Image by Gerd Altmann
One of the real dangers of the current pandemic is for us to feel helpless—overwhelmed with despair, impending doom, and pessimism—a state that cuts us off from our agency and creative power. With all that’s happening in the world today, I am personally aware of a real sense of foreboding; from one very convincing perspective our future looks bleak. I have to confess that there is part of me (thank God it’s only a part and not the whole of me), that can fall into a real sense of despair based on the overwhelming evidence, on so many fronts, that we are screwed.
The way our world is manifesting—even before the advent of the coronavirus—seems nightmarish beyond belief. Add in the global pandemic and the nightmare takes on an even denser seeming reality than before.
When I see the dire nature of our situation, it is easy to feel that any talk about global awakening and the evolution of our species is utter pablum, the ravings coming from the fevered imagination of someone who is deeply in denial regarding the depth of evil manifesting. And yet I also see that something is being revealed to us through the darkness that can—in true quantum style, potentially—change everything.
The Source of the Problems
The source of the problems confronting humanity are fundamentally not economic, political, or technological, but rather are to be found within the human psyche. To quote Stanislav Grof,
“In the last analysis, the current global crisis is a psychospiritual crisis; it reflects the level of consciousness evolution of the human species. It is, therefore, hard to imagine that it could be resolved without a radical inner transformation of humanity on a large scale and its rise to a higher level of emotional maturity and spiritual awareness. . . . Radical psychospiritual transformation of humanity is not only possible, but is already underway.”
This is an important point to consider: There is undeniable evidence that an expansion of consciousness in the human species is not only a remote possibility but is already taking place. Grof concludes,
“The question is only whether it can be sufficiently fast and extensive to reverse the current self-destructive trend of modern humanity.”
I am what holocaust survivor Victor Frankl would call a “tragic optimist,” (or in my words, a “pessi-optimist”). Being a pessi-optimist, I see with open eyes and am deeply affected by the tragic and unbearable suffering, the unspeakable evil and mind-rending horror that is unfolding in our world. This causes me immense pain and distress.
At the same time, however, as if having an uplifting pessimism, I am still able to find the good in our world, create a sense of meaning, and see glimmers of light in the darkness. This ability allows me to grow and evolve (what has been called post-traumatic growth) in ways in which I might not have been able to previously.
Light from the Field of Quantum Physics
Strangely enough, the hardest of the hard sciences—quantum physics—comes to our aid to serve as medicine to protect us from the psychological danger of becoming absorbed in our despair. By revealing that we live in a thoroughly quantum universe, quantum physics is placing the keys to our future in our own hands.
The question is, Do we know how to use the gift that is being freely offered to us? A little insight into the essence of what quantum physics reveals to us about the nature of our world and how we operate within it can be the best antidepressant imaginable.
Quantum physics is empirically showing us the malleable and dreamlike nature of our universe. As quantum physics has revealed, our act of observing the universe influences the universe that we are observing. This is to say that our act of observation is creative. We are not passive witnesses of our world, but—whether we know it or not—active cocreators with it. What this means is that we hold enormous power in shaping our world.
"Highly Unlikely" and "Impossible" are Radically Different
Quantum physics points out that even if something is incredibly, ridiculously unlikely, it can still manifest “in reality” in this very moment. Highly unlikely is not quite the same as impossible. An infinitesimally small or “nonzero” probability is radically different than something that is impossible. We should be very careful what we assign to the trash bin of the impossible. The implications of this, both in “the real world” and within our minds, are truly uplifting and inspiring.
In questioning and shedding light on the boundary between the possible and the impossible, quantum physics is expanding the realm of the possible to previously unimaginable degrees. In a time such as ours, filled with lies, propaganda and disinformation it becomes nearly impossible to tell what is true or false. It thus greatly behooves us to at least be able to say what is within the realm of possibility.
To be clear, there is still a small chance—even if it’s an “incredibly, ridiculously unlikely” chance—that enough of humanity might wake up in time so as to be able to change our species’ trajectory before we destroy ourselves. This doesn’t have to be all of us, but a sufficient number—think of the hundredth monkey phenomenon (when enough monkeys learn a new behavior, it is energetically accessed by the collective monkey population). Or the symbolic 144,000 in the book of Revelation—that acts as so much yeast in the dough to help the bread (of humanity) to rise, so to speak. That our species is waking up is not solely a remote possibility, but a desperately needed real one, an imperative that is demanded by circumstances.
Waking Up To Our Creative Potency
Sometimes the unconscious (the dreamer of our dreams) puts us in a seemingly helpless, dangerous, and unsustainable situation so as to force us to become lucid and find gifts within ourselves that we didn’t know we had. When a sufficient number of us who are waking up to our creative potency connect with each other, it is within the realm of possibility for us to discover that we can collectively put our realization together in a way that can literally change the way the world operates and does business.
This isn’t some new age woo-woo theory, but is the very real power that we, as a species, unknowingly wield. When we begin to collaboratively realize this consciously, all bets are off as to what is possible. The only limits are in our imagination, or rather, in our lack thereof.
I continue to feel that we have been here before. To let my imagination run wild for a moment (or two)—the image is that we are having a recurring dream. We have been at this same turning point in the historical evolution of our species countless times, and again and again we have destroyed ourselves as a species. It takes billions upon billions of years (which in dreamtime is no time at all) to regenerate ourselves.
Here we are, back at the same choice point. Are we going to once again enact collective suicide, or this time are we finally going to get the message and recognize our interdependence? Are we going to come together as interconnected cells in a greater organism and avert the impending self-created catastrophe so as to collectively evolve as a species?
The Catastrophic Turning Point
It is noteworthy that the meaning of the word catastrophe in ancient Greek is “a turning point.” We have reached a point of necessary transformation in the evolution of our species. As quantum physics points out, due to the uncertain, indeterminate, and probabilistic nature of our experience, the choice is truly ours regarding how things transpire.
It is within the realm of the possible for enough people to snap out of their self-limiting spell so as to come together in lucidity and dream up a more grace-filled world that better reflects and is in alignment with who we are discovering ourselves to be relative to—and as relatives of—each other.
The revelations emerging from quantum physics undeniably imply that it is crazy to not invest our creative energy into envisioning that we can “come together” so as to turn the tide of self-destructive madness that is overtaking us, and just as crazy to imagine that we can’t.
If we aren’t investing our creative imagination in ways that enable us to heal, evolve, and wake up, then what are we thinking? As always, the real solution gets turned back onto—and into—ourselves.
Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Printed with permission.
Published by Inner Traditions Intl.
Article Source
Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus That Plagues Our World
by Paul Levy
In its Native American meaning, wetiko is an evil cannibalistic spirit that can take over people’s minds, leading to selfshness, insatiable greed, and consumption as an end in itself, destructively turning our intrinsic creative genius against our own humanity.
Revealing the presence of wetiko in our modern world behind every form of destruction our species is carrying out, both individual and collective, Paul Levy shows how this mind-virus is so embedded in our psyches that it is almost undetectable--and it is our blindness to it that gives wetiko its power.
Yet, as the author reveals in striking detail, by recognizing this highly contagious mind parasite, by seeing wetiko, we can break free from its hold and realize the vast creative powers of the human mind.
For more info and/or to order this book, click here. Also available as a Kindle edition.
About the Author
Paul Levy is a pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence and a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for more than 35 years. He has intimately studied with some of the greatest spiritual masters of Tibet and Burma. He was the coordinator of the Portland chapter of the PadmaSambhava Buddhist Center for over twenty years and is the founder of the Awakening in the Dream Community in Portland, Oregon.
He is the author of The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis (2006), Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil (2013), Awakened by Darkness: When Evil Becomes Your Father (2015) and The Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality (2018).
Visit his website at AwakeningheDream.com/
