written 11 September 2022
published 18 September 2022
Humanity is in the midst of an evolution of consciousness, emerging from the illusion of separation, awakening to unity reality. The climate crisis demands a unity response.
As climate destruction breaks new records, climate action is hindered primarily not by deniers and skeptics, but by business and political "leaders" who support only incremental solutions, saying we can’t move too quickly lest we disrupt the economic order. But as Swami Beyondananda says: "With no livable Earth, there is no GDP." Decades of corporate greed wasted the opportunity for gradual change. Avoiding collapse now requires radical change and radical thinking, with new forms of activism.
Patricia Pearce, in her 24 August 2022 WE Awakening podcast, describes old school activism as a type of toxic energy, using domination and violence in the streets to accomplish ends. An awakened activism needs to be visionary, speaking to the heart, presenting what is possible, inspiring each person to unifying their temporal and eternal parts. She presents the image, "when chopping wood, aim for the chopping block, not the firewood." Clara Vondrich, published in Resilience, 25 August 2022, describes the aim as "quantum social change".
"This [r]evolutionary new academic discipline, pioneered by social scientist Karen O’Brien, PhD, panpsychologist Zhiwa Woodbury, science journalist Lynn McTaggart, and others, suggests that the mind-bending principles that describe the subatomic world are also relevant to our daily lives. Just as quantum physics disrupted our view of matter and energy, smashing the Newtonian paradigm of a fixed physical reality, quantum social change disrupts our beliefs about what’s possible, how fast, and by whom. Albert Einstein said: We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them."
The world of quantum mechanics demonstrates Entanglement and Non-locality, Complementarity, Potentiality and Indeterminacy.
Entanglement occurs when a group interacts in such a way that they become interconnected, even when separated by a large distance. Non-locality means this interconnection transcends space/time. It has been demonstrated that not only is matter non-local, but consciousness is as well.
However, unfettered individualism, rooted in the illusion of separation, is behind the destruction of human rights, the rise of domination autocracy, the decimation of Indigenous cultures, and the unrestrained plundering of the natural world. In contrast, community and connection are proven to insulate us from stress, give our lives meaning and allow us to be part of something “bigger.” The more entangled we are, the better we seem to do.
For example, the divestment movement to pull money out of coal, oil, and gas started slowly in 2012. Ten years later, 1,500 institutions have divested assets exceeding $40 trillion. Once the idea was planted, campaigns popped up simultaneously all over the world. What we do has far-flung, unseen, and unexpected consequences. The connective quality of computer technology, totally dependent on quantum hardware, is a great demonstration of non-locality today.
Complementarity holds that objects behave as either particles or waves, depending on how they are observed. As humans, we each exist as both individuals and as cells in the meta-organism that is Gaia. This means that we all have agency to join in and help power social movements. When complementarity is nurtured, “I” becomes “we” and our capacity for change grows exponentially.
Quantum potentiality, different from classical probability, means many possible outcomes all exist simultaneously. Indeterminacy means nothing is fixed. Nothing is predictable. A higher order can quite suddenly emerge from apparent chaos. A radical shift from our current trajectory is always possible. In a chaotic world, the right catalyst creates unpredictable outcomes, and quantum leaps (non-linear changes) are possible when people and movements embrace potentiality and the hope it can bring.
With a naive understanding of space/time, our ignorant arrogance is killing the planet for the profit of a few. The climate crisis demands our awakening to the infinite possibilities of our quantum paradigm; the unstoppable power of individuals within a collective. As we allow ourselves to experience this quantum reality, awakening from the Newtonian delusion of separate "self", we help shift our society toward manifesting the deeper unity. We all have this power, because we arise out of this unity. When a bubble pops, the surface thins, and then ruptures at a single spot, which propagates throughout the entire structure. Every moment of individual practice of unity awareness is an active force toward thinning the illusion of separation. This is awakened activism.
