During the last years of the Cold War, I had a front row seat as a senior systems designer in the defense industry to one of the most frightening times in the history of the world, and the thinking that led to it. During the last years of the most potentially lethal, yet undeclared, war in human history, the superpowers of the United States and the former Soviet Union did something that seems unthinkable to any rationally minded person today. They spent the time, energy, and human resources to develop and stockpile somewhere in the neighborhood of 65,000 nuclear weapons -- a combined arsenal with the power to microwave the Earth, and everything on it, many times over.
The rationale for such an extreme effort stems from a way of thinking that has dominated much of the modern world for the last 300 years or so, since the beginning of the scientific era. It's based in the false assumptions of scientific thinking that suggest we're somehow separate from the Earth, separate from one another, and that the nature that gives us life is based upon relentless struggle and survival of the strongest. Fortunately, new discoveries have revealed that each of these assumptions is absolutely false. Unfortunately, however, there is a reluctance to reflect such new discoveries in mainstream media, traditional classrooms and conventional textbooks. In other words, we're still teaching our young people the false assumptions of an obsolete way of thinking based on struggle, competition, and war.
While we no longer face the nuclear threat that we did in the 1980s, the thinking that made the Cold War possible is still in place. This fact is vital to us all right now for one simple reason: For the first time in human history the future of our entire species rests upon the choices of a single generation -- us -- and the choices are being made within a small window of time--now. The best minds of our time are telling us that we must act quickly to avert the clear and present danger of a host of new crises that are converging in a "bottleneck" of time covering the first years of the 21st Century.
The journal Scientific American released a special edition (vol. 293, no. 3, September 2005) to bring the world up to speed on the critical situation we find ourselves in today. The title, "Crossroads for Planet Earth," says it all. The way we solve the simultaneous crises -- such as our response to climate change, the unsustainable and growing levels of extreme poverty, the emergence of new diseases, the growing shortages of food and fresh drinking water, the growing chasm between extreme wealth and extreme poverty, and the unsustainable demand for energy--will chart the destiny, or seal the fate of our global family that is estimated to reach a staggering 8 billion by 2025.
The key here is that the way we address the greatest crises of human history is based on the way we think of ourselves and the world. Clearly, the thinking that led to the war and suffering of the 20th century is not the thinking that we want the delicate choices of our survival based upon!
Developing a new level of thinking is precisely what we need to do today, and the magnitude of crises that face us may prove to be the catalyst for doing just that! The emerging bridge between the sciences that tell us how the universe works, and the spiritual traditions that give such knowledge meaning in our lives, plays a vital role in the new thinking that heads off the darkest possibilities of our future. But while the crises of the moment may be the catalyst for such a shift in thinking, something even deeper is emerging.
The new shift in thinking is the gateway to human transformation. And because of the sheer number of people involved in the shift, and the growing magnitude of the crises that are driving us to change the way we think, we are standing on the threshold of human transformation at a level unlike anything ever before known on Earth.
The spiritual traditions that I'm describing are the core principles of ancient and time-tested understandings -- principles now confirmed by 20th century science that include the interconnected nature of all things, the power of the human heart to positively influence the magnetic fields of the earth and all life, and the cyclic nature of life, climate, civilization and change. The spiritual traditions of our ancestors got these principles right and embodied them at the core of their lives in their time. It's the marriage of these holistic principles with the best science of today that helps us to tip the scales of life, balance, and peace in our favor.
While the specifics of spiritual principles may vary from tradition to tradition, the essence of their message does not. It's simple, direct and states that we live in a world where everything has meaning, and is meaningful to everything else. What happens in the oceans has meaning for the climate of the mountains. What happens in a river has meaning for the life that depends upon the river. The choices that you and I make as we express our beliefs in our living rooms and around family dinner tables have meaning for the people in our immediate lives, as well as for those connected through the coherence fields of the human heart living halfway around the Earth.
By crossing the traditional boundaries that define the science, religion, and the history of our past, we are shown the power of a larger, integrated, and holistic worldview. I cannot help but believe that our destiny and fate as a species are intimately entwined with our willingness to accept the Deep Wisdom of a spiritually based science. It's all about the way we think of ourselves, our relationship to the Earth and to one another. When the facts become clear, our choices become obvious.
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You must not understand human nature at all.
No, not quite. Man cannot live on science alone. You've never been to the Fiction section of the library, have you?
It's not about combining spirituality with science, it's about rejecting religion and all of it's delusional mythology about how resources were placed here by magical gods. All major religions continue to encourage and celebrate unlimited birth rates. If we don't defeat religiosity, this iteration of the human species will end in a bloody fight to the death for the last drops of petroleum, arable land and fresh water.
Beautiful comment!
There is a oft-hear perception that spirituality and religion are somehow inconsistent, or that one precludes the other. As you note, though, one is an orientation and the other is a system. When combined in a healthy, conscious way, the results are powerful and transformational.
Wishing you well,
Alan
The problem is that religions do not base their opinions upon knowledge and, consequently, are uninformed and of little value.
"[Religion] provides community with common traditions and other ground."
That is true but religion is not a necessary condition to creating communities. Further, such communities may be formed through ideas that are more inclusive of others than religion.
I'll be honest about my ancestors. They were more or less committing genocide all through what we now call The Holy Land and weren't doing a whole lot of worrying about the interconnectedness of all things. It was only after the setting aside of those hard-core God decreed tribal traditions that advancement could be made. That was an extreme on one side, the religious side. The development of weapons capable of destroying the Earth and technologies that sap our resources are an extreme on the other side, the scientific side. We may be beginning to set aside those hard-core Do-It-Because-We-Can traditions. Hopefully again, advancement can be made. The principle we should be concerned with is exactly what we're bringing to the table from each side. It's a very fine line.
I'm glad you're feeling joy, but sorry you can't be happy with the world the way it is.
IMO, both the method of science and the subtle energy of spirituality should be respected.
I think that it is only man who has abused both of these concepts. Religion and even spiritual leaders have used subtle energy for selfish reasons. Likewise, scientific evidence has be used by political leaders for selfish reasons, and research into subtle energy has been marginalized by the scientific establishment.
I think that we need science to verify the benefits of subtle energy to improve our understanding and use of it.
I think that we need subtle energy to better understand our world and to make the best out of the world that we have. Religion and spirituality are a source of subtle energy.
I think that we will benefit from more application of the scientific method to subtle energy.
I routinely discount anyone who asks me to blindly believe anthing about subtle energy, as well as anyone who routinely dismisses subtle energy without observing it.
face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost
inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes
them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought!
Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not real,
he becomes furious when they are disputed."
[Bertrand Russell, "Human Society in Ethics and Politics"]
Years of detailed documented observations at a top mental health rehabilitation facility (FH) in northern new jersey showed that we the support staff had created a full time atmosphere of kindness by doing continuous acts of kindness to the clients with mental illness and addictions and developmental disabilities etc.? Now here is the part that I am not sure of, if a clients body has elevated levels of natural serotonin (Not the over the counter scam) over a long period of time will this mind or body over mental disorder or disease have an major effect on these mental disorders and or diseases of the body? We saw this actually happen to numerious clients and documented these occurrences but because we were not mental health professionals nobody was interested?
Over the years daily fights and confrontations and clients going into psychois stopped completely and major depression was almost eliminated and all forms of -Suicide- stopped completely at this mental health facility? I use the story of -Lorenzo's Oil- as an example of just maybe there is an answer outside of professional scientists???