My Current Opinion:
Solution

Last month's column elicited some interesting responses. One friend wrote to say that I came off a bit "yang." Another, accustomed to the more transcendent tone usually taken in this column, said it really wasn't "me." Others said it was about time these issues receive attention here. I think it's important to understand that we as humans live on many levels. It is all just a dream but it is experienced as real on as many levels as we are aware of. Relative to the One, what goes on in the physical world, politics, business, entertainment and the day-to-day events in any person's life are just as real as any other person's experiences as a spiritual seeker.

The world is real as we experience it. It is one of the levels we are more or less aware of and active on. I believe that as it is what is in front of us, we may very well want to see about doing the best we can with it. On this level, some of the realities are that the planet is sick and we are the cause and the cure of it; our politics is corrupt because we lie, cheat and steal; we live in fear because that has historically been the best way to control us and it is habit.

Many people on the spiritual path have learned that consciousness is the cure for their ills. The attainment of higher degrees of consciousness is, in part, accomplished by releasing false beliefs and illusions that are the cause of pain. Spiritual seekers know that it is the sum total of all sides of their consciousness that creates their world. What we need now to do is to apply this knowledge to the wider world.

Mass consciousness creates and defines the physical plane as we know it. The consensus reality that humans live in is created by our collective consciousness. If one wishes to have a positive effect on the world, the way to do it is to raise mass consciousness.

The cold war did not end because the Americans outspent the Russians on defense. It did not end because one system was proved more viable than the other. While both of these statements may or may not be true, the cold war ended because a critical mass consciousness was reached that would no longer stand for living under the threat of nuclear annihilation. We just said no. After nearly fifty years of nuclear nightmare, if the authorities are to be believed, there are now no American missiles aimed at Russians and no Russian missiles aimed at Americans. Peace vigils and meditations, prayers, events like the annual World Instant of Cooperation where people all over the planet meditated and prayed for peace simultaneously for an hour, combined with the media making the insanity too apparent to too many people finally created a strong enough current of consciousness to sweep it away.

We ought to still be dancing in the street at the removal of the threat of full scale nuclear war -- but what has occurred is that the human habit of fear simply shifted attention onto the other problems facing the world. Global warming, general pollution, species extinction, political corruption, financial insecurity and all of our little fears cut short the celebration and left us feeling that one threat dealt with meant nothing in the face of all these other problems. But all we really need do now is apply the same means to these problems that swept away the threat of all-out nuclear war.

If we will focus on pollution and corruption and the other challenges facing us in the same way that we dealt with the problem of nuclear war, then they will fade away as well. It is time to step up and raise the level of the consensus dream and we have the means to do it. Mass media has never been more powerful, pervasive and more available to be used in the service of consciousness. Lightworks Communications, the parent company of The Monthly Aspectarian and the Lightworks website is dedicated to the expansion of consciousness. There are countless others out there also doing the work. If each of us will do what we can, on whatever level we can do it, then the world will change. It has to. That's the way it works.

Meditate, pray, communicate, teach, learn . . . and in any way possible seek to raise consciousness in yourself and in those around you. Critical mass has already been reached on one crucial issue. It can be reached on the others. Imagine what a critical mass of love will accomplish.