om spirit
M
y new book, How Soon Is Now?, explores the
prospect that the global ecological crisis
unleashed by human activity is a triggering event –
an evolutionary bifurcation – that will force a rapid
mutation in consciousness. As the heat rises and
resources become scarce, we must make a shift from competition
to cooperation as a global paradigm if we want to survive. If we look
at the model of biology, we find that cooperation eventually ‘out-
competes’ competition: our own bodies offer wonderful examples
of this. They are made up of trillions of microorganisms that were
once fighting against each other in the environment, and learned to
develop more complex structures such as skin and eyes.
On another level, the multidimensional crisis now bearing down
on us can be seen as a rite of passage or an initiation, much
like a shamanic initiation in a traditional or indigenous society,
which marks the divide between adolescence and adulthood. As a
species, we are still in an immature state. Individuals do not take
responsibility for the fate of the collective – our human family,
as well as the greater community of planetary life. Instead, our
individual and collective actions deteriorate the planet’s ecology.
It is conceivable we have unconsciously self-willed this mega-
catastrophe in order to bring about our own awakening into a new
state of empathy and responsibility. Alas, this awakening may come
at great cost.Spiritual evolution
In my earlier books, Breaking Open the Head and 2012: The Return
of Quetzalcoatl, I explored psychedelic shamanism as an avenue for
intensified experiences of consciousness. I believe the rediscovery of
visionary plants and chemical catalysts – such as mushrooms, LSD,
ayahuasca, peyote, and DMT – since the 1950s is part of a larger
process of psychic and spiritual evolution, which also includes the
flourishing of yoga and meditation, as well as growing interest in
the world’s esoteric traditions, from Sufiism to Tibetan Buddhism.
However, the New Age spiritual culture of the modern West has
tended to be hyper-focused on the individual’s healing and self-
inquiry, ignoring the larger social and political process in which we
are meshed.
Unfortunately, the capitalist system, which represents the
ongoing onslaught of 500 years of imperialism and colonialism, has
greatly enriched a small elite of the world’s population while it has
perpetuated domination and immiseration across much of the world.
We see the drastic impacts of rapid industrialisation all around us:
we are losing as much as 10% of the Earth’s remaining biodiversity
every 10 to 15 years, and the oceans are 30% more acidic than they
were 40 years ago. We now have over 400 ppm of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere – the last time there was this much CO2 in the air,
temperatures were 4 degrees Celsius warmer and sea levels were
far higher than they are today. Although modern technology has
allowed for an increase in life expectancy, particularly through a
decline in infectious diseases and a decrease of childhood mortality,
there are more people in poverty around the world than ever before.
The unavoidable – and terrible – truth is that climate change will
decimate local cultures and the poorest people, before it eventually
slams everyone else.Wake-up call
One of my hopes is that this new book will be a wake-up call for
those who have been pursuing ‘spiritual enlightenment’ through
yoga, meditation, Tantra, ayahuasca, and other techniques. We
have reached a time where we must go beyond our comfort zonesto realise universal compassion and find our place in service to
the global emergency our political and financial leaders have
unleashed. The fact is that many potential solutions are available
on both the environmental and societal level. First we need to
understand what these are. Then we need the fortitude and
courage to implement them.However, (past the first user-friendly 70 pages), I am afraid that
How Soon Is Now? will not be easy reading for many people. I wrote
it because I felt there needed to be a single volume that would
help people to fathom the scale of the emergency confronting
us, as well as the range of systemic answers we can apply to the
mega-crisis. To do this, I had to get into details about industrial
manufacturing, energy production, as well as the workings of the
global financial system.
Ultimately, I see our situation as a crisis of consciousness – and,
as I mentioned, potentially an evolutionary trigger, much like the
‘Strange Attractors’; one finds in Chaos Theory, which emerge when
a system reaches its maximum level of instability. We still don’t know
much about consciousness: what it is or how it arises. Personally, I
am fascinated by psychic or paranormal phenomena (like the Siddhis
described in ancient yogic texts). I have experienced many forms of
paranormal activity, and believe that humans have tremendous latent
psychic powers. Perhaps, if we have indeed unconsciously created this
dire situation, we have done so in order to access these latent powers
of the mind, which our modern science still tends to deny. Human
beings tend to rest once they have found a temporary comfort zone:
now we have destabilised the Earth’s ecology, and have to get used to
a new, uncomfortable situation.A new religion
The prospect I put forth in the book draws on many thinkers I love,
including Buckminster Fuller, Hannah Arendt, and Oscar Wilde. We
can choose to overcome limited forms of self-interest, sacrifice
some of our short-term goals, and come together to create a world
that works for all of our human family while it protects the greater
community of life. We can use our technical efficiency in service of
this goal, to create a regenerative, resilient, and durable society. In
order to do this, we have to overcome distractions and also reject
blinkered ideologies, which
include the technological
Singularity ideal as well as
the tendency of New Agers to
separate spiritual from material,
creating a false dualism. Such
a movement would be truly
mystical, spiritual, and even
(dare I say it?) religious – as
much as it would be political,
economic, and technical in its
means and aims.Daniel Pinchbeck’s new book
How Soon Is Now? From
Personal Initiation to Global
Transformation is published by
Watkins in February 2017“It is conceivable we have unconsciously
self-willed this mega-catastrophe in order
to bring about our own awakening.”