The Way Ahead Newsletter: No. 29
Dear Friends,
We are soon heading into June, and for those of us in the Northern hemisphere we are less than a month away from the summer solstice and the 'longest day', as it is known. And yet it feels as if the year is still finding its footing. Many of us may feel that 'nothing significant' has occurred yet this year - on the surface there has been no great, radical, or obvious change. Yet I would say that the days of 'grand announcements' are over...it is now time to make a difference within each one of us. The era of separation is becoming the era of integration. However, such integration takes place from the bottom up, not top down. Each of us plays a part in this, no matter how subtle or seemingly intangible. We are in a moment where the intangibles are where the action is!! And from the gross material emerges the empathic potential. Hence, in this month's Reflections I focus on the awakening to our empathic mind.
And anything else? Well, I can say, with some satisfaction, that I have just self-published a collection of my essays - '
Reflections: A Collected Tapestry of Thoughts' - which includes 28 short essays from the period 2012-2014.
As ever, please read and browse, and enjoy the newsletter!
REFLECTIONS - Awakening to Our Empathic Mind (Pt. 1)
The tragedy of humankind is that many of us have little recognition of the powerful conscious energies inherent in our collective psyche. Our propaganda and media systems have been exploiting the mythological images, collective stereotypes, and subconscious signifiers that play on our collective vulnerabilities. Knowledge has more or less trickled down to the average person through heavily filtered channels, and most often has been doctored, amended, and/or edited. The end result has been not knowledge but consensus information, or ‘allowed’ information. It has served the elite power structure well that people in general have not awoken to the understanding that humanity possesses incredible capacity and inherent resources for creative expansion and evolutionary development. It is now necessary to see our future potentials, not the daily news.
For many of us we have been brought up within a social structure that demands we become a ‘productive member’ of our society; thus much emphasis is placed upon developing individual skills so that we can compete with each other for survival. Inherent in this is a residual fear that if we open ourselves too much to others we may lose our ‘competitive edge’ and defined sense of individuality. In a sense we have been partially programmed to play the role of victim or fighter, externalizing our troubles and our blame. Added to this is the fact that Western science, which has asserted itself as the dominant hegemony since the Renaissance, has been at pains to stress that matter is primary and that consciousness is a secondary by-product from our mental activity. The modern worldview which denies the primacy of consciousness is fostering forms of human alienation, both psychological and social. It is a great paradox that modern science, itself a result of human consciousness, has produced a view of the cosmos which has no room for consciousness. Yet human beings are in need of meaning and significance in their lives as much as they are in need of air to breathe and food to eat. This struggle over the conscious mind(s) of humanity, which has been going on in various forms for aeons, is coming to a crux in our present generation. The result is that we have now collectively arrived at a critical moment in our evolution of human civilization. Any society or civilization which makes the material world its sole pursuit and object of concern cannot but devolve in the long run. As Professor Needleman so aptly remarked:
"The esoteric is the heart of civilization. And should the outward forms of a human civilization become totally unable to contain and adapt the energies of great spiritual teachings, then that civilization has ceased to serve its function in the universe".[1]
It is therefore imperative that people begin to break-away from non-developmental social conditioning and make efforts to make compassionate intent a part of our everyday experience. This includes being conscious of the type of impacts we receive, and to avoid those impacts and influences that are negative in favour of those that are positive. For example, true words encourage us and give us strength because we instinctively recognize truthfulness – our body consciousness reacts to this, even if indirectly as through the form of galvanic skin response, pupil response, or through our electrical nerve responses. In short, our body feels the essence of what impacts us, and negative or false information weakens us. This concept was researched scientifically through testing muscle strength. Dr. David Hawkins has written extensively on how muscle testing shows that various impacts create either strong or weak reactions from the body. In his work he relates how people who listened to lies proved to exhibit a weakened muscle reaction, whilst those who listened to positive words and statements showed a strong muscle response.
In his work Dr. Hawkins further notes how particular language ‘attractors’ such as Shame, Guilt, Apathy, Grief, Fear, Desire, Anger and Pride serve as negative, energy depleting emotions. Higher energy attractors are the positive words/emotions such as Courage, Willingness, Acceptance, Reason, Love, and Joy. According to Dr. Hawkins, over 99% of humans calibrate below the level of Joy; which is a saddening thought. What this also tells us is that our whole body functions as our mind – an extended mind. As such, our whole body can respond in empathy, and be strengthened through empathy and compassion. We need to listen more to our bodies, the information they give to us, and trust in this part of our mind – and not just the thoughts coming from our head upstairs. When the mind is receiving ambiguous impacts and news, it is the body we can often rely on to give us more accurate and truthful information.
Furthermore, during moments of cultural and social disorder/disequilibrium the human mind often works with an energy and intensity not manifested when social patterns are stable and monotone. At such dynamic periods there can be the realization that no individual is isolated; that each person is interwoven into a vibrant network and web of psychological, emotional, and spiritual interrelations. Such realizations can be heightened during periods, such as now, when it appears that human consciousness is moving through a time of critical transition.
Our self-awareness over the nature of human consciousness has been increasing greatly over the last several decades. The latest findings in the new sciences (especially quantum and neuroscience), in consciousness studies, in the popularity for inner and self-development, etc, all indicate a new awareness emerging within our collective consciousness. It is interesting to note that according to the research of Dr. David Hawkins human consciousness was dangling at below the 200 level (190)[2] for many centuries before it suddenly rose up to its present higher level some time in the mid 1980s. The overall average level of human consciousness stands at 207 (as of late 1990s). Hence, many past predictions and prophecies of doom may have been avoided because they relate to a time when human consciousness was below the 200 level. For the world to stay at levels below 200 over a prolonged period of time would, says Dr. Hawkins, cause a great imbalance that would likely lead to humanity’s demise. When one’s consciousness falls below 200 at any given moment a person begins to lose power and thus grow weaker and more prone to be manipulated by one’s surroundings, says Dawkins. Now, however, human consciousness is on the rise; and as it rises it has the capacity to affect – or infect – other minds. As Dawkin indicates:
The power of the few individuals at the top counterbalances the weakness of the masses:
1 individual at level 300 counterbalances 90,000 individuals below level 200
1 individual at level 400 counterbalances 400,000 individuals below level 200
1 individual at level 500 counterbalances 750,000 individuals below level 200
1 individual at level 600 counterbalances 10 million individuals below level 200
1 individual at level 700 counterbalances 70 million individuals below level 200[3]
What this tells us is that as human consciousness rises it has an exponential capacity to affect others around, like an expanding energy wave. What this tells us is that individuals have the capacity to make change infectious by transmitting one’s state of being amongst others. That is, energetic change will come through our social and cultural forms, and not by avoiding them. Developmental change on a large scale can occur by creating conscious change from within our daily lives and within our social systems, and not outside of them. By just walking on this planet, holding the focus and intention, we create incredible energy – energy that is shared. We are creating change by just being alive. That is why being without fear is so important. We need not create a black and white film in our heads when in reality we are creating colour. We can make use of the tools that are already available to us, and within us.
There is an exponentially increasing mass of us who are now awakening our empathic consciousness. Recent de-stabilizing events in our financial and political spheres have drawn people’s focus to the dysfunction of many of the systems that we once gave our trust to. Even the focus on religious extremism in the media has drawn people’s attention not only to the deficit of spiritual values in our major religions but also to how religion is being used as a tool for furthering social, political, and emotional control. This trance-like grip on our collective consciousness is now being stripped away as people awaken to the knowing that there is so much more to our lives than that of a materialistic and consumer-based lifestyle. Yet don’t become frustrated if things don’t happen tomorrow, but trust that changes and shifts are happening over time. The necessity of inner knowing, intuition, self-trust, and integrity, is now critical. And let us remember that humans are biased for compassion and empathy. The awakening of our empathic mind is our natural inheritance.
[1] Jacob Needleman,
New Religions (New York: E P Dutton, 1977)
[2] This is Dr. Hawkins scale for calibrating the level of human consciousness according to his ‘Map of Consciousness’. See his work for further details
[3] D. Hawkins,
Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour (Arizona: Veritas Publishing, 1995)
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LATEST NEWS
Where to Find:
- My latest audio poetry readings can all be found here on my Mixcloud page - new recent audio added!
- All my latest articles now available in Spanish - Articulos en espanol (Translated by Fernando Alvarez-Ude Cotera)
- All my latest articles now available in French - Articles en Francais (Translated by Jennifer Dureau)
Of Interest
A Little Fun
A 'Saying' to Share
‘He would break his teeth on a lettuce leaf’
A Tale to Finish
The Unknown Master
A disciple studied with a Sufi teacher for several months. One day he said:
- “Master, you are the greatest man in the world, yet relatively unknown. I feel it is my duty to travel through the world and tell people about your greatness. How can a man be perfected as you yet remain unknown?”
The master said:
- “If I say I’m an infinitely perfected man, or allow someone else to say so - know that I am not such a man. To feel that you must acclaim your teacher as the greatest name on earth is a sign of your own arrogance.
