Sudden Collective Consciousness Shift: An Experimental Musing between Geneen Marie Haugen & Bill Plotkin, Part II
Friday, February 9, 2024
Geneen writes: Well, without too much pre-planning or overthinking, Bill Plotkin and I began a written Musings conversation last week. Thanks to those who let us know they were interested to read more.
So, let’s just jump in. As you know, my Billoved, I’ve long had my antennae out for living-world changes that might be regarded as “evolutionary.” A book that you, Bill, will remember from days of yore, that had significant impact and inspiration for me was The Hundredth Monkey (published 1984), which was an illustration of a critical mass of individuals (in this case, monkeys) discovering a new behavior (in this case, the washing of sweet potatoes) and this discovery somehow resulting in the same new behavior suddenly appearing within other groups of monkeys who had no physical contact with the first group. [1] The possibility that radical change might be activated by only a portion of a population was hugely exciting to me in the days when nuclear weapons were the still most feared human invention. When the Berlin Wall (which had divided the city for 30 years) was suddenly disassembled by citizens in 1989, the possibilities of critical mass transformations of consciousness suddenly became, for me, less theoretical, and more something observable in our world.
I have been stretched by imagining (trying to imagine!) how massive species change might come about now, for 21st century homo sapiens, in this fragile and perilous time for all planetary life. Come to think of it, maybe holding out for systems change is a mental health survival strategy for me! Because I seem to need to know there is path, an opening, a little crack in perception that leads to a never-before-seen perspective or action. Or at least a way through turbulence. Even if the way has not yet (apparently) emerged, I mostly trust that a way through will emerge as it has for billions of years of cosmogenesis.
So a question for you, Billoved: Do you muse about — or does the Muse speak to you about — what might bring about massive change for humanity? A sudden shift in our collective direction?
Bill writes: Many thanks for this question, my dear Imageneer! You ask about a sudden shift in our collective direction. There’s the rub, eh? These days, in the midst of the 2020s, it does seem we truly need something “massive,” as you say, to shift suddenly for humanity. What could possibly do that? (And what exactly would count as “sudden” in the midst of our current planetary long-emergency polycrisis?)
I’m going to wade in here by first musing about the kinds of changes in humanity I see as needed. And then, after that, perhaps we could muse about what sorts of catalysts could bring about those kinds of changes — and “suddenly”!
Well, OK, truth be told, I believe that the kinds of changes needed now in humanity have already begun and that they started a good while ago! And it appears that this has been taking place without anyone trying to make it happen, which surely makes it seem evolutionary. (Isn’t this an exciting idea? That the needed changes might already be happening and that we humans didn’t have to figure them out on our own? That some other “force” brought them about on our behalf — and not only our behalf but on the behalf of all Earthly life?) So, the question for me is not what needs to change but how can we support — and maybe speed up — the evolutionary changes that have already begun so they might engender a “sudden shift in our collective direction”? (Because one thing we do not yet know is whether these changes will reach critical mass before it’s too late.) How can we become conscious partners with evolution?
What, then, has been changing about humanity? I believe we have been witnessing the emergence of a new kind of human that you yourself, dear Imageneer, have named Homo imaginans to refer to our evolving consciousness, our way into the future. [2] Thomas Berry suggested something similar: “Because we are moving into a new mythic age, it is little wonder that a kind of mutation is taking place in the entire earth-human order. A new paradigm of what it is to be human emerges.” [3]
In Nature and the Human Soul, I mused about three of the most likely indicators of a new emerging human paradigm [4]:
• Humanity’s recent (beginning only in the 20th century!) awareness of an evolutionary arc to the unfolding of the cosmos. This is the “time-developmental perspective” (Thomas Berry’s phrase) inherent in the science-informed new cosmic story. [5] I believe that not only will the world change, but we will be transformed as a species when we collectively grasp and learn to live from the knowledge that (a) the universe is continuing to evolve, (b) we humans are both a part of and an essential mode of this evolution, and (c) relative to Earth, at least, we humans now have a determining role in this evolution. Humanity as a whole has never before confronted such a psyche-shifting idea or such an awesome, Earth-shaping responsibility. [6]
• The emergence of universal visionary capacity: For most of human history, the highest development of visionary skill was limited to a few exceptional individuals in each community (shamans, prophets, mystics, psychics, seers, and so on). It seems, however, that over the last several decades this capacity of deep imagination is becoming accessible to all humans — and that we must widely cultivate this capacity if we are to create new sustainable societies, and eventually new life-enhancing cultures. This suggests to me an evolutionary unfolding. Now, merge that possibility with the following common but under-appreciated observation: The most radical, trail-blazing, world-shifting human ideas, scientific hypotheses, mathematical discoveries, art creations, and religious frameworks do not come from our everyday strategic minds, but from what some would call the Muse, or our human visionary intuition, or the deep imagination, a level or realm of consciousness entirely distinct from our waking consciousness.
• Modern adolescence: Adolescence, as we experience it now, didn’t really exist before the start of the 20th century. [7] It is a recent and evolving stage of human development, a stage gradually distinguishing itself from both childhood and adulthood. As our human story has been unfolding, we humans have each been maturing slower and, on average, living longer. Rather than a sign of psychological regression or biological error, modern adolescence might be evidence of an evolutionary trajectory, a momentous advantage we have not yet understood or benefited from. Longer juvenility allows for (but does not compel) fuller maturation. It is possible that, over the past ten thousand years (or more), we’ve been evolving as a species but becoming less mature as individuals. Now we have the opportunity to mature as well. We have not yet understood the potential and benefits of this new developmental period of adolescence, which encompasses not one but two distinct stages with different, even divergent, tasks. [8] Modern adolescence makes possible the more complete and destined development of the deep human imagination, our visionary capacity. Imagination might very well be the single most important faculty to cultivate in this new human stage of adolescence.
So, our musing opportunity here, dear Imageneer, might be through the following kinds of questions: How can humanity, in the 2020s and beyond, support the dissemination, on a grand scale, of the New Cosmic Story? How can we effect a sudden and widespread enhancement of visionary capacity? And how can we most effectively support teenagers and young adults in the cultivation of their deep imagination? Perhaps you, dahhhling, will initiate our next Musing with some of your deep imaginings on this topic.