Archive for the ‘Evolution’ Category

Earlier in May, I attended Day 3 (Sunday) of the Hay House “I Can Do It” event in Toronto.  My main reason for going was to see Gregg Braden who was the keynote speaker on Sunday morning.  While there, I also enjoyed attending sessions with John Holland (the first time I’d ever experienced a “medium in action”), Dr. Christiane Northrup, and Dr. Bruce Lipton who gave the closing keynote address.  I’ve since been absorbing more material from both Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton.  I love the mix of scientific breakthroughs in the areas of biology and quantum physics as they relate to human spirituality intermixed with findings from our wisdom traditions.

I’m still absorbing some of this information and couldn’t possibly do this justice here, however, I thought sharing a few insights might be of interest.

Lipton and Braden have a lot in common as they both come from a science background, however, Lipton has a PhD in Biology and is more focused on that field.  I just finished listening to his CD’s called the “Biology of Belief” which go quite in depth on genetics but in a way that everyone (even me) can understand.

Braden seems to balance his scientific inquiry with his parallel mission of investigating ancient wisdom traditions which makes his material really fascinating.  I’ve heard them both dispute Darwin’s theories on evolution as it relates to human evolution and the ‘survival of the fittest’.  It’s the first time I’ve really considered that this wasn’t just pure fact but some really interesting points were made.  Braden’s upcoming book will cover this in detail.  The idea that ‘cooperation’ works better for our survival than ‘competition’ is certainly true today.

While there, I was able to briefly meet Gregg Braden and have him sign two of his books (“The God Code” and “Fractal Time”) and slip him a wrapped copy of “Vision Speak”.  I don’t know if he’ll find time to read my novel but I can always dream.  He was very gracious in accepting it.   I also picked up his DVD, “The Language of the Divine Matrix” which I enjoyed watching over a rainy weekend in May.  (which would be most of May this year..)

In this 4 hour DVD, Braden walks us through real science demonstrating some exciting concepts, for example:

• the universe is an intelligent, evolving consciousness of which we are all connected.  He calls this the ‘divine matrix’ (based partly on Planck’s reference to the field as the ‘matrix’)
• we are beings of energy and the strongest electrical and magnetic energy forces in our body come from our heart
• the language of our heart – beliefs and feelings, human prayer energy – (generated by our thoughts and emotions) can change our world, affect our reality, connect us to the divine matrix…

He explained some fascinating, related experiments, including the “Global Consciousness Project” out of Princeton University which is measuring changes in human consciousness on a global scale using devices planted around the earth.  A key result from this experiment occurred around 9/11.  The measurements recorded both just before and after 9/11, indicate some astounding results which not only demonstrate the power of our collective energy but also that we may sense something is about to happen before it actually reaches our conscious state.

He then shared some of his research into ancient traditions, including his visit to Tibet, his knowledge of the Essenes, and the lost scriptures including the Lost Gospel of Thomas and related this to the science.  One of his quotations came from Thomas Verse 106 which referenced the potential power mankind can have: ‘when you can marry thought and emotion into one potent force’..

Ancient wisdom seekers were perhaps more in touch with this ‘prana’, energy body of humanity than we are today in our busy, materialistic world.

If you’re not already a fan of Gregg Braden (http://www.greggbraden.com/) and his work, as well as Bruce Lipton (http://www.brucelipton.com/), then I highly recommend you have a look at the work they are doing (and sharing).  They both have hugely inspiring insights, based on real science, that could rock your world.

I’ve just finished viewing the Evolutionary Leaders’ “A Call to Conscious Evolution, Our Moment of Choice”.  This was a special evening held at UCLA on August 31st.  They had some technical challenges with those of us who signed up to watch the evening event live online so this weekend was our opportunity to view the program with the sound issues resolved.

The roster of speakers at this event were a long list of the “Who’s Who” in the evolutionary, quantum consciousness, personal transformation world of thought leaders (see list).  The common message was that we are all living at a unique moment in time, facing global crises.  In this pivotal time, we must consciously evolve or face the danger of extinction.   Gregg Braden gave an impassioned talk and referenced Scientific America’s recent cover: “A World of Crisis, Crossroads for Planet Earth…. will we choose to create the best of all possible worlds?”

Deepak was the opening speaker.  He must be one of the most prolific authors/speakers in this area today.  With over 50 books, a radio show, and connections or partnerships with countless, it seems like I’m hearing something from him everyday – whether it’s an email, a tweet, his radio show or something I’ve found on youtube.

A couple of Deepak’s significant points were that the only way to transform the world is to transform yourself and that even well-meaning ‘activism’ is coming from a place of ‘outrage’ rather than creative consciousness.   Conscious evolution calls for more creative powers.   A couple of hours ago, en route to the Home Depot to pick up paint supplies, I turned on my XM radio and guess who I heard?  Deepak chatting with his pal Stuart Hameroff about Consciousness.  Yippee, my favourite topic!  They were comparing the Vedic concept of pure consciousness being before ‘perception and thought’ with Hameroff’s “proto-consciousness” and how this relates to the quantum super-position idea where observation of a particle collapses it down to one place (just like conscious thought collapses us down to a specific reality).

Sorry, I digress!  Back to the Evolutionary Leaders’ event..

Jean Houston gave an energetic view of the evolution of the universe, our planet, life on earth, and humanity, with special emphasis on the “jumps” that caused significant transformation.  She said we need to be the ‘creative wellspring’ to trigger our new evolutionary path.

Bruce Lipton talked about the collapse and rebirth of various civilizations and reiterated that we now face crises at the global level unlike ever before.  He reviewed four ‘Myth Perceptions’ that we must overcome to build the foundation for the next civilization where we live in harmony and balance with the universe, with nature.  To give you an idea of his four myth perceptions, he talked about our current understanding that our biological processes employ quantum physics (not classical), that our perceptions can control our biology, overcoming genetic, that rather than the survival of the fittest which says our evolution is driven by competition, it can be driven by cooperation, and that evolution is not just random but adaptive.

There were so many fabulous speakers and the messages all coalesced.  I was thrilled to see Lynn McTaggart of “The Field” and “Intention Experiment” fame talk about the power of intentions and how we must be committed to an “enormous paradigm shift” together, in order to overcome the world’s challenges.  I think it was Barbara Marx Hubbard who talked about the physical emergence of a co-created world and introduced a video talk by Marianne Williamson whose message on our evolutionary potential and the danger of a species who has become maladaptive to its environment (yikes, that’s us!) was very powerful.

For more information on this organization, the evening event and the conference they are planning for 11/1/11, go to the Evolutionary Leaders web site.

I’m inspired by this event as I continue to discover how best to contribute and consciously evolve – along with these transformational leaders.

Maybe I’ll see you there in 2011.

I wonder if the next great stage in mankind’s evolution will occur when our conscious and unconscious “minds” become so connected and in tune with one another that they become one.  What would this mean for future generations?   If one believes that the unconscious mind is akin to our soul, our spirit within, which connects us to the greater life force and to every other living being in the universe, then this transformation could indeed be glorious.

Some of my readers may be thinking that I have just taken a great leap with my opening statements, so let me back up, starting with the early pioneers of the unconscious mind – Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.  Jung was also a key influencer for Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who applied Jungian theory to his vast knowledge of mythology, spirituality, and religion.  Campbell’s work, among many others, has continued to advance us on this journey to understand our psyche and our connection to one another throughout time, particularly at this ‘unconscious’ level.  And today’s thought leaders are progressing these concepts to new realms as we are now able to connect quantum theories into our understanding of consciousness.

So first a (very) brief history…

One book I recommend in this area is Carl Jung’s last work, before his death in 1961 which was his only project not targeted for psychology and medical professionals but rather it was intended for the general public, so that we could all benefit from an insight into his lifework.    This book – “Man and his Symbols”, edited with an introduction by Carl Jung – was a great source of information for me when I was working on “Vision Speak”.  Jung’s quotations referenced below are all from his writing in this book.

“Man and his Symbols”, although intended for the ‘layman, is still not exactly a ‘light read’ so for those who may not be familiar with the breakthroughs and disconnect between the two most famous psychologists of all time, here’s a brief (and simplified) view of Freud and Jung’s material on the topic of the conscious versus unconscious mind. 

In the nineteenth-century psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists were beginning to inquire into both the existence and importance of the ‘unconscious’ or ‘subconscious’ mind.  The most renowned figure of this period, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), developed comprehensive theories on this subject and early psychoanalytical techniques with an emphasis on the importance of dreams. 

Freud believed that dreams were the key to exposing repressed desires and memories, using techniques such as free association, to cure people of neuroses. 

Freud’s younger colleague – Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) – disputed some of Freud’s theories on the unconscious mind.  He said Freud “worked on the assumption that dreams are not a matter of chance but are associated with conscious thoughts and problems.”  Jung maintained that a psychoanalyst could work directly with a patient without need to lead them away from the actual dreams which he believed had “some special and more significant function of their own”.  In other words, “one should pay more attention to the actual form and content of a dream, rather than allowing free association to lead one off through a train of ideas to complexes that could as easily be reached by other means.”

“..part of the unconscious consists of a multitude of temporarily obscured thoughts, impressions, and images that, in spite of being lost, continue to influence our conscious minds.”  These hidden areas of our unconscious can be uncovered – sometimes triggered by our senses (such as the sound of music or smells from the past), possibly revealed by unconscious behaviours.  Sometimes lost memories can be exposed in hypnosis and often appear symbolically in our dreams.  But the unconscious is much more than just a repository of past information that is no longer ‘stored’ in our conscious.

“..it is a fact that, in addition to memories from a long-distant conscious past, completely new thoughts and creative ideas can also present themselves from the unconscious…”  In fact, our most creative and innovative ideas and inspirations come from this part of our psyche and, we can also attribute our instinctive, psychic, and intuitive insights as coming from the unconscious.

However, one of Jung’s most important theories – the collective unconscious - came when he explored the unconscious mind as it related to more spiritual realms such as religion and mythology, which Freud thought ‘unscientific’. 

More on this in future posts …  but, for now, here are some more words from Carl Jung from “Man and his Symbols” on the subject of the collective unconscious.

“Just as the human body represents a whole museum of organs, each with a long evolutionary history behind it, so we should expect to find that the mind is organized in a similar way.  It can no more be a product without history than is the body in which it exists.

The experienced investigator of the mind can similarly see the analogies between the dream pictures of modern man and the products of the primitive mind, its “collective images,” and its mythological motifs.

My views about the “archaic remnants,” which I call “archetypes” or “primordial images,” have been constantly criticized by people who lack sufficient knowledge of the psychology of dreams and mythology.”

Excerpt from “The Joinings“:

As we were born into new bodies and new capabilities, we walked upright and surveyed our world.  Our instincts and intellect drove us forward.  We built tools and fire.  We mastered the planet and its creatures.  We became self-aware and questioning.  We formed tribes and worked together to build homes and families.  We hunted together, collectively sensing the mystical forces at play in the universe.  Our early cultures honoured our elders, worshipped the beasts that we killed, developed cunning and resourcefulness, as well as a spiritual sense to help us not only survive but thrive in an untamed world.

But as our populations grew and agriculture led us to create permanent homes and settlements, our aggressive tendencies turned us away from our instinctive, spiritual natures and instead forged warriors and conquerors.  We built empires and dominated those that were weaker physically.  Groups that remained in the more primitive, mystical world of the past became easy targets for slavery and slaughter, oppression and cruelty.  Individual power became an ambition of man, overcoming the clan lifestyle.  The value of human life was low if it stood in the way of progress and domination.  Instead of honouring the natural world and the creatures that sustained us, we created new gods, powerful ones that would lead us forward in our quest for domination.

Ultimately, we awoke to a more sophisticated age and began to move away from the barbarianism of the past.  We formed governments and religion.  We created classes and rulers.  Laws governed our behaviour in society; religious leaders dictated morality.  The human consciousness imagined exultant possibilities and followed the new orders without question.

But our curious minds would always lead us to new territory. While authority and discipline, piety and unquestioning belief in a higher power may have been necessary at a particular stage to drive us forward, eventually, it became oppressive.  Despite the answers to life and creation offered by religion, we dug deeper.  Science and astronomy, philosophy and art triggered a renaissance of new ideas and new abilities.  We discovered ways to manipulate our planet’s resources, asked new questions about our existence, and uncovered previously unimagined answers.  Humanity’s progress could not be stopped.  Prosperity and technological advances transformed our way of life at an increasingly rapid pace.  Empire-building again became a focus but we discovered that war was not the only way to dominate other cultures.

At each stage in the development of our culture and our consciousness, the life conditions of previous stages influenced our direction, in some cases as a negative force.  We reacted to that which seemed wrong instead of out of pure creation and conscious choice.  Not all areas of the world progressed at the same pace and within regions one might find evidence of past and present cultures.  Yet, overall, our progress was steady.

A natural next stage was a revolutionary worldview, an understanding that many of our advances were endangering our planet.  For peoples who had been born and bred in a prosperous environment free of war and struggles, many grew more sensitive to less fortunate citizens of the world.  They understood the effect that man’s rapid progress was having on our natural resources.  They fought to bring harmony and spirituality, a return to more primitive principles when the earth was worshipped for sustaining us – not destroyed and used without concern.  This led to a philosophical merging of all great wisdoms, religion, and spirituality and a natural disdain for past structures that still sought to dominate the planet.

But a power struggle remained and for those cultures left out of the prosperity and advancement curve, still rooted in past cultural stages, resentment and violence brewed – particularly towards those who dominated the world stage. 

And it came to pass that with so many disparate cultures and worldviews, with violence and unhappiness rampant in some areas of the world, that a relatively small percentage of the human population were able to instigate unprecedented death and destruction upon the entire planet.

Copyright © Eden Remme Watt 2010

I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with organized religion.  As someone who’d never attended church, always looking from the outside in, the assertion that scriptures written millennia ago contained the ‘words of God’ seemed ludicrous.  How could there be billions of rational people around the world, in diverse groups, claiming that their particular book, their beliefs, their way, should dictate behaviour, morality, and rituals, in this modern day? 

I wondered how they could follow so blindly and I suppose that I shared a natural disdain, along with other ‘non-believers’, for those that insisted it was “their way or the hell-way”.  There may have even been a beneath-the-surface, irrational, school-girl resentment towards those groups from which I felt excluded.

I apologize to anyone who might find my opening statements offensive, however, before you condemn me Shirley Sherrod-style, please read on….

Ironically, in my twenties and at my most rebellious period towards traditional belief systems, I married a Baptist Minister’s son.  It was an eye opener certainly but even this new family of church-goers were unlikely to be able to convert me to their ‘ways’.  And fortunately, they never tried… which ran contrary to my expectations at the time.

The best lessons in life come from personal experience and contact with others.  To that end, I encourage you to read this article  in ChristianWeek about Pastor bob and MJ Paterson-Watt (yes, another minister on the in-law side) from Woodbine Heights Baptist Church and their involvement with the Daily Bread Food Bank, the Shoelace Collective and Not Far From the Tree.  They work with others in the community to grow and pick local fruits and vegetables which are then shared with those less fortunate.  bob and MJ and their associates are shining examples of church leaders who are committed to do good both for their community and the world at large without concern for differing beliefs or enforcing theirs on anyone else.

So, now, as a ‘mature’ 40-something who has searched a little deeper, observed the good that these community groups of ‘believers’ can do, and explored spirituality at both an intellectual and instinctive level, I understand so much more.  Actually, ‘understand’ is not really the right word, perhaps ‘sense’, ‘empathize’, and ‘appreciate’ are all more appropriate.

When I was researching and writing “Vision Speak”, my primary interest was humanity, our evolution and growth, spirituality and religion, and its effect on society.  Whether I was researching to stimulate my imagination for my writing or for my own personal enlightenment cannot be separated.  The goals were one and the same.  During this stage, I came to understand that all the great religions have timeless wisdom.  Many of the rituals practiced within their hallowed halls have true meaning for the participants.  They help to bring people closer to the source of their beliefs and to each other.  Good religions bring people together in love and harmony and a community spirit.  Wise spiritual leaders know that their way is not the only way yet they are focused on leading those that want to practice with them, using the teachings that have inspired them.  How could anyone possibly resent that? 

Although traditional religious practices may not suit my spiritual journey in life, it has certainly proven to be a viable and successful model for billions of people for many centuries. 

Yet, we have all seen examples in the news and during the course of our history, where horrible death and destruction were enacted in the name of religion.  In my novel, I imagined a society where religion was controlled so that no group could ever claim their way as the only way.  Exclusivity was forbidden and I speculated on where humanity might go next if we could bring an end to battles over belief systems and wars and widespread violence.  By the end of this first book, the possibility of a collective, harmonized way forward for humanity is exposed.  So, now I am excited for the next stage in this journey, for both my fictional world and my own growth.  Certainly, initiatives such as that demonstrated by bob and MJ show what can be accomplished with a community in harmony.  Imagine this on a world scale with a unified collective consciousness.

I recently completed a fascinating course with EnlightenNext called the “Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World”.  This brings to mind some of the course material about the evolution of culture, spiral dynamics, and the observation that as culture and consciousness progresses, we can see that each new stage is not born purely out of creation but often in reaction to the past stage. 

It strikes me that in my youthful, reactionary attitude towards religion, I was only seeing the negatives and looking for something drastically different.  Clearly the vast majority of these groups are focused on living in a community of love and harmony, caring for those less fortunate and creating a better world for their children.  What could possibly be wrong with that?

I just signed up for a six week virtual course, called “The Evolutionary’s Guide to Changing the World”. 

The synopsis of the course from http://www.evolutionaryworldview.com/course is:

“This is the first course ever offered by the EnlightenNext magazine team. Based on 18 years of spiritual and philosophical investigation in the pages of the magazine, the aim of the course is to provide you with a cutting-edge evolutionary worldview and the skills to apply that perspective so that you can become a 21st-century agent of change.”

Topics range from the evolution of the interior dimension or consciousness to historical perspectives on culture and spiral dynamics to spiritual development and creating a new culture for the future.  I am very intrigued with the material, the course leaders and their backgrounds, and the people that I will be exchanging ideas with over this six week period. 

I hope to share more perspective on this when I have completed the course.

Consciousness and Evolution, these two concepts together can stimulate great discussion.  Type them into your favourite search engine and you’ll find a rich assortment of groups and books and information. 

When I was researching and writing “Vision Speak”, I was first struck by Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and Campbell’s writings and dialogs on the topic, especially with respect to spirituality and mythology.  I imagined that if we could relate at the same level of consciousness where dreams are possible but in a waking state, enabling us to connect to the vision source, we would be poised to evolve to truly spiritual and connected life forms.  Ultimately, it could lead to a new era for humanity.

I’ve since uncovered more fascinating ideas involving the marriage of science and spirituality, how we are all connected in a quantum field of energy and the possibility of proving the existence of soul.  So many wise writers and teachers, scientists like Hameroff and Penrose are responsible for influencing us all in these exciting new areas.  Deepak Chopra, Lynn McTaggart, James Redfield, Gregg Braden, Eckhart Tolle, IONS, EnlightenNext…. just to name a few of the groups and thought leaders that are taking us on a new journey of consciousness.

So, I wonder – will we naturally evolve to a new consciousness as a people (if only we can live in peace) or do we need to first be conscious, present, aware and committed to moving to that next state?  In other words, is it really conscious evolution that we must seek?

On the topic of “Conscious Evolution”, I recently read “The Celestine Prophecy” (over a decade late.  I was too busy with kids and career at the time to even notice).  I’m still musing over the Nine Insights that James Redfield unveiled to the world in his spiritual adventure. Whether or not one buys into these exact insights or progression isn’t essential.  There’s good reason why this book caused such a sensation in the 90′s.   Redfield’s Celestine books raised awareness for mysterious coincidences, human prayer-energy, channelling thoughts into a collective, dynamic force, and evolving towards a spiritual culture on Earth.

Notably, today, the work of “spiritual leader and cultural visionary” Andrew Cohen and his organization (Enlightennext) are all about consciously evolving.  Check out them out at http://www.enlightennext.org/about/ I took their Evolutionary Wordview course.  It was both educational and inspiring.

I’m not generally a big reader of magazines but I came across “EnlightenNext – The Magazine for Evolutionaries” recently. (www.enlightenNext.org)  I can’t believe such a phenomenal publication exists. 

All the really cool ideas that have been circulating and gaining in momentum involving science and spirituality, the nature of consciousness, Noetic Science, and the “mysterious connection between quantum physics and human consciousness” are explored.  To me, this was a gold mine of information as I am formulating my ideas for Book 2 and what transformation might be possible once humans begin to connect in this quantum field.

I’ll be absorbing this material for some time.  Articles include “An Exploration of Quantum Consciousness – Finding Spirit in the Fabric of Space & Time” with Stuart Hameroff, MD and an interview with Marilyn Schlitz, the president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), and so much more..