Humanity and Gaia in Transition

We hear a great deal about the transformations underway in our planetary existence. You are all familiar with the situation that exists today with so many species becoming extinct, so many different changes going on in the society, the population growing, problems with pollution and with political transitions. All these things go on simultaneously. At the same time, networks of information and travel are growing stronger and stronger so that the world is becoming more united, more of a global society. Many transitions are going on simultaneously.

At this time, a system of nationalism is still in place. Yet as the world situation grows more and more interconnected, it is more an integrated whole. The concept of nationalism is fading. In today’s world there is so much communication and interchange that one nation cannot stand alone and separate from others. No nation can be independent. It is difficult to say that one nation can seek its own goals and survival apart from others. Humanity has become interdependent. No area of the planet can be severely harmed without impacting other areas.

This interconnected, interwoven fabric of today’s society is as in the past. Society then was divided by land and by a lack of interchange between different areas. Those divisions allowed for separate societies, apart from each other. In the days of separate societies, nationalism blossomed. Earlier in feudal societies, there were smaller clumpings. Then from the larger clumpings evolved nationalism. But in today’s world, even that type of division is too small. So what to do in such a time?

Even now there are only national governments and the empowerment of an international body is very limited. In such times, naturally entities that want to take advantage of the situation can claim their global presence. Therefore, multinational corporations have claimed a kind of international global presence. They are even forming their own societies, their own dominance in the international sphere. At the same time, there is no political body with sufficient authority to govern the workings of any international agents. So what to do in such a situation?

There must be some type of global body to be able to integrate the whole of human needs and of the needs of all beings upon the planet. There is a need for a system of government that takes account of the needs of all beings, a system of government not based on private and personal interest but upon the collective interest. There is need for a system to govern by organizing planetary resources and interlinked needs. However, that should not be an economic system because people will need economic autonomy to have control over their own lives, their own local communities.

The system of Prout, progressive utilization theory, engages local economic control with global political organization. Global political organization requires a confederation of entities, nations most likely, which come together in an empowered body. They can provide intercommunication and decision-making toward a kind of global society, a global harmony along with global economic existences rather than the globalization of large multinational corporate entities.

Progressive utilization theory is a system based in spiritual values, based not in any religion but in the fundamental understanding of the interconnected, interwoven nature of all life, of the interdependency of all life, and the need to bring all living beings into consideration, to use resources for the maximum benefit of all beings. This value base has reverence for life and an understanding of the nature of the human spirit which is always seeking something great. The Prout system brings into view the needs of living beings and utilizes resources for maximum potential to the development of living beings in the physical, mental, and spiritual spheres.

There is a necessity that is drawing change. Human beings have lived in societies that have been growing and growing in density and complexity throughout the millennium. Those societies are still based on a strong sense of individualism so that the needs of the individual or small group supersedes the greater needs. That has led to many "isms," many different groups that each seek their own interest so there is a lack of collectivity. Yet society is changing. The very fundamental nature of the relationship of all beings upon this planet is in shift. Survival as a planetary entity requires this growing necessity for an evolutionary shift, a jump in evolution to a type of understanding that brings living beings to an interconnected, interwoven whole.

Human beings are but extensions of the earth itself. Your body has come from this earth; it will go to this earth. From this living planet has come an extension of life, a development, an evolution. As that evolution has gone forward, it has moved to the stage where there is a development of consciousness. From life force concentrated in the core of the planet, in the core of any living planet, from that intensity, consciousness first transmutes into physical substance, into this particle universe. From there it continues to evolve and develop more and more intelligence, a more expanded awareness.

Consciousness ceases to sleep, as in a rock, and becomes more and more awakened, more and more self-aware until at the stage of human beings there is a great deal of self-awareness. Still consciousness keeps growing. Therefore, the consciousness condensed in the very formation of the planet, in the molecular particle universe, has the inherent characteristic that it will always evolve and evolve, so that its very existence continues to evolve. It has now evolved into animals, plants and human beings. You are like fingers that extend from the hand. Thus, all the living beings who have grown on a planet are extensions of its life force, extensions of the planet itself. The life of the planet has grown and grown until it has become a great variety of beings, but it is not finished growing. It continues to grow and evolve, and as it does this, mind grows in magnitude and awareness becomes greater.

Now a critical point has arrived in this evolutionary process. What you see today with all of its significant ramifications is due to this evolutionary process that is going on. This process has been going on since the formation of the planet itself. But now it reaches a very critical evolutionary juncture in which there is the need to change. Change in evolution always comes by necessity. That which suits survival continues. That which does not suit survival fades away.

So at this time, at this stage in the evolution of this planet, in order to move to the next stage of development, evolution is no longer mainly in the physical plane but is now taking place in the psychic plane, is it not? It has been going on in the interweaving and interconnectedness of living beings that has grown in the age of information and communication. The internet and so many ways of communication have linked people together around the world. As information goes around and travel goes around, the interconnectedness of beings is growing. This stage of evolution is such that individualism, the survival of the one, is becoming the very detriment of the human society. Now when one group wants to survive over another, it creates a situation that threatens the survival of the whole.

Capitalism is a self-centered philosophy that derived to bring people to individual prosperity, emphasizing materialism. In the material plane, however, there is only so much resource to go around. If one group has all of the resources and many have so little of the resources, the imbalance creates a great deal of difficulty. A system designed to increase material wealth and give most of it to those who with the greatest competitive strength is inherently not adaptable to the future of the human race. The future is one of an interconnected world where living beings become more and more interwoven, interconnected, and interdependent. This evolution will even come to a point where the minds of people are not so separate as they are now but living beings will bond together as if becoming one entity rather than being so individual. However, this stage is not yet here even though evolution goes quickly now. The systems that adapt to this evolutionary process are the systems that will go forward in the future.

The life of this planet is an integral whole. You cannot separate one species from another, one race from another, one region from another. Perhaps these things could be done in the past when there appeared to be differences, but those differences fade as the truth of the nature of beings comes forward and they become closer and closer in their interlinking of knowledge and understanding.

This process has come to a period of crisis because the capacity of creativity, the ability to form crude technologies, has become greater than the ability to integrate life and to value the whole above individual achievement. Because the psychic evolution has not particularly been even, is not even, this kind of disparity occurs. But that which brings survival will be the adaptive feature to go forward. That which does not bring survival will fade in time.
At this critical point, evolution has reached a stage where receptivity to new ideas of the future is now growing in magnitude. Many positive changes will take place but change will come with a cost. When large changes take place in any system, there is disruption. There may be disruptions of significant magnitude but the result will be most positive. This is a natural process of evolution and will result in the integration, wholeness, and expansion of vital awareness. These will become magnificent. The future of humanity is bright. Are there questions that anyone would like to ask?

Q. How will global warming impact on these changes and is it in the very near future when this disruption might occur and will that cause of some kind of paradigm shift?

A. Global warming is one of a number of significant convergent difficulties at this time. If you think, "Why is there global warming?," is it not because there is not a coordination and a thinking of the whole, an operation of the whole, that the political systems are not in place that there can be a coordinated response to a global situation? There are a significant number of serious global situations today but the mechanisms to give a global response are not in place. Secondly, there is still the self-centered ideology dominating the world today so that the greed of materialism and material gain of a few are placed over the general welfare.

Under these circumstances, there is nobody to stop the situation and there are definite powerful forces that will want to keep it in place. So what to do? Humanity must rally a response. Naturally, one can say, "How? The basic mechanisms of response are not in place." But necessity brings the change. Unfortunately, with the environment there are certain destructive patterns that may be set in place that will take a little time to undo. But they are great teachers, and the natural consequence of actions of an immature race attempting to grow and develop into maturity.

Q. Baba, what in brief would be the benefit of the current ideological confrontations that are going on between different religious groups in this country that are causing so much havoc, such as in the form of religious fundamentalism?

A. It is not that there is benefit. It is that this is a natural human reaction and response. That fundamentalism has risen in the world today is a response when there is a fearful situation and there is a fundamental recognition of that fearful situation and a desire to attempt to put it in some type of mental framework to make it safe. So fundamentalism rises to the surface. But as self-centered ideologies will fail to meet the needs of today’s society, so will this type of fundamentalism fail to meet the needs. Though it rallies people to groups out of fear to be exposed to such a large crisis, it does not provide lasting solutions. It does not provide solutions that will bring the living beings through this period. It is a reactive process. Even so, one has seen in so many places in the last ten to fifteen years, reactive governmental and political regimes and religious movements because this sense of shift and change and uncertainty brings a type of fear. This makes people seek some type of rigid structure that will enforce something familiar. However, this will not last because it does not solve the problem.

The real solution lies in linking of all hands together and the putting of the welfare of the whole first and foremost. Then, in this type of situation with global decision-making, real solutions can come to the present circumstance. I think human beings want to survive. I think the instinct for survival is extremely strong and therefore, in the end, this survival instinct will bring the force of evolution to bear to bring forward that which will lead to survival.