The challenge of the Global shift in consciousness.

The first impression of the events of September 11 are the horrifying and seemingly unreal attack at the apparently invulnerable USA. The poor USA, victim of 20 fanatic men guided by an equally fanatic organization, determined to punish the USA for all its misdeeds. That in the process, thousands of innocents are affected, is of no mind to these individuals.

USA Americans, in our naive and ignorant world view, (not because Americans are uneducated or stupid, but because generally speaking the news media, who's responsibility it is to keep people informed, has not felt it was important to let people know what is going on in the world. Actually this myopic attention to news, is no different in any other part of the world, since people are basically only interested in what concerns or touches them directly.) are shocked to find out that there are millions of peoples on the planet, who hate us. That they hate us so intensely, they are willing to annihilate us and our society, all mind you in the name of God. How can that be? What is going on?

A lot is going on but not what appears to be at first. Feeling guilty of our achievements, the achievements of the world's citizens who make up this melting pot of humanity we call the USA, immediately felt we had done something wrong, had failed in some way, but in what way. Are we really responsible for the world? yes, and no. We are responsible for how we behave with regard to the world, but ultimately what citizens of a country do with their country everyone is their responsibility, we are each responsible for ourselves.

I was listening to a radio talk show while driving in Italy this fall, and one of the callers remarked that in his view Americans had it coming, Sept 11 that is, in view of what they did to the Native Americans, I found this a very odd remark, taking into` account the ones who did the hurt to Native Americans, were the Europeans who come to settle this great land. This Italian was in fact speaking about his fellow countrymen, his European antecedents. By the same token, those individuals who hate the USA are hating their fellow countrymen and women, who have immigrated here and made it, since the USA is this planetary land.

But there is something else going on, and to us in the USA who for better or worse are striving to cultivate responsibility and humanitarianism, these actions of September 11 are incomprehensible. Not even those in government, who's job it is create the most bizarre plots of dooms day scenarios could conceive of such a deed, our respect for life and self preservation is too deeply ingrained.

It is said that the psyche of the human being undergoes certain evolutionary processes as we transform from infant to adult, and researchers have discovered that each step has a glass ceiling, beyond which the understanding cannot move. Of course it is much more complicated than that, but for this articles sake let me propose a simple model.

The passages from one evolutionary step to another are 5. The first evolutionary phase is that of the small child, who cannot distinguish between subject and object. A 3 year old is presented with 2 glasses, one tall and narrow, the other wide and short. The same quantity of water is poured into each glass, the child is asked which glass has more water? The answer, the taller narrow one, since that is what it appears just looking at it. An attempt is made to convince the little child that the water is the same quantity, it is the shape of the glass that is different, nothing doing, the little child, cannot realize the subtlety of subject vs. object. What I see is what I believe. The second stage comes as we grow, our attention is turned inward, we are concerned with ourselves, who we are and what we want, the world we feel, pretty much has to revolves around us, things have to be my way. This is also because up to the age of 12, we are normally dependent on adults. Phase three comes as we start to brake out of our family nest. We start to realize that the world also consists of friends and companions. In the western societies, this is the shift of the teenager, form family to society. An awareness that a network of friends as a support system is important. I call this the tribal phase, and in traditional cultures, this loyalty to the clan is essential for survival purposes. Many societies on the planet are still in this tribal phase, which manifest in many varieties. In western society it can be the gang, the clique, the sorority or fraternity, the club, the members of religious group. But it can also be the sect, the patriarchal family unit, a dictatorship. And on a more personal level it can be the urge for symbiosis. Each one of these aforementioned structures, depend on the adherence of the individual to the group. For reasons of security, the individual gives his or her power up to the group. The cause of this is usually ignorance, the less educated the easier it is to convince people that what they are being told is truth, they lack the means for comparison, they have not the ability to distinguish, fear and isolation are other reasons how individual people or groups can be controlled. Being controlled seems at first to have its advantages, because we are not forced to think for ourselves, we just have to do what we are told, it is a no brainer. Its disadvantage is that it stifles creativity, dialogue, questioning. And then the human being has this faculty, of being able to be brain washed, conditioned. And conditioned, ignorant people do not question. In religious terms, a religious belief is imposed on a society, or group. The religion is learned by rote, not reasoned out, and chosen, because it is the one that appeals to me, the teachings appeal to me, but I do it because everyone else does it. It is the thing to do. If I don't I will not be accepted by the group, and so I conform, and because I am not reasoning our my religion, I don't have the ability to question if what is being said is right or wrong. And until very recently we had little choice, because of the vast lack of information and spiritual understanding. And because I am ignorant, and poor, my life does not seem to have much value, I die of hunger, disease, natural disasters and no one seems to care particularly, and so the life of the other does not have value either. Morality is based on an eye for an eye.

At least until we arrive at the 4th state of consciousness. For this phase a standard of education is required, which awakens in us the ability to reason for ourselves, the desire to come to our own conclusions, to see our view of right from wrong. To make an educated judgments. The fourth phase opens up for us the world of choices, and we are forced to take responsibility for our actions, we no longer can blame others for what happens, we have to act for ourselves. We break out of the group to make choices, at the risk of alienating the group. That is called freedom, the freedom to choose. With all its hazards.

We require respect for our choice, and with this request comes the awareness that what goes from me is also the right of the other. And so humanism is reinforced. Respect for human life, for the dignity of life. In religious terms, we start to look at a religion and what it has to say, we question the leaders and dialogue their interpretations, interpreting the truths as they seem right to us, based on our own deep heart felt knowing. We attempt to practice what the great teachers have taught us, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Or moral actions are based on principles.

At this moment in our collective evolutionary process, a great shift is expected to take place. As western society understands ever more that the true well being of human society is only possible through cooperation and dialogue. That conflict and destruction can be equated to disease. We are coming to the realization that our small planet is a unit, a space ship if you will, in which we are inter-connected by our environment, and that if we damage that in one place the consequences will be felt by all. That the effects affect us health wise, ecologically and consequently economically, we are realizing that we are a network, and that to survive on this planet we have to function as such. Humanity is a whole, a body, all its organs are necessary for its functioning at its optimum. We are inseparable from each other, and what we do to each other affects all of us. The harmony required for a healthy earth body, is the stimulus for building prosperity.

Wholeness means awareness of oneness, that means, that no one is better than the other. No man better than a woman, or woman better than a man, no race or color is better than another, we are all cells of the same body, alike but different. No religion is better than another since ultimately they all are generated from one source, the ultimate consciousness in whose being we have our presence.

The great shift now underway is one of consciousness, there is a 5th phase of consciousness. The great masters have all spoken of it, yet we have not been able to understand their message, for we had hit our evolutionary glass sealing. Be this the tribal awareness, or our more recent principled one. The new step of religious interpretation that western thinking is confronted with is spiritual in nature, and that is the one in which we see ourselves in the other, unconditional, non judgmental love. Religions that profess to be the expressions of divine thinking, need to start walking their talk. Not my religion is better than yours, but I will live the teachings of my master as he presented it. Love your neighbor as yourself.