created the architecture and thedata collection software. Paul Bethke ported the software toWindows. Dean Radin, Dick Bierman, and others in the plan-ning group contributed ideas and experience. Rick Bergerhelped to create a comprehensive Web site. Peter Bancel hasbeen a major contributor to the analytical program. The pro-ject exists through the commitment of time, resources, andgood will from all the Egg hosts. Our financial support comesfrom individuals including Charles Overby, Tony Cohen,Reinhilde Nelson, Michael Heany, Alexander Imich,Richard Adams, Richard Wallace, Anna Capasso, MichaelBreland, Joseph Giove, J. Z. Knight, Hans Wendt, JimWarren, Rene Post, and major gifts from an anonymousdonor. We also gratefully acknowledge donations via Pay-Pal from many individuals. The Institute of Noetic Sci-ences provides logistical support as a non-profit home forthe project, and the Lifebridge Foundation has providedgenerous support for documentation of the GCP.

R E F E R E N C E S

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RAdIn, d. I. (2002). “Exploring Relationships Between Ran-dom Physical Events and Mass human Attention: Askingfor Whom the Bell Tolls”, J. Scientific Exploration, 16 (4):533-548.

RAdIn, d. I. & nELSon, R. d. (1989). “Evidence for con-sciousness-related anomalies in random physical systems”,Foundations of Physics, 19 (12): 1499-1514.

—— (2003). “Meta-analysis of mind-matter interactionexperiments: 1959-2000”, in Jonas, W. & Crawford, C.(eds.), Healing, Intention and Energy Medicine. (London:harcourt health Sciences).

TEILhARd dE ChARdIn, P. (1959). The Phenomenon of Man(new York: harper & Row).

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Terry Patten is a leading voice inthe emerging fields of integralevolutionary leadership andspirituality. He is the host ofthe acclaimed online telesemi-nar series Beyond Awake-ning: The Future of Spiritual

Practice. He is the author, withKen Wilber, of Integral Life

Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprintfor Physical health, Emotional Balan-

ce, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. He also created thecomprehensive online course, Integral Spiritual Practice: An 8-Session Course To Activate the Full Potential of Your Body,Mind, Spirit, heart, and Soul. Website: www.terrypatten.com.

T’S oFTEn SAId ThAT WE LIVE In An ExTRAoRdInARY

time of crisis and opportunity. It’s a time that’schallenging us – as individuals, families, com-munities, nations, and as a species – in ways we

don’t fully understand, and to which we’re strug-gling to effectively respond. It’s a time of socialupheavals, environmental catastrophes, and therumblings of economic collapse. Yet it’s also atime of exponential scientific and technologicalprogress, electrifying popular uprisings, and, forthe first time in our history, the advent of atruly planetary culture.We live in a time, as some have declared, inwhich humanity is “waking up,” becoming con-scious of our unity not only with the beautifulblue orb on which we’re blessed to find a habi-tat and home, but with the cosmos itself – thisunfathomably vast, infinitely intelligent, multi-dimensional living Reality that, amazinglyenough, exists… rather than not. There is “some-thing, rather than nothing.” Yet it’s also para-doxically a time, as many acute observers pointout, of lethal slumber, of distraction and denial,dysfunction and dis-ease, of life lived in theshadow of an “oblivion of Being” – a failure ofconsciousness that’s allowed our greatest materi-al achievements to threaten not only our life onthis planet, but our very souls. To add another twist to the story, many argue thatour present crises are simply the result of our evolu-tionary success. Yet most agree that the way forward

must involve a transformation of human con-sciousness – not merely repeating the patternsof the past.What is the significance of higher conscious-ness and development as we face this unprece-dented era in our lives and world? how can webecome more effective and awakened partici-pants in this moment of evolutionary urgency?Clearly, we live in a time that calls for creative,constructive action – and thus engaged, caringpeople must be willing to get their hands dirtywith the hard work of changing the world. Butit’s equally a time for thoughtful reflection anddeeper awareness, and so we must also step back,let go of our surface concerns, and get in touchwith a deeper reality beneath the rush of events.As conscious human beings – committed both toawakening and to the healthy transformation ofself and world – how can we reconcile these twoapparently contradictory impulses within ourselves:the urge to engage and the call to transcend? howcan we “simply be who we already are,” while also“becoming the ones we’ve been waiting for”?

T H E R I S E O F I N T E G R A L

C O N S C I O U S N E S S

When we contemplate large-scale positive change,often it seems that the real action is in the politicalarena, or in advanced technology, or perhaps in globalbusiness. Yet in all these areas, we most frequentlyencounter a disappointingly narrow view of life andreality, and what’s truly important within it. In theseareas, the focus is often merely on exterior results orshort-term gains, with little appreciation for the Mys-tery of Being or the big context of our deep-time evolu-tionary journey spanning 13.7 billion years since the BigBang. on the other hand, within spiritual circles thatfocus on higher consciousness and cosmic awareness,we often find a different kind of limitation of view –one that privileges “being” over “doing,” or spirit overmatter, and that can seem detached from accomplish-ment, excellence, and the urgent and practical issuesof 21st-century life.Yet despite the old apparent opposition betweenthose who focus on results-oriented action and those

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who focus on deepening or transforming the aware-ness that patterns behavior, millions of people arewaking up to a new synthesis between higher evolu-tionary consciousness and the pressing issues of ourfast-paced civilization (both personal and collective).They are realizing that consciousness itself can play apivotal role in helping human beings rise to meet thechallenges of our time. A new global movement ofengaged awakening, a kind of “second renaissance”, isunderway, promising a profound synthesis between therealms of body, mind, heart, intimate relationships, civicparticipation, and spirit. This movement has many expressions, only a few ofwhich use the term “integral,” but these diverse expres-sions share a recognition of the inherent wholeness ofthings, of the whole planet, the whole biosphere, thewhole human and non-human family. As the name“integral” implies, this movement is dedicated to inte-grating all the parts ourselves and our world that areotherwise fragmented, disconnected, or repressed. Theemerging integral worldview seeks to be as inclusive,balanced, and holistic as possible in considering whatis true, good, beautiful, and valuable in our lives. Thatmeans bringing together all the best wisdom, knowl-edge, and inspiration available to us in the informa-tion age – from the teachings of the ancient wisdomtraditions, to the discoveries of modern science, tothe insights of contemporary psychology and neu-roscience. Integral consciousness often asks a keyquestion: drawing on the gifts and truths from allthese sources (and many others), what is the mostcomprehensive, big-picture story or map of ourhuman reality and potential? What if we couldsee our fast-paced, complex, multifaceted, evolvingreality with a whole new level of nuance, clarity,and depth? That’s the exciting synthesis that theemerging integral worldview offers.From an integral perspective, we see the chal-lenges and opportunities of our time as insepara-ble from our consciousness and personal devel-opment, and as important dimensions of ourbeing that call for our care and conscious partic-ipation. In other words, within the space of inte-gral consciousness, we are not only called to “bethe change” but also to “do the change” as well.In fact, being and doing are simply two sides ofthe same integral coin; our inner work and ourouter work are fundamentally intertwined. The bridge that connects inner and outer, self andworld, is practice. There is a radical re-visioning of –and re-engagement with – practice underway in ourtime. My own expression of this, building on Inte-gral Transformative Practice (Murphy & Leonard)and Integral Life Practice (Wilber, Patten, Morelli,A. Leonard) is an approach I call Integral Spiritual

Practice. This article celebrates the significance of thislarger project of revisioning practice, referring to itsometimes as “integral spiritual practice” (uncapital-ized) and sometimes advocates for some of theunique aspects and ideas present in my particularembodiment (capitalized).

W H A T I S A N “ I N T E G R A L

S P I R I T U A L P R A C T I C E ” ?

At its simplest, a “spiritual practice” is anythingone does regularly and with intention and guid-ance to experience a higher or deeper spiritualstate, or to promote one’s spiritual or holisticdevelopment over time. Yet, it’s not only aboutself-improvement. Sometimes, a spiritual prac-tice is done as an offering, less for the sake of theself, and more as a gesture of gratitude or ser-vice. Ultimately, it’s both – a healthy, intelligentchoice we make for ourselves, and a gesture ofgratitude and generosity that we dedicate tosomething greater than ourselves.When we live our lives in a way that includesmany such practices, and when our practices areheld together by a unifying intention and a higherorganizing principle, then we are no longer merelydoing various spiritual practices, but we can also besaid to have a Practice. This is big deal! An IntegralPractice, in this sense, is one that is held by an integralintention and awareness, which means it consciouslyincludes all levels and dimensions of one’s being(including body, mind, spirit, soul, relationships, andso on), and intelligently relates to all aspects of realityof which we are aware.To “have” an integral spiritual practice means that weare not just doing this or that practice, in a miscella-neous way, but that we’re orienting our life as a whole,at a very deep level, to practice itself. We’re on a whole-being path of practice; our life has become an expressionof practice; our way of being-in-the-world embodiesthe intelligence of practice. In a real sense, we’ve shiftedour identity. We are no longer merely seeking awareness,or freedom, happiness, or meaning. We are practicing it.In those moments when we are sincerely practicing, wehave become a practitioner.If we recognize that life is a school, and that its highestinspiration is transcendental, and that the school oflife relates to every dimension of our being – includ-ing body, mind, psyche, spirit, and all our relation-ships – and if we are doing our best to learn thelessons of the school of life, then we are doing anintegral spiritual practice. of course, then we mayfeel moved to do this as intelligently, efficiently,fruitfully, and truly holistically as possible.

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of course, this is an art, not a science. The forms ofpractice are occasions for engaging the creative art ofmoment-to-moment practice. Sometimes practicerequires focus, or surrender, or courage, or discernment,or humility. In each and every moment it will be anauthentic creative response to unique conditions. norigid formula defines practice. But like any art, it needsform, or else the plastic chaos of the world overwhelms us.

T H E I N T E G R A L I M P U L S E

Although an integral spiritual practice, by definition, isa radically open and evolving approach to practice (andcan thus be called by any number of different names andstill essentially be an expression of the same impulse), agreat deal of nuance is implicit within the terms thatdescribe it.The word “integral” has been variously used to describea level of psychological development, a stage of socio-cul-tural evolution, a philosophical framework, an approach,and a worldview. It’s been applied in fields and disci-plines as diverse as education, art, sustainability, poli-tics, coaching, business, leadership, and internationaldevelopment (and dozens more). Each of these appli-cations draw on some aspects of what the word “inte-gral” means. Some employ an explicitly integralphilosophical framing, such as the categories of KenWilber’s “All Quadrants, All Levels” (AQAL) meta-theory. others rely on the fact that their practitionersare generally operating with integral consciousness asa feature of their own growth and development.others simply attempt to embody what might becalled an “integral impulse,” which means that theyattempt, as best they can, to be integrative in theirapproach. For example, an integrative approachto medicine brings together alternative and con-ventional treatment modalities, attempting todraw on the strengths of each while cancelingout their respective weaknesses.To integrate means to bring together, to unite in agreater wholeness. Thus, in a sense, any endeav-our that consciously creates a greater whole thanthe sum of its parts can be considered “integral.”We’re integrating what tends to be dissociated –what our world, mind, and culture construe asseparate and in conflict, but which in reality (oras a higher potential) are parts of a greater whole.Yet the word “integral” also suggests integrity,which connotes an ethical dimension, the expec-tation that one is embodying a higher ideal,aligning one’s actions and values, or simply“walking one’s talk.” There is an important sensein which being a practitioner is fundamentallyabout coming into ever greater integrity (thoughso long as we’re human, never perfect), such thatthe more we evolve as integral practitioners, themore trustworthy we become.

Yet “integral spiritual practice” has other meaningsas well. As integral spiritual practitioners we areintegrating:~ Our whole self; including the different spheresof our being and life, such as body, mind, emo-tions, heart, spirit, relationships, work, andcivics.~ The prior unity of being; in other words, weare consciously and intentionally opening our-selves in communion with that Ground orSource and as the agency of that ConsciousReality in our everyday lives.~ Our specific practices; such as meditation,yoga, service and healthy eating, and the wayin which we do them, regularly, with care andattention.~ All of life as practice; by bringing the disposi-tion of practice to all our relationships, con-texts, and commitments, not just the individualpractices that we may do during some part ofthe day.~ Feeling and insight; meaning that we open todeeper and wider feelings, including higher, morerefined and ecstatic, but also deeper, more diffi-cult feelings that we might not want to encounter;and we also trust our essential insights and clari-ties, so that we act in alignment with what weknow to be true, even in periods when we’re notfeeling it.~ Our evolutionary impulse to serve the world; mean-ing that we recognize that self-improvement alone isnot a full and adequate expression of an integral prac-tice, but that the world needs us to be willing, creativeparticipants, especially during this critical time oftransition to a more sustainable human presence onthe planet. ~ Multiple perspectives; we are flexibly able to take updiffering points of view and thus engage specific per-spectives, ideas, other people, and the world. We’re notshunning points of view; we’re engaging and recogniz-ing them, without getting lost in them.~ Awareness itself; we cultivate the ability to transcendany particular perspective or point of view, and rest inthe freedom and stillness at the heart of any moment.There is one other important way in which integral spir-itual practice embodies an integral approach to practice.It brings together the “sudden school” of awakening –which holds that this moment is the moment in whichto wake up (in fact the only moment in which awaken-ing could possibly occur, and that we need only toawaken to the fact that we are always already free) –and the “gradual school,” which maintains that awak-ening is a lifelong process of ongoing liberation,which depends on our doing things consistently,with commitment and dedication, to cultivate andsupport that liberation.


of course, both views are correct. As practitionersof the sudden school, we can at any moment “snapout” of fixations of attention that appear to be grip-ping us. We can “see through” the words, ideas, sen-sations, or perceptions that are occluding our clearview, and simply recognize them for what they are,while resting in awareness itself. In other words, wedo not need to sit in meditation, practice a yoga pose,or eat a special diet to be in direct contact with thebeingness of the present moment. The profound truthof the sudden school is that awakening is not some-thing we need to attain; rather, it’s unavoidable. It’sfully present, fully accessible, at any moment that welet go of our fixations with particular aspects of reality,and release into communion with reality itself.on the other hand, as practitioners of the gradual school,we also recognize that practically speaking, it is our nat-ural tendency or karma to fixate, to contract, and to fallaway from the liberated spaciousness of clear awareness,and that it takes intentional effort to regenerate thosemoments of awakening and make them more frequent.Practice creates the conditions for the “happy acci-dents” of awakening and revelation. That’s what com-mitting to a regular practice engenders. Thus, there’s arole for the compassionate self-discipline of maintain-ing an intentional practice, even as we acknowledgethe fact that ultimately, we’re always already free andthere’s no need to strive for or seek liberation. Thisalso offers a clue to how it is possible to do a prac-tice without reinforcing the sense of lack and seek-ing that have often been the traditional motiva-tions for practice.

B I R T H I N G A N E W W A Y

O F B E I N G

The promise of an integral spiritual practice isthat if we sincerely and wholeheartedly engage alife that’s committed to embodying awareness,care, and full presence, and to enacting our ownevolution – and the evolution of the whole –then we begin to embody that evolutionaryprocess. This commitment is, without a doubt,at the core of life – it’s the biggest, most impor-tant journey we could possibly embrace.of course, that’s not easy! That’s why it takespractice. It’s never been easy, but our contempo-rary world is so complex and fast-changing thatwe have to approach practice and life with aboth/and consciousness, a consciousness that canhold paradox and contemplate it profoundly –not just as a mental puzzle but as an essential pro-fundity – and discover new depth. We must prac-tice holding two or three bottom lines, or more, allat once, so we can be engaging the big picture, theclose-up, the in-between, flexibly dancing and

adopting whatever perspective is appropriate ineach moment.That’s the essence of an integral approach, and itrequires us to put ourselves on the line – and it’snot a small line! It means taking full responsibilityfor our part in creating our experience. It meansliving with authenticity, delving below the sur-faces, not leaving anything out, not holdingback, going for it, facing what is, finding acommitment and engagement that includes allour parts, and all of us on this planet.. It takesinto account all the pieces, yet engages them asone single seamless unity. It thus acknowledgesthe complexity of our world, yet also standsfreely in the simplicity on the other side ofcomplexity.The integral approach calls us to whole newlevel of responsibility – one in which we con-sciously care for and steward ourselves, ourloved ones, our communities, our structures andsystems – including the planet we live on andlife itself. It’s not our ego that is called to greaterresponsibility, but the wider and deeper aspectsof our identity, those parts of us that literally areidentified with these wider circles of being. Throughour deepening daily practice, we can more finelyattune to the currents and updrafts of Being itself,as it gives birth to a new world. What urgently wants to be born is beyond any-thing we can predict or control, but the more of itssacred signal our antennas can pick up, the easier itbecomes to let Being come through us and as us. Webecome agents of the ineffable Mystery. We becomethe here-and-now conduits of a more beautiful worldmanifesting in and through our lives.We also become more capable of being effective in theworld, because we’re less held back by the parts of our-selves that feel narrower and more conflicted. We can bemore fully present and engaged in the moment, whatev-er is happening. Whether you’re a CEo or project manag-er or political activist, your practice can make you a morepowerful leader. It can make you a more attuned parentor partner, a more intuitive doctor, a more inspiringteacher, a more creative artist, or a better student. Thepromise of practice is that by going to the heart of thematter in our lives, and unlocking our deepest potentials– including specific capacities for focus, equanimity,and holding multiple perspectives – we liberate ourenergies to make our highest contribution.

C A T A L Y Z I N G A

C O N S C I O U S C U L T U R E

Just as integral spiritual practice brings together ourinner and outer worlds, it also unites our individual

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and social being. While there are many specificpractices we can do on our own, such as meditation,ultimately, we exist (and are practicing) with others.Those others may not be in the same room or eventhe same part of the world as us (in fact, they may noteven be alive in our lifetime!), yet the act of practicingconnects us to the collective field of consciousnessgenerated by the broader community of practice.Being an integral practitioner involves not only intend-ing to evolve oneself, but also participating in the emer-gence of the broader community – thus co-creating anew kind of culture. Being an integral practitionermeans participating in a “meta-sangha” (an inclusivecommunity that creates brotherhood among membersof many communities of practice) that includes trans-sectarian practitioners around the world. This meta-sangha has no specific name, official membership, ororganizational structure, but we recognize we’re a partof it whenever we meet someone who resonates with asimilar depth and breadth of awareness that we feelwithin ourselves. A mutual recognition occurs at thelevel of essence, even if we might have little else incommon. We realize that we are “on the same wave-length,” attuned to the same collective field.Co-creating a global culture of practice – a cultureof spiritual depth, planetary consciousness, matureintelligence, and ecstatic creativity – is one of themost exciting and rewarding aspects of integral spir-itual practice. It’s also a essential part of the transi-tion we are making as a species to a more healthy,sustainable human presence on our planet. Prac-tice is what makes us truly planetary citizens forthe first time.

P R A C T I C I N G A

N E W P O S S I B I L I T Y

Ultimately, to be a practitioner is to engage in agrand human experiment with huge potentialsignificance. Can we respond to the crises ofour times – and to the inherent challenges ofsimply being human – in ways that are healthy,intelligent, and sustainable? Instead of actingout of desperation and separateness, can we liveand act from an ongoing connection to love,compassion, and prior unity? If we can, thenthe many problems we face, whether in our per-sonal lives or on a global scale, will be approachedas sacred opportunities to awaken, evolve, andserve a greater whole.The path of practice is not meant to be glam-orous. It’s meant to make us more authenticallyhuman. one of the core tenets of the Integral Spir-itual Practice approach that I teach is that our pathneed not involve denying our humanity in favour of

some transcendental ideal or abstract notion ofprogress. We’re not out to be “more evolved thanthou.” As down-to-earth practitioners we can realizethat the future of humanity is simply to be moredeeply human. That means becoming more honestand vulnerable, making peace with our failuresand foibles. It means accepting our quirks – andsometimes our limitations – as we listen evermore deeply and become ever more transparentto the intelligence animating our lives. It meanswalking a radically unique path, but doing so ingood company, and with the benefit of the col-lective wisdom that we’re co-generating eachstep of the way.Yet practice is also an opportunity for greatness.These times definitely call for all our greatness, andan incredible tapestry of different kinds of great-ness supporting one another. It’s not grandioseto talk about embracing one’s greatness. It’s amoral obligation to fulfill our highest destiny.There are many kinds of greatness. The worldneeds each of our unique contributions, ourunique service, in very tangible and practical terms.And any opportunity to serve is an opportunity forgreatness. Greatness doesn’t always have to be shinyor in the spotlight. oftentimes it’s humble and sup-portive. But there are no exceptions; no way out.We’re all in this terrible, beautiful mess together, andit’s going to take as many of us as possible serving thehighest within us to take the next step in our collec-tive evolutionary journey.At the very heart of Integral Spiritual Practice lies asimple yet profound idea. At a certain point we’recalled to make a fundamental transition in our livesfrom being “seekers” of transformation to being authen-tic practitioners of it. In other words, we can think aboutchange, talk about it, argue and debate, and that’s allwell and good. But at a certain stage, we must simplydo it. The question is how? how can we “do the evolu-tion” on a practical, real, genuine, deep, and sustainabledaily basis?Thus, Integral Spiritual Practice is a contribution to anongoing, universal project of defining and refining theuniversal integral praxis of embodying a healthy creativeresponse to each and every unique moment of life. Itdescribes, in very tangible, practical, moment-to-momentterms, how we can “become the ones we’ve been waitingfor” and it offers a practical path for us to begin doingso now, in every moment, individually and together. 8

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Dana Tomasino grew up inWhite Plains, New York and inRome, Italy. After attendingMarymount InternationalSchool of Rome and graduat-ing summa cum laude fromWilliams College in Massa-

chusetts (Highest Honours inBiology), Dana followed her pas-

sion to help build a new science ofenergy through the study of the energetic

field interactions that underlie and inform all life. This path tookher in 1995 to the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, Cali-fornia, where she served as a member of the scientific research stafffor twelve years. Here she studied and co-authored numerous pub-lications on the psychophysiology of emotions, heart-brain com-munication, and the role of the heart in perception, emotion,intuition, and energetic communication. Under the guidance ofher spiritual mentor, Doc Childre, she also pursued an in-depthperiod of emotional and spiritual self-study during this time. Itwas at the beginning of this period that Dana also became cog-nizant of the shift in consciousness currently occurring on thePlanet and the key role of the heart and emotional develop-ment in this shift.Dana is currently Co-Director of Aorangi Moana Sanctuaryand the Center for Advanced Research (CFAR) in Northland,New Zealand, where her work continues to seek to integratescience and spirituality, as well as facilitate the practice ofheart intelligence and emotional development. Some of herresearch interests include the energetic information storageand transmission properties of water, intuition, nonlocalagency, and emotional energetic communication betweenpeople and across species via the heart’s field. Dana’s passionsare individual and Planetary awakening, a new science thatincludes Spirit, the Ocean, interacting with free-swimmingdolphins and whales, Cetacean consciousness, and music.

The heart, anatomically the midchest area, is at first ametaphorical center of meaning in life and graduallyopens into a direct experience of a new dimension.It is the center for the direct sensing of the energies

that represent unconditional love.RIChARd MoSS, The I that is We.

T H E N E X T R E V O L U T I O N

n ThE LAST MILLEnnIUM ThE EVoLUTIon oF ThE

human race on the Planet has witnessed amomentous explosion of development. Largely,this development has concerned itself with

ideas and technologies that have revolutionized the

way in which we, as individuals and as a species,interact with the external landscapes of ourworld. The rapid accumulation of knowledgethat characterized the scientific revolution andthe advent of groundbreaking new technologiesthat emerged from the industrial revolutionhave allowed us to exert more control over ourexternal environment than was ever conceivablebefore. now add to these developments theexponentially burgeoning capacity to store,process, and access information that are a prod-uct of the current information revolution inwhich we live, and the bounds of our collectivetechnological potential are difficult to place. Tooffer perspective, even as few as a hundred yearsago – let alone a thousand – it would have beenvirtually impossible to envision the current realitywe have built for ourselves on the foundation ofthese advances.Yet we clearly harbor mixed feelings concerningexactly where this dexterous ability to manipulateour outer world has brought us as a species. notwith-standing the countless benefits offered to society bymodern science and medicine; developments inmechanical technologies that lift the burden of once-grueling manual work; and the information processingpower, convenience, and digital interconnectivity fur-nished by the computing industry, we are left with ahaunting sense that something is missing. There is a vastemptiness that remains unfilled by these externally-ori-ented advances and all that they have brought us. And,with unfortunate irony, even the very ends for whichthese developments were supposedly created – improvedhealth and healing, enriched quality of life, increasedconnectedness with one another and our Planet –remain, all too frequently, sadly unfulfilled.The source of this growing sense of incompleteness is aseemingly fundamental imbalance in the direction inwhich humanity’s evolution has thus far been focused.To illustrate, we may pose the following question: overthe same time that we have built towering cities, trans-ported ourselves around the globe and even into spaceand back, looked inside the cell and the very subatom-ic particles that comprise it, and erected networks ofsuper-powerful computers that function at lightningspeed – in this same time, how much have we done asa species to effect a corresponding development inthe world in which we all live in every moment of

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our lives – our internal world – the landscape of ouremotional experience?It is an uncomfortable truth to acknowledge thatwhile most of us now take for granted the capacity tocontrol aspects of our outer world with a simple turnof a key or push of a button, human civilization as awhole still lives for a large part at the mercy of unman-aged (and, in our perception, unmanageable) emotionalstress; automatic, conditioned judgments and reactionsthat we accept as “self ”; and energy-draining feelings,thoughts and behavioral patterns that are primary sourcedin ego-driven states of fear. Indeed, fear-based patternsof greed, judgment, intolerance, and blame dominateand underlie much of the societal chaos we experiencein our world. And at the individual level, “stress,” andthe emotional and behavioral responses it engenders,run our lives to a greater degree than most of us areeven aware of, leading to diminished quality of life,strained relationships, burnout, physical illness, and, insome cases, even precipitating death.Certainly, we also experience uplifting feelings thatenrich our lives – moments of love, joy, gratitude, com-passion, connection and communion with others. But,for society at large, we may ponder how many of theseinternal feeling experiences remain primarily depen-dent upon fleeting arrangements of external circum-stances outside our full control – just as relief fromuncomfortable feelings for many people also appearsmainly at the mercy of some change occurring out-side themselves. And we must also ask to whatdegree, as a society, we are truly conscious of thesubtle, nuanced emotional energy dynamics thatgovern our perceptions, motivations, and interac-tions – for it is only in the light of such con-sciousness that self-willed change is possible. Insum, taking stock of the mass level of emotionalawareness and empowerment the human racecurrently embodies, we find that the large partof the population possesses only a surface-levelawareness and understanding of their emotionalnature, and only a very limited ability to con-sciously modulate their emotional world.Quite ironically, while we are happily driven tocontinue to invent new and clever technologiesto manipulate our external reality, we have col-lectively come to accept this largely disempow-ered and unconscious state relative to our inter-nal emotional reality as natural and a “given.” Wehardly give it second thought as we move throughour lives; it is regarded simply as part of the “humancondition.” But what if this so-called “human condi-tion” – our collective emotional landscape and ourrelationship to it – is not static at all, but marks thelocus for the next huge step forward in the evolu-tion of our species? In a relatively short space of time

humanity has lived through the scientific revolution,the industrial revolution, and now the informationrevolution. But we cannot move forward in a truewholeness sense without a fundamental shift in thefocus of our species’ evolution. A new revolution isnow in order. This time it will be an internal one.The next revolution is an emotional revolution;and it is already going on.

T H E P R I M A C Y O F E M O T I O N

The next steps in humanity’s journey of emo-tional maturation will not be led by the mind.It is the mind (and by this I mean the familiarawareness of our normal, “everyday” mind thatthinks, reasons, computes, perceives, assesses,believes, and so forth) that has assumed thedriver’s seat thus far in our evolutionary jour-ney. however, it is also the mind – what I callthe “reactive mind” – that part of our consciousand subconscious mental process that is gov-erned largely by the ego’s narrow perspective andfear-based patterns of personal and cultural con-ditioning – that has kept humanity quagmired inthe current mass level of consciousness of relativeemotional immaturity in which our world lives.Many of the formal and informal strategies peoplecurrently use with the intention to facilitate emo-tional change attempt to impose the “rationality”of the mind to exert control over the emotions. Forexample, a common assumption is that if we canjust manage to change our thoughts about a situa-tion, our feelings will obediently follow suit. Experi-ence tells us, however, that too often our deeply heldemotional feelings and attitudes continue to “run theshow” despite our most strenuous mental efforts tothink the “right” thoughts. often this emotional sub-terfuge occurs at a level beneath our conscious aware-ness, leaving us at a loss to explain our limited progressdespite our best efforts. Furthermore, thinking alonegenerally does little to penetrate the powerful psy-choneurological defense strategies put in place at a veryearly precognitive stage of our lives to protect us fromemotional sensations our body then experienced asoverwhelming.Science on the primacy of emotion validates experience(Zajonc, 1980; Ledoux, 1996) showing us that in factemotions do not always follow thought; they mayemerge independently of cognition and may even standin conflict with our conscious “rational” thinking:operating at a higher speed than our thoughts, ouremotional feelings frequently bypass the mind’s lin-ear reasoning process entirely – a process known as“emotional hijacking” (Ledoux, 1996). Moreover,studies of the neural pathways linking the cognitive

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and emotional centers in the brain provide neu-roanatomical evidence that emotional signals exert afar more powerful influence on cognitive processesthan the other way around (Ledoux, 1994, 1996),explaining why it can be so difficult to “turn off ” apowerful emotion, and why “positive thinking” alonemay not always have its anticipated impact on ouremotional reality. The mind can help us formulate, organize, and exe-cute our intentions, but it is our emotions that providethe fuel. Indeed, it is the movement of emotional energythat underlies significant movement in virtually all aspectsof life – in our physiology, in our decisions and behav-iour, in our relationships with the people and situationsaround us. It is this vastly powerful source of energyinherent and largely untapped within us that we mustlearn now how to consciously direct, modulate, andfocus in this next phase of our evolution.

A N I N T E L L I G E N C E

B E Y O N D T H E M I N D

A fundamental shift in consciousness cannot be initiat-ed by the same force that created the status quo. It willrequire an intelligence and awareness beyond that ofthe familiar mind – quicker than our linear reasoningand broader than our habitual perception – to chartthe deep, unnavigated waters of our emotions andproduce sustained change in our relationship to ourown emotional experience. I use the term heart intelligence to describe a largersource of awareness that we will increasingly inte-grate and embody as this shift in consciousnessprogress. I see this as a source of intuitive insightand understanding accessible to all human beings,which can be drawn on to deepen knowledge ofself and others, guide emotional, relational, andspiritual growth, and inform choice and actionacross all spheres of life. I acknowledge the challenge at this point ofdefining heart intelligence completely and con-cisely, as I believe that collectively as a species weare as yet in the initial stages of unfolding, explor-ing, developing, and truly understanding thiscapacity in ourselves. Because I believe that heartintelligence operates at the interface between whatwe may call our physical-material space-timereality and an energetic field-based domain thatscience has only begun to characterize, we alsoencounter the problem of the limitations of ourcurrent vocabulary to adequately describe some ofthe multi-level dynamics and processes involved.Still, my intention here is to outline some descrip-tive features of this phenomenon, gleaned from myown study, research, and experience, that together

may point us in the direction of an initial acknowl-edgment and acquaintance with this capacity inher-ent in all of us.Some defining characteristics of heart intelligenceinclude the following: ~ Transcends the ordinary awareness of themind but interacts with it~ Serves as a reliable internal guidance system~ Integrates information from and about thebody, mind, emotions, and spirit.~ Provides direct insights that are intuitive innature, which can be experienced in the formof words, images, feeling sensations, and/or asense of “knowingness” ~ Generally provides a more objective, encom-passing, loving, and “wholeness-oriented” per-spective on situations than we are able to accessthrough cognitive reasoning alone~ Can access and communicate informationfrom a domain beyond the constraints of space-time reality~ often emerges naturally when the mind, emo-tions, and physiology are brought into a state ofcoherent alignment through heart-based emotion-al self-management practices.~ Can be developed and honed through the con-sistent application of such practices in daily life.It is important to note that the function of heartintelligence is not to replace the faculties of the mind,but rather to help align the mind with a larger aspectof ourselves that can both observe and transcend theego-driven influences that contribute to our emotion-al unconsciousness. The “reactive mind” then givesway to the awakened mind, which, in its clarity, thenbecomes a receptacle for insight and a powerful execu-tor of inspired action (literally, action that is imbuedwith spirit).

T H E R O L E O F T H E H E A R T

A N I N T E L L I G E N T S Y S T E M

To explore how heart intelligence can be accessed anddeveloped, we turn first to the heart itself. There is anage-old notion, shared by virtually every major civiliza-tion and spiritual tradition throughout human history,of the heart as a locus of emotion, inner wisdom, andinsight – a conduit to an intuitive intelligence thattranscends and yet also complements the perceptionsand understandings of normal awareness (Godwin,2001; Tomasino, 2011). Many ancient cultures regardedthe source of this intelligence as an individual’s spiritor soul, and the heart as a portal to this essentialand eternal aspect of our being.


With the advent of modern science and medicinein the West, this broader view of the heart wasobscured and largely relegated to metaphor – thoughit survives still in the colloquial expressions of ourlanguage, which tend to connect the heart with thepart of ourselves that is most essential, authentic, lov-ing, and even wise. Yet, ironically, new discoveries atthe cutting edge of science are now beginning to reaf-firm the validity of this ancient conception of the heart– for the first time linking this larger concept of whatwe may call the “emotional energetic heart” with actualcapabilities of the physical heart (McCraty et al., 2009).Far more than just a mechanical pump, the heart is nowrevealed to be a complex sensory organ and informationprocessing system, with an intrinsic nervous system ofover 40,000 neurons whose structural interconnectivityresembles that of the neural networks in the brain(Armour & Ardell, 1994). Indeed, this “heart brain,” asscientists now call it, is known to sense diverse forms ofinput, process and encode information internally, andmake functional decisions independently of the brain inthe head (Armour & Kember, 2004). There is evidencethat the heart’s brain possesses the capacity to learn,and even has a form of memory. Moreover, afferentneurological signals sent from the heart to the braincontinuously interact with the brain’s higher cogni-tive and emotional centres. In this way, input origi-nating in the heart constitutes a major and consis-tent influence in the very processes underlying per-ception, cognition, and emotion (McCraty et al.,2009). In sum, it appears that even at the physio-logical level, the heart not only possesses an innateform of intelligence, but, through its extensivecommunication with the brain, is intimatelyinvolved in the way we perceive, interpret, feel,and respond to the world.

T H E I N T U I T I V E H E A R T

Perhaps even more intriguing is the recent, grow-ing empirical evidence of the heart’s prime rolein nonlocal intuition. Experimental findingsin this area, now replicated in different labora-tories around the world, consistently showthat the heart exhibits an electrophysiologicalresponse to a randomly selected future stimu-lus before it has occurred. These findings sug-gest that the heart effectively accesses tacitinformation about nonlocal objects and eventsfrom a domain beyond the constraints of spaceand time (McCraty, Atkinson, & Bradley, 2004a,b; Bradley, 2011). While its details are beyond thescope of this article, a theory has been proposedthat draws on the principles of holographic orga-nization to explain how this type of nonlocalintuitive perception accesses a field of energy in

which information about “future” events is spec-trally enfolded (Bradley, 2007; see also Bradley’sarticle in this issue).This electrophysiological evidence of the heart’sability to access information about the future isindeed surprising, if not astounding, when viewedin the light of the usual space/time-based frame-work in which we relate to and interpret theworld. however, the heart’s apparent capacity toact as a conduit for field-based information thattypically exists “outside” normal conscious aware-ness directly recalls the ancient cultures’ sharedconception of the heart as a source of intuitiveinsight and wisdom extending beyond our reg-ular perception. Thus, these scientific data maybe seen as providing objective evidence for aninnate intuitive intelligence that humankind hasknown and used for many millennia (McCraty,Atkinson, & Bradley, 2004a).Venturing briefly beyond the confines of sci-ence’s current measurement capability, it is myview that the neurological and electrophysiolog-ical indicators of the physical heart’s informationprocessing function and involvement in intuitiveperception are reflections, at the physical-materi-al level, of a deeper order that exists at an ener-getic (nonmaterial, field-based) level of reality. Ibelieve that at the energetic level, the heart isindeed the principal point of connection with thenonmaterial, eternal aspect of ourselves (our uniquespirit or soul), whose broad awareness encompassesnot only profound self-knowledge but also directaccess to a universal field of information outside thebounds of space-time. It is through the heart that wecan consciously increase our connectivity and integra-tion with this larger aspect of our being and grow inour ability to draw on its vast awareness.

L O V E

If the heart is a doorway to another dimension of per-ception and awareness, then Love is the key thatunlocks that door. In capitalizing the word “Love” here,I use the term to encompass a range of emotions, feel-ing states, and attitudes that arise from the heart andare sourced in love, such as gratitude, appreciation,compassion, kindness, and personal love for others –as well as a larger, impersonal Love that transcends therealm of everyday emotion and relation. Research has revealed that these heart-focused statesappear to shift the heart and entire body into a highlysynchronized and harmonious mode of function inwhich awareness is expanded, perception broadened,and emotional stability facilitated (McCraty & Childre,2004; McCraty et al., 2009). Individuals trained in


heart-based techniques to enhance these states notonly exhibit improvements in many objective mea-sures of health, emotion regulation, cognitive function,and well-being (summarized in McCraty, Atkinson, &Tomasino, 2001; McCraty & Childre 2004), but also fre-quently report a sense of gaining increased access tointernal guidance and insight – relative to both theirinternal emotional dynamics and to situations and chal-lenges in their outer world (Childre & Rozman, 2002,Tomasino, 2011). Typically, the enhanced capacity to drawon this source of intuitive discernment leads to outcomessuch as deeper self-awareness, improved emotional balanceand mental clarity, more effective decision-making andproblem-solving, greater competence in professional prac-tice, and improved quality of relationships. These out-comes suggest that the use of heart-based techniques thatenable people to self-activate and sustain feelings such aslove, appreciation, compassion, and gratitude may be onepractical means of cultivating heart intelligence.At the psychophysiological level, the practice of inten-tionally shifting into a feeling state sourced in Love pro-duces a very different internal milieu from that in whichwe typically spend most of our waking hours. Such ashift produces a profound change in the rhythmic pat-tern of activity generated by the heart, which immedi-ately becomes more coherent – highly ordered andresembling a sine wave (McCraty et al., 2009). Withthis shift in the heart rhythm, there is a correspondingqualitative change in the information sent from theheart to brain, as well as in the structure of the elec-tromagnetic field emanated by the heart, which isbelieved to be involved in the reception and trans-duction of nonlocal intuitive information (Bradley,2007). Since the heart is the body’s most powerfulbiological oscillator, furthermore, its rhythmicshift to coherence also pulls other biologicaloscillatory systems into entrainment or synchro-nization with it – including the respiratory rhythmand the brain’s alpha waves – resulting in a body-wide state of increased synchronization and har-mony in psychophysiological processes (McCratyet al., 2009). At the psychological level, in thisstate one experiences a distinct quieting of theextraneous inner “noise” generated by the nor-mal stream of unregulated mental and emo-tional activity and often a fuller sense of well-being. It appears that this movement to increasedorder and harmony at the mental and emotionalas well as the physiological level may open one to aheightened sensitivity and receptivity to field-basedand nonlocal information normally outside of con-scious awareness (Tomasino, 2011). It is postulatedthat such a psychophysiological shift enhances con-nectivity with spirit (Childre &McCraty, 2001).

S T E P S O N T H E P A T H

O F E M O T I O N A L E V O L U T I O N

As we use heart intelligence to begin to build anew relationship to our emotional experience,what markers can we expect to experience?A first and vital step along the path of humanity’semotional evolution will be the development ofincreased emotional self-awareness – which, inturn, begins simply with the ability to reliablyidentify what we are feeling in any given moment.While seemingly basic, so many people do notyet possess this important aspect of self-awareness,being largely “numb” and removed from theiremotional experience. Yet to the extent that weremain unaware and disconnected from theflows and dynamics of our feeling worlds, wealso remain cut off from our capacity to choosehow to direct these energies. It is awareness thatopens the door to choice. Emotional awarenessin itself has many levels of development, eventual-ly yielding an extremely fine-tuned, objectiveunderstanding of the often subtle emotionaldynamics that underlie our attitudes, thought pat-terns, and behaviours. Along with this heightenedawareness comes the felt-sense of being “morethan” the changing flows of our thoughts and feel-ings, even while being able to experience them fullyat the same time. As we expand our emotional self-awareness, a related capacity we are able to develop isrelational awareness – the ability to accurately per-ceive, understand, and sensitively respond to the emo-tions of others around us.Emotional discernment is a next stepping stone on thedevelopmental pathway. This constitutes the ability todistinguish feelings that are authentic drives within usfrom those patterns that are largely rooted in condi-tioning by society’s norms or by influences from ourown personal past. It also provides a finely nuancedread-out of the degree to which ego-driven emotionalpatterns (generally grounded in fear) contribute to thelayers of our feeling world, often colouring our percep-tions, motivations, and behaviors. And this discern-ment enables us to learn to recognize the qualitativeexperiential difference between the emotional flows andreactive patterns that source from this limited facet of ourawareness and those that we may call “spirit-directed” –emerging from a connection to a larger, uncondition-ally loving aspect of our awareness that provides a big-ger-picture perspective. As we grow in this capacityfor emotional discernment, we gain a beneath-the-surface view of the emotional dynamics underlyingmuch of our experience that can then inform ourchoice to begin to bring formerly “automatic,” self-sabotaging patterns into the light of our consciousawareness and control.


Before anything that is resistant can truly move, itmust first be fully accepted. Emotional acceptance is avital step that is too often overlooked by many schoolsof self-development and personal growth. In manycases it is actually our resistance to fully acknowledg-ing, allowing, and experiencing certain feelings thatkeep patterns sourced by these feelings stubbornlyheld in place. It is the act of fully accepting, owning,and embracing an immature or “childlike” emotionalpattern, with unconditional love and without judg-ment, that disarms it – melts its resistance – enablingtransmutation. heart vulnerability, self-love, and sur-render are important capacities inherent in this facet ofemotional maturation.once we have developed and applied awareness, dis-cernment, and true acceptance that is grounded in self-love, we have paved the way for emotional modulation –an act of conscious choice. This capacity to choose howwe wish to color and direct our emotional energy canbe applied in different ways. With this capacity comes theadvanced ability to effectively “slow down” or “expand” asequence of moments in which we would have typicallyexhibited an automatic, narrowly-focused, emotionalreaction, and to instead choose a response that isinformed by a source of broader insight and under-standing (Childre & Martin, 1999). Choice can alsobe applied over a longer-term timeline, as when wecommit to practices that facilitate our adoption of anew emotional attitude, so that it becomes familiarand instantiated as a new neuropsychological “setpoint” (Childre & Rozman, 2006; McCraty &Tomasino, 2006).

P R A C T I C E S T O C U L T I V A T E

H E A R T I N T E L L I G E N C E

A N D F A C I L I T A T E

E M O T I O N A L E V O L U T I O N

Based on scientific research on the heart’s holis-tic, multilevel role in the human system (inter-acting across the physiological, mental, emo-tional, intuitive, and spiritual dimensions ofexperience) and the psychophysiology of heart-focused states, tools and practices have beendeveloped that enable people to engage heartintelligence to begin to build a new relationshipwith their inner emotional dynamics. The sys-tem of heart-based tools and technologies devel-oped by doc Childre and the Institute of heart-Math utilize the heart as a point of entry into thepsychophysiological networks that underlie emo-tional experience (Childre & Martin, 1999; Childre& Rozman, 2002, 2006). These tools enable peopleto self-induce psychophysiologically coherent states,

and to become increasingly sensitive to the intuitiveinformation available to us as we access these states.Such practices facilitate both a deeper and morefinely-tuned self-awareness as well as the ability tomake more conscious choices to intentionallymodulate, transmute, and redirect patterns ofemotional energy.In addition to individual practices, increasedattention is being given to the intentional devel-opment and expression of heart intelligence ingroup-based contexts. In such settings, peoplechoose to come together with an uncondition-ally loving focus and unified intention toexpand into heightened states of consciousnessin a safe and supportive container. From thisdynamic emerges a resonant, amplified field, asboth the individuals’ and the collective’s energybecomes more focused, coherent, and refined.This amplified, coherent field appears to createan energetic environment that heightens emo-tional self-awareness and the potential for emo-tional growth and development to a much greaterextent than would normally be possible for anindividual alone. Among those visionaries whohave been exploring the dynamics of the group res-onant field as a facilitative container for growth andtransformation are doc Childre, Richard Moss (1981,

1986) Tej Steiner (developer of the “heart circle” model;2006) and Christian Pankhurst (in press). In his bookThe I that is We, Moss describes the dynamics inher-ent in this process:Focused group energy refers to the conscious orchestra-tion of a natural phenomenon whereby human energyjoins and amplifies when it is gathered around a unify-ing principle. This process is the single most powerfulway, except for the direct experience of Grace, throughwhich the energies available to the ordinary individualare amplified.The state of unconditional love becomes the “air” intowhich conditional consciousness leaps in order to beholda new dimension. The state itself is an experience thattranscends and therefore ultimately disturbs the bound-ary-creating mechanisms of our personal conscious-ness. Just being willing to attempt to realize this statebegins a major shift in consciousness. As we opentoward this new experience the very intuition of it subtlygenerates an atmosphere that inspires the potential with-in the individual (Moss, 1981: 118).It is likely that as we continue to unfold the collectiveshift in consciousness, the power of coherent communityto facilitate individual awakening will be increasinglyappreciated and drawn upon (Pankhurst, in press).


I M P L I C A T I O N S O F E M O T I O N A L

E V O L U T I O N : A V I S I O N O F

O U R A W A K E N I N G P O T E N T I A L

As we step into the exciting ability to consciouslyrepattern our emotional landscape, the implicationswill be vast. As fear and blame are progressively sup-planted with love and self-responsibility at the individ-ual level, the fundamental driving forces that shape ourcollective society will also evolve – leading to greaterlevels of cooperation, compassion, and connectednessthan our world has yet seen. While technological devel-opment may continue, eventually it will be no longer byprimarily driven by motives of greed and domination,but by a collective drive to continue to evolve spirituallyas a species and to further facilitate the expansion ofconsciousness. In humanity’s present collective state of awareness, ouremotional nature represents a vast reservoir of largelyuntapped and unfocused energy. however, once wehave begun to shift the immense power of our emo-tional energy from the unconscious sway of reactivemind to the conscious direction of heart intelligence,the door also opens to develop other innate humancapacities that utilize this energy in highly organizedand focused ways. First, I expect that we will see an enhanced sensorycapacity, stemming from a more consistent ability toaccess and utilize nonlocal intuitive perception. Thisis linked to the capacity to attune to a nonlocalobject or event of interest by directing passionateattention – focused coherent emotional energy –toward it (Bradley & Tomasino, 2011; see alsoBradley’s article in this issue). The more agile weare in our ability to self-regulate our emotionalenergy, quiet our “everyday” reactive emotions,and consciously enter love-based psychophysio-logically coherent states, the more we will be ableto draw upon and build this intuitive perceptualsense. once more fully developed, this facultywill also enable us to attune more deeply to oneanother, giving rise to mature capacities such as“telepathic” information exchange among peo-ple, as well as enhanced interspecies communica-tion. I also expect that the maturation of thisdirect receptivity to nonlocal information willradically change the way in which we approachthe process of scientific inquiry.A second, related competence humanity willgrow into is an enhanced co-creative capacity.Also termed nonlocal agency, this denotes theability to actively influence aspects of our realityby directing passionate intention – coherent emo-tional energy coupled with a specific intentionalfocus – toward objects or events we wish to affect

in some way (Bradley & Tomasino, 2011; see alsoBradley’s article in this issue). Again, our ability towork with this powerful ability will be propor-tional to our capacity to self-regulate and focusour emotional energy. Coming into a mature co-creative capacity will constitute an immense stepin the evolution of human consciousness andwill radically change our relationship to count-less spheres of human activity – not the least ofwhich will be health and healing (of ourselves,our fellow beings, and the Earth’s natural envi-ronment) and technology. It is likely that anexciting new wave of technologies will emergethat actively interface with human mental andemotional energy.While intuitive perception and nonlocal agencywill become highly developed and integrated atthe level of the individual, it is likely thatincreased recognition of the amplification effectsof the group coherent energy field will lead tomany more instances in which people gather ingroups, for significant events, to further potenti-ate our intuitive and co-creative potential (e.g.,see the discussion of the Global Coherence Initia-tive in McCraty & deyhle’s article in this issue).Thus, collective intuition and collective agency willbe increasingly drawn upon as human beings learnto work cooperatively at the field level of reality forthe good of our Planet and the realms beyond it.

P O S T S C R I P T – L O V E : T H E A L P H A A N D O M E G A

Transformation begins with the embrace of love andleads to the first essential step, which is the transmu-tation of emotions. When you begin to tell yourselfthat your emotional stance in life is a distortion ofyour potential to love, then you have invited a flameinto your life that will gradually destroy and transformyou. Richard Moss, The I that is We: 20.It has only ever been about Love. It was the beginning – theliving, formative, guiding spark inherent in the heart of allforms and expressions of consciousness. And it was always thedestination of all evolution, though the path has often beenobscured, even buried beneath layers of the ambitions of theego and ever-multiplying distractions of the mind. And,indeed, Love has always been the pathway itself, and thestepping stones contained therein. There is no growth, noexpansion of consciousness, without Love. Love of Self pow-erful enough to discard outdated patterns of emotional reac-tivity that no longer serve us – and ultimately to Surrenderour very concept of self to something far greater; love ofOther deep enough to Look and See and Hear and Listenin new ways and thereby open layers of sensitivity andconnection previously inaccessible to us; love of Love itself– our ultimate motivation – for there is no other end butto evolve into deeper, wider, more encompassing, and


more finely nuanced textures of love. Love that, in itsultimate manifestation, is Intelligence itself – a forcebeyond our wildest imaginings and at the same time con-tained in the deepest core of each of our hearts.We have reached a point on the Planet where noamount of externally-focused technological develop-ment will yield the fulfillment it seeks to deliver untilwe have a new internal emotional context in which to applyit. Without the corresponding evolution and maturingof our emotional nature, the sum of our external devel-opment is at best unfulfilling – leaving us empty – and,at worst, dangerous to our Planet and ourselves. It is animperative – our responsibility, to ourselves and to allof Life – to consciously, and with commitment, take onthis next step in our maturation as a species. heartintelligence will lead and guide the emotional revolu-tion, allowing it to give way to emotional evolution –the next step in the development of consciousness: ajourney through Love, by way of Love, into Love – lead-ing us forward into a new dimension of experience –leading us home. 8

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T

I am grateful to Doc Childre, founder of the Institute ofHeartMath, for inspiring many of the core ideas and themeselaborated in this article. I also acknowledge the work ofChristian Pankhurst and Richard Moss, which served asmore recent sources of inspiration.

R E F E R E N C E S

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(2001). Science of the Heart: Exploring the Role of theHeart in Human Performance (Boulder Creek, CA:heartMath Research Center, Institute of heart-Math, Publication no. 01-001).

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a b


Paul Von Ward, MPA & MScfrom Harvard and FloridaState University, is an inter-disciplinary cosmologist andindependent scholar. Hiscareer of public service (1960-1995) included roles as Christ-

ian minister, US naval officer,diplomat and foreign service

officer, and founder and CEO ofthe former cross-cultural NGO Delphi

International. His major books are our Solarian Legacy, Gods,Genes & Consciousness and The Soul Genome. Website:www.vonward.com; [email protected].

hE HOMO SAPIENS SPECIES IS on A PATh oF PoTEnTIAL

self-extinction. At a crossroads, we face threeself-generated armageddons: Catastrophicclimate change. Global political chaos. Col-

lapse of food and health systems. The escape routerequires a common sense of global community.The most daunting obstacle to achieving that isnot technology, funding, organization, or humanresources. It is the pervasive existence of mutuallyexclusive, existential worldviews.new York Times columnist david Brooks wrote“while global economies are converging, culturesare diverging, and widening cultural differencesare leading us into [an unprecedented] period ofconflict, inequality and segmentation1. “ I believethis deteriorating external situation results froman “increasing fragmentation of species con-sciousness.” Self-segregating subcultures arebecoming ever more isolated. Through the selec-tive use of modern media, they are further cir-cumscribing their own members’ minds withself-limiting worldviews. Given our near-universal communication net-works and global markets – in ideas, goods andservices – the above described fragmentation iscounterintuitive. nevertheless, virulent theologi-cal antagonisms are fuelling 21st century terror-ism and social warfare – too often leading to vio-lence – in all nations. Wealthy elites and sectariancults have gone beyond traditional class barriers toseparate themselves from others. Building fortressneighbourhoods and using defensive social policies,

they seek to avoid contamination by those whoare different.These trends indicate the human species is engagedin a profound re-tribalization process – at a timewhen weapons for defending culture and territoryfar exceed the destructive power of rocks andclubs. This inability of our fragmented species toreach consensus on economic, political, andsocial policies threatens our very survival. Morethan superficial lifestyles are involved.This situation is an existential phenomenon. Sus-tainable social and economic policies require bigchanges in the present self-deprecating and self-abdicating ways most humans see themselves inthe universe. A significant percent of humanitysees our existence as the accidental fall-out froman unlikely random collision of illusive particles.But, most humans think we are creatures of a Godthat has it all figured out in advance and we simplylive and die according to his whims.In either case, practically all humans think we are“just along for the ride” and have little control overour own destiny. This exegesis of worldviews sug-gests that such Second-Millennium beliefs must giveway to a Third-Millennium updating of our humanstory to encompass new insights into ancient civiliza-tions and discoveries in behavioral neuroscience andconsciousness studies2.The result can be adoption of self-empowering world-views that will literally change the world.

D E F I N I N G W O R L D V I E W

An Internet/Wikipedia search of the term worldviewreveals it is widely used – with a great diversity of defini-tions. however, the importance of the concept is greatlyunder-appreciated. Little attention has been paid to itsemotionally-charged impacts on individual and groupbehaviours. Superficial uses of the term worldviewhave obscured its fundamental role in the creation ofwars, waste of natural resources, and retardation ofhuman development.one definition of worldview is a collection of folk-tales about human life and nature. Another is that itis a personal or group story, describing one’s placein society and nature. A third definition describes it

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as a collection of presuppositions that guide socialbehaviour and give meaning to various life events.Unfortunately, these definitions minimize the impor-tance of a worldview’s role in the rate and direction ofevolution in human emotions, mental functions, andbehaviours.The word worldview comes from the German weltan-schauung, which literally means the way one views hisor her world. however, what is lost in translation is thedepth and power of this aspect of the mind and its impacton the continual reshaping of the human species and itshabitat. While our individual and collective worldviewsdetermine how we perceive our present reality, it alsolimits – or enhances – our future development. howwe create our worldview determines what we can create– peace or war, health or illness, social harmony or civildistress, etc.When two people discuss any issue, they are likely todo so from two different – even mutually exclusive –sets of assumptions about humans and their place inthe bigger picture. For all perceptual, emotional, andbehavioural purposes, we live in different realities.Individuals with radically different worldviews simplycannot cross the emotional lines required to drawsimilar conclusions from the same self-evident facts.Examples of this are found in contradictory reactionsto the human impact on our environment. The samedivergent emotional reactions arise in discussions ofthe use of military force in cultural conflicts, theeffects of chemicals in food and health, the educa-tion of children for future survival, populationpolicies, and relationships with other species. Weneed to resolve these profound emotionally-basedconflicts threatening the future of our species.Such destructive emotions result from existentialworldviews – repositories of a priori ideas acceptedas truth – based in neural circuits that directmental and behavioural responses to externalinformation. These brain-mediated responsesinclude deeply engrained assumptions, values,ethics, emotions, and survival reflexes. only whenthese semi-autonomous responses are altered canchanges in a person’s overt habits, manners, rela-tionships, and decisions occur.These emotionally-charged worldviews are notdetermined by one’s IQ level. Keith Stanovich3

described in the Scientific American Mind thathigh IQ can be easily trumped by emotions. Peo-ple can be “cognitive misers” taking the easy wayout when confronted with difficult choices. Thishappens because comfortably embedded world-views overpower logically reasonable or evidence-based interpretations of reality.

While it is obvious that our brain-meditated world-views emerge from interactions between biologyand information, a working bio-info model of thehuman worldview mechanism still eludes us. Weneed multidisciplinary team efforts to trace theprocess in which abstract ideas shape our emo-tional and physical responses. humans urgentlyneed to understand how simple, implicit world-views can have so much influence on our activethoughts and behaviours.

S T O R I E S A S W O R L D V I E W S

one way of thinking about worldviews is to seethem as narratives or cultural stories. The reli-gion-based Cradle of Western Civilization storyis assumed by European and Western hemi-sphere cultures to account for their modernityand technical prowess. however, cultures sup-pressed by the colonizers cherish their own storyand blame the invaders for their destruction.Sociologist Christian Smith, in Moral, BelievingAnimals, developed twelve contemporary “meta-narratives” he considered to have shaped humanbehaviours4. They include the eponymous Capi-talist Prosperity, Progressive Socialism, ScientificEnlightenment, Christian [Faith], Militant IslamicResurgence, and Unity-with-Brahman narratives.Successful implementation of one of these narra-tives requires tapping into previously existing world-views. As an example, in the political and religiousarenas, would-be leaders have learned to play ondeeply embedded emotions. They use key words thattrigger core beliefs to elicit changes in consumption,voting, or other behaviours. Such efforts eventually fail if the public’s fundamentalassumptions are not consistent with the advertised nar-rative. The societal evolution promoted in this papercan only occur when individuals are faced with relevantand persuasive evidence important to them that isclearly incongruent with existing beliefs. only then dohumans shift to achieve an internal consistency.Modern physical sciences can be seen as a collection ofstories. Some deal with new discoveries or outstandingscientists who offer new paradigms in their disciplines.But, these science stories created from specific fieldsfail to reach the worldview level of an existential story.That is due to the fact that science is an epistemology,only a method to test specific aspects of worldviews.A worldview based on a snapshot in the ongoing flowof science can only be a temporary proxy for the real,mostly unknown universe. Such a holding-place cos-mology can and should use pieces of knowledgegenerated by science, but the unknown gaps willalways be filled by beliefs.

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Generally speaking, when practiced with an openmind, science is a self-correcting process (even whensome individuals are attached to their own ideas orresults). Conversely, religion in general is not inter-ested in self-assessment and self-correction.

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Scholarly taxonomies of worldviews exist, but it is nosurprise that they are reflections of their creators‘ ownworldviews. They generally relate to the areas of exper-tise of the instrument maker, and illustrate philosophi-cal points they wish to communicate.Willis harman5, as an example, developed a taxonomy ofthree distinctive worldviews: 1) Materialistic Monismsees everything in the universe as based in the materialrealm, with matter and energy as aspects of a single sub-stance that produces the human mind. 2) dualismassumes that mind and matter are separate and providefor both 3-d reality and paranormal phenomena. 3)Mental Monism assumes a universe that comprises con-sciousness, non-material dimensions, and the physicaluniverse of science.dean Radin6 used these three worldviews to demon-strate how different human reactions to claims of myste-rious UFo phenomena might contribute to a progres-sive shift in consciousness. Radin describes shifts fromparanoia to inspiration and from absolute denial toopen skepticism and links then to the individuals’changing worldviews.Belief systems in others subject areas can also be cat-egorized by these three worldviews. The founders ofthe Creation Museum in Kentucky have an idio-syncratic reading of the Bible. They believe thattheir God created the Earth in six 24-hour days,and that the entire universe is only a few thou-sand years old.Anyone who does not agree with them, in theirview, will have to experience the wrath of Godwhen they meet him in heaven. The supernatur-al aspect of dualism provides cover for CreationTheories because they cannot be disproved.Conversely, the Materialistic Monism worldviewprovides cover for people like Richard dawkinswho do not accept the possibility of a conscious-ness beyond their notion of mind as an epiphe-nomenon of the material brain. he extrapolatesfrom physical evidence of an evolutionary process,and declares that no a priori force could haveorchestrated any of the evidence.In both cases believers interpret the data to suittheir purpose. They avoid discussing the fact thattheir basic assumptions cannot be disproved. Bothsides count on their status as authorities to divert

any second-order criticism based on a meta-analy-sis of their logic.In my view, attempts to construct a science-basedcosmology to support a new big picture worldviewmust make sense of the increasing flow of newinsights from quantum physics, genetics, epige-netics, ecology, anomalies in ancient history, neu-roscience, consciousness studies, and other fields.It must also take into account many areas ofhuman experience not yet understood by science.They include near-death and after-life reports,paranormal sensing through physical space andother dimensions, perceived contacts with non-human intelligences, and intuitive knowing.When I attempted such a synthesis a little overa decade ago the resulting model was one of aself-experimenting, self-learning universe filledwith varying dimensional beings – fractals of itsactivating force. In this model, consciousnessand matter are co-dependent for their mutualself-evolution7. over the last decade, the cuttingedge of science has corroborated some of it.Such a theoretical cosmological worldview can beused to make sense of disparate phenomena andwidely separated discoveries. But even if its extrap-olations reflect accepted facts, it must also includeplausible existential assumptions that readers areable to countenance. otherwise, they will likely dis-miss it despite the use of credible experience andevidence-based ideas.For these reasons, in attempts to develop strategies forserious social change the first step should be identifica-tion of the underlying worldviews that are responsiblefor the problems. To deal with the most perniciousbehavioural patterns, to use story or conceptual levelworldviews would not make much of a difference. onlychanges at the depth of teleological worldviews are deepenough to redirect the present schizophrenic evolutionarytrack of human consciousness.

T E L E O L O G I C A L W O R L D V I E W S

Whether people are humanists or creationists, physicalevolutionists or spiritual mystics, they have developedtheir own answers – or accepted answers produced byothers – to three existential questions: Where did wecome from? What are we doing here? What happenswhen we die? Regardless of experience and learning, allof us carry a set of beliefs that represents how we havecome to terms with the absence of absolute answers tothese three questions.Teleological worldviews assume a purposefulness withwhich we can go to sleep at night despite having a less-than-100% level of certainty of its cause. We cope withthis existential level of physical and mental anxiety by


articulating the best guesses we can offer ourselves.This makes it very difficult for anyone else to snatchaway our “comfort blanket” of teleological worldviews.

A T E L E O L O G I C A L Q U A D R A N T

For the last decade I have used a questionnairedesigned to identify the range of teleological world-views found in student groups, conference participants,seminar attendees, website visitors, church groups, etc.It appears to be a reliable method to categorize individ-ual worldviews at the level of basic beliefs and workingassumptions.Its simple questions are designed to transcend culturalbarriers (and, hopefully, language differences). By plac-ing people into different categories based on their fun-damental beliefs, it works across religious, educational,and class divisions.The instrument ranks the strength of the subject’s beliefsin four different modes of thinking: Materialist, Super-natural, Mystical, and Integral8. When two individualshave high scores in different modes of consciousness, itis likely that they experience life as if they were livingin different worlds or states of reality.The questionnaire has 32 questions with four possi-ble answers to each. Based on a forced choice princi-ple, the response closest to the person’s own beliefmust be selected even if it does not precisely coin-cide with that person’s vocabulary. Each responseis linked (unknown to the subject) to one of thefour modes labeled above and described below.The four scores result in a profile of the respon-dent’s teleological orientation.I: Material: Focuses on a material reality anddepends on the five senses and human technologyto validate one’s beliefs. Subordinates one’s innerexperience to a need for physical confirmation.II: Supernatural: Assumes a separate, divinerealm from which one’s god rules daily events.Favors revelations from authorities about theunknown. dismisses evidence contrary to belief.III: Mystical: Believes unseen and spiritual energiescontrol events. Sees humans as spirits with theability to directly control outer reality throughpersonal belief. Uses incantations and rituals.IV: Integral: Accepts various ways of gainingknowledge, but subjects evidence to consensualvalidation by third parties. Seeks testable, multi-dimensional connections among all phenomena.The questions are based on assumptions with noself-evident answers. Questions like “What is thedesign and purpose of nature? Why do thingswork as they do?” force subjects to select the bestoption for themselves from four like those below.

~ Yahweh created me. Mind rules. God/Allahdecides all.~ nature is neutral. Allah/God is just. humanshave free will.~ The universe is an accident. Life is governedby specific laws.The quadrant which receives the largest numberof scores is a predictor of how the individual willrespond to a wide range of ambiguous circum-stances. It serves as a lens through which theindividual interprets one’s own behaviours, thewords or actions of others, and external events.new issues or situations faced by the subject willbe seen through the same unique perspective.Since these teleological worldviews involveintangible aspects of life and the universe, theycan be modified. Many people change fromone supernatural religious sect to another, easilyleaving behind the old and accepting a new the-ology. But such changes are not teleological;they do not require new existential assumptions.Conversely, a transformation from EvangelicalChristianity to Atheistic humanism does requirea teleological death and rebirth of worldviewassumptions.Abandoning one and adopting a significantly dif-ferent worldview can occur under a number of cir-cumstances. Confrontation with clear evidence thatone’s existing beliefs are not supported by objectivereality is disturbing. We have the option of shiftingviews to make facts and beliefs congruent. or we candeny the new information and tighten our hold on theexisting beliefs.The internal conflict is best settled by adopting newassumptions. Without a satisfactory resolution, theindividual remains psychologically confused. Psycho-logical manipulations or physical force can also resultin the replacement of old worldviews.one example of forceful change of a nature-based world-view was the campaign to make other groups adopt a fic-tional cosmology created by followers of Emperor Con-stantine. They based it on one of the Middle East ancientgods (Yahweh) and conflated it with distortions of theteaching of the reformist Yeshua. Forcing this Romanworldview on hellenic and Pagan natural-science cul-tures by physical and psychological warfare led to a mil-lennia-plus era of the dark Ages.This illustrates how powerful economic or military forcescan redact the prevailing story, insert another version,and change the course of history. Such a new teleologicalworldview can be used by autocratic groups (as in thesupernatural Roman Christian strategy) as a psycho-logical weapon to condition second and later genera-tions to unquestionably accept its false assertions9.


Forced worldviews can be used ex post facto byplutocrats to maintain vested interests. They can beused to wage religious, cultural, economic, and mili-tary wars in and among civilizations.hitler’s regime was a relatively recent effort to erase theteleological worldview in one region by demeaningpsychological manipulations and vicious genocide withthe goal of creating a new society based on differentexistential assumptions. he failed due to more resilientworldviews.At this point it is obvious that such deeply ingrained tele-ological worldviews are developed by Sunday School-levellessons or mass media campaigns. however, we need toexamine how simple words can assume such power overhuman responses to other people, ideas, and events.

N E U R O S C I E N C E A N D W O R L D V I E W S

Why do humans willfully dismiss new knowledge thatwould be useful to their security, health, or quality oflife? Part of the answer is that our embedded worldviewshave a prioritized set of brain reflexes based in previouslycreated neural networks that link specific experienceswith either pleasurable or painful feelings about them.If you have positive memories of a summer of richfood and sex in Rome, pictures of the city activate ago-nist neurotransmitters that facilitate a sense of plea-sure. But, if you believe the Pope speaks for a Godthat demands penance for such sins, images of Romemay activate antagonist neurotransmitters that inhib-it a sense of pleasure. Without a set of consolidated neural memory cir-cuits to direct incoming sensory data, the brainwould become totally confused when presentedwith conflicting options. It would send mixed sig-nals to both sensory and motor neurons. To avoidthis, conscious organisms create a hierarchy ofbeliefs, ranging from a few that are consideredimmutable to many that are more mutable. Thishierarchy (worldview) is continually reconsoli-dated by various levels of new learning.Learning occurs through internal musings, activedialogue with others, and through emotionaland physical experiences. This multiplicity oflearning feedback loops makes it possible forindividuals to influence others and be influencedthemselves. however, any external input is miti-gated by the individual’s own worldview predis-positions.As an example, psychologists observe that peopleexperiencing themselves as being in a low statusgenerally generate more fear and other negativeemotions than people who perceive themselves ina higher class. The latter group, with a less over-powering amygdala (base of fear response), can use

their prefrontal lobes to act more rationally whenin the same situation.While class differentiations shape us, individuals canmodify their sense of self with group support for achange in group assumptions about status. Forinstance, a racial hierarchy in a particular regionthat disempowers the lower class can reduce thisamygdala-effect by creating a new set of socialcategories (religious, national or cultural).At this point, it is important to note that thesereciprocal social influences in the evolution ofpersonal worldviews are only a part of the sub-conscious interactions among humans. Whileour physical brain appears to be separate fromothers, the consciousness that defines each of usis actually a local manifestation of a larger fieldof quantum particles activated by an informa-tion cloud in our quantum universe. Thus, weare influenced by, and influence, everyone elsethrough subparticle entanglements. This insightfrom physics suggests concepts/beliefs embeddedin the memory sections of one brain are, to somedegree, linked to all other brains.This reciprocal model of evolutionary develop-ment involves ongoing dances between two people,group interactions, and exchanges of views andexperience at a distance. how we view ourselves ineach of these relationships is important. davidBrooks more recently10 introduced to his interestedreaders several neuroscience insights I believe are rele-vant to this discussion.In one experiment, Americans felt rewarded if theyhad considered themselves in a dominant situation.Japanese also experienced a sense of reward, but whenthey believed they were in a subordinate situation.That the brain’s caudate nucleus activated a sense ofreward equally for these apposite worldviews demon-strates different self-images still produce the same effect.Another study reported that Arabs viewing images ofpainful circumstances for subjects they considered Arabswere perceived to involve a higher level of suffering.Jews in the study rated the level of pain higher whenthey considered the group suffering it was not Jewish. Itsuggests exposure to the same images elicits differentreactions depending on a group’s worldview.In the same research, both Chinese and Americansbelieved the pain was higher when they perceived itwas happening to members of their own group than toanother group. once again, the brain (anterior angu-late cortices) reacted according to their worldview’sself-identification.This line of research suggests that humans havesynapse-based positive and negative feed-back loopswhich select the neurotransmitters that determine


whether we feel happy or sad, but which one express-es itself depends on existing embedded worldviewchoices. At this point, we do not understand how dif-ferent intellectual concepts can become drivers of thesame neural responses.My intuition leads in the direction of energized ideashaving a similar impact on brain cells as epigeneticforces have on dnA. In other words, the repetition ofspoken ideas by individuals we perceive as authoritiesabove us or a recalling of personal experiences laydown new memory-linked circuits. While this is specu-lative, some process interlacing abstract ideas and phys-ical neurons is necessary to account for inculcation ofnew ideas in some people but not in others.I am not aware of any behavioural neuroscience projectfocused on this conundrum. Much work focuses onrecording the brain images evoked by thoughts, butthese bottom-up responses do not tell us how top-down views are incorporated. nevertheless, once thesemind-brain connections are made, changes in world-views become difficult.

E X H U M I N G I M P L I C I T

W O R L D V I E W S

during four decades of cross-cultural work on per-sonal, scientific, political, and religious issues as adiplomat, educator, and psychologist, I was exposedto worldviews in a hundred countries. Identifyingand understanding their varying assumptions aboutfundamentals was essential for cross-cultural com-munication and cooperation. This experienceprovided innumerable examples of behaviourslinked to teleological worldviews like those dis-cussed above. When people speak and act on worldviews sodeeply inculcated since birth they are uncon-scious of the fact they are simply beliefs. At aconscious level the beliefs are taken as real asone’s hand.These beliefs – regardless of the lack of objec-tive, external evidence – form a gyroscope-typemechanism that insures the individual’s behav-iour remains consistent with his or her subcon-scious sense of self. Such life-defining parame-ters are embedded over time in personality-developing experiences. They resist ideas orinterpretations of events contrary to their world-view reality.The last speech prepared for John F. Kennedybefore his 1963 assassination included “We in thiscountry, in this generation, are – by destiny ratherthan choice – the watchmen on the walls of worldfreedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy

of our power and responsibility. [he was then toquote “Except the Lord keep the city, the watch-man waketh but in vain”].had he lived, Kennedy’s actions would have beentaken with a sense of certainty that he was doingGod’s work and that he really had no otheroptions. he would have had discussions with hisadvisors and heard public opinion, but the implicitassumption that he and his nation were instru-ments of God would never have been ques-tioned. Yet it energized his decision making.Working with renowned psychologist davidMcClelland in graduate studies at harvard in the1970s, I learned how one’s unconsciously chosenwords point to the emotions and behaviours thatmake up a unique personality. That researcheventually led to the above-described process forexhuming people’s largely unarticulated, butpowerful mind-brain patterns like the following.A fundamentalist Christian politician who “knows”that God speaks to him through his pastor willunquestioningly follow his dictates in making adecision for all citizens regardless of their viewsand civil rights. A fundamentalist Muslim who“knows” that Allah speaks to him through hisimam will unquestioningly follow his dictates tofight the enemy, even killing himself. Such is theimpact of theocratic worldviews on both believersand the victims of their policies.A political example in the United States is evidencethat a person’s policies on public education “reflectsthe deepest differences between liberals and conserv-atives [...] because every educational conversationmust start with [a] fundamental philosophical ques-tion [...] our beliefs about the purpose of educationare rooted in even deeper beliefs about the nature ofhumanity11.”Author Sara Robinson’s research corroborates the powerof theocratic worldviews. She writes “conservative [reli-gious-based] politics springs from one central premise:they believe that human beings are essentially fallen anddeeply flawed. human beings are swayed by uncontrol-lable passions, we make consistently bad choices and weare incapable of governing ourselves. Given our basicdepravity, civilization can only work if we submit our-selves to the external guidance of society’s appointedauthorities, and stay on the straight and narrow pathour betters have clearly marked out with rules, over-sight and punishments.”The worldview underlying this perspective is theocraticfundamentalism. From its perspective, people areborn evil, destined to a life of eternal punishment bya demanding god unless they subject themselves tothe conditions established by religious authorities.


Given these beliefs, educational institutions set theboundaries, impose order by suppressing the child’sown potential, and make sure that the existing worldorder must be preserved. Their social goal is to developdependent personalities that continue to be susceptibleto the will of religious leaders.A positivist humanistic worldview has a different per-spective: Self-realization is the goal of public education.Its purpose is to develop minds who challenge the sta-tus quo, seeking wider horizons for exploration. Self-responsibility, consensus building to promote socialdevelopment, and experimentation with self-governingare crucial in this model of public education.This worldview leads to public education policies thatdevelop democratic principles. They are based on assump-tions that people are basically good and can learn to betrusted to make moral choices. Students are encouraged tobe different and explore their talents and aspirations.A worldview shaped by unprovable assumptions givesthe person holding it license to either dismiss factualmaterial or create “facts” that are not real. A former USnavy chaplain and leader of a fundamentalist reli-gious group recently appeared on a TV show to criti-cize President obama’s personal view of same-sexmarriage as a civil right. The chaplain did not sayhis view was also a personal opinion; he tied it to anunproven belief that that gay people secrete invisi-ble, evil creatures that find and possess certain ani-mals, turning them gay as well12.Many scientists fall into the opposite parallel of thelogical trap illustrated by the navy chaplain. Aresearcher may conclude that we humans arealone in this solar system because he has not per-sonally seen a member of a more advancedspecies on Earth. But he cannot logically declarethat no such beings exist or that if they did, theyhave not been here. The circumscribed absenceof evidence offered by the researcher does notprove that they might exist.The relevant point in these two examples is thatregardless of whether a particular worldviewbelief can be proven or not, it causes the samebrain-mind stimulations of the central andperipheral nervous systems. Informal surveys sug-gest invalidated major worldview beliefs exceedthe number of major beliefs that are fact-based.Where existential beliefs are involved, unprovenones seem to be the most difficult to change.depending on the level of psychological threatinvolved, any effort to change one’s unprovenassumptions may only strengthen their emotionaldefensiveness. Simply pointing out the differencebetween belief and reality will be futile. Unless indi-viduals perceive they have experienced a life-changing

event (as Saul and Mohammed did in their respectiveroles in the creation of Christianity and Islam),changing worldviews is a complex process. An educational or social change strategy that ignoresthe brain-based, emotionally cloaked reality of fun-damental worldviews will be attempting to changethe inner core of a human personality from theoutside. It goes counter to evidence that world-view shifts are internal.A case in point is a group concerned about theincreasing dehumanization of various groups(homeless, unemployed, the mentally and sociallydisadvantaged, etc). They eschew teaching newconcepts via textbooks or distant-media learning.They try to engage those doing the dehumaniz-ing to learn from their own personal experiences.Much more research on hands-on-changes inbeliefs that deal with worldviews is needed.

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obviously human worldviews change incremen-tally in our exploration of the Earth and beyond.They also marginally shift through the course ofpolitical and economic upheavals and culturalconflicts. As in the Roman case described above,significant new worldviews may be forced on apopulation over time by powerful groups with ade-quate resources and no qualms about force.however, up to the present, no widespread, self-guid-ed, transparent up-dating of our prevailing world-views has been undertaken. A species self-experimentof such a magnitude would require a broad consensusamong disparate groups who already acknowledgecontradictions between new important areas of scien-tifically validated evidence and the tenets of out-datedbelief systems.Such an effort would be a daunting, if not impossible,task. Who would undertake a global effort of this mag-nitude? They would have to challenge the most covetedassumptions about the places of gods, humans, otherintelligent species, and non-physical beings in this uni-verse and beyond.nevertheless, I believe the relevant principles, methods,and technologies are now available to us. I also thinkthat sufficient interdisciplinary evidence indicates thathuman consciousness is on a self-destructive evolution-ary track. Fortunately, it appears, that evolving researchefforts now in separate fields could be integrated toassemble a new, more plausible teleological worldview.Given the dire nature of current social, economic,political, and technological trends, we really have noanother option if we wish to avoid a self-imposeddisaster of global proportions. due to the prevailing


worldviews held by the leaders of major institu-tions, they cannot be expected to take the lead. Self-identified open-minded scholars, social activists,independent-minded scientists, and highly motivatedvolunteers from all walks of life must take the lead.Everyone motivated to make a contribution to the sur-vival of Homo sapiens potential must demonstrate howout-dated, mistaken, self-retarding, and false assump-tions in prevailing worldviews are responsible for thechallenges that now face us. With such analyses in hand,they can challenge large institutions to introspectivelyanalyze their contributions to the problem.A few brave groups willing to challenge the status quo at alevel of intelligence and specificity difficult to ignore mayhelp the species avoid losing our place on this planet andbeyond. They will need a coordinated campaign to con-struct a new teleological worldview based on the edges ofscientific exploration, including areas of research dis-missed by backward-looking scientists.Because our present core assumptions in our existentialand teleological worldviews derive from life experiencesand changing cultural knowledge, we know they aremutable through new experience or learning. Smallgroup efforts indicate that people can collectivelytransform their specific worldview assumptions if theindividuals are generally predisposed. however, suchchange is not easy and requires serious steps of con-scious reevaluation and belief change13.

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The case is very strong that humans are in a self-made crisis based on worldviews that benefit a fewand subject the masses to their consequences. Mod-ern supernaturalism and materialism are based onassumptions that are conducive to their founderscontrol over human consciousness.The same charge can be made about any insti-tution that demands unquestioned faith in theinfallibility of its leadership. Authority figuresin political, military, corporate, and education-al institutions use their control over resources,access to lucrative positions, and less tangiblerewards as recognition and reputation to keeppeople in line with their prevailing worldviews.At this point in history, there are no incentivesfor the most powerful shapers of worldviews toupset today’s status quo. The extreme conflictsamong belief systems generate fearful emotions intheir devotees that enhance the leaders’ powerover them. demagogues excite the emotions thatraise volunteers, voters, and funds to protect theirinterests, even to the point of the faithful sacrificingthemselves to cultural wars, even to taking part insuicidal missions.

Given their benefits, the most powerful institutionson Earth have no interest in supporting a revolutionin human consciousness. however, without a con-structive fundamental shift in worldviews, thechallenges of climate change, over-population,internecine strife, deteriorating physical health,and isolation from other intelligent life cannot bemet. We are immobilized by these opposing setsof worldviews.The existential progress of our species is stalledbetween the grips of supernaturalism and mate-rialism, and they get no help from large groupsof ineffectual mystics who think they can dreamus out of a quagmire. The most difficult obstacleto change is that we are caught between belli-cose protagonists promoting mutually exclusivetheism and atheism. We need a new path.The teachers known as Buddha and Lao Tzu(two-and-a-half millennia ago) objected to thetheistic model that had grown from early humanexperiences with more advanced beings. Thesetwo wise men saw that humans had been trappedby their own other-worldly projections on leg-endary rulers. They urged avoidance of supersti-tious, anthropomorphic spiritual beliefs. Their tele-ological approach was to identify self-evident prin-ciples in nature.The starting point was a neutral investigation –without a priori attitudes – in their attempts to pene-trate the mysteries of life. They dealt with fancifulbeliefs from a neutral position, analyzing them, anddeveloping conclusions based on reasonable use offacts. Unfortunately, their and later Middle East effortsto develop natural science and philosophy were smoth-ered by the god cults blossoming over the next twomillennia. Supernaturalism reigned throughout theWestern world.A moment of opportunity for fact-based worldviewsarose during the Renaissance. Science re-discovered thenatural hellenic worldview and broke through manysuperstitions. Unfortunately the new burst of scientificthinking was soon captured by the Industrial Revolu-tion. The realm of supernaturalism was left to the the-ologians. Without a check on each other, the dominanthuman worldviews were divided into material scienceand mystical theology. neither perspective can move homo sapiens to a trulynew level of consciousness evolution. To create a newmeta-worldview will take many independently-think-ing scholars who can admit that their basic beliefs arejust that – subjective assumptions based on partialinformation. They must be willing to open theirresearch, writing, and teaching to address the fol-lowing questions:


What do we really know about the origins of life?… the outer boundaries of human consciousness?... the mechanisms that insure self-learning evolution?... how deeply and widely do life forms self-propa-gate in the universe? ... the evidence of transcendentminds... and more.Such an effort will lead to greater consensus on tenta-tive, open-ended answers to the preceding questions.All disciplines and institutions can become more vul-nerable. They can publicly admit to the fragile basis ofthe continually shifting evidence that now underpinsmajor worldviews.discoveries obtained in the above proposed search foranswers will lead to a more inclusive worldview necessaryto global community. Confessing that we do not know itall, regardless of our positions in society, has the possibilityof holding together our threatened species. 8

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1 Brooks, d. Column, New York Times, August 11, 2005.2 Von Ward, P. (2011). We’ve Never Been Alone (Charlottesville,

VA: hampton Roads Publishing)3 Stanovich, K. (nov. 2009). “Rational and Irrational

Thought” in Scientific American Mind. 4 Smith, C. (2003). Moral, Believing Animals. (new York:

oxford UP).5 harman, W. (1990). The Global Mind Change. Boston:

Grand Central Publishing).6 Radin, d. “Shift at the Frontiers of Consciousness”,

IONS Newsletter, (winter) 2008-09 (21): 22-27.7 Von Ward, P. (2001). Our Solarian Legacy (Char-

lottesville, VA: hampton Roads Publishing).8 Von Ward, P. details and process are online at

http://www.vonward.com/selfassessmenttools.html .9 Von Ward, P. (2004). Gods, Genes & Consciousness.

(Charlottesville, VA: hampton Roads Publishing).10 Brooks, d. (oct. 12, 2009). “The Young and the

neuro”. New York Times.11 Robinson, S. Alternet. May 18, 2012.

http://www.alternet.org/story/155469/how_the_conserva-tive_worldview_quashes_critical_thinking_and_what_thatmeans_for_our_kids%27_future?page=entire.

12 Webster, S. The Raw Story Website. Accessed May 18,2012. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/18/former-navy-chaplain-insists-gay-demons-can-infect-animals/.

13 Von Ward, P. AHP Perspective, http://www.ahpweb.org/pub/perspective/nov2005/nov_menu_2005.html.

a b


Gail Hochachka, BSc, MA, pro-ject coordinator with the non-profit organizations One Sky– The Canadian Institute forSustainable Living and Drishti– Centre for Integral Action,and co-director of the globalnetwork Integral Without Bor-

ders, works in international devel-opment using integral principles. Her

focus is on the need for greater synthesisand integration between disciplines in this field, particularlybetween social change theory, systems theory, and consciousnessstudies. She has carried out action research and been involved inprojects towards this integration in rainforest conservation, capacitybuilding, leadership development, climate change adaptation,and community resilience in different countries of Latin Americaand Africa. She is a published author including the book,Developing Sustainability, Developing the Self: An IntegralApproach to International and Community Development,as well as several articles in Journal of Integral Theory andPractice, Trialog, and Ecological Applications.


“‘Mankind,’ said Plotinus, ‘is poised midway between thegods and the beasts.’ […] For if men and women havecome up from the beasts, then they will likely end upwith the gods. The distance between man and the gods isnot all that much greater than the distance betweenbeasts and man. We have already closed the latter gap,and there is no reason to suppose that we shall not even-tually close the former. As Aurobindo and Teilhard deChardin knew, the future of humankind is God-con-sciousness […]. But if men and women are up form thebeasts and on their way to the gods, they are in themeantime rather tragic figures. Poised between the twoextremes, they are subjected to the most violent of con-flicts. No longer beast, not yet god – or worse, halfbeast, half god: there is the soul of mankind. Put itanother way, humankind is an essentially tragic figurewith a beautifully optimistic future – if they can survivethe transition.” (Wilber, 1985: viiii).

ENDERLY HANGING IN THE BALANCE BETWEEN

beasts and gods, here we find humankind.Surely one of the more enlightened species,yet one who’s complexity of consciousness

creates problems as well as provides solutions. Today’senvironmental and social crises are created by the

very human mind that can also undo them. Ourpotential for this, however, is only half realized.We have further to go.The field of international sustainable develop-ment is concerned with how we, as a humanfamily, are doing at this moment on the planet –how are we living with each other and withnature. It’s main focus and objective is nothingless than the wellbeing of our planet. In thisarticle, I suggest that this wellbeing is arrived atvia engaging in the development of conscious-ness, as it arises in self, behaviour, culture andsystems, from a place of deep presence in ourown awareness. With an integral approach tointernational development, as written about byKen Wilber (1985, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2006)and practiced by numerous individuals and orga-nizations all over the world1, integral practitionersbring a particular understanding of consciousnessinto the practice of development. Below, I willdescribe two key aspects of how consciousness isengaged in development from the perspective ofIntegral approach used in Latin America and Africa.Historically, international development tended to largelyfocus on exterior indicators of change, the idea beingthat interventions for increasing economic growth wouldassist the other domains of life (Hochachka, 2009). Theadage underpinning this conventional approach to devel-opment was, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and in truth itdid support gains in many arenas, providing, for exam-ple, important advances in education and medicine. And,surely as nations moved out of abject poverty, other facetsof their development could arise. In fact, it is not eco-nomic development that an Integral approach takes totask. Rather, it is the exclusivity of that as the main focus,without a concurrent understanding of how human con-sciousness and culture also weave into the overall achieve-ment of social wellbeing.The Integral approach provides a rigorous integrativeframework for how to include interior developmentincluding yet going beyond the more usual focus onexterior, largely economic, development. This approachhas been extensively written about by Ken Wilber (2006)and has been applied by hundreds of practitioners invarious fields (see Journal of Integral Theory and Practice),many of which pertain to sustainable international

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development, such as, climate change (O’Brien andHochachka, 2010), community development(Hochachka, 2009), and ecology (Esbjörn-Hargens andZimmerman, 2008). In international sustainable devel-opment, an integral approach essentially includes:a ~ A more dynamic, practical integration of disci-plines particularly those under the broad umbrellas ofpsychology, cultural studies, behavioural science, andsystems science, b ~ A greater understanding of development, includ-ing interior development (evolution of consciousnessand culture) as well as exterior development (evolutionof behaviour and systems), and c ~ A frame of reference or a way to ‘hold’ reality froma deeper seated place in one’s own consciousness, one inwhich Spirit is recognized and honoured.To read more about the dynamic integration (item a)that an Integral approach provides, there are other arti-cles written which articulate and give examples (seeHochachka, 2009). In this article, I touch particularlyon the inclusion of consciousness in development, as itarises in the final two points b) and c) above.

T H E W A Y T O W E L L B E I N G I S U P

In a historical moment where hierarchy has beenheavily criticized and deconstructed, it is rare to finda developmental approach brought into mainstreampractice. Drawing on developmental psychologists(Kegan, 1994; Cook-Greuter, 1999) as well as sys-tems’ theorists (Koestler, 1990), Wilber introducedthe idea of holarchy to be a hierarchy of nestedwholes, each with increasing depth and inclusivity.His work suggested that reality is construed ofthis holarchy, with everything being part of alarger whole, all the way down and all the wayup. In the same way a letter is part of a word,which is part of a sentence, which might be partof a book, the earlier developmental stages weformulated in our consciousness when we werechildren are still parts of the later stages thatwere learned and embodied as we grew up, cre-ating a similar interior holarchy of being.This holarchy of these stages of consciousness –from our earlier selves through to our later, morecomplex selves – matters in sustainable develop-ment because it is how our world changes. Wilberrefers to the general worldviews of egocentric,sociocentric, worldcentric, and kosmoscentric torefer to these deepening, complexifying stages ofconsciousness. With each transformation up thisholarchy, comes a greater ability to include perspec-tives and extend compassion more widely. Childrenare naturally egocentric, as they stabilize their sense of

self. They gradually orient sociocentrically, to theirfamily unit, their extended social group (tribe, neigh-bourhood, community), to their nation-state. Andhopefully they grow into a worldcentric orienta-tion, extending care to communities and nationson the other side of the planet, to other species,and to groups of ‘others’ that they don’t normallyself-identify as being part of. As one’s conscious-ness changes along with it does one’s self-identityand behaviours, as well as the way one con-structs culture and designs systems. In otherworlds it has ramifications throughout themanifest world one participates in.The key characteristic of later levels of con-sciousness is that, from those stages, more per-spectives can be taken. The significance of thatcannot be understated. Especially in times ofsocial conflict, environmental degradation, orextinction of other species, we need avenues inour consciousness to take perspectives beyondour own, and thus enact greater degrees of care.The social achievements that have marked thepast century, such as the abolition of slavery,women’s liberation, and environmental awareness,have all been arrived at via a stage of conscious-ness present in humanity that was sufficient totake perspectives of the so-called ‘other’ and extendgreater depths of care and concern. In fact, eventhe field of international development itself arisesfrom a later stage of consciousness, one that is gen-uinely concerned for the wellbeing of nations andcare for the planet as a whole, not predominantlyconcerned with one’s own family, tribe, company,nation or bioregion, as has been historically the case.So, the way to wellbeing is, on the one hand, vertical.Later stages of consciousness inherently lean towardssustainability and worldcentrism. That said, on theother hand, wellbeing can also be horizontal. That is,how healthy one is in one’s current development is alsoan important factor in overall development.Point being, with an Integral approach, we take the word,“development”, seriously. It’s not just about bridges,roads, and incomes levels. But also about how much ofreality one can include in one’s consciousness throughgreater perspective-taking and increased care and con-cern, as well as how healthy one can be at whateverstage of consciousness one is currently experiencing.How consciousness develops, then, has become a mainfocus of the field of integral studies, and is one thatwe are continually practically inquiring into in ourwork in sustainable development.Integral Theory draws on developmental psychology todescribe how this holarchy of consciousness develops:how each stage births a new perspective, fills out that

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perspective with ways of knowing, being, and doing,eventually coming to its own limits and then trans-forming to a new stage. When, however, there is anobstruction or imbalance, then stasis or regression fromthat natural unfolding occurs. When the flow of devel-opment gets stuck, our work is to inquire into where it’sstuck and why, and to work towards how it can bereleased for the inherent development to re-engage. This is quite commonly understood in the work of psy-chotherapy or counselling. When we work in systemsand social change, we apply similar thinking, with someimportant adjustments, to the collective domain.In international development this understanding of con-sciousness helps us not fall into the retro-Romantic viewof development being a return to a Golden era of indige-nous perfection. Nor does it fall into the industrial, neo-colonial view of ‘third world’ and ‘first world’ countries par-ticipating in a linear race to a Western- and economically-defined endpoint. Instead, it sees that healthy develop-ment arises as a series of ‘nested wholes’ where overallwellbeing results from each stage being healthy and well-integrated.Thus, integrating consciousness into developmentpractice includes perceiving the whole unfolding as aholarchy, assessing sticking points and working torelease those blocks that stand in the way of an inher-ent impulse towards evolution. It also includes layingthe emergent ground for a worldcentric expressionof consciousness, while also contributing to the con-ditions out of which healthy expressions of all ofstages of consciousness can arise. The work involvescontinually engaging these various dimensions ofassisting all stages to manifest as healthfully aspossible, as well as contributing to the emergenceof a worldcentric (and kosmoscentric) stage fromwhich sustainability and a sustainable develop-ment are inherent features.Below, I share one example from a leadership forsustainable development project in West Africato assist in illustrating how this looks in practice.

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One of the most recent examples of how con-sciousness development is brought into sustain-able development work is found in the CanadianNon-Governmental Organization One Sky’s workin Nigeria. One Sky ran a three-year integral lead-ership development program that engaged thirtyemerging leaders in the social change sector inCross River State, Nigeria. The One Sky teamwas made up of integral practitioners from a varietyof backgrounds such as social work, life coaching,community development, and human rights. Theirunifying framework was the integral approach to

leadership and sustainable development. The pro-gramme sought to work with the holarchy of con-sciousness development in a very particular way,which I’ll explain here2. As described above, entering into a context, anintegral team must first take stock of what is pre-sent, where is there flow and stasis, and where isthere ‘emergent ground’ for transformation.This occurred with the One Sky team through abaseline assessment that sought to anchor thisproject in what is most meaningful and relevantto participants (their current worldview) as wellas to align with where they are growing toward(new worldview). Findings from the assessment –which began in year one and continued through-out the three years – were used to create, adjustand refine the leadership curriculum and activi-ties to be in meaningful resonance with the inter-ests, understanding and values of participants.The assessment used mixed-methods: usingobjective measurement tools (employing a third-person perspective) such as observation, partici-pant-observation; intersubjective methods (employ-ing second-person perspective) such as group dia-logue and interviews; and subjective methods(employing first-person perspective) such as reflec-tive inquiry and mindfulness. Examples of some of the aspects included in thisassessment are listed below.Interior competencies and consciousness:1 ~ General stage of consciousness of the group(with some sense of where the leading edge is, heldby certain individuals);2 ~ Approximate stage of consciousness for the cogni-tive line (ability for perspective-taking, complexity ofmindset, mental models for time and space);3 ~ Approximate stage of consciousness for interper-sonal line (ability for cross-perspective dialogue);4 ~ Approximate stage of consciousness for self-identity(at times referred to as self-stage, with a particular focuson self-esteem and self-confidence as a leader);5 ~ Approximate stage of consciousness for moral line(ego-, socio-, world-centric).Exterior skills:1 ~ Skills for establishing and mainstreaming genderequality;2 ~ Communication skills (written, spoken, conflictengagement);3 ~ Project management skills (project cycle fromvisioning, through implementation and reporting);4 ~ Skills with influencing systems such as policydialogues and good governance advocacy;5 ~ Networking skills.

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We aligned our curriculum design to the findingsand recommendations of this assessment. One par-ticular recommendation was to assist in providingthe conditions for stabilizing an ‘achiever’ stage ofconsciousness (Cook-Greuter, 1999), which is the alsothe emergence of a worldcentric stage (Wilber). Wedid this partially through including skills and compe-tencies in ‘all quadrants’ of the integral approach,including developing the self, engaging culture, as well asbuilding skills and influencing systems (FIGURE 1). Integraltheory suggests that fostering a balance in all thesedimensions of being (referred to as quadrants in IntegralTheory) assist in laying the emergent ground for ahealthy expression of an existing stage, and may catalyzetransformation to the next unfolding stage.This attunement to the context and needs in the leader-ship participants continued throughout the three years,sometimes re-orienting our entire design for a workshopor shifting the flow of where the curriculum was headed.

At the end of year two, we had the opportunityto have the sentence-completion test (referredto as the SCT or the Leadership DevelopmentProfile) done with all participants. The results,depicted below in FIGURE 2, found that the vastmajority of the group were at an achiever-worldcentric stage of consciousness. This wasinteresting for a couple of reasons. First of all, they corresponded with our baselineassessment’s main recommendation – to assist thestabilizing of an achiever-worldcentric stage ofconsciousness. Though the One Sky team hadstudied these developmental stages of conscious-ness thoroughly and also employed an array ofmethods to get a sense of ‘where people are coming

from’, the team did not use an empirical tool likethat of the SCT. These more validated, empiricalresults helped the One Sky team see the value init’s more grassroots way of assessing stage of con-sciousness and also served to orient the leadershipprogram to better serve the leading edges of con-sciousness in the group. Secondly, it also challenged the biases that somepeople may hold about Africans. The personevaluating the SCT results said that these scoresare exactly what one would expect to find inany group of leaders in a North Americanorganization, for example. This is an impor-tant finding that debunks some of the mythsabout Africa and calls into question the manyunexamined cross-cultural assumptions thatare simply incorrect.In this example, the leadership program sought toprovide a curriculum that would foster a healthy

expression of the existing stage of consciousness, and alsoprovide the stimulus, the challenge and support for ashift to the next stage. Not only did the four leadershipretreats support this, but also the participants’ ‘break-through initiatives’ did as well. These initiatives that weredesigned and carried out by participants in the surround-ing communities to address the pertinent issues in theregion, such as HIV/AIDS, climate change, loss of biodi-versity, women’s empowerment, and youth employment.Each initiative was an opportunity to apply what onehad learned, and stretch into the new ground of con-sciousness evoked by their learning and engagementin the program. Additionally, the program includedintegral coaching as a transformative, one-on-oneapproach to scaffolding the changes in conscious-ness towards new ways of being.


DEVELOPING SELF BUILDING SKILLS

Leadership Vision and Personal Capacity Workplace performance~ Coaching ~ Writing skills (email, reports, blogging, internet)~ Integral Life Practice ~ Visioning~ Mind (perspective taking; learning elements of Integral Theory) ~ Strategic planning~ Shadow ~ Fundraising~ Moral span ~ Media

~ Monitoring and evaluation

ENGAGING CULTURE INFLUENCING SYSTEMS

Organizational Culture and Learning Organizational and Societal Systems~ Interpersonal skills (communication, group dynamics, facilitation) ~ Policy analysis and dialogue~ Conflict resolution ~ Multi-stakeholder engagement~ Team building ~ Networking~ Diversity and gender ~ Applied learning of systems theory

FIG. 1 ~ Designing curriculum to include and balance interior and exterior dimensions of leadership development.

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O F C O N S C I O U S N E S S

Integrating a more robust understanding of howconsciousness develops helps to avoid some of thecommon pitfalls in the field of international devel-opment. There are three important ‘facts’ abouthow consciousness develops that help in this way.Firstly, everyone is born at zero – as childrenwho develop through the infant and early child-hood stages – so we are all beginning from thesame starting point, no matter what. This assistsin flattening the playing field, so that no one issuperior to another simply by the fact that weall start from the same point in our conscious-ness development.Secondly, although ‘life conditions’ seem to becritical in the subsequent development throughchildhood, adolescence and adulthood, thatdoesn’t exclusively refer to affluent systems orsupport structures. In other words, poverty doesnot indicate one has less chance to developthrough these stages. Lack of education, perhaps;but not poverty in and of itself. There are fre-quent and substantial examples of individualswho sourced the support and challenge they neededto reach later developmental stages through other‘life conditions’ beyond the material, such as, throughnterior inspiration, cultural support, communitywell-being, and spirituality.

Thirdly, drawing on many developmental psycholo-gists, Ken Wilber points out that in any given popu-lation, there is an approximate breakdown of a largerpercentage of people who act from egocentric tosociocentric stages and a much smaller percentage ofthose at a later worldcentric stage, and an even smallerpercentage at a kosmoscentric stage. So, whether that’sin an organization in the USA, a community in LatinAmerica, a neighbourhood in Europe, or in a city inWest Africa – in all these social groups, the spread ofstages are similar. In the above example from this workwith a group of thirty leaders in civil society organiza-tions in Nigeria, we found this to be verifiably the case.The same array of stages were present in this group asthere would be in any group in North America or Europe:generally speaking, with a majority at a socio-centricstage, a smaller group at a world-centric stage, and aneven smaller minority at a later kosmoscentric stage. Thishelps to avoid (or at least be more aware) of the oft-madeerrors by Northern development practitioners to assumethat wealthy, educated means a ‘higher’ consciousnessdevelopment when in fact that isn’t necessarily the caseat all; consciousness grows and deepens through anarray of conditions that support its developing com-plexity, which can be arrived at by anyone, anywhere,anytime. More to the point, in sustainable develop-ment, we should be identifying for those individualswho hold a later stage of consciousness wherever theyare, and seeking to challenge and support them asleaders and catalysts of change.


FIG. 2 ~ The spectrum of levels of consciousness found in the One Sky leadership program. Expert-LateExpert would be more sociocentric stage of consciousness. Early Achiever through to Individualist is

considered worldcentric. And Strategist and higher tips into a more kosmoscentric stage. (Wilber, 2006).

F R E E D O M I N A C T I O N

“We have to give ourselves plenty of room to feel absolute per-fection in everything that’s arising. And yet […] see one personstarving and you will start crying so hard it will kill you. Andif you’re not doing both you’re doing something wrong.” (Wilber,2005, http://integrallife.com/video/hurts-more-bothers-you-less ).

This above description of engaging the transforma-tions in consciousness development is only one side ofthe story. There is another side to this consciousnessstory in development, which makes up the secondimportant way that integral practitioners work withconsciousness in development. According to the wisdom traditions3, the source of suf-fering is internal. Our attachment to outcomes or pref-erences that are not currently present, bring us to seekthese in a future state, outside of the ‘now.’ This seekingbinds us into a cycle of illusion (since the future doesn’tyet exist), unable to rest with ‘what is.’This is a very different answer to human suffering than thefield of international development has given. ‘Develop-ment’ as a professional field, has placed the locus of suffer-ing externally, in unjust political systems, depressed eco-nomic systems, unfair international monetary arrange-ments, environmental pollution and lack of hygiene thatnegatively impact human health. In a conventionalsense, it is sought to be alleviated through economicgrowth, through job creation, through improvedhealth indicators, through greater infrastructure andeducational systems, and so forth. This is obviously not wrong, but it is very differ-ent to how the (particularly Eastern) wisdom tra-dition’s wrangled with this human predicamentof suffering. These traditions went in a differentand deeper direction with their inquiry, seeinghow the operation of the mind and of con-sciousness actually greatly influences how theworld is perceived and how one’s being relatesto that world.These teachings taught ways out of sufferingthat were predominantly internal. Shifting one’sawareness to become liberated from the wheelof samsara, or cause and effect, through realiz-ing the transitory nature of the separate selfand identifying beyond it, to pure awareness.This comes about through a deep and pro-found practice that effects changes in one’s con-sciousness. And such a shift in awareness allowsfor a freedom, a refuge, and a radical release onthe other side of lack, pain, and fear. From thatplace, there is nothing that isn’t already over-flowing in wellbeing, there is nothing that needbe ‘developed’, there’s nothing that’s not alwaysalready perfect.As practitioners of an Integral approach, we seean important need to integrate these insights on

consciousness from the wisdom traditions and topractice upon our own consciousness to hold thisspacious view as much and as often as possible inthe very work of development. In fact, this cancompletely shift and even dissolve the concept of‘development.’ That is, yes, we need an increasingcomplexity of levels of consciousness, especially inour leaders and in our social contracts, but wealso need a way to settle our view more deeply, tosee that ‘development’ of form is only one way tosee wellbeing. Even with all the built structuresand system supports through a greater (exterior)development, without this interior freedomgained through the profound practice uponone’s own consciousness, there will still be suf-fering. The constant search and seeking for abetter state takes one out of the ‘now’, binds oneinto a search for a desired future, which, the tra-ditions say, is only an illusion.So, as practitioners of an integral approach theother important way we include consciousnessis in our very presence, our very understandingof our own minds, of the human condition, andthe role that awareness plays in liberation fromsuffering. On the one hand, we work for the alle-viation of suffering of all beings – seeing sufferingas that which arises in exterior forms as hunger,thirst, lack of shelter, conflict, etc. as well as thatwhich arises in an interior form as seeking, desire,fixation on something ultimately not real. And yet onthe other hand, there is a Perfection to this moment,to this world just as it is, there is no suffering thatneed be alleviated. Holding that presence, even as wethen paradoxically engage in the activities of a sus-tainable development, really changes the energy withwhich we work.As Wilber says, this paradox is not one that has beensolved, and perhaps isn’t one to be solved. He says, “Idon’t know anybody who has simply resolved that. AndI don’t think you’re supposed to, and I think the peoplethat do are just playing on one side or the other side ofthat street.” It our work in sustainable development, thisis a paradox to be felt and lived: brought into eachmoment we regard suffering, and infused with ourefforts to foster wellbeing. The field of international development gives us amplemoments in which to practice this paradox. Not only inthe many moments of witnessing hardships, illness, eco-nomic inequalities, and other difficulties that peopleexperience daily in developing countries. But also inthe ‘poverty’ of a different sort in the affluent devel-oped world, a poverty of awareness of these other real-ities and a poverty of collectivism and community inthe hyper-individualized north. One cannot work inthis field without all these sources of suffering to be


present and apparent. The other moment in whichto practice this paradox arises from the fact that thefield of development is inherently attuned towardwhat is to come next in a region, community, or area– attuned, that is, to development of a future state,not resting in the presence of this current state, thispresent Now. This orients practitioners into a futurereality such that, often, they become prone to see thecurrent reality as ‘not enough’ in one way or another,and thus become locked into a ‘seeking’ and ‘efforting’mindset. This is exactly what the wisdom traditions sug-gest locks one out of the ever-present now, out of thespaciousness found in non-seeking and non-effort, andout of an awakened state.Ken Wilber describes how this paradox gives rise to astate of being in which one is more and more sensitiveto feel and be hurt by the pain and suffering of theworld, and yet simultaneously less bothered by thatpain. He says, ‘it hurts you more, but bothers you less.’Using an analogy of a dream, he explains how: “So ofcourse you want to work to alleviate suffering […] butin the Absolute side [of this paradox], the analogy is ifyou’re in a dream at night and there are thousands ofpeople starving, there are two ways you can stoptheir hunger. One is, in the dream, you can try tofeed them all. And the second is you can wake up.And that will end their suffering immediately. Butthey’re both right, they’re both true.”An integral approach to sustainable developmenthas us deeply practicing these two dimensions.Honing our skills and abilities to engage in globalissues, which would be akin to “trying to feedthem all” in the quote above, as well as “wakingup out of the dream” through the various spiri-tual practices or “consciousness practices” thatcan operate on and shift our awareness in waysthat enable this wakeful action. Integral practitioners across the board tend tohave practices to support their holding of thisparadox and to assist them in establishing a spa-cious holding of reality and graceful frame formaking meaning of the world we live in. Prac-tices that help them establish a view of theAbsolute, be it through the spaciousness ofmeditation, devotion of prayer, or the expansive-ness of yoga, any of the many ‘consciousnesspractices’ that encourage this paradoxical hold-ing of both the Great Perfection as well as theongoing search for greater wellbeing. In theexample from the One Sky team in Nigeria, everyperson involved in that program – the designers,fundraisers, coordinators, facilitators, coaches, andparticipants – had some form of “consciousnesspractice” (some were overtly spiritual and otherswere more secular) ranging from yoga, meditation,

prayer, devotional practice, exercise or embodimentpractices like dance, voice dialogue, Big Mind, andmore. These were held personally and only somewere rooted in spirituality or religion, but all wereintended to support the practitioners’ ability tohold the tremendous energy that is present in thisfield of work. Not turning away from suffering,but rather directly engaging it, metabolizing itand making meaning of it in this paradoxicalway described by Wilber. Ever ‘hurting more’and yet somehow ‘bothered less.’Speaking personally, as the years go by working inAfrica, Latin America and Canada in situationsof poverty and environmental degradation andfostering a sustainable development, I feel asharper pain upon witnessing suffering and I amless and less able to turn away, yet all the whileless bothered by it, as I am less convinced of ourseparate selves, less romanced by the illusion ofthe future, and more relaxed into the spaciousnessof the heart.And I can’t help but wonder and marvel abouthow this presence may in turn impact the peoplesand communities we work with in different ways.Rather than bringing a striving and ‘efforting’ energyto a situation, would a practitioner who is holdingthis deeper presence feel different to others andengage differently as a result? Like homeopathicdrops in a larger field of the collective, would thiswakeful action have a different impact upon theworld? I’d like to imagine that it would. Everyoneknows that the drop is contained in the ocean, but noteveryone knows that the ocean is contained in thedrop, wrote the poet Kabir 4. And perhaps every drop– every individual that engages this wakeful action –has an impact on that greater ocean of which it is a part.

C O N C L U S I O N

The field of international development focuses on thegrossest inequities and the starkest problems of ourtime. As integral practitioners in this field, at its essence,it is about the development and liberation of conscious-ness itself. With the research and rigor of the develop-mental psychologists who have studied and mapped thepathways of consciousness development in hand, wecan now move further than ever before in laying theemergent ground for existing levels of consciousness tobe enacted with greater wellbeing, and for new levels ofconsciousness to become embodied and established inself, behaviour, cultures, and systems. Yet, we humansremain part animal, part divine. We hang in that ten-sion, working our consciousness to both grow anddevelop in form, as well as to release back into theformless Ground, where all that is arising simply is.


From that place of both developing into our fullness,and assisting all others to do the same, we also prac-tice towards a freedom beyond seeking, beyond oppo-sites, beyond form. That paradox of working towardsboth the development of consciousness as well as theliberation of consciousness in the field of internationalsustainable development becomes the signature of anintegral practitioner. Though it is an unsolvable paradox,it is one that we simply can’t turn away from. And in sodoing, we can hope that it may bring our world just thatmuch closer to a greater love, truth and beauty. 8

——————

1 See www.integralwithoutborders.org.2 There are many other facets to this programme that I will not

have the space to describe here, but more information can be foundat www.onesky.ca.

3 Particularly those from the East, such as, Buddhism, Hin-duism, and Kashmir Shaivism.

4 A drop / Melting into the sea, / Everyone can see. / But the sea /Absorbed / In a drop – / A rare one / can follow!

R E F E R E N C E S

COOK-GREUTER, S. (1999). Postautonomous ego develop-ment its nature and measurement. Doctoral disserta-tion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School ofEducation. UMI Dissertation Information ServicesUMI #9933122).

—— (2002). A detailed description of the development ofnine action logics adapted from ego development the-ory for the leadership development framework. Avail-able at http://www.cook-greuter.com/.

ESBJÖRN-HARGENS, S. & ZIMMERMAN, M. E. (2008).Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives onthe Natural World (New York: RandomHouse/Integral Books).

GEBSER, J. (1985). The Ever-Present Origin (Athens:Ohio University Press).

HOCHACHKA, G. (2009). Developing sustainability,developing the self: An integral approach to inter-national and community development (Victoria,BC: Trafford).

KEGAN, R. (1998). In Over Our Heads: the MentalDemands of Modern Life (Cambridge, MA: Har-vard UP).

KOESTLER, A. (1967, rep. 1990). The Ghost in theMachine (London: Penguin).

LOEVINGER, J. (1976). Ego Development (San Francis-co, CA: Jossey-Bass).

O’BRIEN, K. AND HOCHACHKA, G. (2010). “Integraladaptation to climate change”, Journal of IntegralTheory and Practice, 5(1): 89–102.

WILBER, K. (1985). Up from Eden (Boston: Shambhala).

—— (1996). A Brief History of Everything (Boston:Shambhala).

—— (1999). “An Approach to Integral Psychology”,The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 31(2): 109-136.

—— (2000). Integral Psychology. Consciousness, Spirit,Psychology, Therapy. (Boston: Shambhala).

—— (2000, 1995). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality. The Spiritof Evolution. (Boston & London: Shambhala).

—— (2002). Excerpt D: The look of a feeling. Theimportance of post/structuralism. Retrieved July 31st,2008 http://www.wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/ .

—— (2000, 1996). A brief history of everything (2nded.) (Boston: Shambhala).

a b


Rollin McCraty, PhD, ofBoulder Creek, California, has been with the Institute of HeartMath(IHM) since its creation in 1991, and is currently executive vice presi-dent and director of research. A psychophysiologist, Dr McCraty’sresearch interests include the physiology of emotion, with a focus onthe mechanisms by which emotions influence cognitive processes,behavior, and health. A fellow of the American Institute of Stress,McCraty is a member of the International Neurocardiology Net-work, American Autonomic Society, Pavlovian Society and Associ-ation for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. He and histeam regularly participate in studies with scientific, medical andeducational institutions worldwide, including Stanford Univer-sity, Arizona State University, Wake Forest University, ClemsonUniversity and the Miami Heart Research Institute. Hisresearch has appeared in many journals, including the Ameri-can Journal of Cardiology, Journal of the American Collegeof Cardiology, Stress Medicine and Biological Psychology.Website: www.heartmath.org.Annette Deyhle, PhD of Boulder Creek, California, is aninternationally known geologist and marine geochemist.Deyhle, research coordinator for the Institute of Heart-Math, has worked at various research centers in Europeand the US. She did her doctoral work at the GeomarineResearch Center, GEOMAR, in Kiel, Germany. Prior tojoining the Global Coherence Initiative (GCI) researchteam in late 2008, she had been at the Scripps Institutionof Oceanography at the University of California, SanDiego for five years. Her research there focused on fluid-rock interactions and the chemistry behind earthquakes;plate tectonics; and volcanism. Deyhle’s work was thesubject of numerous talks and articles in scientific jour-nals, including Geology, Earth and Planetary ScienceLetters, Chemical Geology and Marine Geology. Deyhle,a member of the American Geophysical Union and theEuropean Geosciences Union, writes science commentariesfor the GCI Web site.


oST PEoPLE KnoW WhAT IT FEELS LIKE To BE In

a harmonious state, the place where ourhearts, minds and bodies are united in afeeling of wholeness and peace. This state

is often referred to as “being in the flow,” or“oneness”. We call this state of internal andexternal connectedness “coherence”. When weare in deeper states of coherence, we typicallyfeel connected not only to our deepest selvesbut to others, our surroundings and the earthitself. What is coherence? The various conceptsand measurements embraced under the termcoherence have become central to fields as diverseas quantum physics, cosmology, physiology,and brain and consciousness research[1]. Coher-ence has several related definitions, all of whichare applicable to the study of human physiology,social interactions, and global affairs. The mostcommon dictionary definition is “the quality ofbeing logically integrated, consistent, and intelli-gible,” as in a coherent statement. A related mean-ing is the logical, orderly, and aesthetically consis-tent relationship among parts[2]. Coherence alwaysimplies connectedness, consistency, correlations,and efficient energy utilization. We refer to people’sspeech or thoughts as coherent if the words fit togetherwell and incoherent if they are uttering meaninglessnonsense or presenting ideas that make no sense as awhole. Thus, coherence refers to wholeness and glob-al order, where the whole is greater than the sum of itsindividual parts. In the example of organizing wordsinto a coherent sentence, the meaning and purposeconveyed by the arrangement of the words is greaterthan the individual meaning of each word[1]. For anysystem to be functional, it must have the property ofglobal coherence, and this is also true for our physical,mental, emotional, and social systems. not only is indi-vidual coherence highly beneficial, but we hypothesizethat due to an interconnected field, individual coher-ence can also extend outward and increase social andglobal order. Because we are at a critical turning pointin our history, were the development of society andconsciousness is lagging behind our technological andscientific advancement, the Global Coherence Initia-tive (GCI) was brought to life by the Institute of heart-Math, a non-profit organization, in 2008. The goal ofthe Global Coherence Initiative is to help facilitate apositive shift of global consciousness, from stress,instability and discord to balance, cooperation andenduring peace. GCI is a science-based, co-creativeproject, to unite people in heart-focused care and

COHERENCE AS A CATALYST FOR PERSONAL,SOC I A L A ND G LO B A L H E A LTH , A ND TH E RO L E O F TH E

G LO B A L COH E R E N C E I N I T I AT I V E

R O L L I N M C C R A T Y ~ A N N E T T E D E Y H L E

MS P A N D A J O U R N A L I I I , 1 /2 0 1 2 | CON S C I OU S N E S S & DE V E LO PM EN T 2 . 0 | 8 3

intention (www.glcoherence.org). In the following,the concept of coherence and the research goals ofGCI will be discussed.

P E R S O N A L , S O C I A L

A N D G L O B A L C O H E R E N C E

P E R S O N A L C O H E R E N C E

The term physiological coherence describes the degree oforder, harmony, and stability in the various rhythmicactivities within living systems over any given timeperiod. This harmonious order signifies a coherent sys-tem whose efficient or optimal function is directlyrelated to the ease and flow in life processes. By con-trast, an erratic, discordant pattern of activity denotesan incoherent system whose function reflects stress andinefficient utilization of energy in life processes. TheInstitute of heartMath specifically researched the roleof the heart in coherence and found coherent heartrhythms when an individual feels positive emotions.Positive emotions, such as appreciation and compas-sion, as opposed to negative emotions, such as anxiety,anger and fear (see FIG. 1)

Physiological coherence, also referred to asheart coherence, cardiac coherence, or reso-nance, is a functional mode measured by heartrate variability (hRV) analysis wherein a person’sheart rhythm pattern becomes more orderedand sine wave–like at a frequency of around 0.1hz (10-seconds)[3]. The term physiological coher-ence is associated with increased order, efficiency,and harmony in the functioning of the body’ssystems. When one is in a coherent state, oneexperiences increased synchronization and reso-nance in higher-level brain systems and in the

activity occurring in the two branches of the AnS, aswell as a shift in autonomic balance towardincreased parasympathetic activity. Psychologically,coherence reflects increased emotional and per-ceptual stability and alignment among the physi-cal, cognitive, and emotional systems (FIG. 2).hRV is widely considered a measure of neuro-cardiac function that reflects heart-brain inter-actions and autonomic nervous system (AnS)dynamics. All hRV measures are derived fromthe assessment of the naturally occurringchanges in beat-to-beat heart rate. hRV ismuch more than an assessment of heart ratesince it reflects the complex interactions of theheart with multiple body systems. An optimallevel of variability within an organism’s keyregulatory systems is critical to the inherentflexibility and adapt ability or resilience thatepitomizes healthy coherent function and well-being. While too much instability is detrimen-tal to efficient physiological functioning andenergy utilization, too little variation indicatesdepletion or pathology.

The amount or range of overall hRV is related to ourage, with younger people having higher levels thanolder ones. Low hRV is a strong and independent pre-dictor of future health problems, including all causesof mortality, and it is associated with numerous med-ical conditions[1].

E S T A B L I S H I N G A N E W B A S E L I N E O F

I N C R E A S E D C O H E R E N C E

Shifting a system from an old pattern into a morecoherent mode requires effort and energy, especially

R O L L I N M C C C R A T Y ~ A N N E T T E D E Y H L E | C O H E R E N C E A S A C A T A L Y S T | 8 4

FIG. 1 ~ The heart rate variability pattern shown on the left side of the graph is characterized by ita random, jerky form,and is typical of feelings of anger or frustration. Sincere positive feeling states like appreciation (right) can result

in highly ordered and coherent hRV patterns, generally associated with enhanced cardiovascular function.

when first becoming familiar with a new state. Italso takes energy to overcome the inertia of thewell-established emotional patterns, stress responsesand hRV baseline modes. however, there is evi-dence that the on-going practice of coherence-building techniques facilitates a repatterningprocess in the neural architecture where coher-ence becomes established as a new, stable base-line reference or norm. Self-regulation of emo-tions and stress responses then becomes increas-ingly familiar and, eventually, automatic[4],[5],[6].This makes it easier for individuals to maintaintheir “centre” which increases their mental andemotional flexibility and capacity to remain incharge of themselves. Such flexibility and coher-ence can dramatically reduce stress related energydrains during day-to-day activities, even in morestressful or challenging situations.

I M P R O V E D H E A L T H A N D O T H E R B E N E F I T S O F

I N C R E A S E D C O H E R E N C E

not only do individuals learn to keep more in their cen-tre during challenging situations. Coherence-trainingalso has another substantial health benefits. The use ofinterventions utilizing the hM self-regulation techniquesand hRV coherence feedback technology to reduce stresshas significantly improved key markers of health andwellness. These include: immune function[7],[8], AnSfunction and balance[9],[10], and significant reductions instress hormones[11]. Several workplace studies withemployees with hypertension showed significant reduc-tions in Blood Pressure (BP) and a wide range of stressmeasures[6], such as reductions in total cholesterol, glu-cose, as well as significant reductions in overall stress,anger, fatigue, depression and hostility. The positiveoutcome is an increase in caring, contentment, grati-tude, peacefulness, resilience and vitality have beenmeasured across diverse populations[12],[13-17]. Most


FIG. 2 ~ Entrainment. The top graphs show an individual’s heart rate variability, pulse transit time, and respirationrhythms over a 10-minute period. At the 300-second mark, the individual used the Freeze-Frame positive emotion

refocusing technique, causing these three systems to come into entrainment. The bottom graphs show thefrequency spectra of the same data on each side of the dotted line in the center of the top graph. notice the

graphs on the right show that all three systems have entrained to the same frequency.

people report that when they are in the coherentstate, they experience a sense of connectedness withtheir heart intuition, greater clarity on troublesomeissues, a reduction in inner “mental noise” associatedwith stress, and a deeper sense of well-being. Studies also showed that academic performance, andcognitive functions were improved through hM self-regulation techniques combined with hRV coherencefeedback [3,18,19]. one study found that being in a state ofcoherence for 5 minutes prior to a discrimination taskproduced a six fold greater improvement in performancethan the performance fluctuations typically observedwithin a single cardiac cycle. Furthermore, a study inthe US, test anxiety was significantly reduced in highschool students and higher test scores were observed[20].In a UK study that directly assessed cognitive perfor-mance there was a wide range of significant improve-ments in middle school students with clinically diag-nosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder[19].Also soldiers at a VA facility, who had recently returnedfrom Iraq and were diagnosed with PTSd, showedimprovements in cognitive functions, especially in theability to self-regulate and inhibit negative responses,which again correlated with coherence measures[18].

H O W T O I N C R E A S E C O H E R E N C E

Within each individual, the level of stress and degreeof global and heart coherence fluctuate from day today, as does the quality or our thoughts and emo-tions[9]. In varied ways we all strive to increase easeand flow in our lives and decrease the chaos withinand around us. Many are intuitively aware of theinterconnections between our thoughts, emotionsand physical processes and make conscious effortsto increase personal, social and global balanceand coherence through such activities as prayer,meditation, and focused intentions. however, agood portion of people’s meditation or prayertime is often spent trying to calm down, getfocused and quiet the mind, leaving little timeand energy for reflective insight[1].A series of tools and techniques, collectivelyknown as the heartMath (hM) System, weredeveloped by doc Childre and his associates atthe Institute of heartMath to provide a system-atic process that enables people to shift into thecoherent state, increase their resiliency and abili-ty to better self-regulate stress and improve per-formance[21-23]. Many of these techniques includethe intentional generation of a heart-felt positiveemotional state combined with a shift in atten-tional focus to the area of the heart (where manypeople subjectively experience positive emotions).This shift in feeling allows the coherence mode toemerge naturally and helps to reinforce the inherent

associations between physiological coherence andpositive feelings.Paced breathing at a 10 second rhythm (0.1hz) is acommon approach to inducing a physiologicallycoherence state[24]. This is because we have con-scious control over our breathing rate and depthand can therefore use it to modulate the heartrhythm and induce coherence. When we usebreathing to help shift into the coherent state,it changes the afferent neural patterns sent tothe brain centers that regulate autonomic out-flow, emotion, and cognitive processes[3]. Thus,breathing exercises are effective primarily dueto the modulation of the heart’s rhythmic pat-terns. While rhythmic breathing methods arean effective way to induce heart rhythm coher-ence, cognitively-directed paced breathing isdifficult for many people to maintain. Mostcan do so for about one minute before itbecomes uncomfortable and distracting. In ourlaboratory at the hM research center we havefound that when people are able to activate aheart-felt positive emotion rather than focusingon a specific breathing rhythm, they typicallyenjoy the experience more and are able to main-tain coherence for extended periods. however,some individuals, especially those who are firstlearning the self-regulation techniques, cannotmake the shift into coherence by activation of apositive emotion alone. In these instances, pacedbreathing is an effective way to facilitate the shift,and for this reason the hM techniques include aheart-focused breathing component combined withthe activation of a positive feeling.

S O C I A L C O H E R E N C E

Social coherence pertains to groups, families, workgroups, organizations, sport teams, and a network ofrelationships among individuals who share commoninterests and objectives. Social coherence is a recog-nized sense of a larger integrity, unity or wholenessamongst individuals. It results in a collective intelli-gence, where a larger picture then one’s own is taken inconsideration, which emerges from understanding thedifferent needs, roles, interests, abilities and positionsin the group setting. Social coherence is reflected as a stable, harmoniousalignment of relationships which allows for the effi-cient flow and utilization of energy and communica-tion required for optimal collective cohesion andaction[25]. There are of course cycles and variations inthe quality of family, team or group coherence, simi-lar to variations in an individual’s coherence level.Coherence requires that group members are attunedand emotionally aligned, and that the group’s energy


is globally organized and regulated, by the group as awhole[25]. There are obvious benefits to interactingand working with individuals who have a high levelof personal coherence. When members of any workgroup, sports team, family or social organization getalong well there is a natural tendency towards goodcommunication, cooperation and efficiency. one of themain sources of stress and incoherence stems from com-munication problems with co-workers, family membersor teammates. When individuals maintain relationshipsover extended periods, a “surface level” of cooperationand harmony usually develops wherein people are basi-cally civil and cooperative. This can be considered thebasic functional level of coherence necessary for a groupto endure and accomplish goals. There is a feedback loopbetween the individuals in any group and the group’slevel of coherence. When individuals are not well self-regulated or are acting in only their own best interestswithout regard to others, it generates social incoherence.Stressful or discordant conditions in a given group actto increase emotional stress among its members. Unfor-tunately, social incoherence is characterized by a lack ofunity, common purpose, peace and harmony, in oramong families, neighbors or employees in workplaceenvironments[26]. Consequently, the need for mentaland emotional self-management and high qualitysocial coherence is greater now than ever. Variousorganizations have found that interventions provid-ing stress and emotional self-regulation skills com-bined with heart rhythm coherence training, resultin improved workplace communication, satisfac-tion, productivity, innovative problem solving andreduced employee turnover which can translateinto a significant return on investment, not onlyfinancially, but socially [27].

H O W T O C R E A T E H I G H S O C I A L A N D

G R O U P C O H E R E N C E

Anyone who has watched a championship sportsteam or experienced an exceptional concertknows that something special can happen ingroups that transcend their normal performance.It seems as though the players are in sync andcommunicating on an unseen energetic level. Agrowing body of evidence suggests that an ener-getic field is formed between individuals ingroups through which communication amongall the group members occurs simultaneously.Research conducted in the laboratory of the Insti-tute of heartMath has confirmed the hypothesisthat when an individual is in heart coherence, theheart radiates a more coherent electromagneticsignal into the environment, which can be detect-ed by nearby animals or the nervous systems ofother people[28]. of all the organs, the heart gener-ates the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field, one

that is approximately 100 times stronger than thatproduced by the brain[29]. This field can be detectedseveral feet from the body with sensitive magne-tometers[11]. This magnetic field provides a plausiblemechanism for how we can “feel” or sense anotherperson’s presence and emotional state, indepen-dent of body language, or other factors[30]. Wehave found that there is a direct relationshipbetween the heart rhythm patterns and the spec-tral information encoded in the frequency spec-tra of the magnetic field radiated by the heart.Thus, information about a person’s emotionalstate is encoded in the heart’s magnetic fieldwhich is communicated throughout the bodyand into the external environment[11]. In essence,it appears that a bio-energetic communicationsystem may indeed exist which serves to in-formfunction and behavior in highly coherent groups.Further support for this hypothesis is providedin a study examining the possibility that peopletrained in achieving high states of heart coher-ence could facilitate coherence in other people inclose proximity. The results showed that the coher-ence of untrained participants was indeed facilitat-ed by others who were in a coherent state. Theauthors concluded that “evidence of heart-to-heartsynchronization across subjects was found whichlends credence to the possibility of heart-to-heartbio-communications.”

G L O B A L C O H E R E N C E

The much anticipated year 2012 is here now. Manypredictions have been made, and we will have thegreat opportunity to both witness, and co-create theremaining year of 2012. how can we, as a global com-munity contribute to a positive shift of events andparticipate in creating a global coherence?The convergence of several independent lines of evidenceprovides strong support for the existence of a globalinformation field that connects all living systems andconsciousness. humans are embedded within social net-works on the earth and we are part of the earth, which inturn is part of the solar system. Every cell in our body isbathed in an external and internal environment of fluctu-ating invisible electro-magnetic forces that can affect virtu-ally every circuit in our biological systems. When Earth’sorbit and solar flares intersect, many disruptions are expe-rienced and life and the electro-magnetic potential ofEarth vary with solar activity. In turn, alternating elec-tro-magnetic fields, like those generated by geomagneticstorms, change the bioelectromagnetic rhythms inhumans. Therefore, it should not be surprising thathuman physiological rhythms, health, behaviour andglobal scale events are synchronized with solar andgeomagnetic activity[31,32], and disruptions in thesefields can create adverse effects on human health and


behaviour. Solar activity, geomagnetic activity andweather are correlated to changes in blood pressure,blood composition and the physical and chemicalstate of humans, causing higher rates of depression,heart attacks and deaths. The most likely mechanismfor explaining how solar and geomagnetic influencesaffect human health and behavior are a coupling betweenthe human nervous system and resonating geomagneticfrequencies, called Schumann resonances and AlvenWaves, which occur in the earth-ionosphere resonantcavity. It is well established that these resonant frequen-cies directly overlap with those of the human brain andcardiovascular system. The influence of the sun is not only reflected in individualand group biologic and emotional systems, but in natural,social and political systems as well. Also, human aggres-sion, as seen in national and international conflicts, terror-ist attacks and wars, occur in cycles that can be linked tosolar and geomagnetic activity. historically, cultures suchas the Egyptian, hopi, Ancient Indian, and ancient Chi-nese believed that their collective behavior could be influ-enced by the sun. The first scientific evidence of thisbelief was provided by Alexander Tchijevsky, a Russianscientist who noticed that more severe battles duringWWI occurred during peak sunspot periods. he con-ducted a thorough study of global human history andconstructed an index of Mass human Excitability dat-ing back to 1749 which he then compared to the solarcycles over this time period[33] (FIG. 3).Since his pioneering work, energetic influxes fromsolar and geomagnetic fields have been associatedwith numerous aspects of human health and

wellness, both positive and negative[32,34,35]. The sci-entific community and the media tend to focus onsuch negative correlations, such as societal con-flicts, crime, terrorism, traffic accidents, mortalityfrom heart attacks and strokes etc. however, alsothe greatest levels of human flourishing occurduring these cycles[36]. The Global CoherenceInitiative (GCI) focuses on examining the inter-actions between humans and the earth’s ener-getic fields[37]. one of the projects hypotheses isthat the earth’s magnetic and geomagnetic fieldscreated in the ionosphere in turn create a bidi-rectional feed-forward and feedback loops withthe collective emotional energy of humanity.More and more people are realizing that solarand universal energetic influxes are part of anatural cycle with potential benefits to humani-ty. If all living systems are indeed interconnect-ed and communicate with each other via bio-logical, electromagnetic and non-local fields,increased individual coherence helps to createco-creative relationships that consciously increasethe social coherence which enhances the globalcoherence in the global field environment, whichin turn distributes this information to all livingsystems within the field (see FIG. 4).

G O A L S A N D H Y P O T H E S E S

O F T H E G L O B A L C O H E R E N C E

I N I T I A T I V E

Considering all the above mentioned research, theGlobal Coherence Initiative was created to help in the


FIG. 3 ~ This figure shows Tchijevsky’s original data. The blue line plots the yearly number of important political andsocial events such as the start of a war, social revolutions, etc. while the red line plots the solar activity as indicated by thenumber of sunspots from 1749 to 1922. The histories of 72 countries were compiled and it was found that 80% of the most

significant events occurred during the solar maximum which correlates with highest periods of geomagnetic activity.

global shift of consciousness. GCI focuses on examiningthe interactions between humans and the earth’s energeticfields[37]. This project has been initiated because millionsof people sense that this is an extraordinary time; that aparadigm shift of human consciousness is under way;that we are at the crossroads of change and must movetoward finding a new balance in ourselves, the globalcommunity and with our planet. Many people are feelinga strong desire to help change our present and futureconditions and are looking for ways to use their heartsintelligence, wisdom, service, skills and care to make ameaningful difference in the world. GCI has following goals:~ to help individuals and groups work together, syn-chronistically and strategically to increase the impactof their efforts to create positive global change; ~ provide tools and techniques to increase personalcoherence for the benefit of ourselves and the planet;~ increase positive social interactions, connectionand harmony. help shift the planetary conscious-ness baseline from self-centeredness to wholenessand care;~ monitor global events to determine whereGCI members’ collective heart-coherent prayers,meditations, affirmations and intentions canbe directed;~ empower people’s ability to navigate throughglobal changes with less stress and more ease;~ empower stewardship of the planet andenvironmental responsibility.

GCI’s main hypotheses are:1 ~ The first overarching hypothesis of the GCI isthat all living systems are interconnected at anenergetic level and communicate with one anoth-er via biological (bioelectromagnetic) and geo-electromagnetic fields, which act at both local andnon-local levels).2 ~ The second hypothesis is that human health andbehaviours are affected by planetary energetic fields.

3 ~ Conversely that Earth’s energetic fields arealso influenced by and act as a carrier wave forcollective human emotions and consciousness(positively or negatively). Thus, much of theplanetary “information field environment” ismade up of the collective consciousness of theinhabitants. 4 ~ Large numbers of people, when coherentlyaligned will generate a coherent standing wavethat can encode biologically relevant informationon the earth’s geomagnetic and energetic fields.

5 ~ Embedded within the above four hypotheses, is arelated hypothesis that the earths energetic fields, ineffect, links all living systems and gives rise to a formof collective consciousness. Thus, a feedback loopexists between all human beings and the earth’s ener-getic systems.The intention of GCI is to be a catalyst that will insti-gate, facilitate, and support the maintenance of anupward spiral of this feedback loop, for the mutualbenefit of human beings and the planet we call home.To support these efforts GCI has established an interna-tional web-based membership of individuals which ofmid 2012 has over 44,000 members (see www.glcoher-ence.org). GCI is also working with various partnergroups and organizations committed to increasing plane-tary consciousness and coherence.

T H E G L O B A L M O N I T O R I N G S Y S T E M

In order to carry out the scientific research on the abovementioned hypotheses, a current focus of the initiative isthe deployment of the Global Coherence MonitoringSystem to measure fluctuations and resonances in theearth’s magnetic field and the resonances created in theearth / ionosphere cavity. The intention is to install aglobal network of 12 to 14 sensor site stragetcially locatedaround the planet (see FIG. 5).As of the beginning of 2012, three sites, one at the heart-Math Research Center in northern California, one inthe eastern province of Saudi Arabia and one in south-ern England are operational. Three additional sites are


FIG. 4 ~ Global Coherence Initiative Theory of Change. Feedback Loop Starting with IndividualCoherence feeding Social Coherence feeding Global Coherence, feeding Individual Coherence

in the process of being installed in 2012, one in newZealand, Canada and South Africa. Each monitoringsite detects and sends the local alternating magneticfield strengths in three dimensions over a relatively widefrequency range (0.01 to 300 hz) while maintaining a flatfrequency response. The data acquisition infrastructure

captures, GPS time–stamps, and transmits the data toa common server. In addition, each site has randomnumber Generator that is part of the Global Con-sciousness Project network.

T H E P U R P O S E O F T H E G L O B A L

M O N I T O R I N G S Y S T E M I S T O :

1 ~ Enable research on the mechanisms of howthe earth’s geomagnetic field and resonances inionosphere (like Schumann resonances (SR) andmagnetic pulsations) affect human mental andemotional sates as well as health and behaviour.2 ~ Examine the degree to which there is anenergetic resonance between the earth’s magnet-ic field, SR and other frequencies in the ionos-phere and the rhythms of human heart andbrain activity.3 ~ Explore the influence of the earth’s geo-magnetic field/ionosphere on patterns of collec-tive human emotionality, and mass behaviours(either positive or negative) such as peace move-ments, social change or unrest, crime, hospitaladmissions, etc.4 ~ Examine the degree to which collective humanemotional resonance in response to mass events of

common emotional significance is reflected in theactivity of the earth’s magnetic field and ionosphere.5 ~ determine if changes in the earth’s geomag-netic field and ionosphere occur prior to naturalcatastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanic erup-tions, floods, storms, etc.

6 ~ Provide early warning to the society at large inorder to help prevent and reduce impact of geomag-netic/ionospheric disturbances.We believe the Global Coherence Monitoring Systemcan facilitate a better understanding of the mutualinteractions between humans and our global field envi-ronment. It is anticipated that by investigating howindividual and collective emotional energy is affected byand may affect the earth’s fields that it will facilitate agrowing awareness of humanity’s interdependence withthe earth and with each other. There is evidence in somecases that people’s brainwaves can synchronize with therhythm of the electromagnetic waves generated in theearth’s ionosphere. When people say they “feel” animpending earthquake or other planetary events, suchas weather changes, it is possible that they may be react-ing to the actual physical signals that occur in theearth’s field prior to the event. It’s interesting to notethat changes in geomagnetic conditions affect therhythms of the heart and brain more strongly thanother physiological functions studied so far.While it is not difficult to conceive that life-formsembedded in the earth’s magnetic fields could beaffected by modulations in these fields, it is a more


FIG. 5 ~ Proposed locations for the global network of monitoring sites specifically designed to measure the magneticresonances in the earth/ionosphere cavity, and resonances that are generated by the vibrations of the earth’s

geomagnetic field lines as well as ultra-low frequencies that occur in the earth’s magnetic field.

far-reaching proposition to suggest that the earth’s fieldscan be influenced or modulated by human emotions.

R E S E A R C H O N C O L L E C T I V E

C O N S C I O U S N E S S

While the field of collective consciousness research is stillin its infancy, some research has been carried out. Forexample, Michael Persinger, a well-known neuroscientistat Laurentian University in ontario Canada, conductednumerous studies examining the effects of magnetic fieldswith the same magnitude as the geomagnetic field onbrain functions[38,39]. not only has he shown that by apply-ing external fields similar to the Schumann Resonancesaltered states of consciousness can be induced, he has also

suggested in a detailed theory that the spaceoccupied by the geomagnetic field can storeinformation related to brain activity and that thisinformation can be accessed by the humanbrain[40]. Furthermore, Persinger suggests that theearth’s magnetic field can act as a carrier of infor-mation between individuals and that informationrather than the signal intensity is important forinteraction with neural networks[41]. There is asubstantial body of evidence indicating an inter-action between human emotions and global fieldswhen large numbers of people have similar emo-tional responses to events or organized globalpeace meditations. Research conducted by theGlobal Consciousness Project (GCP), which main-tains a worldwide network of random numbergenerators, has found that human emotionalityaffects the randomness of these electronic devices in

a globally correlated manner. The research conduct-ed by GCP has found that there is a significant corre-lation between global events that elicit a high levelof emotionality from a large part of the world’spopulation and periods of non-random order, gen-erated by the RnGs[42]. For example, multiple inde-pendent analyses of the network during the terror-ist attacks that took place in the United States onthe morning of September 11, 2001 (FIG. 6) corre-late with a large and significant shift in the out-put of the global network of random numbergenerators[43]. The mechanisms for why humanemotions create more coherence in the random-ness of this global network are not yet fullyunderstood, however the data clearly shows that

they do have such affects and data now has an oddsagainst chance ration of over a billion to one[44].

M A S S E M O T I O N A L R E S P O N S E S

A N D T H E G E O M A G N E T I C F I E L D

Another line of evidence for a human emotional energyinteracting with earth’s energetic fields was providedfrom measures of the Earth’s geomagnetic field duringthe 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. FIGURE 7 shows data recordedfrom two separate space weather satellites in geosyn-chronous orbit in the days before and after the attacks. The data from the magnetometers on these two satel-lites, which are positioned over the east and westcoasts of the US, reveal that a large shift occurred inthe Earth’s geomagnetic field at the same time as theattacks. Also note the difference in the fields in thedays before and after the attacks. The incoherence


FIG. 6 ~ The graph shows the shift in correlated output of a global networkof Random number Generators during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

and discord in the fields during the days after theattacks may reflect the mass emotional turmoil thatoccurred as news of the attacks spread around theglobe. The same patterns were also observed inground based magnetometers. Although the datashown in FIG. 8 does not prove that human emotionmodulated the earth’s geomagnetic field, it, com-bined with the GCP and other data, supports thehypothesis that the earth’s energetic systems arecoupled with and exchange information in a bidi-rectional manor with the collective emotionalenergy of humanity.

P R E L I M I N A R Y R E S U L T S F R O M

G C I I N T E R C O N N E C T E D N E S S

S T U D Y A N D O N G O I N G

R E S E A R C H

during a pilot study carried out by GCI in 2010,1,643 GCI members from 51 countries completeda biweekly survey at random times six days eachweek over a six month period. The survey con-tained six valid scales: positive affect, well-being,anxiety, confusion, fatigue and physical symp-toms. The survey data was subjected to correla-tion analysis with a number of planetary andsolar activity variables such as solar wind speed,magnetic field and plasma data, measures ofenergetic protons, solar flux, and geomagneticactivity indices. For example, the results showed,that when solar wind speed,increased and thegeomagnetic field was disturbed, the level offatigue, anxiety and mental confusion increased[1].The study also uncovered some unexpected find-ings. For example, the solar radio flux index wascorrelated with reduced fatigue and improved posi-tive affect, indicating that there are mechanisms

affecting human well-being that are not fullyunderstood and additional research needs to beconducted in order to understand the effects ofthe various variables and the time sequence oftheir effects[45].Another study with the Prince Sultan Cardiachospital in Saudi Arabia, titled, Effects of changesin Geomagnetic and Ionospheric Fields on HumanHeart Rate Variability recently began to more rigor-ously test the hypothesis that Schumann resonancesand field line resonances are primary mechanismsmediating the interactions between geomagnetic activi-ty and the human nervous system. This study has twomajor components. First, sequential, 24-hour heartrate variability or hRV recordings will be obtained eachday over a one-year period. Changes in the partici-pants hRV data will be correlated with variations inplanetary and solar activity, including solar wind speed,magnetic field, plasma data, protons, geomagneticactivity indices like AE, dst, Kp, solar radio flux (F 10.7index), locally recoded Schumann resonances (SR) andgeomagnetic field line resonances. It is expected that wewill find strong correlations between increased solaractivity, geomagnetic activity and SR intensities and dis-turbances. It is also expected that we will find that theSR intensities and disturbances have strong correlationswith changes in the participants hRV indices, especiallywith changes in the VLF rhythms of hRV. The secondaspect of this study involves studying the impact of solarand geomagnetic activity on a societal level. Solar andgeomagnetic variables will be examined along with thelocal population’s social and physical health parameters,derived from hospital admissions and traffic accidents,as well as social unrest. If the hypothesis can be vali-dated, it will significantly increase our understandingof the mechanisms by which geomagnetic distur-bances affect human health and behavior and thus


FIG. 7 ~ The data recorded from the GoES 8 and 10 weather satellites in geosynchronous orbit over the East and West Coasts of the US in the days before, during and after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks.

significantly increase our ability to predict and takesteps to counteract the impact of energetic distur-bances on individuals and society.ongoing data analysis of the worldwide magnetome-ter network is planned, also to be able to gain a bet-ter understanding of global-scale events.

H O W T O C R E A T I V E L Y U S E T H E I N C O M I N G E N E R G Y

D U R I N G S O L A R C Y C L E 5 T O I N C R E A S E T H E G L O B A L

C O H E R E N C E I N T H E P L A N E T A R Y F I E L D E N V I R O N M E N T

The idea that shared intentions can influence others at adistance is not new, and numerous studies have looked atthe effects of prayer, meditations and groups sendingintentions in various experimental contexts[46-49]. Forexample, a peace study conducted by John hagelin, onthe Power of the Collective concluded that: “Since medita-tion provides an effective, scientifically proven way to dis-solve individual stress, and if society is composed of indi-viduals, then it seems like common sense to use medita-tion to similarly diffuse societal stress”[50]. A study con-ducted in 1993 in Washington dC with 2500 meditatorsparticipating, showed a 25% drop in crime rate duringthe time frame the meditations were carried out[51]. So arelatively small group of a few thousand was influenc-ing a much larger group – a million and a half. Thequestion posed itself, that when crime rate could bedecreased, could a group of meditators also influencesocial conflicts and wars? A similar experiment wasdone during the peak of the Israel-Lebanon war inthe 1980s. drs. Charles Alexander and John daviesat harvard University organized groups of experi-enced meditators in Jerusalem, Yugoslavia and theUS, to mediate on the area at various intervals overa 2¼ year period. After controlling statistically forweather changes, Lebanese and Muslim, Christianand Jewish holidays, police activity, fluctuation ingroup sizes, and other variant influences, duringthe course of the study, the levels of violence inLebanon decreased between 40 to 80 percent eachtime a meditating group was in place with thelargest reductions occurring when the number ofmeditators were largest. during these periods theaverage number of people killed during the warper day dropped from twelve to three, a decreaseof more than 70 percent; war-related injuries fellby 68 percent; and the intensity level of conflictdropped by 48 percent[52].Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Tchijevsky’sfindings also apply to the current Solar Cycle 24.Social unrest and uprising has increased in manycountries. For example, the occupy movementwhich started in the US, spread to many countriesthroughout the world and is still ongoing. Also,social unrest that toppled regimes in Tunisia, Libya andEgypt happened in a relatively short time period. The

solar cycle is probably going to peak in 2013, socontinued energy influx can be expected for thenear future. however, it’s important to remember that increasedsolar activity can have a positive impact and usedcreatively as well. our global financial and eco-nomic situation is in a dramatic shift, governmentleaderships are in transition, banking and corpo-rate leaders are resigning, and weather patterns areunpredictable. however, it is important to knowour own power in steering through this time ofchanges. Suitbert Ertel, a German professor,found an increase in human creativity in art, sci-ence and architecture during periods of increasedsolar energy[36]. Solar activity has not only beenassociated with social unrest, it has also beenrelated to the periods of greatest human flourish-ing with clear spurts in architecture, arts and sci-ence and positive social change[36]. When oldstructures which do not serve humanity collapse,an opportunity opens for them to be replacedwith more suitable and sustainable models. Suchpositive change can affect the political, economic,medical, educational systems, as well as relation-ships of individuals at work and home and in com-munities. At times of such pertinent energy influxwe have the greatest opportunity to instate positivechange in our world. We can learn from past mis-takes and consciously choose new ways of navigatingenergy influxes to create periods of human flourishingand humanitarian advances. We can change the courseof planetary events.

C O N C L U S I O N

While solar cycle 24 is becoming more active, affectingall beings on Earth, we can decide on how to react tothese changes. It is important to remember that theincreasing solar activity can have a positive effect, whenwe stay centered – it is a time when opportunity and cre-ativity can flourish along with increased individual, socialand collective coherence and enlightenment. It’s an aus-picious opportunity for advancing our intelligence onhow to cooperate more harmoniously with each otherand with planet Earth. This can eventually lead to aglobal consciousness transformation and increasingpeace. We can decide to live from the heart, increase ourcoherence and co-create actions we can take throughthese opportune times that would include committingto reducing fear becoming more responsible for ourown energy, and increasing love, care and respect forothers and for ourselves. This can do much to restorebalance and energetic alignment between the Earthand the global community. 8


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52 dAVIES, J.L. (1988). Alleviating political violencethrough enhancing coherence in collective consciousness:Impact assessment analysis of the Lebanon war. disser-tation Abstracts International 49(8): 2381A.

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Terri O’Fallon has a Bachelorsdegree in Education, a Master’sdegree in Special education, aPhD in Integral Studies, aMasters degree in SpiritualDirection, and she is a certi-fied scorer of the LeadershipDevelopment Framework.Terri is a specialist in Transfor-

mative Learning and Change inHuman Systems and in distance learning.

Her interests lie in the living experiments of evolutionary systemsdesign; adult levels of development and how they condition Lead-ership, systems, culture and individual maturity; and the joys ofordinary living. Her concentration is the design and implementa-tion of the core developmental trajectory and span of human sys-tems of all kinds. She has over 25 years of experience workingwith many different kinds of human systems, including busi-ness, community, educational and political.Terri has taught, consulted and led in this field for almost 46years. Her work includes the initiation, launching and lead-ing of a non-profit corporation, administration in publicschools, teaching at colleges and universities and consulting invarious inner-city schools around the United States as a cata-lyst for school transformation.Terri is a founder and principal of Pacific Integral (PI) and apartner in the creation of the Generating TransformativeChange, an incubator for new forms of leadership, conscious-ness and action designed to meet the complex, emerging needsof a more compassionate, equitable, ethical, and sustainablehuman society. PI brings together people who are willing toexperiment with new integral structures for realizing trans-formative change in evolutionary systems, to relieve suffer-ing on the planet and to develop people in ways that willbring joy and wisdom into the world through service.Terri has also founded the Developmental Research Instituteand is currently conducting integral research on later levelsof adult development. She resides in Issaquah WA, USA.

he neW PaRenTs ReCeIved TheIR neWBORn

with eyes of wonder – a miracle of theirown making. already they had images ofher walking, talking, learning to read, andeventually reaching adulthood. It is a com-

mon parental expectation that a child will develop,and they wait eagerly as those transformationalsteps emerge in the evolution of their sons anddaughters.In the past fifty years, however, researchers haveverified continued development through all of one’s

lifespan. While the human body may not con-tinue to grow, one’s development, it seems, con-tinues on. Researchers have documented thedevelopmental stages of the human life spanthrough adulthood, from evolving ego develop-ment, (Loevinger, 1970) to the evolving values(Beck, 1996), to evolving morals (Kohlberg, 1973),to evolving stages of faith (Fowler, 1981), to laterstages of adult development (Cook-Greuter,1999). In fact, there seems to be over 100 areas ofadult developmental research all of which moreor less agree on the basic structures of develop-mental stages (Wilber, 2000) and yet adults soseldom have this focus in their mainstream life.While just about every parent consults develop-mental resources to support the growth and devel-opment of their children, few adults do the samefor their own.In contrast, there is also an interest in states of con-sciousness. There is an abundance of descriptions ofaltered states and awakening experiences in concrete,subtle, causal and non-dual states. Through the tidesof time, the great sages and saints have impressedupon their students the importance of advancing theirrelationship with the ineffable and even if the spiritualinterpretations are abandoned, people still use multiplemeans, such as hallucinogens, to achieve altered states.Yet, states alone don’t seem to be enough to reach theheights of the human promise. While stages are perma-nent realizations that people walk around with as ordi-nary, states are profound apprehensions, but temporary,even as they are inspirational, and life giving.More recently, there seems to be an interest in the con-nection between the developmental stages, and thesestates of consciousness (Wilber, 2006). Research is begin-ning to be conducted on this intersection of life spandevelopment and state consciousness (O’Fallon 2012).

W H A T I S L I F E S P A N D E V E L O P M E N T ?

Piaget’s (1969) developmental theory of stages fromchildhood to adulthood is commonly known, such asthe egocentric stage (e.g. two year olds), the concreteoperational stage (e.g. reasoning with concrete objects),and the formal operational stage (e.g. reasoningabout thinking). Indeed, all of these stages can also

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be found in adults as well (hY & Loevinger, 1989),so it seems that they do not rigidly conform to ageas one might have once thought. a range of cogni-tive and embodied complexities exists for all ages inboth children and adults. however the trajectory andorder of the stages themselves seem to be quite reli-able even if they don’t all happen at the same time ineveryone’s life (Wilber, 1995).The Cook-Greuter scale (1999) is a measure of adultdevelopmental levels having the widest span of any ofthe developmental scales, and so serves as a useful basisfor research in this area. It consists of nine adult levelsof development (Cook-Greuter, 2002) and more recentresearch has added two new stages with tiers of devel-opment (O’Fallon, 2011). Below is a pictorial model ofhow these stages work together.

This developmental trajectory highlights dis-tinct patterns with two stages to every personperspective (early and late). In the first tier offour stages, concrete perspectives are taken; inthe second tier of four stages, one evolves thecapacity to be aware of thinking, feeling andcontexts as subtle perspectives; the third, causaltier introduces the progressive capacities to beaware of one’s own awareness. These three tiers allhave a research base supporting them (Loevinger,1970; Cook Greuter, 1998; O’Fallon 2012). In addi-tion to the stages and tiers that are supported by aresearch base, non-dual stages are referred to in the

literature (Wilber 2006, aurobindo, 2000). aurobindo,particularly refers to the Intuitive, Overmind, superMind and Ishwara stages, which in the develop-mental approach above, can be thought of asstages in the non-dual tier. These stages wouldbe very different from non-dual states, whichare somewhat rare as states are concerned. Thenon-dual stages are likely exceedingly rare,since the latest stage, Unitive, that has researchsupport, is reported to have only .01% of thedevelopmental database at that level (CookGreuter, 2002). This stage is the third one ofthe Causal tier stages so one might surmise amuch smaller percentage at the non-dual Tier.The non-dual stages are not yet supported byresearch.

Generally the terms “concrete”, “subtle” and “causal”“non-dual” are generally thought of as states, and notstages. When one carefully looks at the characteristics ofthe stages within the tiers, it becomes clearer that thetiers have these same characteristics embedded withinthem. The primary difference is that individuals embod-ied in stages (as opposed to states) are walking aroundwith these experiences as ordinary occurrences, whereasstates are generally defined as experiences that are outof the ordinary and not ever-present. Both the tierstages, and the states, then, have these same wordsdefining them; states seem to begin the process asextraordinary and then they settle into a stage where

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FIG. 1 ~ stages and Tiers of development.

they become ordinary. In this paper the terms con-crete, subtle, causal and non-dual states will refer tostate stages, and the terms concrete, subtle, causal andnon-dual tiers will refer to stage tiers. The stages of concrete, subtle, causal and non-dualstates occur in each of the concrete, subtle, and causaltiers and their developmental stages. Thus, people atvery early developmental levels can have quite advancedstates, whereas people at the latest developmental levelsrequire previous capacity with certain states, dependingon whether their stage is in the subtle, or causal tier.Theoretically, in the non-dual tier all the necessary stateswould have become ordinary even as there will always beaccess to states.

W H A T A R E S T A T E S T A G E S ?

People have apprehended countless altered states throughthe expanse of history, from twirling, exposing oneselfto extremes of weather, ingesting entheogens or hallu-cinogenic plants, ritual, chanting, prayer and medita-tion (smith, 1989). It seems that the major spiritualpaths have categorized some of these experiences intoconcrete states, subtle states, causal states and non-dual states (Wilber, 1986). These states are defined here as follows:a) The concrete state is a temporary altered sense ofexternal sensory concrete consciousness: for example,

a heightened experience from the external senses,such as the state experience that can come from tast-ing ice-cream or chocolate, the feeling from a footmassage, seeing a sunset or hearing beautiful music;b) The subtle state is awareness of temporaryaltered internal senses such as visual flashes/images(perhaps in day dreaming or night dreaming),internal audition (hearing internal voices, music,messages), internal feeling (such as bliss);c) The causal state is the temporary altered stateof witnessing one’s awareness, resulting in appre-hensions of emptiness, nothingness, and tran-scendence;d) The non-dual state is a temporary alteredstate of non-dual consciousness, when aware-ness, and that which arises within one’s aware-ness, are the same thing (Brown, 2006), some-times called “Oneness”, or “suchness”.The Wilber-Combs Matrix posits a relationshipbetween states and stages in theory, which canbe summarized as follows: the experience ofstates vary based on one’s developmental level; forevery level of development, there could be corre-sponding concrete, subtle, causal and non-dualstates, and one will interpret those state experiencesthrough the lens of one’s developmental perspective(Wilber, 2006). The following image describes thisrelationship.


FIG. 2 ~ The Wilber-Combs Matrix, Modified (Wilber, 2006: 90).

The developmental stages depicted on the left sideof this model may be called by different names, butthey all represent the same permanent structuralstages of development. across the top are the tempo-rary states of consciousness. Though this is a theoret-ical model, there is an intuitive soundness to it. In relationship with this theoretical model, researchbrings an embodied granularity to this representationthrough the use of 1) individual developmental inven-tories that provide a score indicating one’s developmentalstage; 2) longitudinal methodical inter-observations ofpeople throughout several years; and 3) structural andphenomenological research (O’Fallon, June 2010).

P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R

The co-joining of adult developmental research withknowledge of states prompted working beyond the the-oretical supposition of the Wilber-Combs Matrix,which shows how states and stages are matrixed. Theo-retically, states could be conceived in a more interpene-trated way as the forerunner of stages and eventuallybeing with them as one. To investigate this theoreticalpossibility, combined methodologies described abovewere used to apprehend exactly how these two areasare coupled (O’Fallon, 2011). The research approachrelied on data from sentence Completion Tests,which is a validated and reliable developmentalinventory (Cook-Greuter, 1999), and used the processof 1) combing through thousands of sentence com-pletions, looking for evidence of the relationshipbetween states and the developmental stages, 2)examining sentence structures, including verbsand their objects. From this research, along withyears of behavioral inter-observations, patternsbegan to reveal themselves: the early four devel-opmental stages represent primarily concreteand subtle perspectives that focus on concreteobjects; the next four subtle stages added subtleperspectives and focus on subtle objects; thenext four causal stages focus on awareness ofawareness and their objects. Consistently, states

are a necessary component of development frombirth through the latest documented stages (O’Fal-lon 2012). The following is a brief description ofthe trajectory of how this seems to occur.at the concrete, first-person perspective, internalsenses are developed, which first present as states,such as temporary visualization flashes (think ofpeek-a-boo) and listening to interior sounds.however, all of these internal states have con-crete objects (such as mommy, a toy, the dog,daddy’s voice). Once these internal sensoryexperiences develop beyond states, and becomeordinary such that one can walk around withthem permanently, one can use this stable capac-ity to step outside of oneself and visualize one-self in another person’s position. This allows anindividual to take a second person perspective,imagining themselves standing next to someoneelse, seeing what they are seeing. Once thiscapacity is stable, new subtle states begin to arisein which subtle objects that can’t be visualized,appear (such as love and care). While subtle states are necessary to move to thesubtle tier, the concrete causal and non-dual statescan be cultivated but are not necessary to move tothe next subtle stages. however they do occur. Forexample, in some Theravada Buddhist practices,walking meditation practice may eventually give thewalker a state of loosing their feet or legs. They sim-ply seem to disappear! This is one of the concretecausal/emptiness states that can occur at the concretetier. In addition, one may experience a concrete non-dual state. This would involve the state of awarenesswhere the mountain (for example) arises in one’s ownawareness such that there is no difference betweenawareness and the mountain (Brown, 2006). They havebecome ‘One”. Below is a chart that describes some ofthe possible interpenetrations of the early four develop-mental stages and the kinds of states that arise. noticethat while they are concrete, subtle, causal and non-dualstates, all of them have concrete objects, or visualizedconcrete objects (as in concrete deity mysticism)

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FIG. 3 ~ Concrete states in Concrete stages.

This process of 1) developing a state, 2) maturing ituntil it is an ordinary permanent stage, and 3) thenusing this new capacity to step outside of oneself totake an additional perspective, can be seen repeatedlyalong the entire scale of development, through all fourtiers. What becomes present is the understanding thatgrowing up is waking up into new states, which helpsone further grow up.Continuing on, this process, repeats at the subtle tier.What was a state in the concrete tier becomes ordinaryat this tier and is no longer a state. When at the third-person perspective, people experiences subtle stageswith subtle objects as one conducts their daily livesthinking about concrete thinking, planning, lookinginto the future, and experiencing complex emotions,etc. Individuals eventually use these subtle, ordinarythird person stages to take fourth-person postmodern

perspectives, when they step outside of them-selves and visualize/experience from the posi-tion of subtle contexts, gazing from the per-spective of those contexts at others and them-selves and seeing their effects (the social con-struction of reality).during this time it is common for people tofind themselves in practices that support thedevelopment of causal states (meditation, sportsand embodied practices that induce causal states,etc) and this stimulates the move into the fifth-person perspective at the causal tier. The chart below shows the relationship betweenconcrete states, subtle states, causal states and non-dual states in the subtle developmental stages. Forexample, rather than concrete pictures (symbols ofthe concrete) which arise in the concrete tier, in thesubtle tier concrete symbols of symbols begin to

arise. The concrete is “subtlized” by abstractingaway from the concrete; an individual may have astate involving mathematical symbols that result inthe creation of a beautiful building (architecture)or bridge (engineering). Related to subtle states inthe subtle tier, one might experience a temporarystate of witnessing their dreaming (lucid dream-ing). a causal state in the subtle tier might be theexperience of thoughts without a thinker. non-dually one might have the experience of any ofthese states arising within awareness such thatthere is no separation with them (they becomeone with them). similar states can occur in therealms of the kinesthetic (energetic) and theauditory (FIGURe 4). at the causal tier, the concrete, subtle andcausal states one has in the subtle tier become

ordinary, and people walk around, permanently experi-encing awareness of their awareness, in the moment.From this they are aware of their awareness of the empti-ness of all subtle thoughts, feelings, ideas, and contextsthat they have put such solid definitions and bound-aries around. When they become mature in this per-spective they can step out of their personal causal self-structure and stand in the shoes (beyond contexts) ofthe Kosmos, looking at themselves and everything fromthe whole of the concrete, subtle and causal indwelling.Their states tend to move first into formless mysti-cism and later into non-dual states. For example theymay eventually experience a state experiencing theemptiness or fullness of the world of matter (con-crete world), world of senses (subtle world), worldof Mind as experienced through Mind and bringthis all to a non-dual state as they arise within theWitness as “One”.

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FIG. 4 ~ states in subtle stages.

One can only speculate on the experiences of the non-dual tier based on the patterns of states and stages thatoccur in the first three tiers. From looking at the pat-terns, it may be that the non-dual becomes so ordi-nary that one is walking around with the non-dualexperience of all worlds arising within the Witnessoutside of the World of Mind, first with an individualsense and later with a sense of just being it all, butthat all is a far different all from what is encoun-tered at the previous tiers; the world of Mind thatmakes distinctions (consisting of the concrete tier,the subtle tier and the causal tier) that peoplemostly dwell in, would perhaps, simply be a toolas one becomes the Being beyond this world ofMind that transcends and includes the world ofthe senses, that transcends and includes theworld of matter.

S U M M A R Y

From the initial to the latest developmental lev-els and states, the representations of vibratory lifeare so evident in the earliest renditions of expe-rience, from breathing, to feeling the vibrationswithin one’s being, to vibrating back and forthbetween concrete, subtle, causal and non-dualstates, stages and tiers: iterative vibrations repli-cating themselves across all fields of awareness,all levels of being. The expansion moves beyondindividual experience to collective experiences,to contextual experiences to experiences of theKosmos as a whole, only step out of that to findthat the container that holds this vastness is noth-ing but a world of Mind that makes distinctions.The interpenetration of states and stages supportthe gradual evolution through the Concrete tierwhere the concrete is an ordinary stage and subtlestates with concrete objects are cultivated. evolution

continues, then, through the subtle stages wheresubtle stages are ordinary and causal states withsubtle objects are cultivated. eventually thecausal become ordinary in the Causal tier. non-dual states are cultivated in the Causal tier and itmight be speculated from the pattern that theybecome ordinary in the non-dual tier; wherenon-duality with the entire concrete world, subtleworld, and causal world occurs.It seems that the human heritage and promise is

to rock back and forth in the Kosmic rocking chair,encountering the Concrete face of God, the subtleface of God, and the Causal face of God toward aOneness to the whole of the sacred, Waking up ourGrowing up and Growing up our Waking up. 8

R E F E R E N C E S

BeCK, d., & COWan. (1996). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Val-ues, Leadership and Change (Malden, Ma: Blackwell Pub-lishers).

BROWn, d. (2006). Pointing Out the Great Way: the Stages ofMeditation in the Mahamudra Tradition (Boston: Wis-dom).

COOK-GReUTeR, s. (1999). Postautonomous Ego Development:a Study of its Nature and Measurement. (ed. d), (harvard,UMI).

—— (2002). Ego Development: Nine Levels of IncreasingEmbrace. [Retrieved from http://www.cook-greuter.com/ ].

FOWLeR, J. W. (1981). Stages of Faith: the Psychology ofHuman Development and the Quest for Meaning (sanFrancisco: harper).

hY & LOevInGeR, J. (1989). Measuring Ego Development:Supplementary Manual and Exercises for Form 81 of theWashington University Sentence Completion Test: VolumeI. Manual. (st Louis MO: Washington University,department of Psychology).

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FIG. 5 ~ states in the Causal stages.

KOhLBeRG, L. (1973). “The Claim to Moral adequacy ofa highest stage of Moral Judgment”, Journal of Philos-ophy, 70 (18): 630-646.

LOevInGeR, J., and R. WessLeR. (1970). Measuring EgoDevelopment 1: Construction and Use of a Sentence Com-pletion Test. (san Francisco: Jossey Bass).

O’FaLLOn, T. (June 2010). “developmental experiments inIndividual and Collective Movement to second Tier”,Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 5(2): 149-160.

—— The Collapse of the Wilber Combs Matrix: The Interpene-tration of the Structure Stages and State Stages, in Proceed-nings of the Integral Theory Conference, aug. 2010, JFK U.

—— (2011). StAGES: Growing Up is Waking Up-Interpenetrat-ing Quadrants, States and Structures [Retrieved fromwww.pacificintegral.com ].

PIaGeT, J. (1969). The Psychology of the Child. (new York:Basic Books).

sMITh, h. (1989). The Religions of Man. (new York: harperPerennial).

WILBeR, K. (1995). Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality: the Spirit ofEvolution. (Boston: shambhala).

—— (2000). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psy-chology, Therapy. (Boston: shambhala).

—— (2006). Integral spirituality: a Startling New Role forReligion in the Modern and Postmodern World. (Boston:shambhala).

WILBeR, K., J. enGLeR, and d. P. BROWn. (1986). Trans-formations of Consciousness: Conventional and Con-tempplative Perspectives on Development. (Boston:shambhala).

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Fred Alan Wolf, aka Dr Quan-tum, is a physicist, writer, andlecturer. He received his PhDin theoretical physics fromUCLA (1963) and soon after-wards began researching thefield of high atmospheric parti-cle behavior following a nuclearexplosion. Wolf has delved into

the relationship between humanconsciousness, psychology, physiology, the

mystical, and the spiritual. His investigationshave taken him from intimate discussions with physicist DavidBohm to the magical and mysterious jungles of Peru, from masterclasses with Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman to the high desertsof Mexico, from a significant meeting with Werner Heisenberg tothe hot coals of a firewalk.Former professor of Physics at the US San Diego State Universityfor twelve years, Dr Wolf has taught also at the University ofLondon, the University of Paris, the Hahn-Meitner Institutefor Nuclear Physics in Berlin, the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. His work in quantum physics and consciousness iswell known through scientific and popular writing and forhis simplification of the new physics. He is the author of theNational Book Award for Science Taking the QuantumLeap (1982) and of many books (Parallel Universes, Thedreaming Universe, The eagle’s Quest, The spiritualUniverse, Mind into Matter, Matter into Feeling, TheYoga of Time Travel: how the Mind Can defeat Time,dr. Quantum Presents, a Little Book of Big Ideas).Wolf is a Member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Col-legium of Scholars and is frequently in demand as a lec-turer, keynote speaker, and consultant to industry and themedia. He has appeared as the resident physicist on TheDiscovery Channel’s The Know Zone and on manyradio talk shows and television shows across the UnitedStates and abroad. Website: www.fredalanwolf.com;[email protected].

One extreme is the idea of an objective world, pursuingits regular course in space and time, independently of anykind of observing subject; this has been the guiding imagefrom modern science. At the other extreme is the idea of asubject, mystically experiencing the unity of the worldand no longer confronted by an object or by any objectiveworld; this has been the guiding image of Asian mysticism.Our thinking moves somewhere in the middle, betweenthese two limiting conceptions; we should maintain

the tension resulting from these opposites. W e R n e R h e I s e n B e R G , Across the Frontier.

Reality? We don’t got to show you no steeeeenking reality.nICK heRBeRT, physicist and author describing quantum

physics while imitating a famous scene in thefilm Treasure of the Sierra Madre1.

heRe Is a MIddLe ReaLM OF hUMan and

animal experience that lies in the twi-light – between the conscious mind inwaking awareness, “in here,” and the

physical world we all take to be real and “outthere.” although Werner heisenberg in theabove epigram only refers to a “tension” existingbetween the inner world of a subject and theouter world of an object, he is perhaps referring toa new conceptual vision of the universe of mindand matter that over the last century has been dis-covered to have its basis in quantum physics. I havereferred to this concept as the “imaginal” realm andpointed out that it is the ground from which allartistic creation develops and the self expresses. Letme take it for the moment again that this realm isreal. Just as in quantum physics where the imaginalmappings of the flows of probabilities somehow pro-duce the world of physical matter and energy, out of“it” arises everything that exists within our perception –our thoughts, feelings, sensations, physical space andtime, and, as I have attempted to show in nearly all ofmy books, even the self. albert einstein once said “We can’t solve problems byusing the same kind of thinking we used when we creat-ed them.” Considering that the discoveries of quantumphysics have only recently been brought to the attentionof common people primarily through the inventions ofdevices that quantum physics itself has made possible,such as the modern computer and the laser which madepossible recording vast amounts of data on new formsof everyday devices, it is already apparent that quantumphysics has changed our thinking regarding our tech-nologically advanced world. We now see, practicallyinstantly, what’s going on around our world as if it washappening around our corner. as Marshall McLuhan promised a long time ago – “themedium is the message” – the form of the medium isitself the message or, if you will, the medium is alsothe massage. Thus, we enter a quantum age wherein a

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symbiotic and reciprocal relationship ensues bywhich the medium influences how the message isperceived and that message perception in turn influ-ences how we make media. McLuhan proposed thatthe medium itself, not the content it carries, should bethe focus of study. he said that a medium affects thesociety in which it plays a role not only by the contentdelivered over the medium, but also by the characteris-tics of the medium itself.nowhere else is this more true than in our currentworld. We live in a quantum age wherein what we doaffects how we do it and how we do it affects what wedo. not only is the medium the message, but the observ-er of that medium is also the creator of its message.Learning to assume responsibility for our creations notonly transforms the world “out there” but perhaps, moreimportantly, it transforms us “in here.” Why would I, a physicist, even consider such an idea assound? My thinking about this began a long time ago,when I became interested in the overlap between matterand mind. It seemed to me that either consciousnesssomehow had to emerge from matter or that matterhad to somehow emerge from consciousness. It reallydoesn’t make too much difference to me which is true(and one or both of these must be true if conscious-ness is capable of being studied scientifically: besides,either way it goes, it is pretty amazing), it is just afact that I am made of matter and I am conscious.This overlap took me deep into some of the myster-ies of quantum physics. I knew that quantumphysics dealt with a world of imagination and didnot deal with the actual world, at all. It was totallyincapable of making exact mechanical predictionsof the behavior of minute matter, although itcould predict gross properties. It was the abilityto cross over from the world of imagined hap-penings – the probabilities of quantum physics– to the world of actual substance that exists asobjective material that greatly interested me.It is here, in my study of the history of thesubject of mind and matter, that I began towonder about how images, feelings, thoughts,and visions of reality, the self, and God arise.Could it be that these human experiences ofsubjective reality come into being in much thesame way, when we see them?This puts the observer of the universe into per-spective. It also makes the role of the observerextremely powerful. Where does this observer live?The answer appears to be in the imaginal realmfrom which everything comes into being: observersand observed. What is the process? The answer Ihave offered is the process of creation itself.at some level of my being, I see creations exist outsideof ourselves. We see these creations in architecture, in

political systems, in fairy tales and, of course, in themovies. These creations tell us that vision can be acollective phenomenon. not only do people envisionreality, but states of systems do as well. a nation cre-ates an image. so does a political party or a sect.

B I G P I C T U R E S

I N S O C I A L S Y S T E M S

social systems picture thus create themselves inthe forms of architecture and in their storiesand legends. Political systems imagine them-selves in architectural monuments such as thosethat existed in hitler’s 3rd Reich and in the largeconstructions of statues of Lenin in Moscowbefore the Berlin wall came down. They alsoexist in the structures of our cities’ skyscrapers;they sometimes confirm themselves with maddesigns and phenomena.Many unworldly phenomena like UFO and OBes,images of alien capture in the world, reflect notjust images of individuals but of a whole culture.are UFOs just fantasies, or are they somethingelse? artists capture them in their paintings. Onecan never forget the artistic impressions of Monet’sgarden outside of Paris, for example. Reality, as we presently understand it, is grosslysimplified in terms of our everyday experiences.We simply can’t grasp it all. This is not only due tothe limitations we have discovered in our sensorymodalities, but also to our present understanding ofthe laws of physics. Quantum physics and relativityhave indicated that much of reality is hidden andmysterious, and this would be directly apparent if wecould experience quantum reality. It is a very bizarreuniverse, and mind and meaning are as important asmatter and energy. The mind appears to be present inmatter at many different levels. not only does mindappear to be present in living complex organisms suchas humans and animals, but also at the level of cells andeven at the level of molecules and subatomic matter.

V I R T U A L R E A L I T Y A N D V I S I O N

I have attempted to show in my book The DreamingUniverse 2 that this mind, like the matter it observes, alsohas structures that arise through self-reflection, a processthat arises in the dreaming brain in its attempts to inte-grate, learn, remember, and forget, all that is necessaryfor self-awareness. Without the ability to dream, theremay not be any ability to become self-aware.In the latest theory, uniting quantum physics and theeinstein general theory of relativity, the entire uni-verse can be seen as a two-dimensional informationstructure ‘painted’ on the cosmological horizon like

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a hologram. This holographic principle was inspiredby a study of black holes; the insight was that theinformational content of all the objects that havefallen into the hole could be entirely contained on itssurface event horizon3.according to the holographic principle, the 3-dimen-sional world emerges out of information ‘printed’ on a2-dimensional surfaces called “light-sheets.” Imaginean apple falling in a room. The light-sheets that encodethe physics that describes this room are surfaces thatcontract at the speed of light – the contraction happensboth backward and forward in time, but a contractiongoing backwards in time, is the same as an expansiongoing forward.We can visualize these sheets as the flash of a camera.The camera flashes and light expands until it reachesthe walls, forming a sheet – equivalently light movesbackward in time from the walls to the camera. Thelight reflects off the walls and contracts back to apoint. This information encoded on these light-sheetsdescribes all the physics happening in the room at theinstant the light bounces off the walls 4.In the Tv show Star Trek: The Next Generation, in anepisode entitled “ship in a bottle”, the crew of theship are confounded by the appearance of the entity“dr. M.”, generated – literally off the walls – in theship’s “holodeck,” a room within the ship where 3-dimensional holographic images are generated thatare so “real” that the members of the crew whoexperience the holodeck’s virtual reality can nolonger differentiate images from real objects andreal people.dr. M. explains that somehow he has become self-conscious and wants to live in the “real” worldand suggests to the captain that since he can thinkself-reflectively, he must be able to exist. The cap-tain warns him that no holo-generated image canexist outside of the holodeck. But dr. M. insists,cogito ergo sum, “I think therefore I am,” andcommands the holodeck doors to open, wherebyhe simply walks through the doors, into theship’s interior, leaving the holodeck much to theamazement of the ship’s crew.The story is resolved when the crew realizes that allof this has been holographically generated, includ-ing the image of dr M. leaving the holodeck.The holodeck encompassed images of a virtualholodeck, and ship, and its crew. dr M. and thereal crew never left the holodeck. however, dr M.insists on continuance as a real being, so the cap-tain creates an image of the whole universe for“him” and sets up a cyberspace in a cube so that drM. is capable of moving about this “universe” whileconfined in the holodeck’s library. dr M. has no way

of knowing this and as the episode ends, the realcrew all wonder if they themselves are just imagesinside of some unimaginable technology.and, of course, as I watch the show, I realize thatthey are inside of my box, the television set Iobserve.Growing from the technology of cockpit simula-tion designed for aircraft pilot training, virtualreality is making its way into our technologicalworld. In a virtual world generated by simulta-neous computer-generated stereographic images– one to each eye of the perceiver and stereo-graphic holographic sound to each ear – a per-son enters an environment of pure and oftenabstract information that can be seen, felt, heard,and touched. The touching is generated byplacing one’s hand or hands inside of electronicgloves that monitor and feedback spatial infor-mation to the computer which then in turnfeeds back the information to the glove, soundsystem, and visual screens. The intent of the“user” is fed into the computer and it in turnsfeeds back information to the “user.” The wholeoperation runs in an electronic loop nearly at thespeed of light.In essence the virtual reality, machine functions some-what like we do, only in our case we carry the com-puter atop of our noses instead of outside of ourbodies in a small but powerful microcomputer. Justas our brains are hidden from our sight, the technolo-gy for virtual reality is also invisible and carefullyadapted to a person’s activity so that he or she canbehave in what seems to be a perfectly ordinary way.some time ago I had the chance to explore virtualreality. although it seems ordinary at first, one quicklygets the impression that one has entered a very strangeworld indeed. For example, by merely moving one’shand in an arc, a la Merlin himself, it is possible to cre-ate objects floating in space that appear as real as actualobjects and then to make them vanish. One can runone’s hand or body through seemingly solid objects.One can fly as a bird, through a landscape as real as acomputer-generated image of three-dimensional realitycan make it. In fact, one can become a bird or undergoshape-changing as magical as any shaman’s transforma-tion. It is also possible to change one’s own physicalboundaries and go inside them. For example, onecould look at a computer generated picture of one’sown heart beating, but this time, see it from theinside rather than the outside.The distinction between description (a view of objec-tive reality) and process (a view of subjective reality) iscapable of being completely eroded in cyberspace.For example, we do not change a book’s words when


we read them. But suppose, by entering cyberspace,we become the characters in the book, actually expe-riencing the author’s imagined intent. We may speakthose words and, as a result of speaking them andhearing them and experiencing ourselves as the charac-ter or characters who speak those words, we may havean entirely different experience of the words spoken.The symbolic references by the author now becomeexperiences.The ability to enter into this technological space in thismanner is really a new experience. We literally crossover a boundary that we normally cannot cross: theboundary separating self and the universe. Or perhapswe do cross this boundary in the world we experienceas the “real” world.

W E S H O W Y O U S T E E N K I N G R E A L I T Y

The latest physics tells us that reality is not made of stuff,but it is made of informational possibilities that can becoherent, so that possibilities appear to form into solidmatter. When we talk about the dreams of the state orthe nation for example, we are looking at this holo-graphic/dreaming phenomenon at a more complexlevel of matter, but nevertheless, it is the same processwe experience in the creation of our own individualrealities. The dream is the place where the quantumreality becomes especially transparent, the mix ofmind and matter becomes revealed.We are speaking about levels of consciousness.From these different levels of reality, other sub-levels of reality form, producing a sense of thelower levels appearing more inert and mechanis-tic as when seen from a higher level.Thus from a cosmic or universe view or planetarylevel, when looking back at the whole earth, wesee a somewhat mechanical picture of the planet.From the earth’s point of view, we see the motionsof rivers and oceans as mechanical. From a nationalpoint of view we see the motions of people andtheir machines as mechanical and mindless.From a personal or human point of view wesometimes see each other as mechanical or tryto reduce everything to mechanical terms. Wesee our own body parts as mechanical.hard reality is a question of levels. however, ifwe go too deep in our search for mind and mat-ter, the levels begin to dissolve and atoms appearto be not things; they seem like ghosts, and weenter into an imaginal realm.There are legends that have attempted to describethis. For example the australian aboriginal peoplebelieve that a Great spirit dreamed all of reality, the

whole universe of it, into existence. They say that theland they walk is a reflection of this Great spirit’sdream, and when they walk this land, they becomeaware of the songs of their legends that resonatewith the land itself. These songs resonate as song-lines in the earth and give them directions.

W E A L L K N O W T H I S

If you look at human psychological and spiritualmodeling you will find evidence of this “it’s all adream” idea. For example, Joseph Campbell intalking about this concept wrote: “schopen-hauer […] points out that when you reach anadvanced age and look back over your lifetime,it can seem to have had a consistent order andplan, as though composed by some novelist.events that when they occurred had seemedaccidental and of little moment turn out to havebeen indispensable factors in the composition ofa consistent plot.”so, who composed that plot? schopenhauersuggests that just as an aspect of yourself, ofwhich your consciousness is unaware, composesyour dreams, so, too, your whole life is composed bythe will within you. and just as people whom youwill have met apparently by mere chance becomeleading agents in the structuring of your life, so,too, will you have served unknowingly as an agent,giving meaning to the lives of others. The wholething gears together like one big symphony, witheverything unconsciously structuring everything else…one great dream of a single dreamer in which all thedream characters dream, too.everything arises in mutual relation to everything else,so you can’t blame anybody for anything. It is even asthough there were a single intention behind it all, whichalways makes some kind of sense, though none of usknows what the sense might be, or has lived the life thathe quite intended5.Chuang Tzu, the Chinese philosopher wrote: “some daycomes the Great awakening when we realize that thislife is no more than a dream. Yet the foolish go onthinking they are awake: surveying the panorama oflife with such clarity, they call this one a prince and thatone a peasant – What delusion! The great Confuciusand you are both a dream. and I, who say all this is adream, I, too, am a dream6.”Our dreams do not appear to care whether they arepleasant, good, or evil. When we look at typical imagesof aliens from flying saucers, what do we see? The peo-ple are very thin and emaciated. They have whiteskins and thin bony arms and legs. They appear asvery sick, starving or malnourished children. We allremember the Biafran tragedy in africa, that war


created camps of starving and homeless people. Theseimages are archetypal images of the neglected childwho many psychologists recognize as a motif orarchetype. We all have a neglected child inside of our-selves. We all have suffered the supposed abandon-ment of our parents whether this was a real abandon-ment or not. as young children, with underdevelopedegos, we at time felt so because we simply didn’t have theintelligence to recognize that mom just went upstairs tofetch a glass of water.Freud certainly wrote about this motif, and Jung wouldpoint to the frightening mother and abandoned childmotif. so we all have such archetypal images constitutingour unconscious minds. I believe that these images aredeeper than just our personal experiences and that theseimages of archetypes rise from a more fundamental levelof reality, which we might call the dream world. Inthis sense the dream is more fundamental than theobjective reality.When we dream we return to that reality in order togain information about how to survive in this reality.But survival may not be as it seems from a single per-spective. I, as a writer survive through you as a reader.Without you, I can’t write for a living. Many themesbegin to weave together as I write. I began to see theoverlap of these themes as I starting writing. Wheredid I get the idea of the dreaming universe, for exam-ple, I don’t know. One day I awoke and I said,“matter dreams.”In some way, hard core materialists would agreewith this. The materialist philosophers believethat consciousness arises from matter. If so, how?From my point of view it doesn’t matter whetheryou are a hard core materialist-scientist or softcore metaphysician who believes in God, or aCartesian dualist who believes in the mind-mat-ter dualism. If consciousness exists in matter,then matter is conscious. I am, therefore I think,or I think, therefore I am, becomes a tautology.Going back to the images of starving children,are these just reflections of our primordial arche-typal images? Or are they something more? dothe images of the children haunt us and thenappear as extraordinary events in our dreamand fantasy life because we are not facing thereality of the hardship of life on earth? Couldthese images be images of real people, not fromother planets or galaxies – that would be toonaïve – but from another reality, another level?Those persons only appear in accordance with adefinite archetypal program.Why do we have such images of apparent suffering?From a quantum physical point of view, we begin tosee that the world of matter cannot be constructed

from certainty. There is none in the material world.heisenberg’s principle of uncertainty rules the worldof matter. This means that in trying to deal with thereal world, there will always be in our minds suchthings as doubt and uncertainty and even unclarityas to what is really the past and really the present.These cannot be defined perfectly.When there is uncertainty there is also a mecha-nism that arises which we all know; we call it fear.Fear is, as I see it, the process of identifying withmatter. When you identify with matter, the processof identifying is electronic. electrons repel eachother not only due to their like charges, but alsoto their intrinsic quantum property called spin.according to the Pauli Exclusion principle (PeP)they will not enter the same quantum state. This tends to produce isolated structures andallows atoms to appear with different properties.In a sense, the PeP is responsible for the appear-ance of secular structures or the emergence ofidentity – the separation of self behavior from thenot-self behavior. This tends to build within ourown nature feelings of doubt, uncertainty andinferiority (adler wrote about the inferiority com-plex). all of these reflections are attempts to build ascience of life. But there is a peril in all of this.The more we scientize life, the more we try to findcausal reasons for everything, the more fearful itbecomes. The more afraid we become. In the Russianfilm The Scorpion’s Garden I saw in saint Petersburg,the director Oleg Kovalov, using a clever overlap andjuxtaposition of historical documentary footage ofRussian life in the fifties and sixties together with a lovestory of a Russian soldier and woman, showed how thedreams and aspiration of the political system overlappedinto the almost simple lives of the protagonists. scenes ofviolence and mistrust in the big picture filtered into thestory at every level. When the soldier becomes ill aftereating a meal at his fiancée’s home, he fears that he hasbeen poisoned by an enemy of the state as his command-ing officers tell him. The KGB is everywhere looking overhis shoulder as he walks the streets, or so it seems. Thefilm depicts very well the idea of the mass consciousnessand the dream of this mass as distinct but yet overlappingwith the life of the individuals that make up that mass.There are scenes in insane asylums where the inmatesappear to see this overlap and when asked about this theyrespond in what at first seems to be nonsense, but whenheard carefully is just that: they are sensitive to the massdream and their own individual dream. We become afraid because people tell us what is realand what is not real. But we sense an inner conflictwith what people tell us. We feel fear because weknow that the viewpoint of, say, a political system isnot consistent with our own view. The communist


party is not the answer to the world. The capitalistsystem is not the answer for the world’s problems.Going to war is not the answer to the world. Weknow these things from some deeper voice inside ofourselves. What happens is that fearful images enterour minds, and we don’t realize this. But if you havefearful images, they tend to come into reality: whateveryou can imagine begins to appear as if we called theminto existence.We are creating these images as realities because theuniverse is ambivalent and paradoxical. It doesn’t carewhat you produce. It doesn’t say to you that you can’tdo this and you can do that. It is like a mother thatloves all of her children: the ugly ones, the beautifulones, the starving ones and the rich fatted ones, shedoesn’t care. It says whatever you create as imagery, sowill it be. Why? Because at the core of the universe, atits most fundamental level, it is not solid stuff. It is nothard reality. It is capable of forming reality into what-ever our images produce.all political and social systems are produced this way.They are all magnifications of this basic misunder-standing of the nature of this hidden aspect of reality.If people could comprehend the imaginal element inall matter then what they envision would eventuallycome to pass. however, it may or may not come topass at this instant, but it begins to manifest at thelevel of dreams.In a way Freud was right. dreams are wish fulfilling,but the level of the wish is not transparent. at theworst level, you cannot meet another person with-out projecting onto this person the fears and antici-pations of your past conditioning. all of ourimages attach themselves to us and determine forus the way we see the world. We project theseimages out there. even if you are not my image, ifI treat you like my image eventually you begin tofight against my image, or you begin to capitulateand become my image. Relationships begin toform like this. People fall in love with what theyimagine about each other and not with whateach person brings to the relationship.We live in myths, we live in trances, and we livein illusions that are hard to break free of. Medi-tation and perhaps Buddhist thought helps usto see what is really there because it helps us tofree ourselves from our own imaginations. Thesespiritual teachings are designed to help us breakfree from any kinds of images: golden summersor wet cold icy winters, good or bad.It is a dreaming universe. But if there is a greatspirit dreaming all of this into existence, do I, thewriter of this, believe in hIM or heR?Let’s say that the question of belief for me is at mypresent understanding the question: am I able to

create within my life a sense of the presence of God?To believe something without any sense of presenceof what one believes is little more than a brain-washing. It is like a child being told what he canand can’t think or believe.Is there a personal God? Is this God primordial,the origin of all existing things? does one meanby this God a personal image like an old manwith a white beard, or a primitive tribal picturefrom early Christianity or pagan religions? Ordoes one think of an impersonal image like theChinese Tao or the cosmic order? Or is God amysterious primordial person who gives powersto some and gives rules of behavior which aren’tto be broken? The question is: does God have apersonality?Rather than say I believe this, I would rather saythat there is a basic mystery that is very deep. Iknow this mystery from my own experience oflife when I am open enough to see it. If I am notopen to see it, I go into fear and I won’t see any-thing, I’ll be in illusion. But when I am open toit, I sense this presence.

S E N S I N G T H E P R E S E N C E

O F T H E C R E A T O R

One day I had a particular strong impression of thisPresence. I had taken Lsd (this was back in the midseventies). I was in a beautiful area, the coastline ofnorthern California. It is wonderful place. It was aperfect earth-day. Under the Lsd I walked out into thesun and felt it beaming. I saw the sky glowing bril-liantly blue. The clouds were faultlessly white. Theocean below me rushed onto the rocks. It was a bril-liant Turner painting! But it was in full, live colors, andit had sounds that filled my brain and it had smells ofsalt air and the green grass sparkled in the sunlight andI smelled the freshness of the grass as if I were growingwith it. I looked at this all very carefully. Then suddenlyI began to realize that it wasn’t real, it was all an illusion.a great feat of art. It was like a painting or sculpture. Itwas clear to me that not one blade of grass was out ofplace. not one wave of the ocean below was wasted inits spillage over the rocks. not one shade of light of theever-changing blueness of the sky was random. It wasperfect and it was ordered, and it was clearly a creationof a great artist or a great dreamer.at this moment I realized that the world I saw was nolonger compelling me to see it as immediately givenand out there but as something that was painstakinglycreated. I felt not the presence of the overwhelmingart scene I was immersed in, but the overwhelmingsense of the artist. It was as if the artist had spokento me. It was as if God had taken me by the hand


and said “so you really want to see? You really wantme to take you beyond the illusion?” Then every-thing I was experiencing had tremendous meaning.everything was significant. I was seeing into the arti-fact of the world and seeing it as an illusion, a cre-ation and not as random nature.I wasn’t looking at this as if forces had created thisblindly, nor had mechanics created it nor had blindnature created it. a clearly organized intelligent, feelingsensing like-myself, anthropomorphic being had createdit. In that sense I felt the presence of God. In my normallife, I only feel this presence at rare times. I feel it with cer-tain people who come into my life. We will be togetherand we will feel some kind of connecting energy, somekind or resonance, some kind of knowing, when I can’tknow this person, but there is a deep sense of this. Whenthis happens to me I begin to feel this again. It is more aquestion of awareness rather than blind belief. My greatestjoy of being alive is when I have that awareness. Thenthe fear is gone, the hole in my chest is healed. nosense of loss or abandonment, everything is peaceful. Itry to kindle that with everyone I meet. It is notalways possible. I seek it out in whatever form it willtake. I can’t predict what form it will take. I foundthat it does arise in many different parts of the worldfor many different reasons spontaneously. I can onlytake it that “I” am the creator of the universe, evenif that is only a dream. 8

———————

1 This quote was captured by Robert anton Wilson(deceased) who was a friend of mine and nick’s, in his book:Wilson, Robert anton. Quantum Psychology (Phoenix, aZ:new Falcon Publications, 1990:69).

2 Wolf, F. a, The Dreaming Universe: A mind-expandingjourney into the realm where psyche and physics meet (new York:simon and schuster, 1994, Reprint, Touchstone, 1995).

3 R. Bouso, “The holographic Principle” in Reviews of Mod-ern Physics, 74(3): 825-874. see also http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/hep-th/0203101.pdf.

4 M. Moyer, “Is space digital?” in Scientific American,306(2): 30-37.

5 I don’t remember where I got this quote. I believe itwas from an interview he had with Michael Toms in theradio show New Dimensions Radio.

6 This quote is well known and is a part of the poemthat Chuang Tzu wrote concerning his dream of the but-terfly. again, I don’t remember where I got it from. PossiblyChuang Tsu, Inner Chapters (Trans. Jane english and Gia-Fu Feng, new York: vintage Books, 1974: 45).

a b


Toru Sato teaches Psychology atShippensburg University inPennsylvania, USA. It is notclear why, but he has aninterest in consciousness andspirituality. Why he also has ageneral interest in the humandevelopment, interpersonalrelationships, and the cyclical/

rhythmic nature of life is also amystery. Email: [email protected].

n ManY PaRTs OF ThIs WORLd, We MaKe GReaT eFFORTs

to create peace through political efforts. In manycases, this is a necessary intervention that savesmany lives and can be extremely successful for at

least a temporary period of time. as many sagesthroughout history have suggested, however, truepeace can only come about when there is peaceinside the hearts of the individuals involved. Thepurpose of the present article is to explore thisinspiring notion. as we live our lives, we embark on a beautifuljourney. This journey involves a difficult butnecessary descent and an eye-opening ascentupon the ladder of consciousness.

The separation from unity is the descentof the angels upon the ladder of consciousness.

The return to unity is the ascent of the angels upon the ladder.

The descent is good.But the unity that comes is expressed diversity

But in diversity there would be no concept of separation.G a R R e T T d U T T O n

Let us start where we all start, the beginning ofour lives. as infants and young children, weneed 100% of our emotions to be accepted andheld with loving presence by our caretakers. asthe well-known psychologist, Carl Rogers, claims,in an ideal world, we would all be raised in anenvironment of unconditional positive regard, anenvironment in which we are accepted and lovedfor whom we really are1. although this need isoften overlooked, it is almost as important as ourneed for oxygen.

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if weare to carry on a real war against war, we shall

have to begin with the children.M O h a n d a s G h a n d I

as we grow up, the more our emotions areaccepted and held with a loving presence byour caretakers, the more we feel that our emo-tions are valued and worth respecting. The moreour emotions are accepted and held with a lov-ing presence, the more we believe in ourselvesto accept and hold our own emotions. This cor-responds to the general experience of high self-esteem. It makes us believe that, “I am goodenough to be loved and accepted as I am (withall of the emotions that I experience).” The higherour self-esteem, the more we develop courage toface not only all of our emotions but also the chal-lenges that might make us experience these emo-tions in the future. This is the true meaning of “self-confidence”. We never doubt that consistent senseof belonging that helps us maintain our emotionalsecurity.

It never hurts to think too highly of a person;often they become ennobled and act better because of it.

n e L s O n M a n d e L a

T H E D E S C E N T

To show what good came from my experience I have to tell of things that were not so good.

d a n T e a L I G h I e R I

Realistically, however, maintaining a loving presencewith our infants and young children regardless of whatemotion they may be experiencing is easier said thandone. In fact, it is not possible to have 100% of ouremotions accepted and held with loving presence byour caretakers all of the time simply because caretakersare human and it is human to be anxious, fearful, andinsecure. as we may know from our own experiences,when we are anxious, fearful, or insecure, maintaininga loving presence for others is often pushed down tothe bottom of our list of priorities. even though thishappens to all of us, there are still individual differ-ences in how much our emotions are accepted andheld with loving presence by our caretakers. as ageneral rule, the less our emotions are accepted and

T H E D E S C E N T A N D A S C E N TU PON TH E L ADD E R O F CON S C I OUN E S S

T O R U S A T O

I


held with a loving presence by our caretakers, themore we feel that our emotions are not worthrespecting and valuing. When we feel that our emo-tions are not worth respecting and valuing, we believethat we are not worth respecting and valuing. This isthe essence of low self-esteem. We believe that, “I amnot good enough to be loved and accepted as I am(with all of my emotions).” The lower our self-esteem,the less we believe in ourselves to face difficult emo-tions. Moreover, the less we believe in ourselves to facedifficult emotions, the less we believe in ourselves toface the challenges that might make us experience thosedifficult emotions in the future.

Most of the shadows of this life are causedby standing in one’s own sunshine.

R a L P h Wa L d O e M e R s O n

as we are human, we inevitably experience difficultemotions. Because of our experiences with our caretak-ers discussed above, some of these difficult emotionsare desperately avoided, denied or repressed. Unfortu-nately, these attempts are met with limited success.even with our best efforts, these emotions creep outof our subconscious minds as our shadow side des-perately looking for other people to accept and holdthese difficult emotions with a loving presence. Ourshadow side often appears to people who are veryclose to us such as parents, romantic partners, sib-lings, and our own children. If these emotionsfrom our shadow side are not accepted by thosepeople very close to us, they may surface in our otherless intimate relationships such as with friends, peo-ple at work, and often may extend to political, cul-tural, and religious groups and leaders. Becausewe feel that these emotions need to be acceptedand held by someone, our shadow side doeswhatever it takes to accomplish this mission. Ifour emotions are not accepted and held by thesepeople, they will often become our enemy. Weseparate ourselves from them, blame them, andin some cases, act aggressively against them.The more this happens, the more we lose con-tact with the fundamental truth that we allbelong to each other.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosisbut rather the feeling of not belonging.

M O T h e R T h e R e s a

This creation of an enemy is essentially a pro-jection of making ourselves the enemy by vic-timizing or blaming and punishing ourselves. Wecannot trust ourselves to accept and hold theseemotions so we blame ourselves. deep down inour subconscious mind, we believe “I am not goodenough.” Because admitting to this is painful, when

we find that we cannot trust others to accept andhold our emotions, we blame and victimize othersas a temporary escape from the unpleasantness offeeling “I am the not good enough.” We turn ourbelief of “I am not good enough” into “You arenot good enough.” Perhaps it is not an overstate-ment to claim that this is the basis of all hostility,aggression and violence in life.

The worst thing about fearis what it does to you when you try to hide it.

n I C h O L a s C h R I s T O P h e R

as alluded to earlier, none of us have 100% ofour childhood emotions accepted and heldwith loving presence by our caretakers. This iswhy Carl Rogers states that none of us areraised in a perfect environment of uncondition-al positive regard². Therefore, understandably,all of our caretakers have developed a shadowside to some extent. as mentioned previously,this shadow side surfaces in many of our rela-tionships including our relationships with ourown children. In the moments where this shad-ow side of us dominates our personality, we can-not accept and hold the emotions of our childrenwith a loving presence. Because we are often des-perate to have our own emotions accepted andheld with a loving presence by others in thesemoments, we cannot maintain a loving presence forothers. This, unfortunately and inevitably, leads tothe development of the shadow side in our ownchildren. Therefore, to some extent, we all develop ashadow side believing that, “some of my emotionsare not worth respecting and valuing and thereforesome parts of me are not worth respecting and valu-ing” and “some parts of me are not good enough to beloved and accepted.” In some very unfortunate cases,our shadow side may be so strong that we believe that“all of my emotions are not worth respecting and valu-ing and therefore I am not worth respecting and valu-ing” and “I am not good enough to be loved andaccepted as I am.”

The greatest burden a child must bear is theunlived life of the parents.

C a R L J U n G

T H E A S C E N T

even though all of us have developed a shadow side,there is no need to despair. In fact, there is still animmense amount of hope. We can unlearn thesebeliefs that are subconsciously dwelling in our shad-ow side. To do this we must learn to trust ourselvesto accept and hold our own emotions with a lovingpresence. We must do this with our past repressed

T O R U S A T O | T H E D E S C E N T A N D A S C E N T U P O N T H E L A D D E R O F C O N S C I O U S N E S S | 1 1 4

emotional experiences and any emotions that arisein the moment and uncover the beliefs that areassociated with these emotions buried deep in oursubconscious minds (e.g., “I am not good enough tobe loved and accepted as I am”). Once these beliefsare brought up to the conscious level of our minds,we begin the process that is sometimes referred to as“reparenting.” We learn to accept and hold our ownemotions with a loving presence much like we wishedour own parents would have when we were younger.

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who areonly waiting to see us act just once, with beauty and courage.Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence,

something helpless that needs our love.R a I n e R M a R I a R I L K e

There are many therapeutic mindfulness practices thatare focused on this process of “reparenting.” eventhough a thorough explanation of these practices isbeyond the scope of this article, the important elementof this process involves a shift in identity. We stopidentifying with our ego, a separate individual self thatneeds to be protected, and we begin to identify withthe spaciousness that holds our emotions with a lov-ing presence. When we identify with the spaciousnessthat holds our emotions with a loving presence, werelate to our emotions in an entirely new and liber-ating way. Instead of being overridden by our emo-tions, we now have a choice of how to relate to it.We realize that we are not our emotions. We arethe spaciousness that holds our emotions as theycome and go. We can choose to run away from ouremotions or we can choose to stay with them byholding them with a kind of loving presence thatis often experienced by a caring mother holdingher crying infant. as we sit quietly holding ouremotions with a loving presence, we soon dis-cover that each emotion will arrive, stay, andthen leave after it has fully lived its life inside ofus. Just like an infant who is lovingly held byhis or her mother will eventually feel comfortedand stop crying, every emotion passes as long aswe allow it to come in and move through.

Develop a mind that is vast like space, whereexperiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appearand disappear without conflict, struggle or harm.

Rest in a mind like vast sky.M A J J H IM A N I K AYA , Buddhist scripture

Theoretically, this is what happens in the process.experientially, however, most people will requiresubstantial support and guidance from an experi-enced spiritual teacher, healer, or therapist to helphim or her through this process (interested readersmay benefit from reading some of the books listedat the end of this article). By “reparenting” ourselves,

we develop the capacity to accept and hold our ownemotions. This is truly what it means to becomeindependent, responsible, and empowered as ahuman being. This is what it means to truly “own”our lives, and become an adult. In many cultures, therites of passage into adulthood were initially intend-ed to function as catalysts in this unfolding processof consciousness. Through this process, we learnthat we do not need to rely on others to acceptand hold our emotions. We learn to trust our-selves to accept and hold any emotion that arises.as our consciousness unfolds in this process, welearn that, “difficult emotions are a part of thehuman experience and all of these experiences(not just the pleasant ones) are worthy of love,care, and respect.” When this understandingfinally sinks into the depths of our conscious-ness, we truly begin to believe that, “Regardlessof what emotions I experience, regardless of whatothers say or do, I am always worthy of beingloved and accepted as I am.”

The curious paradox is that when I accept myselfjust as I am, then I can change.

C a R L R O G e R s

although being able to accept and hold 100% ofour emotions on our own would be ideal, this ismuch easier said than done. In childhood, we need100% of our emotions to be accepted and held byothers (mostly parents and other caretakers). Ideallyin adulthood, it would be nice to have the capacityto accept and hold 100% of our emotions on ourown. Realistically, however, it might be more pru-dent to aspire to accept and hold at least 75% of ouremotions on our own. Unless we can reach a state ofcomplete ego-transcendence, we might still need oth-ers to accept and hold some of our emotions. In manyways, this is perhaps the emotional function of family,friends, and community.

I will come to you, my friend, when I no longer need you.Then you will find a palace, not an almshouse.

h e n R Y d av I d T h O R e a U

Being able to accept and hold our emotions with a lov-ing presence is of vital importance not only to ourselvesbut also to the world around us. This is because themore we can accept and hold our own emotions with aloving presence, the more we can stay fully present withothers by accepting and holding other people’s emo-tions with a loving presence. The spaciousness thatholds our own emotions with a loving presence is thevery spaciousness that allows us to hold other people’semotions with a loving presence. as suggested earlier,this type of spaciousness is the key ingredient for rais-ing children who can trust themselves to accept andhold their own emotions with a loving presence.


Because of this, children who are raised in this typeof spaciousness by their caretakers are more likelyto have the natural confidence to accept and holdthe emotions of others with a loving presence. Whenwe reside in this spaciousness, we are at one with thetrue spirit of love and peace. This is perhaps why themore inner peace we experience, the more outer peacewe can create.

The moment you see how important it is to loveyourself, you will stop making others suffer.S AM YUK THA N I K AYA , Buddhist scripture

In addition, this type of loving presence with others isessential not only in human relationships but also betweenus humans and the many forces of nature that surroundus. awakening to this reality is not only a prerequisite tomending the rifts between many of the political, religious,and cultural groups that we see today but also to healingthis planet. When we identify with the spaciousness thatholds our emotions with a loving presence, we also devel-op the capacity to stay lovingly present and compassion-ate with all forces of nature. The day we can be of servicewith this kind of loving presence and compassiontoward all that exists may be the day we will have trulymastered the art of peacemaking.

Work is love made visible.K h a L I L G I B R a n

I thank you sincerely for allowing me to share mythoughts with you. I wish you all a wonderful

journey descending and ascending uponthis challenging but beautiful

ladder ofconsciousness.

May we awaken to see our own shadow side...May we unlearn our fears of not being

accepted and held with a loving presence...May we awaken to our own true nature,

the spaciousness that holds all with a sacredloving presence...

May we learn to stay present with bothourselves and others and so that we can find

true peace and compassion.... . . n a M a s T e . . .

8

———————

1 Rogers 1959, A theory of therapy: 224.

2 Ibid.: 226.

R E F E R E N C E S

ROGeRs, C. R. (1959). “a theory of therapy, personalityand interpersonal relationships as developed in theclient-centered framework”, in s. Koch (ed.), Psy-chology: A study of a science. Vol. III. Formulations ofthe person and the social context: 181-256 (new York:McGraw hill).

R E COMMEND ED BOOK S ON TH E R A P E U T I C

M I ND F U L N E S S P R AC T I C E S

BRaCh, T. (2004). Radical acceptance: Embracing yourlife with the heart of a Buddha (new York: Ban-tam).

KaBaT-ZInn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: Usingthe wisdom of your body and mind to face stress,pain, and illness (new York: delta).

WeLWOOd, J. (1997). Love and awakening: Discover-ing the sacred path of intimate relationship (newYork: harper Perennial).

WILLIaMs, M., TeasdaLe, J., seGaL, Z., & KaBaT-ZInn, J. (2007). The mindful way through depres-sion: Freeing yourself from chronic unhappiness(new York: Guilford).

a b

T O R U S A T O | T H E D E S C E N T A N D A S C E N T U P O N T H E L A D D E R O F C O N S C I O U S N E S S | 1 1 6

Geoff Fitch is founder and fac-ulty at Pacific Integral, andhas been creative leader,coach and educator for overthirty years. He holds Mastersof Transpersonal Psychologyfrom the Institute of Transper-sonal Psychology and BS inComputer Science, magna cum

laude, from Boston University.

B A C K G R O U N D

e LIve In a TIMe OF seeMInGLY UnPReCedenTed

peril. In recent decades the challenges weface appear to have taken on greater andgreater proportions, and present them-

selves with a complexity that forces us to think andact globally as a species, something we seem utterlyunable to do. While the best of our global institu-tions make valiant attempts to articulate the issuesand organize solutions, such as the millennial devel-opment goals1, it seems that our best attempts fallfar short of being sufficient to address these chal-lenges. Global problems such as climate change,infectious disease, war, poverty, financial instability,cyber warfare, and environmental decline occupysome of our greatest minds, yet still we cannotprovide even the basic necessities of life for onebillion of our population, while some leadingscientists point an imminent, irreversible col-lapse of environmental systems on a planetarylevel2 that threatens the very continuation of thehuman species. While these conditions becomeclearer and clearer each day, our leaders and insti-tutions seemed blinded by narrowness of visionand mired in political gridlock and self-interest,while the populace seems largely anesthetizedfrom concern by popular media and culture.While this predicament is our greatest challengeas a species, it also seems to represent an unprece-dented opportunity. There is something profoundlyhopeful about this situation. In each of these per-ceptions lies equally an intuition of resolution andtranscendence. awaking to an evolutionary under-standing of matter, life, mind and spirit3 we can seeourselves as part of a great timeless story4 and recognize

this moment as an evolutionary turning point,and opportunity to individually and collectivelytranscend the patterns that have manifestedthese challenges and bring about a new con-sciousness that not only moves beyond thesegreat problems, but brings about a more beauti-ful and equitable future for all. at a concretelevel, we see unparalleled growth of technologi-cal solutions, inter-connectedness, new organi-zational forms, and spiritual understanding. Weactually have the raw material of what we need,it seems (even if we are not yet realizing thosesolutions.) even more so, we have the potentialto remake ourselves anew and in the process tosanctify existence. These extremes of perspective, of cataclysmic break-down and human transcendence, are evocative butultimately unsatisfying and distracting. The humanexperience has always been one of cataclysm andtranscendence. as our consciousness and complexityexpands5 at each stage of development, we have facedwhat has seemed like threats of annihilation at times.While the extinction of a tribe or nation may not seemas cataclysmic as our present day threats, from the per-spective of the people facing them, they may have beenjust as ominous. While at this time we seemed to haverun out of rope (or planet), there is a hubris in this per-spective that does not acknowledge the limits of ourknowledge that repeatedly reveals itself to us in hind-sight. The question is perhaps not how bad or good is it.The more important question we face might be how canwe move forward with and toward the greatest wholeness?how to we presence our action and awareness such that itserves the higher future that calls us6? This paper exploresthe ethical potentials of the challenges we face today, inlight of our understanding of the evolutionary develop-ment of consciousness, explored elsewhere in this issue,and examines ethical principles founded on the essentialconditions of the cosmos - evolution and non-duality.

E V O L V I N G U N I V E R S E ,E V O L V I N G M I N D

In this issue, O’Fallon describes a spectrum of evolu-tion of consciousness that includes human develop-ment and spans the great domains of concrete, subtle,causal and non-dual worlds7. This spectrum includes

E V O L U T I O N A R Y E T H I C SG E O F F F I T C H

W


and builds on the developmental stage models point-ed to by Wilber8 and the many theorists his integralframework references and integrates. While each theo-ry of development typically explores a given line, cog-nitive development, and then self or identity develop-ment, tend to lead other lines of development. sincethe stage of self development determines who one takesone’s self to be and what one takes the world to be, wecan say that these stages are constructive, in that theydescribe structures that construct, or co-create the worldsin which one believes one to exist. (This perspective alsoarises as developmental theories transcend and includesocial constructivist and later, construct-aware perspec-tives9). Thus, theories of self-development describe devel-opmental stages, but they also indicate that a develop-mental stage makes possible a particular worldview, whichwould be foundational to a theory.

E V O L V I N G E T H I C A L S E N S E

Given this understanding, it is important to considerthat any ethical sense itself can be seen as arising devel-opmentally. Most famously, Kohlberg10 built onPiaget’s theory of cognitive development to describesix stages of moral development. These six stagesconsist of two pre-conventional stages, which areego-centric and oriented towards the direct result ofaction for the self; two conventional stages, whichare socio-centric where the social norms and expec-tations guide actions; and two post-conventional,in which actions are guided by one’s own ethicalprinciples, which may differ from those of society.Kohlberg’s original six levels spanned a developmen-tal spectrum up through what O’Fallon11 has calledthe subtle stages, those not yet including transper-sonal perspectives.Kohlberg and Power did, however, speculateabout a seventh stage12, which arises out of amystical understanding and is seen as one seesone’s self in relationship to the unity and to thecosmos. Kohlberg refers to this new perspectiveas an ethical stance that is “cosmic” or “infi-nite” and points out that it moves beyond, butincludes earlier principled perspectives orient-ing toward justice, but becomes grounded inagape, or a universal embracing love. Wilber13 has also suggested that beyond the post-conventional territory, lies the ethical principlesthat reflect an expanding scope of care, arising outof an expanding scope of awareness, with a post-post-conventional stage evoking a concern for allhumans. This includes a bodhisattvic stage com-prising care for all sentient beings, and a non-dualstage spanning concern for all of manifestation.Wilber suggests a “basic moral intuition” which calls

for care for the greatest depth for the greatest span.Both Kohlberg and Wilber acknowledge in post-post-conventional moral stages, one might refer toprinciples, but action is not so easily determined –there are no rules, per se, which is reflected inWilber’s use of the term “intuition.”as we develop, our ethical understanding evolves,touching greater and greater scopes of care, andultimately has us meet the dualistic mind at itscore, calling us to an ethics that does not divide,that is whole. as such, we must admit it is akind of fool’s errand to construct such an ethicsin distinctions, but something we can’t fullyescape. a deeper, more cosmic ethical intuitionbegins to step into the territory where wordsfail and where paradox is only an elusive scentof a deeper unity. how might we considerethics, from an assumption of prior unity14,from the perspective of the whole?

E V O L U T I O N A R Y F O U N D A T I O N S

We can at this time look to how certain founda-tional, universal conditions inform how an evo-lutionary ethical sense unfolds, and how we maynow clarify ethical principles that span the spec-trum of humanity.First, that there is, as we have seen, a developmen-tal spectrum that points to great worlds or tiers ofbeing, part of what Wilber called the “great chain ofbeing”15. This territory of existence, through whichevolution expresses itself is expressed as majors tiersof manifestation: gross, subtle, causal, non-dual.second, there appears to be a foundational energy orcondition of the cosmos, which is the impulse to evolvetowards higher forms, ultimately to unconditioned Unity,God, spirit itself. This has been described as the force oferos (as seen from the many reaching for realization)and agape (as seen from spirit, coaxing manifestationtowards realization of its true condition, as spirit).Third, that sprit, the ultimate, unconditioned reality isboth the goal of evolutionary cosmos, and the already,always existing condition of the Cosmos as it is. Realityexists as the paradoxical relative and absolute nature ofexistence, which is both two and not two. Fourth, awareness is the foundation of this growingevolutionary process.

A W A R E N E S S A N D A C T I O N

ethical action is action towards the good, enacting“for the good of” and arises out of awareness of whatis and a sense of what the best expression of thegood is in the moment. as we evolve, one can onlyact in the context of what one sees, so all ethical

G E O F F F I T C H | E V O L U T I O N A R Y E T H I C S | 1 1 8

action is constrained by our conception of self andworld. For example, at an egocentric level we areaware of the self and its needs, and act for the good ofthe self. From a later perspective, this may not be seenas “ethical” but surely is from the egocentric self. asone then becomes aware of one’s concrete collective anethics arising out of social norms takes place. as weprogress in our evolution to subtle levels, we becomefirst aware of choice, and consciousness of ethics as aprocess arises, and we begin to choose ethical princi-ples to guide our actions. When we become aware ofawareness itself at the causal level, the construction ofethics arises, along with eventually a value and care ofthe universal whole. all along the chain of evolution, the scope of our ethicsis our sphere of concern (with which we identify), whicharises as some portion of what we are aware of. This fun-damental lever of awareness first brings forth the condi-tions of consciousness and then the conditions of theheart, the field of care. Finally, action manifests as theconditions of the body – the gross, subtle or causalbody. This arc of agape, the descent of higher knowinginto intention and action, forms the manifestation offree ethical choice, and is founded on awareness.ethical choice also arises in the tension of the non-dual nature of reality, ultimately expressed as the rel-ative and absolute dimensions of truth, but also inevery kind of polarity formed in consciousness andform. everything thing is continually challengedby this paradox of the impulse towards spirit andthe intuition of the always already present realityof spirit. as the self contracts from this reality, itgives birth to infinitely many dualities, each ofwhich carry this tension. each of these dualitiesholds and expresses the tension of manifest real-ity’s unresolved realization of the two/not twonature of existence. This confrontation with the two / two not natureof our predicament informs the evolutionaryprocess, which takes shape in its vertical dimen-sion through eros, as a process of transcendingand including, of the repeated attempt to bringtwo together as one. This is the great dialecticalprocess that is ultimately revealed as one side of thecoin. The agape side of this coin, the embrace,takes up residence as the ever-present reality ofunconditioned spirit in the embrace of all, whichtakes up form in evolutionary process as the involu-tionary descent of spirit, the holding and embraceof all that is contained within conditional aware-ness. It is in its root condition all that is containedin and arising out of unconditioned awareness, theground of the embrace of agape, felt in each indi-vidual as eros the impulse to transcend and agape,the impulse embrace, include.

E V O L U T I O N A R Y

E T H I C A L I N T U I T I O N S

In short, the cosmos is evolving through concrete,subtle, causal and non-dual worlds; the arc of thisevolution is the energy of eros and agape, or Love;reality is both two and not two, paradoxicallymoving towards spirit itself and is always alreadyspirit itself, the absolute unconditioned Groundof Being. Further, ethical awareness arises as ourdeveloping field of consciousness and within thatour field of care, part of which we are aware, andour sense of the wholeness of what otherwiseappears as dualities. ethical action evolves out ofa sense of what is good, and as the arc betweenour ascending awareness and our descending,embodied action and presence.From this more universal perspective of ethics,we can consider some intuitions that may informour actions: ~ Consciously and deliberately engage in indi-vidual and collective development, in its fullcomplexity and richness.~ Practice more deeply into our embodiment,commit to and engage in courageous action,compassion and understanding, as an embodiedvehicle, an expression of the already present spirit,as we best sense it.~ Recognize the process and dynamics of evolu-tionary ethics arises in the context of the contrac-tion from the two/not-two, the dualistic mind, andis already arising as that conflict, therefore considerparadoxical dualities, some very subtle, in all life andaction (and seek to transcend this condition.)

R E F L E C T I O N S O N P R A C T I C E

E X P A N D I N G S C O P E O F C A R E

Our understanding of the evolution of consciousnessreveals a profound spectrum of development that unfoldsgreater and greater spans of awareness and care. We ashuman beings see our field of vision and love expandfrom self, to family, nation, society, and other subtlecollectives. We may expand beyond this to care for allof humanity, all living things, the earth, or beyondthat to all of evolving existence itself. The first intu-ition of a cosmic, evolutionary ethics is that it is not astatic process, but an unfolding horizon, and as suchalways insufficient, always opening, and vast unfold-ing and revealing field of love. We can consciously,deliberately open to that openness, and imaginetogether greater spheres of care in which we allreside, and to accept that greater embodied realiza-tion of those spheres of awareness takes time tounfold as our evolutionary process.


E T H I C A L D U A L I T I E S , E T H I C A L N O N - D U A L I T Y

Practice an ethical awareness and action that continu-ally and paradoxically is at once two/not-two, founda-tionally~ two not two of eros and agape (reaching, connect-ing, transcending developing towards spirit itself as theradiant illumination, embrace, compassion, support assacred incarnate);~ two not two conditioned reality and Unconditionedspirit (the inevitable evolutionary/involutionary arctowards the Unconditioned whole, as the irrelevance ofevolution, the unnecessary movement, the always alreadysource Condition, ground, emptiness);~ interior/exterior – individual/collective or three/not-three of ethics, Beauty, and Truth (Perichoresis, inter-penetrating oneness of aesthetic, ethical, philosophi-cal/heart, body, mind facets of unity).an evolutionary ethics must eventually situate itself ina oneness that reaches into the foundations of develop-ment, into the core of the dualistic mind. These fun-damental dualities that form our ethical intuition canfirst be recognized, then interwoven, then fundamen-tally transcended. To do so, liberates their full poten-tial by relieving the inherent conflict they pose inthe dualistic mind. There arises, as we face the potentials of this moment, astrong impulse to bring about change. Beyond address-ing the problems we see, this evolutionary ontologicalrestlessness is always calling us to greater wholeness.With the birth of rational consciousness, theenlightenment brought about the notion of scien-tific progress. now, as we are aware of larger sys-temic contexts, some have noted we are nowbecoming aware of evolution itself and as such canengage with it as conscious participants16. Thisimpulse expresses one of the two great forces ofthe cosmos identified by Wilber, the force oferos17, which is complemented by agape, thereaching embrace, the gentle pull of the divineon all manifest form towards greater wholeness. While this involutionary/evolutionary dance movestoward “source and suchness of the entire dis-play”18 it is also, already that everpresent ground,already the display of spirit itself. at some pointin its development (marked by what O’Fallonrefers to as our transition into the causal stages19)one becomes aware of awareness, one recognizesone’s ever-present ground of Being, and eventuallythe prior condition of consciousness as the expres-sion of all form. But this recognition reveals not thefruition of evolution, but its great paradox, and ournext ethical polarity. That is, the entire Kosmicdance is moving towards the realization of spirit,while always already being spirit itself.

We are then faced with a seeming dilemma. as spir-it, we both reach for greater depth and embracegreater span. We both are evolving towards greaterwholeness, to Wholeness itself, while always alreadybeing that Wholeness in every moment. Thesedilemmas, or polarities, held in contradiction leadus withhold our fuller expression, and are para-doxically the unfolding towards our furtherexpression itself.how do we transcend these dualities? The greattraditions have pointed to foundational duali-ties, facets of unity, and their unification in arelative expression, and transcendence in anabsolute sense. several theorists have noted thata perspective on a polarity can evolve from morepolarized to more integrated forms20,21. O’Fallonnotes that one can first see just one side of thepolarity, then a choice (either/or), then co-exis-tence (both/and), then interpenetration. Ulti-mately as we integrate polarities in an embodiedway, we have an opportunity to transcend themin a superordinate perspective. an elegant expres-sion that spans the developmental spectrum isKesler’s Integral Polarity Practice22.What foundational polarities might we considerin the context of our evolutionary ethical action?We consider several here:

E R O S & A G A P E

While each part reaches for transcendence, bringingtogether through the force of Love as eros, intogreater and greater wholes, we simultaneously embraceeach part as Love as agape. This simultaneous unionof masculine and feminine as one gesture, two faces ofLove is the expression of our ethical sense.

A B S O L U T E & R E L A T I V E

We may see development in terms of evolving levels ofmaturity or growth, yes this is not the whole truth. Wemay alternatively hold an understanding that things areunconditionally, innately perfect as they are. situated inthe perspective of the innate divinity of existence, wenaturally and spontaneously offer unconditional, undis-criminating respect for all. On the other hand, seeingthrough the perspective of evolutionary development,we see that there is an earlier and a later, a more or lessmature or evolved condition. This polarity is an expres-sion of the underlying condition of reality as both aplay of manifestation, returning to spirit, and the already,always condition of reality as spirit – both evolvingand perfect.O N E / M A N Y - W H O L E

It is possible, as we engage in our own development,that our concern with development may actuallyparadoxically contribute not only to the transcen-dence of the ego, but the calcification of the ego. By


codifying the way we can transcend and becomemore enlightened, the ego may latch onto the modeland inflate itself with spiritual pride or spiritualmaterialism. While this may be exacerbated by thedevelopmental model, this issue is recognized byother spiritual traditions as an essential concern withgrowth that transcends ego23. similarly, in any evolu-tionary context, any self-aware part can be uncon-scious to the many or the whole, and become lost towhat Ferrer identified as intra-subjective reductionismand subtle Cartesianism24, perpetuating the isolation ofthese experiences to the domain of the personal and sub-jective, and seeing them in terms of “subjects” having“experiences”. This dilemma can be seen through theduality of individual and collective, or one and many,which gives way to one occasion, in which no one orwhole can be seen as solely causative, responsible, orrewarded.

S E L F / N O - S E L F

next, we consider that the assumptions arising out of aconcept of permanent self, may be reinforced by adevelopmental model based on them. The simple actof the Zen student turning over his soup bowl at theend of the meal symbolizes impermanence, and ulti-mately the impermanent nature of self. In this simpleact, we remember that this may be our last meal. Weavoid reinforcing the illusion of the permanentnature of the self, by letting go of any condition weascribe to it. We don’t assume one is an individualliving a life and that one can look forward to manysuch bowls of soup in the future and all that implies.In terms of practice, we don’t seek to acquire, tobuild up concepts of self in practice and dharma –ultimately practice is seen paradoxically and therealization of pure practice is non-practice (Brown&Thurman, 2006).What does this suggest about developmentalwork? We might consider that without thisunderstanding, the interplay between develop-mental approaches and an underlying concept ofthe self as permanent (and therefore developing),may contribute to the bolstering of that senseof self, as much as its transcendence. as muchas this is leading to enlightenment, it is also mostsurely leading to death. Faced with this knowl-edge, we see that the structures we pay attentionto will at the very least completely transcend ourindividuality and that what we take to be our-selves and will be gone in a few short years. eventhe larger evolutionary trajectory of the universeor Kosmos as we understand it, faces the samefate and arises as the same ground. Fully realized,this will do a great deal to temper the excessiveimportance we place in our models of develop-ment and our selves.

E T H I C S / B E A U T Y / T R U T H

as Wilber has pointed out the dualities of individ-ual and collective, interior and exterior, reveal thegreat three – Truth, Beauty and Goodness, whichsuggest that this whole topic of ethics is just oneaspect revealed through the perspective of Good-ness. Of the many ways to consider ethical actionin light of and as its negations, we consider thisPerichoresis, or interpenetrating dance, of whataurobindo called the aesthetic, ethical andphilosophical mind.

S U M M A R Y

how might the union of these fundamentalpolarities express themselves at the emerginggrooves of in the Kosmic field of evolution(while being already, fully, exhaustively real?) Wecan understand our actions to bring about thenext expression of our world, as fully, and utterlyand expression of an embracing Love, that reaches,includes and sanctifies every thing as it is. We canrealize our impulse towards higher, fuller expres-sions as the One, already-perfect ground Condi-tion of all. In doing so, we fully liberate both spec-trums of these polarities – an unconstrained, radi-cal responsibility for manifest form expressed fully,wildly without reservation towards a brighter fulfil-ment of light and love, while also realizing andreflecting the utter perfection of all forms, and theconsequent emptiness of the dance, the divine Irrel-evance of evolution – a limitless respect and compas-sion free of any entanglements, owned by no one andno thing.evolution, it seems, is inevitable. It seems that regardlessof what we do, the cosmos is sliding toward enlighten-ment. as we awaken to this realization and become awareof awareness, the great cause and effect, we are inspired tobecome, ultimately required by our self-recognized nature,to be conscious participants in the process. as we do that,we need to understand the deeper non-dual nature of thiscosmic restlessness, lest we become further divided againstourselves. Ultimately, the cosmos is one and as such can-not be divided. Our efforts to transform, without thisunderstanding, will ultimately collapse on the weight oftheir own contradictions. To transform our condition, wemust fall utterly and irrevocably in love with it, every partof it, as we say goodbye to every part of it in everymoment. even as we lean towards this deeper unity, wecan become aware of and embrace the concrete, subtleand causal polarities that are surface reflections this divi-sion of mind. In doing so, we practice (inevitably andunnecessarily) the movement of transcendence, healdivisions, encounter the underlying ground of being,and become as one.


In doing so, in every moment and in whatever waywe can, we are laying cosmic grooves that becomenew evolutionary forms. These involutionary givens,as Wilber calls them25, eros/agape, the ineffableground of ever-present spirit form the ground move-ments of our being, and as we become aware of ourown awareness, we become conscious dancers of thisdance. as we do this, we lay the ground of expressionsof these forms: new evolutionary individual and collec-tive patterns, new expressions of the stages of our devel-opment, new emergent forms of consciousness. We areas sheldrake postulated, creating morphogenetic fields ordeep cosmic habits, which form the foundation of a newworld, a new evolutionary moment26. 8

———————

1 United nations 2012, 2015 Millennium Development Goals.2 Barnosky, et al. 2012, Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere.3 aurobindo 1985, The Life Divine.4 swimme & Berry 1994, The Universe Story.5 Cook-Greuter 2002, Ego development.6 senge, scharmer, Jaworski, & Flowers 2005, Presence.7 O’Fallon 2012, Development and Consciousness: Growing up is

Waking up.8 Wilber 2006, Integral spirituality.9 Cook-Greuter 2002, Ego development.10 Kohlberg, Levine, & hewer 1983, Moral stages.11 O’Fallon 2012, Development and Consciousness: Growing

up is Waking up.12 Kohlberg & Power 1981, Moral development, religious

thinking, and the question of a seventh stage.13 Wilber 2000, Integral Psychology.14 adi da 2008, Not-Two Is Peace.15 Wilber 2001, Sex, ecology, spirituality.16 hubbard 1998, Conscious Evolution.17 Wilber 2012, Excerpt A: An Integral Age at the Leading

Edge.18 Ibid.19 O’Fallon 2012, Development and Consciousness: Grow-

ing up is Waking up.20 Cook-Greuter 2002, Ego development.21 O’Fallon 2010, The collapse of the Wilber Combs

matrix.22 Murray & O’Fallon 2010, A Perspective on Kesler’s

Integral Polarity Practice.23 Trungpa, Baker, Mipham, & Casper 2008, Cutting

Through Spiritual Materialism.24 Ferrer 2000, Transpersonal knowledge.25 Wilber 2012, Excerpt A: An Integral Age at the Leading

Edge.26 sheldrake 2009, Morphic Resonance.

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anThOnY d. BaRnOsKY, e. a. (2012). “approaching astate shift in earth’s biosphere”, Nature, 486.

aUROBIndO, s. (1985). The Life Divine: (silver Lake,WI: Lotus Press).

COOK-GReUTeR, s. (2002). Ego development: Nine levelsof increasing embrace (Wayland, Ma.).

da, a. (2008). Not-Two Is Peace: The Ordinary People’sWay of Global Cooperative Order (Middletown, Ca:dawn horse Press).

FeRReR, J. (2000). “Transpersonal knowledge: a partic-ipatory approach to transpersonal phenomena”,Transpersonal knowing: Exploring the horizon ofconsciousness (new York: state University of newYork Press).

FORMan, M. d. (2010). A guide to integral psychothera-py: Complexity, integration, and spirituality in prac-tice (albany, nY: state University of new YorkPress).

hUBBaRd, B. M. (1998). Conscious Evolution: Awak-ening the Power of Our Social Potential (novato,Ca: new World Library).

KOhLBeRG, L., LevIne, C., & heWeR, a. (1983).Moral stages: a current formulation and a responseto critics (Basel: Karger).

KOhLBeRG, L., & POWeR, C. (1981). “Moral devel-opment, religious thinking, and the question ofa seventh stage”, Zygon, 16(3).

MURRaY, T., &O’FaLLOn, T. (2010). “a Perspective onKesler’s Integral Polarity Practice”, Integral Review,6(2).

UnITed naTIOns. (2012). 2015 Millenium DevelopmentGoals, 2012, from http://www.un.org/millennium-goals/.

O’FaLLOn, T. (2010). The collapse of the Wilber Combsmatrix: The interpenetration of state and structurestages. Paper presented at the Integral Theory Con-ference, Pleasant hill, Ca.

—— (2012). “development and consciousness: Growingup is waking up”, Spanda Journal 14(III)1:…

senGe, P. M., sChaRMeR, C. O., JaWORsKI, J., & FLOW-eRs, B. s. (2005). Presence: exploring profound change inpeople, organizations, and society (new York: double-day).

sheLdRaKe, R. (2009). Morphic Resonance: The Nature ofFormative Causation (nevada City, Ca: Inner TravelBooks).

sWIMMe, B., & BeRRY, T. (1994). The Universe Story: Fromthe Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. A Celebra-tion of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (new York: harperCollins).

TRUnGPa, C., BaKeR, J., MIPhaM, s., & CasPeR, M. (2008).Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Boston, Ma:shambhala).

WILBeR, K. (2000). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit,Psychology, Therapy (Boston, Ma: shambhala).

—— (2001). Sex, ecology, spirituality: The spirit of evolution.(Boston, Ma: shambhala).

—— (2006). Integral spirituality : a startling new role for reli-gion in the modern and postmodern world (1 ed.) (Boston:Integral Books).

—— (2012). Excerpt A: An Integral Age at the Leading Edge,2012, http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kos-mos/excerpta/notes-3.cfm.

a b


Riane Eisler is an eminentsocial scientist, attorney, andauthor best known for herbestseller The Chalice andThe Blade: Our history,Our Future, now in twenty-three foreign editions, includ-ing most European languagesand Chinese, Russian, Korean,

Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic.Dr Eisler is sought after to keynote con-

ferences worldwide, and is a consultant to business and governmenton applications of the partnership model introduced in her work.Her books includeThe Real Wealth of nations: Creating a Car-ing economics, the award-winning The Power of Partnershipand Tomorrow’s Children, as well as sacred Pleasure, a daringreexamination of sexuality and spirituality, and Women, Men,and the Global Quality of Life, documenting the key role ofwomen’s status in a nation’s general quality of life.Dr Eisler is the only woman among twenty great thinkersincluding Hegel, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee selectedfor inclusion in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians inrecognition of the lasting importance of her work as a cultur-al historian and evolutionary theorist. She has received manyhonors, including honorary PhD degrees, and is included inthe award-winning book Great Peacemakers, as one oftwenty leaders for world peace, along with MahatmaGandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.Website: www.rianeeisler.com; [email protected].

OR MILLennIa, We hUMans have IMaGIned a

world of peace and caring. sometimeswe’ve imagined this world in an afterlife.But more and more in the last centuries

we’ve imagined it here on earth. now, withglobal warming, nuclear weapons proliferation,terrorism, escalating poverty, and continuinghuman rights abuses, there’s a new urgency torealizing our common wish for a sane, humaneworld. a hopeful sign is that many people are becom-ing conscious of this urgency, recognizing thatwe stand at a crossroads of either breakdown orbreakthrough. But fundamental change has beenretarded by periodic regressions to more inequity,violence, oppression, and exploitation. Many people still believe that human nature isinnately flawed. Old religious stories about original

sin persist, and new secular ones about selfishgenes, our primate nature, or millennia-old evo-lutionary imperatives tell us that, as much as wewould like it to be otherwise, our biology doomsus to violence and inequity.These assumptions help maintain oppressiveand dysfunctional systems. They ignore that wehumans have enormous capacities for conscious-ness and caring. They also ignore the fact thathuman behavior is not only driven by biologicalfactors but by cultural factors – and that culturescan and do change.To move forward, we must answer three basicquestions: What kinds of cultures support orinhibit the expression of our human capacities forcaring, consciousness, and creativity? alternately,what kinds of cultures support our capacities forcruelty, insensitivity, and destructiveness? and whatcan help us create the conditions for our positivecapacities to develop and flourish?This has been the focus of my research and writing.I will discuss some of my findings and recommen-dations in this article.

B I O L O G Y A N D C U L T U R E

The common argument about whether biology or cul-ture shapes human behavior ignores that human behavior– indeed, the development of the brain itself – is shapedby the interaction of biology and culture. Which geneticpotentials are or are not expressed is heavily influencedby our experiences. and our experiences are in turnheavily influenced by the kinds of cultures we grow upin – as mediated by families, education, religion, poli-tics, and economics. Cultures vary from time to time and place to place.Indeed, even matters still often considered universalsare different in different cultures.This is illustrated by cultural differences in what are con-sidered appropriate roles for men and women. Forinstance, in some parts of africa, women are expected tocarry heavy loads of fuel and water for miles. In sharpcontrast, the victorian ideal was that of a weak, helpless“femininity.” The ideal for “masculinity” also varies,ranging from the hopi view that men should be peace-ful and nonaggressive to the “macho” ideal that equatesbeing a “real man” with violence and domination.

B R E A K D OW N O R B R E A K T H R O U G H .CU LTU R E , CON S C I OU S N E S S , A ND HUMAN D E V E LO PM EN T

R I A N E E I S L E R

F


The cultural norms for childcare also vary enor-mously. They range from habitual violence andstrict controls, such as the swaddling that immobi-lizes infants and the beatings epitomized by adagessuch as “spare the rod and spoil the child,” to thenonviolent, gentle, and responsive methods recom-mended by child development studies today.I am starting with these two examples because, as Iwill develop, how a culture constructs gender andchildhood are key to understanding the interaction ofbiology and culture. But we can’t see this through thelenses of conventional cultural categories.

A N E W C O N C E P T U A L F R A M E W O R K F O R C U LT U R E

as Robert Ornstein (1990) writes in The Psychology ofConsciousness, every society’s language provides cate-gories that mould consciousness, and these categoriesplay a major role in how we view the world – and howwe live in it. For example, as long as people believedthat feudalism or monarchies were the only possibili-ties, no other systems could be imagined. Categories such as democracy, capitalism, socialism,and communism expanded the scope of our think-ing. But none of these or other conventional socialcategories describe the totality of a culture. Reli-gious/secular and eastern/Western only describeideological and geographic differences. Right/leftand liberal/conservative only describe political ori-entations. Industrial, pre-industrial, and post-industrial describe levels of technological devel-opment. Capitalism and communism describedifferent economic systems. democratic/author-itarian describe political systems in which thereare, or are not, elections. none of them tell us what configuration of

beliefs and institutions – from the family, edu-cation, and religion to politics and economics– support the expression of our capacities forcaring, creativity, and consciousness, and withthis, relations based on mutual respect, account-ability, and caring. studying human societies cross-culturally andhistorically with this basic question in mind, Ideveloped a new system of social classification.One distinguishing feature of this system is thatit pays special attention to the primary humanrelations: the formative childhood relations andthe relations between the male and female halvesof humanity that are essential for human survivaland development. Using a multidisciplinaryapproach, I saw two basic social configurations.since there were no names to describe them, Icalled them the partnership model and the domina-tion model (eisler 1987, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2007).

The PaRTneRshIP MOdeL and The dOMInaTIOn MOdeL

The domination and partnership models describethe core configuration of two contrasting ways ofstructuring institutions, beliefs, and relations thatunderlie cultures that are in other respects verydifferent.hitler’s Germany (a technologically advanced,Western, rightist society), stalin’s UssR (a secu-lar leftist society), Khomeini’s Iran (an easternreligious society), and Idi amin’s Uganda (atribalist society) were some of the most brutallyviolent and repressive societies of the twentiethcentury. There are obvious differences betweenthem. But they all share the core configurationof the domination model. They are all charac-terized by top-down rankings in the familyand state or tribe maintained through physical,psychological, and economic control; the rigidranking of the male half of humanity over thefemale half; and a high degree of culturallyaccepted abuse and violence – from child-and-wife-beating to chronic warfare.The partnership model has a very different core

configuration: a democratic and egalitarian struc-ture in both the family and the state or tribe;equal partnership between women and men; anda low degree of built-in violence because it’s notneeded to maintain rigid rankings of domination.Cultures with this configuration can be tribal, suchas the Teduray of the Philippines and the Mouso ofChina, agrarian such as the Minangkabau of sumatra,or industrial and post-industrial, like sweden, norwayand Finland. These are not ideal societies. But their beliefsand institutions support respect for human rights infamilies and the family of nations.nordic nations are democratic cultures where therearen’t huge gaps between haves and have-nots and agenerally high living standard for all. They encouragegender equity in families and society. They pioneeredthe first peace studies programs, have laws prohibitingphysical punishment of children, and have a strong men’smovement disentangling “masculinity” from dominationand violence. In these societies, women play important leadershiproles, constituting approximately 40 percent of legisla-tures. as the status of women is higher, stereotypicallyfeminine traits and activities such as nurturance, non-violence, and caregiving are considered appropriate formen as well as women. These traits and activities aresupported by fiscal policies such as funding for uni-versal health care, elder care, child care allowances,and paid parental leave The nordic nations are lead-ers in environmental protection. and these nationsare regularly at the top of the Un national quality of

R I A N E E I S L E R | B R E A K D O W N O R B R E A K T H R O U G H | 1 2 4

life charts – way ahead of nations that still orientclosely to the domination model.

T H E P A T T E R N S O F P R E H I S T O R Y A N D H I S T O R Y

The tension between the domination and the part-nership model reveals hidden patterns in our past andpresent. This tension goes way back into prehistory,shaping the course of cultural evolution and the possi-bilities for our future. Based on data indicating that human cultural organiza-tion did not follow a single linear course, as assumed bymany conventional accounts, the cultural transforma-tion theory I introduced in The Chalice and The Blade(eisler, 1987) proposes that from the beginning culturestook a variety of paths – some orienting primarily tothe domination model and others orienting more tothe partnership model. This multilinear theory of cul-tural evolution (eisler, 2004) is more congruent with abasic tenet of darwinian and neo-darwinian thinking:behaviour will adapt to a given environment withinthe limits of the organism’s flexibility.For most species, adaptation is largely unconscious.While unconscious motivations also shape humanbehaviours, and hence human cultures, to the extentthat our behaviours are conscious and intentional,adaptation can be influenced by human creativity.Moreover, we humans are not just reactive. We canalso be proactive. so for us adaptation to differentenvironments is not the whole story. We also havethe capacity for conscious choice.Certainly environmental factors seem to be impli-cated in the very different cultures of our twoclosest primate relatives: the bonobos and thecommon chimpanzees. Until recent humanincursions, the bonobos’s forest habitat providedan abundant food supply. This more hospitableenvironment undoubtedly contributed to thefact that the bonobos’s social organization ismuch more partnership-oriented than that ofthe chimpanzees: it is less rigidly top-down; itis not male dominated; and it has a low degreeof violence. Likewise, archeological and mythical data sug-gest that partnership-oriented cultures devel-oped in the more hospitable areas of the globewhere the earliest agrarian cultures emerged.These data also suggest that domination-orientedcultures developed in the more arid, inhospitableareas where nomadic herding cultures emerged(eisler, 1987, 1995; Gimbutas, 1982; Jiayin, 1995;Mellaart, 1967; Platon, 1966).That domination or partnership cultures are likelyto arise in different environments is further supportedby cross-cultural data. To investigate the origins of

male dominance, sanday (1981) examined data from156 societies distributed relatively equally among thesix major world regions, spanning the periodbetween 1750 BC and the late 1960s. she found thatsocieties in more fertile areas were more likely to besexually egalitarian, whereas societies in less hos-pitable environments were more likely to be maledominated. she also found that “sexually equalsocieties are less likely to be faced with periods offamine than sexually unequal societies” and thatwarfare was another source of stress found inmale-dominant societies. That is, domination-oriented cultures are more likely to be found inenvironments where the necessities of life arehard to come by, whereas more partnership-ori-ented cultures are more likely to be seen wherelife is not so harsh.however, none of this is to say that the naturalenvironment is the sole determining factor forthe kind of culture we live in. as particular familystructures, religions, education, art, law, economics,politics, and other institutional forms develop,they together become contributing elements ofthe human environment. as this occurs, a wholenew set of dynamics comes into play.Once cultural patterns become established, theyacquire a life of their own. Cultures, like other livingsystems, seek to retain their basic patterns. In lookingat cultural evolution, we therefore have to take intoaccount principles of systems self-organization thatmaintain particular cultural pattern (eisler, 2004).nonetheless, even the most entrenched systemic pat-terns can be altered during periods of disequilibrium.We therefore also have to take into account principlesof discontinuity when systems disequilibrium makespossible foundational change (Prigogine and stengers,1984; Gould, 1980).In The Chalice and The Blade (eisler, 1987) and otherpublications (eisler, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2007), I detail evi-dence indicating that during a chaotic time in prehistorya shift from a partnership to a dominator direction inthe more fertile areas of the globe radically altered thecourse of civilization (see, e.g., nash, 1978; Childe, 1958;Gimbutas, 1982; Platon, 1966; Min, 1995). I also detail evidence showing a periodic movementover recorded history toward the partnership modelcountered by fierce resistance and periodic regressions.and I present evidence that in our time of mountingsystems disequilibrium, the momentum toward part-nership has been accelerating – offering the possibilityof another fundamental cultural shift: this time fromdomination to partnership. If we look at the last three hundred years from thisperspective, we see one organized social movement


after another challenging traditions of domination.In the 18th century, the “rights of man” movementchallenged the “divinely ordained right” of kings torule over their “subjects.” In the 19th century, thefeminist movement challenged the “divinely ordainedright” of men to rule over the women and children inthe “castles” of their homes. In the 20th and 21th cen-turies, the civil rights, women’s rights, indigenousrights, peace, social and economic justice, and environ-mental movements continued and broadened the chal-lenge to entrenched traditions of domination. all these movements were driven by deep human needsand motivations for caring and equity. Yet they were alsofiercely resisted. and their gains have periodically beenpushed back by regressions to the domination model.To better understand this resistance and regression, myresearch moved into new areas. as I will discuss next,this includes a new analysis of how the interaction ofculture and biology affects the human brain.

C H A N G I N G S O C I E T Y A N D T H E B R A I N

I am now proposing that to prevent regressions andaccelerate the shift to more equitable, peaceful, andsustainable world cultures, we have to look at how theexperiences characteristic of domination or partner-ship cultural environments interact with our brains.specifically, I am proposing that to better under-stand and effectively change chronic violence, injus-tice, and oppression, we have to move beyond theidea that these are inevitable results of our evolu-tionary heritage, and look at how the differencesbetween the partnership model and the domina-tion model not only influence beliefs and behav-iours but impact nothing less than the neuro-chemistry of our brains. The human brain is remarkably flexible in youthand even in adulthood – so much so that it hasbeen called a work in process. This flexibilityallows us to learn and innovate but also has itsdrawbacks. If we grow up in domination cul-tural environments, we tend to develop a brainneurochemistry that is adaptive to these envi-ronments.Indeed, in rigid domination settings people donot usually survive very long if they fail to obeyorders from above. They will be burned at thestake, stoned to death, shot, or at best impris-oned. Under such conditions, harsh parentingstyles can be said to be adaptive, as they teachchildren to submit to those in control. But thisadaptation requires that the human capacity forempathy and caring be dampened, even sup-pressed, because it would interfere with these stress-ful styles of parenting. That is not to say parents

who do this don’t love their children, but their lovebecomes conflated with coercion, as is appropriatein social systems where relations are ultimatelybacked up by fear and force.scientists have found that traumatic or chronicstress is associated with high levels of the hor-mone cortisol and the neurotransmitter norepi-nephrine. scientists have also found that thesechemicals are in turn associated with problemsof impulse regulation and propensity to vio-lence. Conversely, free circulation of the neu-rotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, thehormones oxytocin and vasopressin, and othersubstances involved in bonding and empathy,is associated with the less stressful, nonviolent,caring experiences. These would be more char-acteristic of the partnership model (eisler &Levine, 2002). Though there may be individualvariations to any pattern, the key point is thatthere are central tendencies produced by differentsocialization processes.Babies are born with a need for empathic love,validation, and stimulation. Yet to maintain adomination culture, children must be taught toconform to top-down control. Patterns of chil-drearing are carried over into peer groups whereeven children not exposed to dominator parentingare socialized for dominator relations. and if masssocialization – religious or secular – presents thesekinds of relations as normal, moral, and even fun,as many films, Tv, and video games do, these pat-terns are further reinforced. such socialization can get in the way of meeting ourmost basic emotional needs, including love and caring,and also in the way of the inherent flexibility of the humanbrain, and potential for innovation, and risk-taking. Mon-tuori, Combs, and Richards (2004) identify “openness toexperience” (rather than suppression or repression) andfive other “core creative traits” which make awareness,questioning, and innovation more likely in an individualand, also, when possessed by groups of individuals, canfurther the ground-up evolution of healthy creative sys-tems. These are: Independence of Judgment, Tolerance forambiguity, From Polarization to Complex Thinking,androgyny, and Complexity of Outlook. each of thesewould be vastly more at home in a partnership than dom-ination cultural context. In fact, they could be a greatthreat to the stability of the latter.

D O M I N A T I O N A N D P A R T N E R S H I P

C U L T U R A L E N V I R O N M E N T S

Because the socialization required to impose and main-tain relations of domination and submission is chroni-cally stressful, people may develop neural and bio-chemical patterns that trigger fight-or-flight and/or


dissociation responses that aren’t appropriate for thecircumstances (e.g., solomon & siegel, 2003). Whenthese patterns develop, they can constrict our capacityfor independent thought and action, and lead to moreabuse and conflict. economic conditions characteristic of dominator sys-tems also contribute to chronic stress. Those on bottomare most affected, but even those on top are affected bythe domination system’s self-perpetuating patterns ofeconomic scarcity due to misdistribution of resources,lack of funding for health and education, diversion ofresources into weaponry, and destruction of resourcesthrough environmental despoliation, war, and otherforms of violence, all of which is stressful and creates ageneral sense of insecurity and fear (eisler, 2007). studies also show that hierarchies of domination in them-selves are a source of stress. This was dramatically shown bythe “Whitehall studies” of Marmot and his colleagues(1978) of the British civil service. Results showed thatphysical health, mental health, and even lifespans, cor-related significantly with an individual’s position inthe civil service hierarchy: those higher up in the hier-archy were healthier and lived longer than those fur-ther down. These people were not poor. Yet these rel-atively well-off civil servants suffered disproportion-ately from stress-related problems – problems thatthe Whitehall study found derived from the domi-nation hierarchy itself. and, as the Whitehall stud-ies show, sooner or later this stress can lead toheart attacks, diabetes, depression, alcoholism, res-piratory illness, or cancer.By contrast, people in partnership-oriented com-panies, where workers have more autonomy andpower to make decisions, report less stress andmore job satisfaction. a more caring ethos, whichmanifests itself in supportive employee benefits –from good health care plans and parental leave toprofit sharing and time off to engage in communi-ty service. This contributes to good health andlongevity, and more highly motivated workers(eisler, 2002, 2007). The brain effects would sup-port greater flexibility, creativity, ability to workin teams, and other capacities that make forgreater productivity and satisfaction.The socioeconomic gradient too is far less steepin partnership-oriented cultures. even in themore partnership-oriented nordic nations such assweden, norway, and Finland there are statisticaldifferences in health between higher and lowersocioeconomic levels. But the average lifespan is 80years. That these longer life spans are not due togenetics is shown by the fact that in the mid 19thcentury both adult and child death rates in thesenations were very high. nor are environmental con-ditions in these nations particularly conducive to

health. The longer nordic life spans are the moreremarkable because of these nations’ location in coldnorthern areas where winter days have long hours ofdarkness, known to lead to depression, health prob-lems, and suicide. Yet despite this, the more caringpolicies of these nations generated a highly compe-tent and educated workforce and social conditionsthat help people live longer. not only that, thenordic nations of Finland, norway, sweden, den-mark, and Iceland regularly rank at the top notonly of the Un Quality of Life Indexes but also ofthe World economic Forum’s Global Competi-tiveness ratings (Trivers, 1975; United NationsHuman Development Reports; World EconomicForum Global Competitiveness Rankings).Of course, partnership-oriented cultures are notstress-free. and even in the strictest dominationcultural environments, some people maintain acountering independence and choose to relate inpartnership ways. But to the extent that a signifi-cant part of the population is affected, negative pat-terns are perpetuated from generation to generation. Based on what we are learning from neuroscience,we can predict that many people living in dominatorenvironments may develop habitual neurochemicalpatterns of fight-or-flight or dissociation to adapt tothe constant stress inherent in rigid rankings backedup by fear and force. We can also predict that mostpeople accustomed to accept human rights violationsin their day-to-day relations are not likely to createinstitutions where human rights are respected. norare they likely to build the “culture of peace” envi-sioned by the United nations, where children will besafe, loved, and supported in the full development oftheir human potentials. Thus dominator environments tend to keep humanitystuck at a less advanced level of evolution, driven bydeficiency rather than growth and actualization needs,interfering with the full development of qualities thatmake us fully human including, consciousness, creativity,empathy, and love (e.g., Maslow, 1968, 1971).

U S I N G O U R C R E A T I V I T Y T O C H A N G E T H E W O R L D

Like a vast engine of many parts, personal and culturalchange is an interactive process. as our consciousnessexpands and we make changes in our personal attitudes,behaviours, and relationships, we empower ourselves aswell as others to work for cultural change (eisler, 2002).If we make more room in our lives, and the lives ofothers, and in our immediate environments, for corecreative traits such as independence of judgment,openness, tolerance for ambiguity, androgyny andvaluing of complexity, it will affect all around us. Ifwe are more conscious and aware, we can sense the


potential for “bifurcation,” for when things can goone way or the other, personally and culturally, dur-ing periods of disequilibrium (Loye, 2004; Montuori,Combs & Richards, 2004). and if we recognize thepivotal importance of empathy and caring in support-ing our capacities for consciousness, creativity, andlove, all this can build on itself. The positive news is that a growing number of peopletoday are leaving behind traditions of domination andmoving toward partnership (eisler, 2004). But social poli-cies have lagged way behind these changes in most worldregions. Indeed, countering the powerful modern grass-roots movement toward partnership, the last decades ofthe 20th century and the first decades of the 21st have beentimes of regression to the domination model.a major problem is that there are critical areas of lack ofconsciousness. While regressions to domination alwaysinclude a return to an authoritarian, male-dominated,punitive family, sadly, many groups working for democ-racy and equality still view “women’s rights” and “chil-dren’s rights” as secondary, rather than an integral partof the picture. hence, we have lacked the solid foundations on whicha better world can rest. The partnership and domina-tion models provide important information for con-structing more solid foundations. Unlike earlier socialcategories, this system of classification recognizes thecentral importance in moulding attitudes and behav-iours of the primary human relations. It is in the formative childhood relations and therelations between the male and female halves ofhumanity that people first learn respect for humanrights or acceptance of human rights violations asnormal, inevitable, even moral. These relationsalso teach important lessons about violence.When children experience violence, or observeviolence against their mothers, they learn it’sacceptable to use force to impose one’s will onothers. If children grow up in families wherefemales serve and males are served – and, as isthe case in many world regions, where femalesget less food and healthcare – they learn toaccept economic injustice in all spheres of life.not only that, as noted earlier, the brain’s neuralpathways are largely laid after birth – and earlyexperiences are key to whether neural patterns offlight-or-flight that perpetuate both intimate andinternational violence become habitual.Many directions for potential change are detailedin eisler (1995, 2004, 2007, 2012). I will end thisarticle with two that I have initiated through theorganization I direct, the Center for Partnershipstudies (http://www.partnershipway.org/).One lever for fundamental change is ending entrenchedtraditions of intimate violence – the violence against

women and children that is the most prevalenthuman rights violation in the world, with yearlycasualties far higher than the much more publi-cized violence from accidents, wars, and terrorism.This is why with nobel Peace Laureate BettyWilliams I co-founded the spiritual alliance tostop Intimate violence (saIv – www.saiv.net), aninternational initiative of the Center for Partner-ship studies to bring a strong – tragically stillmissing – moral voice to end violence againstwomen and children. This will also help freemales from the prison of dominator genderstereotypes of strength, denial of feelings, andother constriction of their humanity as the pricefor “real masculinity.”a second critical lever is changing the economicrules of the game to give visibility and value tothe most foundational human work: the workof caring and caregiving still stereotypicallyconsidered “women’s work.” We need economicinventions that truly value this work, rangingfrom new measures of productivity that, unlikeGdP, include the enormous economic contribu-tion of the life-supporting activities performedin families, to economic inventions such as paidparental leave and social pensions for caregiversthat give real support to this socially and economi-cally essential work. Only as caring is given morevalue and visibility can we realistically expect themore caring policies so urgently needed in ourworld today (eisler, 2007).as the awareness of the inadequacies of GdP spreads, agrowing number of people are working on alternativemeasures of economic health. however, as documentedin The State of Society: Measuring Economic Success andHuman Well-Being (de Leon and Boris, 2010) the report Icommissioned through the Center for Partnership studiesfrom the Urban Institute, so strong is our heritage ofdevaluing women and anything stereotypically associatedwith them, that even these new indicators fail to give vis-ibility and adequate value to the the work of caring forpeople, starting in early childhood. nor do they take intoaccount studies showing that one of the most powerfulpredictors of both quality of life and national economicsuccess is the status of women (eisler, Loye, and nor-gaard, 1995; hausmann et al, 2010)This is why the Center for Partnership studies haslaunched its Caring economy Campaign (CeC). Oneof its primary goals is the development and adoption ofnew social Wealth indicators that provide the empiricalevidence showing that the most cost-effective invest-ment a society can make is in the care work thatbrain science shows is essential for full humancapacity development. We are proposing the thesesocial Wealth indicators be incorporated in the


forthcoming Key national Indicator system for theUnited states as essential in identifying the driversneeded to develop the “high quality human capital”economists agree is the most important capital as weshift from a manufacturing to a knowledge/serviceeconomy worldwide. The CeC also offers an on-lineCaring economy leadership training program and isbringing together a coalition of local, national, andinternational organizations to inform policy makersand the public of the need for, and benefits of, a caringeconomy. The CeC website (www.caringeconomy.org)features blog postings, fact sheets, videos, and resourcesof allied organizations and individuals working to createa more caring and prosperous economy because chang-ing how we think about and structure economic systemsis a key lever for change.Other levers for change include education for partner-ship rather than dominator parenting, mass media thatmodel caring and sensitivity rather than violence andinsensitivity, and curricula for schools and universitiesthat point to the key importance in the evolution ofhuman nature of traits, motivations, and behaviourssuch as empathy and caring stereotypically viewed as“soft” or feminine – whether they reside in women ormen (eisler, 2000).We humans are the most creative life forms on ourplanet – amazing beings that can change not only ourenvironments but ourselves. With a growing con-sciousness of who we are, who we can be, and whatis needed for a more sustainable, equitable, andpeaceful global culture, we can use our enormouscreativity to construct foundations for truly civi-lized cultures. as co-creators of our future, we canbuild cultures in synch with the direction of evolu-tion toward the consciousness, caring, and creativ-ity that are the true hallmarks of being human. 8

* Portions of this article are adapted from Riane Eisler’s newbook in progress.

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CLaRK, M. e. (2002). In search of human nature(new York: Routledge).

daMasIO, a. (1999). The feeling of what happens:Body and emotion in the making of consciousness(new York: harcourt).

daWKIns, R. (1976). The selfish gene (new York:Oxford UP).

de LeOn, e., and e. T. BORIs. (2010). The State of Soci-ety: Measuring Economic Success and Human Well-Being (Washington dC: The Urban Institute).

deWaaL, F. (2001). The ape and the sushi master (newYork: Basic Books).

dOBZhansKY, T. (1968). “Cultural evolution”, in d. L.sILLs (ed.), International encyclopedia of the social sci-ences (vol. 5, new York: Free Press).

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—— (2007). The real wealth of nations: Creating acaring economics (san Francisco: Berrett-Koehler).

—— & LevIne, d. s. (2002). “nurture, nature, andcaring: We are not prisoners of our genes”, Brainand Mind, 3(1): 9-52.

eIsLeR, R., d. LOYe, and K. nORGaaRd. (1995).Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life (Pacif-ic Grove, Ca: CPs)

GIMBUTas, M. (1982). The goddesses and gods of oldEurope (Berkeley: University of California Press).

GOULd, s. J. (1980). The panda’s thumb (new York:norton).

haUsMann, R., L.d.TYsOn, and s. ZahIdI. (2010). TheGlobal Gender Gap Report (The World economicForum).

hO, M. (1998). “Organism and psyche in a participatoryuniverse”, in d. Loye (ed.), The evolutionary outrider:The impact of the human agent on evolution (Westport,CT: Praeger Publishers).

LOYe, d. (2000). Darwin’s lost theory (new York:iUniverse.com).

—— (ed.). (2004). The great adventure: Toward a fully humantheory of evolution (albany, nY: sUnY Press).

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MasLOW, a. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (new York:van nostrand).

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MeLLaaRT, J. (1967). Çatal Hüyük (new York: McGraw-hill).MILLeR, G. a., GaLanTeR, e., & PRIBRaM, K. h. (1986).Plans and the structure of behavior (new York: adamsBannister Cox).

MIn, J. (ed.) (1995). The chalice and the blade in Chineseculture (Beijing: China social sciences Publishinghouse).

MOnTUORI, a., COMBs, a., & RIChaRds, R. (2004). “Cre-ativity, consciousness, and the direction for human


development”, in d. Loye (ed.), The great adventure:Toward a fully human theory of evolution : 197-236(albany, nY: sUnY Press).

nash, J. (1978). “The aztecs and the ideology of maledominance”, Signs, 4: 349-362.

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PeRRY, B. d., POLLaRd, R. a., BLaKLeY, T. a., BaKeR, W. L.,& vIGILanTe, d. (1995). “Childhood trauma, the neuro-biology of adaptation, and “use-dependent” developmentof the brain: how “states” become “traits””, Infant MentalHealth Journal, 16: 271-291.

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+competitiveness+rankings.ZIeGLeR, d. (2002). Traumatic Experience and theBrain (Phoenix, aZ: acacia).

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Marc Gafni, D.Phil., Scholar-in-Residence and Director of theCenter for World Spirituality, isa philosopher and public intel-lectual who is leading theemergence of the World Spiri-tuality movement based onwhat Gafni has termed theDemocratization of Enlighten-

ment. At the core of his teachings iswhat he calls the Enlightenment of Full-

ness, the linchpin of which is Unique Self Teachings, a breakthroughtechnology with the potential to change the source code of the humanexperience. The Unique Self teaching is now being adapted in lead-ing treatment centres, universities, private schools and spiritual cen-tres all over the world. In each of these fields serious work is beingdone by leaders in their respective fields to bring Gafni’s teaching tobear in a way that redefines the field.Over the past thirty years, Dr Gafni has developed many educa-tional programs and workshops rooted in traditional wisdomand yet fully adapted to the needs of the contemporary world.His acclaimed writings and standing-room-only lectures areknown for their unique mix of profound teaching and trans-mission, open hearted compassion and love, intellectual rigor.He earned his doctorate from Oxford University in England andtoday he lives in the greater San Francisco area. He is the fatherof four children. Website: www.marcgafni.com.

ex. Is TheRe anYThInG eLse ThaT sO GRaBs

our rapt attention, incessantly pursues us,occupies our daydreams, fantasies, andyearnings? The kabbalists state the obvi-

ous: God is trying to get our attention. now Iam not talking about the God who sends goodpeople to burn in hell because they slipped upon one of his impossible demands. nor eventhe Grandfather in heaven who hands outchocolate to do-gooders. Forget that God. TheGod you don’t believe in doesn’t exist. Rather,the God that exists for us is the personal eroticlife force that courses through reality. The Godwe believe in is the vitality of eros. The God webelieve in is the force for healing and transforma-tion in the world. The God who knows ourname1. That is the God who so clearly calls out tous that sex is the answer.When religion splits us off from our sexuality, wecorrectly intuit that something is deeply askew.

But sex is not a panacea. sex is not a drug thatwill soothe away the lurking feeling of ennui thatthis cannot be all there is. Good orgasms will nota good life make. Rather, sex is the answer as amodel and not as the sum total of eros. sex, if wewill but listen, is a great master of the spirit –better than any guru, psychologist, rabbi, orpriest. sex can teach us how to reclaim the eroticin every aspect and element of our lives.

T H A T I S T H E E S S E N C E O F

H E B R E W T A N T R A ,T H E K A B B A L I S T I C S E C R E T

O F T H E C H E R U B S

The core of hebrew tantrism was the cherubicmysteries which taught that the sexual was morethan a force to be merely controlled or merelyindulged. Rather, the sexual in all of its intensepleasure is the model for all spiritual wisdom. Thegoal of spiritual living is to become a lover and toengage all of life erotically. sex is our most importantguide, offering glimmerings of guidance that pave theway to illumination. Illumination, in hebrew calledZohar, is achieved when one lives erotically in everyfacet of being2. The cherubic mysteries – which we willunpack for the first time in two thousand years3 – teachyou how. It is this tantric system that was the hiddencore of the mysteries in solomon’s Temple.The Temple in Jerusalem was the centre of the mysterycult which taught that erotic living was the core goal ofthe life of the spirit and that this erotic life was modelledbut not exhausted by the sexual. We know that eros isvery different from sex, but we also know that sexual sym-bolism was central in the Jerusalem Temple4. The moststriking of these symbols were the sexually entwinedcherubs perched atop the ark of the covenant in the holyof holies. Why should this be so if the Temple is the seatof eros, and eros we know is something very differentfrom sex? Why wouldn’t the Temple use some otherimage of eros? Wouldn’t a statue of a runner who hasbecome the wind or a painter engrossed in her coloursbe a more fitting figure to perch atop the ark? If erosand love are more than sex, then why does the Templeinsist on using a blatantly sexual image?The answer is simple yet elegant and powerful. sexand eros are different, but essentially related. Therelation is that sex models the erotic. That is to say,

T H E F U T U R E O F T H E H O L Y :F R O M S E X T O E R O S

M A R C G A F N I

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within the sexual itself are the most importanthints of eros. It is from the nature of the sexual thatwe learn what it means to live erotically.When sex becomes virtually the only arena in whichwe experience erotic fulfilment, then the shechina isin exile. The exile of the shechina is the exile of theerotic into the sexual. The redemption of the shechinais therefore the re-expansion of eros from the narrowconfines of the sexual back into the broad expanse ofliving. The goal of life is to live erotically in all facets ofbeing. There are four faces of eros hinted at in thesemysteries5, which when taken together, form the essenceof the shechina experience. Being on the Inside, fullnessof presence, yearning, and interconnectivity. These areall shechina qualities, qualities of erotic living.Being on the inside means not on the inside of your sex-ual partner, for that is limited to the masculine sexualexperience; rather, it is about being on the inside of theexperience itself. Yearning is of the essence of the sexual.so much so that it is often thought by poets and psy-chologists to be more pleasurable and intense than thefulfilment itself. Interconnectivity is nowhere moreclearly manifested than in the sexual drive. We areborn with an urge to merge. Finally, it is in the sexualwhere – in its ideal expression – we are most fullypresent to each other. every gesture, fragrance, sigh,and whisper ripples through us as we listen deeplyto the erotic instructions that well up from thedepth of our soul’s body.all four of the primary faces of eros are modelledin the sexual; however, and this is the key, theyare not exhausted by the sexual. It would be agreat tragedy of the spirit if the only place wherewe experienced full presence, interiority, yearn-ing and primal interconnectivity, were in thesexual. That would be to confine eros to thenarrow confines of the bedroom, when it needsto soar through our kitchens, our offices, ourcarpools, our classrooms!

H E B R E W T A N T R A

hebrew tantra is a term coined by a cluster ofdifferent people in the last thirty years. Myself,Kabbalah scholar Moshe Idel, and hebrewscholar Raphael Pattai have all used the termindependently. each person is referring in a dif-ferent way to the sexual symbolism which lies atthe core of the holy of holies – the secret ofthe Cherubs 6.What I mean by hebrew tantra is ancient hebrewwisdom rooted in the esoteric mysteries of solomon’sTemple. These teachings understood implicitly thatthe sexual models the erotic. They viewed the sexualact itself as a great sacred mystery reflecting all the

deepest truths of the spirit. Most of these teachingsare hidden. One of the methods of concealment isthe fact that the teachings are scattered across vastamounts of ancient material with no obvious wayof tracing the ideas. The second method of con-cealment is the embedding of the mysteries in theinternal symbolism of the Kabbalah, a code inac-cessible to the unversed.Yet, in all quests after the mysteries, the firstsource is never textual; it is rather the soul itself.In the words of Job, which take on dual mean-ing in this context, “Through my flesh I visionGod.” I was convinced from an early age thatreligion had lost what I believed must have beenits original erotic vitality. I knew that the sexualsomehow held the mystery of return to thismuch larger-than-sexual eros. Moreover, I wasconvinced that paganism stripped of its non-eth-ical practice had much to offer us in the renewalof the old religion for our postmodern souls.Contrary to classical religion and much of psy-chology, hebrew tantra insists that sex is integral-ly related to love and eros. There is no disconnect.not because it is always nice if you love the personyou are sleeping with. But far more powerfully, andthis is the secret of the Cherubs, because the sexualis the ultimate model for eros and love. Thirteenth century hebrew mystic Isaac of acco saidit most boldly, “Whoever has not desired a woman islike an ass and even less than an ass, for it is from thesexual one understands divine service7.” sex stands asthe ultimate symbol, both signifying and actuallymodelling the erotic experience in all areas of life. Thegoal of life is to live erotically in all facets of being, andsex is the model par excellence for erotic living.

S E X I S T H E A N S W E R

Freud’s understandings, which have so coloured our ownunconscious view of the word, are the precise opposite ofthe secret of the cherubs. For Freud everything is ametaphor for sex. For the kabbalists, sex is a metaphor foreverything. Freud was interested in reduction, in bringingeverything down. he lived in an era still in rebellionagainst 1700 years of Church domination, crippling sci-ence, freedom and beauty. as a result, he, like most ofthe intelligentsia of his age, automatically rejected spiritas a serious force. so, Freud reduced everything in theworld to sex.The mystical project, however, is not about reduction; itrather seeks to raise up all the scattered sparks of lightand return them to their source8. To the kabbalist, allthe processes in the world, including sex, are erotic attheir core. For the kabbalists, sex points to the erotic.

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This opens an even deeper distinction between Freudand the Kabbalah. For Freud, sex was a human releasevalve that allowed for the release of tension andtherefore assured more effective functioning. For thekabbalist, effective spiritual living was not facilitatedby releasing tension, but by holding eros. a perfectworld for Freud would be one in which everything wasde-sexualized; then sex itself could perform its naturalbiological release valve function without creating neu-rosis and complexes. For the kabbalist, the ideal worldwould be one in which the sexual modelling of the eroticwas made conscious with the resultant eroticizing of allof reality.

E X I L E D I N T O T H E S E X U A L

now let’s go back to our lost ark and its cherubs situatedin the inner sanctum of the Temple. The ark in particularand the Temple in general are the mythic symbols of theshechina – that is, of the erotic experience9. That is pre-cisely what the mystery texts mean when they say theshechina dwells between the cherubs atop the ark. Thefall of the Temple is thus not a mere historical event. Inmyth, the fall of the Temple is the fall of eros. Thisexperience is called by the kabbalistic masters the exileof the Shechina10.Open your hearts and minds to hear the next sen-tence. The exile of the shechina means no less thanthe exile of the erotic. But where did it go? To wherewas eros exiled? The answer is that the exile of theshechina is the exile of the erotic into the sexual.That is to say, when the only place we access thecore qualities of eros is in the sexual, then eros, orthe shechina, is in exile11. When the only time Ifeel like I am on the inside is in great sex, thenthe shechina is in exile. When intense desire is afeeling I touch only before exploding in orgasm,then my life is poor indeed. The shechina isexiled. eros has fallen.however, we cannot live in a non-erotic world.so, unconsciously we seek compensation. Welook to get our erotic fix in the sexual. But thisdoesn’t work either. For when you de-eroticizethe entire world except sex, then the sexual col-lapses as well. You see, we all have erotic needs.These needs require attention in all of life, butif we ignore them in all of life, then we demandthat the sexual fill all of our erotic needs. andso sexuality shrugs, collapsing under the weightof an impossible demand.

E X I L E W I T H I N A N E X I L E

In the language of the kabbalists, we are now inan exile within an exile 12. The first exile of the

shechina is the exile of the erotic into the sexual.The second is the exile of the erotic within thesexual itself. The erotic is exiled to a very limiteddomain within the sexual: transgressive or illicitsexuality which breaks your own boundaries.We have gotten to the point where we cannoteven find the erotic in most of the arenas of thesexual. In order to touch that intense desire whichbrings us to a place deep in the infinity of themoment – on the inside of the inside – manypeople need a sexuality which breaks the bound-aries of their own authentic story. We eitherdowngrade or upgrade sex. The result of the firstis adultery, degrading forms of pornography, andall varieties of sexual abuse. The second express-es itself in the search for sex in the form of theideal true love. It is, of course, so ideal that isinaccessible, leaving us forever fantasizing aboutthe perfect lover or reading endless varieties ofthe same sexy romance novel. We are desperatelysearching for eros in all the wrong places.The yearning for a rebuilt Temple is not an artistor carpenter’s fantasy. It is rather the dream of aworld in which raw eros, today exiled to illicit sexu-ality, will be accessed in the context of committedrelationships. The goal is to move beyond the needfor stolen waters. To be able to access the full powerand passion of the sensual within the context of yourown highest story, where your own waters are satisfy-ing and sweet13.

H A R L O T S A N D P R E T E N D I N G

One of most famous images of the shechina in exilelaced throughout the Zohar is the prostitute14. Theproblem with prostitution is not primarily an ethicalproblem. ethical prostitutes can have far more moraldecency then the ostensible pillars of the community.Images of the wise and good harlots abound in litera-ture. From Rahab the harlot who marries Joshua in theBible, to Mary Magdalene, to the Best Little Whore-house in Texas.The problem with prostitution is the depersonalizing ofsex. eros is about the inside and face. The prostitute isfaceless and nameless. emotionally, the client is alwayson the outside. There is no intimacy. Ultimately, thiserotic failure becomes an ethical failure. The persongoes to the prostitute because he is lonely. he is erosstarved and not sex starved, knowing the only placehe can get an erotic fix is in sex. The shechina, theerotic, is exiled in the sexual. all too often – throughno fault of the prostitute – he feels emptier after sexthan he did before. he will usually ejaculate, but hewill rarely achieve fulfilment.


The highest paid courtesan, of course, is the onewho heals the split between sex and eros; for at leastthat evening, she is not only sexual available, but alsofully engaged, present, and loving. Generally, however,the eros is not real, as it is simply impossible to betruly available and present to so many people, dayafter day. so, the best-case scenario is an unspokenagreement. she will pretend, and he will pretend, andthe pretence will be sufficient for that is all there is. sexand eros are split. The shechina is in exile.

T H E T A N T R I C P I L G R I M S

Three times a year, pilgrims would gather in Jerusalemfrom all over the land of Israel. These gatherings werecalled the holidays of vision (Chag HaReiya). One canwell imagine that on these holidays the adept among thepilgrims practiced visualizations, chanting, meditations,and a host of other spiritual techniques. These mysterieswere passed from the Temple initiates in Jerusalem to theGreco-egyptian community of alexandria. They weredisseminated by solomon to all of the surrounding cul-tures. Indeed, two great nineteenth century mysticalmasters, Mordechai Lainer of Ishbitz and his teachersimchan Bunim of Pshischa, already hint at a system-atic program of spiritual teaching partially rooted inGoddess mysteries, initiated by solomon and hiswives15. Just so that we make clear what we are sayinghere, Mircea eliade already notes that there are pro-found parallels between Indian yogic tantra of boththe hindu and Buddhist variety and Western mys-tery traditions from hermetic, Gnostic, earlyChristian, and Greco-alexandrian sources. Whateliade fails to note is that these traditions hadtheir probable source to a greater or lesser degreein the mystery cults of solomon’s Temple. Themystery of the cherubs are, then, not a hebrewversion of Indian tantra. Quite the opposite –they are the likely source of the Indian yogic tra-ditions as well as much of the great Westernmystery tradition.so our return to hebrew tantra is a return to afountain from which all these great wisdomssprang16. There are, however, two enormous dif-ferences between hebrew and hindu tantra intheir classical sources. In much of hindu tantra,it is the avoidance of sexual release which allowsthe adept to re-channel the sexual energy inwardand upward instead of outward. In hebrew tantra,it is the natural flow of sexual expression, includ-ing release, which models the lover’s path in allarenas of living.second, in hindu tantra, the sense of the sourcesis that the partner is almost a sacred object. she is a

symbol of the feminine principle, but in her beingthe symbol, she is fully depersonalized – a kind ofnameless yogini who is a necessary aid in the spiritualtantric journey of the male adept.In hebrew tantra, the partner is both a shechinaincarnation and fully personalized at the sametime17. The sexual, existential fulfilment and plea-sure of one’s partner is the primary ethical anderotic obligation of the hebrew adept. The spir-itual tantric journey is only sacred within thathighly personalized intimate context.Moreover, in the hebrew tantric path, the part-ners must share a committed relationship beyondthe sexual. naturally then, there is no danger ofsplitting sex from eros in all facets of life. In thehindu tantric model, there was no committedrelationship between the man and woman. Forthe hebrew mystic, this all is the exile of theshechina. Classic hindu tantra (not its Westernoffshoots) limited eros to the realm of spiritualizedsex, effectively divorcing it from all other facets ofliving. sex became a limited spiritual activity whichdid not spill over into day-to-day partnership andcommitment of the rest of life.

C O S M I C L O V E A F F A I R

a young man walks in on Master Baruch and hiswife in the midst of a heated argument. startled, hequickly turns away. Baruch responds with a wink,“You don’t understand. You have just witnessed a dis-cussion between God and the shechina.” To really touch at what the ancient mystics meantwhen they so deeply linked the sexual, the erotic, andthe sacred, we need to go one final step further. Wementioned earlier that the holy of holies is understoodas the marriage bed, while the ark and its tablets alter-nately represent the male and female sexual organs. Well,whose marriage bed is it anyways? and to whom does allthis sexual anatomy belong? To human beings or God,whatever that might mean? The texts intentionally blur the lines on this issue, forthe point is that human beings and God actually sharethe same bed. That is to say, the Cherubs are the sym-bol of the great marriage between the divine masculineand divine feminine17. Between shakti and shiva inhindu myth, between Kudshah Brik hu and shechi-na in the kabbalistic storehouse of symbolism. KudshaBrik hu is the masculine divine energy, and shechinathe feminine divine energy. When the shechinadwells “between the cherubs,” the divine masculineand feminine meet in erotic union.


But here is the major new teaching of the mystics.That union is not only modelled by – but actuallyinitiated by – the human sexual merging.When the relationship is real, when there is commit-ment and mutuality and love, then human sexual unionnot only models the erotic in all facets of life, it partici-pates and affects union in the universe. It becomes anagent for healing and oneness even and especially, withinGod. It is in this regard that the great lover and mysticakiva says that when man and woman join in sacredunion, then “the shechina dwells between them18.”This, of course, is precisely the same phrase the biblicalmyth text uses to describe the shechina which “dwellsbetween the cherubs.” Between the cherubs and betweenthe human lovers is the same place! For the mystics,then, those cherubs symbolize the masculine and femi-nine, both in the human and in the divine realm. simplyput, at the apex of sexuality, humankind touches, par-ticipates in, and heals divinity. This is the potential forworld healing implicit in the sexual, which models theerotic and the holy.

A K I V A – M Y S T I C A N D L O V E R19

In the kabbalistic tradition, akiva is the penultimatelover20. he is a poor shepherd who lived and walkedin Israel only a few years after the death of Jesus.he witnessed the destruction of the Temple andunderstood deeply that the Temple was the axis oferos, and that eros is the essential force of attrac-tion – the clasp upon the beaded necklace thatholds the whole world together. akiva, however, initially learns of eros not frombooks or old wise masters. his life journey beginsas a simple shepherd who passes his time in thefields, playing his flute for his God and his sheep.he is beheld late one afternoon by Rachel, thebeautiful daughter of Kalba savua, patriarch ofJerusalem’s wealthiest aristocratic family. shesees him and she knows. Great love and passionis kindled. They marry against the fierce objec-tions of her family. For marrying a simpletonshe is disowned. But with love and eros as theirspiritual masters, akiva makes his way to theacademy and emerges twelve years later as thegreatest spiritual master the hebrew traditionhas ever known.To all his disciples, he makes clear: My trueteacher is Rachel. not just because, as is usuallyunderstood, she urges him to study for manyyears away from home in the academy, but becausethe love and eros they had between them were thegreatest teachers of the spirit he ever had. Indeed,the kabbalists understand Rachel to refer both to

the real woman who loved akiva and to a metaphorfor the Goddess, for the shechina. so when theTemple falls, akiva needs to make people under-stand that for all of its magnificence and even holi-ness, in the end, it is but a symbol of somethingmore: It is the symbol of eros.

A T E A C H I N G F R O M A K I V A :

T H E F I R E B E T W E E N T H E M

To that end, akiva teaches the people two greatteachings which are really one. First, he pointsto the hebrew words for man and woman – I-Y-sh (שיא) and I-sh-a They are made up of .((השא)two sets of letters. The first set of common let-ters – I-sh – appears in both man and woman.These two letters together, comprised of thehebrew aleph (I) (א) and shin (sh) (ש) letters,form the word eish, fire Fire represents sex .(שא)and passion. The Y (י) and a (ה), which appearrespectively in the hebrew man and womanwords, are in hebrew Yud and Hei – הי . Theseare the letters of the name of God.שיא = manהשא = womanשא = fireהי = Yah, the name of GodWhen man and woman come together in sacredunion, God is a third partner in their intercourse.They participate not only in the potential creation ofnew life below in the visible world, but also create newlife above, in the divine21. They not only fulfil them-selves in eros, but they fulfil God. “The shechinadwells between them.” akiva is suggesting no less thanthat the shechina which dwells between the cherubs inthe Temple, now dwells between man and woman insexual union. sexual Union in the kabbalistic tradition isthe great mystical act that heals all the worlds above andbelow. The Zohar in a typical passage writes:They should prepare themselves to be of one desire and one intentso that when they join they become one in body and soul; theybecome one in soul by aligning their wills in cleaving; when theyunite in sexual union they become one in body and soul […] It isthen that God dwells between them in unified oneness.

eros, we now begin to understand, is the primal desirefrom which the word springs into being. God’s eroscreated the world. Our lack of eros could destroy theworld. Love or die. The mystics of every religion –those who lived on the inside – understand that thisis not mere metaphor. every act of union causes andparticipates in divine union. The human being par-ticipates in the divine love affair, even as God partic-ipates in the human love affair. For beneath the veilof illusion, all really is one 21!


S O N G O F S O N G S , H O L Y O F

H O L I E S

akiva had a second teaching which takes us one stepfarther on the path of eros and love. akiva participat-ed in a great debate with the other sages over whetherto include the song of songs in the biblical cannon ofsacred books. It is written as a dialogue between twolovers. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth[…] his fruit is sweet to my mouth […] his thrust isupon me in love” The man responds, “Your lips are likethe thread of scarlet […] Your breasts are like two roes[…] Your closed garden, your secret fountain […]”The song of songs appears to be a sexual love song, per-haps to be sung in ancient taverns and beer halls. Whatplace could it have in the sacred writ? To this argumentof the sages, akiva has a two-fold response. First, hesays, know that all of the song of songs is a mashal, anallegory. second, know that while all the books are holy,the song of songs is the holy of holies.One way to read the text, and a way that it is usuallyread, is that akiva is saying two distinct things. First,he says do not be afraid of the content of this book; itis not about sexuality. The sexual is but an allegoryfor the spiritual love between the human being andGod. second, know that this great spiritual love iscentral to the religious endeavour. This book, there-fore, is not only holy, but the holy of holies.That reading is but the cloak which allows akiva tohide his truly radical esoteric doctrine. This doctrineis no less than the secret of the Cherubs – the springof enlightenment from which we have been sippingthis entire chapter. When akiva says that the songof songs is a mashal, he means not an allegory but amodel. That is to say, the sexual story of the loversin the song of songs is a model for the erotic. Theerotic is identical with the sacred itself. This isakiva’s intent when he cries out with such passionand pathos that “the song of songs is the holy ofholies!” This is not a casual metaphor affirmingthe importance of the book. It rather containsakiva’s deepest mystical intention. The holy ofholies in the Temple destroyed just a few yearsearlier was, for akiva and the people, the personi-fication of eros. The cherubs reminded the peoplethat the sexual was the window to the sacred. Thesecret of the sexually intertwined cherubs atop theark was not that sex is the erotic and the holy, butthat sex models the erotic and the holy.The power of this idea does not fall with thedestruction of the Temple. The fall of the Temple,insists akiva, must not be the fall of eros. Forevery moment that engages life erotically, the Tem-ple is rebuilt. Moreover, akiva reminds a peoplewho have just been disempowered politically that in

the end political power structures are but illusion.The human being is powerful because he/she – byliving erotically – participates and creates the divineunion because human consciousness and actionare the touchstone.

E R O S E X P A N D E D

erotic fulfilment is reached when I have expandedthe realm of eros beyond the sexual to embraceall of my existence. Indeed, the root of the san-skrit word tantra – tan – means expansion. Truetantric energy expands into all realms of life.This expansion is the goal of kabbalistic tantra.The Zohar weaves this esoteric teaching into aseemingly innocent passage. The original quote isso striking that I decided to leave it virtually intact.Read it slowly, almost as a tantric meditation.“Every person must find himself in Sexual Union (ofmale and female) […] for in that way the Shechinanever parts from him. And if you will say, one who trav-els (and is separated from his partner and therefore sepa-rated from sexual union) does not the Shechina departfrom him? Come and see – before a person begins hisjourney, he should organize his prayer – from a placewhere he is in sexual union – in order to draw the Shechi-na down on him before he sets out on his path […] Oncehe has learned the order of prayer – and the Shechinadwells on him through his sexual union, he should set out onhis way – for the Shechina can now remain with him […]in the city or in the field […].

“As long as he is on the way, he needs to be mindful of his pathin order that the higher union, the Shechina not part fromhim. Even when he is not in sexual union […] this higherunion does not leave. When he arrives home he should rejoice(be sexual) with his partner […] for she is the one throughwhom he accessed the higher union with the Shechina 22.”

This passage, part of the cherub mystery tradition,makes the merging with the shechina dependent onsexual union. Clearly, then, they are not the samething. The goal is “higher union with the shechina.”The higher union takes place when one has been ableto move beyond the bedroom to transpose the sexual tohis/her broader world. To greet the divine at everydoorstep, every crossroad, in every sparrow along theway. after returning from the way, he is instructed toagain be sexual with his partner in order to re-cast hislife once more in the model of the sexual. In this way,sex leads him to shechina. It is in the move through the sexual to the erotic thatwe achieve the ultimate goal of the spirit: higherunion with the shechina, erotic fulfillment in everyarena of living. 8


——————

1 “he counts the number of the stars, and calls them all by name” (Psalms 147) – so, too, when Israel went down to egypt,he counted them. and since they were compared to stars, hecalled all their names, as it says, “and these are the names of thechildren of Israel” (exodus 1:1) (Midrash Rabba exodus, 1:3). “and how do we know that below, too, he calls them by name? asit says, ‘see, God has called by name, Betzalel the son of Uri the sonof hur of the tribe of Judah’ (exodus 21:2, 35:30)(Midrash Rabba exo-dus 48:1). The source for man being called by his name is none otherthan Betzalel, the architect of the sanctuary.

2 The Baal shem Tov taught: “There is nothing large or small thatis separate from him, for he is to be found in all possible realities.The complete human being is therefore able to effect higher unities(yihudim) even in his physical reality, whether that be food, drink,sex, business, or mundane conversations with his friends […] This iswhat is meant by the biblical verse “Know him in all your ways”(Proverbs chapter 3) as is written, “and the man knew eve his wife”(Genesis 4:1) – [the word know] means union and erotic coupling(zivvug) (Baal Shem Tov al Hatorah, quoted from Toldot YaakovYitzhak, Bereshit 189).One of the greatest practitioners and adherents of this teaching wasRabbi Yitzhak Yehuda Yehiel safrin of Komarno. he repeats thisover and over again in his somewhat inaccessible writings. Quotingthe Maggid of Mezeretch, he says: “Concerning this, our holymaster, the pure light, our teacher dov Ber, said that this is themeaning of what is called in the Zohar “she wears kishutin delohavu – jewelry that never was” (Zohar vol. 2 95a). The mitzvothare called “jewelry that was,” but when a person unifies thethings of this world and thus adorns the shechina, this is called“jewelry that never was” […] for even in the lowest level thereis (erotic) unity and embracing” (Ketem Ofir on the first verseof esther).

3 see especially the book Mystery of Love (2003) and TheErotic and the Holy (2006) audio series.

4 not only in the case of the cherubs was there sexualsymbolism in the Temple. The poles of the ark were said tohave protruded from behind the veil that concealed the holyof holies into the sanctuary. The Talmud says that theylooked like the two nipples of a woman’s breasts to someonewho saw them from the sanctuary (tractate Yoma 54a).

5 see Chapter 2 of Mystery of Love (2003) or “Interiors,Face, and Reconstruction of eros” in essay form at www.mar-cgafni.com.

6 The first hint at another more profound if esotericreading of the sources alluding however vaguely to sexuali-ty as an erotic model came when I was 22 and studying atext of Tzadok the priest cited in a work by Gedalia schor,which enigmatically alluded to the secret of the cherubsand cited the key talmudic texts. eliyahu dessler in hisMichtav MeEliyahu makes scattered veiled references in thesame direction. In the academic world, Raphael Pattai’s 1947book on the Temple also contained important hints. alsohelpful was an excellent short monograph of saul Liberman’son the esoteric mystery of the song of songs to which I wasreferred by daniel abrams. similarly helpful was Pattai’s laterwork Hebrew Goddesses as well as the work that Pattai wasgreatly influenced by, The White Goddess by Robert Graves.Two other monographs (Ohad ezrahi’s “shnei Keruvim” heb.

1997 and Moshe eisen’s “Ye shall be as Gods, Conceptions of theYetzer hara,” 1992) cite some of the scholarship on the Cherubs(ezrahi) and give extensive primary sources material (eisen).The same is true of a number of articles by Moshe Idel, mostimportant among them being his article “sexual Praxis in Kab-balah.” The limitation of all the important work cited here isthat while they note that there is a mystery and that it is con-nected to sex, eros, and the temple, they do not examine thenature of eros and generally do not distinguish between itand sexual vitality. similarly, they do not suggest sex as amodel for eros, nor do they unpack specific paths of eros.

7 Rabbi Isaac of acco is quoted by R. elijah de vidahat the end of Shar Dalet of Shaar HaAhava in his masterwork Reishit Hohmah.

8 In Luriannic myth, these are the 288 sparks of lightthat remained in the shattered vessels of the Kings afterthey died and are waiting for redemption. The sparks arenumbered 288, based on a reading of the biblical verse inGenesis 1:2: “and the spirit of God hovered (merahefet)over the water.” The hebrew word merahefet is brokendown into rafah met – i.e. the “dead 288.” These sparks areredeemed by means of the “arousal of the feminine waters”(this is the water from the biblical verse) that “cause anew ahigher Coupling, and through the light that is created as aresult of that zivvug, these Kings will be fixed” (Sha’ar Hahaq-damot, drush Ka’asher Ala, Etz Hayim, Sha’ar Hatiqqun, chap-ter one). This process, according to R. Isaac Luria, is the secretmeaning of the “revival of the dead” (Etz Hayim Sha’ar Rafah,chapter one). although this process is ‘built-in” as part of theLuriannic Tiqqun stage of development, as a result of the sin ofadam, which caused creation to fall to a level lower than whatwas originally intended. It has become the work of the tzadiq toraise these sparks up. The degree of his success is dependant onthe magnitude of the mitzvah he performs or the intensity of theprayer he prays (Etz Hayim, Sha’ar M”N uM’D, eleventh discourse,seventh principle). The Baal shem Tov and the hasidic movementin general placed greater emphasis on the fact that one raises up thesparks in all forms of encounter with the material world. Baal ShemTov al Hatorah, Ki Tisa 29, where the Baal shem Tov is quotedexplicitly on the subject of the 288 sparks.

9 In the Zohar, note is taken of the fact that the biblical verse inJoshua 3:11 refers to the “ark of the covenant, the Master of the allthe earth.” The verse is commonly read as meaning “the ark of thecovenant of the Master of all the earth.” however, as the Zohar notes,the word “of” is missing, implying that in a sense, the ark is the Mas-ter. The Zohar therefore derives that when the Torah speaks of theark, it is referring to the shechina, Whose divine name is Adonai(master). It is called the ark of the covenant, brit – the sfira of yesod,since this life-bestowing sfira fills it with prolific abundance. Theerotic imagery is clear. as such, it is an animate source of life, as itsays in the Tosefta that appears in Zohar vol. 2, p. 13a: “In it [in theark], one holy source is hidden, which is constantly flowing into it,and filling it. It (the source) is called the God of hosts, blessed behe forever and in all worlds.” see also Midrash Hane’elam Eiha: 92c,where it is written: “ […] From the ark of the Torah, food wouldgo out to all the world, and light and blessings for all.”

10. The original idea of the exile of the shechina emerges whenthe people are exiled from Israel to Babylon. In its original formu-lation, it indicates that the divine presence moved with the peo-ple wherever they were exiled (see for example Midrash Rabba onLamentations Chapter 34). The home, the study hall, and the


communal worship center all became places where the shechina– eros – dwelled. at the same time, the exile of the shechinaindicates a fallen state. The shechina is not in its natural home.The people are not in their place – in their story.This is both a geographic and existential reality – the former andthe latter emphasized in different ways in various strains of rab-binic and kabalistic thought. I am, of course, not claiming that this reading exhausts the idea ofexile of the shechina; I am rather – in the tradition of all creativethought – weaving together a number of different kabbalistic strainsof thought into the fabric of a larger vision.

11 The idea that the exile of the shechina is the exile of the eroticinto the sexual is possibly best expressed in the Raya Mehimna andTiqunei Zohar literature. Based on the biblical verse “and a maidser-vant that inherits her mistress” (Proverbs 30:23), the shechina in exileis said to be the state in which the maidservant has inherited herplace. The “maidservant” includes a range of possibilities (see RayaMehimna, Zohar vol. 2 117b, where it says explicitly that “not allshechinas are the same”), from the lack of fullness that resulted fromMoses’ passing and the ensuing leadership of Joshua (Tiqunei Zohar14b), to the most commonly defined “maidservant” state – that ofthe “evil one” (often identified with Lilith) – who invariably takesthe shechina’s place because of some sort of sexual sin (e.g. RayaMehimna, Zohar vol. 3, 226a, Tiqunei Zohar 24b). she is calledmenstrually unclean, heathen, and a prostitute – all expressions ofwhat we have called “fallen sex.” When she is not in union withher true lover, when all of her fullness is not being loved – wheneros is exiled into the sexual – she is replaced by/becomes “maid-servant”(this may have implications for feminism) (see TiquneiZohar 132b, and Raya Mehimna Zohar vol. 3, 222a). In somesources, it is only her clothes that have become “blackened”(Raya Mehimna Zohar vol. 3 279b). although shechina andmaidservant are two expressions of the one Feminine, some-times she is depicted as hiding herself in Metatron, so as to beprotected from the evil maidservant, and she is then calledMitatron (Metatron with a yod) (Tiqunei Zohar 15a) – adescription with immense theological-psychological implica-tions. In passing, we should also mention a wildly radicaltwist that this kabbalistic school adds to this teaching – thefact that the maidservant is mishna (secondary) to theshechina. For the author(s) of Raya Mehimna and TiquneiZohar, the maidservant-mishna represents the bothersome,dialectical, Tree of Consciousness of Good and evil, pilpultradition of the Oral Torah, as opposed to shechina asKabbalah, the place of true intimacy, the Tree of Life, thesecrets of the Torah. although this is not the context topresent and analyze this idea in all its fullness, the curiousmay want to look at Tiqunei Zohar 22b, 27b, 43b, and147a, for starters.

12 see above, note 11, where we showed how theshechina in exile is herself in an additional exile, that ofthe “maidservant.” I would only add here that the TiquneiZohar presents another unusual idea – that Kudsha BrihHu, the divine masculine himself, when he is not unifiedwith shechina – i.e. during the time of exile – is “exiledwithin the exile” into Metatron (who, in Heihalot texts, isreferred to as YHVH Haqatan). To quote: “and when he isbelow, in Metatron, without his shechina, he changes. Thisled elisha-aher to say, ‘Could there be two Powers?’ This iswhy it says “do not replace Me with him” (comment in trac-tate sanhedrin 38b on exodus 23:21), for My name is within

him. For Metatron is second (shani) to the King” (TiquneiZohar 15a). during the time of exile, the shechina Who is themistress/lover of Metatron may be helpful, if Israel merits. Butif they do not, then she becomes evil desire, unclean menstru-al blood. exile within exile (Zohar vol. 1, 27b). This sectionof the Zohar is actually not part of the Zohar (from 22a-29a).Its content (including this piece) is characteristic of theTiqunim-Raya Mehimna style).

13 “drink the water of your own cistern, and runningwater of your own well. so will your spring be prolific out-side, and streams of water will flow in the streets. They willbe yours alone, and strangers will have no place in yourintimacy. Your source will be blessed, and rejoice in thewife of your youth” (Proverbs 5:15-18).

14 Of course in a literal reading of the Zoharic literaturethe shechina and the harlot are separate figures. a deeperreading, however, collapses them into one complex person-ae. see, for, example, Tiqunei Zohar 24b: “The maidservantenters the place of her mistress. she is unclean, a servant, aheathen, a harlot, and she defiles the place where theshechina would rest.” see also above, notes 11 and 12.

15 R. simha Bunim of Pshischa in Kol Simha, quoted inKol Mevaser on I Kings 11:6: “King solomon desired to healevil, that is, that evil be integrated in good. This is why hemarried foreign women – in order to rectify them and tointroduce everything into holiness, just as it will be in thefuture, at the time of the Messiah. since it was not yet the timeof the Great Fixing, solomon was incapable of completing thiswork. R. Mordechai Lainer, Mei Shiloah, on I Kings 11:1: “Forall the strength of the nations of the world can be found in theirwomen, especially in their princesses. For this reason, he marriedprincesses, in order to subjugate their energies to the sacred.”These are not isolated passages, but part of a broader strain ofthought that runs through Pshischa and Ishbitz. I expand signifi-cantly on this strain of thought in my doctoral thesis. This schoolpicks up on earlier strains in exoteric and esoteric hebrew literature,which read solomon’s wives as part of a broader proto-feminist mys-tical project initiated by solomon and opposed by the prophets. Inthis reading, the prophetic opposition is tactical, not essential; theyargue that solomon was before his time. There were not yet vessels tohold the full erotic power of shechina consciousness.This reading is in response to modern writers who accuse the prophets

of slaying the goddess. I significantly expand on this topic in RadicalKabbalah: The Enlightenment Teaching of Unique Self, Non-DualHumanism and the Wisdom of Solomon – The Great Teaching of Ethicsand Eros from Mordechai Lainer of Izbica (Integral Publishers, 2012).

16 It is beyond the scope of this work to fully document the histor-ical path of hebrew tantra. suffice it to say that on a scholarly leveleliade already provides the alexandrian link between Indian tantraand the Western mysteries which took root roughly contemporane-ously to the end of the second Temple period. The links between theIsraelite community and their alexandrian bothers and sisters arewell known, documented in Philo, the Talmud, and numerous othersources. alexandria is the center of the western mystery traditions,which eliade links with Indian Tantrism. It requires no great leap toinfer an internal esoteric Temple tradition linking the first and sec-ond Temples. Indeed, it would make no sense if there were notsuch a tradition. The Talmud clearly assumes such a tradition. sothe link between solomon and the alexandrian communities ofthe second Temple, which were a hub of the spiritual mystery tra-ditions that eliade sees as possible sources for Indian Tantrism, is


then clearly apparent. I should add that although all of this istrue, it is not the source of my surmise. My intuition about therelationship between the traditions comes from a deep place ofknowing which is supported by research but moves beyond theimportant but narrow reach of scholarship.

17 The Baal Haleshem says explicitly that the cherubs are Ze’ir Anpin and Nukva (Sha’arei Haleshem, section 1:17; section 2:2).he cites Raya Mehimna (Zohar vol. 3, 255b), where a beautiful anal-ogy is made between sitting in the sukkah (literally – protection)and being under the protective wingspread of the two cherubs., whoare respectively Yhvh (tiferet, the divine masculine) and adnY (mal-hut, the divine feminine). When these two are in perfect eroticunion, we intermingle the letters of their name, creating a new name– YahdvnhY. The numerical value (gematria) of these two namestogether, that is, of this ideal zivvug, is 91 – the gematria of sukkah!

18 Tractate sotah, 17a.19 Tractate nedarim, 50a.20 It is not within the scope of the present essay to discuss the kab-

balistic, particularly the Luriannic, traditions concerning the soul ofRabbi akiva, which took on entirely mythic proportions. It is certain-ly deserving of a work of its own. I would like, however, to mentiononly in passing, a couple aspects of these traditions that bear directlyon our discussion. The fact that akiva was considered to be a bengerim, i.e. a descendent of converts, was seen as a sign that since hissoul had roots deep in the qlippot, he was capable of elevating them.In addition, his name contains the letters a’q’v’, creating the wordeqev, heel, which is reminiscent of ‘iqvata demeshiha, the heels ofthe Messiah, which refers to the lowest, but concluding, thereforethe most critical, soul-elements. In fact, in Sha’ar Ma’amarei Rash-bi (on Zohar Shir Hashirim), this extraordinary quality of his soulis linked to solomon, the fullness of the moon, the Temple,bina, and Yom Kippur. he is therefore a principle propagator ofthe fullness of eros. add to this the even more bizarre traditionthat he was a reincarnation of Zimri, who had intercourse withKozbi at the door of the Sanctuary! (see Gilgilei Neshamot of R.Menahem azarya of Fano, the letter kaf for Kozbi). Whatimage could be more appropriate for our discussion?But this goes even deeper. akiva is one of the Ten Martyrs,who were murdered by the Romans because of their refusalto abandon their religion. In the Luriannic corpus, they diedso as to rectify the sin of Joseph’s ten brothers, who sold himinto slavery. (In the Ten Martyrs myth, this is the rationaleof the Roman governor for putting them to death, as theTorah says that if a man kidnaps a man and sells him, hemust be put to death (exodus 21:16). however, it is moreprofound and even disturbing than that. The role of the“Ten Martyrs” in Luriannic myth was to restore eroticunion that was violated – either because the shechina tookpart in the selling of Joseph, or for the sake of sparks whowere so deeply embedded in the qlipot that they could notbe redeemed. The souls of the ten martyrs became mayimnukvin for the cosmic zivvug that is accomplished throughthe kavanot of the shma – that is, feminine waters to awakenthe erotic cosmic union. This is the Luriannic interpretationof “his (R. akiva’s) soul went out as he said ehad” (Berahot61b) – One, the last word of the shma. For by his martyr’slover’s death, he restored erotic oneness. This is one of theteachings we have from R. Isaac Luria himself. (see Sha’ar Hag-ilgulim from Chapter 35 on, Liqutei Hashas on tractate Berahot(one of the places where R. Isaac Luria himself is quoted),Sha’ar Maamarei Rashbi on Zohar Shir Hashirim, etc.).

21 In the kabbalistic tradition, sacred union creates “newsouls” “Rav Metivta said: ’and sara was barren, she had nochildren’ – ‘If it says that sarai is barren, then I know that shedid not have children. Why must the verse say ‘she had nochildren?’ But Rav Metivta said: she did not give birth tochildren, but she gave birth to souls. By the clinging of thepassion of those two righteous ones [abraham and sarah],they gave birth to the souls of converts the entire time thatthey were in haran, just as the righteous do in the Gardenof eden” (Zohar vol. 3, 168a). This became a major goal ofthe tzaddikim in Luriannic teachings, connected with theZoharic tradition of the “light that was sown for/by thetzaddik” (Zohar vol. 2, 165b, and Sha’ar Maamarei Rashbi,the commentary on Idra Rabba, Sha’ar Maamarei Razal alBaba Kama, and Sha’ar Hagilgulim, introduction: 15). Thefact that tzaddik is identified with the sfira of yesod (tzad-diq yesod olam – Proverbs 10:25) makes him the perfectcandidate for this task.

22 Zohar vol. 1, 49b.

a b


Andrew Cohen is an interna-tionally respected spiritualteacher, founder of the globalnon-profit EnlightenNext, andthe author of the bestsellingbook evolutionary enlighten-ment. His original teachingof Evolutionary Enlightenmentredefines spiritual awakening

within the context of cosmic evolu-tion and highlights a new understand-

ing of God or Spirit as the creative impulse toward change inboth self and culture. Website: www.andrewcohen.org.

he sPIRITUaL seeKeR TOdaY, The POsTMOdeRn

seeker, is in a unique predicament. Forthose of us looking toward the future wholong to develop at the level of conscious-

ness, it is often difficult to find a spiritual path orpractice that makes deep sense. It’s difficult to finda spiritual path that has a truly contemporary ori-entation – one that doesn’t compel us to embraceancient belief structures that may no longer berelevant to our time. This is the great challenge ofspiritual development today, but it could not bemore thrilling, because it is so pregnant withcreative potential. It is up to us to create a newcontext for our individual and collective spiritu-al development, one that is appropriate for ourtwenty-first-century circumstances. It is up tous to create a new enlightenment.This is the challenge to which I have dedicatedmore than two decades of my life as a spiritualteacher. and in the process, I have discovered anew source of emotional, psychological, andspiritual liberation that exists within anyone’sreach who has the eyes to recognize it and theheart to desire it. It is not the old, traditionalenlightenment, the transcendental destinationof timeless Being that the Buddha and mysticsthroughout the ages have described as the ulti-mate prize and final goal of all spiritual striving.It’s not the awakening to the self absolute thatKrishna revealed to arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita,India’s ancient Bible for all aspiring seekers of spiri-tual liberation. It’s also not the “power of now,” themost popular expression of the Old enlightenment

in our own time. no, it is an entirely differentand new domain of the self that I’m pointing toas the font of our liberation. It’s one that mostpeople have not discovered yet. It took me many years of deep introspection,dialogue with luminaries from all traditions, andcommitted work with thousands of spiritualseekers around the world to begin to understandwhat this new enlightenment is all about, why itis so different from what has come before, andwhy I believe it holds the key not only to our per-sonal development but to our cultural evolution.In the pages that follow, I will share with you thejourney I took from the Old enlightenment to thenew enlightenment, and endeavor to transmit thepower and promise of this extraordinary potentialthat is now within our reach.

Q U E S T I O N I N G T R A N S C E N D E N C E

I became a spiritual teacher in 1986, after a powerfulawakening irrevocably transformed my life. My ownteacher came from the advaita vedanta tradition, andit was the timeless simplicity of this ancient teachingthat catalyzed my awakening. The essence of this real-ization was simple: everything Is as it is. It was a classicsatori or enlightenment experience – seeing through theillusion of time, directly into timelessness; awakening tothe eternal now, the mystical, absolute, nondual, non-relative Ground of Being. My teacher taught me, as he’dbeen taught by his own teacher, the great saint RamanaMaharshi, that what I was looking for was already pre-sent as the very ground of my own awareness.That ground, the deepest dimension of who we all are,always already exists prior to time and the creativeprocess. That is why mystics throughout the ages havetold us that there is nowhere to go and nothing to doexcept to realize ThaT. after my own awakening to thistimeless truth, initially, I taught others in the same waythat I had been taught. For the first few years of myteaching career, my spontaneous response to thosewho came to me was simply this: Realize and surren-der. Realize that mystery that cannot be understood bythe mind, and surrender to that and that alone. Realizethat you were never born. Surrender to the fact that youwere never unfree. Realize there was never a problemand never back down from that realization. Surrender

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to that and that alone. I was convinced beyond doubt,by my own experience, that there was nowhere to go,nothing to do, and no one to be or become. In fact,at the time I was so sure about this view that I seri-ously questioned the authenticity of any teaching ofenlightenment that implied that awakening took timeand that there was anything in the future to becomeother than who we already always are.This traditional eastern approach to enlightenment iswhat the mystics have taught for thousands of years.The goal it points to is essentially transcendence – a radi-cal release or escape from time, mind, and world that isfound when one awakens to the timeless, formlessdomain of Being. For traditionalists, this other-worldlyemphasis on transcendence as the goal of enlightenmenthasn’t changed since the Buddha preached the dharma inancient India 2500 years ago or since adi shankara wrotehis Crest Jewel of Discrimination in the eighth century.and for us postmodernists, it also hasn’t changed sincethe glory days of the 1960s when harvard psychologist-turned-psychedelic rebel Richard alpert, aka Ram das,published his ground-breaking spiritual manifesto andcall-to-arms Be Here Now! almost forty years later,spiritual bestsellers are proclaiming the same message:Transcend the mind and time. Rest in the “now,” inthe infinity of the present moment, because the selfalone is real. all else is a temporary illusion. From this perspective of radical transcendence, theworld and all of manifestation is a mere “play” ofconsciousness, or lila as it’s called in vedanta. Whathappens here is not ultimately real. Only the absolute,unchanging, timeless, formless, unmanifest Groundis real. Therefore, nothing needs to change in thismanifest world, and true freedom is found inescaping from it altogether. Why entertain an illu-sion? Why try and improve that which is not realin the first place? But for me, this perspectivesoon became problematic. I observed that manywho came to me in those early years found them-selves plunged into the same miraculous state ofliberated consciousness that I had discovered, butthe effect of this powerful experience was not thesame. In most individuals, it seemed, awakeningto the bliss of Being did not automatically lead toradical transformation. and to me, it alwaysseemed obvious that the power and significanceof that which is absolute is given validation onlythrough our ability to stand for and embody itsglory as ourselves – through action, throughchoice, through the way we live in the world oftime and form. as I began to engage more deeply with thosearound me, I discovered that the state of the indi-vidual’s soul – their capacity for integrity, authenticity,and higher conscience – always played a critical role

in determining how ready they were to embody totheir own deepest realization. so I began to putmore and more of my attention on the all-impor-tant question: how can we cultivate the ability andreadiness to express the beauty, perfection, andwholeness discovered in spiritual revelation? Thiswas the beginning of a radical divergence fromthe path and perspective my teacher had taught –a divergence that would eventually lead to thedissolution of our relationship. To put it simply,my teaching was becoming more and moreabout the transformation of the world; his wasabout liberation from it.The differences in the way we were seeing werebased upon how we were defining what enlight-enment meant. In the traditional eastern meta-physical perspective, the world isn’t real, it’s onlyan ephemeral appearance, an illusion, a mereinsubstantial, transient dream in the mind ofGod. I felt differently. I was convinced that theworld was definitely real and an inherent andimportant part of what the transcendent God-head always is. For millennia, this has been anongoing metaphysical argument for sages, seers,and philosophers. and it is a significant one. Ifthe world isn’t real, and the mind isn’t real, thennothing needs to be done about the way things areout there, or the way things are in here. But if theworld is real and it becomes apparent to us that infact it needs improving, then that means that there isreal work to be done. This work was what my lifewas now devoted to. I was wholeheartedly committedto bringing the power of enlightened awareness into theworld through rational action, through moral being,and through engaging with the process of time in themost deliberate and creative way.I have always been convinced that enlightenment has tomake sense, and that the experience of higher nondualstates should not be used as an all-purpose justificationto sweep relative distinctions under the carpet when theyare inconvenient. In those early years of my teachingcareer, it gradually dawned on me that I was going tohave to figure out for myself how to translate the pro-found awakening I had experienced into a form thatwould make deep sense to the world I was living andworking in. I knew that the questions I needed toanswer in order to find my way forward were importantbeyond just my own experience. They were questionsabout new ways to interpret the meaning and purposeof enlightenment as it travelled from its roots in thetraditional east to its new home in the postmodernWest. The answers I was looking for were answersthat others were also looking for. so, as I was in theprocess of asking the important questions to furthermy own development, I attempted to include as

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many other interested souls as I could. This is why Ieventually founded the magazine What Is Enlighten-ment? (later renamed EnlightenNext Magazine) in 1992,as a vehicle for this important inquiry. But I couldnever have predicted where it all would lead.

A M O R A L I M P E R A T I V E

In my own experience, the profound discovery of con-sciousness or spirit has never been separate from theawakening of what appeared to be a moral imperative.What does that mean? It means that not only do we dis-cover that at the level of consciousness, we are not sepa-rate from who and what God is, but simultaneously thatwhich God is – that absolute principle – seems withoutwords to scream to our body and mind and soul that wehave to do something to make the world a better place.This discovery of a moral imperative is not uncommonas an inherent part of mystical awakening.at first the profound revelation of nonduality, and theimmediacy of pure consciousness, is an experience ofunconditional freedom from the tyranny of the mindand the prison of time. But in a mature seeker thatinner freedom soon transforms into an obligation. It isan obligation to bear witness – an obligation to standstrong and true, fearless and confident as a witness tothe absolute truth that Consciousness, spirit, or Godis the ground of all Being and the source of all thatis. That obligation of bearing witness commandsthe realizer, in all of his or her imperfection, to bethe exemplar of the inherent goodness, purity, orunselfconscious innocence and inherent perfectionof spirit’s true face. and moral being is that face. Back when I was struggling to make sense out ofmy own experience, my differences with myteacher, and the many contradictions of the east-meets-West spiritual marketplace, these were thekinds of issues I was wrestling with. I was con-vinced that the expression of spiritual illumina-tion in the world has to be the manifestation of ahigher moral conscience and context, otherwise itlacks purpose. If spiritual enlightenment is onlythe attainment of a higher state – no matter howhigh, subtle, or rarefied it may be – if the riddleof existence has been solved and yet, as a humanbeing, the enlightened one remains an un-inte-grated, narcissistic, and even self-destructive indi-vidual, then what’s the point? God reveals his orher glory through the power of an awakened heartshining through the eyes, mind, and body of theenlightened self. Our faith in him or her or It is inmany ways dependent on the goodness not merelyof spiritual states but of our humanity. It became increasingly clear to me that enlighten-ment for its own sake was ultimately meaningless.

But enlightenment for the sake of the sacralisation ofthe world was inherently purposeful and bestowedinfinite meaning to the human experience. Becausemy roots are in the eastern enlightenment, I havealways steadfastly upheld the traditional perspec-tive of vedanta and Buddhism – that conscious-ness is the ground of all being. But my interpreta-tion of that realization, I discovered, had more incommon with the perspective of mystical Judaismor Mahayana Buddhism – paths that call on usto live the religious life in order to transform theworld by being the vehicle through which theliving light of that immortal spirit would enterinto it. From this perspective, the profoundawakening to Consciousness as the infinite andempty ground of Being is not an end in itself.The whole point of spiritual awakening is tounderstand this simple truth at a soul level, andonce it is understood, to courageously live it outloud with all of one’s heart.as the years passed, this new emphasis emergedmore and more powerfully in my teaching. Ifound myself imploring those around me notonly to awaken to their true self as timeless Being,but to dare to respond to the urgent call to expressthat liberation in the world of Becoming. Theawakening passion I was feeling was a passion formuch more than enlightenment in the traditionalsense. The spiritual energy that was running throughmy veins was calling me to a new expression ofenlightenment – one that was free from the time-worn shackles of the great mythic traditions, shacklesthat inevitably get revealed as they clash with the val-ues of modernity and post modernity. It was anenlightenment that by its very nature could never becontent with the way things were in the past, no mat-ter how glorious that past may have been. It was anenlightenment that would also never be content withhow things are in the present moment, even at thoserare instances when everything seems like it couldn’t bemore perfect. It was an enlightenment that was definedby a ceaseless and ecstatic reaching forth towards an asyet unborn and unmanifest potential. a constant stretchingtowards a future perfection that would always lie justbeyond one’s fingertips. My inner eye and heart werefocused on the freedom of that mysterious place betweenthe immediacy of the present moment and the endlessthrill of the possible.

A W A K E N I N G T O E V O L U T I O N

The process I went through coming to these conclu-sions was a long, slow, and deliberate one. The mul-tidimensional complexity of human nature and theway our spiritual worldviews evolve over time is a


bigger and more complex matter than it may initiallyappear. and this is because our culturally inheritedperspectives have a big influence on the way we seejust about everything, including spirit itself. It tookme some years to realize that the differences betweenmy own emerging teaching and the tradition I hadcome from were really about the evolution of culturallyinherited values and perspectives, more than anythingelse. how we define the highest truths and interprettheir significance is always dependent upon the actualconditions and circumstances of our lives. This is whythe world and circumstances we’re living in today requirea radical rethinking of those perennial truths and whatthey really mean for us here and now. slowly but surely, in my quest to redefine enlighten-ment, I began to connect it to the most important emer-gent narrative of recent cultural history: the discovery ofevolution. seeing our presence in this world from thevantage point of a fourteen-billion-year process power-fully recontextualizes the spiritual impulse in a thrilling,rational, and deeply meaningful framework. In thiscontext, we realize that awakening to timeless Being,the perennial goal of the eastern enlightenment, isonly half of the picture – half of the totality of reality.The other half of the picture is the world of Becom-ing – the universal creative impulse, that explosion-in-motion that is the entire 14-billion-year evolution-ary process that we are all part of. If enlightenmentis the discovery of what Is, then it must embrace theultimate nature of all things – seen and unseen,known and unknown. and I think the most trulyall-embracing and inclusive definition of realityincludes both Being and Becoming.Being is that timeless void out of which the cos-mos was born, the empty ground from whicheverything arises and to which everything ulti-mately returns. Becoming is the something thatemerged out of nothing and is still emerging inthis moment. Becoming is eros, the evolution-ary impulse, the first cause, that original sparkof light and energy that created the entire uni-verse. and I realized that it was that very samecreative spark that was now awakening in myown heart and mind, as a sense of ecstaticurgency to evolve. This is why I began to reen-vision the very goal of the spiritual path, seeingthe purpose of enlightenment as not merely totranscend the world, as I had been taught, butto transform the world, through becoming anagent of evolution itself. enlightenment was notthe end of the path, but merely the beginning.In the east, they believed that enlightenment wasa final endpoint, a monumental attainment thatmarks the end of becoming for the individual.someone who is enlightened has liberated himselfor herself from identification with anything that

exists in time. and this conclusion makes sensewhen you consider the cultural context in which itemerged. In ancient India, they had not yet dis-covered evolution. Like most of the world at thattime, they had not yet discerned that time had abeginning and moved in a straight line from thepast to the present to the future. They believedthat time, like life and death, was a repetitiveprocess that was constantly going through thesame cycle and would for eternity. as a matterof fact, many hindus in modern day India stillprefer to see our cosmic origins through thelens of their ancient vedic science, rather thanaccepting the findings of Western science andmodern cosmology. and if reality is seen throughthis particular cultural lens, it would make sensethat one would soon grow weary of the eternaltedium of cyclical existence and hunger for afinal release. That’s why the traditions say that theindividual who is “fully enlightened,” who hasgone all the way, is that rare one who had finallyachieved emancipation from the endless repeti-tion of birth and death on the wheel of endlessbecoming.It’s important to remember that up until very recentlyin human history, we didn’t know that we are allpart of a developmental process that had a begin-ning in time and that is going somewhere. Many of ustend to forget that it was only in the twentieth centurythat we came upon what is known as “deep time” –the incomprehensible span of fourteen billion yearssince the universe burst into being. When we applythe perspective of evolution to the nature of enlighten-ment, it changes everything. From the perspective of the eternal timeless ground, thetraditional teachers are right. The highest spiritual truthis that nothing ever happened, you and I were neverborn, and the Big Bang never occurred. That’s enlighten-ment, that’s liberation, that’s samadhi, that’s satori. Butfrom the perspective of evolution, the entire picturechanges in the most dramatic way possible. Modern sci-ence and cosmology have clearly revealed that time does-n’t move in predictable cycles that ultimately keep return-ing to the same point, but in fact is a linear process that isgoing somewhere. Fourteen billion years of developmenthave produced all of manifestation – the entire knownuniverse and everything that’s contained within it, includ-ing its greatest mystery, the capacity for consciousnessitself. The arrow of time is a creative process and thatcapacity for creativity and novelty is the most miraculouspart of the whole dramatic unfolding – from the BigBang to the present moment. This is not just anotherrepetition of an endless cycle. This hasn’t all hap-pened before and where we are going is not predes-tined. What an amazing adventure! What an excitingtime to be alive.


and the most exciting part of this realization is thatwe discover, if we look deeply into our own experi-ence, that our own emerging desire for spiritual free-dom is not separate from the impulse that is drivingthe entire process. I call this the evolutionary Impulse.When we awaken to this impulse, we discover some-thing miraculous: that that dynamic and ever-evolvingcreative principle is none other than our own authen-tic self. This is the new source of spiritual liberation inthe teaching I have come to call evolutionary enlight-enment. It’s not just about awakening to timeless being– it’s about awakening to eternal, ecstatic Becoming.evolutionary enlightenment calls on us to awaken toboth the timeless peace of Being and the relentless pas-sion of the evolutionary Impulse.

D I S C O V E R I N G

O U R C O S M I C P U R P O S E

One of the most important messages these days that Iconsistently endeavour to transmit to my audiences andto my students all over the world is a palpable sense ofurgency and purposefulness that wakes us up at thedeepest level of our being when we discover this evo-lutionary Impulse or authentic self. It is a direct andpowerful experience, based upon the spiritual revela-tion that we are indeed all part of a cosmic processthat started with the Big Bang and has been unfold-ing for fourteen billion years – from energy to lightto matter to consciousness to self-reflective aware-ness. as we awaken to this vast perspective, anoverwhelming and profound truth becomes clear:At this point in evolution, that process is dependentupon us. The next step will not simply emerge byitself – it must be consciously created by humanbeings who have awakened to the impulse that isdriving the process. The evolutionary process des-perately needs our conscious and committed partici-pation – this has become the defining theme andultimate purpose of evolutionary enlighten-ment over the last ten years. In this profound awakening to our cosmic des-tiny, we not only find meaning, purpose, direc-tion, and context, but something even more sig-nificant happens. The trajectory of our lives isabruptly plucked away from the tiny world of thepersonal ego. now we find ourselves in a com-pletely different universe, a domain where thefears and desires of the separate self are always seenas being secondary to something higher, deeper,sacred, and inherently meaningful. When something so much deeper and higher thanourselves comes into our everyday awareness, wesimply don’t have time for the ego’s petty fears and

concerns any more. We discover that we are respon-sible for something infinitely greater. We find our-selves connected to a superhuman passion and cre-ative power that is coming from the source itself.and we become so consumed by its ecstatic nature,by its dynamism and inherent, explosive freedom,that all of the ego’s self-concern, and all of the lim-iting ideas of our cultural conditioning just seemto be irrelevant. something more important hasentered into the very centre of our being, andour heart has become enamoured with that. Inthis way, our personal salvation and liberationbecomes simply a spontaneous by-product ofour passionate care and sense of responsibilityfor the evolutionary process itself.In evolutionary enlightenment, this is the para-doxical way that transcendence of the ego – whichhas always been a traditional goal of enlightenment– is achieved. ego is full of narcissistic self-impor-tance, but it never wants to take on the burden ofthis kind of awe-inspiring responsibility, because inso doing the individual becomes bound by anabsolute moral obligation. awakening to the evolu-tionary Impulse or authentic self implicates theindividual in the most profound and dramatic way.It says, “The universe is depending on YOU.” andthis is exactly why it has the power to completelyunseat the ego in a way that I don’t think anythingelse can. The ego loses its freedom to act merely in itsown self-interest, but not, as in more traditional paths,through seeing its personal insignificance. Ironically, itis transcended through seeing quite the opposite: ourcosmic significance. The solution to the exaggeratedsense of self-importance that afflicts most of us is not tofeel less important, but to discover just how importantwe really are. There is no greater challenge to narcissismthan awakening to cosmic conscience: to the fact that itis up to us to create the future. and I can’t think of a morepertinent spiritual revelation or transformative messagefor any seeker, but especially for us narcissistic, self-con-cerned postmoderns, than this one. after all, how elsecould we ever truly liberate ourselves from the all-con-suming distraction of our own culturally-conditionedegotism and selfishness than by the overpowering recog-nition that without our personal cooperation and partic-ipation, that which is highest will not be able to enterinto this world?

E N L I G H T E N M E N T

B E Y O N D T H E I N D I V I D U A L

evolutionary enlightenment, as it developed and came intofocus in my own awareness, revealed itself to have a sig-nificantly different philosophical framework, perspective,


and purpose than traditional enlightenment. and as Iworked with students around the world to bring thisnew enlightenment into being, it also revealed itself tohave a completely different expression. To put it simply,traditional enlightenment has always pointed to anindividual attainment. evolutionary enlightenment, Idiscovered, was about a collective emergence – a sharedexperience and expression of higher consciousness. This new “intersubjective” expression of enlightenmentinitially emerged quite unexpectedly among my students.It became obvious to me that at times the space betweenthem was charged with the light of awakened conscious-ness. I was stunned as I witnessed how enlightenmentcomes alive and becomes manifest in a uniquely creativeand inherently meaningful way beyond the individual. Inshared higher states, beyond the personal ego, a new worldcomes into being. a new world that was is compelling thatit eventually made sense out of all the questions I hadbeen struggling with. as I saw this extraordinary phe-nomenon emerge, it seemed to be clearly where thefuture lay for those of us who were desperate to createsomething new. That’s when the sky seemed to open upand all things became possible here on earth. Thisbecame a fundamental theme in the continuing emer-gence of the new enlightenment: Coming together withothers in a higher state of enlightened awareness beyondthe personal ego.especially for those of us who grew up in the alienat-ed age of the individual, there is something soincredibly life-affirming about the kind of joy andfellowship that emerges when many human beings,inspired by spiritual values and a higher sense ofpurpose, come together. The spiritually enlight-ened and awakened life – if it’s to have any realimpact on the world – is about creating and shar-ing higher values with other human beings. anyindividual can experience liberating insight andclarifying revelation in the privacy of their ownsubjective interior. But when insight and revela-tion are being experienced as part of a sharedhigher state, something truly sacred begins tooccur. The potential of a new, more enlightenedworld emerges here and now. and then, when itis not only seen but also acted upon, that whichwas only an unmanifest potential suddenlybecomes a powerful manifest reality. We see andfeel the world change before our very eyes in themost real way imaginable. and when we have therepeated experience of sharing higher states andtruly new perspectives with others, an inner earth-quake is catalyzed – one that gradually uprootsand brings light to the smaller perspectives and lessenlightened positions and ways of seeing that wewere unknowingly and unconsciously adhering toprior to discovering a higher view.

What I am now teaching is in fact a cultural shift inthe way that we think about the meaning and pur-pose of spiritual experience. any kind of culturalmovement for change, from political to spiritual, isalways based upon the sharing of higher states,perspectives, and worldviews with like-mindedindividuals. and in an enlightenment context,there is an added dimension. In this case, thedirect experience of the ground of Being, of theawakening to consciousness itself, is the verybasis for that transformation. Because of that,one is entering into a new order of relatednessand shared cultural transformation – a “higherWe” that is potent and empowered with theeuphoria of spiritual energy and the unique con-viction that comes only from experiencing aconfrontation with the sacred.When enlightenment emerges beyond the indi-vidual, self, culture, and cosmos literally beginto evolve before our very eyes. That means thatthe world we occupy and cocreate begins totransform as we do. The old model of enlighten-ment was one in which the individual trans-formed but the world remained the same. In thenew model, the point is no longer merely thetransformation of the individual; it’s the evolutionof self, culture, and cosmos through the individual.When several or many take that all-important leapbeyond ego at the same time, that’s when the newenlightenment tangibly enters into the creative process.That’s when our greatest potential – to consciouslyevolve together – actually becomes manifest in the realworld, here and now. 8

a b


Allan Combs is the Director of TheCenter for Consciousness Studies atthe California Institute for Inte-gral Studies. He is the author ofover two-hundred articles, chap-ters, and books on consciousnessincluding the award-winning The

Radiance of Being; Consciousnessexplained Better; and a victorian’s Guide

to Consciousness. Email: [email protected].

The universe evolves in consciousness of itself and causes itselfto be. We are just this blessed consciousness, nothing more andnothing less. We are the light inside light that fuses into theatoms of our bodies; we are the fire that whirls across thestellar deeps and dances all things into being.

d av I d Z I n d e L L 1

E V O L U T I O N

he COsMOs aBIdes In ITs OWn FULLness, YeT

paradoxically strives toward ever greaterabundance. during each living moment allthings are complete as they are, exactly as

they must be, while paradoxically striving towardgreater efflorescence. This is the universe inwhich we live, and in which we participate ascitizens and creators. The truth of these factsrings through the sacred stories told in manycultures and many eras. It is found in the booksof great philosophers, and in the notebooks andon the computer screens of modern scientists. When researchers look closely they find evolu-tion’s footprints everywhere. In the words ofUkrainian geneticist Theodosius Grygorovychdobzhansky, “nothing in biology makes senseexcept in the light of evolution.” But evolutionis also essential to any modern understanding ofgeology, astronomy, cosmology, and all the sci-ences that take a long view of the natural uni-verse. What is new is that more and more peo-ple today are looking to their own inner evolu-tion as well, an evolution of consciousness; andwhat this might mean for our potential futures asindividuals and as a species. We experience the callof evolution as a yearning to embrace and embodywithin ourselves that spark of creative energy the

early Greeks called Eros, the firstborn spark oflove and creativity. It is this spark that ignitesthe human spirit in many forms that in turnreflect differing worlds of experience, or life-worlds, in which we humans live. These differaccording to our individual circumstances, includ-ing the culture in which we live, our personalbeliefs, and our own individual life experiencesand maturity.One important strand in all this is the form, or“structure,” of consciousness through which eachperson experiences his or her lifeworld. a helpfulway to understand these structures is in terms ofa discovery made nearly a century ago by theeuropean cultural historian Jean Gebser. Lookingdeeply into history he found that different periodsor epochs have been characterized by different“structures of consciousness” that can be recognizedby of how people in them grasped the basic facts oftheir existence. Questions such as “What is my role inlife?”, “Why is there so much suffering?”, and “Whatis the meaning of death?”, are held differently accordingto the structure in which they are asked. Through an intensive study of art, philosophy, science,and literature, as these played out through history,Gebser identified four basic structures that unfolded inrough historical order 2. These are magical, mythic,mental, and a newly emerging integral structure of con-sciousness. each represents a complete lifeworld tothose who inhabit it. With this in mind, let us take abrief tour through these structures, keeping our eyesopen for evidence of spiritually informed ideas andbeliefs about evolution and enlightenment.

T H E M A G I C A L S T R U C T U R E

O F C O N S C I O U S N E S S :C O Y O T E C R E A T E S T H E W O R L D

Many of the most colorful stories of eros are found inthe magical tales of creation recited in tribal commu-nities throughout the world. These tales often depictthe primeval kosmos as filled with water, a lake or asea, out of the depths of which an original numinousbeing brings up soil and creates the first dry land.Often this being is a trickster. For instance Maui,the powerful hawaiian trickster, fishes up islandsfrom the bottom of the sea, pulling then together

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to form Polynesia. according to many native ameri-can tales Old Man Coyote created the world. In aversion told by the Crow Indians, Coyote sends aduck diving down into the waters to come up with abeakful of mud, which he spreads around to make thedry land3. anansi, the devilish West african spidertrickster, is likewise said to have created the world.There are many stories of anansi’s escapades, perhaps asmany as the adventures of Coyote.One can’t help but wonder why so many creation storiesinvolve tricksters. What is it about these universal butimpish creatures that create worlds and then make somany unexpected things happen in them? It seems thatthe essential role of all tricksters is to stir things up, pro-duce confusion, and make sure the status quo doesn’t lastforever. In this the trickster is perhaps the first and purestform of an elemental creative impulse, a first spiritualincandescence, unbounded and undomesticated. Fortraditional peoples living in primary cultures the trick-ster seems equivalent to the primal fireball of creationfor a modern scientific mind: the beginning and sourceof everything. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, thattricksters play so many other roles as well. For exam-ple, they may act as go-betweens for humans andgods. hermes, the highly developed Greek trickster,was known as the “messenger of the gods,” the masterof thresholds and transitions, and the “friendliest ofgods to man4” , it is he who guides the souls of thedying on their journey to the underworld. heappears in both the Iliad and Odyssey to lead thehero Odysseus and old King Priam across danger-ous thresholds. as an expression of the magicalstructure of consciousness the trickster assumesmany roles and performs many tasks.

T H E M Y T H I C S T R U C T U R E O F

C O N S C I O U S N E S S :

F R O M I N A N N A T O J E H O V A H

The mythic structure of consciousness was firstassociated with the rise of agriculture, and with ita shift away from the nomadic societies of theearly (Paleolithic) stone age to larger farming(neolithic) communities. This occurred roughlytwelve thousand years ago in the Middle east,but soon afterward in China and India as well.agriculture is a cyclic business, planting seeds inthe spring, tending crops during the summergrowing season, harvesting and storing the fallgrain in preparation for winter. Perhaps it is notsurprising that the earliest mythic forms of spiritu-ality emphasized seasons and cycles. even today fes-tival days such as Christmas and easter echo theseseasonal transitions. In fact, mythic consciousnessgave birth to many of the world’s major religions. It

is associated with great gods and goddesses ratherthen the local spirits and deities of magical con-sciousness. Perhaps the earliest among these was thenearly universal earth goddess, signifying fertilityand symbolized by the creative darkness of thenight and the moon. embodiments of the greatearth goddess were still widely worshiped duringantiquity in forms such as the sumerian Ishtar(Inanna) and the egyptian Isis. In fact, the wor-ship of Isis continued right down into the Chris-tian era as a contender with Christianity duringthe latter’s early days.Long before Christianity, however, came therise of the great sky gods such as the egyptianRa, symbolized by the sun and the hawk, GreekZeus, associated with lightning and the eagle, aswell as the hebrew Jehovah5, and in the ameri-cas the aztec “feathered-serpent” Quetzalcoatl.even today many major religions embrace sto-ries of creation as the acts of such great gods.While providing guidance and meaning to thelives of large numbers of people, mythic spiritualityin the form of organized religions has often putnarrow constraints on expressions of eros. Thereare many reasons for this clampdown, includingthe invention of writing in the ancient world, thusallowing the preservation of specific and privilegeddoctrines over long periods of time, as well as theestablishment of priesthoods with fixed powers derivedfrom such doctrines. Beyond this, the doctrines oftraditional organized religions offer a degree of psy-chological security, e.g, the belief in a caring Godand afterlife.nevertheless, a spiritual energy that lies behind thesurface of organized religion occasionally erupts intothe lives of passionate individuals. some of these havebecome prophets, some saints, and some have beenpersecuted or even put to death for their unmanageablebehavior. examples of such individuals in the Christiantradition include Meister eckhart, hildegard of Bingen,and more recently Teilhard de Chardin, as well as theMatthew Fox and the late Thomas Berry. Teilhard deChardin and Thomas Berry both made the evolutioncentral to spirituality. I will have more to say about themsoon, but for the moment let us note that all exceptThomas Berry were persecuted to some degree by thechurch. Late in his life, when asked over dinner wherehis own enemies were to be found, Thomas Berryreplied dryly, “They are all dead!”In summary, however, evolution has a hard time of itin mythic religion. Myths are about eternal truths andeternal beings, and leave little room for the transfor-mative expressions of eros. as Roberto Calasso pointsout in his wonderful reflections on Greek mythology6,

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the Gods are not like humans, they are not livingbeings, but perfect eternal forms that do not evolveor change through time.

M E N T A L C O N S C I O U S N E S S :G O D T H E M A T H E M A T I C I A N

since its first appearance near the beginning of recordedhistory the reach of the mental structure of consciousnesshas transformed the entire world. The mental structure became clearly apparent for thefirst time in the Greek pre-socratic philosophers whodownplayed the importance of the gods, or rejectedthem outright, and instead sought answers to questionsabout life and the universe in logic and empirical obser-vation. Many Greek philosophers such as Pythagorasand Plato viewed nature in terms of mathematics. Infact it is sometimes said, with more than a little justifi-cation, that Pythagoras had the greatest influence onlater Western science of anyone in history, much ofwhich today is highly mathematical.Through the roughly 1000 years of antiquity, whenGreek and Roman culture dominated the Mediter-ranean and similar high civilizations flourished in Indiaand China, rational thought became an importantaspect of disciplines such as mathematics, engineering,and medicine, while older mythic and even magicalinfluences continued to have a strong sway in cults,mystery schools, and major religions as well. Withthe fall of the Roman empire in the West duringfifth century ad, most of europe slipped back intomythic and even magical consciousness, while theeastern Roman empire retained significant ratio-nal elements for another half millennium. In fact,the arab-Islamic empire continued to be a highlyliterary and scientific culture through most of theWestern dark ages.during the Renaissance in the West, however,the mental rational consciousness made a spec-tacular comeback, and even more so during theAge of Enlightenment shortly to follow. The 17thand 18th century intellectuals of the Enlighten-ment looked optimistically toward a future socialand scientific order created by reason and freethought. some of the important figures of thisperiod included René descartes, Isaac newton,voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jeffer-son. The dominant religious orientation of thesevisionaries was a form of deism, according towhich the universe was created in the beginningby a distant God, and continues on according tonatural laws such as described in newton’s equa-tions. This yielded a kind of bone-dry spiritualityin which God was essentially no more than a prin-ciple of logic. The kind of rational theology that

grew out of this dry ground is seen in spinoza andKant’s cerebral constructions of the cosmos. In itsfinal and bleakest form it turns into existential theol-ogy, and finally into the absurd. The latter unhappystate of affairs offers one the choice each morningof having a cup of coffee or committing suicide,thus putting an end to a pointless life.

T H E M E N T A L D I S C O V E R Y O F E V O L U T I O N

despite the long history of the mental structureof consciousness, evolution as we think of ittoday did not enter the world of intellectual, orspiritual, discourse until early in the 19th century.among the first to conceptualize the cosmos in away that emphasized an inherent forward trans-formation were the German “Idealist”7 philoso-phers such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte, FriedrichWilhelm Joseph schelling, and Georg WilhelmFriedrich hegel, all of whom proposed an his-torical progression that reflects an increasinglyintimate relationship between human experienceand some form of God or divine spirit. hegelwas the most influential of these, and continuesso in philosophical thought even today. neverthe-less, it was perhaps schelling who was the mostexplicit about the idea. as early as 1809 he wrote,“God is Life, and not merely Being. all life has adestiny, and is subject to suffering and to becoming.To this, then, God has of his own free will subjectedhimself […]”8 here we might add hegel’s reflection,“That the history of the world, with all the changingscenes which its annals present, is this process of devel-opment and the realization of spirit. spirit is indeednever at rest but always engaged in moving forward9.”Thus, the German Idealists pictured the cosmos, includ-ing life, and especially human life, as the very embodi-ment of the divine, or in hegel’s terms, the AbsoluteSpirit. For hegel the cosmos was the absolute spirit inthe great act of actualizing itself through the forwardmovement of history.There had been earlier religious and philosophical sys-tems that stressed the embrace of the manifest world bydivine spirit. ancient Roman stoicism, for instance,viewed the entire universe as a divine living body with allparts interconnected. Late in the Italian Renaissance thepriest and mathematician Giordano Bruno believed Godto be immanent in the material universe. But neitherconsidered the cosmos to be in any kind of systematicforward progression. Likewise, the hindu idea of Brah-man as infinite spirit does not evolve or change, but iseternal in its presence.It is worth noting, however, that while the German Ideal-ists grasped a powerful integral intuition, informed byboth the intellect and the mythic imagination, it is alsotrue that they leaned strongly toward a mental-rationalexpression of it. hegel, for example, considered the


deep structure of reality to be the intimate expressionof God’s thought, a strongly mental view in keepingwith the highly rational european enlightenment tradi-tion from which he came. nevertheless, these philoso-phers produced a clear and powerful vision of a divineground of being that (or who) acts both through andwithin the manifest world, gradually manifesting notonly through the cosmos at large, but through historyand the human drama. These great thinkers planted theseeds that would reach a new level of fruition in thethought and lives of the 20th and 21st century spiritualvisionaries to whom we will soon turn.

D A R W I N , N A T U R A L S E L E C T I O N , A N D

“ T H E M O D E R N S Y N T H E S I S ”

It was Charles darwin and his scientific contemporariesin the mid-19th century, who catapulted evolution as abiological fact into the spotlight of science, philosophy,and religion. This story is widely known. a point ofimportance to our present account, however, is the factthat darwin’s theory of evolution was remarkably influ-ential because he proposed a convincing mechanisticexplanation for the origin of new species10. This was theprocess of “natural selection,” meaning that out of thevariation seen between individuals in each generationof any species, those most well adapted, that is, bestable to reproduce, would be the most likely to carrytheir offspring on into the next generation. now, theimportant point here is that neither darwin nor hiscontemporaries had any idea of how variation itselfcomes about. darwin sometimes appealed to theLamarckian notion, now long rejected by most sci-entists, that members of each generation benefitedfrom the experiences of their predecessors. Forinstance, a giraffe that learns to stretch upward toeat the desirable leaves at the tops of trees mightpass on a longer neck to its descendants, and per-haps also an urge to stretch upward to reachleaves in the tree tops.all this may seem a bit aside from our presentstory, but it is important to understand that inevolutionary thought during the late 19th century,as well as the early decades of the 20th century,there was no widely accepted mechanism toexplain variation within each generation. Thus,there was no generally accepted process by whichevolution could move forward through changesof form. sri aurobindo made this point some-what sardonically when in 1915 he noted the fol-lowing rough translation of an ancient scripture.One looks on it and sees a miracle, another speaks of it asa miracle, as a miracle another hears of it, but what it is,for all the hearing, none knoweth11.

some might still agree with this appraisal, but formost scientists the answer came late in the first halfof the 20th century with the discovery of randommutations in the Mendelian genetic code. The lat-ter provided the long sought mechanism for varia-tion, and thus the basis for the principle of the“selection of the fittest.” The incorporation ofgenetics into the theory of natural selection cre-ated “the modern synthesis,” leading directly tothe ideas of modern biological theorists such asstephen Jay Gould and Richard dawkins. Thetitle of the latter’s book, The Blind Watchmaker12,explains his view of evolution completely: it is afabric of accidents13. evolutionary theories of many kinds had becomecommon by the beginning of the 21st century.Indeed, there is hardly any aspect of the worldas we understand it today that does not bearwitness to some form of evolution. For example,by the mid-1970s most cosmologists had aban-doned the steady-state theory of the universe,worked out by Fred hoyle in 1948, in favour ofthe Big Bang model that understands the cosmosas a vast expanding system of galaxies, gas clouds,dark matter, and dark energy, all moving throughtime and space on a grand evolutionary journey.Cosmologist eric Chaisson14 , for example, dividesthe 14 billion year history of the cosmos into sevenepochs, each with its own evolutionary story 15. Theseinclude the big bang and the early universe of energyand particles, the creation and evolution of galaxies,stellar evolution, planetary evolution, the origins ofthe complex chemicals that make life possible, the evo-lution of life itself from primitive cells to entire bodiesand brains, and finally social evolution during the his-tory of humankind.This brief history of the development of darwinian evo-lutionary theory is important for our own story of evo-lutionary spirituality because it illustrates the fact thatuntil well into the 20th century the question of what pushesbiological evolution was still very much an unsolved mys-tery. Combine this with the belief, common in those daysthat evolution moves in an overall upward direction,toward increasingly intelligent and conscious forms oflife, and we see that ideas of various forms of spiritual, orat least subtle, influences might easily be thought to pro-vide a guiding hand.The great spiritual evolutionaries of the turn of the cen-tury such as sri aurobindo, henri Bergson, and Teil-hard de Chardin, who actually did his major work onevolution in the 1930s, as well as popular figures suchas Madam Blavatsky, all appealed to guiding influ-ences that lie beyond matter itself. even today mostspiritual evolutionaries, including scientists in manyfields, believe there to be more to the picture than


random mutations and selection of the fittest. as theBritish economist e.F. schumacher observed, justbecause you see a man picking up coins from streetdoesn’t mean he makes his living that way16. But withthe development of “the modern synthesis” alongwith the trend toward reductionistic materialism thatdominated much of the 20th century, it is only recentlythat the scientific community is again questioningwhether the whole story of evolution can be attributedto accidental physical processes.

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A N D T H E I N T E G R A L E M B R A C E

S R I A U R O B I N D O ’ S I N T E G R A L Y O G A

now, let us return to the final decades of the 19th centurywhen darwin’s theory was resonating in the minds ofeveryone who was thinking seriously about humannature. even the most rational men and women weregrappling with the disturbing notion that our forebearswere, if not actually apes or monkeys, then at leastsome from of prehuman primates17. One troublesomeside of all this was the question of the human soul.Those who entertained occult or metaphysical beliefshad to ask whether the soul, or whatever aspect ofhuman nature survives bodily death, is also subject toevolution. Many of the foremost intellectual figuresof the victorian age grappled with this question18, and it is still a matter quit open for discussion.evolution, however, is a big idea, and for thosewilling to embrace it completely it presents a newvision of the cosmos and all life within it. One ofthe first great minds to harvest this vision in aspiritual way was aurobindo Ghose, later knownas sri aurobindo. Raised and educated in victo-rian england as was common for the male heirsof upwardly mobile Indian families, he attendedCambridge University. But he moved to India,his homeland, in 1893 rather then pursuing acareer in the British Foreign service. soon after-ward he experienced the first of several spiritualawakenings that would eventually determine thedirection of his life. during those early decadesof the 20th century aurobindo developed a typeof “integral yoga” that conceptualized individualspiritual transformation in evolutionary terms.This was not a darwinian approach though, butrather a reconceptualization of traditional stagesof yogic development. What made it “integral”was that it did not aim to release the spirit frommatter into some higher state of transcendence,but to integrate and spiritualize the entire mindand body on all levels. In plain english, it aimedto bring divine energies down into the mind andeven the material body, transforming them into a

spiritual nature. Thus, it seeks to integrate mind,body, and spirit in a holistic or integral life unity.aurobindo’s yoga is also “integral” in the sense thatone carries it into the world of everyday life. Inthis way it is practiced even while going aboutone’s daily activities. In the early days aurobindoactually practiced it as a walking meditation, andcontinued his discipline even while working as awriter and editor for the controversial newspa-per Bande Mataram.The actual practice of integral yoga is stronglymental in orientation, well known for activat-ing the mind before enlivening the emotionsand the body itself. In this sense it is said to bethe opposite of traditional forms of yoga, mostof which begin by energizing the lower chakrasand only after considerable practice and disci-pline reach the higher centres of consciousnessand the intellect.

J E A N G E B S E R ’ S I N T E G R A L C O N S C I O U S N E S S

Though not himself a spiritual teacher, Jean Geb-ser’s ideas have influenced many spiritual thinkers,including Ken Wilber who based much of hisown thinking on Gebser’s structures of conscious-ness. Indeed, this chapter is organized in terms ofthese structures. For this reason it will be useful tointroduce his concept of integral consciousness here,even before moving on to some of the spiritual evo-lutionaries of the late 20th and early 21st century.Gebser’s notion of integral consciousness recognizesthat all the earlier structures of consciousness still livein each of us, and in his view it is the integration ofthese into a single flow of experience that gives usintegral consciousness. This, plus a certain value-addedquality in the form of a kind of subtle illumination thatGebser termed the Light of the Origin19, increasingly lostthrough history since the distant magical era.In principle, full-blown integral consciousness enjoysthe spark of magic that enlivened the earliest experi-ences of humankind. It is this spark, still alive in ustoday, that gives us music, romantic love, dancing, andall those activities and states that collapse the distanceseparating us from one another. Integral consciousnessalso incorporates the mythic, with its flair for the imag-ination, for language, and for stories and art. Concern-ing the mental structure, little more need be said aboutit here, but let us note that it is needed to groundmagic and mythical aspects of our experience, keepingthem in touch with reality. In plain english, commonsense is sometimes needed to manage the excesses ofthe other structures. nevertheless, Gebser had greatrespect for mythic consciousness and the magicalstructure as well, as these together lend depth, delight,and meaning to our lives. Without them the worldis dreary and meaningless.


It is worth noting that the full-blown integral experi-ence is not unlike certain Zen mystical states. Gebserhimself wrote to the great Zen scholar d.T. suzukiafter several days of what he took to be a period of inte-gral consciousness. The latter wrote back that he hadexperienced an episode of genuine satori. a number ofspiritual figures from the past seem to have experiencedintegral consciousness as well. For instance, Gebser iden-tified the Rhineland mystics hildegard of Bingen andMeister eckhart. Based on my own reading I would alsoinclude the pre-Renaissance neo-Platonist, nicholas ofCusa, and many eastern spiritual luminaries such as sankaraand nāgārjuna. Gebser actually celebrated sri aurobindoas an example of the rise of integral consciousness in ourown time. I would add henri Bergson, Teilhard deChardin, Thomas Berry, Ken Wilber, and andrew Cohen,of whom I will have more to say shortly20.Interestingly, Gebser did not characterize his own ideas inevolutionary terms. his principle objection to doing soseemed to be that he did not want to be associated withthe idea that everything has been getting better and bet-ter through history while the ancient past was primitiveand rude21; an idea common in his day. nor did he findthe prospect of social darwinism attractive22. as notedabove, he felt that humankind has drifted further andfurther form the light of the Origin since the earlymagical phase of consciousness. and he considered thepresent rule of the rational mind the most bleak andalienated of all. My own view on all this is that Geb-ser was a modern neo-Platonist who used the termOrigin in lieu of the old neo-platonic term the One.Consistent with this he seemed to consider eachstructure already enfolded in the Origin, waiting asit were for the right moment to open out into theworld. as we know, however, there are manypotential uses of the world “evolution,” and Geb-ser’s objections seemed mostly pointed at the tra-ditional darwinian version.Gebser was both optimistic and pessimistic aboutthe future. he felt that a new age of integralconsciousness was beginning to emerge, andcould be seen especially in the art, poetry, music,philosophy, and even the science of the turn ofthe 20th century. But he also believed it mighttake as long as several centuries to develop on abroad scale23. In the meantime he predictedconsiderable strife, and was not entirely confi-dent of the outcome.now let us return to evolutionary spirituality.

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O F A G E

While aurobindo used evolutionary languageconsistent with his era, he did not actually investin the wild creative aspect of evolution as we knowit today. It is difficult to say who first caught hold

of this essence in a spiritual way, but several promi-nent philosophers, scientists, and theologians seemto have gotten onto the idea over the past centuryand a quarter, and there are many more who areless well known. To my mind a minimum listincludes henry Bergson, Teilhard de Chardin,Thomas Berry, Matthew Fox, Ken Wilber, andandrew Cohen; with outriders including alfrednorth Whitehead, stuart Kauffman, and ervinLaszlo. I would also include many if not mostprocess theologians such as Charles hartshorneand arthur Peacocke. To review the contribu-tions of each of these would take up volumes.But let’s not get the cart before the horse.sri aurobindo originally wrote his monumentalSynthesis of Yoga in serial form between 1914and 1921 for the monthly periodical Arya. atthat time the air was thick with discussions aboutthe meaning and implications of evolution. alreadyin 1910 the French philosopher henri Bergsonhad published an influential work titled CreativeEvolution in which he presented a complete world-view ranging from cosmic to human evolution.he was later to develop a deeply thoughtful analy-sis of human consciousness based on memory andtime. In all of his work Bergson stressed processover structure. he was enormously popular in bothFrance and the Us. and his Creative Evolution wastranslated into more than twenty languages. his lecturesfilled auditoriums to overflowing. Of him, WilliamJames wrote:Oh, my Bergson, you are a magician, and your book is a mar-vel, a real wonder [...] But, unlike the works of genius of theTranscendentalist movement (which are so obscurely andabominably and inaccessibly written), a pure classic in point ofform [...] such a flavor of persistent euphony, as of a rich riverthat never foamed or ran thin, but steadily and firmly proceededwith its banks full to the brim24.

Bergson’s philosophy addressed the nature of conscious-ness, the roots of human freedom and morality, as well asmany other topics, but none more central or importantto his thought than his deep vision of a cosmos in whichconsciousness engages with matter in an onflowing evolu-tionary movement. Interestingly, many of these ideaswere echoed by the south african statesman and philoso-pher Jan smuts in his own 1926 book, Holism and Evolu-tion. smuts argued for the creation of wholes out of sepa-rate evolving elements as a fundamental rule of evolu-tion. he often spoke of “[...] the tendency in nature toform wholes that are greater than the sum of the partsthrough creative evolution25[…].”This emphasis onprocess and creativity in all forms of evolution alignedwell with Bergson’s earlier thinking.Perhaps the most profound philosophical systemconcerning process and evolution, along with Berg-son’s own, comes from alfred north Whitehead, a


leading British logician and mathematician whocame to the Us in 1924 to become known for hismetaphysical “process philosophy.” Because of White-head’s considerable influence process philosophy isoften thought of today as an american school ofthought. Like Bergson, Whitehead did not espouse aparticular religions orientation, though both weredeeply interested in religious issues. Whitehead cameform a anglican Christian family and retained an interestin theology, while Bergson’s family was Jewish, thoughhe was not a practicing Jew. Others developed White-head’s philosophy into the continuing field of processtheology in the Us.Following the First World War much of the deep andreflective thinking that characterized the fin de siècle andthe early years of the 20th century gave way to a spartanempiricism that spread through virtually all intellectualdisciplines. By mid-century logical positivism with itslinguistic requirement of flat empirical reductionismdominated almost the entire academic landscape. Oneof my own students referred to this era, somewhathumorously, as a “reign of terror” for those interested inconsciousness and depth psychology. In perhaps amore thoughtful mood the Trappist monk, poet, andtheologian, Thomas Merton, in 1968 wrote of logicalpositivism, “since we cannot really say anythingabout anything, let us be content to talk about theway in which we say nothing.”nevertheless, a few voices were trying to say some-thing during the middle of the 20th century. One ofthese was that of the Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard deChardin. Perhaps more than anyone else it was hewho kept the flame of evolutionary spiritualityalive during the repressive years of positivism.nevertheless, his first book, The Phenomenon ofMan was banned from publication, not by thepositivists, ironically, but by the Catholic Church,only to be published by a personal friend after hisdeath in 1955. It soon became a source of inspira-tion for many people who were desperate for aspiritual vision that incorporated evolution in ascientifically honest way without compromisingspiritual depth26.It comes as no surprise that Teilhard de Chardinhad been influenced by henry Bergson. as ayoung man he became very interested in evolu-tion, and is often thought of as an anthropologistas well as a theologian. his writing had a rigorousscientific edge to it, and with few exceptions stuckto well-established scientific facts and principles. Itwas, indeed, this rigor that led to his wide influ-ence among scientists themselves. In my own view,no one ever got as much spiritual and philosophicalmileage out of straight-on scientific facts as did Teil-hard de Chardin, making virtually no appeals toweird quantum effects, action at a distance, and the

like, in my own opinion often overused by popularscience writers today27.Teilhard de Chardin argued that evolution moves for-ward by the influence of consciousness itself, pro-ducing increasingly rich and complex physicalstructures that in turn support increasingly richand complex mental and emotional structures.Bergson had argued for a subtle élan vital, or vitalforce, acting from outside the material organism.Teilhard de Chardin, on the other hand, spoke ofradial energy, which influences physical eventsbut requires little force itself. he observed, forinstance, that the shape of one snowflake requiresno more energy than that of another. Chemicalreactions that lie at the basis of structural devel-opment make many “choices” that can be signif-icantly influenced by the slightest leverage formconsciousness in its urge toward greater evolu-tionary complexity.Teilhard de Chardin suggested the evolutionarylife of the spirit is pointed toward a state of ultimateunification he called the Omega Point. Thoughmost critics so not accept this idea, it is worth not-ing that it suggests a mental-mythic image of afuture state of something like human enlighten-ment. The relationship between the Omega Pointand God was not made clear in Teilhard de Chardin’swork, but it is the nevertheless a vision of a unitystate of spiritual illumination.

T H O M A S B E R R Y

The spirit of evolutionary spirituality seems to havepassed like a spark from Teilhard de Chardin toThomas Berry, also a Catholic priest as well as a histo-rian of religion, who during the latter decades of the20th century became passionately interested in the spiri-tual dimensions of the cosmos, of the ecology of theearth, and of all living creatures28. It is clear from hisheartfelt visionary speech and writing on these mattersthat he often spoke from the integral structure of con-sciousness. Berry, in fact had been deeply influenced byTeilhard de Chardin, and for many years served as thePresident of the american Teilhard association. Indeed,Teilhard de Chardin’s own self-reflection about evolutionsees to fit Thomas Berry as well.That magic word ‘evolution’ […] haunted my thoughts like atune: which was to me like unsatisfied hunger, like a promiseheld out to me, like a summons to be answered29.

Berry took great joy in the experience of wild nature,and so it is not surprising that he was deeply troubledby the deteriorating condition of the natural world, thedestruction of its ecological balance, and along withthis the declining quality of so much human and ani-mal life. For him, the failure to adequately addressthese issues grows straight out of a failure to appreci-ate, connect with, and live a balanced life in the nat-ural world. he believed that to make the adjustmentsthat are called for we need more than patchwork


technological fixes and new environmental regula-tions. We need a fundamental realignment of what itmeans to be human. We need nothing less than to“reinvent our species.For Thomas Berry, the earth, its wildernesses, and thewild animals that are our travelling companions on thislittle world, comprise our natural community. Beyondand embracing the planet earth is the cosmos itself, oras Berry would sometimes say, the “universe.” The latteris the place of beginning for all exploration. The universeis, “[…] the only self-referential reality in the phenome-nal world. It is the only text without context. everythingelse has to be seen in the context of the universe30.”Berry was positive about the potential future for “thehuman” (his often-used phrase) because, he said, we havethe resources of “ultimate powers of the universe” withinour own spirit and grasp. They always stand ready to aidus. We need only become “sensitized to the spontaneities”that lie waiting within our own being; within our ownwild human nature. Berry was a Passionist Catholic priest, a historian, and ascholar, and so he did not speak of enlightenment assuch. But it is clear that his many references to thespontaneities of our nature, and our innate place inthe wildness of nature, amount to a deeply mysticalworldview. In his own words:The universe is so immediate to us, is such an intimate pres-ence, that it escapes our notice, yet whatever authenticityexists in our cultural creations is derived from these spon-taneities within us, spontaneities that come from an abyssof energy and a capacity for intelligible order of which wehave only the faintest glimmer in our consciousnessawareness31. andWildness we might consider as the root of the authenticspontaneities of any being. It is that wellspring of cre-ativity whence comes the instinctive activates thatenable all living beings to obtain their food, to findshelter, to bring forth their young: to sing and danceand fly through the air and swim through the depths ofthe sea. This is the same inner tendency that evokes theinsight of the poet, the skill of the artist and the powerof the shaman32. Berry might almost be said to have been a con-temporary shaman, a wild man of the 20th century,who through his ecstatic joy in the natural world,though poetry, and through a deep spiritual appre-ciation of the universe, embodies the very quali-ties needed to save this anguished world.

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I N T H E

M U L T I - P E R S P E C T I V A L E R A

In 2006, with the publication of Integral Spirituality,Ken Wilber33 brought explicitly to spirituality, and

also to philosophy, what Picasso and Braque hadbrought to art in the first decade of the 20th centurythrough cubism, and heisenberg had brought tophysics in 1927 in the form of the uncertainty princi-ple, and Bohr in 1928 with the particle-wave duality;namely a multi-perspectival understanding ofreality. This is exactly what Gebser had antici-pated when he recognized the emergence, aboutthat time, of the first glimmerings of integralconsciousness. Wilber’s multi-perspectivalism opened new dimen-sions to our understanding of human conscious-ness and, combined with Gebser’s notion thatintegral consciousness includes all previousstructures of consciousness in a healthy synthe-sis, provided the right context for a new spiritu-ality, one untethered by excessive rational con-structions of the mental or the conservativeemotional currents of the mythic. Few contem-porary spiritual pioneers have taken full advan-tage of the space created by this new multi-per-spectival worldview. andrew Cohen, who is apersonal friend and follower of Wilber’s thought,seems most notable in this regard.In some important ways Cohen’s approach to evolu-tionary spirituality is reminiscent of that of sriaurobindo, written down nearly a century ago. Likeaurobindo, Cohen emphasizes the importance of twomajor stages of spiritual work, or “yoga” as aurobindowould have called it. The first prepares the practitionerfor the second and more profound of the two. Foraurobindo, the first was the Integral Yoga itself, with thegoal of creating a divine transformation of mind, body,and spirit, catalyzed by a decent of divine energy or shakti.The second stage, or “supramental yoga,” comes onlyafter this work is complete. It strives to actually drawdown transcendent energies and knowledge (gnosis) rootedabove in the divine and never shrouded in matter. Ulti-mately this work creates a path and a way for a larger trans-formation of life in this world. The details of this processhave never been entirely clear, at least to my mind, but sriaurobindo and The Mother, his partner in yoga, oftenspoke of their work as struggling to open a channel for thedecent of divine transformative energies into the world.Cohen likewise proposes two stages of transformationalwork. The fist, which he identifies as common to mostspiritual practices, involves the development of objectivi-ty towards one’s own thoughts, feelings, and emotions34.along with this he emphasizes the importance of cleans-ing the mind of the ego, including especially the pas-sions, so that at least at times, such as sitting in medita-tion, one experiences a sense of complete emptiness,and with it a clear openness and freedom. In otherwords, the first stage of the work, and an importantone, requires a stepping back from the passions of


everyday life and settling into an easy clarity of themind and spirit. at this point the real work may begin,which is to open and tune one’s consciousness to theoriginal spark of eros that is the evolutionary impulsewhich lies hidden within the human spirit and whichundergirds the creative evolutionary flow of the entirecosmos. here we are reminded most vividly of ThomasBerry’s “spontaneities within us, spontaneities that comefrom an abyss of energy and a capacity for intelligibleorder of which we have only the faintest glimmer in ourconsciousness awareness35. ”Thus in evolutionary enlightenment, the practice ofassuming no relationship to the content of conscious-ness not only aligns one with the inherent freedom of theempty ground of being, but more important, makes spacefor the limitless creative potential of the evolutionaryimpulse to reveal itself. It forges the emotional convictionthat real change is possible, and generates a renewedfaith in the capacity to evolve36.This is the beginning of the true evolutionary spirituallife. exactly how the evolutionary impulse will play outin one’s own life is impossible to predict. however itspeaks, it must be understood as a kind of destiny, a call-ing, that one is prepared to accept and follow only ifone has a clean slate, without personal agendas to over-write the pure creative impulse. There is not a predes-tined pathway for this evolution, as it is the originalcreative urge itself. One can only prepare to act on itby cleansing and dedicating oneself to the evolution-ary impulse, to eros itself. Unlike sri aurobindo and the Mother’s yoga, thispath does not carry a mythic resonance, but is anatural development in a contemporary multi-per-spectival understanding of the cosmos. It does notposit gods or goddesses; it does not direct growthinto ancient and well-established pathways. Itdoes not yearn, in albert Camus’s words, with anirrational “nostalgia” for a lost unity, for absolutes,for a definite order and meaning37. It is the veryliving edge of eros itself, expressed and playingthrough the human spirit. 8

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1 Zindell, d. (1998): 734.2 The actual expression of these structures differs from

one culture to another, but the basic pattern seems almost uni-versal . While Gebser’s scholarship dealt mostly with the West,these structures are also apparent in cultures throughout theworld. Much has been written about them by Jean Gebser,Wilber, Georg Feuerstein, and others including myself.

3 Based on a number of anthropological accounts, includingRobert Lowie’s (1983),The Crow Indans.

4 In the Iliad, homer refers to hermes as the friendliest ofgods to humans, “for you beyond all others it is dearest to be

man’s companion.” The Iliad. (2000). (Trans. Richard Lattimore),University of exeter Press: 334-335.

5 Jehovah was not a sky god in a literal sense, but recall thatMoses had to climb Mt. sinai to communicate with him.

6 Calasso, R. (1994). The marriage of Cadmus and Harmony.(new York: vintage).

7 so-called because of their commitment to Kant’s notionthat we cannot know the cosmos directly, but only through themechanisms of our own mind.

8 schelling, F.W.J. Philosophical investigations into theessence of human freedom: 66.

9 houlgate, s. (ed.). (1998). The Hegel reader: 50.10 The idea that species change over time was certainly

not new in darwin’s day. as early as the first decades of the19th century the French naturalist Georges Cuvier was estab-lishing the field of paleontology based on comparisons of fos-sil records with modern animals.

11 The Problem of Rebirth: 58. Originally published in1915, Arya, 2. [Original source unnamed.]

12 dawkins, R. (1986). The blind watchmaker: Why the evi-dence of evolution reveals a universe without design. (new York:W.W. norton).

13 during the last quarter of the 20th century an alterna-tive line of evolutionary thought grew out of theoretical stud-ies of thermodynamics and the mathematics of complexity. In1977 the Belgian chemist Ilya Prigogine received the nobelprize for his work on energy systems that are “far from equilibri-um.” In plain english, he showed that complex systems, rangingfrom ecologies to living organisms, organize their own energyboth to sustain and to re-create themselves from moment tomoment. (a process known as autopoiesis.) Theoretical biolo-gists such as Francisco varela and humberto Maturana, andmore recently complexity theorists such as stuart Kauffman, haveadded a new branch to evolutionary biology by viewing thegenome not so much as a blueprint of highly specific instructions,as the no-darwinists claim, but more like a roadmap that leads to aparticular landscape where development will unfold according tothe local conditions found there. steve McIntosh has recently devel-oped these ideas in a very broad integral framework that includessocial as well as biological evolution.

14 at the Wright Center for science education, Tufts University.15 Chaisson, e. Epic of evolution: Seven ages of the cosmos. also see

www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ejchaisson/cosmic_evolution/docs/splash.html 16 schumacher e.F. (1975). Small is beautiful: Economics as if peo-

ple mattered.17 For an excellent review of the debates on evolution during this

whole period see Louis Menand’s (2002) The Metaphysical Club: AStory of Ideas in America.

18 see Combs, a. (ed.). (2010). Special issue of Journal of Conscious-ness Studies: A Victorian’s Guide to Consciousness.

19 a phrase Gebser used to describe a kind of down to earth mys-tical illumination not unlike Zen kensho.

20 We could also add many other candidates to this list, but thepoint of this essay is not to catalog possible contenders for integralconsciousness.

21 here we might recall Thomas hobbes’ famous line fromLeviathan, that the natural condition of mankind is “solitary, poor,nasty, brutish, and short.”

22 The idea that european culture and especially those most suc-cessful in it must be of evolutionary superiority.

23 all this is discussed in much more detail in my book, TheRadiance of Being.

24 Bergson, (1907/1983). Creative evolution. (a. Mitchell,trans.). (Lanham, Md: University Press of america. [Gunter,P.a.Y. (1983). Introduction to the UPa edition: xvii.]


25 smuts, J. (1926). Holism and evolution: 88.26 In this regard Teilhard de Chardin followed in the footsteps

of henri Bergsin, about whom G. William Barnard writes that hisphilosophy “[...] affirmed the reality of spiritual forces working inharmony with the unfolding of the physical universe; it emphasizedthe inherent freedom and dignity of human beings. [It was] [...] adoctrine that was particularly appealing to those who felt alienatedfrom orthodox religiosity, but nonetheless still wanted to discover anunderlying connection to larger cosmic realities. Bernard, G.W.(2012). Living consciousness; The metaphysical vision of Henry Bergson.

27 Though much, indeed most, of the facts of quantum weirdnesswere already well known by the mid 20th century, it was not until the1960s, and especially the 1970s, that positivism had weakened to thepoint that people began to explore the meaning of many of these ideasbeyond the positivistic interpretation that they only represent meterreadings and the like; and cannot be discussed further. needless to say,consciousness itself fell under the same pall.

28 Berry, T. (1999, 2006); swimme, B., & Berry, T. (1994).29 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter: 25.30 Michael Colebrook’s description of Thomas Berry’s essential

thought. [Retrieved from http://www.greenspirit.org.uk/resources/TBerry.shtml ].

31 The Dream of the Earth: 195.32 Idem: 23.33 Wilber, 2006. also see Combs, 2009.34 sri aurobindo himself wrote, “[…] those who get beyond

the average, have in one way or other, or at least at certain timesand for certain purposes, to separate the two parts of the mind,the active part, which is a factory of thoughts and the quiet mas-terful part which is at once a Witness and a Will, observing them,judging, rejecting, eliminating, accepting, ordering correctionsand changes, the Master in the house of Mind.”

aurobindo. (1972). On Himself. (Pondicherry, India: allIndia Press): 83.

35 The Dream of the Earth: 195.36 Evolutionary Enlightenment: 109.37 Lane, B. (1996). The absurd hero. [Retrieved from

http://www.levity.com/corduroy/camusabs.htm ].

R E F E R E N C E S

aUROBIndO (1952). The problem of rebirth. (Pondicher-ry, India: sri aurobindo ashram Press).

——. (1972). The synthesis of yoga. (Pondicherry,India: all India Press).

BeRnaRd, G.W. (2012). Living consciousness; Themetaphysical vision of Henry Bergson. (albany,new York: sUnY Press).

BeRGsOn, h. (1907/1983). Creative evolution. (a.Mitchell, trans.). (Lanham, Md: University Pressof america).

BeRRY, T. (1999). The Great work: The way into ourfuture. (new York: Bell Tower).

——. (2006). Dream of the earth. (Washington, dC:sierra Club Books).

BROWn, n.O. (1969). Hermes the thief. (new York:vintage Books).

CaLassO, R. (1994). The marriage of Cadmus and Harmo-ny. (new York: vintage).

ChaIssOn, e.J. (2007). Epic of evolution: Steven stages ofthe cosmos. (new York: Columbia University Press).

COMBs, a. (2002). The Radiance of being: Understandingthe grand integral vision; Living the integral life. (stPaul, Mn: Paragon house).

——. (2009). Consciousness explained better: Towards anintegral understanding of the multifaceted nature ofconsciousness. (st Paul, Mn: Paragon house).

—— (ed.). (1910). Special issue of Journal of Conscious-ness Studies: A Victorian’s guide to consciousness, 17(11-2).

FeUeRsTeIn, G. (1987). Structures of consciousness:The genius of Jean Gebser. (Lower Lake, Califor-nia: Integral Publishing).

GeBseR, J. (1949/1986). The ever-present Origin. (n.Barstad and a. Mickunas, trans.). (athens, Ohio:Ohio UP).

heGeL, G.W.F (1807). The phenomenology of mind,(J. B. Baillie trans., 1910; 2nd ed. 1931).

hOULGaTe, s. (ed.). (1998). The Hegel reader. (Oxford:Blackwell).

LasZLO, e., & COMBs, a. (2011). Dreamer of theEarth: The relevance of Thomas Berry, propheticvisionary (1914-2009). Selected essays. (Rochester,vermont: Inner Traditions).

LaTTIMORe, R. (trans.). (2000). The Iliad. (exeter:University of exeter Press).

LOWIe, R.h. (1983). The Crow Indians. (Lincoln,nebraska: University of nebraska Press).

MCInTOsh, s. (2012). Evolution’s purpose: An integralinterpretation of the scientific story of our origins. (newYork: select Books).

Menand, L. (2002). The metaphysical club: A story of ideasin America. (new York: Farrar, straus and Giroux).

sCheLLInG, F.W.J. (1809/2006). Philosophical investigationsinto the essence of human freedom (Jeff Love trans.).(albany, new York: sUnY Press).

sChUMaCheR e.F. (1975). Small is Beautiful: Economics as ifPeople Mattered. (London: Blond & Briggs).

sMUTs, J. (1926). Holism and Evolution. (London: Macmillan).sWIMMe, B., & BeRRY, T. (1994). The Universe Story. (new

York: harperOne).TeILhaRd de ChaRdIn, P. (1959/1961). The phenomenon ofMan. (new York, harper & Row).

——. (1978). The Heart of Matter (hauge, trans.). (London:Collins).

WILBeR, K. (2006). Integral spirituality. (Boston: shambhala).——. (2007). Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of HumanEvolution. (Wheaton, IL: Quest).

ZIndeLL, d. (1998). War in Heaven; Book Three of a Requiemfor Homo Sapiens. (London: harperCollins).

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Dr Jeff Eisen, PhD, is anenlightenment therapist,teacher, and author. Trainedas a psychotherapist, he hasgone far beyond that to createPsychoNoetics, a system ofholosentient thinking, inten-tional clearing and evolution.In his books and in dozens of

online essays, he has explored nond-uality, the nature of illusory reality,

and recently, the socioeconomic forces that condition our con-sciousness. Dr Eisen practices and teaches PsychoNoetics locally inhis South Florida office, and globally through the Internet. Web-site: http://drjeffeisen.com; email: [email protected].

T H E E X P E R I E N C E

O F H O L O S E N T I E N C E

OsT PeOPLe, MOsT OF The TIMe, exPeRIenCe

the world as a succession of unrelatedthings… parts of a vast machine that whencompletely known and put together, will, insome indeterminate future, finally explain

how reality works. This is the old paradigm, butit is also the paradigm most of the world is stillstuck in, and probably will be for the foreseeablefuture.But there is a new paradigm of perception that isdeveloping, a holographic paradigm of percep-tion that accompanies some forms of enlighten-ment. In this paradigm things are not seen asseparate and separated parts of a vast machine,but instead are seen holographically, as samplesof the big picture or pattern. Perhaps the per-ception lacks detail in many areas, like a blurryphotograph or a line drawing that suggestsmore than it specifies, but still it is a completerendition of the whole. The roots of this holographic perception go backthousands of years to the ancient sages of the reli-gious traditions and the shamans of the tribal cul-tures of the world. But it is only relatively recently,that holograms have entered western consciousnessas a technology and popular metaphor for reality,including brain and body function, and even ‘para-normal’ phenomena1. The idea of holographic per-ception borrows this metaphor to suggest that

human beings are naturally endowed with thecapacity to perceive wholeness, and that theirsubjective experience of perception can grow inthis direction. Borrowing from the science aswell, holographic perception could be describedas a kind of ‘seeing through’ the functions of thebrain that convert frequency patterns into a 3-dimensional world.a more accurate word for holographic percep-tion would be holosentience. Holosentience isholographic awareness. Possessed of it, we areaware of every no-thing, not as isolated words orimages, but as systems – systems within systemsmaking bigger and bigger systems. The whole sys-tem is, of course, well beyond human understand-ing. It is an asymptote, more and more closelyapproached, but never quite reached.Just as a hologram is an interference pattern betweentwo beams of laser light, holosentience is an inter-ference pattern between the reference laser conscious-ness of the enlightened individual, and the implicitconsciousness of that which is being perceived. (Laserconsciousness is my term for the condition of coher-ence that arises when all internal conflicts are resolved,and the “photons” of the mind, like the electrons in amagnet, come into polar alignment.)

F R O M O N E N E S S P E R C E I V E D T O O N E N E S S P E R C E I V I N G

during the 1990s I spent much time answering thequestion, “What is duality?” The answer and a book’sworth of exploration around the answer was, “dualityis Oneness perceived2.” The act of perceiving dividesthe fabric of consciousness into two parts, into ‘ducca’or twoness. and our many ways of measuring threedimensional reality can all be seen as relative to a pointof perception, one that divides the world into hotterand colder, greater and lesser, faster and slower, etc.But even as I was understanding nonduality from thisperspective, I was being offered a set of experiences thatwere to take me into a new way of seeing, a holosen-tient perception. In dealing with my incessant aller-gies, I first was treated and then became a practitionerof the nambudripad allergy elimination Technique(naeT). as I came to manage my allergies, it becameclear that I was evolving the technique into a power-ful modality in my own field of psychotherapy, aletting go of egoic contractions through the power

CL E AR ING TO HOLO S ENT I ENCEAND L E V E L I I E N L I GH T E NMEN T

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of intention3 (part of the body of work I now callPsychonoetics4).Clearing through intention is an evolved capacity. Itis a process of clearing duality from Oneness. It isalso a practice of living simultaneously in nondualityand duality, and in integrating these two aspects intoOne. From this place, perception is no longer either dualor nondual, but both, that is – holosentient. Holosen-tience, then, is Oneness perceiving duality, but not gettingcaught in it.Because clearing through intention eventually confersrelative freedom from egoic contractions, integrates dual-ity and nonduality, and creates a sustainable state ofenlightenment and holosentience, I often refer to thiswholeness as Level II enlightenment. all of evolutionaryhistory can be seen as antecedent to this process, wherethe human brain is able to clean up what is not workingin human evolution, and actually shift direction.

T H E E X P E R I E N C E O F L E V E L I I E N L I G H T E N M E N T

What is the experience of Level II enlightenment?some of what follows is well known from differentenlightenment traditions, but it is the wholeness itpoints to that reveals the subtle shift. I am going tobegin my answer with the experience that began toshift my own paradigm of perception and thinking.When I was younger, I was very involved in themartial arts, particularly the internal martial arts ofaikido and Tai Chi Chuan. I remember my aikidoinstructor telling me that the three components ofKi are weight underside (a sense of heaviness orprofound relaxation), the unbendable elbow (i.e.,gotten by projecting your mind, through yourarm, into the distance), and sinking your mindinto the one point (located at the midpointbetween the crest of your hips, about 2 inchesbehind your naval). however, and this is reallythe ‘one point,’ when we have one of them, wehave them all; whereas if we lack one of them,we lack them all!at the time I didn’t understand this. I was stillcaught in the old paradigm way of perceivingthings as separate. But many years later, this hascome to make perfect sense. I see these three sepa-rate things are not separate at all; they are differentaspects of the same no-thing, that underlying realitythat the act of perception divides into things.This same principle applies to the many facets ofenlightenment. They appear or are variously calledunderstanding, awakening, openness, nonduality,empty or still Mind, the Ground of Being, One-ness, unity consciousness, God, Christ conscious-ness, love, the list goes on and on. The point, how-ever, is that enlightenment itself is a ‘no-thing’, aunity, to which all of these facets and terms are just

pointers. What is more, just like Ki, if we have one,we have them all; whereas, if we lack one, we lackthem all. Level II enlightenment, then, entails aholographic experience; it entails abiding in theperceptual paradigm of holosentience.That said, however, just as there are three aspectsof Ki deemed to be essential, I am going to pre-sent three aspects of enlightenment that I deemto be essential. They are: 1) seeing through theillusion of separate identity, 2) still Mind, and 3)the figure-ground reversal. and just as in Ki,when we have one of them, we have all ofthem, and when we lack one of them, we lackall of them. The three separate things are notseparate at all; they are different aspects of thesame no-thing, that underlying reality that theact of perception divides into things.But I would like to make an addition to thesethree pointers, one actually closely related toaikido, Tai Chi Chuan, Qigong or any of theother inner energy practices. and that is the pos-itive or negative direction of our internal energy,whether we call it Ki, Chi, life force or any othername. I call it flowing versus grasping. This too isan aspect of Level II enlightenment.

T H E M A N Y F A C E T S

O F L E V E L I I E N L I G H T E N M E N T

S E E I N G THROUGH TH E I L LU S I O N O F S E PA R AT E I D E N T I T Y

The illusion of being a separate entity is perhaps themost imprisoning of all illusions. It builds uponassociations of the underlying illusions that we areour bodies, our appearance, our gender, our emo-tions, our thoughts, our beliefs, our socioeconomicclass, or even our personal history. all of the availableevidence supports the experience of separation, thebelief that we are, in fact, completely separated fromone another. however, as many of us know, this beliefis mistaken. In nondual reality we are separate centresof the One, i.e., separated in body, but connected inconsciousness.Because the experience of separate identity is supportedby all the evidence of sensory experience, we will never, aslong as we are embodied, fully feel connected. We willalways have a lingering experience of ourselves as sepa-rate beings. This is unavoidable, however, and this is thepoint – we do not have to let perception go into con-ception. We can feel that we are separate withoutbelieving it. We can have all the sensory perceptionsand the accompanying emotions without assuming thebelief and without letting the belief rule our actions.We have to transcend the belief while still abiding inthe illusion. In fact, leaving the illusion intact is not

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only unavoidable, it is necessary, because the experienceof separation is essential to surviving in ordinary reality.

TRANSCENDING THE IN-SELF AND THE OUT-SELF DIST INCTION

Following the thread of separate identity, leads us toa subset of the illusion of separation, and that is thein-self and the out-self distinction. self-other or in-group out-group separations are as old as life itself. Pri-mates have them, birds have them, lizards have them,bacterial colonies have them, perhaps even plants can besaid to have them. and, of course, you and I have them.The in-group is treated one way, with acceptance, con-sideration and love. The out-group is treated anotherway; it is defended against, battled, even preyed uponand eaten. It is said that the only way that humanity isever going to be fully unified is if it is attacked by aliensfrom outer space. Barring that unlikely circumstance, allof these distinctions between the in-group and the out-group persist, although changing from one moment tothe next as circumstances change. Thus, families consti-tute an in-group, but siblings fight, one constituting anout-group to the other. sport teams constitute an in-group, one competing against the other; but duringpractice all sorts of individual rivalries arise. nations areall out-groups to one another, except when alliances ofnations become in-groups. however, within nationsand alliances, competition is always present, political,religious, moral, economic, individual and so on.What does this have to do with transcending theillusion of the individual separated self? all of thesechanging distinctions within distinctions are justextensions of the illusion of the separate self; thus,the in-group out-group distinction is better termedthe in-self out-self distinction.Within the illusion ofthe separate self, the boundaries of the ‘self ’ areflexible, always contracting and expanding as cir-cumstances change.When we transcend the illusion of the separatedself, we morph into the extended self and theninto the One self. The in-self and the out-selfdistinction is erased, and instead, there is theone, expanded Self that encompasses all of creation.Of course, there always remains a vestigial in-self and out-self, but it is shallow, uncompellingand easily transcended and dispensed with.

F R O M S T I L L M I N D - T O S T I L L M I N D

This brings us to still Mind. Unless we are instill Mind, all of these distinctions of self andother continue to be present for us. It is as simpleas this. every facet of enlightenment – unity,truth, awakening, God consciousness, nonduality,cosmic consciousness, etc., everything that wehave ever experienced as enlightened or even heardabout – arises with our entrance into still Mindand subsides again when we leave it. still Mind isthe main portal to universal consciousness.

We become our small, individual selves throughmental activity, whether conscious or unconscious,intentional or unintentional, it doesn’t matter. Whenwe start thinking, intending, believing, denying,attaching, remembering, perceiving, etc., we do itas an ego. as such we start contracting, and whatwe contract into is a separated self; whereas whenwe re-enter still Mind, we return to unity, theunity of universal consciousness. as I said, it’s assimple as this.Still Mind has to become the ground of our being.It is relatively easy to get into still Mind. In fact,many forms of meditation will do it; it is anotherstory entirely to stay there. The ego, with itspresent and past life load of reactions, tempta-tions, distractions, emotional upsets and othercontractions usually jars us out of still Mind assoon as we return to ordinary life. The conversa-tion between nonduality and duality that candirect human evolution depends on still Mind.

T H E F I G U R E – G R O U N D R E V E R S A L

Clearly, we must become aware of the state inwhich we rest and out of which we operate5. Wheredo we rest? do we rest in our ego, or do we rest inthe Ground of Being itself, Oneness, universal con-sciousness, self or whatever you want to call it?Resting in Oneness and perceiving from it, is one ofthe hallmarks of enlightenment as traditionally taughtand transmitted. however, for most people, even somewho consider themselves enlightened, the ground oftheir being is still their ego. Oneness, like God, is a fig-ure on that ground, just an idea, to be grasped at, or atbest experienced occasionally and always as a thingoutside of themselves, perhaps to be remembered andcherished, but never realized as essential identity6.so we can ask ourselves, is Oneness an idea, a figure onthe ground of my ego, or is Oneness the ground of mybeing, with all of the varied contents of the ego, figuresupon it?how do we achieve this figure-ground shift? There aremany ways. We can get there by going to still Mind. Wecan get there by transcending the illusion of separateidentity. Or we can get there by gradually letting go of thecontents of our egos until we begin to shift - and thenstabilizing in that shift, which is an essential aspect ofLevel II enlightenment. We can get there through theseways and many more. But like the three essential aspectsof Ki, the many aspects of Level II enlightenment forma holographic experience; when we have one of them,we have them all; when we lack any one of them, welack them all.

F R O M G R A S P I N G T O F L O W I N G

Lest my choice of three essential features leads any-one to see Level II enlightenment as merely a mental


state, I want to point out an energetic/feeling aspectas well, an enduring quality of positive energy. haveyou ever observed that some people, no matter whatthe circumstances, seem to be always radiating theirenergy outwards, as if flowing from some inexhaustibleinner source, while others seem to be always needy,sucking your energy and channelling it into an unfill-able hole? still others are simply collapsed, dead inside,their energy neither flowing nor grasping - just stagnant.also, have you ever noticed how in the flowing modepeople are radiant, with shining eyes, and we are relaxedand at ease in their presence? By contrast, people in thegrasping mode seem overbright; they are always on, overea-ger, even voracious, as if they are wanting something fromyou, or sucking the love out of you – which, of course,they are. and people who are collapsed, their energy stat-ic, they look – well – lifeless, grey! What we are seeing is variation in a polarity or directionof energy, from positive to negative, from flowing outto reversing and going inwards. There is also an aspectof strength or velocity in either direction as well, whilethe zero point between the flowing-grasping switch isthe stagnant energy of people who have just given up!Most people are habitually in one mode or the other,although many of us also switch from one mode to theother frequently, as our outer circumstances and/orour inner state changes. some of us who are sensitiveto energy can see the “light” change as peopleundergo these switches.This is an important witnessing-observation skill tocultivate because the ego is immensely flexible in itscapacity for self-deception. human beings can takeall and any pointers to enlightenment, and con-vince themselves that they are pretty much there.however, the proof is in the pudding. Unless, ourenergy is ‘flowing’, we are hiding aspects of ourego from ourselves under the guise of mentalconclusions or emotional qualities. There is moreto say about substituting excessive positive emo-tion for ‘flow’, but hopefully I have already point-ed toward the precision of Being that is LevelII enlightenment.

A P P R O A C H I N G L E V E L I I

E N L I G H T E N M E N T T H R O U G H

I N T E N T I O N A L C L E A R I N G

The observations above are pointers to aholosentient pattern. In this pattern we see theoverall tendency of the mind to construct cate-gories about everything, including self and God,and then to operate out of those categories (aka,egoic conclusions). We see then that still Mind isa portal to a different process. “how does stillMind relate to egoic conclusions?” we might askof the whole pattern.

The answer is the practice of intentional clearing,the essential process of Psychonoetics, and thepath of letting go that I have been both developingand living into for the last twenty years or so.Working from still Mind, even from the witnessingwhich approximates still Mind, it is possible tolet go of egoic contractions7, and thus graduallylet go of our tendencies toward separateness.Intentional clearing, then, becomes a portal to astable, holosentient, Level II enlightenment.It is a fundamental tenet of Psychonoetics that,just as we created our egoic patterns of con-traction, we can uncreate them.

H O W D O W E R E L E A S E A N D C L E A R E G O I C

C O N T R A C T I O N S ?

We release egoic contractions from still Mind,through the power of our intention, so that weeventually become whole, not whole again, butwhole for the first time in our present lives.Recognizing egoic contractions and clearingthem is a skill set that has to be acquired. Thereare two, related ways to see the contractions thattake us out of the right place. One is the witnessmeditation; the other is monitoring. In the wit-ness meditation we go to still Mind, and fromthere witness our memories, emotions, reactions,and what have you. When we have mastered thewitness so that it becomes second nature, we canstart monitoring. In monitoring, witnessing hasbecome automatic, a way of life. We just sense whenwe’re not in the right place. We may also use some signposts that indicate when weare in an egoic contraction. Things don’t go well! Ourpositive flow of energy becomes negative, we feel dis-turbed and arguments sometimes erupt. Being alert tothese and similar conditions can begin to move ustoward witnessing them in meditation or monitoringthem in ordinary states; in both instances we are buildingour ability to step outside of the contraction and see it.Once we have become aware of a contracted place inourselves, the next step is to identify the causes of thecontraction… precisely. This precise identification is anecessary preamble to effective clearing with intention.Whether in self therapy or in a session with a Psycho-noetic facilitator, specificity is needed to facilitate per-manent clearing.To precisely identify contractions, I use autokinesiology(muscle testing myself ), but others use traditional psy-chotherapy, or develop their own precision techniques.My core practice has been to address the contractiondirectly, and then to muscle test for contraction eti-ologies, such as present and past life memories,attachments, emotions, beliefs, false identities, beingstuck in time, and many more.


Once a contraction has been noticed and identi-fied, clearing it is as simple as intending to do so.By forming the intention, and perhaps articulatingit, either out loud or in the mind, the clearing takesplace. again, we can either do it ourselves, or in asession with a Psychonoetics facilitator.But, we can only clear if we can access still Mind. stillMind is the portal to Oneness, and only from stillMind and Oneness can we effectively let go of whatwe’re holding. If we are lost in our “thoughts”, we can-not do anything. We simply don’t have a place to stand,and without that we have no leverage.Archimedes said, “Give me a long enough lever and aplace to stand, and I will move the earth!” Still Mind is the place to stand!But there is a bit of a balancing act to the process. If wecannot still our minds, we can’t clear. On the otherhand, if we’re only in still Mind, contractions can disap-pear, then reappear when we fall out of it. On the faceof it, this is an insoluble double-bind. however, in realityit’s not so much of a problem as it seems. One graduallyprogresses towards the ability to be present in stillMind while holding the contraction in view. The witnessmeditation is extremely useful in this regard. In a way clearing is like anything else we do, walkingor picking up a pencil. We just intend it, and it hap-pens. The most difficult and essential part is notclearing; it is resting in the place of still Mind, thatuniversal consciousness from which our intention ispotentiated. Though all of the various “spiritual”paths are more or less effective in attaining andholding still Mind, the addition of intentionalclearing to any and all of them will accelerate ourspiritual evolution to warp speed. This is theessence of Level II enlightenment.And the important thing is not how we clear, butthat we clear.

H O L O S E N T I E N C E…A N E W W A Y O F T H I N K I N G

F O R A N E W C U L T U R E

There is something that happens when we havecleared ‘enough’ and spend more and more ofour daily lives in Oneness, responding appropri-ately to what comes up, focusing where focus-ing is needed, doing when doing is needed, andthen, when everything that needs to be done isdone, returning to Oneness. There is no longerany need to be constantly in a meditative state.There is no longer any need to maintain the con-ditions that sustain you in peace and harmony.You return to the state naturally, just as when thewind stops, the water calms. This is living in nondu-ality and duality simultaneously, and living there cre-ates the holosentient place from which we become

aware not of things, but of patterns of things, pat-terns fractally arranged to make up an infinite andultimately unknowable cosmic pattern.There is one more aspect of Level II enlighten-ment and the holosentience that comes with it,one that I would like to emphasize. It is perhapsthe most important aspect of all. holosentiencegreatly enhances our ability to recognize truth. Idon’t mean factual truth; I mean real truth, thetruth of what people are, the truth in statementsand theories of reality including, of course, thetruth in enlightenment itself. In other words, wecome to recognize the truth that underlies allillusion. When we are holosentient the worldbecomes transparent, and we understand what-ever we look at more or less effortlessly.Recently, for example, I turned to look at thesocioeconomic system that imprisons us in aparticular kind of illusion. That, in turn, ledme to the problem of how to refocus corporateconsciousness in a way that would shift globalconsciousness. after a few days of consideringthe problem, I arrived at the following insight:

Redefining profit (as whole system profit)The problem is not that corporations operate fora profit; it is that the present economic system, notreality, defines this profit. another way of sayingthis is that the corporation makes the profit, nothumanity and the global ecology […] at this time inhistory, a corporation can destroy an ecosystem,pollute a river and impoverish an indigenous cul-ture, but if it makes a monetary profit, if it costs lessto destroy part of the world than the earnings suchdestruction engenders, the corporation is deemedprofitable — and the investors realize a comfortablereturn on their investments […] That is not a prof-itable corporation but a subsidized one, one that, inwhole systems terms, operates at a substantial loss. Bywhom is it subsidized? By the countries that house it,by the ecosystem of the globe, by you and I, and byevery person that walks or will walk the earth.It is clear that we have to build accountability andresponsibility into the corporate mind. But the questionis how to do this? I believe the most realistic answerstarts with redefining profitability itself, in other wordsmaking it profitable for the corporation to contributeto the humansphere and unprofitable for it to consumewithout at least recycling and restoring. The only wayto do this is to make corporations accountable for the realcosts of their doing business 8.

With the complexity of global survival before us, howcan we possibly know what any action will put intomotion? It seems imperative to shift into holosentience,in order to access right choices now. and intentionalclearing as a daily practice, like brushing our teeth, issorely needed to facilitate that shift.


U N I V E R S I T A S … T H E J O U R N E Y T O WA R D S O N E N E S S

One final, holosentient thought… What we mostneed now is for the new shoots of holistic awarenessthat are appearing everywhere to coalesce into aneducational system conceived in the spirit of Univer-sitas, i.e., going towards the One, rather than the con-ventional universities which separate fields of knowl-edge into smaller and smaller specialties. We don’t onlyneed it at the university level; in fact, by the time stu-dents begin their university education, it is too late. Weneed it at the high school level, elementary school andperhaps, even preschool levels. In order to shift toward aholosentient society, we need to create learning contextsfor holosentient youths, and for that we need holosen-tient parents, teachers, facilitators and learning systems.holosentience can be seen as the hallmark of quantumphysics, ecology, permaculture, holistic medicine and allof the other visions of pattern, interconnection andunity that characterize the cutting edge of the new cul-ture. Furthermore, it serves as a marker for the cognitiveand intuitive processes that characterize individuals andgroups reaching to find new solutions to old problems,solutions that benefit the whole system and unify thatwhich was previously thought to be separate. To moveour young people forward toward holosentience andthe Level II enlightenment on which it rests, is thenext step toward transforming the global culture. 8

——————

1 Pribram 1977, Languages of the Brain; 2007, The Holo-graphic Brain. Bohm 1980, Wholeness and the Implicate Order.Wilber 1982, Holographic Paradigm. Talbot 1991, 2011, TheHolographic Universe.

2 eisen 2003, Oneness Perceived.3 eisen 2006, Playing 20 Questions with God.4 www.psychonoetics.com .5 eisen 2011, Where do you rest? 6 This is perhaps the edge of the enlightenment

process for many on the spiritual path today. It is testimo-ny to the creative power of the mind, that even enlight-ened experiences can be co-opted and become egoic spiri-tual identities, a final barrier to attaining the new habit ofresting in Oneness as the Ground of Being.

7 ‘egoic contractions’ are all of those memories,beliefs, attachments, and intentions that focus our con-sciousness into partial awareness.

8 eisen 2011, The Omnius Manifesto.

R E F E R E N C E S

BOhM, d. (1980). Wholeness and the Implicate Order.(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

eIsen, J.s. (2003). Oneness Perceived. A Window intoEnlightenment. (st. Paul, Mn: Paragon house).

—— (2006). Playing 20 Questions with God. A CosmicSelf-Repair Manual. (airleaf Publishing).

—— (2011). Where do you rest? (essay at www.drjeffeisen.com/2011/11/13/where-do-we-rest).

—— (2011). The Omnius Manifesto . (essay athttp://drjeffeisen.com).

PRIBRaM, K. (1977). Languages of the Brain. (Monterey, Ca: Wadsworth).

—— (2007). The Holographic Brain. (dvd: Think ingallowed Productions).

TaLBOT, M. (1991, 2011). The Holographic Universe.(new York: harperCollins).

WILBeR, K. (ed.) (1982). The Holographic Paradigm.(Boulder, CO: new science Library).

a b


matthijs cornelissen is a Dutchphysician who has been living inindia since 1976. he teachesintegral psychology at the sriaurobindo internationalcentre of Education inpondicherry and is the found-

ing director of the indian psy-chology institute.


ruTh, love, joy, beAuTy, meAning, And virTuAlly

everything else that really matters in life existsonly in consciousness and is fundamentally sub-jective. And yet, science, as the dominant knowl-

edge system of our proud and powerful global civiliza-tion is surprisingly poor in its understanding of con-sciousness and has failed to develop effective methodsto study the subjective domain. As a result education,economics, and many other aspects of our collectivelife are based on serious misconceptions about humannature and goad us on to live in total disregard ofthe beautiful planet on which we live.The first half of thisessay compares themainstream physical-ist concept of con-sciousness with twomore comprehensiveways of conceptualis-ing consciousness thathave their origin inthe indian tradition.The second half dis-cusses the avenuesthese two indian the-ories offer for thedevelopment of therigorous system ofsubjective knowledge our society so desperatelyneeds.for this miniature overview of consciousness andknowledge i base myself on the work of SriAurobindo, who distinguishes in our ordinary wak-ing consciousness four different types of knowledge.of these four, science has perfected only one, the

sense-based knowledge of the world around us,and our present civilization is built entirely onthe objective knowledge it provides. in ourpublic life we ignore the other three – knowl-edge by identity, experiential knowledge, andintrospection and we look down on their inher-ent subjectivity.in this essay i offer a short description of howthe indian tradition has managed to perfect thethree types of inner knowledge, and suggestthat they are needed to ensure a safe and fulfill-ing future for humanity.

T H R E E C O N C E P T S


There is very little consensus in the field of Con-sciousness Studies. it looks as if every major authorin the field has his very own, unique idea of whatconsciousness actually is. if one takes the academi-cally somewhat dangerous step of ignoring the finedetails, it appears that one could group these differ-ent conceptualisations of consciousness fruitfully intothree major clusters, physicalism, purity, and integrality1

(figure 1).This simple divisioninto three major con-ceptual clusters maynot do justice to allthe subtle argumentswith which the manydisputants in the fielddifferentiate their posi-tions from each other,but it may help toclarify the basic lay ofthe land. There is noclaim that the oftenfinely nuanced posi-

tions of individual authors will always fit exactly underone of these three labels. The only suggestion made isthat most theories would find a fairly well-defined placesomewhere in the conceptual space created by thesethree positions. ph y s i c a l i s m . The first of the three, “physicalism”,is hardly found in the indian tradition, but might

CONSC IOU SNE S S , KNOWLEDGE ANDT H E F U T U R E O F H U M A N I T Y .

A S H O R T O V E R V I E W B A S E D O N T H E W O R K O F S R I A U R O B I N D O

R . M . M A T T H I J S C O R N E L I S S E N

T


fig. 1 ~ Three concepts of consciousness. [Author].

well claim to be mainstream in the field of Con-sciousness Studies. it holds that the world is basi-cally physical, and that consciousness emerges out ofthe complexity of the neuro-physiological processesthat take place in the brain. Consciousness, in thisscheme, is thus an exceedingly rare exception in anotherwise unconscious universe: it is limited to humans,plus, at most, some other animal species and perhaps,in the long run, robots. As it is fully dependent on aworking brain it is moreover intrinsically a quality orfaculty of one individual. As the physical world is sup-posed to be causally closed, and as consciousness in thisview is only a subjective phenomenon, most people inthis camp hold that consciousness must be withoutcausal effectiveness: in the language of ConsciousnessStudies, consciousness is considered to be epiphenomenal.p U r E co n s c i o U s n E s s . The second position, “pure con-sciousness”, could be considered mainstream in con-temporary indian philosophy. it seems to have arisenfrom a yogic experience in which one separates fromone’s consciousness all content and movement; or tosay it differently, in which one relocates the borderbetween one’s observing self and observed nature fur-ther and further inwards till all movements of themind are on the side of nature, that is, on the out-side of one’s self. What is left on the side of the self isthen a “pure” consciousness, without content, struc-ture or movement. different schools have giventhis state of pure consciousness (or of pure being)different names – for example śuddha, pure, andkaivalya, sole or absolute – and conceive it inslightly different ways. According to Samkhyathis is the consciousness of the puru..sa. Accordingto vedānta this is the consciousness of the purewitness, sāk.sī, though here it is sometimes arguedthat ultimately even the little, formless “identity”of the still incarnate and time-bound sāk.sī hasto be dropped in favour of the immutable,transcendent atman. in buddhism, the doc-trine of anatta (non-self) denies the very needfor a carrier, a “self ”: the pure consciousnessjust flows.There are two points in which the pure con-sciousness view is similar to the physicalistposition. The first is that both see conscious-ness only as a completely passive awareness.The second is that they both see all mentalprocesses as part of nature, which they concep-tualise as in itself mechanical and unconscious.but here is where the similarity ends: in mostother aspects the pure consciousness view is analmost exact mirror-image of the physicalist posi-tion2. While physicalists see matter as the original,and often even as the only “really real reality”,

adherents to the pure consciousness view see asilent transcendent consciousness as the original,and often even as the only “really real reality”.While the physicalists acknowledge conscious-ness at most as the product of individual physicalbrains, Advaita (non-dual) adherents of pure con-sciousness see the entire manifestation at most asan imposition (adhyasa, adhyāropa) on the pureconsciousness of brahman. interestingly, thereare similar degrees of exclusivity in both views:in the physicalist camp there are some (likePatricia Churchland)3 who claim that conscious-ness consists of nothing but physical processes,while there are others (e.g. john r. Searle)4 whoacknowledge that consciousness is somethingmore, even though they still see that “more” asonly epiphenomenal. Similarly in the pure con-sciousness camp, there are some (the māyāvādins)who claim that the manifestation is entirelyunreal, while there are others who acknowledgethat the manifestation is ultimately part of brah-man, and thus in essence real, even though inappearance illusionary (S.K. ramachandra rao).various shades of the pure consciousness viewwere influential in early buddhism, and later,during the classical period, it became the domi-nant view in the Sa˙mkhya and Advaita vedāntaschools of indian philosophy. in modern times too,the idea of pure consciousness has received a lot ofattention, perhaps mainly under buddhist influ-ence. This is understandable because it is a fascinat-ing concept, and, though its possibility has been disput-ed on theoretical grounds (see the discussion betweenKatz (1978) and forman (1990)), experientially it seemsto be a genuine human possibility. it is, however, notthe only way of looking at consciousness in the indiantradition, and for various reasons not even the mostsignificant. i n t E g r a l i t y. The third major view of consciousnessis the integral perspective, and we find it as early as the.rg Veda, the earliest Upani.sads, and the Tantric agamas(scriptures). it holds that Brahman, the absolute, ulti-mate origin of everything in existence, is of the natureof saccidānanda (an indissoluble oneness of absoluteexistence, consciousness, bliss). Amongst these threeaspects, consciousness is often stressed, and the wordBrahman itself is then translated as consciousness inthe specific sense of the original, absolute conscious-ness of the divine. A famous passage describing theidea that ultimately everything down here is a mani-festation of Brahman, comes from the mu .n.dakaUpani.sad (1.7-9). it states5: as the spider puts out and gathers in, as herbs spring up uponthe earth, as hair of head and body grow from a living man,so here all is born from the immutable.

M A T T H I J S C O R N E L I S S E N | C O N S C I O U S N E S S , K N O W L E D G E A N D T H E F U T U R E O F H U M A N I T Y | 1 6 4

in the next śloka it describes in more abstract termsthe whole process of evolution, right from inani-mate matter to the highest spiritual realisation: Brahman grows by his energy at work, and then from him ismatter born, and out of matter life, and mind, and truth, andthe [inner] worlds, and in works6 immortality.

finally, in the last line of this section, it confirms oncemore that all that exists is made out of the (self-)knowl-edge of the divine: he who is the omniscient, the all-wise, he whose energy is all madeof knowledge, from him is born this that is Brahman here, thisname and Form and matter [translation by Sri Aurobindo7].

The key characteristic of the integral view of conscious-ness is thus that it holds that consciousness is not onlyindividual or transcendent, but also pervasive through-out the manifestation, and that it is not only passive butalso dynamic: not only cit but also cit-śakti (conscious-ness-force). This view of consciousness shares thus withthe physicalist view a deep respect for the physical man-ifestation, but it agrees with the pure consciousnessview that consciousness is not only an individual affair,but also, and even primarily, a self-existent transcen-dent and cosmic reality. it differs, however, from bothother views in that it holds that consciousness isdynamic as well as passive and silent.

A H I S T O R I C A L C O N T E X T F O R

T H E I N T E G R A L A N D P U R E C O N C E P T S


As already hinted at, there is a historical aspect tothe relation between the integral and the pureconceptualizations of consciousness in the indi-an tradition. over time there seems to havetaken place a shift from the more general, integralconcept of consciousness that we find in the .rgVeda and early Upani.sads to the narrower “pure”concept of the darśanas (schools of philosophicalthought)8. According to Aurobindo, the ancient,more comprehensive ideal of Truth, light andimmortality, which is so trenchantly describedin the B.rhadārañyaka (3.2.13), is gradually over-shadowed by a sense of vairāgya (dissatisfactionwith life). māyā, which in the .rg Veda is still thepower of the divine mother that measures outthe worlds, takes on the meaning of illusion,mithyā. The ancient ideal of freedom (mukti),which originally has the specific sense of liberationfrom ignorance, begins to be understood as libera-tion from life in general (“not to be reborn”). Thevia negativa, the neti, neti (neither this, nor that)appears to win from the so ham (i’m That).And yet, especially outside the confines of profes-sional philosophy, both sides remain alive. Thepurna stotra (hymn of integrality) remains one of

the most recited prayers. The Bhagavad gīta, inwhose synthetic view the impersonal dualism ofthe Samkhya is accepted as a useful method withinan overall framework that is simultaneously non-dual and theistic, remains one of the most influ-ential classical texts. Kaśmir Śaivism with its life-affirming integrality of Śiva-Śakti was neverfully eclipsed by Śankara’s otherworldly Advaitavedānta. Though presently less well-known, itsinfluence is visible throughout india. The indianculture as a whole follows the practitioners ofyoga9 and continues to look at differences withina wider context of unity.

A C O M M O N G R O U N D , W I T H

I M P O R T A N T E X T E N S I O N S

There are two metaphors for consciousness thatare commonly found throughout the indiantradition as well as in contemporary Conscious-ness Studies. The first is that of consciousness asa light in which the world is seen, and the sec-ond is that of consciousness as a stage on whichthe world-play is enacted. A third, and perhapsmore profound way of approaching the questionof what consciousness is, can be found in the KenaUpani.sads, which begins by asking who or what itis that knows in the knowing, that sees in the seeing,and that hears in the hearing. The early Upani.sads towhich the Kena belongs, assume the existence of a cos-mic consciousness in their enquiries, and the answer ofthe Kena is accordingly nothing less than brahman,who could be described as the (impersonal) Self of theuniverse who created all out of its own consciousness.by giving this answer, the Kena affirms one of the mostfundamental assertions of the vedic tradition, namelythat our individual conscious being is ultimately onewith the conscious being of the universe. The differences and the similarities with modern viewsof consciousness now become clear. in the ordinary wak-ing state of ordinary unenlightened humans, conscious-ness is at the centre of our experiencing, phenomenalexistence. To use nagel’s cute phrase10, consciousness isthat which ensures that “it is something like” to be what-ever we happen to be, whether that is nagel’s bat, amodern human, or the vedic brahman. in other words,consciousness is that power which actually “sees” or isaware of the images that are produced by the mind(buddhi). According to the physicalist and pure con-sciousness positions, this power is a passive witness,whether with, or without a (permanent) individualisedcentre. What the indian tradition adds to the scientificmainstream view is that consciousness exists also on acosmic & transcendent scale. The integral view addsthen to both that the imaging has also a dynamic


aspect. in other words consciousness (or at least theSelf as carrier of the consciousness11) sanctions, sup-ports and ultimately rules the world of name andform it is engaged with: it is not only its witness butalso its īśvara, or lord.

C O N S C I O U S N E S S , S E L F ,A N D T H E P U R S U I T O F

R I G O R O U S S U B J E C T I V I T Y

The relevance of these rather abstract conceptions of con-sciousness may not be immediately clear, but a littlereflection shows that adherence to one or the other makesa huge difference, not only for our individual understand-ing and well-being but potentially even for our survival asa species. The area in which this is perhaps the easiest tosee is the meaning and aim of life. in the physicalist viewthere is no place for a soul or eternal self and the universeis seen as empty of consciousness, driven by mechanicallaws and chance. in such a scheme the individual may bewired to strive for enjoyment and survival of the species,but as long as consciousness is epiphenomenal, thewhole idea of meaning remains an illusion.in the pure consciousness tradition there are twoconcepts of self: in the astika (orthodox) schools theindividual self is one with the silent, transcendentself of the supreme. in the buddhist tradition thereis no self at all. either way there is no immediatelyobvious aim to life other than realising that silence.in the indian tradition one often encounters thethree aims of dharma (righteousness), artha (mate-rial ends), and kāma (fulfilment of desires), towhich later mok.sa (freedom of the self from allthese pursuits) got added. When pure con-sciousness is postulated as the ultimate reality ofboth the individual and the cosmos, then the

first three can only be accepted as a concession toour collective ignorance and only the last makesintrinsic sense.in the integral view the situation is different. Whenthe entire cosmos is a still evolving manifestationof the divine consciousness, then the imperfec-tion and suffering we now see need not beinevitable characteristics of creation. There arisesthen at least the possibility of a perfect, divinemanifestation in the future (Aurobindo, 1990),and with that the ideal of aligning oneself withthat development.

C O N S C I O U S N E S S , S E L F , A N D

T H E F U T U R E O F P S Y C H O L O G Y

The second area where these three conceptionsof consciousness have a profound influence onthe future of humanity, is epistemology. Thephysicalist view led in psychology to the almostuniversal adoption of behaviourism. in its earlydays, behaviourism was fixated on animal studiesand it generated a theory of cognition based onexperiments with rats, which were motivated bycarefully orchestrated levels of starvation to learnarbitrary behaviour in exchange for secondaryincentives. This utterly inhuman theory of learningwas thoughtlessly transferred to education, where itcreated a system of education in which childrenlearn to do whatever the system asks from them, inexchange for praise and grades. The result has sad-dled our planet with several generations of humansincapable of looking inside and willing to do virtuallyanything in exchange for immediate financial gain12.The indian concepts of consciousness open up entirelydifferent possibilities. if consciousness is in its originand principle independent of the brain and the mental


C o n S C i o u S n e S S Ph y S i C A l i S T P u r e i n T e g r A l

SCoPe only individual primary reality all-pervasive only a tiny part of the transcendent & transcendent, manifestation individual, individual, &

not in cosmos cosmic

relATionShiP WiTh World consciousness emerges from physical world, an imposition physical world a manifestationphysical processes on consciousness of consciousness

ProPerTieS epiphenomenal no content; no structure; passive and active;no action silent and dynamic;

witness and king

Aim of life not clear: liberation (mukti) divine manifestationsurvival? enjoyment?

ePiSTemology all knowledge is constructed; only knowledge of the divine inner knowledge (inclusive only objective knowledge can can be perfected; all other intuition) can be perfectedbe perfected knowledge is imperfect as well as (or better than)

& irrelevant objective knowledge;it is needed for transformation

TAble 1 ~ An overview of the three major conceptualisations of consciousness. [Author].

activities taking place in it, it should be possible towithdraw it from those activities and watch themwith a perfectly detached objectivity. if the integralview holds, then it should also be possible to utilise thepowers of consciousness for well-being, inner growthand transformation of human nature. And finally, theindian theories of consciousness stem from idealistphilosophies and imply the possibility of developing afaculty of true intuition13.The indian tradition claims that all these things areindeed possible, and the incomparable treasures of psy-chological knowledge the indian civilization has devel-oped over the ages seem to provide a powerful testimonyin support of the validity of this claim. in the secondpart of this essay i will provide some detail on the “rig-orous subjectivity”, which would be required to explorethese possibilities further14.

F O U R T Y P E S O F K N O W L E D G E

Sri Aurobindo makes in one chapter of the life Divine15

a distinction between four different types of knowledgethat all occur in our surface awareness.1 ~ The first, and original one, is hardly used in ordi-nary life, and almost forgotten in modern philosophyof science, even though the case for its existence iseasy to make16. Sri Aurobindo calls it “knowledge byidentity”, and it is the knowledge inherent in being.All we know of it in our naïve, surface awareness, isthe simple fact of our own existence. besides this, itis supposed to be the ultimate origin of the intu-itive knowledge we have about the fundamentalrules of logic and reasoning. in the indian tradi-tion it is called the dynamic truth-consciousness,.rta cit, which makes things what they are.2 ~ The second type is “knowledge by intimatedirect contact”. it comes to the fore in direct, pre-reflexive experiential knowing, as in our aware-ness of our own thinking or feeling.3 ~ The third is used in introspection, whereone looks at oneself in a semi-objective fashion.Sri Aurobindo calls it “separative direct knowl-edge”: separative because one distances one’sself from what one observes, and direct becauseit does not need the outer, physical senses.The difference between the second and the thirdtype is that in the second type one says, “What agreat day”, while in the third type one says, “iseem to be happy today!” in other words, in thesecond type, one knows one is happy without anyneed for reflection, while in the third, one looks atoneself as if one looks at another person and onenotices and comments on what one sees going oninside.4 ~ The fourth is our ordinary sense-based knowl-edge of the physical world, fully “separative and

indirect”: here one experiences oneself as entirelyseparate from what one observes, and one knowsindirectly, by means of the physical senses.for our ordinary, surface life, the division may notbe so interesting, as these four modes of knowinggenerally occur together, but for the developmentof psychology the distinction between them iscrucial. The reason for this is that science hasmastered type four, “objective knowledge” and ithas done so with stunning success, but it hasfailed completely to move ahead with the otherthree. early attempts to use type three in intro-spection failed, as it turned out to be too diffi-cult to make introspection reliable. As far astype two is used (in therapy and skill-training) itis limited to its most simple and superficial man-ifestations. of type one, we have only used onederivation successfully, and that is mathematicsand the basic intuitive insight that underliesmuch of scientific development. yet it is typethree, type two, and a more complete version oftype one, that we need if we want to get somegrasp on what happens inside ourselves as con-scious human beings. That such inner knowledgeis needed may not need much argument, for allserious problems humanity is presently facing, areultimately psychological.

P E R F E C T I N G S R I A U R O B I N D O ’ S

F O U R T Y P E S O F K N O W L E D G E

These four types of knowledge are in our unregener-ate common nature far from perfect, but they can beperfected.~ SePArATive indireCT KnoWledge. The expert mode ofthe fourth type of knowledge is science, and moderni-ty is making stunning progress in this area. As separa-tive indirect knowledge is the sense-based knowledge ofthe world outside of us, it is eminently suitable forstudying the physical world, but it is not the best wayto study psychological phenomena.~ SePArATive direCT KnoWledge. in the third type, main-stream psychology failed badly because the introspec-tion-based schools tried to improve introspection with-out standing back far enough: the observing conscious-ness did not stand back from the processes it tried tostudy but remained involved in them. in other words,in ordinary introspection one part of the mind watchesother parts of the mind, and as a result the problems ofbias, vested interest, and infinite regress remain unre-solved. The indian solution is more radical. it suggestswithdrawing the consciousness entirely from its involve-ment in mental processes and watching what happensin one’s mind from a completely detached “witness”consciousness. The details of this process are obviously


complex, both theoretically and practically, and theydeserve more extensive treatment than can be givenhere but there is one easy to notice difference betweenthe two approaches to self-observation that deservesto be mentioned: in ordinary introspection, there isalmost always a part of the mind that provides a run-ning commentary, judging, approving, disapproving,comparing, associating, what not. in detached self-observation, there is nothing of the sort; there is only acompletely silent, non-judgmental, completely relaxedyet sharply focused attention. it is, as the old texts say,the difference between a windswept, muddy stream, inwhich one can see nothing, and a silent, crystal clearpond, in which one cannot only see the reflection of theindividual leaves of the trees on the other side, but alsothe pebbles on the bottom. ~ KnoWledge by inTimATe direCT ConTACT. interestingly,this detached observation seems to allow not only thor-ough knowledge of type three, unbiased access to one’sown mind, but also, through type two, to what happensin others and even in things. The logic behind this isthat consciousness is ultimately one and that the worldis not only interconnected in the outer physical world,but even more so inwardly, on the more subtle innerplanes of thoughts and feelings. in our ordinary wak-ing state our consciousness is entirely wrapped up inthe working of our own nervous system, but once itis freed from there, it can in principle contact any-thing it concentrates upon. This opens a door to thewhole complex world of parapsychological phe-nomena, which present day Western science has tolabel “anomalous” because they do not fit in its fartoo narrow physicalist world view. if we acceptthe indian consciousness-based means of devel-oping psychological knowledge, an enormousworld of “paranormal” psychological capacitiesand powers might open up to us. ~ KnoWledge by idenTiTy. in principle a furtherinner clarity should also open up a way to devel-op the first type of knowledge, knowledge byidentity, which should enable a much moreextensive use of intuition. The idea behind thiseven bolder claim is that the world is a manifes-tation of consciousness; that the original con-sciousness that manifested the world out of itselfdid so according to fundamental real-ideas andthat as we free our consciousness from its involve-ment in the small creature we think we are, it canidentify itself instead with that original, creativeconsciousness and thus know everything the waythe divine knows it, from the inside. We can leavemost of this safely for a remote future, though onecould look at the stunning progress humanity hasmade in recent years in the physical sciences as asudden influx of knowledge of this first type intoour collective mind.

T H E F O U R K N O W L E D G E R E A L M S

once we recognize how much the naive andexpert modes of these four types of knowledgediffer from each other, it becomes clear that thereare actually eight clearly distinct forms of knowingthat give access to eight different aspects of reality.for psychology it is practical to order these eightmethods of knowing on a trajectory that reachesfrom the purely physical outer reality (studiedby objective science) to the deepest innermostself (studied by yoga). doing so, we can thengroup the aspects of reality which these eightmethods of knowing allow us to explore intofour distinct “knowledge realms”: objective knowl-edge; subjective knowledge; inner knowledge andself-knowledge. only the first two, objective knowl-edge and subjective knowledge, can be accessedwith some confidence in the ordinary waking con-sciousness. normally only an extremely limited,vague and often confused sense of the deeperrealms of inner knowledge and self-knowledge canbe obtained while one is in the ordinary wakingconsciousness. for a complete understanding ofhuman nature a detailed and accurate knowledgeof these realms is however essential, and gettingaccess to them tends to require considerable “innerwork”. in the indian tradition this inner work isoften referred to as yoga and in this text we use theword yoga in this broad and general sense (withoutimplying in any way that that it would not be possi-ble to explore these two realms through other meth-ods). TAble 2 (following page) presents an overview ofthe four knowledge realms that are needed for a com-plete psychological understanding. it shows how thenaive and expert modes of Sri Aurobindo’s four knowl-edge types work themselves out into eight forms ofknowing that can be used to explore eight differentaspects of reality.The four “knowledge realms” in TAble 2 can then bedescribed as follows:~ objeCTive KnoWledge. This is the knowledge we haveof the physical and socio-economic world around us. it issense-based and (supposed to be) guided by reason and“common sense”. There are two varieties of it. The naivevariety is simply whatever ordinary people know aboutthe world outside of themselves. The expert variety isscience. These two don’t differ in principle, but theydiffer considerably in their actual processes and results.Science is more rigorous, specialised and cumulative;the senses are extended by instruments that have beenconstructed with the help of knowledge of this sametype; the reason is extended in the form of mathematics.modernity is the scene of an almost incredible collec-tive growth of this type of knowledge.


~ SubjeCTive KnoWledge. Subjective knowledge is theknowledge we have of what is happening inside our-selves. The word “subjective” has nowadays largelynegative connotations, and i use it here only for thenaive variety of what we know about our own natureand our own self-existence. Within the realm of sub-jective knowledge one can distinguish three types: a)introspection which is a naive attempt at being “objec-tive” about oneself (knowledge of type three); b)experiential knowledge which deals with processeswe intimately identify with (knowledge of typetwo); c) a basic awareness of our own self-existence.All three are limited in scope and “subjective knowl-edge” has access only to a very small part of allthat happens inside ourselves.~ inner KnoWledge. This consists of the sophisti-cated, expert variety of the first two types ofknowledge of which subjective knowledge uses thenaive variety. expert knowledge of Sri Aurobindo’stype three is the pure, detached witness con-sciousness that allows genuinely “objective” knowl-edge of whatever happens in one’s own innernature. The expert variety of type two, knowl-edge by intimate direct contact, allows one’s con-sciousness to touch directly the consciousness inothers and even in things so that one can knowthese by an intimate, unmediated direct contact.~ Self-KnoWledge. This is the expert variety ofknowledge by identity (type one) and it leads usdirectly to who we are in the very essence of ourbeing. The little of real self-knowledge that reachesour surface consciousness may never attain to thatlevel of perfection, but according to the indian tra-dition this type of knowledge is in itself intrinsically

true and perfect: it is the secret origin of whatev-er there is of real truth in all other types of knowl-edge. As there is ultimately only one Self, a perfectknowledge of oneself is also supposed to make per-fect knowledge of everything else possible17.As mentioned before, the realms of objective andsubjective knowledge (as defined here) are the onlyones that can be accessed fully in the ordinary wak-ing consciousness (or oWC). because we have madesuch tremendous progress with the expert variety ofobjective knowledge (at least in the physical domain),we tend to rely on it almost exclusively for our publicaffairs. only where this type of knowledge can clearlynot provide the answers, for example on issues thatdemand a value judgment, we respect subjective knowl-edge. The mainstream culture tends to doubt and dis-trust all forms of inner knowledge and what we havehere called “self-knowledge”, deriding them as “essen-tialist”. The reason for this seems to be that the little weknow about these inner realms tends to be encrusted inreligious rituals and dogmas and in all kind of non-self-critical experiments and beliefs at the margin of theglobal civilization. As a result of all this, the little weknow from here impresses the scientific mind as anintractable mixture of partial truths and total confusionthat should perhaps be tolerated in people’s private lives,but that has no place in public life or the hallowed hallsof science. To get high quality inner knowledge andself-knowledge, full inner control over a whole range ofdifferent types of consciousness and a considerableamount of inner discipline are required, and for thisthe West has no established method. mystics andother exceptional individuals have of course managedthis in all times and cultures, but it is the indian tra-dition that has specialised in it, and in the process it


K n o W l e d g e r e A l m K n o W l e d g e T y P e m o d e u S Ag e K n oW n r e A l i T y

(acc. to Sri Aurobindo)

objeCTive KnoWledge separative, indirect knowledge (4) naive A. ordinary, sense-basedknowing physical world

expert b. objective science

SubjeCTive KnoWledge separativedirect knowledge (3) naive C. introspection outer nature

knowledge byintimate, direct contact (2) naive d. superficial experience

knowledge by identity (1) naive e. superficial awareness of surface selfown existence

inner KnoWledge separative, direct knowledge (3) expert f. witness consciousness (sāk.sibhāva), puru.sa-based inner nature self-observation

knowledge by intimate, expert g. consciousness directlydirect contact (2) touching other consciousness

Self-KnoWledge knowledge by identity (1) expert h. gnosis, truth-consciousness, true Self, real-ideasintuition

TAble 2 ~ The four knowledge realms needed in psychology. [Author].

yogA

oWC

has developed an enormous amount of detailed know-how. i contend that a serious practice of some form ofjñāna-yoga (yoga of knowledge) is likely to offer oneof the most efficient ways to develop a more compre-hensive psychological understanding.

C O N C L U S I O N

According to Sri Aurobindo’s synthesis of the variousschools of yoga found in the indian tradition, the mosteffective and comprehensive way towards freedom, hap-piness and deeper psychological knowledge needs twoelements: the first is relocating the centre of one’s con-sciousness by lifting it out of its entanglement in theactivities of the ego, and by moving it into some moreeternal, equal, immutable state. The second part ischanging one’s nature, by looking at it as an instrumentfor the soul to do its work in the world. There is a tenden-cy to start with the second part, and one generally has todo a bit of it to enable the first step, but it is safer andeasier to concentrate first on the first step, as the secondis only fully possible once a sufficient level of detach-ment and inner freedom has been achieved. interest-ingly this gradual finding of one’s own highest Selftends to go together with an increasing familiarity,knowledge of and love for others and even for what-ever one wants to call the Self of the universe. Con-necting one’s own consciousness with the highestconsciousness one can conceive is then not only themost direct way to personal happiness and socialtransformation, but also the most powerful methodto increase our individual and collective psycho-logical knowledge and mastery. 8

———————

1 The basic idea of this division into three major posi-tions is derived from chapter ii to iv of Sri Aurobindo’s thelife Divine, in which he differentiates between the “mate-rialist denial” and the “refusal of the Ascetic” and thenadvocates an older, more integral approach. for an earlierversion of this schema, see Cornelissen 2007, conscious-ness. in this earlier version the “purity” vector was called“spirituality”. given the increasingly widespread tendencyto understand spirituality in an integral, life-affirmingsense, a change of terminology appeared to be asked for.

2 Cornelissen 2008, the ongoing Evolution of con-sciousness in sri aurobindo’s cosmo-psychology.

3 Churchland 1983, consciousness: the transmutation ofa concept.

4 Searle 2006, minding the Brain.5 yathorṇanābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca yathā pṛthivyām

oṣadhayaḥ sambhavanti/yathā sataḥ puruṣāt kešalomāni tathākṣarāt sambhavatīha viš-vam// 7.tapasā cīyate brahma tato ‘nnam abhijāyate/annāt prāṇo manaḥ satyaṃ lokāḥ karmasu cāmṛtam// 8.yaḥ sarvajñaḥ sarvavid yasya jñānamayaṃ tapaḥ/

tasmād etad brahma nāma rūpam annaṃ ca jāyate// 9.

6 The word used here, karma means works, but was at thetime primarily used for the rituals of the .rg Veda, which haveas their inner, symbolic meaning, the surrender of the humanto the divine, and the invitation of the divine into thehuman, in other words what we would now call spiritualpractice, or yoga.

7 Sri Aurobindo 2002, Kena and other Upanishads: 132.8 for a more detailed description of, and argument for

the historicity of this shift, one may consult Sri Aurobindo’sthe life Divine, and his commentaries on the isha Upani.sad.

9 in the West, and even in urban india, the word“yoga” is now widely understood as indicating an effectivetechnique to achieve physical fitness and mental relax-ation. This is a caricature of what it meant originally. TheSanskrit word “yoga” means yoke, and it is used mainly forthe path that leads towards re-union with the divine andthe unalloyed delight, immortality and true knowledgethis is known to give.

10 nagel 1979, mortal Questions: 176.11 if one translates puru.sa as self rather than as con-

sciousness, one can hold to the pure concept of conscious-ness and yet admit the dynamic power of the self who isthen not only the anumanta (witness) as described insamkhya and some “pure” schools of advaita Vedānta, butalso the īśvara (lord) described in the gīta and other moreintegral scriptures.

12 for a more detailed exposition of the argument, seeCornelissen 2012, are schools injurious to health?

13 mainstream psychology takes it for granted that allknowledge has to be constructed. Accordingly, it explainsintuition as “expert knowledge”: the outcome of a mentalprocess that is too complex to be presented in its entirety tothe surface consciousness. The idea is that in this case theunderlying processes take place subconsciously, while at the endonly an “executive summary” is presented to the conscious mind.As the outcome is high quality and pops up as if it comes ready-made out of nowhere, it then looks like intuition. from an indianpsychology standpoint, this phenomenon does exist, but shouldbe called pseudo-intuition. for a more extensive explanation of thereasons why genuine intuition might also exist, see Cornelissen2011, What is Knowledge?

14 The second part of this essay is based on presentations madeat the indian institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2008, and at theCentre for indian Psychology, jain university, bangalore, in 2011.

15 Sri Aurobindo makes this distinction between four types ofknowledge in “Knowledge by identity and Separative Knowledge”,chapter Xvi of the second volume of the life Divine: 543–572. for afurther elucidation of their relevance to psychology one could consultCornelissen 2011, What is Knowledge?

16 Cornelissen 2011, What is Knowledge?17 This is the yasmin vijñāte sarvam sarvamidam vijñātam, the

highest source of knowledge, knowing which everything here isknown (Śā.n.dilya Upani.sad, 2.2).

R E F E R E N C E S

Aurobindo, Sri (1940/2005). the life Divine, (Pondicherry:Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication department).

—— (1955/1999). the synthesis of yoga, (Pondicherry: SriAurobindo Ashram Publication department).

—— (2003). isha Upanishads, (Pondicherry: SriAurobindo Ashram Publication department).


—— (2002). the Kena and other Upanishads, (Pondicherry:Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication department).

CorneliSSen, r. m. m. (2007). “Consciousness” inramakrishna rao, Ajit dalal (eds.) handbook ofindian psychology. (new delhi: foundation books).

—— (2008). “The ongoing evolution of Consciousness inSri Aurobindo’s Cosmo-Psychology”, in h. Wautischer(ed.), ontology of consciousness: percipient action.(boston: The miT Press).

—— (2011). “What is Knowledge? – reflections based on thework of Sri Aurobindo”, in r. m. m, Cornelissen, g.misra, & S. varma (eds.), Foundations of indian psychology,Volume 1: concepts and theories. (new-delhi: Pearson edu-cation).

—— (2012). “Are Schools injurious to health? The implicitcurriculum and its relation to mental health”, in usha S.nayar (ed.) mental health of children and adolescents:culture, policy and practices (new delhi: SAge).

SeArle, j. r. (2006). “minding the brain” in the new yorkreview of Books: 53(17).

ChurChlAnd, P. S. (1983). “Consciousness: the transmutationof a concept”, pacific philosophical Quarterly, 64: 80-95.

nAgel, T. (1979). mortal Questions, (Cambridge, mA: Cam-bridge uP).

a b


christopher m. Bache, phD. isprofessor emeritus in the depart-ment of philosophy and reli-gious studies at youngstownstate University in ohio wherehe has taught since 1978. he isalso adjunct faculty at the cal-

ifornia institute of integralstudies and a Fellow at the insti-

tute of noetic sciences where he wasDirector of transformative learning

for two years (2000-2002). his teaching hasfocused on world religions, psychology of religion, transpersonalstudies, and Buddhism. an award winning professor, his workexplores reincarnation, the philosophical implications of non-ordinary states of consciousness, and the dynamics of collectiveconsciousness in educational settings. he is the author ofthree books: lifecycles, dark night early dawn, and Theliving Classroom.

veryWhere We Turn SCienTiSTS Are finding

that systems we had previously thought wereseparate are actually interconnected. Chaostheory has demonstrated that nature is

awash with patterns of fractal iteration and holo-graphic inclusion. bell’s theorem reveals a uni-verse that is instantaneously aware of itself acrossvast distances. Weaving together findings fromquantum physics, post-darwinian biology, cos-mology, and consciousness research, erwin las-zlo has written compellingly about the A-field,the superimplicate order behind our explicateworld, a domain where nonlocality and supercon-ductivity is the norm (1999, 2003, 2004). Thoughquantum entanglement was originally thoughtto be restricted to the sub-atomic realm, we arenow finding evidence that its effects “scale up”into the macroscopic world (brooks). Clearly,interconnectivity is a major theme of the newparadigm.And yet when we turn to the practical art ofteaching, it is as though we still live in a newton-ian universe of separate selves and isolated minds.The revolution of connectivity has not yet trans-formed our pedagogical models or changed howwe engage our students in the classroom. but theinterconnected universe shows itself here too if we

allow ourselves to see it. if we open to the deep-er textures of our lived experience with our stu-dents, we discover that underneath the obvioustruth of our separate and distinct minds lies aless obvious but equally important truth – that ourminds mix and mingle in a subtle web of influ-ences, that they move in sync with one anotherforming larger wholes, and that in our depthswe are never isolated from one another.After thirty years of having my teaching trans-formed by these dynamics, i wrote the livingclassroom: teaching and collective consciousness.While it draws on scientific research, it is primarilya story of experiential discovery. it offers a sketch ofhow i think we will teach in the new paradigm.

E A R L Y S P A R K S

O F S Y N C H R O N I C I T Y

it was an ordinary day at the university where iteach in the department of philosophy and religiousstudies in ohio. The lecture was finished and theroom was emptying when a student came up to meand said, “you know, it’s funny that you used theexample you did in class today, because that’s exactlywhat happened to me this week.” Then he describedhis recent experience and it was, indeed, a perfectmatch to what i had said in class.i had been searching for an example to illustrate a par-ticular concept i was trying to convey. Quickly runningthrough the possibilities in my mind, my stream of con-sciousness had paused, and out of the stillness an exam-ple i had never used before suddenly rose to my aware-ness. “Try this,” it said. i used it and it had worked. Thestudents got the point and the lecture continued. butwhat had been a randomly chosen example for otherstudents in the room cut closer to the bone for this par-ticular student. When he heard his life experience com-ing back to him in my words, it grabbed his attention.it was as if he had been extended a personal invitationto get more deeply involved in the course, and he did.The first time this happened, i brushed it off as merecoincidence, as good academics are trained to do. inthe reigning materialist paradigm, we are taught thatour minds are fundamentally separate and discreteentities, one mind per brain. Any suspected overlap orbleed-through between minds is said to be impossible

T E ACH ING IN THE NEW PARAD IGMC H R I S T O P H E R M . B A C H E

E


– an illusion, a fiction of our imagination. When youthink of all the life experiences tucked inside our stu-dents, surely we’re going to bump into some of themonce in a while. if you lecture to a hundred peopleweek after week, sooner or later you’re bound to hit afew bull’s-eyes even with your eyes closed. do the mathand it looks less significant than it feels.And yet this “coincidence” happened again a few monthslater, and again after that. in the following years, itbecame a not uncommon occurrence in my classroom,happening often enough that i couldn’t dismiss it. mystudents were finding bits and pieces of their recent lifeexperience, or the experience of a close family member,showing up in my lectures. Without my intending it,without my even being aware when it was happening, myconsciousness seemed to be tapping into some kind ofinformation field that held their life experience. The fitbetween life and lecture was so precise and repeated itselfso frequently that eventually i was convinced that some-thing more than chance had to be operating here. buthow and why was this happening? both as a philosopherstudying in consciousness and as an educator, i had tounderstand what was driving these events.

R E S O N A N C E I N T H E C L A S S R O O M

one evening, for example, i was teaching a nightcourse on eastern religions. There were about thir-ty students in the room. in the middle of my lec-ture, i found myself taking a little unexpecteddetour in which i told a story about a Zen masterwho had had an accurate precognitive perceptionof his impending death, similar to the accountsSushila blackman later published in her bookgraceful Exits. i had never talked about thissubject in this particular lecture before. it wasjust a little aside, something dropped in to addsome anecdotal interest to the discussion wewere having about the capacities of the mindfrom an eastern perspective.After class, a silver-haired elderly lady came upto talk with me. She was not part of our usualgroup but had been brought to class that eveningby a friend who was worried about her. her hus-band had died three months before, and herfriend thought she was languishing at home andneeded to get out of the house. in the conversa-tion that followed, she told me this story.her husband had been a used car salesman ingood health. Shortly before his unexpected death,he had cleared out most of the cars from his lotwithout any explanation and gotten all his finan-cial papers in order. A few days later, he and his wifewere watching Tv when he put down his newspaperand, in a way that was quite out of character for him,

turned to his wife and said, “darling, i just wantyou to know that if i died tomorrow, you’ve mademy entire life worthwhile.” A week later, he diedin his sleep.What she wanted to know was whether i thoughther husband might have been unconsciouslyaware that he was going to die, like the person ihad described in my lecture. i said that it soundedlike a possibility, and this thought was comfortingto her. This led to a longer conversation in whichshe described the challenges and opportunitieshis passing had created for her. After touching hergrief, she began to talk about how overprotectivehe had been and how she was now being giventhe chance to develop herself in ways that hiswell-intentioned care had always prevented. inthe middle of the conversation, she suddenlydecided to come back to college. She did soand thrived here for several years, eventuallybringing two generations of her family back toschool with her.When these things first started happening in mycourses, i was in the early stages of my career andthe early stages of my spiritual practice, and herethe plot thickens. To make a very long story short,as my spiritual practice deepened through the years,these synchronicities became more frequent in myclasses. it was as though by entering more deeplyinto conscious communion with the underlying fab-ric of life, the threads of that fabric were being acti-vated around me in the physical world. The experi-ence of greater depth seemed to be triggering experi-ences of greater breadth, as though depth and breadthwere two different dimensions of a seamless whole.not only were these synchronistic resonances becom-ing more frequent, they were also targeting increasinglysensitive areas in my students’ lives. it was as though aradar had been activated that was operating below thethreshold of my awareness, a radar that zeroed in onsome part of their life that was hurting or constricted.Sometimes it touched a question they had been holdingfor years or triggered an insight they had been searchingfor, something they needed to find before they couldtake the next step in their development. Sometimes itlanced a private pain that had been festering inside them.in this mysterious communion that opened between us,it was as if my students’ souls were slipping messages tome, giving me hints on how i might reach them –telling me where they were hiding, where they werehurting, and, most importantly, what ideas they need-ed to take the next step in their lives.As the years passed and the process deepened, mystudents also began to have unusually deep experi-ences around some of the concepts i was presenting

C H R I S T O P H E R M . B A C H E | T E A C H I N G I N T H E N E W P A R A D I G M | 1 7 4

in class. it was as though they were being activatedby more than just verbal ideas, as though they werebeing touched by the actual experience of these reali-ties that now lived in me to some degree because ofmy spiritual practice.As a professor of religious studies, i have taught moresections of “introduction to World religions” than icare to remember; it’s a staple in our department. myapproach to this course has been deeply influenced byhuston Smith and the “perennial tradition” – ideas soessential they keep showing up in multiple culturesthroughout history, like perennial flowers that reemergeeach spring. When students hear the perennial truths ofthe world’s spiritual traditions simply spoken, when theyare reminded of things long ago forgotten but always pre-sent at the edge of their awareness, there is sometimes aspark of recognition that can explode into a flame. Thisflame is contagious and sometimes stimulates sympatheticresonances with other students in the room. Studentsmay collectively feel their energy shift to higher centersof awareness, though they may not understand what ishappening at the time. Symptoms of chakra-openingand kundalini-type arousal may begin to manifest.energy runs, hearts open, and insights arise.These can be very powerful experiences for students.one sophomore described such an experience in anessay she wrote at the end of a course. it happened toher on the day i was describing the buddhist under-standing of the relationship of individual mind tonon-dual consciousness. To convey this point, isometimes develop the analogy of a tree, contrast-ing leaf-consciousness (the personal mind) withtree-consciousness (non-dual consciousness). inthis exercise, i ask the students to imagine thatthe leaves of a tree are individually aware but notyet conscious of the tree they are part of, untilthe moment of breakthrough. it’s a powerfulexercise that i save until i think the class is readyto absorb its full import. on this particular day,this young woman experienced the following:the thing that hit me the hardest of all that we talkedabout in class was tree-consciousness and leaf-conscious-ness. it was what brought everything together for me.What made me understand everyone’s interdependenceand stopped me from living in fear. i was so moved thatit took everything that i had not to cry in class, not fromsadness but from being hit by a life-altering realization.it made an emotion rise in me that i had never felt beforeand i wasn’t really sure how to react to it (2008: 27-28).

Another student, a woman in her mid-thirties,summarized a similar experience in a different classin the following way:sitting in class, i felt like i was inside one of those glass ballsnow scenes that folks use as paperweights. shake the balland mass confusion begins with flakes of fake snow swirling

all around... i couldn‘t hear the lecture. my mind struggledto focus and stay with your words, but i was missing it.later... at home... alone. it would all return to me, the lec-ture... mostly feelings. tears. recognition. Understandingafter i let it simmer for a while. realization that if i didn‘tgrab at it, it would be there waiting, this knowledge. thesetiny bright spots of revelatory insight. i‘d journal. i‘d cry.sometimes light and gentle, warm feel-good crying. some-times sobs, wracking and exhausting. i thoUght i Was losing

my minD a FEW timEs …the result? i‘m becoming who i was long ago. the fieldby-passed my intellect and went directly to my heart to pryit open.... i now know what i had deeply buried in me foryears, and the gift of the pick and shovel for the ongoingprocess comes from being in the energy of the folks in ourclassroom. it didn’t come from me alone (2008: 28).

i want to emphasize that it wasn’t my intention totrigger such deep existential reactions among mystudents. in fact, fearing that they were out ofplace in a university setting, i often tried to dampthem down, but i found that this was impossiblewithout damaging the teaching process itself.Whenever my students and i would gather andsimply cover the day’s assignment, these eventswould spontaneously occur without my consciouslyintending them. it was as though fire was lightingfire. When we would simply focus on the task ofsharing understanding, these resonances of living expe-rience would spring up unpredictably – not alwaysbut often – drawing the students into heightenedstates of awareness.

T H E C H A L L E N G E S

O F S E L F - T R A N S F O R M A T I O N

most of the students who were touched by thesedynamics experienced them as uplifting, even exhilarating“Aha!” moments. for some students, however, theprocess presented them with difficult personal chal-lenges. As the spiritual literature makes clear, purifica-tion is the companion of liberation. before we can real-ize the greater being that we are, we must confront andrelease whatever is holding us back from realizing thispotential – some habit of thought, some emotionalconstriction. When some of my students were activatedby what i believe is a life-enhancing process, their sys-tems began a process of spontaneous detoxification –shedding of old patterns, old ways of thinking andfeeling. i do not believe this would have happened tothem if they had not been ready for it at a deeperlevel, even inviting it. They entered this transforma-tional process because they were ripe for it.These cathartic activations became particularly pro-nounced during a period of several years when i wasundergoing a series of powerful transformative expe-riences in my personal practice that were breakingme down at very deep levels. The details of these


experiences are not important here and are describedin my book Dark night, Early Dawn.many spiritual traditions describe a phase of inner workthat involves dissolving the boundary between self andother. They describe a membrane that marks the bound-ary between one’s individual mind-field and surroundingfields of awareness. on the near side of this membrane,the world appears to be composed of separate beings, eachwith their seemingly private existence. on the far side ofthe membrane, the world appears as an integrated whole, acontinuum of energy that is unfathomably complex andextravagantly beautiful. hence, this boundary membrane isoften described as the domain of death and rebirth, deathto the prison of the private self and rebirth into a largerorder of wholeness that underlies and saturates life’s diver-sity. When a practitioner is transitioning through this ter-ritory, standing at the interface of these two paradoxicallycompatible realities, powerful synchronicities with sur-rounding persons sometimes manifest. As my inner work came to focus on this boundary,triggering the purifications that typically accompanythis transition, some of my students began to simulta-neously undergo particularly difficult challenges intheir lives. most of my students did not enter thesewaters, of course, and passed through my coursesuntouched by these dynamics, but some did enterthem. Those who did so sometimes felt themselvescoming to a breaking point in their lives or amoment of supreme risk-taking. it was as thoughthey and i were being drawn together through acollective death-rebirth vortex, a vortex that wasbreaking all of us down in different ways, uproot-ing deeply buried pains, and crushing restrictivebarriers in our lives. Some students chose to end bad marriages or toheal wounded ones. others left careers they hadoutgrown but were still holding onto. (Thirty per-cent of the students at my university are older,non-traditional students.) Some began to con-front their addictions and others to re-approachpersons from whom they had been estrangedfor many years. one woman in her mid-fortieshints at the profound disruption of her innerand outer worlds that occurred during this peri-od when she began to spontaneously recoverpainful memories of child abuse, in a bud-dhism course of all places:During and after having been in your classes, my internalworld became increasingly chaotic as demons from painfulpsychological gestalts began to emerge, and eventually color-ing my external world too, challenging everything i thoughti was and dissolving familiar reference points [...]. as istruggled to break through powerful gestalts of pain, youspoke to and nourished my soul, making it possible for me tomove more deeply into my spiritual journey (2008: 32).

obviously the phenomena i’m describing raiseimportant pedagogical and ethical issues. As my stu-dents came to me with these reports and i saw howdeeply they were being affected by this mysteriousalchemy that had opened between us, i was morethan a little shaken myself. neither of us hadsolicited this connection, yet here it was. did ineed to protect them from what was happening?obviously this was not what they had consciouslysigned up for when they had signed up for mycourse. how does one ensure informed consentwhen the dynamics are so involuntary and beyondthe pale of current academic discussion?While the activation some of my students expe-rienced during this period was quite powerful,there were no casualties and many positivebreakthroughs. on the rare occasion when a stu-dent’s self-transformation became particularlyturbulent, i referred him or her to a gifted thera-pist in the area with whom they could processwhat was emerging in a safe setting.

T H E E C O L O G Y


While these kinds of responses might be expectedin certain types of courses, such as a counselingcourse, this is not the case for the kind of courses iwas teaching. it was not the content of the coursethat seemed to be driving these effects but some-thing deeper. i believe it was the interaction of oursubtle life energy underneath the exchange of words andideas. What was triggering these effects was not whati was doing but what i had become. because of theintense practice i was doing at the time, my energywas running differently. or to put it more carefully,the field of energy of which “i” am a part was flowingmore strongly.The experiences my students were having appear todemonstrate a simple principle: clarified states of conscious-ness are contagious. my efforts to realize deeper states ofawareness seem cause my person to begin acting as a kindof lightning rod triggering sparks of a similar awakeningamong those students who were receptive to this influ-ence. like ripples spreading across water, this is an utterlynatural effect. When one person begins to throw off layersof egoic conditioning and to awaken to clearer, moreinclusive states of awareness, surrounding persons will beaffected. This is due to the nature of consciousness itself.our spiritual ecology simply does not permit privateawakening. The ecology of consciousness is an inherentlycollective ecology.Though this suggestion is still regarded as heretical inmost academic circles given the dictates of the Carte-sian-newtonian paradigm, it raises fewer eyebrowsin spiritual communities, which have long known


that persons undergoing deep transformation affectthose around them in subtle ways. Satprem, forexample, discusses this phenomenon in his biographyof Sri Aurobindo (1993) where he writes:[…] sri aurobindo and the mother would realize that trans-formation is not just an individual problem but one involvingthe earth and that no individual transformation is possible (orat least complete) without some degree of collective transforma-tion […] it should be noted that each time sri aurobindo andthe mother had some experience indicating a new progress in thetransformation, the disciples, without their even knowing any-thing about it, experienced in their consciousness a period ofincreased difficulties or even revolts and illnesses, as if everythingwere grating. now we begin to understand how things work (291).

Similarly, scholar-practitioner mike Sayama mentionsthis phenomenon in his book, samadhi (1986). in hisdiscussion of the dynamics of ch’i, Sayama quotes thejapanese healer Kaneko Shoseki who observes:apart from the normal communication between men throughlanguage and action there is another quite different sort of mutu-al influence. it is that of the rhythm of the original strengthwhich permeates all human beings and nature. through itevery individual thing […] is connected with every other. ifthen one who is further removed from the working of the pri-mordial Force is close to one who lives more in accord with it,the rhythm of the primordial Force will certainly be transmit-ted from the one to the other. the latter without knowing itexerts a good influence on the other (80-81).

L E A R N I N G F I E L D S

A N D G R O U P M I N D S

in addition to the experiences listed above, therewere other anomalies taking place in my class-room that pushed me to look beyond these indi-vidual resonances to the collective dynamics ofthe class as a whole.Perhaps the most important observation thatpushed me toward a collective reading of theseevents was the sheer magnitude of the forcesthat seemed to be involved. Too many people’slives were being too deeply affected for me toconceptualize what was taking place solely interms of resonance with my individual energy.if my person was in some way a catalyst forthese experiences to surface among my students,what was actually surfacing was something largerthan i alone could be generating. As i made theshift to thinking of this larger “something” interms of a collective field of consciousness, a varietyof conceptual and experiential pieces began tofall into place.Students were becoming more porous not only tome but also to each other. They sometimes showedup in each other’s dreams in significant ways. Syn-chronicities were increasing between them, and life-expanding coincidences were becoming common in

my courses. As one male student who returned tocollege after a twenty-year absence reported to me:Each quarter seemed to bring new and unexpected changesand synchronicities. i entered into a web of personal rela-tionships and meetings with people that profoundly influ-enced my life. i was “finding” individuals whose circum-stances were eerily similar to my own; people who knewfriends of mine from obscure places in the world; peoplewho seemed to be reading the same books at the sametimes and having experiences that were transforming themin the same shattering yet exhilarating ways (2008: 44).

A female student sent me the following descrip-tion of the connectivity she had experiencedwith other students in several courses.all of us who have been in your classes feel a deep con-nection to one another. We don’t know what it is. Weonly know that it is there. all that i know is that i havefelt something binding us all together. i remember thingsgoing on around me in class with the other students. Wewere sensitive to each other’s thoughts and feelings […] ialways wondered if you knew what was going on becauseyou never said a thing in class! (2008: 44).

Sometimes insights surfaced in the room thatseemed to come not from me or from any indi-vidual student but rather from the strength ofour combined collective awareness. This is a verysubtle but distinctive experience. Sometimes when i am simply doing my job cover-ing the day‘s assignment, it‘s as if the floor suddenlyfalls away. The atmosphere in the room becomessupercharged, and everyone seems to congeal into aunified state. my mind becomes unusually spaciousand clear, and my students‘ eyes tell me that they havemoved into a particularly receptive state. our heartsseem to merge, and from this open field of compassioncomes a slow stream of thoughts that i, as spokespersonfor the group, unfold and work with.in these transient moments of heightened awareness, isometimes have the acute sensation that there is onlyone mind present in the room. it’s as if the walls thatusually separate us have become gossamer curtains.individual persons melt into a softly glowing field ofenergy, and this unified energy thinks and feels andhungers to speak. because this field incorporates the lifeexperience of everyone present, of course we sometimesfind the details of our separate histories surfacing spon-taneously in it. because it embodies our private hopesand fears, of course we are sometimes deeply touchedby what comes out of it.And then there was the strange way that my studentsbegan to periodically “jump forward” in their learningen masse. i found that periodically i had to adjust mycourse material because the students seemed to havetaken a quantum step forward in their receptivity tothe ideas being presented. After years of using acarefully designed roadmap to achieve a specific


intellectual outcome, a new crop of students wouldsignal me that they were already weeks ahead of mein the syllabus. it was as if they had found a shortcutto certain conclusions and no longer needed to betaken the long way around.of course, many factors may have contributed to thisdevelopment, including general shifts in cultural insight,self-selecting student populations, and improved peda-gogical delivery. but after watching this cycle repeatitself numerous times through the years, i’m convincedthat there was more going on than just this. These shiftstake place too suddenly and too frequently for them tobe fully accounted for by these explanations.Slowly i began to recognize that there was a meta-learn-ing taking place behind the scenes, a pattern of collec-tive learning that ran deeper than the learning of indi-vidual students. i began to hypothesize that there werelearning fields growing around my courses, fields of con-sciousness that registered the learning taking placesemester after semester, fields of influence that weremaking it easier for subsequent generations of studentsto learn the same material.readers familiar with rupert Sheldrake’s pioneeringwork on morphic fields will recognize his influencehere (1981, 1988, 1991). Sheldrake helped me makesense of these phenomena by allowing me to seethem as symptoms of a collective mind growingstronger over time. his work gave me permission totake the radical step of recognizing that not justindividual persons with complex nervous systemshave minds, groups also have minds. my experiencewith my students year after year pushed me totake his revolutionary hypothesis concerning thespecies mind one step further. even transientgroups can manifest a kind of group conscious-ness under certain conditions. from my perspec-tive, these conditions are: 1) collective intentionfocused in an emotionally engaging group pro-ject; 2) a project of sustained duration, and 3)repetition of the project in approximately thesame form many times1.if consciousness is a field and fields are by natureporous, the learning of one individual cannotbe isolated from the learning of others nearby.recognizing the field-like nature of mind makesit easier to understand how minds might linktogether, even “phase lock” with other minds toform larger operational wholes. This tendency tosynchronize with nearby systems is not unique toconsciousness but is characteristic of nature as awhole. As Steven Strogatz says in his book, sync,“for reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendencyto synchronize is one of the most pervasive drivesin the universe, extending from atoms to animals,from people to planets.”

To teach consciously in a world where minds areseparate at one level and yet “entangled” at anothercalls for a more intentional pedagogy than envi-sioned in the atomistic newtonian paradigm. Theparadigm emerging today emphasizes the inherentconnectivity of life and the powerful tendency ofnature to synchronize its many parts into largerwholes (bloom, Kaufmann, radin). Accordingly,the pedagogy that will accompany this paradigmwill recognize the innate connectivity of con-sciousness and the contagious quality of states ofawareness. in the living classroom, i outline thestrategies i developed over many years to workconstructively with these natural forces.

I N T E R C O N N E C T I V I T Y

A N D I N D I V I D U A L I T Y

in closing, i want to emphasize that the collec-tive dynamics of consciousness i’ve been point-ing to here do not cancel or negate the individu-ality that we rightly prize so highly in the West.While a growing body of research suggests thatour actions and intentions affect each other inhidden ways, within this matrix of connectivityindividuality is not suffocated but is paradoxicallyliberated into deeper forms of self-expression. Theself that consciously participates in the larger flowsof life and the transparency of being becomes morethan the self who did not do so. experientially open-ing to the collective fields that surround us melts theboundaries of the private ego, bringing about the“death of self” spoken of in the spiritual literature, butas the ego dies a deeper form of individuality is beingbirthed – not an isolated individuality but one thatthrives in this subtle give and take, an individualitywith expanded responsibilities and a longer time hori-zon. in the end, i think we will see that expanding thebreadth of our conscious participation in the surround-ing matrix of life is actually bringing forward a newdepth of personal presence in history. 8

———————

1 See bache, 2008: § 2. When i say that a group has a “groupmind,” i don’t mean to suggest that it has a centre of prehension oragency that controls its many members in ways comparable to how“i” control the limbs of my body. nor am i suggesting that it isself-aware in the same way or to the same degree that we are self-aware. As a field of influence, a group mind does not usurp thefreedoms, rights, or responsibilities of the individual minds thatcompose it. The challenge here is to envision forms of integralintelligence that augment and complement the individualhuman abilities we rightly value so highly.


R E F E R E N C E S

bAChe, C. (2000). Dark night, Early Dawn (Albany, ny:State university of new york Press).

—— (2008). the living classroom (Albany, ny: State univer-sity of new york Press).

blACKmAn, S. (1997). graceful Exits (boston: Shambhala).bloom, h. (2000). global Brain (new york: john Wiley and

Sons).brooKS, m. (2004). “Quantum quirk may give objects mass”,

in new scientist, october 24.goSWAmi, A. (1995). the self-aware Universe (new york:

Tarcher/Putnam).KAufmAn, S. (1995). at home in the Universe (new york:

oxford uP).lASZlo, e. (1999). the interconnected Universe (Singapore:

World Scientific Publishing).—— (2003). the connectivity hypothesis (Albany, ny: State

university of new york Press).—— (2004). science and the akashic Field (rochester, vT:

inner Traditions).rAdin, r. (2006). Entangled minds (new york: Pocket

books).SATPrem. (1993). sri aurobindo or the adventure of con-

sciousness (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram).SAyAmA, m. (1986). samadhi (Albany, ny: State university of

new york Press).SheldrAKe, r. (1981). a new science of life (los Angeles:

j. P. Tarcher).—— (1988). the presence of the past (new york: vintage).—— (1991). the rebirth of nature (new york: bantam).STrogATZ, S. (2003). sync (new york: hyperion books).

a b


dreAming eArThmiChAel d. AuSTin

For sport, joy and sustainability,michael D. austin integratesinformation from seeminglydisparate fields into useful

thought and action. austin is anenvironmental journalist via Blue

planet almanac, mentors executives,key managers and individuals with

practical grintuition trainings, edits a modest web page on non-local consciousness (http://www.facebook.com/nonlocalaware-ness) and does business development and technology with Warn-er Bros. animation characters and athletes, benefitting nonprof-its (http://www.theUnstoppableEarlcampbell.org). this yearaustin rekindled his personal inquiries about the chumashWestern gate. he read religious studies and environmentalstudies in University of california, attended rosalynBruyere’s healing light center, and was an interpreter forthe United states’ seventh sister city program. Website:http://practicalgrintuition.com; email: [email protected].

if you would divine the future, study the past.C o n f u C i u S

A s A b o v e…

e live by The

grace of ourplanet. billionsof people like

you and me are examplesin awareness of their ownmicrocosm, in their ownenvironments. it is ourcollective voices, expressedin our daily choices whichchange the world or makeit the same. in the aggre-gation of our collectiveexperience we will findour salvation in sustain-ability by our own hands.i have watched the worlda long time, and it is clearthe only things which will

save us from our destructive choices are compas-sion, self-love and sense.yet, it is forever impossible to take the man out ofearth, or earth out of the man. We are together,joyfully embedded. The two are beautifully insep-arable and intertwined, and can by nature nevergrow apart. Two hundred thousand years ago wearose from earth, as an integrated part of it.Twenty five thousand years from now, we willstill be part of earth’s systems.Sustainability and development could be best dis-tilled to an approach in policy and life similar tothat suggested by Tenzin gyatso, the 14th dalailama. he would say that most of our challengesin sustainability can be solved through compas-sionate, living connected to earth, and that most ofus spend too much time between our ears, insteadof living in connection to the world. of course, tobe successful in consciousness or development, one’spersonal experiences must be accessible and shared.Community is formed through shared stories.“What story do you chose to live by?” is a questionwriter Catherine Ann jones would ask. how aboutyour own experience of earth – of gaia? What areyour experiences like, and what do you want? in addi-tion to your role in shaping environmental, social or

financial policies, are youa loving householder, areyou spectacular at calcu-lus, do you find magicwhen a soccer pro spinsthe ball on his index fin-ger? do you raise whatyou eat, or paint art thatmakes tears well up incollectors’ eyes?What is framed in yourwindows to earth? Whodo you see? What do youeat and drink? do youpay real attention to thesigns the earth providesin support of its life? eachindividual must answerthese questions for him-self. our joys in survival

D R E A M I N G E A R T HM I C H A E L D . A U S T I N

W


fig. 1 ~ earth 1999. europe top left, india toward center.[nASA/marshall].

are also a direct result of the skills our successfulancestors practiced hundreds of thousands of yearsago, as when they came home from a successful hunt,or when they gathered wild edibles.lately our kind are constantly pushing the limits of ourexperience as well as earth’s capacities. in daily life, sci-ence or sport, our living sometimes carries an adrenalinrush from that same heritage. People love feeling vibrantlyalive, and we sometimes crave greater risks which makethe feeling stronger. As anti-environmental as it seems atfirst glance, as an experience in consciousness and adrena-lin i have many times loved piloting a street performancecar at triple-digit speeds on racetracks. An unparalleled,peaceful stillness of mind arises from your focus. morethan once at triple-digit speeds i felt a huge sense of mysurroundings, and my field felt like a sphere 90 meters indiameter, reaching deep into the earth. Safely back in thepaddock, you can slice your sense of expansive exhilara-tion with a knife and serve pieces to your friends! Such anexperience is a direct result of our heritage in the wild,and our place on earth.With 50 years’ environmental perspective in a broadly-experienced north American body, i also hosted bluePlanet Almanac talk radio1. Through my show, i hadthe fresh honour and pleasure to interview widely-regarded, earth-conscious experts from differentcountries and diverse fields, discussing sustainabilitywith them in a subtext of consciousness. i regularlyasked them what sustainability meant in humandevelopment. in addition, i delivered separate,spoken environmental news segments. one globalfact learned from blue Planet Almanac is therehas been little change in our kind’s march ofenvironmental dominionism during the past fouryears, or even 50 years. To be sure, there havebeen notable pauses on our path. yet, most of usstill prefer to separate ourselves from a dailyexperience and appreciation of a natural earth.our shared stories remain at arm’s length fromour deep heritage. most of us prefer subduedpastoral scenes or cities instead of Thoreau’spreservation of the world through wildness.but our lives remain the choices made manifestby our values. We still endanger all of agricultureon the planet. in 2011, i interviewed master bee-keeper Tom Theobald, who was credited withtaking the uS to task about falsified testing ofneonicotinoid pesticides2. bayer Ag still makesthem, and we still buy and use them althoughthey are clearly implicated in bee colony collapsedisorder. Suppressing our connections to theearth, people in any country still try to suppressother’s wills. in the united States, the planetary,unseen consequences of the 2010 “Citizens united”

decision by the uS Supreme Court3 are only nowbeing understood and challenged4. The Citizensunited decision allows uS corporations many ofthe same rights as individuals and also allowsunlimited, hidden spending by corporations innational elections. it is simple to figure the down-stream consequences of such a corporate grip onpolicies in sustainability or development. “Cor-porate virtual states” as i have seen Stephan A.Schwartz refer to them5,6 now encircle the globe,hidden beneath the onion-layers of public rela-tions divisions. virtual, corporate policies areoften beyond the sight or regulatory reach of anation’s people.how will it be possible for sane stewardship ofearth’s lives and systems, while we cannot evenhonour in compassion our own kind? The uSgovernment is now enacting new and chillinglaws regarding the same personal freedoms,which 245 years ago its founders declared to beinalienable rights. one such law, passed in April2012, allows unwarranted strip searches of any uScitizen7. other new laws allow acts against uS cit-izens like their assassination, indefinite detention,the use of secret evidence against them in secretcourts, as well as the commonly discussed invasivesurveillance of individuals8. united States govern-ment agents are now routinely given immunityfrom prosecution for their war crimes. All of thiscame from the member nation of the organizationfor economic Cooperation and development, whoseinfant mortality rate ranks 31st out of its 34 members.in 1960 the uS was 12th in rank9.in a common American sense of the world “develop-ment,” it refers to real estate, and that has not changedin decades. This old-school connotation means that thehighest and best use of land is its profitable commercialdevelopment. in any country such a policy obliteratesnatural ecosystems by laying down tarmac and build-ings. but while there are still somnambulists, many ofus have instead seen what is happening here and in theother countries. What is new under the Sun for every-one on earth, including increasing numbers of forward-looking Americans, is the realization that our kind havecreated environmental situations which are straightfor-ward in origin, but which have unpleasant solutions.from a nation with a history of using a disproportion-ate quantity of the world’s resources while having just4% of its people10 you would imagine most uS citizen’sdefinition of the concepts of development, sustainabilityand consciousness are self-serving. yet, in all industri-alized nations, all of us love resource-intensive tabletcomputers, smart phones, electricity and fossil fuels.even i use them. every group of five nation aspiringto the group of eight wants its own technologically-intensive style of living. Among other, developing

M I C H A E L D . A U S T I N | D R E A M I N G E A R T H | 1 8 2

nations who dream of “higher standards of living”,nature is often held at arms-length. from this approachwill still be paid inescapable environmental costs byevery living thing.What is new in the past few years is that larger num-bers of us are now thinking and feeling from the real-ization that we could have interconnected futures. Thatwould seem to be a natural evolution of our conscious-ness. in this context you have likely heard of the “gaiatheory.” it is the scientific notion recently credited totechnologist james lovelock11, that the earth’s myriadecosystems contain homeostatic mechanisms that main-tain our planet’s stability. lovelock is careful to mentionhe does not think earth does this consciously. by his pen,there are five books with “gaia” in their titles. in the booksection of Amazon on-line shopping site, 4,186 resultswere returned in searching for that same word.lovelock’s gaia theory, or the related, popular feeling of“gaia consciousness12” are very similar but infinitelyvaluable tools to our kind. Attitudes of interconnectionhelp us realize that our actions are not isolated, so wecan imagine the downstream effects of how we live.many aboriginal traditions feel and believe that earth’ssystems are conscious. We became a clever species withsuperior imagination and power. Thus, observing orimagining our experiences from 15,000 meters abovethe earth is useful and many good thinkers and feel-ers do that. you get a beautiful picture of the trillionsof lights in the preponderance of areas we inhabit.you realize we now cover earth.yet, some of us have realized the time for provingour power and dominion over the earth is cen-turies past. now is instead a time of awareness ofour long moment as a species integrated with itshome. in this spirit, the long now foundationwas co-founded by Stewart brand, and “...wasestablished in 1996 to creatively foster long-termthinking and responsibility in the framework of thenext 10,000 years.13” brand was creator and editorof the Whole earth Catalog.We are social, tribal animals – groups of anorganism that find it tricky to act upon or intel-lectualize about the impact of our kind beyondour own noses. our early nature had clear andproven survival values in our distant pasts. even-tually, our perspective from above leads us to therealization that gaia is also an individual percep-tion, based in one’s own experiences and stories.Thus the view at 1.7 meters, inside your eyes, canbe equally enlightening. individuals of our kindmust hear someone else’s grasp of what we aredoing – another person’s experience – to have anunderstanding of our own conscious experiencesand appreciation of them. it is in our nature asindividuals and tribal members, and we must sharestories to create the value of communities.

We are part of the earth, embedded in its systemsjust as is any stone, tree, bird, elephant or cheetahyou could ever choose as an example. here aresome stories and scenes from my view. As i writethis after awakening on a bright sunny, windy,southern California morning, it is clear to methat the best way for our kind to sustain ourselvesin joy is to acknowledge gaia’s past. We mustrecognize who we are and our place here, whileat the same time standing and walking in ourjoys connected to the earth. having seen thepast and future, the evidence that there is noother good choice is as clear as an untouchedalpine lake at 3,600 meters.but my opinion about gaia has only one-7 bil-lionth the impact of how we do things together.And when you consider the effects of synergy,our collective visions and actions will either sinkor carry us. We usually have choices, and oftenget only what we accept. of course, we are indifferent bodies for many good reasons, likeneighbouring trees in a beautiful, still and scentedforest. but our shared visions and futures can beremarkably complementary when we choose togeth-er. To see earth most clearly, what it is and whereit is bound, you have to cultivate your joy in thenatural world, in your seen and unseen connectionsto it. if you want to preserve earth and your friendsin other countries, there is nothing more complex tobe done than that and make your voice count. earthmust be held sacred for us to prosper.no magical power will descend in spheres of lightfrom the sky and solve our environmental problemswith science, consciousness or development. Will abelief and faith in some higher power help? Perhaps.yet, although i stand in downward causation, i wouldalso place my faith in a planet of compassionate atheistswho would not control everything and instead workwithin the boundaries of a gaian awareness.We are still struggling to realize that science will notsolve everything, because it is only an expression of ourvalues. Science is just a method with its means appliedthrough our wishes, not a god of truth to be worshipped.most of the brilliantly conceived environmental sciencewe have done in the last 200 years has not amounted to ahandful of magical beans. otherwise, the myriad changeswe have made to the earth would have already beensolved. There will always be important exceptions, suchas when we reduced the problems we caused with chlo-rofluorocarbons and ozone. but most of our scientisticvalues and efforts have tipped us toward the money offranken-science, or red herrings such as gmos and flu-orescent mammals. We have often made choices whichfail, and we still spend time and money wonderinghow we can colonize the moon or other planets,


while problems mount earthside. our values andactions are what solve problems, not priestly scientists.in spite of all the games we play with ourselves andeach other, we do understand what is going on andwhat our options are. We have choices and we enjoyexercising them. We are conscious of them as we takeour risks to feel alive. many of us would say that choicesare one of the biggest reasons we show up here. And you?each of us sees slightly different choices for ourselves. bynature, synergistic effects always ensue, which in turnmagnify into manifold futures we make on our little plan-et. our choices, futures and pasts eventually becomeabout the time we have to spend doing or ignoring them.

We shall never cease from exploration / and the end of allour exploring / Will be to arrive where we started /

and know the place for the first time.T. S . e l i o T

T I M E A N D C O N S C I O U S N E S S

one feature of a gaian consciousness – one connected toearth – is that you realize time must be factored intoyour awareness. Time has been a natural experience ofour consciousness on earth and in gaia. do we havetime to change our-selves so we can bea part of planetarychange? Can wemake time to man-age our own power?These days you don’tneed a scientist, politi-cian or talk radiohost to answer thatfor you.Time is often calledthe action of con-sciousness upon itself.yet, is it not curiousthat an altered or ele-vated state of mindmakes us feel as iftime does not exist? many who appreciate earthfeel an inexplicable, timeless, mysterious andmystical connection to it. Time and space arethus vital to our understanding of how we changegaia, and how it changes us. my personal expe-rience of time and space inspire in me awe andrespect. our kind can see and feel past theboundaries of our skins, forward into the futureor backward, from where we came. i am but oneof millions who feel this and you can find us onevery continent.if the robin’s nest in the birch tree outside yourwindow is not something that interests you, then

you will be absent the concept that it is in yoursphere of influence, or you in theirs. it would as ifthe robin’s nest or birch tree were an illusion.you would feel as if observers like rachel Carsonnever existed or affect you. but in fifty years ihave already witnessed uncomfortable changesas they happen. We are a species with muchmore power over time and space than we usuallysuspect. over time, what will humankind actu-ally do in gaia? Will we do only the life-affirm-ing, compassionate acts, as would suggest aresearcher in consciousness14?As a vastly powerful group of conscious organ-isms making daily choices, it is romantic to imag-ine we will preserve the planet intact for millenniato come. for those paying attention, that is not asure thing. it is going to be a close shave. Phoningus from brazil during government policy meet-ings, renowned biologist Thomas lovejoy iii,remarked on blue Planet Almanac radio that heexpected we could lose 1/4 to 1/3 of all species onearth from anthropogenic change15. Some scientistsquote larger percentages. Texas farmer and environ-

mental author, ericherm, remarkedthat corporate agri-culture has reducedthe nutritional valueof our food by 30%to 70% in the past 50years16. We haveheard many factsand predictions suchas these.So, then, what timeare we willing tospend learning andworking on com-passionate environ-mental considera-tions? in figure 2 is

a simple snapshot of what self-actualized Americans arewilling to read: from the same website, Amazon.com,where i searched the word “gaia” in books, i alsosearched the other words shown in the table. The num-bers in the table show the search results for each word.in a world with key challenges in sustainability, whichinclude water, food, air, climate change and peace,you can see what people are willing to pay to learnabout. Sustainability and compassion are literally atthe bottom of our list of interests. Science and busi-ness are at the top. Would you think that searches ofyour own nation’s favoured book site would yieldsimilar results?


fig. 2 ~ Word search results in “books” at Amazon.com, April 2012.

Will you act about, or react to this? Could you createa figurative, symbiotic virus containing your positivechoices, which over time infects those with whom youcome in contact? you can either surrender your futureto visions like those in the hopi prophecies, or graspeach moment and change your small part of the future.no matter who claims to predict the future, none of usare omniscient. however, as a group, as a tribe of ani-mals with reflective consciousness– we appreciate exactlywhat is happening, sometimes even before it comes toour conscious awareness. roger d. nelson’s remarkableglobal Consciousness Project verifies that17. What willyou choose today? What is in your grasp and power?how can you make your voice and actions heard?

… S o B e l o wAs the wind blows blissfully outside, i am writing theseexamples in the hopeful possibility of our joyfulfutures together. it is impossible to take mankind outof gaia, or gaia out of the man. you can appreciatethat from 15,000 meters above the earth, but, nowflash down to 1.7 meters, at eye level. let us acknowl-edge our individual and smaller tribal experiences.our daily choices are made as individuals, and last-ing change starts there. in this, it would be helpfulto share my perspective and stories; i affect whatyou do, as you affect me. i will write to you now asif i were sitting with you.These days i am often seen in a blazer, tie andslacks. yet, as a child, i loved earth rhythms becausethey felt “right” and i knew no other context formy most mystical experiences of life. i still feelintimately connected to gaia – frequently, beauti-fully, timelessly and inexplicably. i feel and seeconsciousness and reflections of gaian awarenessin animals, plants and even stones found in thenatural world. Words fail in such descriptions, asthey might fall short in describing subatomicquantum theories. my direct experience of gaiasucceeds. but a famous outdoorsman like AnselAdams, earth advocate like Wendell berry,activist like Petra Kelly, or American lakotaindian medicine man like Archie fire lamedeer i will never be. in lakota parlance manyearth-lovers would call me a wasi’chu – someonewho takes the fat.So i do not feel special or like the only one whofeels this way. indeed, it is more the opposite, i feelmysteriously and vastly connected to all who havebeen among us. i even have a fondness for the ideaof genetic memory associated with jung’s collectiveunconscious, wherein you have access to what is inthe past, present or future. in such a moment you areless connected to your own, individual mind, but can

also appreciate your place in our kind’s shared expe-riences. And, none of our experiences will changeour 200,000-year history on this tiny planet.for most of that time, many if not most of us livedwithin earth rhythms. oftentimes we feared wehad no other choices, but it is equally true thatour many forebears celebrated and revered themysteriously beautiful processes of nature. overthe millennia, we have grown bolder and less con-nected. now, many of us think we are beyondand above our first nature. of course, that isimpossible.here is an example of a seemingly ineffable,beautiful and mysterious, but utilitarian factabout gaia. Approximately 32 years before jamesSpottiswoode discovered the local Sidereal Timeeffect18 and geomagnetic effect on parapsycho-logical experiments, in childhood i occasionallynoticed there was a curious, daily 90-minuteperiod. Particularly in the summer as i would gowalk-about in my town, my intuition duringthose times was especially acute. i could notexplain it and as a child never discussed it withanyone. but i still used it. The daily location ofthis time period seemed to move with the seasons,so it never occurred to me that it was a repeatablephenomenon. now, i understand that is becauseSidereal days are about four minutes shorter thanSolar days. i was sensing both Sidereal time andearth-local geomagnetisms.Today, i appreciate Spottiswoode’s discovery to meanthis: 30 minutes either side of 13:50 hours Sidereal time,while the earth’s magnetic fields and solar winds arecalm, he showed that experiments or actions based inintuition stood an astronomically higher chance of suc-cess. Schwartz discusses this in his 2007 survey book ofresearch in consciousness, opening to the infinite19. Thisphenomenon means our intuition is often stronger andmore accurate at those times. Such an experience has bigimplications and use. Through consistent intuitions andexperience, through time and space, i have discovered thatour consciousness never stopped at the boundaries of ourskins, and never will. no one knows exactly how this hap-pens. but i can tell you why: i am embedded in gaia, asare you. We grew up here, and it makes perfect sense thatwe would have capabilities most of us have forgotten.These days i keep a sidereal clock on my desktop com-puter, my smart phone and my tablet computer. Theseare means to remind the suburban me that i live in askin, on a tiny planet – the only one known of its kind– in an even thinner envelope of life.i grew up like anyone else in a middle-class southernCalifornia neighbourhood. Around the age of five, idiscovered the transcendent effects of southern Califor-nia’s adiabatic santana winds on my mood. Santana


winds sometimes gave me sniffles from allergies, butwithout fail they also made me see and feel acrosstown, or halfway around the earth. forty years ago,most reputable, occidental psychologists would havetold my parents i was crazy in the coconut. These daysthere is more of a tendency in popular books andamong educated souls to honour such an experience.There is at least one nonfiction book which discusses apossible mechanism how the Santanas affect people,the ion Effect, by Soyka and edmonds20. now, you willinstead find police and fire battalion captains whowould verify, sotto voce, that Santanaschange people’s moods.Wind still has this enlivening effecton me, and this morning as i write ifind the cold northers irresistibly,joyful and exciting! They are quitepowerful and compel me to get up andgo walkabout out of doors. Thoreauwrote about the sound of wind in thetrees, “the Earth is our ship, and thisis the sound of the wind in her riggingas we sail.”on childhood vacations, my fam-ily often did tent camping in Cal-ifornia’s Sierra nevada. At seven icaught my first, wild rainbowtrout in dorst Creek, in the unitedStates’ Sequoia national forest. i reeled it in althoughi was scared of its newness and tiny, sharp teeth.but there were also times when i understoodthings, via perceptions which few adults wanted toacknowledge or discuss. When i was around 10, iremember “talking” with our much older 16 year-old neighbour, gary. he was sometimes scarybecause he often wore a frown, was twice my sizeand moved very fast – and jerkily – withoutfluid motion. but there seemed to be a kindquality about him because of the compassionprovided to him by his social experience. Tomost everyone, adults and children alike, hisspeech was unintelligible as he was an rh child.i remember his mother’s quiet surprise that iwas able to understand him. That experience isjust one among hundreds of millions otherpeople’s, and such examples are available to anyof us as part of our gaian heritage. our abilitiesand mysterious embedment in gaia can begin ahumbling process that there are forces vastlygreater than oneself.in little league baseball, i batted over .300 and wasaverage at fielding. our coach would station me inright field so the busier left field would be bettercovered. but, regularly i caught and brought homelizards, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, beetles andan occasional snake or field mouse. i met them in

the many beautiful avocado, lemon and citrusgroves in our foothills, in addition to riverbeds andchaparral. by 11 years of age i knew most local ani-mals and plants by name. Sometimes i capturedmy guests with a slip-noose from the supple tip offresh, wild oat grass, an invasive species commonby my home. my guests visited the terrarium inmy room, and were later released.At age 13, my insect collection for secondaryschool biology contained a broad range of exam-ples. The usual locusts, moths, a butterfly and a

stinkbug were present. but the two daz-zling prizes were a beautiful, astonishingvirgin Tiger moth, and a fluorescent,emerald green tortoise beetle from SouthAmerica. my maternal grandfather col-lected four such leaf beetles in 1917 as amerchant seaman, from Argentina orbrazil. This leaf beetle’s scientific namesare polychalca punctatissima or Desmonotavariolosa, and they are sometimes madeinto jewellery.

Surrounded by chaparral, fluores-cent moonlight and gravestones,at 13 i shared my first kiss with a“much older” girl of 15, in the tinycemetery of Álamos, Sonora, mex-ico. At around 15 my father made

an open-air, outdoors cage, which housed my Amer-ican Kestrel, clad in jesses. After we got driver’slicenses, two of my favourite friends and i went to abarn owl’s nest and i brought home an eyass. one ofthose friends became a field biologist and painter, theother a teacher in secondary schools.before mobile phones and with medical assistance atleast two hours’ drive away, at age 17 i held a wild mojavesidewinder, entranced by his nature. later, etched on myawareness was the sight of my biologist-to-be friendcrouched - with his camera covering his face – only 90cm from another, coiled-to-strike, softly rattling, wildsidewinder. my friend’s church-going Catholic motherwas also a closet psychic, who had an experimentally ver-ified knack in predicting the fall of cards from behind aleaden screen. She once quietly acknowledged to meher son’s ability to calm animals. it was in contexts likethese that i grew up, with a soft realization i am asmart creature fuelled by instinct, like any other ani-mal embedded in an ecosystem. i depend upon theearth for my livelihood and joys.in my 20s i began meditating using methods fromAsian traditions, learning better how to calm myself.many of the experiences Patañjali described in thethird book (Vibhuti pada) of the yoga sutras beganoccurring for me. it was because of meditation, fif-teen years before i ever met them or knew who theywould be, i saw my wife-to-be and son-to-be. i


fig. 3 ~ South American leaf beetle(polychalca punctatissima), Sarefo, 9-2007.

knew their complexions, builds, hair colour and sawmy son’s eyes. i knew where my wife had grown upand that ours would be a quickly-paced, very chal-lenging and often productive relationship. At firstthese suspensions of time and space scared me and idid not believe they were plausible, let alone possible.of course, i am not the only one with experiences sim-ilar to those. Any shaman or spiritual teacher would saythere are many of us, as would Chumash teacher Kotelotah. it was from the podium of the internationalremote viewing organization’s 2007 conference, thatStephan A. Schwartz spoke this in his extemporaneouskeynote address:“[...] there are over 2,000 studies about nonlocal perturbation, in theform of what’s called ‘therapeuticintent research’ – that is, con-sciousness of one person affectingthe well-being of another. andthere are a similar number ofstudies involving things likeganzfeld, which is a sort of firstcousin of remote viewing, remoteviewing (itself ), the creativityresearch, the near death studiesresearch. so there’s a large body ofmaterial. We actually do know afew things about this… there area few things about which mostresearchers who do this work at avery rigorous level do agree with.the first thing that i think mostresearchers in this area wouldagree with is that there is incontrovertible evidence for theacquisition of information which could not be explained bynormal sensory intake. another thing that we agree on, isthat there is... some aspect of consciousness exists outside oftime-space [...] the problem, of course, for those peoplewho are critics, is that precognition ought not to exist atall, particularly precognition which extends out in time21.”

because we have suppressed our skills, heritageand histories, we regularly forget who we are andwhere we came from. When you suppress whatyou feel and see, you make yourself sick in bodyand soul. it is vital to remember our heritagethrough stories, and that we all share capacitiesand skills that can just as easily be acknowledgedand honoured. Thereafter, conscious choice fre-quently evolves into supra-consciousness, where-by we feel connections with all things on earth,alive or inanimate. it would make sense there atleast a hundred million earthlings, more than1.4% of us, who believe consciousness extends farbeyond the boundary of our skins, and that it wasnever limited to the local space between our ears.one of the ancient, indian variations on this ideamight be the aphorism, “What is here is elsewhere.What is not here is nowhere.” And for those of uswho do not subscribe to that, many others of us are

fond of popularized scientific theories like edwardnorton lorenz’ 1969 “butterfly effect,” a constructof chaos theory wherein a tiny change in a nonlin-ear system is theorized to have a later, massivelygreater effect at different time. The popular alter-native rock band, muse, even have a 2004 songtitled, “butterflies and hurricanes.”

L O C A L I Z E D H I S T O R I E S

A N D T I M E S

We are at least our consciousness of our place onearth, and certainly nothing less. We are notour experiences, but more our understanding of

them, as would say richardmcCann22, whose motherwas taken by the yorkshireripper.The fact is that our worlddoes have a past, presentand future. We live in oursense of it, and our momenthas worn thin. People claimany feeling or reason tojustify whatever they want.no one is going to makeanyone do otherwise simplybecause someone, someenvironmental ngo, or somenational government asksthem. on your own, when

you feel like it, you must decide for yourself to live theway you find most honourable and joyful. repeatedmillions of times across earth in past decades in region-al land and population developments, our history iscrystal clear from examples worldwide. let us stand backby looking through one person’s examples of this.There is a small semi-rural municipality 60 miles north-west of los Angeles, Santa Paula, CA. When europeansettlers first arrived in this region where i grew up, theyoften remarked about the vast, beautiful, tall fields of yel-low-flowered white mustard. Pedro font, a member ofjuan bautista de Anza’s 1776 expedition noted a massiveherd of now locally extinct Pronghorn when they arrived:“[…] there was a fairly large village whose indians had fish,

because it is near the sea; and on the river there were many geese,ducks, cranes, and other fowl. We saw in the plain a very largedrove of antelopes which, as soon as they saw us, fled like the wind,looking like a cloud skimming along the earth23.”it is surmised that a now-extinct American cheetah couldhave been the Pronghorn’s main predator, althoughoccasional Puma sightings are these days mentioned inthe Pronghorn’s former range. The vast fields of wildmustard have since been replaced by a town, industri-alized agriculture, housing developments, a small air-field and mostly-unobtrusive oil wells. The massive


fig. 4 ~ South mountain, Santa Paula, CA.Along the mountain’s base flows the Santa Clara river.

[Author].

and recently subsumed uSd 8 billion (annual revenue)petroleum company, unocal, was founded in SantaPaula. Santa Paula, California’s principal commercearound 1970 was in citrus, avocados and the daily auto-mobile commuting of its 14,000 residents to nearbymunicipalities. its commerce is roughly the same today.Twelve miles away lay the fertile, alluvial farming plainsof oxnard, which fed much of America for many years.more and more housing developments now coveroxnard’s once fertile land.industrialized agriculturehas depleted oxnard’s soil,putting back into it onlythree among hundreds ofvital nutrients.Wherever you grew up ornow live, there are parallelnatural and social historiesthat will share many ele-ments of the thumbnailsketches in time you justread. human kind multi-plies or prospers by nature,tries to turn nature to itsown liking, and promotesmassive ecological changeswhich can only be repairedwith diligent, reverentialattention. There is no wayto sugar coat this. We area ubiquitous, destructive,acquisitive and sometimesviolent species and thosetraits run throughout ourfamily. We can also be sotender we are inspired tocompassion and acts of surprising kindness orunderstanding.Are there still ways we can peacefully coexistwith the natural world, with gaia? yes. We havechoices. People’s individual and collective val-ues, expressed in their beliefs and daily lives, arewhat move them to action or indifference. Whowe are is actually straightforward and simple.regardless of our spiritual beliefs, we are stillanimals with souls. most of us crave that whichengenders the strongest feeling of being alive.All of us are built for ecstasy and seek it daily, aswould any other creature. many of us try to bal-ance that craving with our self-actualization, byhaving families, careers or little adventures.but, would you say it is likely that no culture,people or coalition of governments will have aneasy time stopping japan from decimating wildwhale and dolphin populations? or, can we bring

selfish America or explosive China to the bargain-ing table about anthropogenic climate change?recently, a friend who visited China for twoweeks said she saw the Sun only once. Constantsmog blocked it. Can the rising powers of brazilbe convinced that massive hydroelectric projectsare not worth the tradeoff against worldwidecarbon-sink capacity? The japanese could stopjapan. Americans can opt to be compassionate

and connected. brazilianscan halt hydroelectric pro-jects any time they choose.but they first have to beconscious of those things,and want them. Theyhave to be connected totheir earth. They have tofeel like they want thatand take action.in the early 1980’s i inter-viewed respected lakotaSioux medicine man,Archie fire lame deer,for my university’s news-paper. he said that a “roll-back” of north Americanand world attitudes wasimminent. he meant therewould be a new apprecia-tion of consciousness abouthow our kind had formerlygotten along with earth,and said the change hadbeen brewing for a longtime. he spoke confi-dently, as if such a change

was inevitable, and as if it would be sooner, rather thanlater. Thirty years on, it looks like what he had seen wastrue. in the moments i listened to him, i had no clearconception of our future. i only knew our general direc-tion. in my happier moments, i then decided it was stillpossible to have areas of earth which were pristine andremained outside our influence. Time and history sug-gest the actualization of my hope is not clear.

A W A K E N I N G S

in north America, in recent years it is frequently said byself-actualized sorts that humankind is undergoing anawakening. lots of people aspire to greater consciousnessin environmental, social and developmental matters.They visit their local metaphysical bookstore, or gravi-tate toward other students of their favourite teacher inconsciousness for camaraderie. from the perspective of30 years, there have never been more schools for per-sonal development or consciousness in the uS, nor


fig. 5 ~ Santa Paula Creek, Santa Paula, CA.A tributary to the Santa Clara river. [Author].

more boulevard or telephone psychics. famousteachers from the prior generation have alreadyordained their own students, many of whom haveemerged as household names for goodness, at scalesenvironmentalists or social progressives would onlyhope to achieve. barbara brennan and deepak Chopracome to mind. nASA atmospheric physicist brennanwas a long-ago student of rosalyn bruyere’s mysteryschool. endocrinologist and professor Chopra was oneof mahesh Presad varma’s (aka maharishi mahesh yogi)right arm operations people in founding the AmericanAssociation of Ayurvedic medicine, and the maharishiAyurveda health Center for Stress management andbehavioural medicine.These days it is often easier to openly acknowledge animportant aspect of ourconsciousness, our intu-ition, than thirty yearsago. in the uS, it seemsevery third parent of asensitive child dubs theman “indigo.” And indeed, itseems that more childrenof sensitivity are beingborn. Among friends,anecdotes about theirchild’s precognition orclairvoyance are notuncommon. it is in ournature to have subtle per-ceptions and skills ourkind has developed over200,000 years of practice.for example, a multilingual Parisian expat friend,Tania frank-Stappard, attends informal classes inconsciousness, and will pass along what she haslearned to her children. if you live in europe andhave watched uS produced feature films dubbedin german or french have probably heard hervoice. regular evidence of social behaviours inconsciousness is reflected in American activitiesacross the internet and around the world.but it can easily be shown from the air thereseem to be tendencies for humankind to remainsomnambulistic about our true reach and roles.for all of our global reach, part of our copingstrategy as individuals is to have a remarkabletalent in diminishing or ignoring the conse-quences of what we do. it is how we are built andhow we have survived. our modern world is builtupon massive repetition found nowhere else innature. We are a species which has preferred theoften false security of monocultures.one can see, for example, hundreds of kilometres ofsmoke filling the sky from the burning of millions of

acres of rainforest, exacerbating climate change. Westill vaporize rainforests into monoculture palmplantations, which are then transmuted into con-sumer products, like snack foods and cosmeticswhich are sold worldwide. The true scale of the2010 gulf of mexico oil tragedy was measured veryaccurately with satellite images from a nonprofit,SkyTruth, before the uS government or bP wouldever admit to the disaster’s real scope.There are environmental organizations like rain-forest Action network which strive to give ouractivities a conscience. yet, most “conscious”north Americans, and many of us in othercountries, have never heard that climate changeis being gleefully sold to us in our biscuits and

shampoos. We havedeveloped our dailymouse trails and will-ingly forgotten ourgaian, planetary begin-nings and endings.most conscious Ameri-cans would be unableto identify the name ormission of the unitednations environmentProgramme, or to haveheard that their favouriteeuropean retailer inAmerica, iKeA, was inmarch 2009 uniCef’slargest corporate part-ner in their history24.

our values and actions are given form, and embodiedby our consciousness. We have the option to change,and we need to. our time is best spent by embracingwho we are and living here instead of trying to escapeour nature. regardless of who or where you are in ourlife, our consciousness of environmental concerns showin our daily actions of making a sustainable future possi-ble for our children or family. We could be a wealthymedia magnate, or a researcher in nonlocal conscious-ness, or a single, working parent of three school-agedchildren, or our roof could be a cardboard box beneathan expressway, or a Sky-clad jain monk on the ganges.virtually all of us understand what is happening aroundus in our own way, and that our effects as a species onour home go far beyond that which is visible. We couldask anyone on the street about environmental concerns,and they will have at least some idea of what is goingon. many of us have deep understandings.We can cite a list of problems we have created. mostof us now agree that many of our environmentalchoices were shortsighted. farmer, policy expert, authorand environmentalist lester r. brown believes that


fig. 6 ~ looking northwest across Santa Paula,

from South mountain. [Author].

civilization will only be saved if we, “[…] move atwartime speed25.” it was for that reason there havebeen many times when some of us were inclined to beactivists. Activism has a place in the pantheon of desir-able human behaviours. Sometimes people are shockedinto action with violent figures, sobering facts or sad-dening images because they literally did not know whatwas happening. in their early stages, activisms ofteninvolve subtle coercion. Coercion leads to feelings thatyou would like to change your mind and do somethingelse. After the initial shock wears down, true changecomes only from feeling like we have “our own” choiceavailable to us. Coercion and shock have limited utility.otherwise the philosophy in garrett hardin’s the tragedyof the commons would have become much more popular.True sustainability is instead based in conscious choice.The only reasonable solutions in sustainability involveindividual choices, repeated on individual scales, billionsof times each day. Sustainability comes down to con-sciousness of our embedment in living systems. Whatwill we choose? how will our voice be heard throughour daily actions, and with whom will we share ourknowledge and stories? The more we live and learn,the more we find that we are inextricably entwinedwith gaia. individual, daily choices will, expressed inthe consciousness that we are part of something vastlybigger than ourselves, will save our home. 8

———————

1 Austin 2009, “blue Planet Almanac”.2 Philpott 2010, “leaked document shows ePA allowed

bee-toxic pesticide despite own scientists’ red flags”.3 uS Supreme Court 2010, “Citizens united, Appellant v.

federal election Commission”.4 Clements 2012, “rights Are for real People”.5 Schwartz 2010, “The Schwartz report”.6 Schwartz 2012, “explore”, 9-117 Wolf 2012, “how the uS uses sexual humiliation as a

political tool to control the masses”.8 Turly 2012, “10 reasons the u.S. is no longer the land

of the free”.9 bewig 2012, “Why does the u.S. have Such a high

infant mortality rate?”.10 harrison and Pearce 2001, aaas atlas of population

and Environment.11 lovelock 1974, “Atmospheric homeostasis by and for

the biosphere: the gaia hypothesis”.12 Wikipedia 2012, “new Age gaian”.13 long now foundation Website 2012.14 Schwartz 2011, “remote viewing and intentional

healing”.15 lovejoy and Austin 2009, “blue Planet Almanac”.16 herm 2012, KTlA-Tv.17 nelson 2002, “Coherent Consciousness and reduced

randomness: Correlations on September 11, 2001”.18 Spottiswoode 1997, “Apparent Association between effect

Size in free response Anomalous Cognition experiments andlocal Sidereal Time”.

19 Schwartz 2007, opening to the infinite: 99.20 Soyka and edmonds 1982, the ion Effect.21 Schwartz 2007, “opening to the infinite” address.22 mcCann and Askew 2011, “A glimpse of reality”.23 font (1767), “diary of Pedro font”.24 barner and Austin 2009, “blue Planet Almanac”.25 brown 2009, plan B 4.0: mobilizing to save civilization: 193.

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—— (2007). “opening to the infinite” Keynote Address, Pro-ceedings of the international remote viewing AssociationConvention.

—— (27 September 2010) “billionaires give 91 Percent of fundsfor rove-tied group”, the schwartz report,http://www.schwartzreport.net/showarticle.php?id=7894[accessed 19 may 2012].

—— (january 2012) “The Perfect Storm, The rise of localism,and its effects on national Wellness”, Explore: the Journal ofscience and healing, vol., issue 1, http://www.explorejour-nal.com/article/S1550-8307%2811%2900303-X/fulltext[accessed 19 may 2012].

—— And TArg, r. (28 August to 2 September 2011),“remote viewing and intentional healing,” omegainstitute course Sm11-4205-708, Schwartz’ commentsfrom the podium, rhinebeck, ny.

SPoTTiSWoode, S.j. (1997). “Apparent Associationbetween effect Size in free response AnomalousCognition experiments and local Sidereal Time”,the Journal of scientific Exploration, 11 (2).

SoyKA, f. And edmondS, A. (1981). the ion Effect (newyork: bantam).

Turly, j. (13 january 2012), “10 reasons the uS is nolonger the land of the free”, the Washington post,“outlook & opinions”, http://www.washington-post.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of-the-free/2012/01/04/giQAvcd1wP_story_2.html[accessed 19 may 2012].

a b


a new Zealander and a Ful-bright-hayes scholar, Dr ray-mond trevor Bradley (phDwith “Distinction” in sociolo-gy, columbia University;post-doctoral studies in neu-ropsychology and cognitive sci-

ence with Dr Karl pribram,stanford University), has been

pioneering the multi-disciplinaryapplication of physics, information

science, neuropsychology, psychophysiolo-gy and sociology in research to understand fundamental processesof communication – including nonlocal interaction – and groupfunction in social collectives. his basic research has included: anetwork analysis study of the energy dynamics of stability andchange in charismatic systems; a study of holographic social orga-nization; a quantum-holographic theory of communication insocial and biological collectives; a holographic model of informa-tion processing in goal-directed collectives; studies of the psy-chophysiological basis of nonlocal intuition; and a quantum-holographic theory of non-local communication – includingintuition and non-local agency. his applied research hasincluded: developing an empirically-based model of expertmastery in professional practice; improving statistical methodsto detect gender and ethnic test bias; conducting a nation-wide study of test stress, emotional management, and acade-mic performance among Us high school students, amongother projects. his current research interests include: labora-tory experiments using electrophysiological measures ofautonomic system activity to detect non-local intuition inentrepreneurs; studying the bio-emotional field effects ofnonlocal interaction within social groups; studying theenergy spectra of vocal interactions to identify a holo-graphically encoded signature of member affiliation insecret social groups; and a pilot study of human-cetaceancommunication using electrophysiological measurementof heart rhythm activity. Dr Bradley has published fiveresearch monographs, a book, Charisma and SocialStructure: A Study of love and Power, Wholeness andTransformation (paragon, 1987; toExcel.com, 1998), andmore than seventy works from his research. he is present-ly Director of the institute for Whole social science, andalso chief scientist and Director of research, center foradvanced research (cFar), neuron Dynamics, llc,appleton, Wi, and northland, new Zealand. Email:[email protected]; [email protected] .

philosophy enunciates the world in images of words. itmust arise in the heart in order to mediate the world,since, as corban says, it is that subtle organ which per-ceives the correspondences between subtleties of conscious-ness and the levels of being. this intelligence takes place bymeans of images which are a third possibility between mind

and the world. Each image coordinates within itselfqualities of consciousness and qualities of world, speak-ing in one and the same image of the interpenetrationof consciousness and world, but always only as imagewhich is primary to what it coordinates.

j A m e S h i l l m A n ,the thought of the heart and the soul of the World.


onloCAl inTerACTion belongS To A ClASS

of consciousness phenomena that haseluded the light of scientific under-standing and has long remained an

enigma. included in this class are intriguing yetperplexing phenomena such as intuition, eSP,clairvoyance, remote viewing, mind-matter/mind-living systems effects, and other forms of nonlocalconsciousness phenomena often referred to as psi.Although there can be little scientific doubt aboutthe existence of these phenomena (radin, 1997a),explaining how – the mechanisms and processes bywhich – such space/time-defying interaction occurshas not been possible until relatively recently.Three scientific developments have opened the doorto rational explanation. The first is the discovery ofthe holography – specifically, the principle of distrib-uted organization by which information about anobject is spectrally encoded throughout a field ofpotential energy by the radiating oscillations of energywaveforms. The second is the discovery of quantumentanglement or nonlocality – that everything in theuniverse at the subatomic level is interconnected andnonseparable. The third is the discovery of quantumcoherence – that subatomic emissions from macro-scaleobjects are not random but exhibit coherence at thequantum level, reflective of an object’s material organi-zation and event history.Coupling these developments in physics with recent psy-chophysiological evidence, on the involvement of posi-tive emotions – love, in its broader sense – in nonlocalinteractions, provides the key to the door of scientificunderstanding. indeed, as edgar mitchell points out:it is likely that most, if not all, subtle, ephemeral and unex-plained phenomena associated with subjective experienceare connected, directly or indirectly, with the phenome-non of nonlocality. […] nonlocality and the nonlocal

N O N L O C A L I T Y , C O N S C I O U S N E S S ,A N D T H E E Y E O F L O V E

R A Y M O N D T R E V O R B R A D L E Y

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quantum hologram provide the only testable mechanismdiscovered to date which offers a possible solution to the hostof enigmatic observations and data associated with conscious-ness and such consciousness phenomena. (mitchell, 2000: 299;my italics).

in presenting the quantum holographic theory1 ofnonlocal interaction that follows, space limitationspermit only the briefest overview of the large body ofscientific evidence.

N O N L O C A L I N T U I T I O N

the concise oxford Dictionary (1964: 639) defines intu-ition as “immediate apprehension by the mind withoutreasoning, immediate apprehension by a sense, andimmediate insight.” Such intuitive experience is quiteunlike that of normal cognitive awareness, in which themind’s contents are updated incrementally, as the sequencesof sensory experience unfold (mcCraty et al., 2004a).While the dominant perspective on intuition is a cog-nitive approach – that intuition is largely the result ofpast experience (e.g., Agor, 1984; myers, 2002; mitchellet al., 2007; Simon, 1987), there is, however, persuasiveevidence for another informational basis for intuitiveperception. This is the tacit information about remote orfuture events, encoded in the incoming wave fields ofenergy radiating from nonlocal objects, perceived andprocessed by the body’s psychophysiological systems.Such instances of “nonlocal intuition” (la Pira &gillin, 2006) involve communication of informationfrom a nonlocal source that appears to defy thephysical laws of causality and the constraints ofspace and time. even so, nonlocality – the inherent“entanglement” or interconnectedness of every-thing in the universe at the quantum level – hasbeen empirically verified, and is now a widelyaccepted scientific fact in physics (Aspect et al.,1982; Tittel et al., 1998). This physical property ofuniversal interconnectedness is a key element forresolving the enigma of such nonlocal con-sciousness in the quantum-holographic theorypresented in summary here2.

E A R L Y R E S E A R C H

nonlocal communication is a phenomenonthat has been consistently documented in rigor-ous scientific experiments for more than a cen-tury (see radin, 1997a). The key finding of thisresearch is that individuals are able to accuratelyperceive information from a distant source or afuture event, and that this result cannot be explainedby researcher/methods artifacts or chance. more-over, on the basis of results from meta-analyses onthe hundreds of studies, involving millions of trials,conducted on three distinct categories of nonlocal

communication – person-to-person, place-to-person,and future-to-person information communication –radin (1997a) concludes that the likelihood that anintuitive effect is true, exceeds the certainty of measure-ment in experiments verifying quantum mechanics –the most accurate scientific description of reality. Toput this in perspective, the odds against chancefor the veracity of quantum mechanics are esti-mated by physicists to be 1015 to 1 (see Penrose,1989, or nadeau & Kafatos, 1999).

R E C E N T S T U D I E S – E M O T I O N S A N D T H E

H E A R T ’ S I N V O L V E M E N T

using rigorous experimental protocols and elec-trophysiological instrumentation, researchershave consistently found that the human auto-nomic nervous system (AnS) unconsciouslyresponds to randomly selected future emotionalstimuli (e.g., blasband, 2000; Spottiswoode &may, 2003; may, Paulinyi, & vassy, 2005). inexperiments using randomly selected emotionallyarousing or calming photographs, radin (1997a,1997b) found significantly greater change in elec-trodermal activity around 5 seconds before a futureemotional picture than before a future calm pic-ture. These results have since been replicated (bem,2011; bierman, 2000; bierman & radin, 1997; bier-man & Scholte, 2002; radin, 2004), and a follow-upstudy, using functional magnetic resonance imag-ing (fmri), found brain activation in regions near theamygdala (involved in the processing of strong emo-tions, such as fear and rage) before emotional pictureswere shown, but not before the calm pictures (bier-man & Scholte, 2002).Augmenting radin’s protocol with measures of brainresponse (eeg) and heart rhythm activity (eCg), arecent study found that not only did both the brainand heart receive the pre-stimulus information some 4-5seconds before a future emotional picture was randomlyselected, but also that the heart responded about 1.5 sec-onds before the brain (mcCraty, Atkinson, & bradley,2004a & 2004b; see figure 1). Corroborating evidence ofthe heart’s involvement comes from two new studies –one involving random presentation of “pleasant” and“unpleasant” acoustical stimuli, (Tressoldi et al. 2009);the other from an investment experiment on repeat(successful) entrepreneurs, which also found a 5-6 sec-ond pre-stimulus result for skin conductance measures(bradley et al, 2010). in a separate experiment on asample of non-entrepreneurs who had been practicingpositive emotion self-regulation techniques involvingthe activation of love (appreciation and gratitude) fora decade or more, bradley et al. (2010) found that thebeat-to-beat heart rate measure in the pre-stimulusperiod predicted the computer-generated randomoutcome by as much as 12 to 14 seconds.

R A Y M O N D T . B R A D L E Y | N O N L O C A L I T Y , C O N S C I O U S N E S S A N D T H E E Y E O F L O V E | 1 9 4

fig. 1 ~ Temporal dynamics of heart and brainpre-stimulus responses.

This overlay plot shows the mean event-related potential (erP) at fP2

and heart rate deceleration curves for the female subgroup (n = 15) incondition 1 during the pre-stimulus period. (The “0” time pointdenotes stimulus onset.) The heart rate deceleration curve for theemotional trials diverged from that of the calm trials (sharp down-ward shift) about 4.8 seconds prior to the stimulus (arrow 1), whilethe emotional trial erP showed a sharp positive shift about 3.5 sec-onds prior to the stimulus (arrow 2). This positive shift in the erP

indicates when the brain “knew” the nature of the future stimulus.The time difference between these two events suggests that theheart received the intuitive information about 1.3 seconds beforethe brain. (© mcCraty et al., 2004b; reproduced with permission).

The consistent finding from the electrophysiolog-ical experiments is that the body typically respondsto a future emotionally arousing stimulus four toseven seconds prior to experiencing the stimulus.This is well before the long-known half-secondor so anticipatory pre-cortical priming of thebrain that occurs prior to perception of a nor-mal stimulus (Pribram, 1991).A final piece of evidence of nonlocal intuition– only this time at the collective level – comesfrom the output of the global ConsciousnessProject’s (gCP) world-wide network of randomnumber generators (rngs)3 in the hours beforethe terrorist attacks on the united States onSeptember 11, 2001. initiated by roger nelson in1998, the gCP investigates the correlation betweenglobal events of mass consciousness and periodsof non-random order generated by the rngs(nelson, 2002). independent statistical analysesof the rng output in the hours before the terroristattacks took place, suggest that there was implicitglobal foreknowledge of the imminent terroristattacks some ‘three to four hours before’ the first

plane crashed into the north tower of the WorldTrade Center at 8:45 a.m. (nelson, 2002; radin, 2002;see figure 2). This nonrandom pattern of rng out-put (p = 0.0005, for September 11 versus p < 0.05for all other days in September) could not beexplained by artifacts such as electrical distur-bances or high levels of mobile phone use4.

fig. 2 ~ Cumulative deviation of variance acrosseggS (rngS) for each second on September 11, 2001.

Times of the separate events in the terrorist attacks aremarked with rectangles on the zero line. The curve labeled“Pseudo data” shows a control calculation using a pseudo-random clone data set for each day (from nelson, 2002, figure

3; reproduced with permission).

The important conclusion from the evidence isthat intuitive foresight is related to the degree ofemotional significance of an event to the percipient.Also, that instead of evidence of a new so-called“sixth sense” or subtle nonlocal information pathwaydirectly into the brain (bernstein, 2005), the researchshows that known, familiar physiological structuresare involved (brain, heart, and AnS), and that thebody appears to process intuitive information in thesame way it processes ordinary sensory input (mcCratyet al., 2004b).

A Q U A N T U M - H O L O G R A P H I C

T H E O R Y O F N O N L O C A L

I N T U I T I O N5

To develop an understanding of nonlocal intuition, idraw on three key scientific developments. The first isthe discovery of the hologram – specifically, the principleof distributed organization by which information aboutthe organization and properties of a whole (an object orevent) is spectrally encoded throughout a field of poten-tial energy to all points and locations by the radiatingoscillations of energy waveforms (gabor, 1948). Thetheory that follows utilizes the principles of a specialkind of holography – quantum holography, discussedmomentarily. The second is the empirical discovery of quantumentanglement or nonlocality – that everything in the


universe at the subatomic level is interconnectedand nonseparable (Aspect et al., 1982; Tittel et al.,1998). The third is the discovery of quantum coher-ence – that subatomic emissions from macro-scaleobjects are not random but exhibit coherence at thequantum level, reflective of an object’s material orga-nization and event history (Schempp, 1992). Couplingthese developments in physics with the psychophysio-logical evidence on the involvement of mental atten-tion and positive emotions – love – in nonlocal interac-tion provides a key to the door of scientific under-standing. i am using the notion of “love” in the broadersense – of a healthy narcissism that enables the individualto focus attention on other objects than the self (Piaget,1983). As we will see, the experience of positive emo-tions, like love and appreciation, generates a sine wave-like pattern of heart rhythm activity – wave field ofcoherent bio-emotional energy – that radiates outwardfrom the body in all directions.

H O L O G R A P H I C T H E O R Y 6

The appeal of holographic theory (gabor, 1948) is theexplanatory power of its principle of distributed orga-nization as the information-communication mecha-nism for nonlocal interaction. because it is possibleto retrieve information about the object as a wholefrom any point or location within the field, holo-graphic theory, with its basis in the linear mathe-matics of the fourier transform function, has beenpostulated to provide a reversible physical mecha-nism by which intuitive information can be encod-ed, transmitted, received, decoded, and perceived(e.g., bohm, 1980; laszlo, 2003; mitchell, 2000;Tiller, 1999, 2004).Creating a hologram requires two sets of waves– a set of object waves and a set of referencewaves. The object wave is directed towards theobject. it encodes intensity changes and phase-shifts reflecting the features of the object as thewave interacts with the object, and is thenemitted away from the object in all directions7.When a reference wave is directed back towardsthe emitted object wave, it interacts with theobject wave and creates an interference patternthat records the phase-shifts of the object waverelative to the reference wave. in short, it is theinterference pattern that encodes the phase-shiftinformation from which a 3-dimensional image – aholograph – of the object can be reconstituted inspace-time, via a fourier transform function (gabor,1948). figure 3 presents a simple demonstration ofthe holographic effect with a slide projector.

FIG. 3 ~ illustration of a holographic effectusing a slide projector.

The normal setup for a slide projector a) is shown first, with theimage of a slide projected by the light emitted from the light bulbthrough (and focused by) the lens onto the screen. in b) the lens isremoved, so that the light passing through the slide appears on thescreen as “white” light; no features or image of the slide are visible.but, holding a magnifying glass and/or one or more pairs of readingglasses, an image of the whole slide can be retrieved for each lens, atthe appropriate focal length, from anywhere within the cone field ofthe “white” light. Covering most (~90-95%) of the magnifying glass lenswith a sheet of paper c), the slide’s image can still be retrieved fromany position in the light cone field; the image’s features are fuzzy, dueto a loss of resolution. yet the object as a whole is still discernable fromthe smaller amount of light energy passing through the tiny portion ofthe magnifying glass’ lens not covered by the sheet of paper. in d), theimages from multiple objects (in this case a stack four different slides~1” apart) are simultaneously enfolded into the light field of energy,and a clear image of all of the features of each object as a whole isretrievable from any position in the “empty” field of white light byholding one or more magnifying glasses at the appropriate focallength. finally, e) depicts the same holographic effect with two slideprojectors. When the light fields from two projectors, passingthrough different slides (a stack of two slides in the top projectorand one slide in the other), are simultaneously projected, so thattheir light fields overlap as they travel to the screen, a clear imageof the features of the object depicted in each of the slides isretrievable from any position in the overlapping light cones. by


holding a lens (magnifying glass or reading glasses) at the appropri-ate focal length, the images of all objects in the slides can beretrieved – either separately, using a single lens, or simultaneously,with multiple lens at the appropriate focal length (from bradley, 2010;

© 2009, r.T. bradley & r.j. nixon; reproduced with permission).

Q U A N T U M - H O L O G R A P H Y

Quantum holography is based on gabor’s (1946) ener-gy-based unit of information, the logon, which hedefines as the minimum uncertainty with which a signalcan be encoded as a pattern of energy oscillations across awaveband of frequencies (see figure 4A), as in the encodingand transmission of vocal utterances for telephonic com-munication. he called this unit a logon or a quantum ofinformation – hence the term quantum holography (seePribram, 1991, § 2). in mathematical terms, the logon is asinusoidal module variably constrained by space-timecoordinates – essentially a space–time-constrained holo-gram (see Pribram, 1991, and bradley, 2002).gabor’s concept of information – the encoding of infor-mation in energy oscillations at any frequency – is a gen-eral concept that applies to energetic information com-munication at both the 4-dimensional macro-scaleworld and the micro-scale of quantum reality. logonsare not discrete units of information, but overlap andoccur as a modularized series of space–time-con-strained sinusoids in which the data in each moduleare spectrally enfolded, to some degree, into the dataof adjoining logons (see figure 4b). This overlap has asignificant implication for information communica-tion from the future, in that each logon, in gabor’swords, contains an “overlap [with] the future”(gabor, 1946: 437; my addition and italics). Thismeans, in effect, that each unit of information, byvirtue of its spectral enfoldment with adjoiningunits, contains information about the future orderenergetically encoded into the unit that succeedsit (bradley, 1998; bradley & Pribram, 1998).

fig. 4 ~ gabor’s elementary unit ofenergetic information – the logon.

figure 4A depicts an idealized graphical representation of ahilbert Space showing a logon – an elementary unit ofenergetic information – in terms of gabor’s (1946) (energy)frequency and space/time limits of measurement. figure 4b

shows a representation of the overlap among a modular-ized series of logons (© bradley & Pribram, 1998; repro-duced with permission.)

e X P l A i n i n g n o n l o C A l i n T u i T i o n

from the micro-scale of the quantum domainto the macro-scale of the 4-dimensional world,all objects and entities in the universe are ener-gized in a constant state of oscillation at differ-ent energy frequencies. The energetic oscillationsfrom all objects generate energy wave fields thatradiate outward and interact. As a wave field of anykind interacts with a physical or biological object, apart of the wave is reflected from the object’s surfaceand part of the wave’s energy is absorbed, causing theobject to become energized and emit another waveoutward back towards the source of the initial wave(marcer, 2004). based on the derivation of macro-scale images from the application of quantum holog-raphy in fmri studies, it is now known that the return-ing wave inevitably contains nonlocal quantum-levelinformation about the object’s internal organizationand microscopic features, along with its external andmacroscopic features (Schempp, 1992). moreover, thecomplete event history of the object’s movement in timethrough its 3-dimensional environment is carried by aquantum hologram (mitchell, 2000). Taken altogether,this produces a holographic process in which micro-scale nonlocal quantum-level information about theobject’s organization and history is energetically encod-ed and communicated back to the macro-scale source ofthe initial wave.The interaction between these two wave fields generatesan interference pattern in which, at the moment of con-junction of the object and reference waves – the instantthe interference pattern is created – both waves are spa-tially and temporally coherent. As a holograph, the inter-ference pattern spectrally encodes phase-dependentinformation about the object’s internal and externalorganization and its event history (Schempp, 1992;mitchell, 2000). To decode the information, a refer-ence wave is required, and marcer (1998) has estab-lished “that ‘any waves’ reverberating through the uni-verse remain coherent with the waves at the source, and


f i g u r e 4A

f i g u r e 4b

are thus sufficient to serve as the reference to decode theholographic information of any quantum hologramemanating from remote locations” (mitchell, 2000: 302;emphasis added).At the quantum level, the area of intersection in theinterference pattern is a quantum hologram containingquantum-level information reflecting this macro-scaleprocess. because the area of intersection involves an inter-action between wave fronts, in which the radiation ofenergy in one wave front is modularized by the constraintof the wave front of radiating energy in the other, it isequivalent to gabor’s quantum – or elementary unit – ofenergetic information, the logon (~ ½ cycle) (Pribram, pri-vate communication). This means that the quantum holo-gram is essentially a logon, or a gaussian-constrainedhologram, in Pribram’s (1991) terms. And since, by virtueof the overlap among logons, each logon contains spectral-ly enfolded information about the future (gabor, 1946),then each quantum hologram also contains quantum-level information about the future organization of themacro-scale object with which it is associated.

A T T U N E M E N T B Y E N E R G E T I C R E S O N A N C E

marcer (1995) has shown thatperception requires both anincoming wave field of sensoryinformation about the objectand an outgoing wave field ofattentional energy, and that arelationship of “phase-conju-gate-adaptive-resonance” (PCAr)

must exist between the twowave fields in order to per-ceive an object in the macro-scale 4-dimensional world8.Thus PCAr is a process in whichthe incoming and outgoingwave fields are phase-con-joined by the percipient’s actof attention, in that s/he tunesinto and maintains “vibratoryresonance” with the object’senergetic oscillations at thequantum level (marcer, 1995).When two interpenetratingwave fields are radiating synchronized oscilla-tions at the same energy frequency, the conjunc-tion of individual waves creates a spatially andtemporally coherent channel of interaction con-necting the object source points of the two wavefields (see figure 5). This channel is essentially alogon pathway for optimal information communi-cation, and it is also generated in systems involvingmultiple objects with synchronized oscillations atthe same energy frequency, such as socially coherent

groups (bradley, 2010b). however, this does not holdfor interaction between wave fields radiating energyoscillations at varying frequencies; in such cases effec-tive communication is impeded by spatial and/ortemporal incoherence in the pattern of interpene-tration between the wave fields. but when wavefields at different energy frequencies are attunedand oscillate in harmonic resonance, a coherentchannel of communication emerges from theradiation of synchronized oscillations across thewave fields (see bradley, 2007, figure 8). This pro-vides for a logon pathway of information com-munication across different scales of organization:from the quantum level micro-scale domain, tothe 4-dimensional macro-scale world, and vice aversa. Since the overlap among logons meansinformation about future order is spectrallyenfolded, this creates an information processingmechanism by which foresight of the future iscontained in the logon or nonlocal quantumhologram at hand.

fig. 5 ~ bio-emotional energy fieldsand communication channels.

This figure shows how a channel of coherent interaction – phasecoherence – is generated between two persons (top left; Person #1, P1,and Person #2, P2; P2 could also be an object) when their interpenetrat-ing bio-emotional wave fields are radiating oscillations at a commonresonant energy frequency. This also holds for larger systems com-posed of wave fields oscillating at the same frequency (top right);where the two wave fields from each pair of individuals interpene-trate coherent channels of interaction are created for each dyadicrelation in the system. however, this does not occur for wave fields


radiating energy oscillations at different non-harmonic frequencies(bottom); effective communication is impeded by an incoherentpattern of interpenetration between the two wave fields (© 2010,bradley, gillin, & Tomasino; reproduced with permission).

P A S S I O N A T E A T T E N T I O N A N D

T H E H E A R T ’ S R O L E

As noted, the act of conscious perception requires bothan incoming wave field of sensory information aboutthe object and an outgoing wave field of attentionalenergy. The body’s psychophysiological systems generatenumerous fields of energy, at various frequencies, thatradiate outwards from the body as wave fields in alldirections (becker & Selden, 1985). of these, the heartgenerates the most powerful, rhythmic electromagneticfield (mcCraty et al., 2009). not only does a massivedeceleration in the heart’s pattern of rhythmic activityoccur at the moment of mental attention, which wouldgenerate a great change recorded in the outgoing wavefield, but it is also known that nonlocal perception isrelated to the percipient’s degree of emotional arousalgenerated by an object. it is the individual’s passion or“rapt attention,” as radin (1997a) calls it – the biologicalenergy activated in the individual’s emotional connec-tion to the object of interest – that generates the out-going attentional wave directed to the object. Andsince it is well established that the heart’s energeticpattern of activity reflects feelings and emotionalexperience (Tiller et al., 1996)9, it is likely that theheart is instrumental in generating the outgoingwave of attentional energy directed to the object.The calming of extraneous thoughts and adoptionof positive emotional interest involved in the act of“paying attention to” distant locales or nonlocalobjects establishes a relationship of PCAr with thequantum level of an object at the distant location.it is well documented that attention is significantlyenhanced when a focused, self-generated positiveemotional state is sustained (friedrickson, 2002;isen, 1999). maintenance of a positive emotionalstate induces a shift to a coherent order in theheart’s beat-to-beat pattern of rhythmic activity –a global state of increased synchronization and har-mony in psychophysiological processes, referred toas psychophysiological coherence; a negative emo-tional state like anger or frustration, produce anincoherent order of erratic, irregular waveforms(discussed at lenght in mcCraty et al., 2009; see fig-ure 2, mcCraty and deyhle, in this issue). Whilethe interpenetration between the outgoing coher-ent wave fields generated in the state of psy-chophysiological coherence and the incoming wavefields of quantum coherence from external objectsand events creates a oscillatory channel of energeticresonance for information communication, such

communication is impeded when the body’s psy-chophysiological systems are in a state of incoherence.To the degree that a coherent relationship of ener-getic resonance between the object and the per-cipient is maintained – that the object’s quantumwave field and the attentional wave field of thepercipient are attuned, locked in a resonant feed-back loop – the individual’s psychophysiologicalsystem (the brain, the heart, and the body as awhole) can receive and process nonlocal infor-mation as quantum holograms. one pathway of virtually instantaneous nonlocalinformation communication is at the quantumlevel through quantum coherence. Another path-way for information communication at hyper-speeds appears likely when a third emergent wavefield is generated by the interaction betweenincoming and outgoing wave fields at the samefrequency, or by harmonic resonance when wavefields of different frequencies interact, as describedelsewhere (bradley, 2006 or 2007). given that theheart receives information about future eventsbefore the brain (mcCraty, Atkinson, & bradley,2004b), it plays a significant role in the body’s sens-ing and processing of the quantum holograms ofnonlocal objects and events. moreover, it is likelythat the pre-stimulus heart-generated change in affer-ent neural signals mcCraty et al. (2004b) observed isactually a signal to the brain about the incomingquantum-holographically encoded information aboutthe intuitive event. once received, such quantum-holo-graphic information about distant objects is decodedand converted by the brain, through a reverse fouriertransform process, into mental imagery, feelings, andother sensations as described by Pribram (1991).

N O N L O C A L A G E N C Y

A secondary aim of the theory is to extend the account toinclude nonlocal agency – the degree to which an indi-vidual’s passionate intentional focus on a nonlocal objectmay influence its actualization into reality (bradley &Tomasino, 2011). i begin with a brief review of the evi-dence on the effect of mental/emotional intention onphysical systems and living systems.

E V I D E N C E O F I N T E N T I O N – M A T T E R E F F E C T S

The idea that the mind can affect the physical universeis a fundamental postulate of quantum theory: namely,that the observer’s act of measuring the state of thequantum system causes the wave function of uncer-tainty (all possible states of the quantum system) tocollapse to the certainty of the observed outcome.While there have been mixed results from three pre-vious studies on this question (see radin, 1997a), an


important recent, rigorous study – using a counter-balanced design, comparing “experienced medita-tors” with “non-meditators” and a control group (n =137) over 250 sessions in six experiments – has foundcompelling evidence: specifically, that focused mentalattention by “experienced meditators” on the behav-iour of sub-atomic particles (photons) emitted by adouble-slit optical apparatus was significantly correlated(p = 6 x 10-6) “in predicted ways with perturbations in thedouble-slit interference pattern” (radin, et al., 2012: 157).if these results are replicated, this finding will be ofmonumental import.There is also a large body of additional experimental evi-dence. This includes meta-analyses of hundreds of “con-ceptually identical”10 dice tossing and random numbergenerator (rng) experiments conducted by radin andcolleagues (radin & ferrari, 1991; nelson & radin, 1987,1990; radin & nelson, 1989), and an analysis of the entiredatabase of 1,262 rng experiments conducted at Prince-ton university’s PeAr lab (nelson et al., 1991), which allfound a small (~1.00% overall success margin), statisticallysignificant result, with odds against chance>19 to 1. moreover, there is also evidence of acollective effect – of a “coherent attention oremotional response” to events of globalimport (such as the 2000 olympic gamesopening Ceremony) – on the behaviour ofa worldwide network of rngs, in a recentstudy of some 236 global events conductedby the global Consciousness Project (com-bined overall significance, p < 3 × 10-6) (ban-cel & nelson, 2008: 1, my italics).

E V I D E N C E O F I N T E N T I O N – L I V I N G

S Y S T E M E F F E C T S

There is a solid body experimental evidencedocumenting the effects of focusedmental/emotional intention on living sys-tems – including 56/131 studies with positiveresults on enzymes, cells, dnA, bacteria, plants,animals, and humans (overall odds against chancesuccess rate, >112 to 1) (radin, 1997a). most experi-ments have been on the effects of nonlocal inten-tion/emotion on the human autonomic nervoussystem of remote percipients (e.g., braud, 1981;braud & Schlitz, 1989, 1991). While a 5% successrate would be expected by chance, 57% of theexperiments produced independent significanteffects (combined odds against chance, 114 to 1). inan interesting subset of studies involving over 400trials, braud and Schlitz (1991) found that a remote“sender” could stimulate unconscious fluctuationsin emotion (measured by electrodermal activity) in a“receiver” purely by thinking to “arouse” or “calm” thatperson, on a random schedule. moreover, a related

body of experiments, spanning more than eighty years– so-called “staring” studies – have consistently foundnonlocal effects on a “receiver’s” awareness being“watched” by a “sender” in a remote location(radin, 1997a). Also, the institute of heartmathhas documented measurable effects of heart-focused, positive emotional intention upon thebehaviour of physical and biological systems –water, dnA, and human cells – in vitro (mcCraty& Tomasino, 2003; rein & mcCraty, 1994). final-ly, there is the sensitivity to nonlocal events andinteractions rupert Sheldrake (1999) documentsfor animals – including dogs “knowing” whentheir owners decide to come home, and interest-ing electrophysiological evidence – involvingmeasures of heart rate variability – of a nonlocalinteraction effect between animals and humans,including that between people and their pets –dogs and horses, and wild animals, such as dol-phins and whales (see figure 6).

fig. 6 ~ examples of bio-emotional interaction betweenhumans and Animals.

figure 6A shows real-time electrophysiological measures of heart ratevariability (hrv), recorded in a boy (josh) and his dog (mabel), inwhich the boy’s act of intentionally feeling “love” for his dog (middlesegment) shows entrainment of their respective patterns of heartrhythm activity – a shift to coherent, synchronized waveforms. figure

6B shows real-time hrv recordings between a woman (ellen) and herhorse (Tonopah), during which ellen made an intentional psy-chophysiological shift to state of “love” by using a heartmath heart-based technique for sustaining a positive emotional focus (“heartlock-in®”). Clearly apparent is the synchronization of the horse’s pat-tern of heart rhythm activity to ellen’s coherent state. figure 6cshows “before” and “after” real-time hrv recordings for a womanswimming with Spinner dolphins in the ocean off the island ofhawaii. The “before” recording was taken in a neutral baseline rest-ing state before interaction with the dolphins. The “after” record-ing was made immediately upon leaving the water after swimmingwith a pod of dolphins for an hour or more. The effect of thehuman–dolphin interaction experience, which most dolphinswimmers report as arousing a strong positive emotional


f i g u r e 6A

response in them – “love,” “awe,” “gratitude,” “joy,” “serenity,”“oneness,” “flow,” etc. – can be clearly seen; Tomasino and Irecorded a similar response of people swimming with Hump-back Whales, in Tonga. FIGURE 6A and 6B were recorded by andare reproduced here with permission of the Institute of Heart-Math, © 2006; FIGURE 6C was recorded by Dana Tomasinousing HeartMath’s emWave® heart rhythm monitor and feed-back system © 2008, and is reproduced with permission.

Overall, there is persuasive experi-mental evidence showing thatfocused intentional emotional energyfrom a nonlocal source has a subtlebut measurable effect on the behav-iour of physical and biological sys-tems, including human psychophys-iological systems. These effects arenot due to chance, nor flaws orlimitations with measurement andexperimental or analysis (Radin,1997a: 144-145; Nelson et al., 1984,1991; Schmidt et al., 1986).

E X P L A I N I N G N O N L O C A L

A G E N C Y

The same multi-level psychophysi-ological and quantum-holographicprocesses of attunement and ener-getic resonance not only provide achannel for nonlocal intuition, butare also the means by which pas-sionate intention may affect objectsand events distant in space/time(Bradley & Tomasino, 2011). It ispostulated that the individual’smental intention is quantum-holo-graphically encoded into the power-ful heart-based wave field of bio-emotional energy radiating from thepercipient to the nonlocal object.As for intuition, it is the individ-ual’s passion – the biological energyactivated in the individual’s emo-tional connection to the object ofinterest – that is propelling theoutgoing wave field of intentionalbio-emotional energy, and drivingthe nonlocal effects. I begin with the assumption that athought or an intention is a dis-tinct pattern of electrical activityin the brain, and that, as an infor-mational unit it is energeticallyencoded as a quantum-hologram.The act of attention involves thegeneration of an outgoing wavefield of bio-emotional energy froman individual directed towards the

object of interest. And, insofar as this act includes anintentional disposition (e.g., a preference, a desire, agoal, or a plan), this intention is recorded as implicitinformation spectrally encoded as a quantum-holo-gram in the outgoing wave field. The more passion(emotional arousal) with which the intention is held,

S P A N D A | C O N S C I O U S N E S S & D E V E L O P M E N T 2 . 0 | 2 0 1

F IGURE 6C ~ Before dolphin swimming - case 3.

F IGURE 6B ~ Ellen and her horse.

F IGURE 6C ~ After dolphin swimming - case 3.

the greater the activation of the individual’s bio-emo-tional energy, and, hence, the stronger the recordingof the quantum-hologram of intention in the out-going wave field. As the outgoing wave field interacts with the oscillat-ing nonlocal object, the impact of each wave frontreflects a part of the wave back from the object’s surfacetowards the individual. however, part of the wave’senergy is actually absorbed via the vibratory oscillationsof the object. Since the record of the individual’s inten-tion is spectrally encoded and distributed throughoutthe entire outgoing wave field, the part that is absorbedby the object actually contains a quantum hologram ofthe individual’s intention. Thus, as energetically encodedinformation, the quantum hologram of the individual’spassionate intention can influence, via energetic reso-nance, the future potential of the object’s material orga-nization and behaviour. And insofar as the outgoingwave field is organized as a harmonic series, the quan-tum hologram of intention is transmitted to the quan-tum level of the object, by harmonic resonance with thecoherent wave field of quantum emissions from theobject. here, as energetically encoded information, thequantum hologram of intention can effect a subtle butsignificant change in the quantum organization of theobject, thereby implicitly in-forming – literally, givingshape to – (bohm & hiley, 1993) the object’s futuremacro-scale organization and behaviour.elsewhere (bradley, 2007; bradley & Tomasino, 2011),i have described how the field effects of attentional orintentional bio-emotional energy are amplified, andthus be significantly stronger, when a group’s mem-bers are socio-emotionally attuned to one anotherin a coherent group.

T H E E Y E O F T H E I

given that positive emotions are involved in co-creating – with the nonlocal object – the ener-getic channel for incoming and outgoing nonlo-cal information transmissions, and that a quan-tum holographic approach, like that used here,continues to be efficacious in explaining nonlo-cal consciousness phenomena, i want to con-clude by relating these ideas to the “big love”that is “all seeing” and “all knowing.”big love is self-less, nonjudgmental and all-embracing, and, because it accepts all, big loveis objective. long known across the eons ofhuman experience, big love provides the path-way to “truth” in virtually all human endeavours– whether in matters spiritual or moral, intellectu-al or scientific, aesthetic, or in the “right action” ofan individual’s behaviour, or in the “peak perfor-mance” of social ensembles and groups.

viewed in the terms of the quantum-holographicaccount presented here, big love radiates outwardsas a field of highly coherent bio-emotional energy.operating as a quantum-holographic informationprocessing system, the conjunction of big love’soutgoing field of coherent energy with the incom-ing energy fields radiating from all objects andevents creates a continuous series of interferencepatterns, which contain energetically-encodedinformation about the objects. like the coherentlight of a laser, the coherent energy of big loveacts as a reference beam, decoding a continuoussuccession of images – quantum holographs – ofthe internal and external order of objects, andtheir event history. Thus the lens of the “eye” ofbig love optimizes perception, awareness, andconsciousness. it provides the informationalchannel to the re-presentations of reality bywhich deep insight, profound understanding, andintuitive foreknowledge in-forms the “i” of theself, thus enabling the ‘highest’ levels of humanconsciousness and worldly action (bradley &Tomasino, forthcoming). 8

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

my thanks to Karl pribram, robert rees, and roger nelsonfor reviewing and earlier version of this paper. i have a spe-cial debt of gratitude to my partner, Dana tomasino, whoseown interest in an energetic perspective and research on thepsychophysiology of the heart and emotions inspire my work onthe topics in this paper.

———————

1 There is not room to review three other recent theories ofnonlocal interaction (mitchell, 2000; rauscher & Targ, 2001; Tiller,2004); for a discussion, see bradley (2006 & 2007a).

2 See: bradley (2006, 2007, 2010, 2011), bradley & Tomasino (2011),and bradley (et al., 2010), for the original works on this question.

3 The rngs are hardware circuits that use inherent electronicnoise to generate truly random bits. each rng is attached to a per-sonal computer which continuously collects 200 random bits per sec-ond and transmits packets of data from 50 rng sites across the worldover the internet to a central server in Princeton, new jersey, uS, fordata archiving (see bancel & nelson, 2008).

4 See Scargle (2002) and may & Spootiswoode (2002) for a differ-ent interpretation.

5 This section draws heavily from bradley (2006, 2007, 2010,2011) and bradley & Tomasino (2011).

6 This draws heavily from bradley and Pribram (1998) andbradley (2002).

7 it should be noted that because photographs record the intensi-ty changes and not the phase-shifts of the light waves bouncing offthe object, only a 2-dimensional image of the object can be recorded.

8 “marcer (1995) has proposed that […] resonance requires avirtual path mathematically equal but opposite to the incomingsensory information about the object. further, that it is theincoming space/time information (visual, acoustic, etc.), which


decodes the information of the quantum hologram and establishesthe condition of pcar [phase-conjugate-adaptive-resonance] sothat accurate three dimensional perception is possible” (mitchell,2000: 297).

9 The research shows that information about a person’s emotional state is communicated both throughout the body and out intothe external environment via the heart’s pattern of activity. Therhythmic patterns of beat-to-beat heart activity change significantlyas we experience different emotions. in turn, these changes in theheart’s beating patterns create corresponding changes in the struc-ture spectra of the electromagnetic field radiated by the heart (seethe review of research in mcCraty et al., 2009).

10 The early studies (1935-1987) were dice tossing experiments,whereas, since the 1990s researchers have conducted experiments onthe effect of mental/emotional intention on rng output.

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a b


Walter Baets is Director of thegraduate school of Business ofthe University of cape town.he holds an msc in Economet-rics and operations research(antwerp, B), a phD in Busi-ness studies (Warwick, UK)

and a habilitation thesis (aix-marseille, F).

science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature…because in the last analysis we ourselves are part of the

mystery we are trying to solve….When you change the way you look at things,

the things you look at change.m A X P l A n C K

1 ~ S O M E K E Y C O N C E P T S

O F A N E W O N T O L O G Y

he ideAS ProPoSed here Are bASed on A neW

paradigm (or at least a less mainstream para-digm), explained in earlier work1. As a basisfor formulating a new paradigm for under-

standing complex systems in general, and man-agement in particular, as well as to develop anadequate research model, we first summarizesome fundamental concepts, often developed inother sciences than those of economy, manage-ment or social sciences, but equally applicablein complex social systems. ~ The approach developed and proposed here isinscribed in the holistic paradigm. holism2 isseen as an eternal dynamic interaction betweenfour “spheres”: the mechanical (external) andindividual sphere; the mechanical (external) col-lective sphere; the internal collective sphere(common values), the internal individual sphere(emotions and consciousness). Clearly, in reduc-tionist and rational approaches, the external indi-vidual sphere receives all the attention. “Classi-cal” ecologic scientific movements are especiallyinterested in the collective, but always external,sphere. more recent scientific interests attempt togo beyond that, by including more values andemotions (slowly introducing the concept of con-sciousness). in this sense, holism is evidently foundedon a constructivist approach.

~ The proposed ontology fits clearly the reality ofthe sciences of complexity3 as the study of dynamicnon-linear systems. in particular, it takes intoaccount two important aspects: the constructiverole of time, as expressed in the principle of theirreversibility of time in complex processes; andthe behaviour far from equilibrium. This princi-ple illustrates why in complex systems it is notpossible to extrapolate the future from the past.Complex systems are extremely sensitive to theinitial conditions. minimal changes in these con-ditions can have major influences on the furtherdevelopment of the process. finally, Prigogineidentifies the most productive state of a (complex)system as one that is far away from equilibrium:“order at the edge of chaos”.~ Artificial life research has pioneered a complexadaptive systems approach (CAS) called agent basedsimulations. This approach simulates the interac-tion between different agents and, consequently,simulates emergent behaviour in those kinds of sys-tems. An agent is a mini software program. eachagent has characteristics. it is necessary to define thefield of action (the limits of the system) and to identifya minimum of interaction rules (and exchange rules).Then, it is necessary to make the system iterate andsimulate the dynamic interaction of those agents. Theagents meet each other, interact, exchange (and solearn) and, step by step, form a global behaviour withqualities that emerge from the interaction itself.~ synchronicity, appears in all the sciences and the tech-niques in which simultaneity plays a role. it is necessaryto take into account that this is not to speak about acausal coherence (from cause to effect), but about coinci-dence (as occurring together in time). This has to be con-sidered as potentially useful, even if we cannot explainthe more profound cause of the simultaneity. We mustremember that we always speak of a synchronicity if theevents concerned happen in the same period of time.The relationships therefore, become a-causal.~ The implication of these observations is that thephenomenon of “entanglement” (non locality), includ-ing a real activity at a distance, is not simply episte-mological. it is, in effect, ontological by nature4 andcan be called “a quantum interpretation”.

~ The subject of “implicit order5” is broached assomething like a ground underneath time, a totality,

C O N S C I O U S N E S S A N D C O H E R E N C EI N COR PO R AT E S U CC E S S *

W A L T E R B A E T S

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from which each movement is projected in explicitorder. for everything seen, there is something inimplicit order at the origin of this projection. ifthere are a lot of repetitions of an event, then behindit, there is a built constant component. A sort of(fixed) link is born. via this process, the forms fromthe past can continue to live in the present. This iswhat is understood by morphogenetic fields, createdby morphogenetic resonance.~ Ayurveda considers the human being as a self-orga-nizing system composed of a lot of simple elementswhich are, when taken independently, very stupid, butwhich together form a formidable distributed intelligence.in parallel, a company can be considered as a network ofsimple elements which each know what they must knowto be able to form correct networks with others.~ The ontological nature of this quantum structureforces us to look again at our approach to organizationsand its management, and on a wider scale at our eco-nomic theory. the understanding of management musttherefore be based on the “carrying along” of quantumstructures, synchronicity, morphogenetic fields and indi-vidual space for self organization.

2 ~ C O N S C I O U S N E S S : T H E F I F T H

F L O O R ( D I M E N S I O N ) I N T H E

H O U S E O F K N O W I N G ( W H A T I S

T H E “ H A R D ” P R O B L E M ? )

Key to our research endeavors is the role that con-sciousness plays in organizations6. Two majorschools of thoughts on consciousness have beenidentified7. The first school, is based on the ideathat the brain is a coder/decoder (neuronal actions)and hence, the hard problem of consciousnessstudy is to understand how the brain deals withissues like feeling, colour, senses, etc. This schoolstudies brain operations and considers theproblem of consciousness residing in the physi-cal world.The second school attempts to understand the“first person” perspective. it tries to explorehow things feel, and it accepts that one’s “inter-nal movie” has colour, music and feelings.Accordingly, consciousness cannot be reducedto a fixed space-time environment. Thus, thestudy of consciousness cannot be conducted viaclassical “third person” research tools.The first school8 accepts that being conscious isactivating the winning combination of neurons(as opposed to being not conscious). They referto the theatre metaphor developed in the vedan-tic scriptures and Plato’s ideas. Consciousness iswhat is in the bright spotlight. The thalamus isthe machinery.

Then9 the hard problem consists of understandinghow qualia (that what explains the redness of red forinstance) are generated by the brain. Conscious-ness10 is all about how the brain is doing the coding.Scientific progress is limited though, since we donot really know how information is coded in thebrain11. Consequently, the brain builds a modeland there is a difference between inner and outer(dualism, hence). but even the first school hassome out of the box thoughts. According tothem, there is more than just wave theory insound. heath of a coffee cup is something likemean molecular kinetic energy, but it is not justcorrelated. There is something like neural corre-lation, or probably better interconnectedness.Sensations are energies and this “energy” inter-pretation of consciousness, in fact, open doorsfor a non (causal) model understanding.behaviourists will eventually suggest to get ridof qualia all together but they are opponents ofthe brain activity school12. Subjective experienceis hard to understand; it is a point of view, areflective capacity. People are having powerfulseductive intuitions that are just wrong. from athird person perspective, you sneak up consciousnessfrom the outside, not from the inside. for them,mystery stuff and dualism is hopeless. behaviouristscategorize the phenomenology of consciousness andexplain it. The second school13 defines consciousness as the Tech-nicolor phenomenology “what it is like”. They talkabout phenomenological consciousness, on the onehand, and access consciousness on the other hand. Thelatter form is suppressed, the unconsciousness, images,vivid states. but they admit that studying the phenome-nological consciousness alters that same consciousness.This creates issues around research methods used. Someresearchers14 are widely known for their attempts tounderstand consciousness from a first person perspective.how do things feel? Consciousness for them is subjectivedata. The hard problem according to them is understand-ing subjective experience. The processes in the brain arenot the feeling itself. descartes, with his cogito ergo sum,has in a way defined consciousness: the mind (this over-whelming energy and power) creates consciousness; andnot the ratio. The connection between brain processesand conscious experience is according to them certainlynot causal. Consciousness cannot be reduced (to a fixedtime space concept), but it is a fundamental feature ofthe world. Consciousness is a non-physical thing inter-acting with the physical world. it gives life meaningand it gives life the interesting locus of value. Thisinterpretation of consciousness finds an ontologicalhome in quantum mechanics.

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Consciousness is fundamental to the universal partof our reality15, like mass, or charge. it is just there. ifqualia would exist, they would exist at the lowest levelof existence. At the Planck level where space-time isnot smooth anymore but quantized. At this funda-mental level, qualia are embedded as patterns in thisfundamental granularity of space-time geometry thatmakes up the universe. our minds do non-algorithmicthings anyway16. They have another logic (a particularcollapse of the wave function). it is a type of quantumcomputing in the brain, according to some this quan-tum computing takes place in microtubules (a proteinstructure). Consciousness is quantum processing. youchose what you order in a restaurant as a collapse of awave function (of those dishes you like). Quantumcoherence and entanglement may be essential features oflife. The more we are in contact with the subconsciousworld of enlightenment, the happier we can be. in fact, this second school of thought suggests that con-sciousness is a new kind of dimension, a first personsensation that cannot be understood with classical thirdperson research under the newtonian paradigm. Thirdperson research is genuinely research that is based onreductionism, measurement, inside-outside understand-ing of reality and rationality. Third person researchtakes typically place in a three dimensional reality.but scientists, in particular quantum mechanics, sug-gest a quantum reality17 based on non-locality, syn-chronicity and entanglement. This is a world ofwaves, being a multitude of possibilities until mea-surement (or observation) collapses the wave intoa particle: a particular state created by observa-tion18. it is the observer (you and me) that seemto create at each moment again, out of the differentpossibly states, the one that is chosen. in a piece ofmusic, out of the different possible sounds, weselect the one we like most. from the differentpossible sensations the colour red can give, wechose that one that we like most for that givensituation.These schools give meaning to what happensbeyond the Wall of Planck, the smallest possiblyvalue in nature, this discovery is mathematical.This exploration suggests the existence of a fifthdimension, that could be a fourth dimension ofspace, expressed in imaginary (complex) time.beyond the Wall of Planck, time and spacewould come together. This would be the world inwhich things “are” (time and space independent).This state, being a fifth dimension, could be astate of consciousness. This definition of con-sciousness would perfectly fit the definition thatsome old traditions (like Ayurveda) give. All under-standing is constructed on a number of levels ofunderstanding. in classical sciences, these different

levels are: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology,and psychology. in noetic sciences19 those levels are:fractal algebra, energy physics, vibrational chemistry(both based on quantum mechanics), noetic biology(interconnected cells), energy psychology (percep-tions and energy fields). in an ancient wisdom tra-dition like Ayurveda those levels are: matter form,ether and astral body, energy level, desire, capacityto think (conceptualization), intelligence andintuition, and finally Consciousness, as the high-est state of being, the highest floor of knowing,the ultimate being.in this definition of consciousness, indeed, thirdperson research will not be able to clarify whatconsciousness is, let alone how it would influ-ence corporate behaviour, happiness, etc. Thisunderstanding of consciousness would mean thatwithin the classical three dimensional newtonianworld, things cannot have a consciousness. At thesame time, consciousness cannot be newtonian. if we would like to research consciousness asdefined here, we will either have to use first per-son research methods, possibly still to be devel-oped or use a measurable proxy for consciousnesswith the adapted research methods to deal withthis proxy. This proxy could be “coherence”, asdefined further. The research method would be acombination of research on both personal and cor-porate level. on a personal level, we could use theconcept of heart coherence measurement using, forinstance, the tool developed by hearthmath20. Wedevelop this concept of coherence further in the nextsection. on the corporate level, we could be surveyingmanagers with a systemic research tool using artificialneural networks for the analysis.

3 ~ C O H E R E N C E A S P R O X Y

F O R C O N S C I O U S N E S S

most of the scientific research known on consciousnessand conscious states of mind, link consciousness withcoherence (on brain and/or body level). The study con-ducted on a buddhist monks meditating on generatingcompassionate love tended to exhibit increased coher-ence21. Another study of Zen monks found that themore advanced monks tended to have coherent heartrythms, while novices did not. A study of long-termbuddhist practitioners, lutz et al.22 report an increasein gamma band oscilation and long-distance phase syn-chrony when the practitioners generated a state of“unconditional loving-kindness and compassion”, sug-gesting that the increased gamma band oscillationreflects a change in the quality of moment-to-momentawareness. The characteristic patterns of baselineactivity of this group were found to be differentfrom a control group23.


Coherence on a body level seems to be a reasonableproxy for consciousness as it is a concept measurablewithin a classical paradigm. Coherence is seen as anoptimal psychophysiological state: a dynamic systemsview of the interrelations between psychological, cog-nitive and emotional systems and neural communica-tion networks in the human organism24.The feelings we experience as “negative” are indicativeof body states in which “life processes struggle for bal-ance and can even be chaotically out of control”25. bycontrast, the feelings we experience as “positive” actuallyreflect body states in which “the regulation of lifeprocesses becomes efficient, or even optimal, free-flow-ing and easy”26. research27 has shown that positive emo-tions and attitudes, beyond the fact that it makes us feelpleasant, have a number of objective, interrelated bene-fits for physiological, psychological and social function-ing. Coherence is a particular quality that emerges fromthe relations among the parts of a system or from therelations among multiple systems. The latter is particu-larly what we would measure in the organisationalanalysis using neural networks.The most common definition of coherence is “thequality of being logically, integrated, consistent andintelligible”28, as in a coherent argument. A relatedmeaning is “a logical, orderly and aesthetically con-sistent relationship of parts”. if we refer to people’sthought (or speech) as coherent we say that theparts seem to fit together. They are not utteringmeaningless nonsense, or presenting ideas thatdon’t make sense as a whole29. Coherence, hence,refers to wholeness and a global order; out of theinteraction of elements, a whole emerges. Coher-ence includes the idea of local freedom and glob-al cohesion30. interestingly, in physics, the con-cept of coherence is also used to describe theinteraction or coupling among different oscillat-ing systems in which synchronization is the keyidea in this concept. This definition of coherenceperfectly fits our quantum ontological framedescried earlier.The heartmath institute has developed a theo-retical framework and tool to visualize coher-ence inside the human brain/body system. Psy-chophysiology (central to their development) isconcerned with the interrelations among thephysiological, cognitive, and emotional systemsand human behaviour. it is now evident thatevery thought, attitude, and emotion has a physi-ological consequence. in more specific terms,they examine the natural fluctuations in heartrate, known as heart rate variability (hrv). hrv is aproduct of the dynamic interplay of many of thebody’s systems. Short-term (bet-to-beat) changes inheart rate are largely generated and amplified by theinteraction between the heart and the brain.

4 ~ S O M E P R A C T I C A L

I M P L I C A T I O N S

Some authors have compared organisations toneural networks31. maturana and varela (1984)have observed that a biological colony reacts as agroup, very much like a neural network (ourbrain) reacts. When a group is confronted witha problem, in parallel, different members of thegroup will be consulted who, in term, thenconsult other members. just as the brain has alearning capacity, biological colonies (compa-nies) also show learning behaviour. Conscious-ness is the outcome of a learning process ofinteracting “agents” (employees). Connectionistsystems (like neural networks are) are based onthe assumptions that knowledge and eventuallyconsciousness is built dynamically. understandingorganisations as an interacting living networkof individuals, out of which certain qualities(like consciousness) emerge, creates the neces-sary framework for studying emergent processesin companies (like consciousness or coherence)using artificial neural networks32.The link with the wider systems thinking approachof any research design – or organisational design forthat matter – and, in particular, the systems qualitiesof neural networks can be summarised and under-stood as follows. Complex living systems, such ashuman beings, are composed of numerous intercon-nected, dynamic networks of biological structures andprocesses. The application of systems thinking in thelife sciences has given rise to the understanding that thefunction of the human organism as an integrated wholeis determined by the multi-level interactions of all theelements of the psychophysiological system. The ele-ments influence one another in a network way, ratherthan through hierarchical or cause-to-effect relationships.Abundant evidence indicates that proper coordinationand synchronization – i.e. coherent organization – amongthe different networks of any biological activity is criticalfor the emergence of higher-order functions.The operationalisation of a “first person” research conceptas consciousness – or, according to some other authors, afifth dimension research concept as consciousness – needsto be developed further. 8

* the contribution of Erna oldenboom needs to be recognised.a more research oriented version of this contribution is underpreparation under co-authorship.

———————

1 baets and oldenboom, 2009.2 in the sense used here, it draws from Ken Wilber’s theories

(Ken Wilber, 2000).


3 According to Prigogine (nicolis g and Prigogine i, exploringComplexity, freeman, 1989; Prigogine i and Stengers i, entre leTemps et l’éternité, fayard, 1988)

4 Polkinghorne, 1990.5 Sheldrake and bohm, 1982.6 See baets, 2008, for a more contextual overview.7 Susan blackmore, 2005.8 bernard baars, 1988 and 1997.9 francis Crick, 1994.10 Paul Churchland, 1984, 1996.11 Patricia Churchland, 1986, 2002.12 daniel dennett, 1987, 1991, 1996, 2003.13 ned block, 1997.14 david Chalmers, 2004, 2009.15 hameroff et al, 1996, 1998, 1999.16 roger Penrose, 2002.17 baets, 2006.18 Polkinghorn, 1990.19 www.noetic.org.20 www.hearthmath.com.21 lehrer et al, 2003.22 lutz et al, 2004.23 more research on consciousness, coherence and body impact

can be found on amongst others http://www.mindandlife.org/, andhttp://www.mum.edu/tm_research/welcome.html.

24 www.hearthmath.com.25 damasio, 2003.26 damasio, 2003.27 fredrickson, 2002; isen, 1999.28 mcCraty and Tomasino, 2006.29 ho, 1998.30 ho, 1998.31 Khalfa, 1994; Caverni et al, 1991; ehrlich et al 1993; mat-

urana and varela, 1984.32 baets, 1998.

L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W

bAArS b. (1988). a cognitive theory of consciousness(Cambridge: Cambridge uP).

—— (1997). in the theatre of consciousness (oxford:oxford uP).

bAeTS W. (1998). organizational learning andKnowledge technologies in a Dynamic Environ-ment (dordrecht: KAP).

—— (2006). complexity, learning and organiza-tions: a quantum interpretation of business (lon-don: routledge).

—— (2008). “A-causality, consciousness and organi-sations”, in momo S. (ed.), consciousness &Development, spandanews 4.

bAeTS W. and oldenboom e. (2009). rethinkinggrowth: social intrapreneurship for sustainable perfor-mance (new york: Palgrave).

blACKmore S. (2005). conversations on consciousness(oxford: oxford uP).

bloCK n. (1997). the nature of consciousness: philosophicalDebates (Cambridge, mA: miT Press).

CAverni j. P., bASTien C., mendelSohn P., Tigerghien

g. (eds). (1991). psychologie cognitive: modeles etmethodes (grenoble : Presses universitaires).

ChAlmerS d. (2009). “The two-dimensional argumentagainst materialism”, in mclaughlin B, Ed, oxfordhandbook of the philosophy of mind (oxford:oxford uP).

—— (2004). “how can we construct a science ofconsciousness?”, in gazzaniga m, Ed, the cogni-tive neurosciences iii (Cambridge, mA: miT Press).

ChurChlAnd P. (1986). neurophilosophy: towards aunified science of mind-brain (Cambridge, mA:

miT Press).—— (2002). Brainwise: studies in neurophilosophy

(Cambridge, mA: miT Press).—— (1984). matter and consciousness: a contempo-

rary introduction to the philosophy of mind (Cam-bridge, mA: miT Press).

—— (1996). the engine of reason: the seat of soul(Cambridge, mA: miT Press).

CriCK f. (1994). the astonishing hypothesis: the scien-tific search for the soul (new york: Scribner).

dAmASio A. (2003). looking for spinoza: Joy, sorrow,and the feeling brai (new york: mariner).

denneTT d. (1987). the intentional stanc (Cambridge,mA: miT Press).

—— (1991). consciousness explaine (new york: backbay books).

—— (1996). Darwin’s Dangerous idea: evolution and themeaning of life (new york: Simon Schuster).

—— (2003). Freedom Evolves (new york: viking Adult).ehrliCh m. f., TArdieu h., CAvAZZA m. (eds). (1993).

les modeles mentaux: approche cognitive des representa-tions (issy les moulineaux: masson).

hAmeroff S., KACZniAK A., ChAlmerS d. (eds). (1996).towards a science of consciousness i (Cambridge, mA:miT Press/bradford books).

—— (1998). towards a science of consciousness ii (Cam-bridge, mA: miT Press/bradford books).

—— (1999). towards a science of consciousness iii (Cam-bridge, mA: miT Press/bradford books).

ho m. (1998). the rainbow and the worm: the physics oforganisms (hackensack, nj: World Scientific Publishing).

KhAlfA j. (ed). (1994). What is intelligence (Cambridge: Cam-bridge uP).

lehrer P., vASChillo b., lu S., eCKberg d., edelberg r.,hAmer r. (2003). “heart rate variability biofeedbackincreases barorefelx gain and peak expiratory flow”, psy-chosomatic medicine, 65 (5), 796-805.

luTZ A., greiSChAr l., rAWlingS n., riCArd m. And

dAvidSon j. (2004). “long term meditators self-inducehigh amplitude gamma synchrony during mental prac-tice”, proceedings of the national academy of sciencesUsa, 101 (46): 16369-16373.

mAhAriShi univerSiTy of mAnAgemenT, fairfield, iowa,http://www.mum.edu/tm_research/welcome.html.


mATurAnA h. and vArelA f. (1984). the tree of knowl-edge, the Biological roots of human Understanding(frankfurt: Scherz).

mind & life inSTiTuTe, boulder, CA, http://www.min-dandlife.org/

niColiS g. and Prigogine i. (1989). Exploring complexity(new york: freeman).

PenroSe r. (2002). the Emperor’s new mind: concerningcomputers, minds and the laws of physics (oxford:oxford uP).

PolKinghorne j. (1990). the Quantum World (london:Penguin).

Prigogine i. and STengerS i. (1988). Entre le temps et l’éter-nité (Paris: fayard).

SheldrAKe r. and bohm d. (1982). “morphogenetic fieldsand the implicate order”, reVision, 5:41-48.

Wilber K. (2000). a brief history of everything (Ascot: gateway).

a b


christian de Quincey, phD, isprofessor of philosophy andconsciousness studies at JohnF. Kennedy University andDean of consciousness studiesat the University of philosoph-ical research. he is collaborat-

ing with international martialarts coach rodney King, founder

of crazy monkey Defense, to devel-op new programs in “Embodied intelli-

gence.” Dr de Quincey is founder of the Wisdom academy, offer-ing private mentorships in consciousness. his books include theaward-winning radical nature: The Soul of matter and radi-cal Knowing: understanding Consciousness through relation-ship. his latest books are Consciousness from Zombies toAngels and deep Spirit: Cracking the noetic Code. samplesof his writings on consciousness and cosmology are available atwww.christiandeQuincey.com and theWisdomBlog.

hy on eArTh Would Anyone engAged in

martial arts (a deeply embodied practice),be interested in the insights of philoso-phy (an “airy” mental practice)? And why

would anyone in leadership, management, orbusiness be interested in either philosophy ormartial arts?Well one good reason would be to explore how aphilosophy of embodiment could help hone one’s“mental game” and improve performance whetheron the mat or in the rest of life. process metaphysicsis just that – a philosophy of embodiment thatcan be applied in life, on the mat, on the street,in the home, or in the office.A little over a year ago, i began collaboratingwith an international martial arts coach andsuccessful entrepreneur, rodney King, founderof Crazy monkey defense, to develop pro-grammes for leaders and managers in any walkof life or business that involves stressful chal-lenges. and what doesn’t these days? besides trainingclients in fifteen countries across the world, rodneyworks with special forces and law-enforcement tohelp them operate at peak performance in highlystressful circumstances. We both believe that blendingprofound philosophical insights with the embod-ied practice of martial arts can be adapted for any

individual or group who needs to perform opti-mally in challenging situations. This article is aresult of that collaboration. While it focuses onenhancing performance in martial arts, theprinciples are universal and can be applied to anyproject that requires deep access to embodiedintelligence.Process philosophy grew out of the work ofAlfred north Whitehead in the 20th century –particularly his major work process and reality.one of the most revolutionary ideas in White-head’s philosophy is that reality is made of “events”not things. process, not substance, is fundamental.The science of quantum physics has discoveredthis, too.Whitehead presented another revolutionary idea:body and mind are related in the same way aspast and present. And just as you never have a pre-sent without a past, you never have a mind with-out a body – or vice versa. in other words, everybody comes ready-made with a mind, with its owninnate, natural intelligence.While Whitehead never practiced a martial art, hisphilosophy is one of the most effective ways forunderstanding the dynamics of martial arts mastery asthe cultivation and practice of embodied intelligence.Without getting bogged down in the details of his philos-ophy and his unusual use of language, martial artists canbenefit from a basic understanding of how Whitehead’skey insights illuminate the process of embodied mastery.So, to become a “process martial artist,” it will help tobecome familiar with two of Whitehead’s core ideas.let’s begin with “actual occasions.” The main point toget here is that according to Whitehead, reality is notmade up of static little objects (whether atoms or mole-cules). it is made up of actions. everything that reallyexists, according to Whitehead, is an actual occasion. inother words, whatever actually exists is always a momentin an ongoing process – where each momentary “now”almost immediately becomes the past, and is replacedby a new moment of now. This is the universal processthat creates everything in the world, and it’s made upof these “actual occasions.”The next major, and revolutionary, idea from White-head is that every actual occasion is a moment of

EMBOD I ED MA ST ERY U S I NG PH I LO S PHYT O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E I N T H E

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C H R I S T I A N D E Q U I N C E Y

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experience. in other words, reality is not just a ran-dom process, it comes with consciousness or intelli-gence already built in, right from the start. Think ofit this way: Every process has a purpose.everything that actually exists has choice. This is truewhether the actual entity is you as a human being, amartial artist, or one of the cells or molecules in yourbody. At every moment, every actual occasion – everysentient being – has a choice among a range of possibil-ities. And every choice is always guided by some aim orpurpose. ultimately, the aim is to maximize the experi-ence of satisfaction (joy or happiness). That’s whatevery body wants.but within that general aim, every individual has manyother subordinate “strategic aims,” intended to take usstep by step toward a moment of satisfaction. eventhough we are not always conscious of our aims, they arealways present nevertheless. most of the time, most ofour aims are unconscious, below the threshold of con-scious awareness. for example, since every cell in yourbody has its own aims and choices, these form a majorportion of your embodied unconscious. you may notbe aware of it, but your body teems with its own nat-ural intelligence. Part of the training of an effectivemartial artist involves practices that help him or herbecome more aware of this natural embodied intelli-gence. every choice we make has an impact that car-ries over to future moments. every choice that youmake as a human being affects other people andthe world around you. not only that, it also affectsthe cells of your body. likewise, the choices madeby your cells influence the choices you, as ahuman organism, make.Process martial arts, then, is a way 1) to becomeaware of the two-way dialogue between thechoices made by your body’s cells and the choicesyou make as a whole organism; 2) to master the“dance” between the aims and choices of yourcells and your aims; and 3) to engage in a larger“dance” or “dialogue” between you and yourenvironment, which includes other people withtheir own, often competing, aims – e.g., anopponent or adversary.

A I M S S H A P E W H O W E A R E

okay, so what is your aim or purpose – howdoes it come about? how does any actual occa-sion (e.g., a human being like you) form anaim? from Whitehead’s philosophy, we canidentify three kinds, or levels, of aims:1 ~ evoluTionAry Aim – The “initial aim” comesfrom the universe itself. everything we do is influ-enced by the overall intentions of all other sentient

beings making their choices according to their ownaims. individuals and species succeed in evolutionwhen they align their individual aims with thegreater collective evolutionary aim. 2 ~ SoCiAl Aim – every actual occasion (e.g., you)is influenced by all of the societies to which itbelongs. As a martial artist, this means that yourpersonal aim is influenced or conditioned by allof the groups to which you belong (family,community, country, etc.) and, in particular,by the shared aims of the group of people youpractice with. The unified aim of the groupempowers each of its practitioners.3 ~ PerSonAl Aim – even though our aims andchoices are greatly influenced by the larger socialand evolutionary aims, each of us always has theability to make our own choices, guided by ourown personal aims. our choices do make a differ-ence. each personal choice works like a “trim-tab” (a small rudder attached to the larger rudderof a ship, which helps to fine-tune the move-ments of the ship). likewise, each personal choiceis small, but it can have disproportionate effectsover time. The key phrase here is “over time.”

I M P O R T A N C E O F P R A C T I C E

We have little say in how the larger evolutionaryand social aims are formed. We more or less simplyinherit them from the environment and our socialgroups through a kind of “osmosis.” despite their all-pervasive influence, however, we are not completelyat the mercy of those “external” aims.The key to successful performance in life, as on themat, is cultivation of our personal aim. yes, at everymoment, we always start by inheriting all the previousaims that have shaped our personality (including theevolutionary and social aims, as well as our own pastchoices) – but we always have a “say” in how those aimsare shaped as we pass them on. We are always responsiblefor the choices we make. And those choices affect notonly the development of our own personality but alsoinfluence the aims and actions of other individuals.Choice is guided by aim, and every aim is based on whatwe value. in order for our personal aims to make a dif-ference and to achieve what we value (whether this is tobecome satisfied with our skill and ability to performeffective self-defense or to grow as integrated humanbeings), we have to find a way to carve a channelthrough the surrounding social and evolutionary aims.We do this by exercising choices – over and over –aligned with our personal aims, thereby shaping thedevelopment of our future personality. only throughrepeated practice can we amplify the power of personal

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choice to burrow through and make a difference inthe wider context of society and the wider ever-changing environment.

E L E M E N T S O F M A S T E R Y

iniTiAl Aim. Practice starts with an initial intention oraim (inherited from our personal, social, and evolu-tionary past). however (except in rare cases), a singlemomentary decision is not likely to make a long-termchange in our personal effectiveness.As Aristotle famously said: “one swallow does not a sum-mer make […] similarly one day or brief time of happinessdoes not make a person entirely happy.” it takes multiplerepetitions of focused choices to counteract the immensemomentum or inertia of our inherited, habitual past.rePeATed PrACTiCe. Therefore, to counteract the surg-ing tide of old habits, we need to reinforce new skillsor habits by making the same choice over and over –e.g., to master a move in martial art. repetition andpractice lead to greater and greater power and results.often, we also have to make a choice over and overagain before it changes our mental attitude.mAinTAining mASTery. even after long periods ofrepeated practice, and mastery has been achieved,we still need to constantly maintain our standard ofmastery through continued recreation of the origi-nal intention backed up with repeated furtherpractice.grouP effeCT. When a personal aim is practicedwith a group of colleagues sharing the same aim,the collective power of the “social aim” amplifiesthe effect of the personal aim. Practicing togeth-er, therefore, is far more effective than practic-ing alone.P r e S e n T C h o i C e S o l i d i f i e S (o r C h A n g e S)PAST hAbiTS. every habit is the result of con-stantly repeated previous choices. if we want tochange a habit, therefore, we need to frequentlymake alternative choices. mastery in any field(business, the arts, sports, or martial arts) involvesrepeatedly making conscious choices in the pre-sent moment, over and over – either to changean old habit or to reinforce a desired attitude oraction. in time, with practice, intention pene-trates deep into unconscious memories stored inthe body and leads to the development of a newautomatic skill. Another key element of mastery is cultivatingexpanded awareness. This is so important to devel-oping an effective “mental game,” we’ll look at itin more detail.

E X P A N D E D A W A R E N E S S

As we all know, things are not always what theyseem. much of philosophy is about distinguishingbetween “appearance” and “reality.” likewise,effective performance, whether in life or on themat, also involves paying attention to the differ-ence between how things seem and what is reallyhappening. The more we pay attention, themore we expand our awareness. And expandedawareness increases options for more choices.To get a little technical for a moment, Whiteheadtalked of appearance as “presentational immediacy”(whatever our senses detect in the immediate,present moment) and reality as “causal efficacy”– all past actions that cause actual effects in thepresent. Appearance, then, is the immediate sur-face of things perceived by the senses; whereasreality involves the full history of prior actualevents that have led up to (“caused”) the presentmoment.by paying closer attention to how the world appears,we can penetrate beyond the surface appearancesand see, or feel, deeper into the actual reality ofthe surrounding world – including what’s happen-ing our own bodies. beyond normal consciousawareness, our bodies are constantly picking upenergy and information from other bodies in ourenvironment. every body is causally affecting everyother body. your body registers the effects of what’s hap-pening in your environment – including the bodies ofother people. in other words, you literally feel the pres-ence and pressure of the world around you. This uni-versal interconnectedness-through-feeling is the funda-mental nature of reality. of course, most of the time, most of this deep embodiedfeeling is unconscious. Therefore, to penetrate beneathsurface appearances involves cultivating the ability tofeel, or intuit, the feelings and intentions of other beingsin the environment. Paying attention to the unconsciousintelligence of your own body is an effective way toenhance expanded awareness. doing so requires mentaldiscipline and focus. This “mental game” involves learning to simultaneouslypay attention to what we feel in our bodies (“causalefficacy”) and to whatever presents itself to our sensesin the immediate, present environment (“presentation-al immediacy”). With this expanded awareness, wecan choose to take actions that either align with andenhance our body’s unconscious, automatic responsesor that inhibit or override them. in this way, we canchoose to amplify our body’s natural intelligence orinterrupt a habitual way of acting that doesn’t serveour current aim or purpose.


E X P A N D E D E M B O D I M E N T

viewing reality through the lens of process philoso-phy can be beneficial for all of us because it offers aradically different way of understanding and experi-encing ourselves as embodied intelligent beings. Wereadjust our relationships between one another asindividuals and with the wider world in which we arealways embodied and embedded.however, process philosophy is particularly valuablefor people who use their bodies as vehicles for self-expression (e.g., athletes and dancers). The most dra-matic shift in awareness involves what we could call“expanded embodiment” or, following some indigenoustraditions, “the long body.”one of the most important new ideas from process phi-losophy is the realization that our bodies do not end atthe surface of our skin. As Taoist philosopher AlanWatts said: “We are not skin-encapsulated egos.”According to process metaphysics, our bodies areformed, moment-by-moment, from the never-endinginflux of past events (prior “actual occasions”) into thehere and now. in fact, right now as you read this, theentire history of the universe is flowing into the partic-ular point in space and time that is your body. Thespecific way the universe converges on this point cre-ates “you” as an individual. even though every bodyliterally contains the entire history of the universe,each of us is unique because no two points in space-time are ever identical. everybody has a uniqueperspective. And this individual perspective is justthat – a perspective. That’s why the world shows updifferently for each of us. your perspective is dif-ferent from mine, and everybody else’s. each of ussees the world through our own unique window.All we ever perceive with our bodily senses is a lim-ited slice of reality – an appearance (Whitehead’s“presentational immediacy”).nevertheless, the entire universe is present inour bodies – in fact, it is each body – as pastreality flows into and converges on the “here andnow” that is each of us as an individual. This isthe process Whitehead calls “causal efficacy.” it’sthe transmission of energy and informationfrom the past into the present, and that’s whataccounts for the phenomenon of memory and,indeed, for the fact that every moment is con-nected to its own past.however, this continuity is not merely the trans-mission of energy through time. every body lit-erally feels the pressure of the past flowing intothe present. What is energy from one perspective(the objective past flowing into the present) isexperience from the opposite perspective (the sub-jective present feeling the impact of the past, right

now). We literally feel the feelings of other bodies.indeed, that’s what energy is: it’s the transmission ofexperience in a process where one body feels thefeelings, or experiences the experiences, of the otherbodies around it. our bodies, then, are antennasthat “tune into” the experiences of others.because every body is composed of the entirepast universe, in particular states of conscious-ness we can expand our body’s awareness toencompass everything around us. of course,this requires developing a special, paradoxical,quality of focused attention and expandedawareness beyond our normal mental states. A successful process martial artist, for exam-ple, develops an awareness that his or her bodyliterally incorporates the other bodies aroundit. by feeling the feelings of other bodies, hehas access to the aims and intentions of hisopponents, and knows, unconsciously in hisown body, what they intend to do in the nextmoment. The practitioner who more skillfullyand deeply feels the embodied feelings of heropponents has a decisive advantage, and is moreempowered to take charge of the situation.

E M B O D I E D I N T E L L I G E N C E

All prior events transmit their effects (energy) intothe present (“causal efficacy”). This pressure of thepast on the present is also the transmission of embod-ied experience (from one actual occasion to the next).Since this happens at the level of cells and molecules– which, of course are so tiny, they don’t have anysense organs, such as eyes, ears, or noses – the transmis-sion of experience is extra-sensory or telepathic (no sen-sory information is involved). deeper awareness of thetransmission of energy/experience at the cellular level iswhat most folks call “feeling” or “intuition,” and it givesthe martial artist a greater ability to literally feel theopponent, and thus to anticipate his or her next moves.consciousness penetrates deeper into the body, allowingthe martial artist to more effectively express his/her embod-ied intelligence.An alert and aware process master makes use of bothmodes of embodied intelligence. one, by paying sharpattention to appearance (“presentational immediacy”),he is aware of the other through the windows of hissenses; and, two, by paying closer attention to his ownembodied feelings, he experiences the experiences of theother (“causal efficacy”). he expands his body, and sogains direct access to the experiences, aims, and inten-tions of the other bodies around him (because theyare now part of his extended body). A process master,then, knows what his opponents aim to do in thenext moment, even before they do.

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embodied intelligence, therefore, can enter thepractitioner’s conscious awareness in two ways: asperceptions (e.g., images of the opponent’s actions);or as a felt bodily sense (without sense perception) ofwhat the opponent will do next.by paying closer attention to subtle clues of her body(noticing how her energy and experience shift in con-cert with her opponent’s – as one body feels what theother feels), the process martial artist both expands herpresent awareness (presentational immediacy) and gainsdeeper access to the unconscious embodied intelligence ofthe “expanded body” that includes self and other (causalefficacy). in short, unconscious intuition enters more andmore into conscious awareness. This dialogue between consciousness in the present andembodied intelligence flowing in from the past gives theprocess master a greater range of options for choice andaction, accompanied by an expanded awareness of the widercircumstances, leading to appropriate choices for action.remember, though, your opponent is also doing hisbest to achieve his aims, too. Whether he is aware of itor not, he is also feeling your feelings, and this influ-ences his actions. you are both engaged in a dance – anexchange of experiences and energy.

P R O C E S S M A S T E R Y

Process mastery, then, depends as much on psycho-logical qualities as on physical prowess or skill. That’swhy attitude is crucial in effective performance.from the process perspective, “attitude” dependson our aims, which incline us to view and take inthe world in a particular way. for example, if ourpersonal aim is dominated by self protection, thatcan lead us to respond to the world with fear –thus distorting its appearance and making intelli-gent choice less possible. or, if our aim is domi-nated by aggression, we may see opponents wherewe could be seeing possible allies. To aim at process mastery an attitude of opennessto what is, which leads to a greater awareness ofwhat is possible. True mastery in martial artsinvolves overcoming fear and aggression to achievea kind of open, flexible response to incoming expe-riences. This open attitude is cultivated by aimingnot at self-defense or victory, but rather at feelingthe situation as deeply as possible, and respondingnaturally to the dynamism of what is.Cultivate an attitude of open flexibility, and youwill be less likely to inspire anger or fear in youropponent – thus opening up possibilities for thetransmutation of conflict into cooperation. 8

a b


peter gareth Wallace (left) completed his phD in managementand maharishi Vedic science at maharishi University of man-agement. his dissertation, on which this article is based, wasinspired by his direct interactions with maharishi mahesh yogiregarding principles and programs to create a world free frompoverty. Email: [email protected] p. heaton (right) is Director of the phD program inmanagement at maharishi University of management inFairfield, iowa. his research interests include higher stages ofhuman development and their implications for socially andenvironmentally responsible management. his recent publi-cations include editorship of Consciousness-based educa-tion: A foundation for Teaching and learning in theAcademic disciplines, Volume 8. consciousness-BasedEducation and management. Fairfield, ia: m.U.m. press,2011. Email: [email protected].

reviouSly in 2008, The SPAndA foundATion

published a special issue on Developmentand consciousness. in that issue russellconnected the problems of society to our

need to wake up to our true identity as sat-chit-ananda1, as experienced by saints and mystics.momo envisioned that humankind is alreadymoving into a further state of consciousnesscharacterized by enduring unity2. And lazsloidentified the evolution of consciousness fromthe ego-bound to the transpersonal form “couldproduce greater empathy among people”, even“subtle contact with other parts of the cosmos3”.As lazslo observed, various models depict ourevolutionary potential for higher states of conscious-ness. in this article, we focus on a vedic model ofindividual and collective consciousness that mahar-ishi mahesh yogi brought out as a Consciousness-based approach to the elimination of poverty.

T H E L E G A C Y O F

M A H A R I S H I M A H E S H Y O G I

This paper presents selected principles from theanalysis of maharishi mahesh yogi’s thought inthe dissertation of the first author4. maharishi isknown for being the founder of the Transcen-dental meditation®5 technique, which has beenthe subject of extensive research in physiology,psychology, and sociology6. maharishi alsobrought out theoretical writings about govern-ment, economics, management, education, health,and defense based on traditional vedic knowl-edge7. he revived and espoused practical pro-grams from the vedic tradition, including theTm-Sidhi program, Sthapatya veda, Ayur veda,ghandharva veda, and jyotish. The system oftheory and practice contributed by maharishi dur-ing his lifetime has become known as maharishivedic Science (mvS)8.maharishi drew connections between the cosmolog-ical views of his vedic tradition and modern theoret-ical physics. modern science conceives of a unifiedfield underlying the ever-evolving order of the physi-cal universe9. vedic Science is a tradition of knowledgebased on direct experience of a similarly conceivedfundamental unity, “experienced as an eternal continu-um underlying all existence” in “a completely unified,unbounded and simple state of awareness, called pureconsciousness10.” in maharishi’s analysis, the subjectiveexperience of this state of Transcendental Consciousnessenlivens in the mind the creative and dynamic qualitiesof nature’s intelligence for practical success. develop-ment of individual and collective consciousness enhancesalertness, creativity, and support of nature (good for-tune) and these are the means to imaginatively conceiveof and effectively execute on opportunities for progressingtoward holistic well-being and fulfillment. Wealth comesfrom creativity. because human creativity is potentiallyunlimited, so also the creation of abundance and fulfill-ment is potentially without limit11.

T H E P R I N C I P L E O F F U L L N E S S

A verse from the upanishads, an aspect of vedic liter-ature, identifies infinite consciousness as the non-material source of the material world, and suggestshow consciousness can be the source of humanity’spower to eliminate poverty.

A CON S C I OU S N E S S - B A S E D A P P ROACHTO E L IM I N AT I N G POV E RT Y

P E T E R G A R E T H W A L L A C E ~ D E N N I S H . H E A T O N

P


That is full; this is full. from fullness, fullness comes out.Taking fullness from fullness, what remains is fullness.

The verse expresses the insight of the vedic seer thatinner fullness is the inexhaustible source of creativity.The created world (that) is a manifestation of the full-ness of consciousness (this)12. This insight is not just aphilosophical stance; it is a personal realization in thelife of the seer13. The seer enjoys a higher state of con-sciousness in which he knows his own inner being to bethis fullness, and furthermore he apprehends the worldaround him in terms of that same fulfilling absolutequality. The verse depicts the fulfillment of develop-ment economics as the state of enlightenment in whichall aspects of inner and outer life are enjoyed as beingabsolutely full. in such a state, the notion of poverty– of lack, need, deficiency, deprivation, and suffering –is eliminated. This realization is captured in anotherverse from the upanishads, which translates as “iam totality14”.

elimination of poverty means enjoying inner fullness aswell as outer fullness.

maharishi stated, “if the field of economics is lim-ited to creation of material abundance alone, itwould appear to defeat its own purpose15”. A per-son may have material affluence but lack perma-nent inner peace and happiness. So, “To bringabout this permanent contentment is the finalaim of economics. Therefore, it appears the fieldof economics should not be restricted to materi-al production and consumption alone, butshould be extended to bring about the means ofgreatest happiness of a permanent nature ineveryone’s life16.”development of consciousness contributes toeconomic development by providing experienceof growing inner fulfillment as well as unfoldingincreasing potential for achieving outer success.“from fullness, fullness comes out” encompassesboth the realization of inner fulfillment in Tran-scendental Consciousness and the creation of bal-anced sustainable livelihood from the enlivenmentof inner consciousness. mvS explains that “under-utilization of human resources, failure to makefull use of the infinite creative potential of human

consciousness, causes all economic problems, suchas poverty and low productivity17 .” on the otherhand, The most precious possession of a nation is the humanbrain, a cosmic computer that can produce anythingthrough proper programming. Proper programmingof brain functioning is available through the Tech-nology of the unified field. With the millions ofcosmic computers available in the brains of theirpeople, and with the availability of the Technologyof the unified field, there is no reason why anynation should ever suffer from scarcity18.

The term unified field is used in mvS to drawa connection between the understanding andexperience of Transcendental Consciousnessand an underlying unity of force and matterfields theorized by modern physics. What isreferred to here as the Technology of the uni-fied field is the Transcendental meditation andTm-Sidhi programs. The Tm program enablesthe mind to transcend active thinking and expe-rience the quiet fullness of a “state of inner wake-fulness with no object of thought or perception,just pure consciousness aware of its own unboundednature19.” The Transcendental meditation (Tm)technique is said to make the experience of Tran-scendental Consciousness accessible through aneffortless practice that is “independent of all mat-ters of belief and affiliation20.” The Tm-Sidhi pro-gram, an advanced meditation practices based onthe yoga Sutras of Patanjali, is said to enliven theunified field in the conscious mind and make thetotal potential of natural law and its infinite orga-nizing power available in practical life. one aspect ofthe Tm-Sidhi program is called yogic flying, an expe-rience which stabilizes the unboundedness of Tran-scendental Consciousness throughout the performanceof dynamic activity. The Tm technique has been taught in a consistent man-ner around the world and thus has lent itself to scientificstudy of both of the effects on mind and body duringmeditation and on the enduring effects outside of medita-tion as the result of repeated practice21. for the purposesof this article on consciousness and poverty elimination,findings such as increased creativity, reduced anxiety, andgrowth of ego development are interpreted as providingempirical support for the vedic Principle of fullness. here are some highlights from the extensive researchon this meditation technique. during the practice ofthe Tm technique there are reductions in heart rateand oxygen consumption, and increased electroen-cephalographic (eeg) coherence indicative of a stateof profound restful alertness, distinct from eyes-closed relaxation or sleep22. The profound relax-ation gained during the practice is said to dissolve

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the stress in the mind and the body. The Tm tech-nique has been associated with improvements suchas reduced health insurance utilization23,24, improve-ments in ego development and moral reasoning25,creativity26, fluid intelligence, constructive thinking,and reaction time27,28. Statistical meta-analyses havefound the Transcendental meditation technique to bemore effective than other forms of meditation andrelaxation in reducing anxiety29, improving psychologi-cal health and maturity as measured by the growth ofself-actualization30, and reducing tobacco, alcohol, anddrug use31. These aspects of positive psychologicalgrowth enable improved performance and achievementas well. There has been research associating the Tmtechnique to business success32 and some preliminarytests of a Consciousness-based approach to povertyreduction in South Africa33. more connections of thisPrinciple of fullness and of Tm practice to economicdevelopment in conditions of poverty can be exploredthrough further research.

T H E P R I N C I P L E O F

S U P P O R T O F N A T U R E

The relationship of inner development of conscious-ness to outward success is further illuminated byanother key vedic verse in maharishi’s exposition.The verse is:

for those who are established in the singularity of fullyawake, self-referral consciousness, the infinite organiz-ing power of natural law becomes the charioteer oftheir action34.

This verse expresses the vedic Principle of Sup-port of nature. Support of nature is defined asthe phenomenon in which one experiences thatdesires are more easily fulfilled and successmore easily achieved when one is enjoying astate of consciousness that is settled and yetwide awake. This is in essence a transpersonaltheory of management in which the agency ofnature or natural law is instrumental in orches-trating fortunate results.The book maharishi University of management:Wholeness on the move elaborates on the theorythat success in management rests primarily onharmonizing the individual with the managingintelligence of natural law. natural law is heredefined as “that infinite organizing power whichsustains existence and promotes the evolution ofeverything in the universe, automatically maintain-ing the well-coordinated relationship of everything

with everything else35.” maharishi called for educa-tion to cultivate higher individual consciousness that“maintains the managing intelligence of the manag-er in alliance with this supreme managing intelli-gence of the universe36” so that it is ultimately pos-sible to attain “administration as automatic, prob-lem-free, ever-progressive, and ever-evolutionaryas the administration of the universe throughnatural law37.” in his view, the explicit aim ofeducation is enlightenment, where enlighten-ment is defined as “the natural ability to thinkand act in accordance with natural law38.”it is interestingly to look into the theoreticalunderstanding of how the individual mind canengage the managing intelligence of nature. inmvS, self-referral means consciousness consciousof itself. existence is pervaded by self-referralconsciousness; it is the medium in which allaspects of creation are connected to each other.Self-referral consciousness is also an experientialreality when the conscious mind transcendsthought in meditation and is conscious only of itsown unbounded existence. in this state, calledyoga or union in the vedic tradition, an intimateconnection is established between the individualmind and the self-referral intelligence that pervadesnature and is the home of all the laws of nature. Asthat linkage becomes established, the individualmind gains the support of the whole environment torespond favorably to the intentions of the mind. inthis way, Support of nature enhances empowermentand productivity, which directly impacts economic

growth to remove poverty.maharishi pointed out a related verse from the vedicliterature that conveys the notion that outer materialsuccess is supported by inner spiritual development.

Success comes from sattwa (purity) – pure, self-referral con-sciousness – which being the source of everything containswithin itself all that is needed for the fulfillment of any desire39.

maharishi provided another translation of this vedicproverb: “The action of great men gains success throughsattwa – purity of consciousness – and not from the(external, or intellectually conceived, or physically orga-nized) means of action40.” maharishi refers to higherstates of consciousness as a permanent state of sattwicconsciousness41. An individual that has attained sattwicconsciousness has attained a state of permanent self-sufficiency. maharishi stated, “The reality is that themeans gather around sattwic intelligence – naturallaw favours sattwic consciousness – and whateveris required comes42.”


maharishi further explained that inadequate educa-tion results in “violation” of natural law. violation ofnatural law refers to behaviour that predominantlyaffects the individual and his environment in adestructive versus constructive way. Without beingeducated to spontaneously think and act in accord withnatural law, man unwittingly violates natural law andsuffers in consequence43. maharishi explained: “As soonas we violate natural law we are set right, and all thepains, all problems, all failure, all misery, result from thisone fact – violation of natural law44.” by the principle “asyou sow, so shall you reap,” individual action affects anequal and opposite reaction, termed Karma:that action and reaction are equal is a scientific established truth.you react to someone in a certain way and he, in turn, will reactto you in a similar way. if he does not react to you, then naturewill bring to you a similar type of reaction. if you hurt someone,even if he himself does not react, other agencies of nature willbring the reaction of your behavior to you. it is a law of naturethat as you sow, so you reap. in whatever way one wants the sur-roundings to react to him, his behavior toward the surroundingsmust be in accordance with that45.

The Technology of the unified field contributes to theelimination of poverty and suffering in society by train-ing the mind to function in accord with all the laws ofnature. maharishi explains that through this training:We get ourselves out of that unfortunate situation whichbrings to us all kinds of difficulties, sicknesses, and suffering inlife. all these negative values result from not knowing how tobe spontaneously orderly and evolutionary, not knowing howto think and act according to the laws of nature46.

T H E P R I N C I P L E O F C O H E R E N C E

maharishi vedic Science argues that as the indi-viduals in a nation gain more purity through theregular experience of pure consciousness and thedevelopment of higher states of consciousness,then the collective consciousness of firms, com-munities, and the nation becomes more inte-grated, coherent, and invincible. The relation-ship between coherence of consciousness andcollective destiny is brought out in a vedic verse:

in the vicinity of yogic influence – unifying influence,integrating influence, coherent and harmonious influ-ence – conflicting tendencies do not arise47.

The problems of society – violence, poverty, dis-ease, and disasters – are in inverse relationship tothe degree of coherence in the collective con-sciousness. And the development of individualand collective consciousness leads to reduction ofpoverty and other societal problems. The following

paragraphs explain further the theory from mvSabout the primacy of collective consciousness innational development, and evidence of the pro-found impact of coherence creating groups utiliz-ing technologies of consciousness to influencepublic affairs. Certainly the integrity and effectiveness of gov-ernment institutions is a factor in eliminatingpoverty. According to mvS, the functioning ofgovernment is a reflection of national conscious-ness. maharishi’s absolute theory of governmentstates, “government is the pure and innocentmirror of the nation, faithfully reflecting what-ever is presented to it48.” The judgments anddecisions of government leaders, whether just orcorrupt, are directed by the collective conscious-ness of their constituents. maharishi stated:“Although the members of every governmenthave their own individuality and their own opin-ions of the nation’s needs, while engaged in theprocess of governing, their actions are determinedby factors beyond their personal lives – by the col-lective destiny of the nation49.”in order to improve the performance of govern-ment and to eliminate negative trends in society,maharishi advocated coherence creating groupspracticing the Transcendental meditation andTm-Sidhi programs together in a group. Coherentcollective consciousness establishes a foundation foreffective administration by a government, free fromcorruption and criminality; and this can be achievedby creating an indomitable influence of coherence innational consciousness through a sufficient numberof yogic flyers50. mvS predicts that when such groupsare of sufficient size, they can produce measurablechanges in the harmony and orderliness of a nation,region, or the whole world. With the increase of col-lective consciousness, the nation, government, andinstitutions will perform action in alignment with nat-ural law, bringing the support of nature to the nation.Such a rise in coherent, integrated collective conscious-ness will increase positive trends such as peace andprosperity and decrease negative trends such as conflictand poverty throughout the nation.The theory that large coherence creating groups prac-ticing the Tm -Sidhi program can measurably influencethe national economy and other indicators of qualityof collective life has been tested by statistical analy-ses51,52. Prospective social experiments have been con-ducted to test the theoretical proposition that a smallproportion of the members of society, through grouppractice of the Transcendental meditation and Tm -Sidhi Program, including yogic flying, could mea-surably reduce negative indicators and increase pos-itive indicators of quality of life in society. notable


studies have included an experiment to test theimpact of these procedures in the context of politi-cal violence in the middle east53 and a demonstra-tion project to reduce urban crime in Washington,dC54. Such evidence supports the Principle of Coher-ence, which posits that the development of collectiveconsciousness underlies positive societal developmentstoward elimination of poverty.

C O N C L U S I O N

The present article has contributed to the theme of devel-opment and consciousness, about which other authorshave also shed light, by focusing on three principles fromour analysis of maharish mahesh yogi’s thought: 1. The Principle of fullness highlighted experience ofinner fulfillment in Transcendental Consciousness andcreation of balanced sustainable livelihood from theenlivenment of inner alertness and creativity. 2. The Principle of Support of nature argued that goodfortune is attracted by purity of life, whereas problemsresult from thinking and action which are out of har-mony with natural law. fulfillment of desires canbecome more and more effective and effortless throughcultivating the ability to perform from the ground ofTranscendental Consciousness, which mvS equateswith the unified field of natural law.3. The Principle of Coherence introduced the con-cept of collective consciousness as the prime moverof the government and the measurable effects ofcoherence creating groups on indicators of societalwell-being.The persistence of poverty for so many in theworld calls for consideration of new understand-ings about the cause of poverty and the funda-mental means of its removal. in maharishi view,the foundation for removing poverty is thedevelopment of higher consciousness capable ofspontaneously thinking and behaving in accordwith natural law:Basing the economy of the nation on the level of currencyregulation or distribution of wealth, hanging on theeither communist or capitalist ideals of economy or toany other system of economy – all these are too superficialto achieve fulfilling economy. With the unified fieldbased [consciousness-Based] system of economic excel-lence, people will work less and accomplish more. therewill be greater efficiency, more production, and morenational productivity through increased creativity andproficiency in that style of functioning which is the func-tioning of nature55. 8

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1 russell 2008, “The evolution of Consciousness.2 momo 2008, “Transformation is gearing up, gathering

Pace”.3 lazslo 2008, “The Current and next evolution of

human Consciousness”: 9.4 Wallace 2004, Development Economics Based on natural

law.5 Transcendental mediation program, Transcendental

meditation technique, Tm-Sidhi program, Consciousness-based, and maharishi vedic Science are registered or com-mon law trademarks licensed to maharishi vedic educationdevelopment Corporation and used with permission.

6 rosenthal 2011. transcendence: healing and transfor-mation through transcendental meditation.

7 A catalogue of writings by maharishi and by otherauthors inspired by maharishi’s work can be found athttp://www.mumpress.com/maharishi-books.html.

8 maharishi mahesh yogi 1995b, maharishi Vedic Uni-versity introduction.

9 hagelin 1987, “is Consciousness the unified field? Afield Theorist’s Perspective”.

10 Chandler 1987, “modern science and Vedic science:an introduction”: 8.

11 maharishi 1986, life supported by nature law.12 maharishi 1995a, maharishi University of management:

Wholeness on the move.13 Chandler 1987, “modern Science and vedic Science:

An introduction”.14 maharishi mahesh yogi 1997, celebrating perfection in

Education: 74.15 maharishi mahesh yogi 1963/2001, the science of Being

and art of living: 211.16 ibid: 210-211.

17 maharishi international university 1989, creating heavenon Earth through maharishi’s Vedic science and technology: 20.

18 maharishi mahesh yogi 1986, life supported by nature law:125.

19 maharishi mahesh yogi 1976, creating an ideal society: 123.20 Shear 2006, “Transcendental meditation”: 47.

21 rosenthal 2011, transcendence: healing and transformationthrough transcendental meditation.

22 Alexander, Cranson, boyer & orme-johnson 1986, “Tran-scendental Consciousness”.

23 orme-johnson 1987, “medical care Utilization and the tran-scendental meditation program”.

24 herron, hillis, mandarino, orme-johnson & Walton 1996,“reducing medical Costs: The impact of the Transcendental medita-tion Program on government Payments to Physicians in Quebec”.

25 Chandler, Alexander & heaton 2005, “Transcendental medita-tion and Postconventional Self-development: A 10-year longitudinalStudy”.

26 Travis 1979, “The Tm Technique and Creativity: A longitudi-nal Study of Cornell university undergraduates”.

27 Cranson, orme-johnson, gackenbach, dillbeck, jones &Alexander 1991, “Transcendental meditation and improved Perfor-mance on intelligence-related measures: A longitudinal Study”.

28 So & orme-johnson 2001, “Three randomized experimentson the longitudinal effects of the Transcendental meditation Tech-nique on Cognition”.

29 eppley, Abrams & Shear 1989, “differential effects of relax-ation Techniques on Trait Anxiety: A meta-Analysis”.

30 Alexander, rainforth & gelderloos 1991, “Transcendentalmeditation, Self-Actualization, and Psychological health: AConceptual overview and Statistical meta-Analysis”.


31 Alexander, robinson & rainforth 1994, “Treating and Prevent-ing Alcohol, nicotine, and drug Abuse Through Transcendentalmeditation: A review and Statistical meta-Analysis”.

32 Schmidt-Wilk, Alexander & Swanson 1996, “developing Con-sciousness in organizations: The Transcendental meditation Pro-gram in business”.

33 heaton 2008, “An innovative model of management educa-tion for the Poor: The South African experience”.

34 maharishi mahesh yogi 1995a, maharishi University of manage-ment: Wholeness on the move: 5.

35 ibid: 8.36 ibid: 8.37 ibid: 8.38 maharishi mahesh yogi, 1995b, maharishi Vedic University

introduction: 113-115.39 maharishi mahesh yogi 1995a, maharishi University of manage-

ment: Wholeness on the move: 173.40 maharishi mahesh yogi 1997, celebrating perfection in Educa-

tion: 166.41 maharishi mahesh yogi 1995a, maharishi University of manage-

ment: Wholeness on the move: 109.42 ibid: 109.43 maharishi mahesh yogi, 1986, life supported by natural law.44 maharishi mahesh yogi 1978, Enlightenment to Every individ-

ual and invincibility to Every nation: 99.45 maharishi mahesh yogi 1963/2001, the science of Being and

art of living: 7246 maharishi mahesh yogi 1986, life supported by natural

law: 97.47 maharishi mahesh yogi 1995c, maharishi’s absolute theory

of Defence: 11.48 maharishi mahesh yogi 1995d, maharishi’s absolute theory

of government: 61.49 ibid: 62-63.50 ibid: 63-64.51 Cavanaugh & King 1988, “Simultaneous Transfer func-

tion Analysis of okun’s misery index: improvement in theeconomic Quality of life through maharishi’s vedic Scienceand Technology of Consciousness”.

52 dillbeck, Cavanaugh, glenn, orme-johnson, & mit-tlefehldt 1987, “Consciousness as a field: The Transcenden-tal meditation and Tm-Sidhi program and Changes inSocial indicators.”

53 orme-johnson, Alexander, davies, Chandler, &larimore, 1998, “Peace Project in the middle east: effectsof the maharishi Technology of the unified field”.

54 hagelin, rainforth, et al., 1993, “effects of groupPractice of the Transcendental meditation program onPreventing violent Crime in Washington dC: results ofthe national demonstration Project, june–july, 1993”.

55 maharishi mahesh yogi 1986, life supported by nat-ural law: 126.

R E F E R E N C E S

AleXAnder, C.n., CrAnSon, r.W., boyer, r.,orme-johnSon, d.W. (1986). “TranscendentalConsciousness: A fourth State of Consciousnessbeyond Sleep, dreaming and Waking”, in j. gack-enbach (ed), sourcebook on sleep and Dreams: 282-315(new york: garland).

AleXAnder, C.n., rAinforTh, m.v., gelderlooS, P.(1991). “Transcendental meditation, Self-Actualization,

and Psychological health: A conceptual overview and Sta-tistical meta-analysis”, Journal of social Behavior and per-sonality 6(5): 189-247.AleXAnder, C.n., robinSon, P., rAinforTh, m.v.

(1994). “Treating and Preventing Alcohol, nicotine,and drug Abuse through Transcendental medita-tion: A review and Statistical meta-analysis”, alco-holism treatment Quarterly 11(1-2): 13-88.

CAvAnAugh, K.l. & King, K.d. (1988). “Simultane-ous Transfer function Analysis of okun’s miseryindex: improvement in the economic Quality oflife through maharishi’s vedic Science and Tech-nology of Consciousness”, proceedings of theamerican statistical association: 491-496.

ChAndler, h.m., AleXAnder, C.n., heATon, d.P.(2005). “Transcendental meditation and Postcon-ventional Self development: A 10-year longitu-dinal Study”, Journal of social Behavior and per-sonality 17: 93-121.

ChAndler, K. (1987). “modern Science and vedicScience: An introduction”, modern science andVedic science 1: 5-28.

CrAnSon, r.W., orme-johnSon, d.W., gACKen-bACh, j., dillbeCK, m.C., joneS, C.h., AleXAn-der, C.n. (1991). “Transcendental meditation andimproved Performance on intelligence-elated mea-sures: A longitudinal Study”, Journal of personalityand individual Differences 12: 1105-1116.

dillbeCK, m.C., CAvAnAugh, K.l., glenn, T., orme-johnSon, d.W., & miTTlefehldT, v. (1987). “Con-sciousness as a field: The Transcendental meditationand Tm-Sidhi Program and Changes in Social indica-tors”, the Journal of mind and Behavior 8: 67-104.

ePPley, K.r., AbrAmS, A.i., SheAr, j. (1989). “differentialeffects of relaxation Techniques on Trait Anxiety: Ameta-Analysis”, Journal of clinical psychology 45(6): 957-74.

hAgelin, j.S. (1987). “is Consciousness the unified field? Afield Theorist’s Perspective”, modern science and Vedic sci-ence 1: 29-88.

hAgelin, j. S., rAinforTh, m. v., orme-johnSon, d. W.,CAvAnAugh, K. l., AleXAnder, C. n., ShATKin, S. f.,dAvieS, j. l., hugheS, A. o. & roSS, e. (1999). “effectsof group Practice of the Transcendental meditation pro-gram on Preventing violent Crime in Washington d.C.:results of the national demonstration Project, june-july,1993”, social indicators research 47: 153–201.

heATon, d.P. (2008). “An innovative model of managementeducation for the Poor: The South African experience”,Journal of management Education 32(6): 738-749.

herron, r.e., hilliS, S.l., mAndArino, j.v., orme-john-Son, d.W., WAlTon, K.g. (1996). “reducing medicalCosts: The impact of the Transcendental meditation Pro-gram on government Payments to Physicians in Quebec”,american Journal of health promotion 10(3): 206-216.

lAZSlo, e. (2008). “The Current and next evolution ofhuman Consciousness”, spanda news ii(4): 7-9.

mAhAriShi inTernATionAl univerSiTy. (1989). creatingheaven on Earth through maharishi’s Vedic science andtechnology: theory and practical application from theperspective of all Disciplines (fairfield, iowa: miu Press).


mAhAriShi mAheSh yogi (1963/2001). the science ofBeing and art of living. (5th ed.) (new york, ny: Penguin group).

—— (1976). creating an ideal society (rheinweiler: mahar-ishi european research university Press).

—— (1978). Enlightenment to Every individual and invinci-bility to Every nation (rheinweiler: maharishi euro-pean research university Press).

—— (1986). life supported by natural law (fairfield, iA:maharishi international university Press).

—— (1995a). maharishi University of management: Wholenesson the move (vlodrop: maharishi vedic university Press).

—— (1995b). maharishi Vedic University introduction (india:Age of enlightenment Publications).

—— (1995c). maharishi’s absolute theory of Defence. (3rd ed.)(india: Age of enlightenment Publications).

—— (1995d). maharishi’s absolute theory of government. (2nded.). (india: Age of enlightenment Publications).

—— (1997). celebrating perfection in Education (india: Age ofenlightenment Publications).

momo, S. (2008). “Transformation is gearing up, gatheringPace”, spanda news ii(4): 2-3.

orme-johnSon, d.W. (1987). “medical Care utilization andthe Transcendental meditation Program,” psychosomaticmedicine 49: 493-507.

orme-johnSon, d. W., AleXAnder, C. n., dAvieS, j. l.,ChAndler, h. m., & lArimore, W. e. (1988). “PeaceProject in the middle east: effects of the maharishiTechnology of the unified field”, Journal of conflictresolution 32: 776–812.

roSenThAl, n. (2011). transcendence: healing and trans-formation through transcendental meditation (newyork: Tarcher).

ruSSell, P. (2008). “The evolution of Consciousness”,spanda news ii(4): 3-6.

SChmidT-WilK, j., AleXAnder, C.n., SWAnSon, g.C.(1996). “developing Consciousness in organiza-tions: The Transcendental meditation Program inbusiness”, Journal of Business and psychology 10: 429-444.

SheAr, j. (2006). “Transcendental meditation”, in j.Shear (ed.), the Experience of meditation: Expertsintroduce the major traditions: 23-48 (St. Paul,mn: Paragon house).

So, K.T. & orme-johnSon, d.W. (2001). “Threerandomized experiments on the longitudinaleffects of the Transcendental meditation Tech-nique on Cognition”, intelligence 29: 419-440.

TrAviS, f. (1979). “The Tm Technique and Creativi-ty: A longitudinal Study of Cornell universityundergraduates”, the Journal of creative Behavior13: 169-180.

WAllACe P.g. (2004). Development Economics Based onnatural law: a comprehensive solution to the FiveFaces of poverty through the principles of maharishi’sprogram to Eliminate poverty in the World. DoctoralDissertation (fairfield, iA: maharishi university ofmanagement).

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John renesch is a san Francisco busi-nessman-turned-futurist whose

work focuses on challenging theway we think about leadership,work and the future. he has pub-lished 14 books, including his latest,The great growing up: being

responsible for humanity’sfuture, and hundreds of articles

worldwide. he publishes a free monthlynewsletter called John renesch’s mini-Keynote and is a guest blog-ger on “Exploring the Better Future“ for the global Dialoguecenter. he serves on the board of shaping tomorrow’s Foresightnetwork and was its inaugural chair. he is a member of thepractitioner faculty for the center for leadership studies, advi-sor to the global alliance for transformational Entertainment(g.a.t.E.), past member and project advisor for the World Futuresociety and a founding Fellow of the international consortiumthe global collaborators’ alliance. he is an accomplishedinternational keynote speaker and has addressed audiencesthroughout the world. Website www.renesch.com; email:[email protected].

b r A h A m m A S l oW ’ S fA m o u S h i e r A rC h y o f

needs defines “self-actualization” as a statesought by all human beings once we havesatisfied the more basic needs of survival,sexual gratification and belonging. Carl

rogers, one of the founders of humanistic psy-chology, defines it as man’s tendency to actual-ize himself, to become his potentialities. As wehumans continue to evolve toward self-actual-ization there will be a concurrent need for ourorganizations to follow suit. in the 1980s, in his seminal book the globalBrain, british futurist Peter russell pointed outthe coming “Age of Consciousness” – an erawhen reaching our full potentiality as humanbeings is much more the focus of our collectiveenergies than at present – largely survival, con-flict and consumption. As this emerging focusbecomes more widely recognized and peoplecontinue on their individual paths toward self-actualization, the enterprises, institutions andcompanies where they come together to workwill be changing dramatically. if they don’t, thefate of these organizations is simple: they will diebecause people who are becoming self-actualizedwon’t want to work in them. organizations that

wish to attract more enlightened workers willneed to transform their cultures and work envi-ronments so that they are more conscious,purging themselves of the existing dysfunctionso prevalent in today’s work environments. icall this “the conscious organization.”

W H A T I S T H E C O N S C I O U S

O R G A N I Z A T I O N ?

The Conscious organization is not an end statewhere every worker is “certified” self-actualized orenlightened, where each and every element of thecompany, division, bureau, agency or institution isspotlessly cleaned of any residual dysfunction. TheConscious organization is one that is continuallyexamining itself, committed to becoming as self-aware and responsible as it can at any given time inits life. it purposely creates a very low tolerance fordysfunction. it possesses the collective will to be vigi-lant about unresolved issues that might fester underthe surface of awareness or otherwise go unnoticedlike they might in most organizations today.most of our existing organizations, including our cor-porations, endure some degree of bureaucracy –where the focus is more on the internal pathologies oftheir workers and less on the needs of their customers.most organizations have developed a tolerance for cer-tain shadows or dark behaviours that detract from thembeing as effective and vital as enterprises and work-places. They have become resigned to this less-than-fully-functional state as “the best they can do under thecircumstances,” a condition that gives rise to mediocrityand low morale.Conscious organizations, or anyone involved with them,will more quickly recognize an unwanted quality, proce-dure, practice or other element of its culture because ithas built-in vigilance for that which is not conscious.This vigilance is explicitly part of its culture. once rec-ognized, a rallying cry goes out and the organization’sresources are marshalled toward “cleaning up” that areaand making it more conscious. This could be comparedto how the human body’s immune system responds toan infection or any invading toxic agent.So what do i mean by “conscious” in this context?becoming conscious is becoming aware of somethingthen acting responsibly in light of the new awareness.

T H E C O N S C I O U S O R G A N I Z A T I O N :WORK P L AC E F O R TH E S E L F - AC T UA L I Z E D

J O H N R E N E S C H

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it is not synonymous with awareness alone; it involvesboth. To paraphrase a japanese proverb, awarenesswithout action is a waste of time. Knowing some-thing is wrong or can be improved upon withoutdoing anything about it can also be painful. Pinning down an exact definition of this ineffablehuman characteristic may be impossible, but let’s seehow the dots show up so we can agree on a generalcommon understanding. let’s start with dictionaries.here is merriam-Webster’s definition:

a: the quality or state of being aware especially ofsomething within oneself; b: the state or fact of being conscious of an externalobject, state, or fact; c: awareness; especially : concern for some social orpolitical cause.

The international Dictionary of psychology defines itthusly:

Consciousness: the having of perceptions, thoughtsand feelings; awareness. The term is impossible todefine except in terms that are unintelligible with-out a grasp of what consciousness means […]nothing worth reading has been written about it.

Behavioural Brain sciences journal states:Consciousness is like the Trinity; if it is explainedso that you understand it, it hasn’t been explainedcorrectly.”

Sigmund freud writes, “What is meant by con-sciousness we need not discuss – it is beyond alldoubt.” T.S. eliot has something to say too: “Consciousness,we shall find, is reducible to relations betweenobjects, and objects we shall find to be reducibleto relations between different states of conscious-ness; and neither point of view is more nearlyultimate than the other.” Why is consciousness needed today? Why shouldwe work at creating organizational cultures thatare more conscious? Two thoughts expressed by20th Century visionaries. The late vaclav havel,first President of the Czech republic and nobellaureate, writes: “Without a global revolution inthe sphere of human consciousness, nothing willchange for the better in the sphere of our beingas humans, and the catastrophe toward whichthis world is headed – be it ecological, social,demographic or a general breakdown - will beunavoidable.”time magazine’s man of the Century, Albert ein-stein, writes: “A human being is part of the whole,called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time andspace. he experiences himself, his thoughts andfeelings as something separated from the rest – a

kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. Thisdelusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us toour personal desire and to affection for a few per-sons nearest to us. our task must be to free our-selves from this prison by widening our circle ofcompassion to embrace all living creatures andthe whole of nature in its beauty.”futurist russell says this: “The biggest hurdleto defining consciousness is the word itself. Anoun is inappropriate. Consciousness does notexist as a ‘thing’. it is not a ‘thing’ to be known,but knowing itself.”

B E C O M I N G A W A R E

becoming aware involves one’s state of mind.it invites self-exploration and self-examina-tion. it means waking up to all that is goingon around you, not just the matters that haveyour regular attention but everything in yourenvironment. it means not only being aware ofthe immediate task but the larger purpose itserves, the effects it has on the organization andthe world, i.e., the larger context. it means hav-ing some sense of the meaning for what you aredoing and how it contributes to the whole.gaining higher levels of awareness is largely a per-sonal undertaking but corporate professional devel-opment programs have added resources for this kindof work in recent years. many corporate leaders havecommitted themselves to paths of perpetual develop-ment and lifetime learning as a means of sustainingself-examination in pursuit of self-actualization.A high state of awareness includes the absence ofdenial of any kind. it means “having your lights on” atall times and remaining fully awake while you are atwork. This awareness allows you to notice things thatdo not serve the overall functionality and effectivenessof the organization. These things can include collusionsof various kinds where someone is allowed to get bywith some behaviour that diminishes from the organi-zation’s purpose or goes against its best interests in anyway. Condoning these behaviours is similar to howcodependents enable their families in remaining dys-functional. These tolerated behaviours could includecheating, dishonesty of any kind, gossip, whining andcomplaining about something but doing nothing tochange it, tolerating incompetence and tardiness, dis-crimination or a myriad of other behaviours. These collusions can also include attitudes that dividepeople, such as racism, sexism, rankism or any otherism’s that separate people and diffuse the output ofhuman endeavour. They can also include attitudeswithin the corporate culture that place the internalneeds and wants of management and employees

J O H N R E N E S H | T H E C O N S C I O U S O R G A N I Z A T I O N | 2 2 8

ahead of the customers’ needs which fosters deeperbureaucracy and lower efficacy. Avoidance or denial of anything “dark” or “bad” elim-inates any chance of becoming aware – individually ororganizationally. Tendencies for this collective avoidanceare quite prevalent in many of today’s corporations.

G E T T I N G I N T O A C T I O N

once awareness about any dysfunction is present it’stime to do something – to begin correcting. it’s time toresponsibly act.What does “responsibly act” mean? it means engaging ina process of discovery and responding as if you’ve seensomething for the very first time. response is a root of“responsibility” or the ability to respond. reacting prema-turely, like rushing to action as soon as the “bad” behav-iour is discovered, is often not really responsible. respon-sibility includes thought, choice, comparison to one’s values,and gaining consensus among the parties. being “able torespond” with full awareness is not accomplished bymerely reacting to an undesired condition.examples of less-responsible reactions might includethe immediate firing of a salesperson when it is learnedthat he or she misinformed a potential customer,learning a “lie” had been told, or hiring a diversityconsultant as soon as some prejudice is discovered, orissuing a righteously indignant memo to all staff thatthe “bad” behaviour “will not be tolerated.” These reactions may be coming from a place of pro-tecting an image – either an individual’s or the orga-nization’s. Take time to ask: Where does this unwant-ed behaviour have its roots? What about the organi-zation’s culture yielded this result? This approachexamines the system for the root cause or source,not simply the symptom or the actor/player. Asystemic approach to correction will likely yieldlasting results rather than band aid quick fixes.use the situation to learn and grow, not only forthe people involved, but for the organization.

N E W M E A S U R E S O F P E R F O R M A N C E

Consciousness does not only play a part in becom-ing aware of “problems;” it can also create newawareness about matters previously off the routine“radar screen.” making things better often involveslooking at entirely new topics, things that canimprove the organizational culture, reputation, prod-uct performance and customer service, not just “fix”the problems.for instance, a Conscious organization might period-ically re-examine its purpose – why it exists, why it

offers its product or service, what its core values andpriorities are. This can be difficult work since we alltend to become emotionally attached to things whenthey are close to our hearts or minds or wallets.An organization which holds honesty (both factu-al and emotional honesty) and integrity high onits list of core ideals might want to look beyondthe mere “misinformation” given by the salesper-son in the earlier example and search for whereand how this happened. it might questionwhether or not it was an isolated incident or asymptom of a larger more insidious “virus” inthe core body of the company. is a flawed sys-tem behind the dysfunctions?once the process of becoming more conscioushas begun and intentional action has beenimplemented, the organization’s values and coreideologies need to be re-examined in light of thisnew consciousness. These core ideals mightchange constantly as the organization continuesto become more and more conscious. Since peo-ple and organizations can only strive for totalconsciousness, the process of becoming more andmore conscious is integrated into the “way of life”for the organization; this is part of what a Con-scious organization is – a group of people who areconstantly examining their own individual and col-lective consciousness.

C R E A T I N G A C O N S C I O U S

C O R P O R A T E C U L T U R E

i know from personal experience that a commitment tobecoming conscious on a personal level is a lifelongadventure. it means constant vigilance, impeccable dis-cernment, and an ongoing willingness to continuouslyexamine one’s life, one’s values, and one’s relationship tooneself, others, and the world. it allows for falling short ofthese ideals from time to time; this is part of being humanafter all. honest attempts to keep these shortfalls to a mini-mum, however, make for a sound underpinning for a con-scious organizational culture.Since an organization is a collection of individuals who havecome together for some common purpose, a natural con-clusion would be that an organizational commitment tobeing conscious requires the same continuous explorationand re-examination that is needed for personal conscious-ness. A core ideal of a company wishing to be a Con-scious organization needs to include this commitmentto continuous self-examination throughout its life.Since the Conscious organization is the opposite of a dys-functional one, its commitment to explore any “shadows”that come to light is totally contrary to the less-healthycompany that often serves as a refuge for co-dependent


behaviours, underperformers and marginally competentpeople. As many mental health professionals will tellyou, a primary co-dependent behaviour is keeping secretsand avoiding whistle-blowing on any matters that the“conspiracy” wants to hide.one way to cure a dysfunctional system – be it a familyor an organization – is an intervention by people whowill no longer buy into the “conspiracy of silence” orwho have felt enough pain and can’t stand it anymore.Such interventions are usually aimed at a person or anumber of people within the group. They often resem-ble a sort of tough-love “ambush” since the targets forthe intervention would probably avoid it if they wereaware of what was planned.in contrast, people in a Conscious organization culture areopen to learning about any unwanted patterns and breakingthrough any barriers they may have. Similar to when a per-son committed to a path of self-actualization invites friendsto provide constructive feedback that will allow him or herto grow, the corporate culture of the Conscious organiza-tion includes this permission, both explicitly and implicitly.having a trusting and healthy relationship with co-workersand the organization’s mission is of paramount importance,far more important than an individual’s need to maintaintheir image, the illusion of control, or remain in denialabout something that violates their core values.in stark contrast to traditional ambush-like interven-tions which may happen in extremely dysfunctionalorganizations, people in Conscious organizationswelcome someone revealing any behaviour, policiesor practices which do not serve the group’s greaterconsciousness and functionality.The Conscious organization is one where the lightsare always ready to shine wherever darkness isfound. it is a fit for people who are striving to bemore conscious themselves and are seeking workenvironments that support and stimulate theirindividual growth as conscious beings. every-body in the Conscious organization knows thediscovery process and the enlightenment thataccompanies it is valuable and takes responsibilityfor calling attention to it.The resulting organizational culture invites andwelcomes competence, interdependence, open-ness, honesty, team play, ethical behaviour, self-examination, functionality, and peak perfor-mance. People attracted to work in such an orga-nization will be those who are interested in oralready committed to self-actualization. imaginethe power and effectiveness a workforce like thiscan offer the world! 8

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J O H N R E N E S H | T H E C O N S C I O U S O R G A N I Z A T I O N | 2 3 0

Venita ramirez holds degrees inBusiness administration andclinical psychology. she is aprincipal of pacific integral(pi) and a partner in the cre-ation of the generatingtransformative change pro-

gram, which provides a train-ing ground for new forms of

leadership, consciousness and globalawareness, with the intention to relieve

suffering on the planet and to develop people in ways that willbring joy and wisdom into the world through service. Venita hascoordinated, designed, led and administered human develop-ment programs since 1983. she coaches individuals at late stagesof development, worldwide, and has a special interest in sup-porting and participating in leadership networks to supportglobal health and wholeness.

the ideals of art, of science are lightedby reflections from the infinite.

l o u i S P A S T e u r

he ComPleXiTieS of our humAn liveS And

existence seem to be growing exponential-ly. The european union is rumoured to beon the brink of disintegration and eco-

nomic insolvency, AidS and malaria are rampantin Africa, drug cartels notoriously corrupt muchof Central and South America, japan is recover-ing from a huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclearmeltdown, and a small group of powerful elite inthe uS and internationally, are co-opting naturalresources worldwide for personal gain, withoutseeming care for the whole of life or our future.our global mind is fragmented by infinite bits ofinformation, scattered and moving in all direc-tions, while our survival as a species faces grow-ing threats from climate change and numerousvariations of our own toxic waste. When wezoom in to the micro level we see that 2.8 billionpeople live on less than uSd 2 per day, many starv-ing and in slums1. Children walk miles to get asmall jug of dirty drinking water for their familyeach day, while babies die for lack of basic medica-tion, and young children are forced to quit schoolto care for their families, or kidnapped and forced towork as soldiers or prostitutes. When we open our

eyes, we see injustice, pain and suffering that is sooverwhelming and widespread, that we oftenshut down our awareness and go about our lives.many of us feel powerless or lack the skills to doanything to abate our own predicament, letalone to contribute or influence change on alarge scale.At the same time, with an accelerating force,some are waking up to the possibility of globaltransformation and our responsibility individu-ally and collectively to transform suffering intovital planetary wellbeing. Some of us have thecombination of inner and outer resources to haveour own needs met. Some of us have found ourway into various degrees of influence with someparticular constituency, knowledge and skill. We seethe interwoven structures and patterns of humansociety that keep repeating themselves throughour collective assumptions, habits and mispercep-tion. And we see that the only way to create a bet-ter world for humanity is for all of us to wake uptogether and contribute our various ideas, skills andperspectives with an agreement to work together forthe common good of all beings, not just ourselves orour tribe, village or nation whether that be a religion,a culture or any particular segment of life. Throughtechnology, we are coming together across cultures,discussing the issues and imagining a world in whichall are fed, educated, healthy and loved. As we joinwith one another we encounter inspiration, reinforce-ment, strength and hope. We open to a deeper creativ-ity and wisdom that seems to be accessible through acollectively sourced awareness, where we find syner-getic solutions, synchronized relationships, and a deep,enlivening evolutionary flow. Collectively, our con-sciousness is waking up, and we feel ourselves intricate-ly linked with everything on the planet. dropping ourexclusive identity with our own individual self, we see,feel and sense the same one, shining and expressingthrough all of existence and we see that we are lookingat aspects of that same Self all over the planet. Sinceyou are another expression of that same Self, i achewhen you are suffering. from this locus of seeingand feeling the truth of our being, we are moved tolove and to evolve ourselves in such a way that webegin to see how our own and the world’s sufferingcan be resolved.

L O V E , C O N S C I O U S E V O L U T I O NAND OUR EMERGENT COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

V E N I T A L . R A M I R E Z

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in the following pages, i will describe how our con-sciousness seems to evolve through stages that allowus to see these possibilities more clearly. i will describehow the movement of love expands naturally as anecessary outpouring of energy at later levels of devel-opment. We’ll look at collective intelligence and col-lective presence as ways to synergize and mobilize ourdesire for wholeness on the planet. And i will offer afew pointers to ideas, individuals and organizationswho already have begun moving in this direction.

T H E E V O L U T I O N


first what is consciousness? Philosopher, Ken Wilber hasidentified a dozen schools of consciousness theory andresearch from the fields of science, psychology, culturalanthropology, systems theory and others2. he proposesthat each of these perspectives on consciousness carriesan element of truth, and that a variety of exterior andinterior perspectives, combined with individual and col-lective perspectives, all of which co-exist and co-evolvein our experience of reality, are the minimumdegree of sophistication that we need inorder to secure anything resemblinga genuinely integral theory of con-sciousness. Though brain sciencecan follow the neuropathways inthe brain and identify the mecha-nisms and processes from a con-crete measurable perspective, it can-not identify, explain or measure thecontent of our consciousness. in ourconscious awareness and subtle imaginationsthere are infinite variations of inner and outerworlds at play – visions, dreams and inspirationsthat reveal themselves in our subtle awareness,and sometimes through our intention, becomemanifest in concrete life. Along with our biolog-ical and relational urges and instincts, our levelof consciousness drives us. Through the powerof our consciousness, we influence our experi-ence and outcomes of life. The more aware weare of our own consciousness, the greater influ-ence we have over our interior and exteriorexperience. furthermore, our consciousness isinfluenced by our culture, our history and thesystems at play around the world. We are shapedand influenced by family patterns, religious beliefs,language, gender roles, race relations, media andpolitical rhetoric. As a species we have fallen intounconscious patterns that have played themselvesout for thousands of years. We separate ourselvesby race and nation on the one hand while transna-tional corporations, the global economy, politicalnetworks and the world wide web have overridden

those barriers to create something that transcendsthem. our outdated mental models, perceptionsand relational patterns become assumptions thatwe don’t even think to question. And while theymay have been useful for someone long ago, oreven earlier in this lifetime, many of these assump-tions are now blinding us to possibilities forgreater health and liberated transformation as aspecies. various individuals seem to be aware ofthese collective constructs, but in order to createlarge scale global change, we will need to shiftour consciousness as a whole species. howmight we do this?

H O W M I G H T W E B E G I N T O

T R A N S F O R M O U R

C O N S C I O U S N E S S ?

in order for us to transform our outdated, indi-vidual and collective systems and structures, wemust acknowledge that our awareness is embed-ded in these structures and then step outside of

them as much as possible so we can identifywhere we are, where we are going and

what next steps we can take to facili-tate our movement into greaterwholeness and health as a species.over the last fifty years researchershave begun mapping out veryspecific ways in which human con-

sciousness develops and evolves3,4,5,6,7.Susanne Cook-greuter in particular,

found distinct patterns and traits thatoccur as individual humans evolve into post-

conventional stages of ego development. building onjane loevinger’s research, she identified two additionaladvanced stages of development for a total of ninestages, four of which identify characteristics of evolvedconsciousness beyond the conventional, mainstreammind8. Combining Cook-greuter’s findings with Wilber’sAQAl Theory9, Terri o’fallon currently is identifyingadditional refinements and details on the latest stages ofhuman consciousness. The results of this research areproviding a roadmap for humanity to follow in evolvingour individual and collective consciousness10. Theresearch also validates collective values and ethics thatseem to be common to all humans, not just to a partic-ular segment of society, values such as truthfulness,altruism, wholeness, compassion, and even conscious-ness itself. And the research shows that we can evolveall of these characteristics into the widest and deepestembrace possible. if we aim to influence the evolu-tion of consciousness and transform society on anylevel or in any field, we will benefit by familiarizingour selves and our whole species with these stages ofdevelopment. With awareness of how we develop,

V E B N I T A L . R A M I R E Z | L O V E , C O N S C I O U S N E S S , E V O L U T I O N | 2 3 2

consciousnesscannot be accounted for in physical

terms. For consciousness is absolutelyfundamental. it cannot be accounted for

in terms of anything else.

e rW i n S C h r ö d i n g e r

we can identify processes for transforming humanconsciousness individually and collectively.

A G E N E R A L O V E R V I E W O F H O W

C O N S C I O U S N E S S D E V E L O P S

Consciousness can be described as awareness, aware ofthe self-organizing and evolving nature of all of exis-tence. Through our consciousness we are aware of ourinner and outer worlds. As our consciousness expandsour worlds expand. We might say our consciousnesscan be seen as that which beholds the emergence ofconcrete life, of subtle worlds, and of our own existenceas consciousness11,12,13. from the time we are born,through elementary school and even sometimes intohigh school and beyond, we tend to relate to the worldin very concrete ways. our awareness mostly revolvesaround our needs for food, touch, our possessions, ourparents and friends, our home, nature and other aspectsof the concrete world. even our imagination is filledwith concrete objects. An individual and whole cul-tures can develop into mature stages of concrete aware-ness that can be healthy in their context but remainlimited in terms of affecting the world on a largescale or even recognizing the nuances that becomeavailable when awareness opens up into the nextfour stages of consciousness that comprise the sub-tle perspectives of human awareness14. Collectively,on average, we humans are reaching later stages ofconsciousness in our lifetimes than our ancestors.And with the advent of the internet, we seempoised for a significant acceleration.As we move to later stages, from concrete basedawareness to more subtle forms of awareness, wenow have both concrete and subtle awarenessavailable to us. research shows that the majorityof adult humans likely perceive the world andreality from three of these subtle stages ofawareness, expert, Achiever and individualist15.When we begin to see the world from the firstof these more subtle perspectives, we begin torealize we have an interior self and that wehave the ability to have some influence on ourouter results based on our own attitudes (inte-rior intention). We begin to see that we candeliberately influence how others perceive andrespond to us, because we have some controlover our own self-expression in the world. Atthis stage we can learn from our past experience,imagine and calculate potential outcomes andconsequences up to about six months in advance.Currently, in democratic societies, most of usreach this first subtle stage in our later adoles-cence. because we are new to this ability to directour own fate, we tend to value the opinion of

experts. often we believe that there is one particu-lar right way to operate or that there is not muchroom for deviation. A large percentage of theadult population (about 36.5%) reside at this stageand many remain at this stage (expert) for theirwhole lives, affiliating with a particular belief sys-tem through which their perspective is reflectedand kept in place.At the next stage, our consciousness grows intoa capacity for creating a plan five years into thefuture. We see more shades of gray and priori-tize ideas. many people leave traditional reli-gions at this point as their awareness grows toinclude greater diversity. This group (Achiever)is motivated to achieve and can become quitesuccessful in conventional society, however,they are still motivated primarily by their ownneeds and the needs associated with their specif-ic view of who belongs in their circle of respon-sibility and care, whether family, community ornation. The majority of people in power aroundthe world are at this level of consciousness. Thusmany of our systems and structures, worldwide,result from strategies and visions implemented byindividuals who can see only five years into thefuture and cannot see how the results of their actionswill affect the whole of society, inter-systemically.They cannot yet understand the importance of con-text, nor can they see the relationships between com-plex systems, globally, generations into the future.The next stage of development, still in the subtle tier,is the first group considered to be post-conventional.of these subtle levels of ego-development or con-sciousness, a person can see a generation or two intothe future and begin to take multiple perspectives on asituation. The individual realizes that an outcome isvery dependent on interior and exterior contexts such asa person’s self-concept, their temperament, their circum-stances, their culture, their family history, the resourcesprovided by their society or surroundings. The 1960’s sawa significant upsurge in this segment of the populationwhich is now estimated to be at 11% and growing. Atthis stage people value authenticity and begin to seefrom the perspectives of others in a new way. This newability to shift their perspective and stand in the contextor circumstances as someone else in a completely differ-ent situation, opens the heart and mind to a level ofconsciousness, in which one begins to advocate forthose who lack the power to do so.At the latest stage of these subtle perspectives (Strate-gist), a person’s awareness of time and space opens upin such a way that they begin to see how these con-texts around the world in the exterior and interior ofconsciousness can be prioritized. They begin to see


solutions on a larger scale for humanity. They seehow various systems are interdependent and there-fore must be influenced simultaneously. for example,they might identify three bodies of work from threedifferent disciplines, or several thought leaders in vari-ous fields and then champion all three as an importantcombination of voices to lead us into a better future.The ability to see further into the future and to hold anumber of contexts or lines of thinking simultaneously,often make them exceptional leaders and managers,especially when they can translate their expanded andinnovative vision into steps that individuals at earlierstages can digest and follow. The individuals at this stageare estimated at around 5% of the population and grow-ing rapidly, due to technology’s support in the cross pol-lination of ideas, information and contexts.

T H E C A U S A L L E V E L S


Terri o’fallon postulates that the next four levels ofhuman development arise in what she calls the causaltier16. The research on these levels is emergent. inaddition to the thousands of sentence completiontests underlying this research17, my colleagues geofffitch, Terri o’fallon and i have observed over 100individuals in our transformative leadership program,generating transformative change, for a minimumof nine months and some up to six years who havetaken these assessments. As a result we have had theopportunity to view in-person, embodied expres-sions of these later levels of consciousness. hereis what we are finding.There is a profound letting go of knowing the truthof anything concrete or subtle at these later stages.in the first causal level of consciousness (ConstructAware) we begin to see how language constructsour beliefs about reality and how language is aconstruct of our human mind. We see how, col-lectively, we have assembled all of our human-madeconcrete and subtle systems throughout time andspace (historically/globally). And we see how ourbelief systems perpetuate our consensual reality. Atthis level of consciousness, we see that all of ourways of seeing and thinking, our systems and per-spectives are constructs. This time can be alternatelydisconcerting, devoid of any substantial meaningand/or incredibly liberating. because this level ofawareness (and beyond) is so rare, there is little vali-dation or reflection for the sanity of this perspectivein conventional society. often these individuals feelalone and unable to locate the previous version oftheir self. They begin to be aware of their awareness,and can watch themselves and everyone else playingconstructed roles in constructed environments inwhich everyone unconsciously participates in certain

ways of dressing, thinking, seeing and behavingthroughout whole systems, throughout human his-tory and into the future. Through this awareness ofconstructs, they locate a self not based on any ofthese concrete and subtle systems, a self that isempty of constructs and yet stabilized in theempty/formless ground of being. often they dis-mantle interior and exterior life and float for awhile on these shores of freedom, sometimes withcynicism, angst and despair; sometime with asense of all concrete and subtle reality evaporat-ing even as it arises in the mind; and sometimeswith a spacious realization that all that matters islove. judgment begins to fall away since allmeaning is seen as constructed and empty. Pro-found acceptance takes the place of judgment.After several years of acclimating to this unfa-miliar field of awareness, at some point theindividual becomes motivated to prioritizethese constructs, and this new ability to priori-tize marks the beginning of a new stage of con-sciousness called Transpersonal awareness18. inthis next stage, with the awareness that every-thing in their mind is a construct, the individualrealizes that he or she can combine a number ofsystems, fields of knowledge or areas of seeminglyunconnected disciplines into a new original wholecreation. for example, a person might combineideas from medicine, martial arts, integral theory,somatic psychology and education to design andimplement structures that transform the health caresystem. individuals at this level of development canbegin to see humanity’s future and connection withall of life and want to make a contribution that canaffect as many people as possible with the least amountof effort. often their systems and ways of thinking aremore complex than most people can grasp. And theirhearts have grown as a result of their growing sense ofthe relative relationships between all things19. Towardsthe end of this level of consciousness the individualbegins to feel a sense of peaceful emptiness pervadingall of reality. in spiritual practices such as meditation,this experience of emptiness is a profound temporarystate, however when an individual reaches this level orstage of consciousness after having stabilized for a periodof time through all of the previously described stages, itis no longer a temporary state, but a permanent, every-day, walking around experience20. in the midst of all ofthe chaos of life, there is infinite stillness.The last two stages of the causal tier of consciousnessoccur when an individual sees that even these morecomplex frames of reference are still limiting interms of the ability to affect humanity for good.They open up to an even more subtle felt sense or


direct experience that they and everything else aretruly made of the same stuff. This oneness is feltthroughout the body-mind and stabilized as a per-manent, ever-present direct experience. At this placethe experience is that you and i (and everything) areliterally made of the same energy and the same con-sciousness, or one ever-present source of all, and there-fore, your suffering is my suffering; your joy is my joy. inthese latest researched stages, individuals areno longer acting only on behalf of theirown individual life, nor human lifein general. The personal selfrecedes as background to thegood of the all, meaning all ofcreation.At the latest level of the causaltier (illumined), the individualcan see subtle emanations of lightthat exist prior to subtle images orconcrete formations. They see a web ofsuper subtle emanations out of which the con-crete and subtle worlds arise, structuresthat reinforce one another and that ifaltered, could alter the entire trajec-tory of humanity’s future. Andthey begin to prioritize thesesuper subtle structures in waysthat can help humanity transform‘all at once’. At the first level of thistier, a person began to see that allpersonal and social belief systems areconstructs. At this latest stage of the tier, a per-son sees how the flows of energetic intention andrelationships in the super subtle field create and re-create our present and future in the moment.from this perspective, a new clarity arises abouthow not only current systems but also collectiveintentions can and must be altered simultaneous-ly at the concrete, subtle and causal levels of reali-ty in order to affect change as broadly, deeply andrapidly as possible. This seeing and a desire to actare motivated by the ability to feel and sense intothe suffering of all beings who are none otherthan the one same Self.

L O V E A S T H E S U P R E M E

U N I F Y I N G P R I N C I P L E O F L I F E

When the emptiness is permanent and all perva-sive and the self recedes into the background,space/time dissolves and through this emptiness noindividual thing is seen to have any permanenceexcept the emptiness or stillness itself, and a feltsense and continuous subtle “seeing” of the revela-tion of form through awareness which includes allindividuality, all collectivity, and all of the interior

and exterior of existence as both individual partsand one seamless, infinite, timeless whole, perme-ating the emptiness. This profound realization andpermanent continuous all pervasive ever-presentsynthesis of emptiness and form results as a feltexperience of free-flowing, conscious, unpremed-itated warmth, an all pervasive loving beholding,a movement of love or infinite embrace with no

object and with every object, through a gener-ous and natural flow in service to all of

life, to relieve suffering and cultivatehealth and happiness for every

being and everything seen andunseen. The “individual self” isexperienced as a part of theseamless whole arising in all atonce relationship to all else and

yet without separation. There isan interpenetration of opposites

such that all paradox is resolved in thisand every moment. from this level of con-

sciousness we are everyone and everythingnot as our small individual human self,

but as the all-pervasive benevolent,all-seeing Self. Again, this is a deep,intuitive seeing and feeling ofthe whole and an intuitive know-ing of how all is created sustainedand destroyed in relationship to

everything else, between whichultimately there is no separation. it

is from this place that we align withforces beyond us, in fact the force that creates,

sustains and destroys all of life. dr. martin lutherKing, jr. said, “When i speak of love, i am speaking ofthe force which all the great religions have seen as thesupreme unifying principle of life21.” orland bishopsays, “if [we] are to become equal to anything we haveto stand above the social realm and be equal to thelaws that makes human beings exist. equal to theforces that make existence possible; not equal to socialand political status22.”

O U R N E X T

E V O L U T I O N A R Y M O V E M E N T

love is the single most powerful unifying force that wefundamentally share. from a baby’s merging, dependenceand nascient love for it’s mother, to a love of concretepossessions and people as one’s reflective identity, to alove for ideas, ones dreams and devotions, to a realiza-tion that all is one in a seamless unending whole, welove. love is a movement, whether towards ones self ortowards others. Along with survival, love may be oneof our deepest collective impulses. We could say thatall of form is an act of love, while all of stillness oremptiness is the awareness or consciousness out of


For this view tells us thathistory is indeed going somewhere-it is

going, not toward a final judgment, buttoward ultimate Wholeness. and further, this

Wholeness is not only the nature of all natures,but also the consummate and ultimate potential

of human consciousness itself.

K e n W i l b e r

Essentially whatwe see in human evolution is that

as the self identity boundary expands thenthe love itself that we can feel for humanbeings expands with that boundary.

K e n W i l b e r

which love springs. The notion of love is elegantlysimple enough to speak to anyone and yet funda-mental to all of existence itself. And one of the keysis to realize that the experience and understanding oflove evolves. When we understand the evolution oflove and consciousness, we can see more clearly how togive voice to a common vision that will unite us. hereis an example.in the year 2000 the earth Charter Commis-sion published a framework of globalethical principles, the earth Char-ter23, which has been endorsed byover 4,500 organizations, includ-ing many governments andinternational organizations.The earth Charter comprisessixteen principles in the follow-ing categories: 1) respect andCare for the Community of life; 2)ecological integrity; 3) Social and eco-nomic justice, and 4) democracy, non-vio-lence and Peace. one of the legitimizingfeatures of the earth Charter is that itinvolved the most inclusive andparticipatory processes ever asso-ciated with the creation of aninternational declaration. from1997-2000 the draft document wastranslated into various languages,circulated widely and received inputfrom scientists, international lawyers andreligious leaders. The earth Charter is an excellentexample of a widely supported vision for humanitycreated through collective collaborative intelli-gence globally. because it addresses concrete, sub-tle and even causal ethical concerns, it is relevantto human beings throughout the developmentalspectrum. The principles address the concreteneeds of all human life, such as access to potablewater, food security, uncontaminated soil andshelter. other principles address our more subtleneeds such as the guarantee of human rights andfundamental freedoms including the opportunityto realize one’s full potential. And still othersbegin to point toward causal awareness: “recog-nize that peace is the wholeness created by rightrelationships with oneself, other persons, othercultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole ofwhich all are a part.” The earth Charter tran-scends nation, language, religion, and culture. itis an excellent example of what can result whenlove and universal care for all beings is accessedand addressed via love’s movement through ourcollective intelligence.

W H A T I S

C O L L E C T I V E I N T E L L I G E N C E ?

over the last several decades and especially overthe last few years, many individuals, organiza-tions and communities are exploring the territoryof collective intelligence, collective commonsand global citizens movements24. With the helpof the internet, networks are emerging along

with systems, processes and methodologiesfor optimizing collective resources

and intelligence. Through theseglobal, collaborative initiatives,

new paradigms are rising rapidlythat ultimately will replacethose that no longer work foreveryone.

Since Pierre levy first coinedthe term, “collective intelligence”

in 1994, researchers at miT, uClA,and The university of brussels, to

name a few, have begun identifying necessaryelements and whole processes through

which collective intelligence arisesand contributes to greater synergy,productivity and aggregate solu-tions. in particular, francis hey-lighen at the university of brus-sels, has drawn inspiration from a

wide range of ideas in a trans-disci-plinary approach to his research on

the emergence and evolution of complexintelligent organization. he says, “This phenome-

non, where a group of initially independent agentsdevelop a collective approach to the tackling of someshared problem that is more powerful than the approachany of them might have developed individually, may becalled collective intelligence25.”When we open to this collective intelligence from adeeply sourced causal consciousness and the widestimpulse to love, we realize that together, we have withinus the power and ability to transform our reality fasterthan we thought possible. few people foresaw the mag-nitude and widespread solidarity between individualstrans-nationally that became visible in 2011 inspired byThe Arab Spring and which also became known world-wide as The occupy movement. This was a powerful,grass-roots movement created by people across genera-tions, languages, nations, professions and across alleducational, socio-economic and developmental lev-els. individual leaders with particular strengths fromvarious disciplines emerged to offer their knowledgeand experience in one moment and became a partici-pant in the next through a spontaneously, self-orga-nizing collective force for justice. There seemed to


We must realize that whenbasic needs have been met, human

development is primarily about being more,not having more. We have the knowledge and

technology to provide for all and to reduce ourimpacts on the environment. our environmental,

economic, political, social, and spiritualchallenges are interconnected, and together

we can forge inclusive solutions. T h e e A r T h C h A r T e r

We need a new global visionthat is once legitimate inspiring

and rigorous to seize the public imaginationas well as broaden the political base

for change.P A u l r A S K i n

be a transpersonal collective consciousness movingits way through global civil society that had and con-tinues to have a will of its own, a movement towardtruth, universal care and justice on a large scale.in 2007, Paul hawken, estimated that there are at mini-mum 130,000 individuals and organizations involved insocial and environmental justice initiatives worldwide26.That number continues to grow. The collective intelli-gence that is available through these individuals andgroups is formidable. Among these are a subset of indi-viduals, groups and organizations who are deliberate andintentional in experimenting with sourcing and cultivat-ing awakened collective presence, which is a causal expres-sion of collective intelligence. one of these organizationsis The Presencing institute. Another is The WideningCircle. And another example is Pacific integral’s generat-ing transformative change, our global causal leadershipprogram. Through our leadership intensives we inviteextraordinary individuals to open to the source of causalawareness through which deep truth and creativity arises.over nine months, we cultivate the field of collectiveawareness and collaborative presence through whichlove reveals itself in service to the relief of suffering andthe growth of greater happiness and wholeness in theworld. We teach the fundamentals of development,awareness, presence, embodiment, relationship,ethics, causal leadership, systems thinking, authenticcommunication, emergent facilitation and design,and global consciousness, all in service to a trans-formed future. Through the release of sole identifica-tion with our personal desires, we encounter a syner-getic, collaborative arising of collective passions,resources, skills, knowledge and experience in ser-vice to the whole. The path of service becomesclear and together, through our shared move-ment, sourced out of love and consciousness, wesee what is ours to do. ironically, in service tothe whole, each individual feels more alive, morefull, valued and satisfied through release intosomething larger than their personal self. fromthe vast spacious, creative ground of being, col-lective resources emerge into a unified collabora-tive process in response to the current momentand particular situation. Creative initiatives andsolutions spontaneously arise in answer to the callfor wholeness, whether local or global. The capac-ity to hold, grow and transmit this awarenessseems stable over the long term27. individuals whohave experienced this process have gone into the-world to further their work and grow their ownnetworks of conscious collaborators. And our ownglobal network of these causal leaders is growing. itis through these experiences with extraordinaryhuman beings in our programs, that we are inspired

and convinced that collectively humanity has thecapacity to love, grow and serve in ways that trans-form our future.

O N E O F T H E M O S T

I M P O R T A N T T H I N G S W E C A N

D O I S T O F I N D E A C H O T H E R

As mentioned, there are organizations that aregaining momentum in their ability to attract andgrow global networks of conscious leaders.Through these networks, we are finding eachother and we are growing in magnitude andpower. As we connect across nations and cultures,we will unite horizontally based on our level ofconsciousness and area of expertise, and verticallybased on our region or sphere of influence.Through collaborative, collective intelligence, wecan begin to allow our diverse gifts to combine inways that result in innovative solutions that resolveour most pressing problems. one of the mostsimple and profound commitments we can makeis to universal care or love. There is a fundamentaltruthfulness to kindness and generosity that takes aform of letting go of control and possession, and atrust that there is enough, that provision will come.ironically, when we let go of me and mine, lovepours forth in all directions.Through this evolved level of conscious awareness,we become open to the collective, creative intelli-gence flowing through everyone and everything. Webegin to see and feel through the minds and hearts ofothers everywhere.And suddenly our minds and worlds expand to includeinformation we had never received previously. newinformation, knowledge, innovation and experiencerush in from all directions. our consciousness expandsfrom the concrete to the subtle to the causal. We feelmore, sense more, receive more, with more compassion,care and inclusive of all that exists. We open our sensesand our awareness to the source of all and suddenly wehave access to vast resources of creativity and unlimitedpotential through one another’s unique contributionwhether through individuals, cultures, nations or acrosssectors and disciplines. We discover that everythingand everyone can serve the whole and in serving thewhole, each becomes more valuable as a one of a kindunique individual part.

C O N C L U S I O N

The evolution of life through love and consciousnessseems to be at play through the past, present andfuture of existence. in the last 50 years, researchers


such as Piaget, Kohlberg, gilligan, Kegan, loevinger,Cook greuter, o’fallon and others, have mappedthe evolution of our individual development ashuman beings from early childhood through to themost advanced stages of human consciousness as weknow it. These results are showing consistency acrosscultures and they are revealing common patterns in theevolution of our human values, thought processes,methods of prioritization and meaning making.When we see that love and consciousness evolve, thenwe can intervene to grow ourselves in ways that benefitindividuals and collectives, worldwide. We can seethe value of both interior and exterior per-spectives and we can take the past,present and future of all species intoaccount in our collective decisionmaking processes. We feel com-pelled to respond on the largestscale that we can. We collectivelyopen our minds, our hearts andrelease our selves to love. Throughlove, we are called into the movementto transform our global civilization for futuregenerations. When we are moved by this unifyingprinciple of love, we look around the planet, findwhere our gifts meet the world’s needs and we arecompelled to offer all that we are in service to thatwhich pervades all. realizing that we cannot do italone, we find one another, pool our strengths,minds and resources, and open to the causalground through which limitless creativity arises inresponse to our current situation. The force oflove finds its way through our collaborative causalconsciousness and as we open to this source ofpower and insight, we can finally begin to clear apath towards solving many of our most complexproblems as a species, together. 8

———————

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highest stage of moral Judgment.6 gilligan 1993, in a Different Voice.7 Kegan 1994, in over our heads.8 Cook-greuter 2002, Ego Development: nine levels of

increasing Embrace.9 Wilber 1995, sex, Ecology and spirituality.10 o’fallon 2011, stagEs.11 Aurobindo 1996, the synthesis of yoga.12 Wilber 2006, integral spirituality.

13 o’fallon 2010, the collapse of the Wilber coombs matrix.14 o’fallon 2011, stagEs.15 Cook-greuter, 2002, Ego Development: nine levels of

increasing Embrace.16 o’fallon 2011, stagEs.17 Cook-greuter 2002, Ego Development: nine levels of

increasing Embrace.18 ofallon 2012, Development and consciousness.19 Wilber, engler & brown 1989, transformations of

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ter.24 roof 2012, editorial, Kosmos Journal.

25 heylighen 2011, self-organization incommunicating groups.

26 hawken 2007, Blessed Unrest andWiser Earth.27 fitch 2010, Enacting containers forintegral transformative Development.

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–– (2012) “development and Consciousness: growing upis Waking up”, spanda Journal,3(1).

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rASKin, P. (2006). global transition initiative (harvard universitylecture). retrieved from http://gtinitiative.org/resources/video.html.

roof, n. (2012) editorial Kosmos Journal, Spring Summer.Senge, P., And SChArmer, o., (2004). presence: human pur-

pose and the Field of the Future (Cambridge: Sol).STeenlAnd, S., And rundleT, P. (2007). pursuing the global

common good: principle and practice in U.s. Foreign policy.retrieved from www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/10/pdf/globalCommongood.pdf.

Wilber, K. (1981) Up From Eden: a transpersonal View ofhuman Evolution (boulder: Shambhala).

–– (1995). sex, Ecology, and spirituality: the spirit of Evolu-tion (boston: Shambhala).

–– (1997). “An integral Theory of Consciousness”, Journalof consciousness studies, 4 (1): 71-92.

–– (2006). integral spirituality: a startling new role for reli-gion in the modern and postmodern World (boston:Shambhala).

Wilber, K., j. engler, And d. P. broWn. (1986). transfor-mations of consciousness: conventional and contemppla-tive perspectives on Development. (boston: Shambhala).

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marilyn schlitz, phD, is globalambassador and senior scien-tist at the institute of noeticsciences, where she hasworked for over 18 years. as ascientist and anthropologist,she has pioneered clinical, lab-

oratory, and field-based researchin the areas of consciousness,

human transformation and healing.a researcher, speaker, change consul-

tant, and writer, marilyn’s books include: living deeply: TheArt and Science of Transformation in everyday life (co-authored with cassandra Vieten and tina amorok) and Con-sciousness and healing: integral Approaches to mind-bodymedicine.


or mAny PeoPle, The ChAngeS ThAT Are oCCurring

in today’s world are frightening and destabiliz-ing. As a result, there is a rising call for newskills and capacities to help leaders in many

walks of life to manage the challenges and com-plexities. under the right circumstances, pro-found challenges can be a call to growth andtransformation. insights from both science andspirituality suggest that deep disruptions in ourpersonal and social worlds can trigger positiveshifts in people’s worldviews and the organiza-tions they support. Such shifts may lead to majorchanges in how people understand who they are,what has meaning and purpose in their lives,and how their actions inform the evolvingworld. under the right set of conditions, thesetransformations can be cultivated with con-scious intention and purpose. As noted by econ-omists r. eisler and Corral: “for the first time inrecorded history, awareness is emerging globallythat we need fundamental systematic change tosolve the world’s complex environmental andsocial problems1.” for several decades, research has been done atthe institute of noetic Sciences to empiricallyinvestigate the process of worldview transforma-tions. A multi-disciplinary team of scientists hassystematically explored the dynamics of transfor-mation, including the identification of catalysts forworldview shifts, the elements of transformational

practices shared across diverse spiritual and psy-chological traditions, and the outcomes andconsequences of conscious worldview transfor-mations for individuals and social institutions2.The work has been applied in the context ofscience3, business4, education5 and healthcare6.The program of research included scenariobuilding, narrative analyses of transformationalexperiences, detailed focus groups conductedwith change specialists from various spiritualand professional disciplines, structured inter-views with 60 teachers of worldview transforma-tion, on-line surveys with 1000’s of self-selectedrespondents, longitudinal research on varioustransformative practices, and the developmentand evaluation of a “worldview literacy” curricu-lum for children and adults7. results of these stud-ies suggest that transformative practices increasepersonal and social awareness, cultural competence,innovation, resilience, collaborative inquiry, collec-tive problem solving, and prosocial behaviours suchas compassion and empathy.findings from this research program led to a non-lin-ear developmental model of worldview transforma-tion8, which predicts that the root of change lies ineach individual’s direct, subjective, noetic experiences. Asphysician and transformative educator, rachel remen,noted in a research interview: “A transformation in[worldview] affects a kind of double vision in people.They see more than one reality at the same time, whichgives a depth to both their experience and to theirresponse to the experience9.” With personal awareness ofa broader worldview, people can expand their under-standing of self, others, and their place in the broaderuniverse. in the process, they report core changes intheir personal identify, social relationships, and workexperiences. The purpose of this article is to apply the componentsof this worldview transformation model to noetic lead-ership as a transformative practice. The goal is to helpcatalyze positive transformations in today’s global envi-ronment and in the meaning and purpose that peopleexperience in their life and work. eight tools havebeen identified from the research that can be appliedto leadership at all levels of personal and organiza-tional influence and activity. The key to noetic lead-ership is a shift from the focus on external sources of

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information and authority to the development ofeach person’s inner strengths, capacities and wisdom.

T R A N S F O R M A T I V E T O O L S

F O R N O E T I C L E A D E R S H I P

1 ~ WorldvieW liTerACy. A fundamental tool fortransformative leadership is an awareness of howworldviews shape human experiences and collectiveenterprises. Worldviews are the lenses of perceptionthrough which people know and relate to self and other.They inform people’s assumptions, values, and beliefs10.While powerfully important, worldviews are largelyburied deep below the threshold of conscious awareness,functioning on a kind of autopilot that informs everyaction and reaction of human experience. Worldviews are shaped by many things, includingupbringing, culture, education, biology, and environ-ment11. Worldviews also direct people’s actions andbehaviours, both individually and in society. They areexpressed through different ways of knowing andbeing in the world, including subjective, first personalexperiences such as feelings and self-reflections, inter-subjective or shared cultural meanings, and objectivemeans of communicating through scientific, social,political and economic exchange. A transformativeleader has the capacity to hold these various dimen-sions - experiencing and integrating multiple waysof knowing and being12.Worldviews are not static. Through the course ofeach individual’s human development, differentperspectives morph in small and large ways; thepriorities people hold as teenagers are typicallytransformed as they grow and mature. in addi-tion, people report profound personal experi-ences that completely shift their worldview,including their core sense of self and other –expanding their basic understanding of reality.As noted by psychologist frances vaughn duringa research interview: “Transformation […] is notsimply a change in your point of view, butrather a whole different perspective of what’spossible13.” by bringing awareness and knowingto the exploration of worldviews, positive trans-formations can be learned and actively appliedin everyday practice – both as individuals andorganizations. of course, this requires funda-mental shifts in the way individuals and groupsexperience and relate to themselves and others.There are many doors that lead to an opening toworldview transformations.2 ~ noeTiC eXPerienCeS. There are many cata-lysts for worldview transformation. At their core,they appear to involve a noetic experience, somedirect personal encounter with a deeper truth than

they previously understood. William james, the late19th century philosopher defined noetic as “states ofinsight, unplumbed by the discursive intellect, allinarticulate though they remain. And yet, theycarry with them a curious sense of authority14.”These internal sources of authority are oftendescribed as a move from feelings of separationfrom the world to some deep interconnectionwith all of life. Such experiences may be triggeredby positive, life-affirming openings, often thoughtof as epiphanies or breakthroughs. They maycome from many small insights that lead ulti-mately to a shift in worldview. They may alsobe the result of a painful or disruptive experi-ence; something that upsets the steady state ofeveryday experience. in the case of profoundturmoil, the discomfort of staying the samemay become harder than the choice to makefundamental shifts. noetic transformation isnot just a subtle adjustment. “life as usual” isno longer a viable option. 3 ~ Self-refleCTion. People can become veryentrenched in their view of the world. We oftensee what we expect to see and discard anythingthat refutes our core beliefs and values. An impor-tant aspect of worldview transformation is theability for people to question their assumptions.developing skills for self-reflection and self-inquirycan open important gateways into the noetic realm.meditation, centring prayer, time in nature, work-ing in the garden, art, each can offer opportunitiesto still the mind and quiet the body. optical illu-sions, puzzles, and creativity exercises can also helpone to experience things from another point of viewand examine their core assumptions about what is trueor false. As the world becomes increasingly diverse andmulti-cultural, people have the opportunity to practice“cross-cultural juxtaposition,” seeing the world throughanother cultural perspective15. Such noetic practices canbe done alone or in groups.reflecting on the nature of worldviews and appreciatingthe differences across worldviews can lead to greater flexi-bility, cultural appreciation, and openness to change. evenunder stressful situations, people make better choices andare more effective when they can learn to centre theiremotional life, calibrate their inner guidance system,and trust the leader within them. noetic leaders maylearn to heed the call to action with courage to moveforward into unfamiliar territory. even bottoming out,approached with reflection and curiosity, can be anopportunity to find new inspiration and to embrace abroader range of possibilities. following an intuition,trusting one’s hunch, making a leap of faith, goingwith a gut feeling, are not new concepts to successfulleaders. That inner compass can help guide people

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and the organizations they lead down the path topersonal and collective well-being.4 ~ TrAnSformATive PrACTiCe. As noted by entrepre-neur and author, Chip Conley: “business principles areonly as good as the practices that back them up16.”While transformative experiences can catalyze transfor-mation, it helps if they can be developed throughrepeated practice in order to create new and sustainablehabits. Consciously engaging in noetic leadership canbecome a transformative practice with the right condi-tions – leading to expanded insights, growth, and wisdom.research in contemporary neuroscience shows that humanbrains lay down neural pathways based on repetitive expe-riences. historically it was thought that brains are notcapable of change as we move into adulthood. The oldadage, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” has domi-nated scientific assumptions about adult learning foryears. it is now believed that outdated behaviours whichlimit personal growth and development need not contin-ue as people move forward in their lives. under the rightcircumstances, most people are capable of learning andchanging for the better. recent discoveries in neuroplas-ticity, for example, reveal that adult brains can developthroughout life in response to new experiences andstimuli. like children, the adult brain has the capacityto grow new neurons, repair damaged areas, and workin ways that lead to new patterns of thought andbehaviour. more interesting yet, the brain can under-go physical changes simply through pure mentalactivity. mentally rehearsing an athletic event, amusical composition, the creation of new computersoftware, or a new marketing campaign impactsthe brain in much the same way that actuallydoing the activity can do17. it is the case that peo-ple are hard-wired to transform and their mentallife can have measurable impacts on their externalactions and deeds.The lesson from these data is that people, underthe right conditions, have the capacity to makefundamental shifts in what they know and howthey know it. encouraging both personal and pro-fessional development, individuals and organiza-tions can build new habits, invite new standardsof excellence, identify new thresholds for break-through, and create new pathways to the future.5 ~ holding PoSiTive imAgeS. Today we arewell into an era of information, globalization andquantum interconnections. The dominator imageof man over nature has begun to lose its focus18.

holding a positive image for humanity begins tobalance masculine with feminine, cooperation withcompetition, and love with individualism. ratherthan seeing global engagement as a zero-sum game,where one person wins at the expense of another

person’s loss, a new model of leadership is emergingthat replaces short-term gains with an interconnectedset of potential life affirming outcomes. in an effort to understand the dynamics of trans-formation, Willis harman and a team of futuristscreated a foundational report that set the stagefor noetic leadership. in this report, they fore-shadowed the paradigm shift that is underwaytoday. in their words:images of humankind that are dominant in aculture are of fundamental importance becausethey underlie the ways in which the societyshapes its institutions, educates its young, andgoes about whatever it perceives its business tobe. Changes in these images are of particularconcern at the present time because our indus-trial society may be on the threshold of a trans-formation as profound as that which came toeurope when the medieval Age gave way to therise of science and the industrial revolution19.Today we are poised between different world-views and ways of engaging reality. holding apragmatic image of positive transformation, anddirecting individual and collective practices towarda positive future, can allow people to live intonew possibilities. noetic leadership can help iden-tify and develop appropriate new guiding imagesthat may quickly become an essential part of theemerging zeitgeist.

6 ~ i n d i v i d u A l A n d C o l l e C T i o n i n T e n T i o n S.intention is the determination to act in a certain wayor to direct our will toward a particular goal or out-come. it is fundamental to any transformative prac-tice. At an individual level, each person has the choiceto engage in transformative practices and to invitetheir own growth and development. Through noeticexperiences, people can find openings to transforma-tion, but with intention they can build a practice thatleads to new patterns of thought and behaviour. inten-tion is not only about individual goals but also aboutholding intentions for the greater good. group inten-tion setting can help each person to see their place in alarger story and to hold one another accountable forachieving their personal and collective goals. intentionscan be directed toward self, others, and the greatergood of all. in the course of noetic leadership, they canbe held as psychological, biological, social, culturaland ultimately, transpersonal intentions.7 ~ TrAining ATTenTion. Another key to transforma-tive practices is the focus on where we place ourattention. An important tool for training attention isshifting perspective so that the observer may look atthe world with fresh eyes and new possibilities.What people see – and what they miss – often lies


below the threshold of conscious awareness. Cogni-tive psychologists talk about “inattentional blind-ness.” in controlled experiments, it has been demon-strated that where we place our attention impactsour capacity to see things that are not part of ourfocused awareness. likewise, if the change is gradual,we may miss subtle and not so subtle aspects of a situ-ation based on the cognitive tendency to identify pat-terns we already recognize and anticipate. As innova-tion specialist, Tina Seelig writes: “We become skilledat predicting what we will experience, and then weexperience the things we predict20.”Attention training can increase an individual’s aware-ness of what they are not aware of in their everydayactivities. it also helps people to notice unexpectedopportunities. by maintaining a 360-degree perspectivewhen anticipating trends and types of change in today’sworld, one may become more flexible and adaptive.Paying attention to the perspectives of others canexpand and deepen problem solving options and cre-ative breakthroughs. A noetic leader also helps othersto develop their leadership capacities. As part of thetransformational practice, listening for the leadershipof others is vital to shifting the paradigm.in the midst of deep disruptions, resilience becomes akey transition-informing principle. moving one’sattention to the natural cycles of growth and disso-lution, a noetic leader can observe the social andphysical ecologies that make resilience more likelyto occur. resilience research is grounded in whatfuturists call panarchy theory. At the core of thistheory is an adaptive cycle, which shapes theresponses of individuals, institutions and ecosys-tems to crises. reaching a stage of vulnerabilitycan lead to positive transformations21.8 ~ embrACing Surrender. finally, a powerfultool of transformative leadership comes in theletting go of rigid expectations. based on thetransformation research, it is clear that transfor-mation involves recognizing those aspects of lifethat can change and those that cannot. learn-ing from mistakes, taking the hit as the gift, canbuild confidence in one’s leadership abilities.risk and courage are important dynamics, but sois trust. As my colleagues and i have reported inour book, living Deeply: “Transformative prac-tices are more than just learning new habits orskills – and they don’t always work in the linear,goal-oriented fashion we’re accustomed to in oursecular, physical lives. Transformative practices, inmany ways, appear to work indirectly – by creatingthe best conditions for the natural processes of growthand awakening to take place.”

C O N C L U S I O N S

Can our civilization live into a new and more sus-tainable worldview? The answer will be based onwhether a critical mass of leaders from every walkof life can find the vision, hear the call, developsustainable practices, find support, and embracethe trust that is needed to take appropriate actionsthat may help craft a new image for our globalcommunity. The threat of disaster, without animage of better possible outcomes, can lead peo-ple to shut down and deny the problem or itspositive resolution. The barriers to positive trans-formation are real and problematic. but history isa good indicator that humans are a resilientspecies, filled with creative insight and the poten-tial for life-enhancing breakthroughs. in the faceof the current global crises, an expanded sense ofperspective, grounded in pragmatic hope, willlead to personal and collective empowerment.Creating fresh images that mark a new beginning,expressed in shared intention, expanded atten-tion, and collective action, can help birth a newparadigm for humanity. noetic leadership comes when individuals findthe hero within themselves. by harnessing one’sinner capacities through transformative practices, itis possible to cultivate the resilience that is neededto navigate the challenges of the outer world. out ofcatastrophe can come the renewal of our globalsocial and economic system, our environment, and ofcivilization. moving away from reactivity, fear, andpanic, and toward emotional balance and positivecollective actions, allows noetic leaders to apply thetime-tested tools of transformation for sustaining indi-vidual and organizational well-being. 8

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1 Corral and eisler 2012, leadership is global: 65.2 Schlitz et al. 2007, living Deeply.3 Schlitz and harman 2004, the implications of alternative and

complementary medicine for science and the scientific process.4 harman 1998, global mind change.5 Schlitz et al. 2011, the Worldview literacy project.6 Schlitz 2008, the integral model.7 Schlitz et al. 2011, the Worldview literacy project.8 Schlitz, vieten and Amorok,

http://www.noetic.org/research/transformation_model/.9 Schlitz, et al. 2007, living Deeply.10 Schlitz et al. 2011, the Worldview literacy project.11 Schlitz et al. 2010, Worldview transformation and the Devel-

opment of social consciousness.12 Schlitz 2008, the integral model.13 Schlitz et al. 2007, living Deeply: 13.14 james 1911, the Varieties of religious Experience: 380-381.15 marcus and fisher 1999, anthropology as a cultural critique.

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16 Conley 2007, peak.17 begley 2007, train your mind, change your Brain.18 Corral and eisler 2006, leaders Forging change.19 markley and harman 1982, changing images of man.20 Seelig 2012, ingenius: a crash course on creativity: 71.21 markley and harman 1982, changing images of man.

R E F E R E N C E S

begley, S. (2007). train your mind, change your Brain: howa new science reveals our Extraordinary potential to trans-form ourselves (new york: ballantine).

Conley, C. (2007). peak: how great companies get theirmojo from maslow (San francisco, CA: jossey bass).

CorrAl, T. And eiSler, r. (2006). “leaders forging Change:Partnership Power for the 21st Century”, in W. link, T. Cor-ral, and m. gerzon (eds), leadership is global: co-creating amore humane and sustainable World: 65-80 (www.globallead-ershipnetwork.net: global leadership network).

dAvidSon, r. And luTZ, A. (2008). “buddha’s brain:neuro-plasticity and meditation”, signal processing magazine,25(1): 174-176.

jAmeS, W. (1911). the Varieties of religious Experience (lon-don: longmans, green and Company).

hArmAn, W. (1998). global mind change: the promise ofthe 21st century (San francisco, CA: berrett-Koehler).

mArCuS, g. And fiSher, m. (1999). anthropology as a cul-tural critique. (Chicago: The university of ChicagoPress).

mArKley, o. And hArmAn, W. (eds.). (1982). changingimages of man (oxford: Pergamon Press).

rEsiliEncE proJEct. https://www.stanford.edu/dept/under-grad/cgi-bin/drupal/resilience.

SChliTZ, m.m. (2008), “The integral model: Answer-ing the Call for Whole Systems health Care”, thepermanente Journal, 12(2): 61-68.

SChliTZ, m.m. And hArmAn, W. (2004). “The impli-cations of Alternative and Complementary medi-cine for Science and the Scientific Process”, in m.Schlitz, T. Amorok, and m. micozzi (eds), con-sciousness & healing: integral approaches to mindBody medicine (london: Churchill livingstone).

SChliTZ m., vieTen C., And AmoroK T. (2007).living Deeply: the art and science of transforma-tion (berkeley, CA: new harbinger Publica-tions).

SChliTZ, m.m., vieTen, C. And miller, e.m.(2010), “Worldview Transformation and the devel-opment of Social Consciousness”, Journal of con-sciousness studies, 17(7-8): 18-36.

SChliTZ, m.m., vieTen, C., miller, e., homer, K.,PeTerSen, K. And eriCKSon-freemAn, K. (2011),“The Worldview literacy Project: exploring newCapacities for the 21st Century Student”, Johnshopkins University school of Education new hori-zons for learning, Winter 2011. retrieved fromhttp://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/journals/Win-ter2011/Schlitz.

Seelig, T. (2012). ingenius: a crash course on creativity(new york: harperone).

vieTen C., AmoroK T., And SChliTZ m. (2006), “i towe: The role of consciousness transformation incompassion and altruism”, Zygon: Journal of reli-gion and science, 41(4): 917-933.

vieTen C., AmoroK T., SChliTZ m. (2008). “manypaths, one mountain: An integral approach to thescience of transformation”, in d.h. johnson(ed.), the meaning of life in the 21st century: ten-sions among science, religion, and experience: 265(new york: iuniverse).

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Dr angela Browne-miller is aninternational author, speakerand teacher. she is founder ofthe metaxis institute for per-sonal, social, systems, andspecies Evolution, based innorthern california with

locations and members aroundthe globe. she is also founder of

the metaterra inter-Dimensionalinformation institute. Dr Browne-

miller is author of over forty nonfiction and fiction books such as:metaxis and Survival: Keys to Adapting human Conscious-ness; Adventures in Crisis, Change, Transition and death; Pro-ject heartfire; maka Shan; The great return; and embracingeternity she is editor of the international violence and Abusein society collection, and the international collection on addic-tions. Dr Browne-miller earned her two doctorates at Uc Berke-ley and served as a Us national institute on mental healthpostdoctoral Fellow. Website: www.drangela.com andwww.metaterra.com; [email protected].

eAderS, ThAnK you for ThiS oPPorTuniTy To

speak to you and your synapses. The fol-lowing discussion is an inquiry regardingwhat is concurrently a casual and yet, if

we are honest with ourselves, pressing matter:extinction. The human species has a say as towhether or not it will become extinct. This is aninvitation to explore an option our species mayhave, and i say indeed has, now. i derive a greatdeal of my thinking from, and have developed agreat deal of my work and research within, tra-ditional fields of scholarship and inquiry2 here,in the material that follows, i build on, reachbeyond, the present bounds of those modes ofknowing to a natural next step.how infinitesimal we are relative to galactic andcosmic proportions. Against this backdrop ofimmensity, of infinite dimensions of infinite macroand micro proportions, we as a species are per-haps inconsequential, as is our survival. Perhaps.however, it is my contention that we can have agreater say in the outcome of our evolution andexistence than we generally allow ourselves (or areallowed) to believe. i will comment on the matterof my parenthetical note “or are allowed” as i developthe discussion in this article.

even where we are stymied by grand phases andnatural and unnatural shifts in our physical envi-ronment, even where the keenest of scientificand technologic advances are not advancingrapidly enough to protect or control our physicalenvironment (our biological niche), even whereour physical evolution is not rapid enough toprepare us for every (possibly) necessary adapta-tion, we do have the choice to effectively adapt.in fact, we stand at the threshold of what ichoose to describe as a most magnificent evolu-

TionAry oPPorTuniTy. We can consciously expandour species into dimensions beyond just thephysical plane. There are physical and non-physi-cal niches we can define and move into, come andgo from at will. Such expansion is a matter ofwhat i will describe herein as our, any, SPeCieS’ evo-

luTionAry righT. it is incumbent upon those of usbeing drawn to this form of thinking in our times,and throughout our times, to develop methods ofsignaling our species regarding what we know. Wecan bring a critical mass of our species to see thistruly magnificent, even revolutionary, evolutionaryopportunity i discuss herein – to see this expansion asan evolutionary necessity. note that no profound shiftin daily life is required. rather this calls for a shift inawareness of what controls our minds and how ourminds control us.note also that we humans are at times resistant to shift-ing the direction of our behaviours and perceptions, evenwhen our survival may be at stake. This is not unlikethe behaviour of those humans who have become drugaddicted. There are indeed functions at work within ourbrains that render us vulnerable to minor and major,and positive and negative, addictions. This addictionfunction works on so many levels. We all are under itsspell at all times, whether or not we see this.Applying this understanding to the discussion herein, wemay observe that we humans carry a natural tendency togrow virtually even perhaps absolutely addicted to our pre-sent or dominant perception of our reality and its seem-ing limitations. This tendency must be addressed. Tothis point, note that, among the fields in which i havedone extensive work is the field of human behaviour,with one of the areas of my work being the social, psy-chological, and biological (including neuropsycholog-ical) nature of addiction to substances, behaviours,

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states of mind, beliefs, and entire realities. i drawupon my research in this and other fields (includingthat of how the human brain learns) to expand thematters of this article. i also note that detecting andsuperseding the true nature and purpose of this addic-tion function our brains are programmed to have iscentral to my purpose herein3.i am talking about detecting and breaking through theshackles of our programming, the programming work-ing every moment within our brains and their synaps-es, our programming to accept as a given that we areonly physical dimension beings, that we are restrictedto the physical dimension except where a god or a drughas given us permission to access (or to feel we access)other dimensions. i am talking about what i describe asour synaptic rights4. These rights include:~ our rights to develop synapses that would allow us tosee and know more about our realities;~ our rights to form the synapses we choose to formwhen we choose to form these;~ our rights to use our synapses the way we choose touse these;~ our rights to consciously control the movementsof electronic and other transmissions across oursynapses;~ our rights to further empower our synapses andour consciousness-es.

R E - T H I N K I N G S U R V I V A L

We appear to sense that the survival of the humanspecies is to a great extent in our hands, or betterstated, in our minds. This is primarily evident inthe emergence of environmental ecology sciencesand movements. in the 1970s, one the mostimportant mentors in my life, gregory bateson,set forth his riveting and even revolutionary col-lection of essays, steps to an Ecology of mind 5.in this interdisciplinary collection of essays,bateson demonstrates a discourse intended tostimulate thinking outside the normal path-ways, what i found to be and still find to besome of the most liberating conceptual shiftpractices available to us. ultimately, the meta-lesson i formed from this is that the environ-mental ecology movement was and is essential,and that this thinking can and must reach aboveand beyond the physical plane to the place whereour consciousness-es live – best described fornow as our minds. environmental ecology as a field contributes greatlyto our respect for our physical environment and is acentral movement along the lines of survival. yet,there is clearly more to the survival of our species.

expansions of the reaches, capabilities, dimensions,and dominions of the human mind and conscious-ness are indeed within our grasp. even the notionof expansion begs further exploration now, a highlyconscious, intelligently purposeful, exploration.on the frontiers of ourselves, we have the optionto choose to be conscious and aware of our pres-ences and our choices. All fields of humanendeavour, including but not limited to spiritual-ity, physics, linguistics, neurobiology, genetics,psychology, sociology, anthropology, the arts, andso on, must step forward to make conscious evo-lution, even conscious adaptation, of the humanconsciousness very high on the agenda. Speciesdefinition of itself as an inter-dimensional lifeform is essential now. To address this notion, letus begin by understanding our place in thephysical plane, the only place we are apparentlyprogrammed to believe we can live in withoutdivine (or psychedelic perhaps) intervention (orthe illusion of this).The notion that we can of our own free willsdevelop various niches to move into for the sakeof survival is not clear to us in large part as aresult of ancient teachings dictating to us thatsuch travel has to be under control of somethinghigher than ourselves. ultimately this is true, how-ever at least some of what is higher is our own higherconsciousness-es. yet, we have been programmed tobarely tap the power of our own minds.The physical plane is a great school. or perhaps thisworld is better described as a bicycle with trainingwheels on it. indeed, if paying attention, we see wealways have the opportunity to become ever more aware.every moment is a learning opportunity on some indi-vidual, societal and or species level: sensory, cognitive,psychological, social, even cellular and neural levels, andso on. in fact, we are designed to learn, as individuals andas populations, (and to learn to learn6) about our envi-ronments and situations in order to survive.Among the many things we can and do learn is to moveour “selves” through time and space, navigating theevents, conditions, and transitions our species is experi-encing and perhaps also those our species senses are com-ing, including minor and major, predictable, and also lesspredictable, passages and challenges. We are continuouslyreading the signals and signs of what is taking place, andof what is coming, and of how we can prepare. We areconsciously and subconsciously (and also what i callmeta-consciously) perceiving and or registering thesesigns as flows of information in the air, the atmosphere,the actual and virtual environment – and in our bodies,our minds, our consciousnesses.just as we individuals have sensory mechanisms, suchas the most obvious, the five senses, our species and

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even our ecosystems do as well. just as the individualorganism is designed to perceive (to perceive somethings and not others), species, even and ecosystems,are designed to absorb information as well. We indi-viduals (and species and ecosystems) who live in thisphysical plane are also designed to wall out too muchdata to avoid confusing, disorienting, dangerous over-load. but is this the only purpose of our walling-outfunction? i contend that it is not, that we are pro-grammed not to see (perceive) a significant amount ofnot only noise but also valuable information. let medevelop this programming issue later in this article. Asfor now, i refer readers to the view of William blake inhis poem, the marriage of heaven and hell7, that “if thedoors of perception were cleansed every thing wouldappear to man as it is, infinite. for man has closed him-self up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks ofhis cavern.” i believe blake was joining many otherthinkers (Aldous huxley 8 and we might also say evenPlato and descartes for example) who were and arepressing us to recognize that our limits (and our percep-tions of these limits) are not absolute.instinct tells us a great deal. We know, where not con-sciously, then sub and unconsciously, where we are,and where we can be, in time and space, and alsooutside of it. however, we generally wall out “toomuch” knowing as part of our functional processingto recognize information perceived as necessary forimmediate living and survival. We engage in thiswalling out, in numerous ways, every moment.Thus, while we are always what i describe as “meta-consciously hyper-aware,” we are programmed tobarely realize this. We are kept, by our brains,from consciously knowing.on a deep collective species level, our survivalinstinct functions are meta-consciously mapping,tracking, reading, changes around us, move-ments through cycles and transitions. much ofthis species mapping and tracking is indeeddone below the conscious level our brains areworking on, and much of it never floats intoconsciousness. We tend to fully see or perceiveonly that which we are able or ready to con-sciously perceive. Some current theory evensuggests that if particular neural pathways arenot stimulated to develop in early childhood,then these may not develop as thoroughly orreadily later in life. A simple example of thisready to learn, plastic, state of the brain of theyoung child is language acquisition. Childrenimmersed in several languages at early ages tendto acquire these languages with greater ease thando adults even when the adults are learning viatotal immersion. young children’s minds absorblike sponges. What is also true yet blocked from

our fully knowing is that adults do this as well.however, by the time we reach adulthood, thebrain has assumed greater dominance over, controlover, what it allows in and blocks out.What do we do with any information overload aflooding of our conscious minds with massive datamight cause? We need not fret, as we are pro-grammed to ignore this data. We have mecha-nisms allowing us to block out, to in effect disposeof, data that threatens to confuse or disable ourcircuits. To wit, the human brain does a house-keeping-like neuronal shedding at several timesduring its development. This shedding purposelydisables cells and connections within the brainthat the brain does not believe (or perceive) itneeds. We are programmed to do this shedding,automatically. We do not even feel ourselvesdoing so. This is all taken care of for us, via ourown programming. Who else’s programmingmight this be? This must be our own…

A R C H A I C B I O L O G I C A L

H U M A N B R A I N

let’s look more closely at this brain full of program-mable synaptic chains that we carry in our heads,this thing that controls us. our brains have storedwithin them the capacity to perceive information onother levels and in other dimensions of reality. how-ever, we have stored the capacity to automaticallyblock from the conscious level information we do not“need to know” on this conscious basis. yet, we do havethe capacity to train ourselves to choose to pull other-wise sub and unconscious awareness-es into our con-sciousness. for example, one who stares at a field full offaces in a room full of strangers, or at a hill full of wild-flowers on a hill full of wild vegetation, sees only thecrowd or the field. but once the names of the strangersor of the plants are known, then one sees a room withspecific people in it, and a hill full of specific wildflowers.Among the functions of the human brain, likely the domi-nant function, is the executive control function whichorganizes use of, response to, and the hierarchical classify-ing, prioritization, and storing of, incoming information.for the most part, our executive control function is some-thing we are not paying attention to, and are not awareof. While studying or even cramming for an exam maymove a person in the direction of bringing vague aware-ness of the executive control function into conscious-ness, this awareness itself is elusive. We are not yet ableto watch consciously our executive control mechanismsat work. These mechanisms are designed to be sub andun conscious level functions, to operate under ourradar. This is a good thing, we assume. After all, con-trol over this complex function should be done byhigher powers, such as our higher consciousnesses…


over the years, i have conducted a series of qualita-tive studies of children who were taught to be con-scious of their thinking processes. of the twenty chil-dren i taught about metacognition9 when they wereages three to eight, twenty years later, the majority ofthem use this term today, and are fully aware of what itmeans to “think about thinking,” to be aware of one’sbrain processing. in fact, several have insisted that theirschooling and even life success so far, in young adult-hood, relate to their heightened awareness of theirthought processes. The implications of our taking truly full control of ourown cognition(s) are many. first and foremost among allimplications is that this would be a profound leap10 inour evolution, one we would have consciously broughtabout. Concurrently however would be the tremendousburden this could place on our antiquated biologicalbrains, at least upon the biological neural pathways weare presently using to be at least somewhat conscious.Also concurrently, we would be freeing ourselves fromthe invisible control of our programming, and of ourprogramming to be programmable. Were it actuallypossible to take full control of our cognitions and con-sciousness-es, our brains would no longer be residinginside us, with us serving as their hosts, while theywere invisibly controlling all we know and see anddo. instead we would consciously have control overall we know and see and do.let’s return to the matter of survival. indeed, we areon a long journey of evolution, our evolution. Wecan own this journey, take charge of, take increas-ing control of this journey, of our evolution itself.moreover, we do see, more and more, that we aredoing this evolving together, that we evolve as aspecies. This is therefore about all of us. We are aspecies; our species itself is a life form. We areboth our individual and all of our collective con-sciousness-es. As the species that we are, we arepart of one life form, this human life form. As aspecies, we can decide what it is we do need toknow to survive. We can even decide what it isthat we mean by survival.our understanding of our survival is based onthe present need to know. We need to know onmultiple levels, and our brains are equipped todo so. on some level we all know that thehuman mind – and its consciousness – can now,and must now, evolve itself far far more rapidlythan does the human biology. This means thatthe human brain itself may need to ever moreconsciously perceive the situation, the reality, andto evolve itself far more rapidly than does humanbiology, including the human brain. it is the human brain that calls our attention, or likelyprefers not to call our attention to our situation at

this time. it is the human brain that reveals, uponclose examination, our programming, programmingthat holds us to a near standstill relative to thespeed at which we have a right to evolve. i do say“right” here, as i maintain that we have beendesigned with, implanted with, blocks to knowingthis. This is not a discussion regarding whetherwhat controls or directs us arises at the biologicallevel or at the cosmic or even divine level. i leavethat discussion to another setting.These blocks to knowing function via implant-ed addictions to less than fully perceived reali-ties. i will return to this matter after the follow-ing discussion of the human brain. Could thehuman brain be limited, blocked, antiquated?is it archaic? or are the seeds of our greaterpotential embedded in our brains? Are we simplycarriers of the brain’s (or some higher level’s)executive control programming which limits us,which addicts us to beliefs we have in the reali-ties we think we inhabit? Who are we today? orwho do we think we are today? do we have aright to know? Who and what decides this?let’s dig in deeper here. The frontal area of thehuman brain contains the neurons that regulateemotions as well as “executive” functioning, or atten-tion, abstract reasoning, organization, mental flexi-bility, planning, self-monitoring, and the capacity touse external clues to govern behaviour. The pre-frontal cortex in the human brain is 120 percent largerthan that of other living organisms (presumably) givingthe human animal “higher intellectual functions” thanany other mammal (or other animal). yet our bodies and brains continue to function, in somany ways, according to hunting and gathering needsappropriate thousands of years and longer ago. Processesformerly necessary for our safety, well being and sur-vival, may now serve to keep us enslaved, less than fullyactuated, and unaware of what inhabits us via the brain’sexecutive control function, and frequently even dysfunc-tional, even ill. Take for example these basic and age oldbrain functions: a) pleasure centers in the brain which attract us to, andcompel us to continue particular survival-like behav-iours such as consuming food or compounds we intakeas if they were food (alcohol, drugs); b) pleasure centers and hormonal activation mecha-nisms in the brain which attract us to, and compel usto mate with other humans in order to reproduce, or toact as if we are reproducing; c) activating, energizing centers in the brain thattrigger readiness and even impulse responses toevents such as danger, in which we prepare readilyto fight or take flight.


These are ancient mechanisms that our brains are pro-grammed to activate whenever triggered. We are fortu-nate that these mechanisms work even to this day. Weeat, reproduce, stop at red lights without thinking,and so on. We are successful ancient organisms devel-oping and surviving into these times. yet, many of ourbrain functions are outdated and less than functionalfor us in our world today. but what if we can raise thebar on our brains, break through the limits embeddedin our brains and programming? What if we can freeourselves of the boundaries of our old programmings?Can we truly break free? What would this look like?We can. We can indeed start to grow new mental capabil-ities in a critical mass if not all of our species’ members.We have the knowledge and the tools to enhance theawareness of our species. We can begin by understandingthat we are literally designed to fall prey to programmingthat holds us captive in this form, in this dimension, inthis lifespan. We can see that we are not only creatures ofhabit, but slaves to habits, guaranteed (as slaves to ourown programming) not to see what is really taking placeas per our species11. We can begin by recognizing thatwe are implanted with the means of being, alwaysbeing, addicted to our patterned states. let me providea few examples of the programming functions of ourbrains, and of the ways these functions invisibly domi-nate, control (and perhaps even shackle) us.

P A R A D O X I C A L A D D I C T I O N

T O P A T T E R N E D S T A T E S

We are creatures designed to self pattern, auto-pro-gram, acquiesce to a hierarchical need to knowstructure which allows us to allow ourselves toonly know so much, to not recognize how veryvast we are, what infinite consciousness-es wehave. We obediently form patterns, becomingpositively, even negatively, addicted to our pat-terns of behaviour, perception and belief.indeed we are too frequently prone to developdangerous addictions. Then we resist the changeof pattern-breaking, even when the pattern weresist breaking is dangerous, life-threatening,counter-survival. We obediently allow the patternwe need to break to move into its own survivalmode, to dominate us – our brains and our drivefor overall survival – for its own sake even whenthis pattern is a dangerous addiction. There is aparadox in this resistance to the death of ourproblem patterns: stay addicted and the patternaddiction lives on, but stay addicted and you,your physical body, may die. The deep, geneticallyordained drive within virtually every geneticallycoded living organism on earth to become addict-ed to patterns themselves – to even desire being

patterned, dominates. normalcy – no matter howtroubled the normal pattern is – becomes the addict-ed state. A sense of normalcy (no matter how trou-bled that normalcy might be) is craved – and so isthe patterned state of mind itself. We are designedto be this way.living with the drive to be patterned, to always bepatterning, we cannot avoid the deeply experi-enced conflict embedded within us, yes within allof us. on the one hand, this genetically ordainedcoding function is a survival-oriented tendency,reinforced by pathways we have inherited via ourgenes. As the human mind falls behind the speedof change in our physical environment, its func-tion runs awry. for example, the pleasure path-way, and the pleasure as pain relief pathway, arevirtually one in the same. The flight or fightfunction is another good example of an essentialprogram that can run haywire. Clearly, it is essen-tial that we respond to life threatening situationsautomatically and rapidly, without taking the timeto think, (such as when moving out of the way ofa falling object or warding off a predator). however,many assaults and even murders are committed onimpulse, in instances when this fight reflex or relatedfunctions run awry.moreover, it is quite convenient that certain neces-sary behaviours are matters of genetic coding andtherefore basic reflex, and that other necessary behav-iours can become habitual via repetitive reinforcementlearning during life. Again, we must ask, how manypeople would stop their cars at red lights on time ifthey had to take the time to figure out from scratchevery time what the red lights signify and how to stopthe car? it is very good that we program ourselves to dosome things automatically. on the other hand, however,we frequently fail to see that there is surely a down-sideto this automatic programming capability of ours.

E X P L I C I T A N D I M P L I C I T A D D I C T I O N S

Seeing how rampant and commanding these traps canbe, we must take heed. We must also see how very obvi-ous explicit problem addictions have become. And thenwe must admit to the less visible addictions drivingthem. We have to see the down-side of implicit – deeplevel – patterning. in recent times, humans have becomeincreasingly conscious of the problem of addiction todestructive and dangerous patterns, such as compul-sive overeating, drug using, drinking, and so on, andthis is a good advance in our awareness of what i callexplicit additions – the more obvious, more visibleaddictions.This awareness can lead us to dig deeper and beginto see the more hidden patterns, what i call the


implicit addictions driving the explicit addictions,and ultimately our deepest programming, what idescribe as source programming, and core program-ming. This is the programming driving us, and ourspecies: to believe in, to accept, to perceive withoutquestioning, physical limits and the physical dimen-sion as the only locus of our individual and speciesexistence. We are programmed to do this: programmedvia random accident, or purposeful design, or someform of implant, or a higher order we are not entirelyable to have access to? We have to ask.We have learned how explicit addictions tend to followrather basic patterns, and appear almost cyclic. This iswhere we see the common trigger-urge-response pattern.(note that this standard addiction pattern does containan escape route, a new response option, however we fre-quently are blocked from fully seeing this.) These explicitaddiction – trigger-urge-addicted response – behaviourstend to be more readily recognized than do the other morehidden implicit addictions, such as the very obscure butvery powerful core addictions we have to our ways oflife and realities. yet explicit addictions are, basically,only symptoms of implicit addictions to deeper behav-ioural, emotional, cognitive, perceptual, and energeticpatterns. So the basic addiction cycle, the basic addic-tive pattern, is merely the surface cycle pattern, thesurface or explicit addiction.

H I D D E N I M P L I C I T P A T T E R N I N G

i have explained above that behind all surface,explicit, addictions are less visible, less obvious,implicit and even core pattern addictions. A warn-ing: implicit pattern addiction, even when life-threatening or quality of life degenerating, doesnot always signal its presence through explicitaddictions. implicit addictions are very difficultto detect let alone name. Still, implicit pattern-ing can make its presence known in a variety ofways we may or may not connect with it. Wemay find that hitherto unrecognized yet poorwork habits, poor eating habits, poor emotion-al habits, poor posture habits, poor sleephabits, poor routing of internal energy habits,eventually catch up to us – whether or not wehave first or ever realized these exist. our exec-utive control functions have blocked our know-ing. now, if we choose to look very closely, wemay also find ourselves increasingly aware of theexecutive control functions that live within ourbrains. do these functions truly belong to us? Arewe truly in control of them? Can we be? Couldsomething this controlling have been planted deepwithin us? did we do this to ourselves? did weevolve this mechanism that can now control uswithout our realizing it is?

The catch up i refer to above can be a health alarmgoing off, or a family life deteriorating, or perhapsan explicit addiction emerging in the self or in theco-addicted persons or in the children as the resultof underlying implicit patterning, or all of these atonce and more. A sad and quite common exam-ple of the surfacing of implicit pattern addictioncan be found in the instance of two long termsilently raging and seriously depressed parentsraising a child. The child may eventually becomethe identified patient in the family, the one withthe explicit addiction. Perhaps this child devel-ops a severe eating disorder, or maybe a self cut-ting (self mutilation) pattern addiction, or per-haps this child becomes dually addicted toalcohol and methamphetamine. This child isthe identified addict, as this child has formedan explicit addition while the parents’ patternaddictions are less obvious, more implicit. Andthere are far far deeper patterns at work here.We are all highly programmable beings.

U N D E R L Y I N G S O U R C E

P A T T E R N I N G T O B E

A D D I C T E D T O A R E A L I T Y

even deeper than the hidden energetic and subtleemotional patterns of implicit addictions is thecore addiction, underlying source pattern program-ming. This drives all other patterning including thatof implicit and explicit addictions whether these arepositive or negative addictions, positive or negative –good or bad – behaviour and perception patterns.The relationship of the underlying source patterningprogram to implicit and explicit addiction is ubiquitousyet largely hidden. it is here, at the deep level of theunderlying source patterning program, that we again seethe addict, and he or she is us.We are all wired to form habits and addictions. Theproblem is, we are also all wired to form addictions tobehaviours and perceptions our brains tell us to be addict-ed to. The Self falls prey to the underlying coding orwiring to be addicted to patterns and to be addicted tobeing addicted to patterns. Therefore, when we want tobreak an addiction, we have to rewire the Self. We haveto reach the Self and assist the Self in overriding itsexplicit and implicit problem pattern addictions, andin overriding or at least setting straight its underlyingaddiction to the addicted state itself.

A D D I C T I O N T O W H A T I S N O T

R E A L L Y O U R R E A L I T Y

We indeed have planted deep within us the codingto function obediently as creatures of habits – ofhabit patterns – to inherit habits via our genes and


via modeling from our parents and families and cul-tures, and also to develop habit patterns on our ownwhile living our lives. As this coding function waspurposefully developed or implanted within us, inour genes, to ensure that we function as life forms, weare built to utilize this coding function every momentof our lives. it is this function which makes it possiblefor us to perceive (and even to define for ourselves) areality as a given, to tell ourselves we know where weare in time and space. it is this coding function thatmakes it possible for us to define our reality in everyway in order to live “within” it – and in order to live.And yes, part of living within a given reality successfully isbuying into that reality entirely, or almost entirely.Although quite subtle, the tendency is to form an addic-tion to reality itself, (or to what is perceived as realityitself ), to survive. in fact, organisms such as ourselvesdevelop beneficial adaptations to the environment – toreality – that increase the likelihood of our survival. Wealso change the environment where we can, sometimesincreasing the likelihood of our survival, sometimesincreasing the likelihood of our present-time survivalbut unfortunately failing to do the same for the longrun. What a gamble changing our environment in thenow with no regard for long term consequences is!We have been doing this adaptation to the environ-ment throughout our evolution. And we have beenpassing on the adaptations to our environments wehave developed via our genes (as well as via our cul-tures and traditions). So while the brain’s rewardsystem reinforces important behaviours today, inthe now – eating, drinking, sleeping, mating – thissurvival oriented functioning itself has been passedon to us through time and we pass this on tofuture generations. however – and this is a bighowever here – all this is predicated on the success-ful passing on of an adherence to a reality inwhich these functions work and continue to besurvival-oriented. While this is a rather lofty con-cept, it can be brought right down to earth withthe simple example of hunting prey for dinner.in the modern so-called “developed” world, werarely have to directly hunt and kill prey for din-ner. in fact, were we to engage in this activity inour neighbourhoods and cities today, we mightfind ourselves mistakenly applying this drive tohousehold pets and zoo animals. health concerns,anger and havoc could emerge. fortunately, wehave adapted this drive to hunt and kill our preyfor dinner to our modern environment and nowcontrol and even suppress this drive. by contrast, we have other drives that we need tocontinue today, such as the drives to sleep and tomate. fortunately we still mate, although popula-tion and corresponding scientific pressures may be

changing mating and related sexual behaviours. let’stake the behaviour of sleep as a yet more generalexample. We need to sleep. fortunately we arecoded to need sleep, to feel the need for sleep, andto sleep when tired. Where there may be a point inthe development of the species where sleep or asmuch sleep is not required, this new adaptationwill require internal genetic coding (or externalmedical interventions) to ensure that whatevermetabolic and behavioural changes are neededare made.

A T T E N T I O N A L B I A S

P R O G R A M M I N G

We have to take a moment to think of cows outto pasture. When the dinner bell rings, the cowsproceed, as if having been ordered, like fourlegged automatons, in line over hills, even alongdangerously narrow and steep pathways, to din-ner. (The cows are programmed to respond tothe dinner bell, the food has reinforced this pro-gram or pattern. more than this, the cows are pat-tern addicted to the trigger, the dinner bell itself.)how readily programmed living organisms can be,even have to be. We all have wired into ourselvesour own dinner bells.numerous behavioural studies point to an abnor-mality in the allocating of attention to what arecalled drug cues (reminders or triggers of variousforms) in drug addicted persons. basically, moreattention is paid to details related to the addictionthan to other details. Attention is more rapidly, morefirmly, and with more holding power, captured byitems associated with an addicted person’s substance oractivity of choice. Studies show that, when a drugaddicted person is presented with two visual stimuli or“cues” (also called “targets”), one on each side of a screen,one a drug related stimulus, the other a nondrug (or neu-tral) stimulus, the person who is addicted to the drug willstay focused on the addiction related images. Addicted per-sons will respond more quickly to the first type of target orcue, the one related to the drug addiction. And then in later showings of pictures, this time withneutral pictures on both sides of the screen, these samepersons will then respond to whatever is now in thelocation of the side which had once pictured the drugaddiction-related item. findings are telling us that indrug addicted persons, attention is captured and thenheld by drug-related stimuli over other nondrug relat-ed stimuli, and even by memory of location of drugrelated stimuli over nondrug related stimuli. Atten-tion is automatically drawn back to – attention auto-matically seeks and favors – the source or location ofthe drug related stimulus. The brain – or its problem


pattern addiction that is – has programmed the brainto seek and place priority on triggers for its addic-tion, frequently to the exclusion of other cues orinformation. now, call our perception of reality thedrug and see how programmed we are to only payattention to that which supports our addiction to thisdrug. information that would tell us we are far moreexpansive life forms is blocked out by our brains’ exec-utive control mechanisms.Another type of experiment looking at attention in gen-eral finds drug addiction-related bias again, this time ina modified version of what is known as a Stroop Task.The original Stroop Task presents words (including colornames) displayed in different ink (or screen) colors. Sub-jects are tested for their speed in naming the color of theletterings. When a word is printed in green ink, the cor-rect response will be green. now, when a word is theword for a specific color, such as red, but is printed inthe color of another color ink, such as green, subjectstend to be slower in naming the ink color. Clearly, forcolor words that do not match the ink they are at nam-ing, the brain requires more time to know the color ofthe ink the word is written in; while, for neutral, non-color words, the color of the ink is correctly namedmore quickly. And again for color words written in acongruent font color, the color of the ink is correctlyand rapidly named most of the time. This is what is known as the Stroop effect, whichoccurs where attention devoted to reading theword (or signal) interferes with attention devotedto naming the word’s (or signal’s) ink color. Whenthis task is modified to test for the possibility ofdrug addiction-related attentional bias, similarresults are acquired. here, drug-related words arepresented to drug addicted persons in varyingink colors, and neutral words are also presentedin varying ink colors, with the results indicatingthat drug-related words demand more atten-tional resources than do neutral words. in otherwords, the ink color of more neutral words isnamed more rapidly than the ink color of drugrelated words because the drug-addicted brainplaces more attention on drug-related words them-selves rather than on their colour12. our brainscontrol what we pay attention to, even what weknow to exist. our brains define the limits ofour realities.in drug-addicted persons, we see that wordsand images associated with drug use have aheightened capacity to capture and hold atten-tion, and that such stimuli interfere with atten-tion to other things in their environment. Thisheightened attention toward drug-related stimulioccurs in a wide variety of addictions includingaddictions to: cannabis, cocaine, opiates, tobacco,

alcohol, caffeine, food, gambling, sex, relation-ships, love, violence, and even shopping-spending.We find that our brains grow addicted not only towhat addicts us, but to all pathways supportingthat addiction. neural pathways that would offeralternative realities begin to be shed, to die out. now, imagine that this is the case for the largestmost invisible of all our reality addictions. imag-ine this and see, detect, this to be the case. Weare slaves to our programming to be attentionallybiased. We are held captive to our physical planelimitations by programming locking us in. Whohas the key? if we do not have the key, can wedevelop, or evolve this key? yes.

D E G R A D E D D E C I S I O N

M A K I N G F U N C T I O N I N G

At the heart of most of our behaviours is themoment of deciding: the go/no-go, do/do-not-do, yes/no, proceed/stop. This most primary,and at the same time ultimate, moment in ourbehaviours is The momenT – the decision-makingmoment. This momenT is actually a chain ofmoments, as any one decision is actually a chainof decisions, many of which are so subtle we arenot conscious of them. most behaviour, when bro-ken into small steps, increments, actually involvelong chains of conscious, subconscious and uncon-scious decision-making processes.one analysis of the process of selecting responses iscalled the go/no-go model. in go/no-go testing, differ-ent types of cues that indicate to the subject whetherto respond or to refrain from responding to the cueare presented. drug addicted individuals have difficultyavoiding responses to pictures or stimuli related to theiraddictions. in laboratory go/no-go studies, addictedpersons demonstrate greater inability to refrain fromresponding – greater inhibitory impairment – whenpresented with drug-related cues. And we are all pro-grammed with such inhibitory impairments.A decision-making task commonly used to study addictedperson’s thinking is the so-called delay discounting task.This type of task requires subjects to decide between areward (such as a sum of money) being available soonerand a larger reward (such as a larger sum of money)being available at a later time. Addicted persons tend tochoose the smaller, more immediate addiction-relatedrewards more often, despite their relatively small sizeand thereby diminished reward amount. The delaywhich is part of the delayed but larger reward dimin-ishes the perceived value of the delayed but largerreward in the now. This is called delay discountingand it has been reported for a variety of addictivedisorders, including addiction to nicotine, alcohol,


amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, gambling, shop-ping, sex. While this tendency for problem patternaddicts to more steeply or more frequently discountdelayed monetary rewards is quite consistent, it alsoappears that delayed rewards consisting of the drug ofchoice are discounted even more severely by drugaddicts. for example, heroin-addicted persons who areparticipating in risky needle-sharing behaviours showgreater delay discounting of both heroin and monetaryrewards. The drug of choice with a cleaner needle laterdoes not register as valuable as the drug of choice nowwith no insurance of clean needle. And, it is also seenthat money later is not as valuable as money, albeit lessmoney, now to buy the drug now.Whether or not addicted to heroin, or any substance, itis becoming increasingly clear that we all carry within usmechanisms for overvaluing immediate rewards (whatmay seem to be rewards) over delayed rewards. Thisvery mechanism primes us to continue problem addictedbehaviour in the now in the face of its negative conse-quences later. hence when we say that addiction is thecontinued use or behaviour in the face of adverse con-sequences, we are frequently saying that addictionnoW is the continued use or behaviour noW in the faceof ConCeiveAble adverse consequences lATer, whetherthat lATer be a moment, an hour, a day, a week, amonth, a year, or several years later. The reality oflater recedes as the problem pattern dominates one’sreality. We are all programmed this way.

A C T I O N S E L E C T I N G

A N D I N H I B I T I N G

The brain plays a major role, in fact virtually theonly role, in both selecting and inhibiting ouractions. The brain makes our decisions about ouractions for us. our biocomputer brain is alwaysworking, always serving either us – or our posi-tive and negative addictions to realities. in thatour brain is responsible for the programmingthat addicts us, (for example that addicts us todrugs and to nondrug activities), we have towonder at what point the brain becomes investedin our selecting addiction-fueling behaviour overaddiction-breaking behaviour. (in my years ofworking with problem addicted persons, i havecome to recognize the matter of investment inaddiction as central, as this is investment in a,our, reality. We invest our attention and we directour behaviour to support our addiction to whatwe believe is real).A great deal of evidence regarding the role of thebrain’s frontal areas in action selection and in com-plex decision making comes to us from neuroimag-ing data. Among the findings is the understanding

that the brain’s right hemisphere’s frontal lobe isinvolved in our efforts to prevent or deter what ofour behaviours we may want (or may think wewant) to prevent or deter. Another area of thebrain, the fronto-median cortex, plays a role in vol-untary response inhibition. other studies point tothe importance of dopamine in regulating dis-counting behaviour. how amazing it is that thebrain employs biological, biochemical mecha-nisms to make the right (and wrong) decisionsabout addiction in the face of present and futureconsequences. We have to wonder, how much isthe failure of our response inhibition functionactually voluntary and conscious, and howmuch of this is subconscious and out of ourconscious control? What can we do to convinceour mental main frames, our brains, to bringthese decisions back into conscious control?Who is in charge here, our troubled patterns orour SelveS? Who should be in charge here, the pattern addic-tion or the Self? The answer may be obvious – theSelf – unless you speak for the problem pattern, theproblem reality, which has taken control of the Self.

R A I S I N G T H E B A R

O N O U R O W N E V O L U T I O N :F R E E I N G O U R S E L V E S

Are we actually prisoners of programming fromwhich there is no exit? no. our very own neuroplas-ticity offers a path. neuroplasticity (aka: brain plastici-ty, cortical plasticity or cortical re-mapping) refers tochanges that occur in the organization of the brain as aresult of experience. According to the theory of neuro-plasticity, thinking, learning, and acting actually changeboth the brain’s physical structure (anatomy) and func-tional organization (physiology) thoroughly. in fact, neu-roscientists are presently engaged in a re-thinking of whatare described as critical period studies which for a longtime have been seen as demonstrating the immutability –unchangeable nature – of the brain after developmentconcludes at the end of childhood. new findings on neu-roplasticity are revealing the mutability – changeability –of both structural and functional aspects. This is substan-tial paradigm shift, and one of the most important dis-coveries of the past 100 plus years. This means we canhave a say in the evolution of our brains.enhanced brain development is a path. Autopsies ofpersons who have developed great talent in specificareas frequently show a great deal of development(more capillaries and more neural connections) inthe areas of the brain related to that area of talent.Put together what we are witnessing regarding neu-roplasticity and enhanced brain development, and


doors open. the brain-mind has room to grow…and a way to grow. the brain is still evolving! and wecan have a say in the sort of evolution the brain under-goes. We can take conscious control of the evolution ofour brain’s frontal lobes, most significantly of our execu-tive control functions. now we can evolve our executivecontrol mechanisms rather than have these evolve – ornot evolve – us further.

B R E A K I N G O U T O F T H E

D O M I N A N C E O F T H E O L D B R A I N

breaking the dominance of the old brain involvesestablishing new neural pathways, new capacities forperception and expansion. This can be the essential lib-eration of the intelligence/consciousness of humanityfrom its biological limitations. first we have to see theproblem of hemispheric (or brain section) dominanceover perception. how do we break free? Simple toolscan release us.We can do a lot to raise the capability of our brains…to evolve what the brains can access of the conscious-ness ConSCiouSly. This is not about magic or unscien-tific conclusions, this is about taking what we knowscientifically and pulling it all together to really seethe doors that are opening for our species. We areseeing and even proving that the human brain cando a great deal more than it presently does, which isalready quite a bit. for example, we can thinkabout, move our concentrations and our percep-tions, in essence ourselves, to various planes ofreality. We Are AlreAdy leArning To move in And ouT

of The ConfineS of ThiS dimenSion… As individuals,we can elevate the individual organism matrix.We can consciously see the perceptions andwebs, realities, we weave and rework them. And,as a species, we can elevate the population orspecies matrix. And, even as an ecosystem, wecan elevate the ecosystem matrix.

G A I N I N G E X T R A

D I M E N S I O N A L M E N T A L

C A P A C I T I E S A N D C A P A B I L I T I E S

deep within our synapses, we can enhance ourcapabilities to move to and from this reality, thisdimension, this perception. extra dimensionalcapabilities can be learned, acquired and via criti-cal mass effect shared with the tribe of humanity.These capabilities include: a) understanding somewill object; b) knowing the brain is ours to evolve;c) a new level of learning; d) metaphoric transfer;e) enhanced navigation capabilities: navigation out,navigation when out, navigation back in, amongother things13.

We must understand that some will object to thisperspective, however this is about seeing ourselvesand our minds as inTerdimenSionAlly mobile. This isalso about understanding that this inter dimensionalmobility is quite natural and is our birthright.

E M B R A C I N G E T E R N I T Y :O U R B I R T H R I G H T

We tend to think that much of what we do notsee is inaccessible to us, and that there aremysteries we are not armed to solve. We havesomehow become accommodated to a notionthat ease of transition and movement in andout of the physical plane, by physical death orother means, is not readily available to us at alltimes. Somewhere deep in the messages wehave historically been provided is the conceptthat the KeyS to the matrix-shifting we need tobe able to do consciously (to transit minor andmajor changes and deaths effectively) are “mys-teries.” yet, the KeyS are everywhere around usand within us. And, being able to spot theseKeyS is our birthright. The only mystery may besuppression of this information and the historicaltreating of this information as something veryspecial to which only a few are entitled.

T h e l i f e f o r C e d o e S n o T d i e .

T h e h i g h e r P e r S o n A n e e d n o T d i e .

T h e C o n S C i o u S n e S S C A n l i v e o n .

T h e h u m A n C o n S C i o u S n e S S C A n h Av e A S A y

i n i T S e v o l u T i o n .

T h e l i f e f o r C e d o e S n o T d i e .

y o u d o n o T d i e .

T h e S P e C i e S d o e S n o T d i e .

i n T e r d i m e n S i o n A l m o b i l i T y,

h e n C e S u r v i vA l ,

i S o u r b i r T h r i g h T.

Whether we choose to merge with the collective or to re-individuate remains for us to decide. What i mean hereis that i contend that this can be our decision, that oncewe gain conscious control of our evolution into otherdimensions and realms, we can navigate these realms,even define these realms for ourselves. it is time to breakfree of the programming holding us captive. To set our-selves free. This is the adaptation that will empower usto survive: to move back and forth from various dimen-sions, bringing our consciousness-es who will be liber-ated from the dominance of our archaic brains. We canthen evolve the brains we need for the next steps. Wecan move beyond the limitations of physical evolutionand development of ourselves and our minds. We canthen exercise our species’ rights to inter-dimensionalmobility. our niches await us. 8


———————

1 Text excerpted reprinted with permission from the book:metaxis and survival: Keys to adapting human consciousness to bereleased by August 2012. (www.netaterra.com ).

2 See: 1) browne-miller, A. 2012. metaxis and survival: Keys toadapting human consciousness; 2) browne-miller, A. 2009. interna-tional collection on addictions ; 3) browne-miller, A. 2009. rewiringyour self to Break addictions and habits: overcoming problem pat-terns; 4) deAngelis, A. 2008. transition and survival technologies; 5)deAngelis, A. 2008. Embracing Eternity: thE liFE ForcE DoEs not DiE:

6) See also books listed at Angelabrowne-miller.com andhttp://www.metaterra.com/consciousnessbooks/personalandplane-tary.html and http://www.metaterra.com/novelsbytitle.html

3 further discussed in browne-miller, A. 2012, op. cit., andbrowne-miller, A. 2009. rewiring your self to Break addictions andhabits. See also browne-miller, A. (ed.). 2010. international collectionon addiction: Volume two: psychobiological profiles. http://www.ange-labrowne-miller.com/booklist/collectiononaddictions.html .

4 See discussion re synaptic activity in last chapters of browne-miller, A. 1995. Working dazed.

5 bateson, g. (1972). steps to an Ecology of mind: collected Essaysin anthropology, psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology.

6 one of my greatest mentors, gregory bateson, was the origi-nal proponent of “learning to learn” as noted in his seminal book,steps to an Ecology of mind.

7 blake, William. 1870. the marriage of heave and hell. Sever-al original versions are said to exist and can be found in collec-tions. Presumed to have been composed beginning in or around1789, when the author was 32. This poem was blake’s first full-scale attempt to present his own philosophy.

8 note that it was 1949 when huxley wrote to georgeorwell, author of 1984, congratulating him on “how fine andhow profoundly important the book is“. in his letter toorwell, he predicted: “Within the next generation i believethat the world’s leaders will discover that infant conditioningand narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of gov-ernment, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for powercan be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people intoloving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking theminto obedience.” See huxley (1969). letters of aldous huxley.

9 browne-miller, A. raising thinking children and teens.10 deAngelis, A. transition and survival technologies.11 op. cit. browne-miller, A.12 other tests of attentional bias reveal much the same,

that greater attention to, attentional bias toward, drug relat-ed stimuli is common among persons addicted to the drugthat a particular stimulus addresses or suggests in some way.other sets of tests for attentional bias include change blind-ness tasks, in which participants detect slight changesbetween two rapidly alternating pictures or visual scenes.drug addicted persons more readily detect drug-addiction-related changes in a pictured scene than do those who arenot drug addicted. And yet another test for attentional biasis the attentional blink test, which is used to study responsesto stimuli and also addiction-related attentional abnormali-ties. A stream of visual stimuli is rapidly presented, withinstructions to detect two specified stimuli within the stream.The first and second targets or cues are separated by a certainamount of time, such as a separation of between 200-400 mil-liseconds. Subjects are generally more likely to miss the secondtarget because attentional resources are already allocated to pro-cessing the first. And this is the “attentional blink.” When thefirst stimulus is an addiction-related stimulus, addicted persons

demonstrate a longer and more extended attentional blink.however, when the second stimulus is an addiction-relatedstimulus, an addict’s first attentional blink is reduced.

13 browne-miller, A. 2012. metaxis and survival. deAngelis,A. 2008. transition and survival technologies.

R E F E R E N C E S

bATeSon, g. (1972). steps to an Ecology of mind: col-lected Essays in anthropology, psychiatry, Evolution,and Epistemology. (Chicago: university of Chica-go Press).

broWne-miller, A. (1996). (new ed. to be releasedfall 2012). Working Dazed: Why Drugs pervade theWorkplace and What can Be Done about this.(new york: insight books).

—— (2009). international collection on addictions.(london - Praeger: greenwood).

—— (2009). rewiring your self to Break addictionsand habits: overcoming problem patterns. (lon-don - denver, Co: AbC-Clio).

—— (2012). metaxis and survival: Keys to adaptinghuman consciousness. (San rafael, CA.: metaterraPublications).

deAngeliS, A. (A browne-miller pen name.) (2008).healing Earth in all her Dimensions: personal andplanetary healing. (flagstaff, AZ: light TechnologyPublications).

—— (2008). Embracing Eternity: the life Force Does notDie. (flagstaff, AZ: light Technology Publications).

—— (2008). Endings are Beginnings. (flagstaff, AZ: lightTechnology Publications).

—— (2008). transition and survival technologies.(flagstaff, AZ: light Technology Publications).

huXley, A. (1969). letters of aldous huxley (grover Smith.ed.) (london: Chatto & Windus).

a b


christopher houghton Budd isan economic and monetaryhistorian based in canter-bury, England. With a doc-torate in Banking from cassBusiness school, london, heworks as a freelance university

lecturer, consultant and advisorto a range of clients ranging from

small-scale entrepreneurs to politi-cal parties. With the aim of bridging

between the mind of a seer and that of modern finance, he hasalso made a special study of rudolf steiner’s contribution to eco-nomics. he travels widely giving workshops in accounting,finance and financial history and is the author of several publi-cations including Prelude in economics (1979), of Wheat andgold (1988), The metamorphosis of Capitalism, (2003), Theright-on Corporation (2005), Auditorial Central banking(2006) and finance at the Threshold (2011).

n The lAST ThirTy yeArS i hAve been on A journey

that i describe as going into the labyrinth ofmodern finance – an image that for me has sev-eral nuances or resonances. firstly, it always

reminds me of octavio Paz’s labyrinth of solitude, abook whose allusion to the loneliness of the individ-ual in a rational society made a big impression on mein my heady days as a twenty year-old in berkeley1968. Paz wrote: ‘Solitude is the profoundest fact ofthe human condition. man is the only being whoknows he is alone, and the only one who seeks outanother. his nature – if that word can be used inreference to man, who has ‘invented’ himself bysaying ‘no’ to nature – consists in his longing torealize himself in another. man is nostalgia and asearch for communion. Therefore, when he isaware of himself he is aware of his lack of another,that is, of his solitude1.’Secondly, the labyrinth is an image of the brain,within whose convolutions we fancy that our con-sciousness has its seat and that there our thoughtshave their origin, rather than – as i aver – theirreflection. This is especially so as regards economiclife when understood not as the allocation of scarceresources but as the expression of what lives in ourwill life, in our unconscious motives and prompt-ings. it is here, too, that we find the source of socialconcern, concern for others not only oneself, but

concern also for the well-being of the economyas such.but the labyrinth also reminds me of Theseus,the King of Athens’s son who set out to vanquishthe minotaur in his cave-maze. Thanks to Ari-adne’s thread – a metaphor for feminine insight?– Theseus, the male thinker, was able to confrontand overcome the minotaur, then make his wayback out of the cave and home2. but what wasthe minotaur – the bull-headed man – other thana picture of human will untrained, undisciplined,uncoordinated, uncohered? This has long been thehuman challenge. even Christianity predicatesitself on this: “nevertheless, let Thy will be done.”fourthly, the labyrinth refers to modern economiclife – a convoluted affair to say the least – inwhich free will is championed without its neces-sary counterpart: freely undertaken responsibility.for what is free trade in its untoward expressionexcept uncohered will life, people doing what theywill and deeming those actions thereby normal? it isthe ultimate ‘triumph’ of positivism to proclaim thatthe old consciousness whereby physical deeds areconstrained by and obeisant to moral injunctions hasbeen superseded by the idea that whatsoever we cando physically gives us our moral code.As valeria mosini so persuasively and eloquently argues,“[it is important that positivist economics] be supple-mented with moral and social considerations so as toreflect the interest of the whole community3.” To whichshe adds that “will, combined with hope, can provide apowerful propeller potentially capable of unravelling [theneoliberal] paradigm […]4”.much as positivism has reality in human history, for wecannot become truly human if we remain bound by anatavistic understanding of life, it is not the end of thestory. The next stage, and our future for a long time tocome, entails acting neither out of moral edicts issuedex cathedra nor out of what one can get away with. infact, social conscience arises between the two. just as aseed unfolds downwards as root and upwards as shootand has as it were to live between finity and infinity, sodo human beings find their true place between free-dom and responsibility, between self-centred anarchyand respect for one another.but the labyrinth is also a metaphor for central banking– that is, for understanding money societally. not as

THE L AB YR INTH OF F I N ANCECON S C I OU S N E S S A ND MON E Y

C H R I S T O P H E R H O U G H T O N B U D D

I


something private only, but as something we share.like air and light. just as we breathe one another’s airand depend on the daily rising of a sun that we all‘own’ in common, so we use (or, less prosaically,enjoy) one another’s money, goods and talents, whiledepending on universal price stability.

D E E D S F I R S T / I D E A S S E C O N D

in economic life ideas follow deeds. The last thing isnew ideas. The first thing is to act intent on a new para-digm. The explanation of it, whatever explanation oneis attracted to, comes after. i do not ascribe my life-longinvolvement in economics to what i find around me,but to an inner insistence – idealistic and quixotic maybe, but nevertheless sustaining – that we can and there-fore must understand and do things in economics dif-ferently. meaning less self-centredly. in regard to economic matters it is relatively easy tochange or at least talk about new ideas, but this can andfor the most part is done without affecting the will. Thehabits remain unaffected. The reverse is a more inter-esting possibility: that people first change their habitsthen see what ideas they come up with. for thosewould make them primary, antecedent to action, thequestion is how do ideas about economic life createthe will forces that a person needs in order to actdifferently? in my experience, by simply acting in aright way. The ideas then follow.even newton was aware that explanations followinsights. As british economist john maynard Keynessaid of him in 1946: “There is the story of how heinformed halley of one of his most fundamentaldiscoveries of planetary motion. ‘yes,’ replied halley,‘but how do you know that? have you proved it?’newton was taken aback – ‘Why, i’ve known itfor years’, he replied. ‘if you’ll give me a fewdays, i’ll certainly find you a proof of it’ – as indue course he did5.” in short, one knows out ofone’s will before one knows in one’s head. This isespecially the case when it comes to economics.indeed, that is the problem with modern eco-nomics – it thinks it can first have an idea fol-lowed by an action.but the problem goes even deeper. The episte-mology and resulting ontology of modern eco-nomic life acts – hundred- monkey fashion –directly to block the will life of humanity as awhole. Conversely, if we would just get ourselveson track through what we do rather than whatwe say, the effect would be like the sun suddenlyshining on a dull, dreary day. People would realisesomething that they are otherwise unable to realise,even if they want to.

As the peripatetic philosophers of olden times mighthave said, beware ideas had when sitting down, notmoving. or as Americans might say today: walkyour talk.

T H E B R A I N A S B O X

This is a difficult path to identify, let alone keepto – especially for those free spirits who believetheir freedom comes without responsibility andwho accept no outer constraints whatsoever. Asdeep liberationists of finance, the john galts ofthis world, they forget or are unaware that, asC. Wright mills once put it, the ‘cherished val-ues’ of freedom and reason belong together6,and so become enamoured of Ayn rand’sincessant attack on collectivism and her beliefthat true social order results from atomisedindividualism.modern economic understanding is trapped inthe brain – which we believe to be the originnot the reflector of consciousness, even thoughwe constantly call on ourselves to ‘think outsidethe box’. yet what is that box if not the brain – ametaphor, if ever there was one, for the out-dated,no longer valid, imprisoned light of the past, butnot the source of tomorrow’s true enlightenment,by which measure the enlightenment of the 18thcentury will be a poor pale cousin. indeed, theevent that modern economics so earnestly celebratesmight be better described as an Endarkenment – as thelight of ancient times going out, becoming shroudedby rationalism.only it is not rationalism – at least not when it comesto economics. rationalism implies and entails consis-tency, yet where is the consistency in overthrowing thegods of savages and replacing them with the deism of‘the market’? Where is the consistency in insisting onwhat the physical senses alone provide as evidence ofreality, yet predicating an entire economic philosophy ona hand that no senses can perceive? Where is the consis-tency in resting finance on free market principles (namely,the freedom to risk one’s capital as one will) then expect-ing any losses on failed bets to be refunded by ‘the tax-payer’, a term as disingenuous as the rationale it repre-sents. for where in the entire universe would taxpayersline up to refund the losses of gamblers as they leavetheir casino?

D O U B L E - E N T R Y B O O K K E E P I N G

The only one way to get beyond our private, physicalbrain boxes is double-entry bookkeeping – a tech-nique which one may not know of, or not under-stand, but which exists nonetheless. And not because

C H R I S T O P H E R H O U G H T O N B U D D | T H E L A B Y R I N T H O F F I N A N C E | 2 6 0

it has been described. it is simply there. fortunately,it also has an archetypal nature, meaning that it existsindependently of statements from gods on high andindependently of merely physical human action. more-over, it is a technique representative of a deep humantruth, namely, there is never a debit without a credit.That is, one can always see the counterpart of one’sactions, one’s will life. on the one side one’s motives andon the other the effects of what one does. every transaction has a debit side and a credit side. Thetransaction itself however is neither. So it is in humaneconomic action. by the very way we live economically(which for most of us today means financially or mone-tarily) we live between our intentions and our effects.Through debit and credit we can see our will life; now before,now after. for it can never be seen at the moment ofacting. just as the eye cannot see itself.This is why human beings become discrepant to realityand to their true selves. Why they can think what can-not be done and do what cannot be imagined. And whythey do what they know ‘should not’ be done. but thisis also the purpose of money – to separate ourselvesfrom externally provided mores, on the one hand, andto prevent us falling into mendacity on the other.This is the deeper purpose of double-entry book-keeping – to allow us to avoid (more realistically,overcome) mendacity. not to delude ourselves onthe journey towards freedom. As Shakespeare put itin the cautionary remark he placed in the mouth ofPolonius in hamlet: neither a borrower nor a lender be;For loan oft loses both itself and friend,and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.this above all: to thine own self be true,and it must follow, as the night the day,thou canst not then be false to any man7.

Why did Shakespeare get Polonius to say that?because of the age he lived in, because of the deepchange in consciousnesses that then took place,whereby what had previously been given tohuman beings from outside had now to be foundin an individual’s conscience. This great reversalof the logic of ancient morality, this huge trust onthe part of history in human beings’ ability to bemoral out of themselves. hence the renaissance,the beginning of the birth of wisdom from withinhuman beings, requiring them to discover univer-sality within their newfound individualism.in art we see this in the appearance of perspec-tive. in money the same phenomenon appears asdouble-entry bookkeeping – the ability to lookout at the world and in on oneself from the world’spoint of view. no wonder that more perceptiveeconomists see the distance of their craft from themethods of luca Pacioli – the monk most associated

with double-entry bookkeeping – as a measure of itsviability and justification.Arjo Klamer and deirdre mcCloskey, for example,some time back stated that, “in view of its impor-tance in their work economists could be expectedto have an interest in accounting. once they did.but now they don’t. for all practical purposes theaccounting metaphor in economic discourse isdead and its reputation buried with it. havingbeen participants in the shunning of accountants,we economists are now […] impelled to ask whatwould happen if the accounting metaphor wereto be revived.”first economists would have to change theirthinking about the history of economics. Theshunning of accounting is plain in all the histories.Almost none discusses the interaction betweeneconomics and accounting. joseph Schumpeter’shistory of Economic analysis8, the most compre-hensive and exhaustive, contains only three refer-ences to accounting. A reference to fra lucaPacioli and the idea of double-entry bookkeepingwas deleted by Schumpeter but then reinstated byhis wife, who edited the unfinished manuscriptafter his death9.”more recently, Alan Sangster and giovanna Scatagliniwrote: “Pacioli’s pedagogic mission as revealed in histreatise [is] to encourage learning through engage-ment; to educate, not just in techniques but, also, inthe related issues without which the mechanics, whileperfectly executed, are performed oblivious to theworld in which they are used [...] Pacioli not onlytaught his students to comprehend the language of dou-ble entry bookkeeping and prepare the entries by whichit is composed, he explained why it was important to doso and did so by setting his teaching in a business contextto which they could all relate10.”

M U L T I - P E R S P E C T I V E

/ A S O C I A L B R A I N

but double-entry bookkeeping has been around for over500 years. now what happens? now nothing can happenexcept and until everyone uses it. There is no furthertechnique to develop. no need for triple bottom lineaccounting or ethical auditing. What is possible is thatthe technique becomes used universally, not only byexperts (accountants, etc.) and not merely as an adjunctto business. double-entry bookkeeping is a means forbecoming aware of one’s will life, of what lives in one’swill, what one intends to do. This, of course, has tocome to free expression, hence ‘free will’. but thequestion then becomes how to cohere the ‘free’ willof the one human being with the equally free will ofall other human beings.


At this point, the metaphor is no longer the labyrinth,but many perspectives in the one picture – a fineexample being Chagall’s 1911 painting i and the Vil-lage. This is the only possible step after the appear-ance of perspective. just so, the only possible equiva-lent in the realm of money is universal use of double-entry bookkeeping. When individuals, organisations,governments and companies sit together and look atone another’s accounts in order to see what the trueprice should or could be, or where capital is best need-ed (and then allocated by magnanimous transfer not bypenalising bonds), then we will have an image of eco-nomic conduct appropriate to today’s world economy,today’s one-world village.Then consciousness will change, not out of ideas but outof awareness of one’s deeds. Admittedly, this is a subtle,hardly discernible difference, but it is not a splitting ofhairs or an exercise in semantics. Then, too, we will see –already in modern economic life – that a new will exists,a new paradigm is struggling to express itself.it is hampered only by our belief that ideas are the ori-gin of economic reality, when in fact they follow on.Children are not now sent up chimneys because thelaw prevents it. The law prevails because people wouldno longer wish to send a child up a chimney than besent up there themselves. just as ideas follow deeds inthe economic realm, so laws clothe intent andenshrine spiritual values but do not beget them.modern understanding of economic life sits mid-way between an old way of being that is no longervalid, but hangs on, and a new future that has yetto gain traction. between blood relationships thatconnect one’s awareness to one’s blood family,and free yet responsible deeds that link one to theentire human family, but not via the blood.humanity’s shrinking into self and self-interestis an inevitable stage and part of history. ofitself, however, it is not a place that can sustainthe human being. As the light from the ancientsgoes out, so does the light of tomorrow need tocome on, albeit with a moment in between,otherwise we will simply exchange our slaveries.That moment ought not to last long, however,nor should we linger lightlessly for too long.

U N I T E D B Y I N D I V I D U A L I T Y

All ancient cultures envisage humanity ultimatelyas a whole, as did the beatles when they sang, ‘iam you and you are me and we are all together’! butso did marx in his own way. And it is to this ulti-mately that ‘the wisdom of the market’ also alludes.To think of the other in economic life, not just one-self – and even better to think on behalf of the econ-omy as such as something living not mechanised – is

to link oneself to a distantly united humanity. bet-ter put, it is to be an emissary from that futureworld. Coming through the threatening darknessof finance today can be seen the suffusing light ofthat distant time.The wonder of double-entry bookkeeping is thatno god ordains it and no human being can pos-sess it. it is simply there, but it is so at the mostatomised moment in human evolution – whenone is alone with one’s net worth, thinking of itas an asset when in fact it is a liability (the asset ofeveryone else, in other words!). At that moment,and in a time when spiritual evolution takesplace through economic evolution, the only ori-entation available to the modern mind is dou-ble-entry bookkeeping, precisely because it hasboth moral and earthly reality yet belongs toneither realm.double-entry bookkeeping serves as the verymeans by which we can escape our individualbrains and create together a kind of shared orsocial brain. Still not a brain in which ideas origi-nate, but one in which we can see our collectivewill reflected. We are not made any less individualbecause of this. on the contrary, it enables us tounderstand the central paradox of our modern eco-nomic lives, namely, that individuals, as the veryword suggests, cannot be divided. 8

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1 Paz, o. (1961). the labyrinth of solitude (new york: grovePress): 195.

2 in his joy he forgot to raise the white sail to signal his successto his father at Sounion, who, thus ill-informed, flung himself need-lessly off the cliff top. but now i am digressing from my focus.

3 mosini, v. (2011). reassessing the paradigm of Economics (lon-don: routledge): 45.

4 ibid.: 139.5 john maynard Keynes: newton, the man. A lecture delivered

posthumously in july 1946 by Keynes’s brother, geoffrey Keynes.6 Wright mills, C. (1971). the sociological imagination (london:

Penguin): 194.7 Shakespeare, W. (2006), hamlet (london: A&C black –

methuen): i, (iii): 75-80.8 Schumpeter, j.A. (1954). history of Economic analysis (oxford:

oxford uP).9 Klamer, A and mcCloskey, d. “The economics of Scientific

Publication”, in European accounting review, 1.1 (1992): 145-160.10 extracts from ‘luca Pacioli, The father of Accounting educa-

tion’; paper presented at the 22nd Annual Accounting, business &financial history Conference, Cardiff 6th and 7th September 2010.Alan Sangster is at middlesex university business School, london;giovanna Scataglini, balliol College, oxford.

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M I C H A E L D . A U S T I ND R E A M I N G E A R T H

We live by the grace of our planet. rough lensesincluding Gaian consciousness, recent laws and local orpersonal sketches in economics and natural history, theauthor explores how consciousness and developmenthave interacted from a personal level to a scalable, plan-etary one. Humankind’s most effective actions in sus-tainability, consciousness and development could be dis-tilled into compassionate living, connected to Earth inall our policies.Billions of people are examples in awareness of theirown microcosm, each in their own environment. But,to be successful in consciousness or development, one’spersonal experiences must be made accessible andshared. is is because humankind’s collective voice,expressed in individual, daily choices will change theworld or make it the same. In the aggregation of ourindividual experiences and compassion we’d find oursalvation in sustainability by our own hands. | [181-195].

C H R I S T O P H E R B A C H ET E A C H I N G T H E N E W P A R A D I G M

is article examines the collective-mind phenomenonin the context of classroom. While not negating thepower of the individual mind, the article seeks to illumi-nate the growing body of research that suggests that ouractions and intentions affect each other is still not com-pletely understood ways. Contrary to traditional, top-down classroom approach where the teacher was activeinstructor and the student relatively passive learner, theauthor offers a new model. Citing his own experiences,as well as research by others, he explores the interconnec-tivity of people’s minds, particularly those in a learningenvironment. ere is a nascent understanding of how collective fieldsof consciousness work in groups and the discovery of atrue collective intelligence – “synchronicity”. is con-cept involves the simultaneous transformation of bothteacher and student, set off by the energy transferredback and forth. e concept of group consciousnessrevolves around the idea that groups share a “collectivemind”. is group mind comes about when there iscommunal intention focused in an emotionally engaginggroup project, project of sustained duration, and repeti-tion of the project. In this environment the class is atransformational journey that the entire group embarks ontogether; the teacher learns from students, students learnfrom one another, as well as the conventional learningprovided by teacher. | [173-179].

W A L T E R B A E T SC O N S C I O U S N E S S A N D C O H E R E N C E

I N C O R P O R A T E S U C C E S S

Conventional rubrics for succeeding in the business worldhave placed emphasis on the external individual sphere.is article prescribes a more integrative approach for

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understanding intricate systems, corporate environmentsin particular. e author piggybacks onto the body of research thatrelates biological function and synchronicity with theway that humans act in groups. is research contributesto an understanding of organizations in order to decon-struct the processes such as consciousness or coherenceusing artificial neural networks.Complex living systems, such as human beings, are com-prised of diverse connected, networks of biological struc-tures and processes. e author attempts to construct aframework by which corporations are understood bysimilar means.e author issues a call for further research using a “first per-son” approach to investigate the way that system elementsinfluence one another by way of their network, as opposedto hierarchical or cause and effect relations. | [207-212].

R A Y M O N D T R E V O R B R A D L E YN O N L O C A L I T Y , C O N S C I O U S N E S S ,

A N D T H E E Y E O F L O V E

A large body of experimental evidence has documentedthe nonlocal nature of consciousness – intuitive knowl-edge of remote or future events, and the effects of mindon matter and on living systems – as a scientific fact.Recent studies, using electrophysiological measures ofautonomic nervous system activity, have shown that suchnonlocal interaction is related to the degree of emotionalsignificance of the remote/future event. Moreover, there isalso solid experimental evidence that intentionally focusedbio-emotional energy can have a subtle but significant –scientifically measurable – effect on nonlocal objects andevents. Drawing on these findings and the principles ofquantum holography, a speculative theory of nonlocalconsciousness is presented. e theory describes howlove, as passionate attention, enables the individual tointuit nonlocal information, and, as passionate intention,empowers them to have some influence on the actualiza-tion of a nonlocal event of interest. Interacting with theincoming energy fields radiating from all objects andevents, the outgoing energy field of love, which is coher-ent, operates like a holographic lens – the “eye,” in-forming(giving shape to) the intuitive perceptions and actions bywhich the conscious self operates as a willful, creativeagent. It is the individual’s bio-emotional resonance – vialove – to a domain of energetically encoded quantum-holographic information, beyond space and time, whichprovides access to the order of implicit potentials in theuniverse. In short, love’s attunement to this energeticdomain of consciousness is the means by which fore-knowledge of nonlocal events can be intuitively accessedand, to some degree, intentionally affected. | [193-205].

A N G E L A B R O W N E - M I L L E RS U R V I V A L I N S T R U C T I O N S : C O N S C I O U S L Y

ADAPTING AND ENHANCING HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

e survival of the human species is to a great extent inour hands, or better stated, in our minds. Expansions ofthe reaches, capabilities, dimensions, and dominions ofthe human mind and consciousness are indeed within our

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grasp. Even the notion of expansion begs further explo-ration now, a highly conscious, intelligently purposeful,exploration. On the frontiers of ourselves, we have theoption to choose to be conscious and aware of our pres-ences and our options. All fields of human endeavour,including but not limited to spirituality, linguistics, neu-roscience, genetics, physics, psychology, sociology,anthropology, the arts, and so on, must step forward tomake conscious evolution, even conscious adaptation, ofthe human consciousness very high on the agenda.Species survival may depend on this. Species definition asan inter-dimensional life form is essential. | [247-257].

A N D R E W C O H E NT H E E V O L U T I O N O F E N L I G H T E N M E N T

Teachings of Spiritual Enlightenment traditionally pointseekers to discover the infinite, timeless Ground of Being,also called Emptiness in Buddhism. In this discovery, oneexperiences liberation from or transcendence of the worldof time and form. I had a classic experience of this kind ofawakening in 1986, but soon found that a traditionalapproach such as the one I had been taught was inadequateto meet the needs of the contemporary seekers who werecoming to me and the Western cultural milieu of our time.rough many years of contemplation, conversation, andinquiry, I discovered a new source of spiritual enlighten-ment – not the formless domain beyond time, but theenergetic impulse that is driving the entire life-processforward in time. I call this the Evolutionary Impulse.Based on this discovery, I have formulated a new spiritualapproach, which I call Evolutionary Enlightenment,which marries traditional Eastern wisdom with a contem-porary Western understanding of evolution. | [141-146].

A L L A N C O M B SC O Y O T E E N L I G H T E N M E N T . A S T O R YO F E V O L U T I O N A R Y S P I R I T U A L I T Y

Here is a story of evolutionary spirituality. It is a story thathas been told in many ways throughout human history,and in many cultural settings. e forms it takes alwaysreflect the ways the world is experienced by the teller andthe listeners, in other words, the form of consciousness inwhich they are bathed. Modern accounts of evolution andspirituality emerge from mental consciousness, whichdominates our own age. Earlier forms of consciousness, forexample steeped in magic and myth, created their ownstories of spirituality and transformation. e future holdspossibilities of still other forms of experience, and withthem different forms of spirituality and transformation.ese are hinted at in contemporary trends seen in art,literature, science, and spirituality itself. | [147-156].

M A T T H I J S C O R N E L I S S E NC O N S C I O U S N E S S , K N O W L E D G E A N D T H E F U T U R E

O F H U M A N I T Y : A M I N I A T U R E O V E R V I E WB A S E D O N T H E W O R K O F S R I A U R O B I N D O

Humanity is rapidly moving in a direction that seems totake it dangerously close to collective madness and self-destruction. One of the reasons, or at least one of the

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major symptoms of the present difficulty is that thedominant knowledge system of our proud and powerfulglobal civilization has a far too limited understanding ofconsciousness and the role it plays in the creation. In this essay I will delineate three archetypal ways of con-ceptualising consciousness, and eight ways of knowingreality, whose understanding might help us to find a wayout of our present imbroglio. | [163-171].

C H R I S T I A N D E Q U I N C E YE M B O D I E D M A S T E R Y : U S I N G P H I L O S O P H Y

T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E I N T H EM A R T I A L A R T O F E V E R Y D A Y L I F E

is article delves into the way in which physicality caninstruct our internal mental state and performance, withthe concept of process metaphysics. is is the philosophyof embodiment that can be applied anywhere in life.Process martial arts is a way in which to become aware ofthe exchange between the choices your body makes at a cel-lular level and the choices you make as a whole organism; tomaster the interchange between the choices of your cellsand those choices of you as a collective organism, and toengage in a more comprehensive dialogue between youand your surroundings, including those entities with dif-ferent, and perhaps competing, goals.Process mastery is dependent on both physical and mentalfacility. Attitude is of critical importance because of themanner that it influences the way in which we view theworld and thus, the way that we respond to stimuli ineither positive or negative ways. A requirement in the pur-suit of process mastery is to engage with the world in anopen, positive way as this allows for an individual tobecome aware of the array of possibilities available in life.Mastery in martial arts is conducive to bypassing fear andaggression and achieving a positive, receptive frame ofmind to external stimuli. By becoming more receptive toyour opponent you gain the opportunity to transpose theconflict into a more sympathetic, collaborative encounter.| [213-217].

J E F F R E Y E I S E NC L E A R I N G T O H O L O S E N T I E N C EA N D L E V E L I I E N L I G H T E N M E N T

In these transitional times, we often hear Einstein’s quotethat no problem can be solved from the same consciousnessthat created it, and by that, we are admonished to changeour consciousness. But what exactly is being asked of us,and how does it work? From my long-standing perspectiveon the central role of perception in creating form in duality,it becomes clear that perception itself must shift. In thispaper, I introduce two vital aspects of the required shift inperception: 1) the advent of intentional clearing. In this weclear from the nondual realm in order to relax and dissolveegoic contractions; 2) the resultant emergence of a holosen-tient perception, the ability to perceive ‘in the round’, akind of holographic awareness of whole systems. Together,these aspects point to an underlying process of increasingawareness that goes beyond the consciousness that createdthe present global situation, even beyond much of what weread about enlightenment. My holosentient perception is

that by using intentional clearing toward the capacity toperceive holosentiently, we are learning to integrate nondu-ality and duality, and thus, developing our full potential ashuman Beings. | [157-162].

R I A N E E I S L E RB R E A K D O W N O R B R E A K T H R O U G H : C U L T U R E ,C O N S C I O U S N E S S A N D H U M A N D E V E L O P M E N T

We stand at a crossroads between a violent, fracturedand unequal world and a sane humane one. People’sbelief systems can help to propagate such cruel andunjust universe, such as the belief in original sin or beliefthat man’s biology is inherently selfish or animalistic innature. ese ways of thinking fail to acknowledge thedeep caring and consciousness so common in humannature. In order to bring the focus back to humanity’scapacity, the author proposes three questions: What kindof cultures support or inhibit the expression of humancapacities for caring consciousness and creativity? Whatkinds of cultures support our capacities for cruelty, insen-sitivity and destructiveness? And what can help us createthe conditions for positive capacities to develop and flourish?e author developed a new system of social classificationthat pays particular attention to primary human relations,meaning the childhood relations and relations betweenmale and female portions of humanity that are crucial todevelopment and survival of the species. Dividing theseinto a partnership model and domination model, she decon-structs these paradigms influence on society at large. Vio-lent and repressive societies stem from the dominationmodel: characterized by hierarchical rankings in families,state or tribe, exercised through physical, psychologicaland economic means; the dominance of men overwomen and culturally accepted predominance of abuseand violence. e partnership model contrasts sharply: anegalitarian structure in both the family and state or tribe;equality between the sexes; and a hold a disapprobationof violence. ese nations who skew to the partnershipmodel consistently have better quality-of-life metrics thanthose who follow the domination model.is relationship between these two models can be tracedback throughout evolution of mankind, indeed can evenbe witnessed in the animal kingdom. More hospitablecircumstances lend themselves to the partnership model,hardscrabble or precarious circumstances usually precipi-tate the domination cultures.e author concludes by recommending we look at howthe two models of societal domination or partnershipinteract with our own minds. Doing so will help to pre-vent regression and build on the momentum towards aworld full of more partnership type societies and thus amore peaceful, just and sustainable world. | [123-130].

G E O F F F I T C HE V O L U T I O N A R Y E T H I C S

Several theorists have described a spectrum of evolutionof consciousness that includes human development andspans the great domains of concrete, subtle, causal andnon-dual worlds, as well as an evolutionary, non-dualunderstanding of the cosmos. Foundational conditions


of the cosmos itself reinforce a developmental view ofethics and suggest several principles for ethical awarenessand action, given an evolutionary perspective. ese prin-ciples include the impulse towards greater individual andcollective development; the loving embrace of what isexistent; and paradoxical understanding and transcen-dence of dualities inherent in development. is paperexplores the ethical potentials of the challenges we facetoday, in light of our understanding of the evolutionarydevelopment of consciousness, and examines ethical prin-ciples founded on the essential conditions of the cosmos– evolution and non-duality. | [117-122].

M A R C G A F N IT H E F U T U R E O F T H E H O L Y: F R O M S E X T O E R O S

is article unpacks the relationship between the sacred,the erotic and the sexual. Emergent from the Kabbalistictradition the essay asserts the virtual identity between erosand holiness, while discerning significantly between thesexual and the erotic. Eros is understood to express itself infour major facets. e four faces of eros are interiority, full-ness of presence, yearning, and wholeness or the intercon-nectivity of being. e sexual is not alienated from eros butit is also not identical with eros. Rather, and this is the corethesis of the essay, the sexual – in its ideal form – modelsthe erotic. More precisely the sexual models the erotic but itdoes not exhaust the erotic. e qualities of eros areaccessed and modelled more easily and elegantly by sex inits idealized form. However, the goal of life is to live eroti-cally not merely in the sexual, but in every facet of being.e limiting of erotic life to the merely sexual is under-stood to be the exile of the Shekinah, the Hebrew mysticalterm for the feminine presence of the divine. e fullincarnation of eros in every dimension of life is an expres-sion of “Temple Consciousness”. | [131-139].

A S H O K G A N G A D E A NS P I R I T U A L T R A N S F O R M A T I O N A S T H E

A W A K E N I N G O F G L O B A L C O N S C I O U S N E S S .A D I M E N S I O N A L S H I F T I N T H E

T E C H N O L O G Y O F T H E M I N D

e author posits that there are times in the course of his-tory in which humanity undergoes comprehensive andprofound transformations and that one such shift is occur-ring at the moment, a “tipping point”. In order to copeand deal with the radical changes inherent to such a shift,people must adapt through altering their consciousness.e key to this adaptation is, in the author’s words, an“access code” to an “enchanted universe”, whereby oneattains consciousness that reality is a holistic field of infor-mation and dynamic connectivity. is global conscious-ness will realize certain things, one of the most importantis what is referred to here as “collective global wisdom”,that humankind shares in the creation of reality and theuniverse, through their interpretive abilities. Gangadeanbelieves this world-shaping – or the way our internalworldview and narrative have the power to change out-ward reality – is the highest human art. e essay concludes that through the technology of nat-ural reason lies the direction for the future choices that

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need to be made in the wake of the current global trans-formation. | [29-35].

A M I T G O S W A M II N N E R C R E A T I V I T Y : A N E W P A R A D I G MF O R A D U L T S P I R I T U A L D E V E L O P M E N T

Quantum physics has given us a new scientific worldviewbased on the primacy of consciousness. One of the out-standing aspects of this worldview is that it includes bothspirituality and materiality and in this way gives us aframework for discussing adult spiritual developmentthat is the subject of this article. | [17-28].

S T A N I S L A V G R O F2 0 1 2 A N D H U M A N D E S T I N Y : E N D O F T H EW O R L D O R C O N S C I O U S N E S S R E V O L U T I O N ?

Stanislav Grof challenges the current interpretation of theMayan calendar as predicting the end of the materialworld on December 12, 2012, arguing for a different per-spective on the Mayan prophecy. As this date draws closer,it gathers more attention from the media and entertain-ment world, all morbidly reflecting on the anticipateddoomsday. Many other cultural and religious traditionscontained similar prophecies about the end of a great cycle,seemingly lending credence to the ancient prediction. Grofsuggests a more positive explanation of the Mayan prophecy,that instead of destruction and annihilation of the world,it refers to an existential death and rebirth of humanity;the psycho-spiritual transformation of the current worldorder into something new and better. Ultimately, we are entirely responsible for which versionof the prophecy comes to pass. Grof concludes that weare facing a definitive crisis, if we continue on our currentdestructive path, we as a humanity is unlikely to survive.But there is hope, if enough people undergo a process ofdeep spiritual transformation, and reach a level of con-sciousness deserving of the name bestowed upon ourspecies: Homo sapiens. | [1-12].

G A I L H O C H C H K AE N G A G I N G T H E P L A Y O F C O N S C I O U S N E S S

I N S U S T A I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T

Drawing on experiences in sustainable international devel-opment, it is suggested that global wellbeing involves thedevelopment of consciousness, as it arises in self, behaviour,culture and systems, from a place of deep presence in one’sown awareness. With an integral approach to internationaldevelopment, as written about by Ken Wilber and practicedby numerous individuals and organizations involved ininternational development, integral practitioners bring aparticular understanding of consciousness into the practiceof development. is includes laying emergent ground boththe transformations in consciousness as well as fosteringgreater health in existing expressions of consciousness, allthe while engaging practices that support a quality of pres-ence or wakefulness in one’s own awareness. An example isgiven of how consciousness is engaged in development,


from the perspective of Integral approach, in a leadership forsustainable development project in West Africa. | [75-82].

C H R I S T O P H E R H O U G H T O N B U D DT H E L A B Y R I N T H O F F I N A N C E .C O N S C I O U S N E S S A N D M O N E Y

e author seeks to untangle the maze of modern finance.e image of the labyrinth is symbolic of central bankingand used as a way to understand money in a social way. Ithelps to understand that money is not simply a solely pri-vate matter, but a social, shared common good. Just as weshare the air and water, we reciprocally use and enjoy oneanother’s money, goods and talent. Dr Houghton Buddcalls for the incorporation of “double-entry bookkeeping”into modern finance. is is a more holistic means ofaccounting, meaning there is never a debit without a credit,with every transaction there is consideration of one’smotives on the other, the effects of what one does. uswe live economically between our intentions and oureffects. Double-entry bookkeeping represents a way inwhich we leave our individual brains behind and forgetogether a “shared” or “social” brain, where our collectivewill prevail. | [259-262].

E R V I N L A S Z L OT W O W A Y S O F K N O W I N G T H E W O R L D :

D I S C O V E R I N G T H E R E A L I T Y O FN O N - S E N S O R Y P E R C E P T I O N

Historically humans have been seen as seen as interpretingthe world solely through their neuroaxonal network, ormore colloquially, their senses. Professor Laszlo arguesagainst limiting human experience to sensory experienceas new evidence appears to support that there are actuallysystems in which our brains synthesize data from the out-side world: the macro-level neuroaxonal networks and thesub-neural quantum-level networks. e latter derivesfrom direct-intuitive nonlocal perception that recognizesmore subtle effects that usually operate under the radar ofour conscious awareness. Entering altered states of consciousness, such as throughprayer or meditation, allows for individuals to experiencethe world in different, more comprehensive ways. Toooften, these alternate experiences are derided as imaginaryand disregarded. However, researchers found that a groupof individuals achieved both greater internal synchronici-ty (between left and right brain hemispheres) as well asinter-personal synchronicity through meditation. eseeffects were found even though the test subjects werecomparatively “walled off” in terms of their senses. Itseems as though the way we think of human perceptionneeds to be revisited. | [37-39].

R O B E R T A U G U S T U S M A S T E R ST H E A N A T O M Y O F I N T U I T I O N :

T H E E V E R Y D A Y T R A N S M I S S I O N O FN O N - C O N C E P T U A L K N O W I N G N E S S

Intuition is a trait native to all humans, what we do with it,however, varies greatly from person to person. For some-thing so universal it is often ignored or written off as a

non-rational, almost imaginary phenomenon. is articledescribes intuition, underlining its importance and theneed to cultivate an awareness of it. e author sees intuition as a neutral phenomenon; it isneither “good” nor “bad”, though the resulting actionsmay be ascribed with those adjectives. If we do not hear orperceive our intuition, it is not because it’s not there, butrather, we are not being open to it. Ironically, for manypeople being able to interpret and understand intuition isnot intuitive. However, it is possible to make oneself more receptive tointuition by gathering relevant material, quieting one’s mindand freeing oneself and listening deeply in order to recognizethe sometime barely perceptible knock of intuition.e author underscores that intuition is not a singularly per-sonal experience; it can also be a shared experience that linksa group together. Like a bolt of lightning, an immediate cur-rent that flows through everyone, intuition has the ability tounite separate beings with a deep bond. It is an occurrencethat deserves our deepest reverence and attention. | [13-16].

R O L L I N M A C R A T Y~ A N N E T T E D E Y H L E

C O H E R E N C E A S A C A T A L Y S T F O R P E R S O N A L,S O C I A L A N D G L O B A L H E A L T H, A N D T H E R O L E

O F T H E G L O B A L C O H E R E N C E I N I T I A T I V E

Complex living systems, including human beings, arecomposed of numerous dynamic, interconnected net-works of biological structures and processes. Coherenceimplies order, structure, harmony, and alignment withinand amongst systems – whether in atoms, organisms,social groups, planets, or galaxies. us, every whole has arelationship with and is a part of a greater whole, which isagain part of something greater. In this context, nothingcan be considered as separate, alone, or lacking relation-ships. Aspects of coherence are reflected in physiologyand can be objectively measured. e concepts of coher-ence can also be applied at the social level, and by increas-ing our personal coherence the benefits are not onlyreflected in improved personal health and happiness butmay also affect and be reflected in a global field environ-ment through which all living systems are interconnected.All across the planet, increasing numbers of people andgroups are practicing heart-based living, meditation, andprayer that support positive change and creative solutionsfor manifesting a better world. e Global CoherenceInitiative (GCI) is a science based, co-creative project tounite people in heart-focused care and intention. It isworking in concert with other initiatives to realize theincreased effectiveness of collective alignment. Every cellin our body is bathed in an external and internal environ-ment of fluctuating invisible magnetic forces that affectnumerous physiological rhythms in humans and globalbehaviour. e most likely mechanism for explaining howsolar and geomagnetic influences affect human health andbehaviour is a coupling between the human nervous sys-tem, heart and brain with and Schumann resonanceswhich occur in the earth-ionosphere resonant cavity and


other resonant geomagnetic frequencies. We are not onlysynchronized with solar and geomagnetic activity, but dis-ruptions in these fields can create adverse effects onhuman health and behaviour. In order to conduct thisresearch a global network of 12 to 14 ultrasensitive magneticfield detectors specifically designed to measure the earth’smagnetic resonances is being installed strategically aroundthe planet. It is postulated that as increasing number ofpeople add coherent energy to the global field, it helpsstrengthen and stabilize mutually beneficial feedback loopsamong human beings and with the earth’s energetic fields.Furthermore, one of GCI’s goals is to test the hypothesisthat large numbers of people when in a heart-coherentstate and are holding a shared intention, can encode infor-mation on the earth energetic and geomagnetic field,which can act as a carrier wave for biologically patternedand relevant information. | [83-95].

S A H L A N M O M OT H E M E S O T E R I C L E A P

e author identifies and defines the mesoteric state ofconsciousness between the exoteric and the essoteric planesas the dimension in which both the individual andhumankind as a whole are shifting. It is not an alteredstate of consciousness, but the real ‘human’ collectivedimension that links spirit to matter on the tensoriumwithin consciousness and is characterized by the ever‘present’ devoid of space and time. While the global crisesis grinding into pieces the last phase of the current civi-lization, the merging of spirit and matter in the mesotericconsciousness is giving rise to a new collective culture andforging unprecedented development models consonantwith a nonprofit society in which the rewarding aware-ness of being helpful in co-creating the common good isthe real priceless profit. | [V-XII].

R O G E R D . N E L S O NG L O B A L C O N S C I O U S N E S S . E V I D E N C E

F O R A N E M E R G E N T N O O S P H E R E

A long term, continuing experiment called the GlobalConsciousness Project (GCP) looks for non-random structurein synchronized random data streams generated duringmajor events. A global network of random number gener-ators (RNGs) records parallel sequences of random data at65 sites around the world, and a rigorous experiment teststhe hypothesis that the data will deviate from expectationduring “global events” defined as transitory episodes ofwidespread mental and emotional response to great cele-brations and tragedies. e ongoing replication experi-ment measures correlations across the network during thedesignated events, and the result from more than 400 formalhypothesis tests over the past 14 years departs substantiallyfrom expectation, with odds of more than 100 billion toone against the null hypothesis. Controls exclude conven-tional physical explanations or experimental error, and theexperimental design constrains interpretation. e resultssuggest that some aspect of human consciousness is

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involved as a source of the effects. e subtle structuringof random data indicates an effect of coherent humanattention and emotion in the physical world, and it pointsto a creative quality of consciousness that can change thefuture from what it might have been. | [41-49].

T E R R I J . O ’ F A L L O ND E V E L O P M E N T A N D C O N S C I O U S N E S S :

G R O W I N G U P I S W A K I N G U P

Developmental stages have been a prominent area ofresearch in the past fifty years, particularly beginning withchild development. is has been extended into the adultrealm with a number of authors and researchers focusingon developmental stages throughout the life span andthere has been considerable documentation of the trajectoryof development. In contrast, is interest in the apprehen-sions of states, which people have experimented with forgenerations. Sages and spiritual teachers have focused onsupporting people’s development through state trainingand separate research has been conducted on states. It hasbeen speculated that those who have higher states wouldalso be later in their development, but research has notbourn this out. is article investigates the intersectionbetween developmental stages and apprehensions throughstate experiences and how they inform and support eachother. It supports this investigation with current, relevantresearch, which suggests that growing up developmentallyrelies on waking up through states and waking up alsorelies on growing up through the stages. | [97-103].

T E R R Y P A T T E NI N T E G R A L S P I R I T U A L P R A C T I C E : B E C O M I N G

T H E O N E S W E H A V E B E E N W A I T I N G F O R

For millennia, human beings have engaged in spiritualpractices to grow, develop, awaken, expand, and realizetheir highest potentials. Now in the 21st century, some-thing new is emerging – the widespread understandingamong people in developed countries that maturation isa lifelong journey – that “all of life is a school”. e culti-vation of higher maturity and “supernormal” potentials isa form of rational spirituality – one that is informed byour rich global inheritance of spiritual understandings andtechniques, as well as recent psychological, neurological,scientific and technological advances. As practitioners inthe information age, we are in a unique position to drawon the full array of wisdom and knowledge available, andto forge a new, more holistic and global praxis of the artof being human. Moreover, the multiple, interpenetratingcrises of our time – which are not only social and sys-temic, but also cultural and spiritual in origin – requireus to re-imagine our approach to personal development,awakening, and social responsibility. We are called tomore effectively “be and do” the change we wish to see inthe world. An “integral spiritual practice” is one way ofdescribing such an engaged, holistic, global evolutionaryway of life that can enable individuals and cultures tomore rapidly matriculate through the lessons of “theschool of life” in the 21st century. | [51-57].


V E N I T A L . R A M I R E ZL O V E , C O N S C I O U S N E S S & E V O L U T I O N

As a species, most of us live unaware of the fact that wecollectively collude about many sets of assumptions thatkeep destructive aspects of human life in place, preventinga more rapid evolution of human consciousness and well-being. But what if we decided willingly to suspend ourbeliefs and assumptions? What if we opened, listened toand received a deeper wisdom through the collective intel-ligence of every one on earth? How might these vastresources inform one another and create unimagined solu-tions, visions and possibilities? How might we find a wayto serve everyone and everything on the planet in a waythat is fair, loving and generous? What if we were todecide we are ready for a massive transformation in ourconsciousness and thus in our quality of life now and inthe future? In this paper, I will draw from current researchon the latest known stages of human development, fromeight years of experiments in an innovative transformativeleadership programme, and twenty-five years of directexperience with individuals in psychotherapy. From theseand other sources, I will identify perspectives and process-es that could accelerate an evolved future for humanityand for all of life. | [231-239].

J O H N R E N E S HT H E C O N S C I O U S O R G A N I Z A T I O N :

W O R K P L A C E S F O R T H E S E L F - A C T U A L I Z E D

In this essay, the author describes an organizational modelhe is been advocating for more than a decade – the “con-scious organization.” Given human’s evolution towardself-actualization, our institutions needs to evolve as wellor face extinction. At the present time in history, nearlyall societal problems and challenges are rooted in systemicdysfunction, locked in place by organizational culturesbased on outmoded assumptions, beliefs and habits. eauthors discusses what he means by conscious, why it isbeing called for now and how organizations will lookwhen they commit themselves to having a conscious cul-ture, where light is shined on any shadowy behaviour ordysfunction by workers who are enthused and passionateabout working in environments that foster more con-scious behaviour, more fulfilling work and more effectiveenterprises. | [227-230].

T O R U S A T OT H E D E S C E N T A N D A S C E N T U P O NT H E L A D D E R O F C O N S C I O U S N E S S

is article explores how the journey of life may involve achallenging but necessary descent into darkness and a grad-ual ascent into a wakeful bliss that is often perceived as thedescent and ascent upon the ladder of consciousness. In thefirst part of the journey, the descent, we gradually lose sightof the fact that the very thing we are longing for is the verything that is longing. In other words, we begin believingthat the space that accepts and holds all of our emotionswith loving presence only exists in the outside world andnot inside of us. In the second part of the journey, the

ascent, we begin awakening to the fact that this spacethat can accept and hold all of our emotions with lovingpresence is not something that can only be found inothers who have a deep capacity to love. Rather, it is thevery essence of who we are and the very essence of everybeing in the universe. Once we make this all-importantrealization, we cannot help but live our lives with a deepreverence for all beings knowing that we all belong toeach other. | [113-116].

M A R I L Y N S C H I L T ZE M E R G I N G W O R L D V I E W S : T O O L S O F

T R A N S F O R M A T I O N F O R N O E T I C L E A D E R S H I P

As the global community seeks to manage myriad chal-lenges and complexities of today’s social and economicclimate, there is a call for new skills and capacities.Research on worldview transformation suggests that peo-ple can engage in practices that support life-enhancingchanges in the face of stress and challenge. e purpose ofthis article is to apply the worldview transformationmodel to noetic leadership as a transformative practice.e goal is to help catalyze positive individual and collec-tive transformations in today’s increasingly global andinterconnected society and to provide new resources forleadership. Such noetic leadership tools include: world-view literacy, noetic experiences, self-reflection skills,engagement in transformative practices, holding positiveimages for the future, setting individual and collectiveintentions, developing attention-training capacities, andrecognizing the value of surrender in the face of change.While there are many barriers to worldview transforma-tions, history is a good indicator that humans are a resilientspecies. Harnessing creative insight offers the potential forbreakthroughs to a new future for humanity. | [241-245].

D A N A T O M A S I N OH E A R T I N T E L L I G E N C E A N D E M O T I O N A L

E V O L U T I O N : A N E X T S T E P I NC O N S C I O U S N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T

e evolution of human civilization to this point hasseen impressive advances in the development of toolsand technologies that enable us to interact effectivelywith our external world. However, as a whole, our rela-tionship with our internal emotional experience hasremained comparatively immature. is next crucialphase of humanity’s evolution will invite a shift in focusinward – to the development of new internal strategiesby which we can learn to effectively regulate, modulate,and direct the vast and largely untapped resource that isour emotional energy. To build this new relationshipwith our emotional experience will require a source ofintelligence beyond the familiar but limited awareness ofthe mind. Heart intelligence embraces an integratedawareness that includes input from the body, mind,emotions as well as nonlocal intuitive information froma field of energy beyond the bounds of space-time. It ispostulated that the heart serves as a conduit to the spiritor soul and that it can transduce information from this


larger aspect of our being, making it accessible to con-scious awareness. Practices that engage the heart by acti-vating states sourced in Love, at the individual level andin group and community settings, can facilitate theawakening and development of heart intelligence andthereby open the door to new possibilities of self-aware-ness and emotional mastery. e collective maturation ofour ability to intentionally track, focus, direct, and mod-ulate our emotional energy will naturally facilitate thedevelopment of humanity’s intuitive and co-creativecapacities. is heart-directed evolution of consciousnesswill transform our relationship to ourselves, our fellowbeings, and our Planet, leading to greater levels of self-responsibility, cooperation, compassion, connectedness,and Love. | 57-64].

P A U L V O N W A R DW O R L D V I E W S A N D E V O L U T I O NO F H U M A N C O N S C I O U S N E S S

Humans now face multiple existential, global threats oftheir own making. e greatest obstacle to an effective glob-al response is the lack of a working consensus on strategy.With incompatible teleological worldviews, the humancommunity is re-tribalizing into different realities. Lookingat the circumstances with different assumptions about howthe universe works, religious, political, and cultural leaderscannot even agree on the problem, much less solutions. egap between materialism and theism makes agreement onany fundamental issue impossible. Insights into the mentaland emotional power of worldviews now offer a new strategyto build a more universal worldview as a basis for betterworld communication and cooperation. | [65-73].

P E T E R G A R E T H W A L L A C E~ D E N N I S P . H E A T O N

A C O N S C I O U S N E S S - B A S E D A P P R O A C HT O E L I M I N A T I N G P O V E R T Y

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi promulgated a sys-tem of theory and practices to achieve sustainable eco-nomic development from the foundational platform ofhuman consciousness. ree principles of this Conscious-ness-based approach are presented and each principle isilluminated by corresponding verses from the traditionalVedic literature. First, the Principle of Fullness presentsthe concept that the inner dimension of TranscendentalConsciousness is the source of the material world and thatexperience of this dimension can be systematically culti-vated to enhance creativity, effective performance, andholistic achievement. Next, the Principle of Support ofNature explains that when thinking and behaviour aremore connected to the totality of Natural Law, available inTranscendental Consciousness, fewer mistakes are created,the environment becomes supportive for easier achieve-ment of success, and life is freer from problems. Finally,the Principle of Coherence explains how the progress ofsociety is related to the field effects of evolving collectiveconsciousness. | [219-225].

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F R E D A L A N W O L FH O W T O I D E N T I F Y W I T H T H EC R E A T O R O F T H E U N I V E R S E

e author attempts to reconcile the supposed gapbetween the inner “dream world” and outer “objective”reality. He is interested in the overlap between matter andmind, envisioning the act of creation as a symbiotic rela-tionship where what we do affects how we do it and howwe do things affect what we do.Wolf views our quotidian experience of reality to be agross oversimplification of the fullness of its nature. is isa function of the limitations of our senses as well as currentignorance of physics. Quantum physics and relativity haveindicated that much of reality is hidden and mysterious, afact which would be readily apparent if we could experi-ence quantum reality. e article proposes that the coreof the universe is not composed of hard reality, but isinstead a dreaming universe.e latest physics relates that reality is not what we think,but rather made of possibilities that appear to be solidmatter. What we see as “reality” is simply a matter of rela-tive consciousness. e fields of physics and spirituality,often viewed as being at odds, are in fact pointing in thesame direction: “It is all a dream”. | [105-111]. 8


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PASCAL, Pensée.

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s p a n d a t h i r t y - 3 n a r r a t i o n s t o d i s c l o s ethe state of the art in consciousness studies.

from spiritual transformation to dimensional shift,from heart intelligence to emotional evolution,

from collective intelligence to the environment,f r o m f i n a n c e t o n o n - s e n s o r y p e r c e p t i o n ,from inner creativ ity to self -real izat ion ,

f r o m g l o b a l h e a l t h t o d e v e l o p m e n t ,f r o m c o h e r e n c e t o t h e “ e y e ” o f l o v e ,

f r o m g o v e r n a n c e t o m a r t i a l a r t s ,l o v e , g r i e f , c u l t u r e , a n d p o v e r t y ,

h o l o s e n t i e n c e , e r o t i c i s m a n d e v o l u t i o n ,a d a p t a t i o n , k n o w l e d g e a n d c o n s c i o u s n e s s ,

the creator of the universe,the noosphere and

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a n o p e r a t i n g m a n u a l

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c h r i s t o p h e r m . b a c h ew a l t e r b a e t s

r a y m o n d t r e v o r b r a d l e ya n g e l a b r o w n e - m i l l e r

a n d r e w c o h e na l l a n c o m b s

m a t t h i j s c o r n e l i s s e nc h r i s t i a n d e Q u i n c e y

j e f f r e y s . e i s e nr i a n e e i s l e rg e o f f f i t c hm a r c g a f n i

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r o b e r t a u g u s t u s m a s t e r ss a h l a n m o m o

r o l l i n ~ a n n e t t e m c c r a t y ~ d e y h l er o g e r d . n e l s o nt e r r i j . o ’ f a l l o n

t e r r y p a t t e nv e n i t a r a m i r e zj o h n r e n e s c h

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