Are We Running Out Of Time?

Problems always provide us with opportunities to evolve. My inclination is to take a positive outlook on our future; after all, things have generally gotten better over the span of the five Epochs. I think we should be optimistic; however, this optimism for the future must become a catalyst for bold action and not become a form of denial. The perfect storm is brewing for global catastrophe…or for a beautiful new wave of human potential. Which path will we walk? That depends on what we do now.

It would be irresponsible not to bring to light some of the glaring issues facing us now and the urgency with which dramatic change has to come about. The current unbalanced and competing Life Altitudes of premodern, modern and postmodern consciousness (Epochs 3, 4 and 5) along with the shadow elements deep in our unconscious minds (habituated by our lower brains) are producing many of the problems that could lead to our destruction. We all know the challenges: climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, new infectious diseases, disappearing water supply, pollution, overpopulation, poverty, government gridlock, etc. The shadow elements of our minds coupled with the lower, primitive, survival-based human brain create destructive patterns of thought and behavior. As we now know, the lower primitive survival brain does not want to change.

If we don’t take bold action now, we may still survive. A small percentage of our species probably would live through any type of global catastrophe and start over. The question is, do we want to wait for catastrophe and hope for the best? Or can we quickly gather the wisdom to advance our brains and consciousness and change directions without crisis?

Do you have a sense that the species may be in trouble? That we could be running out of time and that our way of living is unsustainable?

Do you feel it in your own life? Overwhelmed? Not sure why you are doing what you are doing? Not enough time? You may even feel deep down that the life you are living is unsustainable. The level of complexity in our world has exceeded our physiological capacity as well as our current cognitive capacity and this overload further activates the lower stress brain. I have come to the unshakable conclusion that changes need to happen fast; I have been feeling it deeply. It seems as though we have all been in one massive case of denial.

Our world today is made up mostly of the latest three Life Altitudes to emerge in evolution: traditional (Epoch 3), modern (Epoch 4) and postmodern (Epoch 5). Not everyone has grown to Epoch 5 and that is OK. Healthy representations of all the lower Life Altitudes form building blocks for the higher Life Altitudes to rest on. Development is envelopment. However, most concerning at this point in history is that all three of these Life Altitudes currently have deep pathological elements in them.

Dysfunction At The Leading Edge

Of particular concern is the dysfunction that appears to be growing within Epoch 5, as it is the leading edge that is called on to make the seismic shift. From one perspective, that is how we would expect it to be, as evolution follows pathology, chaos and the inability to navigate current life conditions. The problem is that we need to make the leap now, as the stakes of the game have never been this high; we need to help evolution across this chasm. SCM and the 9 Summits of Transformation are positioned to be part of the ushering in of the new world.

As mentioned earlier, the stages of development (Life Altitudes) are building blocks of the mind…you cannot skip them, just as molecules become cells and cells become organisms…you cannot skip the earlier altitudes of consciousness. Since the evolution of consciousness and culture—at least so far—is catalyzed by growing to the point where it sees and feels what’s ‘wrong’ with its current perspective. As a precursor to evolution, life conditions present themselves that cannot be solved from the current level of consciousness (Life Altitude). This mis-match between life conditions and the resources in consciousness available to navigate those life conditions can lead to a new emergence.

However evolution can be messy, and as the transcendence to a new level occurs there is a tendency to reject not just the outmoded elements of the previous altitude, but to reject all of it, thus negating important building blocks of the emerging new Life Altitude. When cultures evolve they most always lose or reject something that needs recapturing. This transcend-and-reject pathology, now appears to have deeply imbedded itself in the leading edge Epoch 5 Life Altitude. This could spell much trouble for the potential leap into Epoch 6.

The pathologies that are now hijacking the gifts of our leading-edge Epoch 5 occurred because we transcended, yet didn’t always include. This led us to throw out many of the enduring truths and building blocks of Epochs 3 and 4. Many of us that now source our values and identity from the egalitarian nature of Epoch 5 went too far and started to see ‘equality’ to mean ‘I get to do whatever I want to do and nobody can tell me not to’, which in reality is regression to the egocentric nature of Epoch 2. It was a quick sleight of hand that led our narcissism to masquerade as postmodern values. You can see it around if you look closely. This is what happens when we rightfully dislike Epoch 3’s ethnocentrism and extreme dominating authoritarian tendency, but fail to see its good elements of healthy responsibility and accountability—we allow the ugly outmoded elements of even earlier Life Altitudes to creep in.

We threw out the baby with that bathwater and jettisoned the structure and discipline and personal responsibility that are healthy features of Epoch 3. And what about Epoch 4? It is easy to see the materialistic achievement orientation of Epoch 4 as creating income inequality and environmental destruction (which are very real issues from the pathology of this altitude) and we then negate all forms of needed progress, success and evolutionary drive, and slip back to regressive, irrational, narcissistic tendencies that are starting to dominate what should be our leading edge Epoch 5. This failure to integrate Epochs 3 and 4 leads to a lack of drive, critical thought, accountability and discipline.

Due to this repression, we see within our higher Epoch 5 Life Altitude an overextension of rights and the underextension of responsibility. All hierarchy is despised, not understanding that there are healthy and unhealthy versions of hierarchy. Unhealthy versions dominate and repress people; healthy versions, such as a ‘holarchy’, honors as it transcends and includes what came before…like a molecule does with an atom and a cell does with a molecule. This is also how the Epochs should unfold. Our disdain for ALL hierarchy leaves us paralyzed in consensus. Unable to move past complexity and gridlock we allow apathy and nihilism to set into our lives. We must reclaim the enduring features of lower Life Altitudes and move into the radical new orientation of Epoch 6.

Hoping For The Best Or ‘Conscious Evolution’?

The attitude that somehow our global problems will just work out because they always have didn’t work for the Mayans, Babylonians, Romans or Khmer. These once advanced thriving civilizations are all dust today. In fact, not only are most previous civilizations gone, 99.9% of all the species that have ever roamed the earth and sea are now extinct.

We can either await the arrival of the next Epoch and run the risk of being too late, or, we can, for the first time in the 13.8 billion-year history of the earth and 4.5 billion-year history of life, through a high degree of consciousness and intuition, participate and promote the very evolutionary process that created us! Welcome to the future.

We know a way out…

Michael