written 15 Sep 2018
published 22 September 2018
I stated in my last article that it will take a miracle to address climate change. Miracles are simply the operation of systems beyond our awareness. As we finite beings contemplate the infinite unknown, everything we "know" is wrong, or at best, incomplete. A new perspective can appear like a miracle. Einstein said, "you can't solve a problem with the same mindset that created it." The mindset behind the climate problem is the conviction that matter has its own autonomy, the illusion of dualistic separation.
This materialist perspective sees problems "out there", thus solutions require action "out there". This disempowers the individual, since one person doesn't appear to have much effect. Group action seems necessary, but getting people headed in the same direction is difficult, requiring time, energy, and money.
The alternative to dualistic materialism is non-duality. The ground of reality is not matter, but consciousness, putting the aware individual in an empowered position. Climate change arises as the lethal conclusion of the belief in separation. Two weeks ago, a packed house viewed a Climate Action of Mendocino presentation of Paul Hawkins' video, "Drawdown", which suggested that climate change is an opportunity. Like a cancer diagnosis, near-term human extinction can focus our attention on awakening from the separation illusion, embracing our human birthright.
"The New Consciousness", by local author Jakeb Brock, proposes we have been misled for six thousand years, believing humans represent an evolutionary peak. He suggests we are still evolving, and Christ embodied and taught unity consciousness as the way forward. But the Christian religion misunderstood the teaching and worships Jesus as the unique son of God, rather than as a man who awakened to unity consciousness, a possibility available to us all.
"Our Compassionate Kosmos", by local author Ricardo Stocker, presents a similar message. "We are not bodies with a soul, but souls with a body." There is wisdom all around us, and we can adjust our perspective to tune to that wisdom, just like tuning a radio to a different channel, which is already broadcasting.
"Science and Spiritual Practices", by biologist Rupert Sheldrake, gives seven practices to help us tune to these other channels, starting with meditation and gratitude awareness. By learning to notice and respond to wisdom and information that is always present, we begin to experience "out there" as an extension of "in here". When we change our beliefs, the larger world is transformed.
"Zero Limits", by Joe Vitale, describes the work of Dr. Hew Len, a clinical psychologist, appointed to a Hawaiian clinic for mentally ill criminals. Within four years, he changed a dysfunctional facility, hated by both inmates and staff, into a desired workplace. Patients were healed to the point the entire facility was no longer needed. Dr. Len accomplished this with no patient contact, but worked to change himself, using the Hawaiian spiritual practice called Ho'oponopono, which teaches we live in a shared consciousness. Change in one person's consciousness changes the whole. "Total responsibility for your life, means that everything in your life, simply because it IS in your life, is your responsibility. In a literal sense, the entire world is your creation."
The first project by the Institute Of Noetic Sciences was a directory of spontaneous healings recorded in medical records. These were cases diagnosed as terminal in the near term, but went into complete remission as people changed their attitudes about their illness. Medical science knows the placebo effect is real. Any substance has healing affect about a third of the time, because the person believes it is so. Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the effect of mind on the body.
What we believe affects our health and how our material body manifests. What we believe affects the material world we experience. Whatever outward actions we take to address climate change, we must also notice the thoughts and limitations we hold, because we are powerful creative beings. To whatever extent I feel disconnected from the world, I am contributing to the world's disconnection from me, in the form of climate induced human extinction. We are divinity manifesting and need to embrace our power, using it for the good of the whole, of which we are part.
