What is Conscious Evolution?
Conscious Evolution is a new movement of people studying both the evolution of consciousness and the consciousness needed for us to evolve beyond the current crises we have created in our world. What does it mean, and what does it require, for us to raise our consciousness, both individually and collectively? Is it possible for us to evolve, yes evolve, out of behaviors and attitudes such as war, violence, scarcity, greed and prejudice?
Well let's first define both terms and what we mean by them. Let's start with Consciousness. The dictionary defines consciousness as "the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings", and as "the awareness or perception of something by a person". This term has most commonly been used to mean the state of being awake and aware as opposed to being asleep, mentally incoherent, or somehow unable to perceive one's surroundings with accuracy. So on the very surface, being conscious can just mean that one is walking around, functioning in a body. But what does it really mean to be awake and aware of one's surroundings? In every day experiences, there are many times a day when any of us could be considered "unconscious" because we are not awake and aware of our surroundings on many levels. We are not aware of the other creatures that share our property and the delicate web of life that they support. Or we do not have an awareness or perception of the plants and trees that live around us except that they are something in "nature". There are many levels to this thing called consciousness, and it is important to actually try to expand our ability to be aware of, and perceive, what is really going on around us. Part of our role as human beings on planet earth has been the journey of expanding consciousness, and in many areas we have come a long way! And, this is an on-going aspect of our lives. We are now at a point on the planet that if we do not become more "awake and aware of our surroundings" we risk greater harm to ourselves and many other life forms as a result of our current way of living.
I also like to expand the definition of consciousness to include the state of being aware of the consequences of one's actions; the ability to see beyond the limited view of the personal ego; and an awareness of the interconnectedness of all of life in the biosphere of Earth. When we expand the definition of consciousness, it helps us to expand our way of seeing things and to open up new pathways in the brain. This thing called consciousness has no limit and is continually expanding all of the time because we can continually become more and more aware of ourselves and our surroundings, on out to the cosmos, in deeper or broader ways. We can increase our awareness in all areas of our lives including our spiritual journey, our diet, our purchases, our relationships, our connection to the earth, the products we purchase and consume and how we deal with the waste from those purchases.
Ultimately, for me, consciousness is completely related to the spiritual aspect of life. And here, what I am referring to is the deeper calling within to connect to the Spirit of all things, within all things, behind all things an through all things.
Now let's look briefly at the term Evolution. The dictionary definition of evolution is "the gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form." Well by this definition we certainly have evolved over time! Human civilization has become more complex, in both positive and not-so positive ways, and we have developed a world that is more complex than is was even a few hundred years ago let alone thousands of years ago. And if we look around, the planet has developed quite a complex web of life in the biosphere. Not all of the species that exist today existed several thousand years ago, or millions of years ago. Other species that existed long ago are no longer with us today. Evolution means simply the process of things changing, adapting or altering to form more complex systems.
At the advent of the Atom Bomb, Barbara Marx Hubbard, evolutionary and visionary leader and a mentor of mine, realized the profound line that we had crossed in the sands of evolution. We had become a species who had used it's intelligence to develop the power to destroy ourselves and most of life on earth. Our capacities had exceeded our level of consciousness. At that point a whole new series of questions, about where we were heading and the role we play in the greater cosmic dance, began to awaken in Ms. Hubbard.
Conscious evolution is humanity's next step. We must become much more conscious of how we are living on the planet, what our footprint and technologies are doing to the environment, and even more, what we are evolving to in a cosmic sense. As we continue to expand our capacities to photograph distant galaxies, explore space and understand the vastness of the universe, we are taking a step in the evolution of humanity! We must now bring much greater consciousness and wholeness to how we are living with the planet so that life can thrive here, and venture out into the farther reaches of the cosmos, into the distant future.
May the "Blessed Unrest" we feel about our world be our answer to the call of Evolution within us. It's really God's call within us, God wanting to emerge and evolve humanity to its next grandest version of the greatest expression of who we are. This is exciting, and we are partnering with the greatest Power there is, the Divine Intelligence that breathes us!