A CONTEXT FOR CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION
It has become obvious that a rising mass of humanity is undergoing a profound inner mutation or transformation. Evolutionary ideas are not only serving to make sense of this change, but also acting to catalyze the potential within us to transform. (Thought creates; specific thought creates specifically.)
It is the planetary crisis into which we were born that is awakening our sleeping potential for transformation. Planet Earth has given birth to a species capable of choosing whether to consciously evolve ourselves and our social forms, or to continue the course we have set toward our own extinction. We now know that evolution happens by choice not chance.
All great spiritual paths lead us to this threshold of our own consciousness, but none can guide us across the great impasse — from the creature human to the co-creative human. None can guide us in managing the vast new powers given us by science and technology. None of us have been there yet.
What can we envision?
The enriched noosphere, the thinking layer of Earth, is now replete with evolutionary technologies that can transform the material world. Within the next 30 to 50 years, we could have the power to transform our physical bodies, our minds, our social structures, and set in motion the emergence of a new civilization. What is the use of the emerging powers that is good for the future of humanity?
Science: It is said that the power of quantum computing may increase exponentially in the next 50 years bordering on silicon-based life. At the same time biologists studying aging, cloning, and stem cells tell us we may reverse aging and gain a sort of immortality. One scientist writes, “We may live 600 years and only die by accident.”
Moving deeply into the nature of matter, students of zero point energy believe that we can tap into and use the infinite sea of energy, the quantum plenum that underlies everything. Furthermore, with nanotechnology we can build as nature does—atom by atom.
Expanding beyond the earth itself, space engineers envision the formation of an extraterrestrial sphere; much as hundreds of millions of years ago the biosphere was formed. It is possible that we can live in an integrated Earth/Space environment restoring the Earth, freeing ourselves from hunger and poverty, exploring the vast untapped potential of human co-creativity.
Social systems: As we shift from maximum procreation to cocreation, the Feminine would be liberated to co-create with men in a more balanced way for the good of the larger human family. The Masculine would be released from its long-standing roles of patriarch and protector to discover the peace and ease of a harmonious relationship with the Feminine in the act of cocreation.
Patterns of unification are set in motion already, as nonprofit, corporate, and governmental alliances are built around countless initiatives. Those that are successful are already witnessing the melting of borders and boundaries that have prevented successful collaboration, negotiation and synergy in the past. Political events, like the fall of the Berlin Wall foreshadowed the possibility of unification around the globe, creating the hope that seemingly insurmountable problems may find yet find solutions.
Spiritual grounding: Jesus said, “These and even greater works shall you do.” We may actually be on the threshold of those abilities that Christ was able to do which He foresaw as possibilities for us all. Specifically, we can use our ability conscious intent, perhaps in conjunction with scientific and technological capacities to allow us to create bodies sensitive to thought. We may find ourselves transforming the human body from its physical, animal, degenerating phase to a regenerating and evolving phase.
This capability would be the fulfillment of the words of St. Paul: “Behold I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound. This corruptible will become incorruptible. This mortal will put on immortality and death shall be swallowed up in victory.”
This would also be the emergence of what Alan Lithman calls, psyche materialis, and what the Bible calls, Adam of the quickening Spirit. And so it was written: the first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (1 Cor. 15:45).
Sri Aurobindo named the human being with this ability, the gnostic being; Teilhard de Chardin called it the ultra human; and I have selected the name, universal human and universal humanity. This type of human is a quantum jump beyond the species Homo sapiens. It is a new species that is incubating in millions now. It is the next form of humanity of a higher order of consciousness.
This is a Naissance; this is new for Earth — but it is not new for the universe. The name universal human is fitting because it connotes the reality we are entering, the phase of universal life.
Although we may never know what really happened experientially, we do know that the story told in the Gospels is that Jesus’ resurrection was a first demonstration of what I call the post-human universal person. We are told that he did not die. He made his transition, released his earth-body, and reappeared in a new body at the next level of physicality revealing to us that we would do what he did. The new person that he became had continuity of consciousness with his life as Jesus of Nazareth, an earthly life in which he had become fully human and fully divine. Jesus' life stands as a model of the transition from Homo sapiens to Homo universalis.
Summary
Now millions of earthly humans from every spiritual tradition, from many social movements and scientific lineages of human inquiry are evolving to the stage at which they recognize their soul, their higher self. They are becoming willing, even passionately desire, to be one with that Self. As a critical mass of humans emerge with new capacities, humanity will undergo an unprecedented shifting in our entire way of being on this planet. We will realize a new future, a new earth, and a new humanity.
We are the generations born into this moment in history. Our powers are immense. We can destroy the earth as we know it, or alternatively, transform the material and societal limits of human life. We or future generations may live to experience either the destruction of our life support systems with unimaginable consequences for billions of people, or the literal transformation of our bodies from creature human life cycle to co-creative human life cycle. The choice is ours to make. We have the capacities and the resources to create a world that works for everyone. Do we have the will?