Reconnecting to the Source

More than 20 years ago, Ervin published a book entitled The Inner Limits of Mankind, and gave a talk in London at the home of the late Baroness Edmee di Pauli. We had already heard about outer limits from the Club of Rome, of which Ervin is a member, but this addressed our psychological and spiritual limits, which are now being tested by current pressures at every level. The first book is about the new science of spiritual experience and its transformative potential, building on his earlier work on physics and consciousness studies while reinstating the human dimension. Our loss of orientation and meaning can be remedied by reconnecting to the Source both within and without, which will in turn reconnect us 'to each other, to nature and to the universe.' This world is neither mechanical nor materialistic, but rather an in-formed hologram in which we are vibrational and coherent configurations in what David Bohm called the explicate or unfolded evolutionary order tending towards coherence and complexity. This process is characterised by a holotropic attractor (tending towards wholeness), the emergence of which is analysed in a number of fields – technology, community, health, education, economy, business and politics - with an ethos of solidarity, empathy and compassion.

We ourselves can align with this holotropism, which is supremely manifest in deep spiritual experience. The second part of the book features an extraordinary bouquet of such transformative experiences, and individual readers will be struck by different narratives. For me, the highlights were Federico Faggin, Jane Goodall, Jean Houston, James O'Dea, Pierre Pradevand, Masami Saionji and especially Barbara Marx Hubbard. Reflecting on his transformative experience of being the light, Federico writes that 'the essence of reality is a substance that knows itself in its self-reflection, and its self-knowing feels like an irrepressible and dynamic love.' This seems to me entirely on the mark, and if this were our common starting point for the creation of a new world and new systems of felt interconnectedness based on the golden rule, we could indeed co-create a beautiful future. Barbara's experience was of a Loving Universal Human Presence which we essentially all are and that the evolutionary impulse is 'towards expanding consciousness, greater freedom, and deeper access to complex order, connecting in love' as an aligning magnetic field. Further, she writes that 'at some point there is a non-linear exponential interaction of what is emerging, and the system cooperates in its own self-transcendence' leading to what she calls synergistic democracy. If this formulation is correct, then it provides essential assessment criteria for proposals like the Great Reset: does this bring an expansion of consciousness, an enhancement of freedom and the advent of a loving order? If not, it does not represent a positive human evolutionary development. Masami Saonji reminds us that we often look to outside powers to remedy problems rather than 'the power of our own profound, harmonious, sacred cosmic consciousness.'

In reflecting on these experiences and his own life as a concert pianist and systems thinker, Ervin finds that he is still searching for wholeness and harmony in everything he encounters – significantly, his first book was called Essential Society: An Ontological Reconstruction. Nearly 60 years on, we still need this ontological reconstruction, along with its ethical equivalent. The deep meaning of these experiences 'inspires love and belonging among and between all things…we are, or can be, loving beings in love-oriented world.' (p. 191) More and more people are realising that we need to change, and that we can change to align more closely with our common essential identity.

The second book – a worldshift manual - is more practical in its orientation, but flows from the implications of the first, reminding us that the outcome of the global crisis is not foreclosed but is sensitive to our intentions, actions and aspirations: the danger is also an opportunity. It also includes as appendices the emerging convergent vision in physics, the life sciences and consciousness studies. From the angles of complex systems, we are at a chaos point of bifurcation, a phase transition sensitive to decisive fluctuations. We need a fundamental course correction in terms of our cultural worldviews, values and priorities that are currently set by the dominant 1% who will try to manipulate outcomes to maintain and extend their wealth and power. The relationships between technology and ethics, ends and means, innovation and tradition, secrecy and disclosure are critical issues that need to be on the table. If we want to build genuine trust, we must in turn demand truth and transparency from our leaders.

The subsequent description of unsustainable conditions in ecology and systems will be familiar to most readers, and brings us to what can be done, starting with a change of thinking and consciousness. This is emphatically not what those in power have in mind with their agenda of further dependency, digital surveillance and control systems, and corresponding restrictions on freedom of thought, expression and travel. Ervin's answer is an aspirational 'upshift', the elements of which I think are valuable at a personal level but arguably not sufficient to initiate a systemic transformation without worldwide networked collaboration and, arguably, widespread non-violent civil disobedience. Judging from current levels of fear-induced passivity and conformity, we will need display a great deal more integrity and moral courage in order to generate sufficient pressure to create any decisive fluctuation. Individually, we can adapt our aspirations, live with diversity, question our outmoded beliefs and assumptions and faulty tenets (these are excellent lists) many of which are still widely upheld in the existing system based on self-centred and short-sighted views incompatible with an emerging planetary consciousness entailing respect for diversity and a universal sense of responsibility. I found the visionary forecast for 2030 more aspirational than realistic, even if I agree with all its tenets. It's just that I can't see how we get there from here, although the White Paper for a holistic politics sets out the necessary principles by starting from the (common) good of the whole rather than the part.

As a final observation, I'd like to comment on the contributions from a Chinese perspective by Frederick Chavalit Tsao, who, like Danah Zohar and Shantena Sabbadini, draws interesting parallels between quantum physics and the principles of Chinese philosophy with its understanding of wholeness and natural rhythms reflected in the Tao and the I Ching. He advocates a Middle Way of harmony, alignment and the more Confucian ideas of stability and structural wisdom. In his second contribution, he explains how President Xi Jinping has 'urged the promotion of a worldview covering four different levels, from the universe all the way to the individual: a cosmological view that seeks oneness between humanity and nature, a global view that urges cooperation among all nations, a social view that seeks harmony amidst diversity, and a moral view that strives for goodness.'

This would be admirable if implemented, but another strand of Chinese thought is contained in Sun Tzu's Art of War. Western adoption of their lockdown model has devastated business, weakened economies and subverted Western values; and while cancelling domestic flights, international flights continued for some weeks. However, if the above aspirations are indeed followed, China could make a very positive contribution to a more cooperative future. Much depends on how top-down 'managing for stability and harmony' is handled. As a postscript let me mention the other inspiring essay on Taoism from the first book by Zhi-Gang Sha explaining the ten great Da qualities as a blueprint for perennial spirituality in terms of the greatest love, forgiveness, compassion, light, humility, harmony, flourishing, gratitude, enlightenment and culminating in service – a summation of spiritual wisdom. My conclusion is that the reconnecting to the Source and enacting the upshift are necessary but not sufficient for a collective transition to planetary consciousness. We will also require co-ordinated thinking and consequent action.