Are We On The Cusp of A Tipping Point For Humanity?
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As I continue to meet people and to research the significance of our period in time I find more and more of a consensus, as well as my own personal intuition, that humanity is ready to break through into some new and expanded experience of reality. I discuss several reasons that suggest we may be on the cusp of a massive breakthrough for humanity.
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Many people who have spiritually-awakened, such as myself, or who practice a strong spiritual discipline believe very firmly that we are directly in the midst of a global shift of consciousness. Here are several reasons which support this belief.
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Our own experience or intuition suggests it
One thing I have discovered as part of my research is that just as I have, many people are indicating that they have had their own spiritual awakenings within the last several years. Of course, people have had awakenings throughout history but there seems to be only now an acceleration of such events.
Perhaps this is just due to a greater ease in sharing our experiences with a vastly larger audience or that it is a result of a much more open and accepting society. But, nevertheless, a great number of us have experienced a shift in consciousness recently and so for us, this time appears to be a birthing point.
Others simply have an intuition that things are about to change and I think this is completely valid. Our intuition is the most valid and holistic of our senses and is not limited to this moment in time. Where many, many individuals begin to sense the same coming arrival I tend to give it a great deal of credence.
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We now have a network of global communication and relevant resources to inspire and support it
We have at our disposal, for the first time in history, a global communication network by which those who have awakened through a personal shift in consciousness (as well as those who have not) have the ability to discuss topics relevant to such an event and whereby all people are enabled to help enable the shift that appears to be occurring by way of our conscious evolution.
There is now, as well, an immense array of resources (books, web pages, videos, seminars, associations, coaching, etc.), by which humanity is finding education and support toward these ends. By this, individuals are able to gain new insight and inspiration into the need for change and to better understand our role as agents of that change.
People can find answers regarding their personal shift in consciousness (or of that of a loved one) and see that process through to greater maturity. As well, individuals everywhere are beginning to find shared access to the principles and concepts of conscious evolution and thereby participate in many different ways toward the progress of our species.
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We live in a world in the midst of rapidly escalating change
Nearly every citizen of the Earth can look around and recognize an immense increase in our technological advancements and a greater sense of change in general. Even in my own lifetime I’ve seen incredible advances; my parent’s generation even more so.
Generation X has witnessed the genesis of the personal computer, reliable global communication, wireless communication and data transfer, electric vehicles, virtual reality, and so on. Our parents witnessed man rocket to the moon.
Of course, our current time is not without struggle but there have also been more technological advances and positive cultural shifts in the last one hundred years than we have seen in all of the collective history of humanity (and one could even argue for the history of the entire known universe).
There seems to be no slowing down of this tendency either and technological indicators such as Moore’s Law are showing that we are continuing to experience exponential growth. Technological futurists such as Ray Kurzweil are suggesting that in our lifetimes we very likely going to experience the AI singularity, neuroconnection with the cloud (affording us a billion-fold advance in human intelligence), superlongevity (as in lifespans of hundreds of years), and even complete uploading of consciousness such that a fully posthuman reality will be achieved. And, of course, several companies are working towards interplanetary colonization.
Whether such prospects are incredibly inspiring or fear-inducing, they suggest one very clear observation: things are changing a great deal and at great speed. Whether this incredible rate of change and technological advancement equates to a positive benefit or we simply achieve catastrophic failure as it all implodes on a system unable to handle the stresses is yet to be seen.
But certain individuals such as myself see within this greater trend of technological advancement and societal change the very likely scenario that a similar exponential change in consciousness may occur as well. It certainly makes it seem not so crazy. If many of the most brilliant minds in the world tell us that we will have the option to live forever in a computer cloud I can certainly believe that it is also possible that we may expect to have monumental advances in consciousness.
In fact, we need to. It is my belief that without a corresponding increase in consciousness commensurate with our increasing technology, the wheels are simply going to fall off it all. By our state of consciousness at this very moment, we can descend into nuclear war or terrorist events tomorrow. Now imagine the possible technologies of 50 to 100 years in the future. If we cannot see ourselves and all things as one, our separation bias is going to drive us to terminal extinction.
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Great attention is going toward the understanding of consciousness
Perhaps for a number of reasons, consciousness itself is being given greater scrutiny as we seek to understand it in new ways.
This may simply be a result of all of the other concurrent advancements in the world; scientists want to stake out a piece of a new scientific frontier. Advances are being made everywhere in science and those with an academic interest in consciousness are seeking to keep up.
Along with consciousness being swept up in a greater tide of progress, science is also loosening its narrowly-minded perspective of how it views consciousness. While there is a long way to go, there are scientists in the field of consciousness urging others to investigate it through a more expansive lens.
Philip Goff is one among many who is leading this fight. He suggests that traditional science cannot deal with consciousness and so must be expanded to encompass that which does not fall in line with the typical criteria of observation, verification, and repeatability. Mainstream science is still reluctant but more and more individuals and institutions are pressing the issue in favor of more appropriate manners of study.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be driving the need for greater understanding of consciousness as well. There is an incredible amount of focus on artificial intelligence and its holy grail is not just “learning” but legitimate consciousness. Those who seek its perfection and ultimate usefulness will not settle until artificially-generated consciousness is possible. So, this has placed a spotlight on the subject thereby helping it rapidly become perhaps the avante garde field of all academics and technology.
Given all of this increasing attention upon consciousness I expect to see new advances in understanding which will lead toward a more optimistic future.
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We are at the edge of a precipice (multiple global crises)
Humanity has, for the first time in its history, a sense that it is rapidly approaching a precipice based on its own activity. In our past, we lived much more sustainably and this is especially so the further back we go on the timeline. In our deep history mankind had the roots of ego but not the dominant and unconscious version that we are now burdened by. This supported our sustainability in two primary ways.
First, we saw ourselves as one with nature and so lived cautiously upon the earth. In our Pre-Egoic state, indigenous humans saw all things as connected with a unifying spirit throughout. We did not yet have the developed concept of isolation from nature as we do now. Early tribal people would therefore treat the earth with great care, taking only what resources were needed and nothing more. The idea of waste was unthinkable and perhaps not even knowable.
Second, we did not have the same “needs” as the modern human. It is characteristic of humans in the Egoic Age to have a great sense of loneliness or emptiness (un-FULL-FILL-ment) and therefore a yearning to try to fill one’s life with things to bring happiness. This leads to greater consumption for one but also a characteristic tendency for that which is artificial and ultimately unnecessary. This may be because we want more things faster and to keep up with demand and their own need for profits, corporations produce lower quality goods, most of which are not essential to our survival or basic needs. It is of no real concern that products aren’t made to last that long because our desires and tastes change so often anyway.
We have become, by way of ego, a disposal-based society. Nearly every product purchased in the modern world is made of materials that are manufactured and possibly toxic in composition. They are also designed and produced with a very low useful life and have a terminal end use which means they are not easy or economical to fix or upgrade or to dedicate to other uses.
Consider our single-use packaging as well, used once and then discarded into the landfills (or just as often, throughout our landscapes and oceans). All of this material takes incredible amounts of time to degrade and when it does it merely leeches its toxins into the soil and water. No other species could commit such atrocities against the environment but humans can because of our disconnect between ourselves and nature.
We also find ourselves in a position of overtaxing Earth’s resources, taking more materials than are sustainable.
Pollution is also a preeminent concern arising from our incredible demand of fossil fuels, from manufacturing or resource extraction, and as mentioned, from waste.
It is apparent that we cannot continue along these same lines of consumption and find continuity of the species even a few hundred years into the future. We are literally approaching the precipice of our existence and can already begin to see over the edge.
By being forced into a corner humanity is pressured to consider new options. Whereas by our (albeit, low) consciousness our influence has primarily extended upon our environment, our environment is now pressing back upon us. Consciousness is experiencing a back flow and that reversed pressure is forcing change at fundamental levels within us.
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There are many other indicators such as the ancient prophecy or the astrological Age of Aquarius
Along with these other items there are some other influences that suggest a general anticipation of our current time from ages long ago.
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The Mayan Long-Count Calendar
The first is interesting as it so specifically points to our time in history, namely the Mayan calendar indicating the end of a great age in the year 2012. This is significant as the Mayan long-count calendar spans a range of approximately 5,125 years.
Many theories speculated in the years leading up to 2012 that something catastrophic would happen, perhaps the end of the world itself. But those who study Mayan culture state with considerable unanimity that the Mayans never suggested that. Their long-count calendar simply reached the end of the age and was therefore intended to reset the way an odometer on an older vehicle might.
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But, the meaning of ages appears to have some influence. According to a National Geographic article:
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“…the end of the long count represents the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one, according to Emiliano Gallaga Murrieta, the Chiapas state division director of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.
‘It is like for the Chinese, this is the Year of the [Rabbit], and the next year is going to the Year of the Dragon, and the next is going to be another animal in the calendar,’ Gallaga said.”
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For the Chinese, the twelve different animals represent different fortunes based on a zodiac system. At the beginning of each new year, the expected results would shift slightly. The shift may not be that significant as the periods of each “age” are only one year, but they are intended to suggest subtle differences.
If this ascribed meaning was the case for the Mayan ages, what does that suggest for our current time? From the Mayan standpoint no one seems to know and perhaps that means anything is possible.
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But notable researcher and author Graham Hancock writes in his 2015 book, Magicians of the Gods:
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“… the Maya were not speaking of the end of the world, as such, but rather the end of an age—‘a time of great transformation and world rebirth’—that would be followed by the beginning of a new great cycle or world age”.
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Perhaps we may never know the significance of our new age as the Mayans saw it but we may be able to suppose that they recognized that this exact period in time was going to signal a shift into something new.
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The Age of Aquarius
What does have greater clarity regarding meaning is our supposed shift into the astrological Age of Aquarius. While there is no hard and fast date for the transition into this age, most people who follow the astrological ages tend to believe that it has already begun several decades ago or that we are currently moving into it at this time (a few suggest its beginning may be a few decades into the future).
In fact, it is to be expected that no hard and fast date exists as such a shift is a slow rollover from one age to another. Such a time range is known as a cusp. That we may take even 50 to 100 years to make such a transition would not be unexpected as such an age is considered by most to be 2,160 years. But almost everyone agrees that we are right now somewhere along the timeline of that cusp.
What fascinates me so much about the astrological ages is their apparent correlation with history. We are just proceeding out of the Piscean age which is the age of the fish. Note that the symbol Christians secretly used for Jesus and their loyalty to them was a fish and several of Jesus’ miracles involved fish. This is, of course, relevant in that our Western record of time is based upon the life of Christ and his influence here was approximately 2,000 years, or one age, ago.
More than this aspect of monotheism is the tendency of the age for patriarchy and hierarchy. Besides technological advancement, not much else could be said to sum up the history of the last 2,000 years or more.
And yet in our current time we are beginning to see the challenge of monotheism, patriarchy, and hierarchy. The old structures are tumbling down. Women are moving into positions of leadership much more frequently, traditional values such as marriage, family, and sexual orientation among many are being tested, and we are even seeing the beginnings of, at the very least, corporate hierarchies flattening into more shared ownership, leadership, and overall vision and purpose. It is my belief that we are only at the beginning of what is unfolding on all these accounts.
What other characteristics do people most agree upon as the expectation for the Aquarian Age? Among the former listed, two primary ones; a tendency toward greater technology and spirituality.
While these two points might seem mutually exclusive it seems we are seeing greater developments in both. The aspect of technology is obvious but we’re also experiencing unprecedented growth in the interest of and new interpretations regarding spirituality. Both are moving forward with increasing momentum, each in their own way.
If we are only just now at the beginning of this age what might their advancement look like in several hundred to a thousand or more years from now? In my opinion (or at least by my hope), the two will merge in a way that no one would have ever expected could even be possible. Perhaps Utopia is possible and it seems that it only could be with sufficient clean energy and sustainable materials and processes and a higher spirituality and consciousness to guide and govern it.
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Native American Prophecy
Native American prophecies also point to a time of remarkable change directly following a period of greater turmoil. It is by that turmoil that we can most easily determine ours as the age such prophecies are pointing to.
One of the primary ancient prophecies is known as the Spirit of the 8th Fire. This one refers to a time when mankind will have a choice to continue its destructive path based in separation or come together as one people, all nations unified. Although this prophecy does not speak specifically of our time by date, it does allude to an age of conflict and environmental destruction, the likes of which humanity has only known in the last hundred years or so, acutely.
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Chief Crazy Horse of the Lakota said this of this future time:
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“Upon suffering beyond suffering: the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.”
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Grandfather William Commanda also commented of the age in this way:
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“In the time of the Seventh Fire, a New People would emerge. They would retrace their steps to find the wisdom that was left by the side of the trail long ago. Their steps would take them to the elders, who they would ask to guide them on their journey. If the New People remain strong in their quest, the sacred drum will again sound its voice. There will be an awakening of the people, and the sacred fire will again be lit. At this time, the light-skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. One road is the road of greed and technology without wisdom or respect for life. This road represents a rush to destruction. The other road is spirituality, a slower path that includes respect for all living things. If we choose the spiritual path, we can light yet another fire, an Eight Fire, and begin an extended period of Peace and healthy growth.”
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The Rainbow Prophecy alludes to this age of healing as well. The time spoken of makes mention of an awakening of sorts where nations will begin to seek answers and wisdom which had previously been lost. People of all colors (red, white, yellow, and black) will unite like the hues of the rainbow to reign as one nation on the Earth.
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This Navajo-Hopi prophecy references the rainbow as follows:
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“The great spiritual Teachers who walked the Earth and taught the basics of the truths of the Whirling Rainbow Prophecy will return and walk amongst us once more, sharing their power and understanding with all. We will learn how to see and hear in a sacred manner. Men and women will be equals in the way Creator intended them to be; all children will be safe anywhere they want to go. Elders will be respected and valued for their contributions to life. Their wisdom will be sought out. The whole Human race will be called The People and there will be no more war, sickness or hunger forever.”
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It is clear to me that the intuition of many regarding our shift as a species into something new and remarkable is well-founded. Signs abound if we look for them. Please comment if you would have any insight to add and share with others to bring a message of hope to the human race. Our future is being made right now.
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Aaron Force is a blogger from Seattle, Washington. He writes to educate others about the nature of an expanded consciousness to evolve humanity. Aaron unexpectedly experienced his own profound awakening and ego transcendence in 2015 and soon understood that the qualities of his own experience (a greater expansion and evolution in his life) could be applied to mankind collectively.