Reasons to be Hopeful

Those who have devoted their lives to become thought leaders are giving us good evidence that this moment in human history is pivotal for the success of the human enterprise. Rudolf Steiner in Austria/Germany and Peter Deunov in Bulgaria gave voice to the beginning of a spiritual age at the start of the 20th century. It was drowned out but not extinguished by the horror and madness of the first world war. The message of love and purification of the human heart persisted in disciples throughout the following years of even greater chaos and madness of a second world war and the birth of an atomic age threatening nuclear annihilation.

It was so much in evidence towards the end of the century that a twentieth century futurist in America, Willis Harman https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-1 could proclaim the time through which he was living as a revolution in thought more profound than the scientific revolution of 500 years earlier. For the revolution was now about meaning and values and a recovery of vision on which to build a global civilization. Harman called it a global mind change, which was still struggling to take hold as humanity stumbled into the 21st century and the third millennium and was confronted by a cascade of existential problems threatening breakdown.

To find our way through this turmoil, we need to take the broadest possible perspective. Current futurist, Professor Bill Halal from George Washington University, assists us in doing this https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-6. He has placed our current era in the context of a lifecycle of evolution, encompassing many ages and epochs over 3.5 billion years, until in the first two decades of the 21st century we embraced an Age of Knowledge that produced the digital revolution and the emergence of artificial intelligence. Halal charted the Lifecycle of Evolution as an S curve, common to all living systems, such that at the top, where we now are, we can anticipate a climax of some sort of maturity setting the baseline for the beginning a new era, which Halal calls the Age of Consciousness. He comes to this conclusion through his forecasting technology based on collective intelligence from many fields of knowledge, and foresees an Age of Consciousness as the natural progression for humanity because of our evolutionary heritage. His forecast is that this transition will be well established by 2030, plus or minus 5 years.

The important thing is that Halal has given us a framework in which to think about what is going on. He cites as evidence for the emergence of an Age of Consciousness the wild beliefs now in evidence all across the planet, such as the denial of climate change, the belief in bizarre conspiracy theories, and the preference to believe in falsehoods rather than truth. Such aberrant mental activity is based not on factual knowledge, but rather on the preference for people to believe whatever they choose. It does not appear hopeful for an Age of Consciousness that might equate with the wisdom we need to create a successful global civilization, but Halal reminds us that it is still consciousness, and that consciousness is an “entire domai” that encompasses everything from the bizarre and troubling examples we are now experiencing to a vast expanse of enlightenment we are still struggling to reach.

Another perspective on this comes from Canadian researcher of cultural traditions, D. Paul Schafer, who asserts in his new book The Great Cultural Awakening (2024) that doors are opening to the creation and development of a cultural age. “Such an age,’ he says, “will bring with it more peace, harmony, happiness, sustainability, well-being, and equality, as well as making it possible for all people to enjoy a reasonable standard of living and decent quality of life without straining the globe’s resources, eco systems, and finite carrying capacity to the breaking point.” For Schafer, the cultural age is the natural successor to the economic age through which we have been living since the 18th century and which has given much of the world unprecedented wealth and high quality of life but is unevenly distributed and achieved at high cost to the environment, which was treated as an externality in the capitalist system of economics.

Perhaps Halal’s Age of Consciousness and Schafer’s Cultural Age are the same thing, but the question remains how to get there from where we are. In pondering that question, we can now embrace the new scientific perspective of quantum science that emerged in the 20th century. This is the science of the infinitely small world that underlies the macro material world of everyday life. It is the science that connects consciousness and matter and posits concepts of entanglement and coherence. Researcher and activist Dr. Bruce H. Lipton sums it up this way in his keynote article in The Great Upshift (2023) by Ervin Laszlo and David Lorimer.

“From an evolutionary standpoint, we are exactly where we need to be. A scientific renaissance is taking us beyond economic collapse, climate change, religious and racial extremes, and the impending 6th Mass Extinction event to reveal that such chaos is a natural step in an unfolding process, rather than the tragic end to a broken planet."

“A new world is emerging right before our eyes. We are surrounded by evidence that civilization is poised on the threshold of a major revolutionary event … Conscious Evolution.”

Lipton sees civilization on a trajectory to consciously create the new world that we want to see—to get beyond limiting beliefs and upshift to a new reality “as people awaken to their inherent power, a new evolutionary force for transforming the fear of an unwanted situation into the hope of new possibilities.”

So, we are back to the triumph of hope over fear.

Psychologist and leader of transformative thought, Jean Houston, calls this moment “the greatest transition in the history of humanity” https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-5. She compares it to the last stages of metamorphosis when the dying imaginal cells of the caterpillar in its cocoon resist the transformation into the butterfly, which will live more lightly on the Earth. The transformation is programmed to be successful, and so will it be with us. We just have to stay with the process and believe in the achievement of a successful outcome, while we do everything in our power to bring it about. Houston calls her listeners and readers to be the “people of the breakthrough” and offers inspiration to be so.

Another perspective for viewing our current time is provided by quantum scientist, philosopher and systems theorist, Ervin Laszlo https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-2. He describes the way that human beings are living on the planet as a system that has reached a critical point of instability. At such a point the system cannot continue to operate as it is, nor can it go back to a former state. It must bifurcate, and alternative paths open up for going forward. In the case of the human system, humanity as a whole must choose a path forward. One choice would be to make no change and that would be tantamount to making the present unstable system more unstable until it collapses. The choice that Laszlo argues for is to upshift to a higher state of consciousness in which human beings recognize and embrace their fundamental connection to each other and the natural world.

Laszlo speaks and writes about this upshift with authentic brilliance TRUTHS of Existence REVEALED! Embrace YOUR PURPOSE with Quantum Consciousness! I Ervin Laszlo, PhD (youtube.com) as he reveals the sacred mission of humanity to become one with the universe. That would mean recognizing and celebrating that we exist in a quantum state of entanglement such that what we do to each other we do to ourselves. We are not separate. We are one. The implication is that we must engage our intuition to hear the voice of the cosmos and working together in collaboration build on Earth the institutions and processes that will create harmony and coherence. It is a glorious task far greater than fighting the wars we have fought for thousands of years. We are on course to consciously evolve to a new state of being and become a new species of enlightened human beings.

The path forward for humanity is to remove the barriers that divide us, both physical and mental, and engage in a grass roots quest for collaboration and cooperation and create a system for caring for each other and caring for our planet on which we all depend for life.

This kind of change implies a transformation of consciousness, a revolution at the level of spirit. Another thought leader, author Anne Baring, provides a powerful perspective on what this means https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-4. Baring has carried out prodigious research into ancient cultures and noted that a profound shift in human spirituality occurred about four thousand years ago. Before that time, ancient cultures worshipped the Divine Goddess as the source of their health and well-being. This led to cultures grounded in notions of nurturing and compassion and reverence for the natural world, which was perceived to be bequeathed as a gift to humanity from the womb of the Goddess. In these cultures women had an equal partnership role with men in sustaining the culture.

However, beginning about four thousand years ago, the worship of a divine nurturing goddess, gradually shifted to the worship of a male dominator god that gave rise to cultures grounded in conquest and patriarchy in which the nurturing role of women was debased as less important than male authority, and reverence for nature was replaced by concepts of human domination over the natural world, which came to be viewed as little more than a provider of resources for human society.

So, for Anne Baring, the concept of upshift described by Ervin Laszlo means a re-sacralizing of the planet. This would be a profound shift in the human psyche of reverence for life, not just human life, but all life, and a re-emergence of women as full partners with men in the creation and sustaining of a nurturing partnership society. The same shift is argued by author Riane Eisler in her several works on this topic, especially The Chalice and the Blade (1987) and The Power of Partnership (2002). In the same way, the recent resurgence of interest in the life of Mary Magdalene including the publication of The Gospel of the Beloved Companion (2010) allegedly written by her describing her partnership and intimate life with Jesus two thousand years ago, rekindles the power of the divine feminine. The gains by women in recent decades in assuming important roles in corporate and political life are also indicators that this shift is beginning to take hold and will be a major part of the Age of Consciousness in the years ahead.

Ervin Laszlo would not disagree with the need for a profound shift in the human psyche and argues for it as the embracing of planetary consciousness as human beings learn how to connect more fully with the conscious energetic field underlying the physical universe. This would be grounded in a planetary ethic of reverence for life and would be the foundation of a global civilization of peace and cooperation and stewardship of the natural world.

A glimpse of what this would look like is provided in the life and work of Dr. Jane Goodall DBE https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-3. For more than six decades, beginning with her groundbreaking work revealing the consciousness of chimpanzees in the jungles of Tanzania in Africa, and continuing through her conservation efforts to transform the life of poor people in the same part of the world through learning to live in balance with their environment, Goodall has been the voice of reason and hope for a world that has lost its connection to its natural origins. At the age of 90, she continues her life mission as a model of perseverance and resilience for all of us.

The power structure for the global civilization envisioned by thought leaders would not be the current dominating control exercised by authoritative leaders and governments, but rather the nurturing power of love expressed in a culture of peace and compassion at every level in society. Such a concept is hard to grasp from our current situation in world affairs, but an example of what it would look like is available in the life and work of another global thought leader, Robert Muller https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-7.

Muller’s main contribution was in the model he provided in the circles in which he moved. In his early life he went through the horrors of World War II, and after that he devoted his life to peacebuilding, choosing as his vehicle the United Nations Organization created in 1945 immediately following the end of the second world war. Muller served in the United Nations for 40 years and rose to the rank of Assistant Secretary General.

Through his office, Muller worked at the top of the world and was fully engaged in the complex web of international affairs of the second half of the 20th century. In the beginning the focus was on the management of conflict to avoid the outbreak of a third world war, but after 1970 this was enlarged to include finding solutions to a new threat of a deteriorating environment brought on by population growth and increasing industrialization and pressures of consumption, particularly in the wealthiest countries. Muller served with distinction as assistant and guiding hand to three Secretaries General, but it was in his personal approach to his work and life that he had the greatest impact.

He became the personification of a global citizen in the United Nations community where he was known as the Prophet of Hope. He gave voice to the values of love and faith in circles that were not accustomed to embracing those concepts. Through his speeches and writing he reached deep into civil society where he became a model and mentor to individuals and non-governmental organizations that were trying to improve the world. He saw that the values of love and peace necessary for a peaceful and sustainable world needed to be taught to young people in school and he created a world core curriculum that continues to be offered in several Robert Muller Schools around the world. Muller retired from the United Nations in 1986, but continued his work until his death in 2010 as Chancellor of the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. His life is a model for people everywhere as the world continues to try to find its way forward along a sustainable path, and his ideas remain as a rich legacy for humanity to explore and embrace.

While Robert Muller may have made his greatest impact outside the United Nations, his home organization in the 21st century has taken bold steps towards encouraging member nations to improve prospects for a more just, equitable and sustainable world future. The UN turned its attention to setting achievement goals. Beginning with the Millennium Development Goals, it set timebound targets for reducing world ills like poverty and disease and promoting goods like gender equality, health and education. The Millennium Development Goals were rolled over into 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by the UN in 2015 as a universal call to action “to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.” https://thevisioneers.ca/sdgs. Though admittedly over ambitious and unachievable by the set date, and controversial in implementation, these goals have nevertheless been called the nearest thing the world has of a vision for a sustainable future.

While the UN 17 SDGs stand tall as a set of standards for nations to aspire to, It seems clear that a shift in global consciousness towards peace and sustainability will not come by decree from top levels in government, but will grow in the ranks of people as they go about their lives, inspired by models like Robert Muller, wherever they may live in the world. One such example now well underway is International Cities of Peace https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-8. This is a nongovernmental organization founded in the USA by Fred Arment with a mission to establish 1000 cities of peace in 100 countries by 2030. After 15 years they have reached more than 400 cities in 75 countries. Through its protocols, people in any country are given the opportunity to register their city as a city of peace and describe their vision of the future for their community. Through intense networking and communication on an inspirational website www.internationalcitiesofpeace.org a global community of peacebuilders is forging a way forward to a peaceful sustainable world.

While widespread engagement of the kind fostered by International Cities of Peace is of critical importance, it is likely that momentum for transformational change will also come from people in industrialized countries where a significant demographic change is unfolding. For the first time ever in these countries, people over the age of 50 will soon form a majority of the population. This development has its own domestic challenges, but it also raises the possibility for mobilizing a mature and experienced cohort of people to try to correct the world problems that have developed during their lifetime. An initiative based on this realization has been launched by George and Sedena Cappannelli in Santa Fey, New Mexico in the USA https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-9. Their project is called Age Nation and includes an award winning PBS television series now streaming worldwide that is inspiring “people who weren’t born yesterday” to seize their power to advocate, not only for themselves, but for a peaceful and sustainable future.

One of the greatest challenges for building a sustainable future is to reform economic systems so that they focus on human flourishing, beginning in communities and spreading upwards through national economies into the international community. Pioneering work in this kind of transformation is provided through the books of Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics, 2017) and Jason Hickel (Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, 2020). The new economics would focus on shifting to a new kind of economy focusing on human flourishing, putting people first in an economic system that also aims to preserve and protect the natural world. Ultimately this is about getting back to a way of living that others reviewed above have called for—a realization of human interconnectedness with each other and the living world, a re-sacralizing of the planet, as Anne Baring has put it, and an upshift to wiser living on planet Earth, as Ervin Laszlo says.

As a last word on reasons to be hopeful about the future, we might turn to the experience of one who had to venture beyond the bounds of Earth in order to bring back to the generations of his time, and now to current and all future generations, the understanding of what global citizenship ultimately means. This is American astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, who was the commander of the lunar module in the Apollo 14 mission of 1971 https://thevisioneers.ca/the-waging-peace-project/episodes/series-one/episode-11. On the way back to Earth from that successful mission, Mitchell could relax from his previous intense activity and look outside through the tiny windows of the space capsule and see the panorama of the heavens spread out before him, and especially to gaze at the incredibly beautiful sight of his blue and white planetary home, Earth.

Mitchell was suddenly overwhelmed by an experience of ecstasy, an epiphany, as he felt his connection to everything in the universe, a sense of oneness he had never before experienced.

More than that, he realized that he was looking at Earth as a spaceship travelling through space but without any trained crew to keep it safe. Instead, it is filled with people fighting with each other, competing for scarce resources, and taking little care for the well-being of the only home they have in the vastness of the universe. So powerful was this experience that when he returned to Earth, Mitchell left his role of astronaut and founded a new organization dedicated to the exploration of how human consciousness can expand beyond the boundaries of material science and clashing ideologies. He called his new organization the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and it is still flourishing today 50 years later as one of the lead organizations for assisting humanity to find its way forward to a peaceful and sustainable future.

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