The Rising of a New Cultural Paradigm

                                                                      Rainer Maria Rilke

flowering rock

A metaphysical war of worldviews has been taking place throughout Western culture during at least the past century.  And at the very center of this disagreement lies the question of the power of consciousness or unseen intelligence.

Largely unrecognized by scientific materialism is the power of thoughts, dreams, intentions, visions, spiritual healing, the power of prayer - all things of etheric invisible stature, stuff outside what is considered "normal." 


I have been reading the work of a fellow Gaian, Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D., the creator and host of Thinking Allowed, a weekly public television interview series.  Though he also is licensed as a clinical psychologist, Jeff Mishlove continues to be the only recipient of a Doctorate in Parapsychology from an accredited American university. 
 

Mishlove reminds us that the major dynamic in Western culture during past centuries has been a shift away from a metaphysical understanding of reality to one grounded in physical, rational, material reality.  In the triumphs of our modern society, science and industry flourished.  In our cultural zeal to conquer and control the material world through ever more wondrous technology, we apparently have turned our planet into a giant marketplace.  The conclusion is incontrovertible.  Almost every major social problem this planet now faces, including the desecration of our environment and Mother Earth, derives from such materialism.
 

The opposing worldview, a rising cultural paradigm which is gaining momentum slowly throughout the planet (although too late perhaps to preserve many of its life forms), is the one that most peoples throughout history and in most places on our earth still experience.  In this worldview the universe is replete with intelligence and intelligences, unseen forces and beings or entities of varying density. Native traditions and ancient beliefs always understood that to be "alive" is far more than walking around as a collection of chemicals and electrical signaling.  Our ancestors' beliefs were formed on an intuitive understanding of the power of thoughts and belief and intentions and prayer, relying on a unified energy field that holds everything in the universe in an invisible web.  And at the center:  a luminous ultimate reality or creative principle manifested as divine Light or Love, from which all other reality derives. 

The failure to perceive this reality lies at the heart of the crisis that we now confront.
 

What if we collectively are beginning to recognize a vast and untapped human potential -- the power of thought and belief and intention and prayer -- something essential that might be every person's birthright, not simply that of the gifted master?  What a simple and inexhaustible way to focus our lives, heal our illnesses, alter global perspective!
 

The New Age is not yet born.  Paradigms are not consciously invented.  They evolve as society itself evolves.  A new cultural paradigm encompassing the vastness of the human spirit is rising.

Jeffrey Mishlove writes that:

"...[W]e, as a society, are in a phase of conflict, controversy, and polarization regarding important questions concerning fundamental metaphysical issues.  A new cultural paradigm is in the process of formation.  We must evolve beyond denial.  We must move beyond premature syncretism.  We must move toward honest, authentic integration of the depths within us and the facts before us. ... If humanity, as a whole, is to fully awaken to its own potential, we must all grow in wisdom. Specifically, this means we must learn to practice mental hygiene with regard to our own stream of consciousness -- cultivating positive thoughts and attitudes while eschewing thoughts that deprecate ourselves or any other precious human being.  And we must learn to treat all other people with courtesy and respect." The PK Man, p.265-266

The Jesus of your spirit is inside you now.
Ask that one for help, but don't ask for body-things...

Don't ask Moses for provisions
that you can get from Pharaoh.

Don't worry so much about livelihood.
Your livelihood will turn out as it should.
Be constantly occupied instead
with listening to God.

                                                Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-73)

If we listen to our intuition, to our hearts, to our inner knowing, is that not where the most amazing possibilities for growth and expansion and joy lie?  What if the power of loving intention were stronger than the sword?   We seem to be somehow innately wired to recognize the divine with each one of us (if we but listen to our hearts).  I suspect that love and gentleness and kindness and soothing is what we intended to share with others, one by one, passing it on to ignite other hearts:  a never-ending expanding ripple effect of an eternal loop of giving-and-receiving, the sweet universal interconnection in Oneness.   

So, tell me, what is more important?  Our actions?  Or the thought inspired by and intuited from Divine Energy -- the power of thought and belief and intention and prayer that created that action toward goodness?   

In our deep and sweet universal interconnection, what wondrous possibilities of good beckon us forward. 

Imagine the possibilities!