Quantum Co-Creative Revolution


This is the preface to Kavita's new book:
Quantum Co-Creative Revolution: We Are All In This Together.  
The book is available in Kindle format on www.amazon.com.


This book is about evolutionary spirituality, a new way of seeing the world, and a new way of being in it. It faces the crises confronting us squarely in the eye, and opens up a new vision for how to move beyond them. It is predicated on the idea that life doesn’t present us with crises – either personal or collective – unless it wants us to learn things, and move through.

For those of us willing to admit that our world is in serious trouble, the question is what can we do about it, and do it with efficacy, courage and joy? That is what this book is about. I won’t waste time trying to convince anyone that in fact we are in trouble – for those who are unconvinced, and wish to remain so, there is little I can say; and for those who need more evidence, there are plenty of other sources, from the daily news, to their own personal experiences, to many well-written books. It’s the people who know we’re in trouble and genuinely want to change things that I want to address here; those who want to connect the dots between the causes of the crises and their potential solutions, and are seeking the inspiration, hope and fellowship to do it.

None of us can do this alone; we need each other to face the unprecedented crises confronting us, and to transform them into the equally unprecedented opportunities for a life of renewal and beauty, that so many of us desire. At the heart of the crises lies the potential for an extraordinary transformation. But we must act together. We must find our common ground, and create a movement, an unstoppable force, of clarity, energy, passion and compassion, which can catapult us to our higher evolution, and its embodiment on Earth, this miraculous planet we share as our precious home.

We will look here at what has been preventing this until now – our denial, our distraction, a distorted worldview based on separation, the lack of a wider perspective and sense of solidarity with others and the greater web of life. Above all, to widen our perspective, to shift our identification from the limited sphere of our own daily cares, to the knowledge of being part of a much bigger Whole – a much larger arc in time and space -- is enormously empowering. It gives us both consolation, inspiration and a much larger context for wise and effective action. This is what this book is about. We will look, one by one, at the limiting views that make us think we cannot change our world, and open to one by which we can -- a view of the unlimited capacities of our consciousness, and the unlimited possibilities of our future.

I beg your indulgence in advance if I use any words in this book that push your buttons – it is almost impossible these days to find words that speak to everyone, and especially in my case because I bridge the spiritual and social activist worlds, which often don’t speak the same language! You’ll notice there are certain concepts that I invoke again and again – for instance, from the spiritual side, “interconnection and Oneness”, and the crucial importance of “consciousness”; from the activist side, an unapologetic criticism of capitalism – the “C-word” that for many today it seems blasphemous to declaim!  Though many today still seem to find any challenge to capitalism threatening, I feel it is crucial to name it – because it enshrines in our outer systems the mind-set of separation, competition and private self-profit that is causing our crises today, and needs to be replaced by a consciousness of interconnection and Oneness, essential to transform our systems to sustainable, just ones.

I think that until we identify the causes of the crises – both at the level of consciousness, and our outer systems – we won’t be able to change them. So please allow me to use these words freely, without white-washing or skirting around the issues; and leave aside, for the moment, any previous judgments or resistance you may have to these words. Of course, as the book unfolds, I will unpack more fully what I mean by them, and the bigger context in which they are located. This expanded context will defy any over-simplistic caricaturization of these terms you may have picked up from previous associations.

In this age of information overload, a massive desensitization has occurred, deflating both hope and meaning. The media uses words (and more often images) to catch our eye, whizzing by, with no time to process their meaning; we are programmed into a collective attention deficit disorder – scattered, dumbed down and numbed out. People surf only the surface of things, lacking both the time and attention-span to dive deep. Catch-words come and go, but are not followed through by reflection and action; the addiction to novelty that has been induced by both the media and market forces militates against any new movement of depth being sustained long enough to take hold. The banners under which any challenge to the status quo would gather are quickly co-opted by market forces and robbed of their power to change things.

Once we are aware of the convergence of factors keeping our minds and vision in chains, then we have a chance to break free, and to start thinking and acting from a place of clarity, boldness and true freedom. It is my attempt in this book to help us undo some of the major blocks in our thinking, and unleash the power of creative vision so vital to meeting today’s crises, and moving through to the next stage of our evolution.

I will also deal quite a bit with the different levels of the crises, and the different levels of solutions, offering keys to turn the locks in each case. So bear with me as I challenge you to stretch your mind and open your heart, to make certain connections you might not be accustomed to. I promise it will pay off. We are multi-dimensional beings of extraordinary capacities, living in a multi-dimensional universe with vast possibilities we have yet to explore (which we’ve given, up until now, remarkably short shrift!) I encourage you, invite you, to step through some doors, ones you might not even have dreamt existed. Have the courage to step through, to take some imaginative leaps – your life, and the precious life we share together on this Earth, will assuredly be enriched by it, in ways beyond anything we can now predict.

We stand on the brink of a new world. Join me, as we enter it and explore it together.

                                                             Introduction
  
I.

This book explores the relationship between spirituality and social transformation in the light of a new vision of integral, evolutionary spirituality. It embraces the deep truth of interconnection and Oneness at the core of the ancient traditions as well as new quantum science, and the vital integration of feminine wisdom at all levels of our being, including our energetic, psychological, ecological and economic systems. 

Sounds ambitious, big, spanning a mind-stretching arc of domains? Yes, it is, and I’m the first to admit it. Yet the crises we are sitting in the midst of today are likewise huge, and we need to rally all the forces at our disposal to garner a vision and action, not only equal in magnitude, but powerful, comprehensive enough to overcome them.

Many people today, in our pluralistic, relativistic age, eschew “bigger pictures” and “deeper meanings”, yet without them we are lost. We need them to guide our way. They are, of course, never definitive, nor should we wish them to be – but they give us reference points to work with, from which we can find our way. And at this time, more than ever, we need to do exactly that – to step back and reflect, to see where we are and where we are heading, in order to find a new way.

Invariably friends, when they heard I was writing this book, asked me who I saw as my audience, who I am addressing. At first I thought about this in terms of different sectors of the population – spiritual, intellectual, activists, or the general public, the main-stream. Frankly, it gave me a headache to try to decide, because I wanted to reach all of them! But in the end I decided the answer is simple. The kind of people I want to reach are simply people who care, whatever walk of life they may come from -- people who care about life and the Earth. People who, because they care, want to make the connections between today’s global crises and the causes behind them; the connections between the different levels of the problem, as well as the solutions. People who don’t just want to sit back and watch the world hurtle towards a catastrophic future, but who care enough to want do something, and to do it now.

Like a detective-mystery writer, I will throw out certain strands of my vision, and later weave them together into a greater tapestry. So please hang in with the loose ends, and enjoy the mystery. I am also happy for my readers to pick up any of the strands and weave them together with their own insights– the richer the tapestry the better, as we brain-storm and heart-source together new patterns and new possibilities for our future.

This book is a collaboration – with you, the reader. Please respond, if not to me, then to life itself -- the call of the Earth and all that is here that you love. Together we can turn the tide on climate change and the unjust systems causing it. Each of us, in our own way, has something very special to contribute. Join us in this great wave of co-creation, with each other, with all life on Earth, and the Source itself of Creation.

Many people talk today about the Great Transition, or the Great Turning. It is most constructive to see, in this way, our crises as great opportunities -- and powerfully pro-active. Increasingly modern science tells us, as did the ancient mystics, that as we see things, so they become. We transmute, by the force of our focus, possibility into fact. We must envision a future we want, and act on it. Either demise or triumph becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, so let us prophesize triumph, and act to make it come true.

There is no debate anymore; the crisis of climate change is very real, and it is man-made, as 98% of mainstream scientists agree. This is both the bad news and the good news, because if we are causing it, we have it in our hands to change it. The impending catastrophes aren’t being hurled down, willy-nilly, from the sky. If we have caused the crises, it means we are not powerless -- if we are responsible for the causes, it means we can also stop them. The question now is – which is more irreversible, climate change or the minds of men? We need to reverse our thinking, our consciousness itself, if we are to reverse the destruction of the Earth. We need to change our value systems, and we have only a short time to do it. This pressure should not paralyze, but rather incite us to act.

The Causal Chain Between the Three Controversial “C-Words”

Naomi Klein (and now the Pope!) has already clearly identified the causal link between capitalism and climate change (and in general, environmental destruction and the growing inequality that goes with it.) Here I add a third dimension to this causal chain, for it is the consciousness behind capitalism and climate change that is the deeper cause of both of these. This consciousness is a distorted one, the delusion that we are separate, and therefore must live in competition with each other, and in conflict with nature. This divisive consciousness finds its expression, par excellence, in the capitalist credo – the enshrinement of individualistic self-seeking and private self-profit, disregarding the consequences for others and nature -- the result being our twin crisis of climate change and extreme social inequity.

To reverse this vicious causal chain and replace it with a virtuous one – one that restores healthy life systems and our creative, symbiotic relationship to them – we need, then, to start with a fundamental change in consciousness. In fact, this change would restore our natural relationship with consciousness itself, which is itself the deepest source of our unity, our interconnected being. Consciousness is by its nature connective. Once we have we embraced this essential truth of our interconnectedness, with our own source, each other and nature, it is natural to base our social and economic systems on cooperation and sustainability – the outer embodiment, in our material systems, of our interconnection and unity.

Thus a new chain emerges, from a consciousness of interconnection, to cooperative and sustainable systems, to a course-correction on climate change and our crises of social inequity.

It is interesting that each of the three “C-words” in the current causal chain – consciousness, capitalism and climate change -- is highly controversial, and naming each of them openly and frequently, as I do, has gotten me repeatedly into trouble. Frankly, I think they are controversial precisely because their reality, and the enormity of their effects, are in fact so obvious – that many people don’t want to face them, or actively suppress them.

In our hyper-materialistic world, few people are ready to admit the primary role of consciousness in the material and social systems we create  around us (partly because it would turn upside down their entire worldview, giving them a power they don’t know yet how to use, partly because it would shake their faith in outer technological fixes.) Capitalism, meanwhile, is so ingrained in our worldview, that it is equally taboo to question it -- the gospel that it’s the best of all possible systems, despite increasingly disturbing evidence of its failings, makes for an uncomfortable contradiction far more convenient to suppress than address. And the reality of climate change, staring us in the face and verified by 98% of scientists as well, continues to be denied and ignored, precisely because it is so clear and overwhelming.

It is a fascinating fact of human psychology that what is taboo is often exactly what needs to be said. What is covered up, skirted or tip-toed around is exactly what needs to be seen. So I won’t censor myself here, for the sake of political correctness or so as not to offend – I will say things as I see them. I welcome open debate on these things – in fact, I think it is crucial, for the sake of both our survival and our evolution – but the vital first step is that we be willing to openly name and face them.

                                                       ***

Because I am addressing such a wide range of sectors, and such a wide range of domains, I’d like to make a disclaimer, right here at the outset. And that is, I know I can’t please everyone, and certainly not on all counts. This is especially so, I might add, because even in each of these domains, I’ll be throwing out some bold and, for some, unexpected, claims, venturing into new, unfamiliar territory. So I hope you are willing to give me some play here, to cut me some slack. I warmly invite you to venture with me in this spirit of exploration, at the cutting edge of the unknown.

This means, of course, not to expect to agree with everything, but not to reject everything else when you don’t! It is an unfortunate tendency of the mind to give more weight to what it finds fault with or rejects – even if it is a small thing -- than what it finds positive and accepts -- even if it is a lot -- and sometimes to throw out the latter on account of the former! In addition, our reasons for rejecting certain ideas are not necessarily valid in the first place, but sometimes just reflexive reactions, at the basis of which is an emotional bias or an unexamined prejudice. Whatever doesn’t accord with our previous conditioning, clashes with our pre-conceptions, we tend to meet with automatic resistance or doubt.

This book is an exploration of consciousness, and the new levels to which we can bring it, as much as of any concrete ideas or even theoretical concepts I offer. Hopefully reading it will change you, open up new dimensions, but how deeply it can do that also depends on the consciousness with which you approach it.

So I’d like to invite you, my reader, to engage with this material in a special way, bringing more consciousness than usual as to how we take in new viewpoints and information. To be willing to be with new ideas, that at first might sound too radical or challenging, patiently – suspending judgment, giving them time to digest, letting other strands in the vision, as it weaves together through the course of the book, continue to illuminate and give them context. And if there are still some points you disagree with, simply to be with that too – holding the complexity of agreeing with certain points but not necessarily others, without dismissing the vision as a whole, or the spirit in which it is intended, which is to stimulate and inspire but never to dictate or impose, simply to share in the spirit of co-creative synergy.

For all of us to learn to do this, to be more open to our differences and thus allow higher perspectives to emerge, is as much a part of the aim of this book as anything I will say in it. Beyond any of the ideas themselves, it is this spirit of cooperation -- learning how to create the space, and spaciousness, for the new to break through -- that this book seeks to cultivate and convey.

                                                      ***

I chose to organize this book in an unusual way. In order to give context to the ideas that follow, I first give a brief account of my story. This helps to flesh out the logic with which the vision I present here actually unfolded in my life; you’ll see that it’s not mere theory – it was gained in the school of hard knocks! I then offer a concise vision of interconnectedness – which I see as primary to the consciousness shift that is happening today -- what it means and how we can apply it to all levels of our being. We will come back to this at the end the book, where it becomes the basis for a global citizens movement for whole-systems transformation, which we can all partake in.

In between these two “book-ends”, we flesh out a larger vision of the new paradigm of “evolutionary spirituality” that is emerging today in our consciousness and society. In Part 1, we begin by looking at how spirit and matter have become split, historically, in our cultural consciousness, and how they are now re-uniting. Consciousness, energy and matter are one, as both ancient mystics knew, and modern quantum science is increasingly discovering. This means a change in consciousness can radically re-align our material and social systems – a quantum revolution, from the inside out.

In this light, we then explore the continuum of levels through which consciousness expresses itself as matter, moving from the subtle to the increasingly manifest – from the energetic, informational, psychological to social levels, including our material, ecological and economic systems. We explore different models that show the interconnections between these levels, and how they can be brought into alignment, co-creative Wholeness and synergy, powering this great evolutionary transition.

In Part 2, we highlight the crucial importance of re-balancing and uniting, at each of these levels, feminine and masculine energies and perspectives, as an intrinsic part of this quantum cultural leap. In Part 3, we come back for a deeper dive into each level, zooming in to its particular challenges and its particular gifts. We end with a section on Social Transformation, bringing the original vision of interconnectedness with which we began, and all the insights which followed, into an integral plan for a global citizens movement towards a new sustainable, cooperative, evolutionary society. Yet this is just the beginning – for I invite you then to help put this plan into action. The story we weave together will continue, I hope, in your own heart and mind, on-line and in the streets.

                                                         ***

In the course of this journey, we will be exploring both visible and invisible levels, the seen and unseen levels of our being. The material world of our bodies and the material systems we engage in is like the tip of the iceberg; if we dig deeper, we find an entire ocean of consciousness and energy, which coalesce at the surface into the material, physical world that we see. So again, I ask your patience, and your openness to the possibility that these deeper perceptual dimensions might in fact exist. They cannot be seen but they can be experienced – with training, or in deep meditation, for instance -- for they are not something external to us, but deeper levels of our own consciousness.

Awareness of these unseen levels, how to gain access to them and leverage action from them, is essential if we are to change our world. Balance and alignment at each of these levels is also crucial, igniting the co-creative synergy that can bring the unity at the core of our being into vital expression in our world. The finely-tuned balance between receptivity and action, the feminine and masculine energies, is an indispensable part of this, allowing us to receive the wisdom, guidance and energy from the Source of Creation itself, to bring our life on Earth into resonance with its unity at all levels – spirit, energy, psyche and society. By surrendering our own small identity to the Whole, we gain entrance to the immense intelligence in the subtle, non-local quantum field that unites the whole Cosmos.

It is our surrender and deepest immersion in the Source of Creation itself that gives rise to the greatest power of creative emergence. The evolutionary leap empowered by this connection will ignite nothing less than a revolution on Earth.

                                                            II.

Before we embark on this journey together, I’d like to lay the ground with a brief preview of some of the main themes we will be exploring.

The Truth of Interconnectedness: We Are All In This Together

Many people are waking up to an inescapable truth -- if we are to survive and thrive, we need to bring our systems into alignment with the principle of interconnection and Oneness at the heart of all life.

We are learning that whatever does not serve the well-being of the Whole doesn’t serve us as individuals either. Conversely, when we serve the Whole, the Whole serves us too. This is so astonishingly simple – astonishing because, somehow, we’ve missed it – at least in the contemporary world we live in.

Astonishing too, that we don’t see that this most basic misunderstanding is at the root of our crises. We live in our tiny silos, our private self-interests – and wonder why the world is crashing down around us!

When we widen our perspective beyond our own personal sphere, however, we see something fascinating – and ultimately very reassuring. We see that we are embedded in a series of larger, concentric spheres, a widening spiral of nested systems – ecological, economic, social – that nourish and sustain us. We are never on our own; our entire being is intricately entwined in these systems, in the greater Whole.

The problem is that these systems cannot, in the long-run, continue to nourish and sustain us, unless they are designed in such a way that we, from our side, likewise nourish and sustain them. When the systems we live in are healthy, and we are in healthy relationship with them, we thrive; if not, ultimately our very survival is threatened.

It is this cycle of mutual nourishment and enrichment between us, as individuals, and the Whole that gives life its beauty and meaning, and is also the impetus of our higher evolution. We feed the Whole, and the Whole feeds us, and from this on-going synergy, our higher potentials – both as individuals, cultures and cosmos -- emerge.

The Spirit of Solidarity

Many people are so focused on trying to survive, and trying to solve their own problems, that they don’t realize that many of those problems could be solved much more effectively if we all work together. This may sound incredibly simplistic, but in today’s world we have been so programmed into individualistic thinking, into looking after our own self-interests first, that we fail to see how many of our problems come from this very isolation and separation in the first place. Despite what capitalism conditions us to believe, we are not made to struggle and compete, but pull together, cooperate, help each other and thrive.

In a cooperative society, everything we do has meaning and beauty, because it sustains the Whole. And in turn the Whole sustains us, giving our lives ease and flow. It is amazing how far we’ve come from this in our present competitive society. And all because of a case of mistaken identity – we’re taught that we’re on our own, not part of greater Whole.

In a competitive, individualistic society, it’s each of us against the world alone – you or me pitted against millions – while in a cooperative society, each of us serves the Whole and in turn is served by millions. It isn’t rocket science to see which of these causes limitless stress, and which gives life ease and well-being. It’s pure common sense that the latter is a much better deal – far more secure, relaxing and productive.

Who wouldn’t prefer a cooperative, steady-state economy, where life is secure and stable, and there’s room to both breathe easy and be creative – to one predicated on the false grounds of limitless growth, and in fact, limitless crisis?

What would it look like” How would we get there? First we need to take that step of recognizing the simple, unassailable fact that we are all interconnected. Then, from this basic foundation in the truth of our being, everything else we need to know and do will follow.

The Many Ways in Which We Are Interconnected

The truth of interconnectedness shows up at every level in the spectrum of our being, both the seen and the unseen. It exists like the roots beneath the ground, which we do not see, but which grow into the whole tree, trunk, limbs, branches and leaves; each level gives support and rise to the other. In a healthy system, each of these levels exists in a state of co-creative, mutually-nourishing synergy.

And yet, at each of these levels, we can either express duality and divisiveness or interconnection and Wholeness. A crack in the foundation, a distortion or imbalance below, will reverberate at every level above and make it unstable (notice here I have switched from a natural metaphor to a man-made one.) This is the instability, based on the false grounds of separation, that has mounted to the untenable scale of the crises we are facing today.

If we all are One, why is the gap between the rich and the poor widening, and why are we, as a global culture, more alienated than ever from the natural world of which we are a part? There could be many answers to this, but they all boil down to this – we don’t live like we are One! Instead, we live in systems that do not answer to our most basic needs, much less the higher truth of our interconnectedness.

Inner and Outer Revolution – We Need Both

Ironically, while “consciousness” may be a taboo word to the world’s rationalists and pragmatists, in spiritual circles we often hear that all we need to change the world is to change consciousness. This seems, at first glance, to imply that action is not necessary, or important. But conscious action flows from an inspired consciousness. They are not separate, but actually call forth each other.

As we start to recognize that spirit and matter are one, we also realize that the level of our consciousness is reflected and embodied in our actions, our relationships and the material systems we live by. Currently we are living in systems that do not represent an enlightened consciousness – in fact, they often represent just the opposite: a consciousness of division, competition, violence and fear. By default, we are forced to comply with them outwardly, even if inwardly they chafe against the yearnings of our soul. As our consciousness evolves, however, it itself compels us to heal these splits, the ways in which our spirit and our material life are incongruent. As we come into the consciousness of the interconnection and unity of all life, we are called into natural action to change the outer structures and systems by which we live.

Spirituality must be a source of discernment, of waking up – both ourselves and others. It has always been intended for this purpose, but must especially be so today, at this time of such life-threatening challenges. The goal is not to find inner peace and therefore exit responsibility for the world. On the contrary, inner peace is only the beginning, the platform from which we can most powerfully move the world. Inner peace is not an escape from the call to create outer peace in the world, but rather confers upon us the very power to do so.

Years ago, as a student in the seventies, I, like many others of my generation, wanted to change the world. I helped organize anti-war demonstrations, did research on the connection between corporate agribusiness and world hunger, and lived in Africa for a few years, working for a rural health project in socialist Tanzania. At a certain point, frustrated with the seemingly intractable obstacles to changing entrenched power structures, I came to the conclusion that the only way to change things was to change our own inner consciousness. I then embarked on a long journey that took me to India and many years practicing yoga and meditation in spiritual communities. I even became a swami in an ashram myself.

One day in 2007, still in an ashram in India, I had a “second awakening”, electrifying as the first that had sent me on my spiritual search so many years before. After 25 years “on the cushion”, I suddenly woke up to the reality that not only had all our years of “consciousness transformation” not transformed the planet, but that in fact we were on the verge of potentially cataclysmic climate change, and ecological and economic collapse. I suddenly realized that inner work can’t substitute for outer work, but that the two vitally have to go together. I sought out organizations integrating spirituality and social change – Global Peace Initiative of Women, Agents of Conscious Evolution, the Great Transition Initiative -- and for the last eight years have been working actively with them. And I am not alone in this – there are many such groups and initiatives burgeoning today.

My first awakening was to the truth of interconnection and Oneness; my second to the crucial importance of applying it in the world. The first was a blissful awakening; the second a rude one – but ultimately blissful too, because it embraced reality in its true fullness, which empowers us to transform darkness into light.

Not either/or, but both and more – for as enlightened consciousness and enlightened systems mutually bring forth each other, a new holistic, evolving society emerges, greater than the sum of its parts, and far beyond anything we could have predicted. This means that true inner revolution is inevitably the basis of true outer revolution, and that overcoming the false distinction we make between them is essential to the quantum leap in our evolution needed to heal both ourselves and our planet today.

Andrew Harvey, author of “The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism”, likewise powerfully spells out the need to bring the inner and outer levels of transformation together, super-charging the potential for genuine, deep-rooted change:

“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born.”

As consciousness evolves, it is natural for it to seek new, systemic outer expressions.
Combining inner and outer revolution is the fastest, most powerful way to accelerate both our own transformation and that of our society and our planet. By advancing our evolution both personally and collectively, it advances both exponentially, far more powerfully than if we work at either the inner or outer level alone.

The New Story of Humanity

Many people today, individually and as global culture, are looking for a “new story for humanity.” The present one -- of separation, individualism, conflict and violence -- is all too clearly failing us, destroying the fabric of our lives and the very viability of our planet. Many see this quest for a new story as something bewilderingly complex, yet I don’t think we have very far to look for it. Its fulcrum is the interconnectedness and Oneness of our true being, and the call to express it in every dimension -- from the spiritual, subtle-energy and psychological levels, to our material, ecological and economic social systems.

This doesn’t mean, in any sense, a bland uniformity or conformity, but a vast, creative celebration of unity-in-diversity. We all have an essential part in the unfolding of this vast evolutionary big picture, and each of us is precious, bearing unique gifts. In our interconnectedness, we complement, enrich, and evolve each other.

This is both an old story and a new story. It is old because our essential unity -- the unconditioned, undivided nature of our consciousness -- is eternal, unchanging, at the deepest level. In some societies, particularly traditional, indigenous or matriarchal ones in the past, it has also been mirrored congruently in their social systems. But more often, historically, and certainly today, it has been expressed conversely, in the play of opposites, as the unity broken into fragments, ridden with conflicts and division. We’ve identified with the fragments rather than the unity. Now is the time to return to that unity – it is calling us home.

Today what is new, however, is that we are being forced not just to turn back to a static, congruent symmetry with that essential unity of our being, but to move forward into an evolving, co-creative, dynamic synergy with it, and on a global scale. This is because our crisis of fragmentation has itself become global, endemic, and reached its extreme limit, demanding a whole-systems leap to an entirely different order of consciousness and society. So what is new is not only a conscious connection with and expression of our true prior unity, but a conscious, co-creative, dynamic, global and evolutionary one.

The new story for humanity is thus also the “Universe Story”. We situate ourselves in the larger possible arc of time and space – the miraculous, evolutionary unfolding of this astonishing cosmos over the last 13 billion years, the awesome grace of our place in that, and the call to support it and celebrate it, from the heart of wonder and gratitude. Each of us contains the cumulative evolution of the entire universe in our DNA and every cell of our body, and each of us is part of its continued unfolding. Both science and spirituality now tell us that we are one with all that exists – we are now called to live this. This is both an extraordinary responsibility, and an extraordinary gift.

As the new story for humanity is about bringing the essential unity of our being into expression at all levels, it also sets the framework for the balance of feminine and masculine at all levels. The unique gifts of the feminine, which have been too-long suppressed, are surfacing now to help renew and evolve us all.

The New Evolutionary Role of Women and the Feminine

The balance of feminine and masculine, the receptive and the active, are essential if we are to attain the dynamic unity needed for today’s quantum revolution.

Less driven by dominant masculine values in our society, women tend to be inclusive in their perceptions and their relationality, more sensitive and responsive to the needs of others and the environment around them. They are generally less concerned with their own personal power and more with the wider needs of the community around them. Unfortunately the sphere of their influence, the “community” which they have traditionally served, has been narrowly confined -- limited in many cases to their own family and immediate neighborhood. The sphere of feminine influence has to be expanded today to include the whole world community and the planet.

The feminine is not just inclusive of what is outside it, but also its own inner source, making it supremely capable of bringing the two together. The feminine sensibility is by its nature interconnective. Both inwardly and outwardly, it connects to the world through the heart. Because women have been designed to bear life (whether they do so, in the physical sense, or not) it is easier for them to put themselves in the place of the other, to feel the interconnectedness of all life, and naturally want to serve it. They draw life from within themselves out, extending it to the world.

The feminine must come out of the closet, bringing its deep connection with the hidden template of unity at our core (both that of men and women) into expression in the world, in our styles of governance, our economic and ecological structures. The feminine has to go public, not following the now-failing masculine power structures, but being fuelled by a new co-creative power, power from and for the good of the Whole, connecting the inner sphere of spirit with the outer of matter, our social, ecological and economic systems.

For all the talk of women’s empowerment and women’s liberation, women have not yet assumed their true historical task at this time; for the last forty years or so, they have indeed been garnering power, but most have done so by copying men, following the styles and structures of power men have established. More and more women today, however, are waking up to the fact that it is another kind of power they are called to bring in – a co-creative, constructive, life-affirming power, issuing from the Source of the Whole and serving the Whole. (There is no question of compromise or co-option here -- the contrast with the competitive, life-destroying power of today’s globalized capitalism couldn’t be starker!)

Mother Nature Shares her Bounty Equally: Re-Claiming the Commons

Indigenous cultures almost always see nature as our Mother. This simple shift in our way of perceiving nature – not as an object to be exploited, but the living Source that sustains us all – is at the basis of both ecological sustainability and economic equality, the two most critical areas we need to address today. We would never exploit or rape our own mother, nor take more than our fair share of the bounty she shares equally with all her children, leaving our brothers and sisters deprived. We cannot “own” pieces of our mother, nor hack and frack her lifeless for our own private profit, without destroying the very basis of our own life and of life itself.

The feminine sensibility, and attitudes that respect it, are life-affirming, life-protecting – both of human life and all the life-forms of nature. We need to awaken and strengthen this sense of the sacredness of all life, and widen the sphere of our actions to celebrate and defend it. This is true not only for women but men; we are all in this together.

The Interconnection between Economics, Ecological Healing and Social Justice/Equality

Right now there is a direct, but destructive, connection between our global economic system, ecological devastation, and vast social inequity. That these three areas are exactly where our greatest crises lie is not at all incidental. Yet, if our global economic system is recognized as the ground of both our ecological and social crises, this also points the way to the solutions, for it implies that by changing the economic system we can get to the roots of both ecological destruction and acute social injustice.

The truth of our interconnectedness is not just a beautiful concept or an intellectual abstraction – it points directly to the need for active cooperation, for action to embody our interconnected identity at all levels of our being and in all our systems. Deeply felt, our sense of interconnectedness stirs us to action, to protect that which we love. The rush of ecstasy we get in nature, or in the arms of our beloved, calls us, in the same way, to defend what we love with our life. It is not just a “feel-good” sentiment, but a vital call to action, that makes us spring to life like a mother lion.

What kind of social systems would best express interconnection and Oneness? In broad strokes, such systems would focus on community, cooperation and equitable sharing of the natural commons. New visions, social and economic, are emerging, increasingly from processes that are themselves more cooperative and co-creative – processes of collective intelligence, collaborative dialogue, co-creative synergy, open-source knowledge-exchange. These processes seed possibilities for a larger global platforms of participatory democracy and cooperatively-managed economic systems, at all scales.

Both our social governance forms and forms of economic management will be revolutionized in this process, based on cooperation, collaboration and sharing. Socially, new forms of participatory democracy, global citizens movements, digital “e-democracy”, are actively being proposed. Economically, new forms of local resilience and cooperative enterprises are already burgeoning; these cooperative structures can be taken from a local to global scale. Both these approaches -- social democracy and cooperative economy -- are natural off-shoots of the fundamental life-principles of interconnection and unity-in-diversity, rising more and powerfully in the public consciousness today.

Global Citizens Movement Towards A World Participatory Democracy and Cooperative, Sustainable Economy

A global crisis demands a global call to action. “Global” means we, the people of the world – not the present globalized corporate economic system that is causing the crises – but we, the people, transforming it, to a cooperative, sustainable one, through the structures of a new participatory world democracy.

In this book I extend that call to action, a call to galvanize a global citizens movement towards a world participatory democracy and cooperative, sustainable economy, based on the consciousness of interconnectedness, unity-in-diversity, equitable sharing of resources and non-violence. In the first section of the book, I will offer a model for how we can bring the much-needed spirit of interconnection and co-creative unity into all the levels of our being, from our personal psyche to our social, ecological and economic systems. At the end of the book I will also offer some strategies for how we can get there, and invite you to join in this movement.

The Two Biggest Obstacles to Action; And How We Can Break Through Them

Two barriers we have to overcome are first, the inertia, apathy and hopelessness that anything can be changed, the epidemic of “impotence” in the face of entrenched powers; and, conversely, the fear of any alternative, cooperative economic system being authoritarian, stripping away our freedoms (which is in fact exactly what the present system is doing!) People have to understand that a cooperative economy is an expression of people’s power, unlike the present travesty of democracy, where decisions are made by ruling corporate elites, who would indeed have us powerless.

Because our crises are global, we do need a form a global governance to remedy their causes and ensure that they do not recur. But this governance need not be dictatorial or authoritarian – rather, the very point is that it would cooperative and democratic, under the people’s control, for the benefit of the people and the natural world we are part of. Systems do not have to be based on top-down power and control; they can be based on collaborative, co-creative synergy, “power-with” rather than “power-over”; with basic cooperative values in place, as well as checks and balances, to ensure that no one dominant group takes over.

One might ask, but when has such a system ever existed? And that’s the whole point -- the emergence of such a system is the next stage of humanity’s evolution. And this is by necessity – for there’s no other direction to go but down. Crisis demands evolution, a jump to a whole new order. There are plenty of precedents in the past, of how necessity has compelled people to take courage in hand and jump into a whole new future. At such revolutionary turning points, people take power back into their hands. They set new norms for society, instead of passively submitting to the ones that have been forced upon them.

Another obstacle that, ironically, paralyzes many from action is the desire to control, and the unwillingness to step forward without having the “whole plan” in advance. No one of course has the whole answer in advance, but by coming together and sparking in each other new hope and new possibilities, a new evolving future emerges, greater than the sum of its parts, unleashing potentials we couldn’t have even imagined. We cannot afford to be afraid of the unknown, but trust that by stepping forward, step by step, its hidden, implicate order will unfold. The unknown can actually work to our advantage, if we are open and let it deliver its gifts.

This means, while we need a framework in which to work together, we need to always leave space for creativity and emergence. The model I have offered here is not meant to be air-tight – it is meant to breathe, at all scales. We warmly invite the participation of all who resonate with this vision to join us, to contribute their creative gifts, and help transform our world from one of competition and conflict to cooperation, connectedness, and the flourishing of the Whole. We are all in this together.