April/May 2004

Peace Candidate Dennis Kucinich Vows to Stay in Race
Interview by Amy Goodman

Winds of Change in Spain
William Rivers Pitt

"House of Bush, House of Saud"
Interview with Craig Unger by Amy Goodman

"Seeds of Deception"
Jeffrey Smith

Genetically Engineered DNA Found in Traditional Seeds

New Findings Show Health Hazards of Genetically Modified Crops

An Evolutionary Conversatoin with Barbara Marx Hubbard
Alan Sasha Lithman

Making A New Declaration of Independence
Michael J. Tamura

Empathic Listening
Holley Humphrey

Intimacy With Self and Others, Earth and Spirit
Loba

2004 State of the Universe Address
Swani Beyondananda

Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain

BACK TO TOP

Barbara Marx Hubbard, Continued

ASL: But even for people who recognize that we’re in an evolutionary shift, there’s still a certain amount of skepticism because their own experience fluctuates. They’re still not convinced that Evolution isn’t going to wind up reducing all this back to compost, especially as the breakdowns and madness seem to accelerate relative to the breakthroughs.

Personally, I don’t believe there’s an empirical argument one can use to counter this skepticism. So I look to another level that doesn’t depend on outer proof. In other words, I come from the premise that Evolution is the Self-expression of what we awkwardly call God. And if this is the case, if all this is an Evolution of Consciousness playing Itself out in Time-Space rather than some random big-bang emergence of something out of nothing, then the whole perspective changes. Because if all this is a progressive manifestation of the Divine, then unless this Divinity is a masochist or a victim of its own creation, surely there is a far greater, more imaginative and fulfilling outcome then self-destruction. I mean, why would the Divine labor through something that ultimately ended up nowhere? So even as I know we must actively struggle to survive the transitional crises we face as a species, I support my actions and activism with a faith that transcends appearances—that trusts where we are heading and what is emerging through us.

BMH: I also sense that evolution is a progressive, intelligent process of creation. Teilhard de Chardin thought there would be a bifurcation of the species: The bourgeois who are trying to hold on and make everything comfortable as it is; and the others which he called Homo progressivus, who are attracted to the future as an organism progressing toward the unknown.

Now I’ve noticed that when people don’t feel this attraction to the future—an attraction which requires your emergent potential to be realized—they feel discouraged, alienated, condemning and judgmental. While Homo progressivus is motivated by a mysterious sense of the future and gains in vitality and creativity. I like very much the definitions for the different types of Homo that you develop in your book An Evolutionary Agenda: Where you describe our current species as Homo egoicus; and within that species, you refer to an egoic mutant which is the power group that controls the technologies that can destroy us—that egoic extreme among us which has plundered Nature’s secrets and turned these to serve the ego. And if that collective ego goes unchecked, it would be disastrous for our whole planet. Then you refer to Homo transitionalis, representing that part of our humanity which recognizes that we must transform to survive and is willing to make the transition, to branch toward that transformation. And transi-tionalis is followed by Homo polaris, Homo holisticus and finally Psyche materialis.

With Homo polaris, you present an emergent turning-point species that is guided by an inner star, that knows we’re not just fixing up the old world to return to a patched-up version of it; but rather that we’re evolving toward a future that is literally attracting us forward. Now there’s no way to prove that. It’s totally subjective. But when you feel this attraction, the effect on you is that you become more creative, more loving, more hopeful. So I judge ideas that can’t be proved by the effect they have on you to have them.

ASL: It’s also helpful to remind ourselves that every new form or species that’s come into being became the status quo for that moment in evolutionary time. And of course, the tendency of the status quo is to remain what it is. It doesn’t want to let go to become the next, because the egoic identity with the existing form interprets the shift as a threat to its survival rather than the birth of its expanding self. In other words, the gravity of the existing pattern is so strong that it instinctively resists this movement of evolution to expand and transform. Which I believe is precisely where we’re at as a species, struggling with these two tendencies—one gravity pulling us backward, the other attracting us forward. And for those who track macro-patterns for a sense of context and direction, one can look back through the evolution of ideas and forms and see that every breakthrough shift has been preceded by doubt, ridicule or the sense of its impossibility, even to the point of aggressively resisting and denying it. So from an evolutionary perspective, the very intensifying sense of the impossibility of the change may be the indicator that we are approaching the breakthrough of the possible.

BMH: Yes, exactly. So my test of an idea is the effect on the person having the idea. You see, when I was younger, I was trying to be an atheistic existentialist. (Laughter). I actually really tried … in Paris, the beret and the Gauloise cigarette. The effect on me was depression, misery and alienation. Then I discovered Teilhard de Chardin. I found that this yearning inside me for higher consciousness and greater freedom was, for Teilhard, the direction of the universe. It was God in evolution. It was the intent of creation. And I immediately cheered up. (Laughter).
So instead of feeling alienated and separate, I identified this yearning in me with the universe yearning through me for greater consciousness and freedom. I felt one with the cosmos and experienced the force of creation for the first time as if I were the universe experiencing itself. That totally transformed my life. The reason I think Teilhard’s idea or “meme” is better than atheistic existentialism is that the effect on me was joy, creativity—an awakening to life’s purpose and 40 years of motivation.

ASL: Even though you express this in subjective terms, it creates an objective approach to measure the evolutionary value of ideas and the growth of consciousness. For if self-evolution resulted in becoming more depressed, more disconnected, more fearful, anguished or angry, it would make no sense. But if it makes us more whole, sensitive and caring, more productive and inspired, then it suggests an intrinsic value and progression, even if that progression translates subjectively through one’s state of being or one’s capacity for creative action in the world. And I think it’s legitimate to consider these things as indicators of whether an idea is evolutionary or devolutionary.

BMH: Yes, you know the phrase, “by your fruits, you shall be known.” I would say, by the fruits of an idea, that idea shall be known.

ASL: And if by getting in touch with our own deeper self, we experience and express more joy, more creativity; and if consciously connecting with our own deeper self is actually reconnecting with the Divine in us, then it’s actually the Divine communicating that joy and creativity through us into the world, resonating that outward into matter—setting up a resonance, a contagion that spreads through the heart, joining us together from within.

BMH: Yes. I believe there’s an ecology of souls on this earth, in the sense that different souls resonate with different aspects of reality. And what distinguishes those drawn toward this evolutionary consciousness is that they don’t withdraw into a purely mystical aspect of conscious-ness but are drawn toward a consciousness that has creative intention. In other words, if what we have called God expresses, in this evolutionary sense, through the will or intention coded into the universe—the urge in creation toward higher consciousness, greater freedom, more harmonious order—then when we align our intention with that Intention, we are in effect, to use an older language, making our will and God’s will one.

In fact every time I align my intention with this Intention, I feel good, alive, creative; and I’ve noticed that I actually am creative and helpful to others. And I believe this evolutionary Intention runs through us all. It is evolution’s tendency toward greater complexity, syntropy, consciousness and freedom. This is a 14 billion year trend!

ASL: And the more conscious one becomes in this process, the more one becomes a magnet attracting others vibrating with this same urge.

BMH: Yes, the more attracted you are to this evolutionary potential, the more attractive you are to others who resonate with this attraction. As you become attracted, you become vocationally aroused. Your unique creativity awakens and you begin to innovate and create new ideas, initiatives and projects which are actually transforming our world.

ASL: And to support these emerging initiatives is what it means to fund the future rather than throwing endless resources into propping up a system that’s killing us. I mean, here we are cannibalizing our social, environmental, educational and healthcare budgets to feed an insatiable military budget in the name of security. While the real security of the world lies in addressing these very issues of social justice, poverty, environmental degradation, misuse of natural resources.

BMH: Yes, we need the politics of attraction. You know, Norman Cousins used to say to me, “Barbara, you’re the most practical person I know—at the next stage of evolution.” So speaking as a pragmatist, this is not an unrealistic perspective that we’re putting forward. On the contrary, it’s very unrealistic to be spending these vast sums on the military, utilizing the genius of our species to build weapons to maximize killing when that same genius, if we shifted the goal-posts, would lead to greater security, prosperity and fulfillment for all.

ASL: Exactly. And relative to the cost of developing such “smart” weapons, it’s so much cheaper and smarter to fund global education as a national security investment.

BMH: Right. What we’re presently doing is not just wrong, it’s insane.

ASL: And it obviously takes a great blindness …

BMH: … to keep it going.

ASL: So, as we redirect ourselves from this blindness, what would you like to share with those willing to pick up the evolutionary torch?

BMH: Each of us is the universe in person. This is how the cosmos showed up. Our internal yearning and desire to express, to create, to participate, is the force of evolution pressing through us. When we say yes to it and take steps in that direction, the pattern starts to unfold our own potentiality. That is a great joy. And that joy leads us to find others who are also emergent. And this joy of Cocreation is in itself self-rewarding. So rather than setting up artificial goals for our fulfillment—you know, I won’t be happy unless I achieve this or that—your life itself becomes self-rewarding. That is, it’s paid up moment by moment by having the privilege of expressing your own creativity in union with others for a shared purpose. That’s the direction for the evolution and healing of our world.

ASL: Yes, and don’t you find that the joy of working together with others is so much greater than just focusing on hoarding our little piece of joy for ourselves?

BMH: Of course. You will hoard it until you’ve had the experience of that greater joy. It was Abraham Maslow who told me that in a Eupsychean Society—a society of good souls—the greatest reward would be the freedom to do your true work. And that intrinsic reward generated by doing your real work would be so fulfilling that you would require only enough in order to continue to do your work. And the people who still had jobs that they hated but still needed to be done would be the ones who had to be given more. Because you have to be paid a lot to do what you don’t like to do. But if you are free to do what you love to do—it’s not that we don’t need any resources—but the need for status and for collecting material things and houses and cars would be ridiculous. Yes, we’d like beauty and elegance, but that’s where voluntary simplicity comes in. Because it’s a burden to have to care for so much stuff. A huge burden.

ASL: And a huge burden for the planet to keep feeding this insatiable consumerism.

BMH: Precisely. So if you’re self-rewarded and working cocreatively with others, you want a beautiful environment but you’re not yearning for all these status symbols—in fact, they’re in your way. And there are a lot of us now who actually pay to do our work. We will accept less than we might get somewhere else because the joy of doing the work itself is greater.

ASL: And that too is a sign of a transitional species: That we’re actually willing to offer our self, even at our own expense, in order to follow our truth, making—in the best sense of the word—the “sacrifice.”

BMH: Yes. And following this Eupsychean Society of Maslow, you could not be joyful, happy and productive if you were selfish, or if you had no sense of your creative vocation. You’d be lost, no matter how wealthy you were. To find your deeper life purpose is more than a project or a job. It’s the calling, the reason you were born. And that calling is not just connected to your own work but to the life pattern that you are part of. And the more you do it, the more you feel part of a larger design, and the less you have to make it up. The feeling of having to make things happen diminishes, and is replaced by the sense of being an expression of an unfolding pattern of which you are a vital part. And that is for me the greatest pleasure on earth.

Alan Sasha Lithman spent 21 years (1969-1990) as a resident in Auroville, India, where he apprenticed hands-on experience in applied spirituality, community-building and environmental restoration. Considering himself an “evolutionary activist,” he lives in Ashland, Oregon. His latest book, An Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium, was published by White Cloud Press (www.whitecloudpress.com) with support from the Institute of Noetic Sciences.