Shift Happens Overview
Picking up an article the other day, I was struck by the heading: “In a World Gone Slightly Mad...” Judging from the negative media headlines, global climate change predictions and escalating conflicts and wars, it is probably safe to say we are living in a world gone slightly mad.
But do we have to continue down this path, this descent toward the trough of our evolutionary wave? It is my belief that we don’t need to experience the treacherous depths of materialism. Instead, we can take a short cut in our evolution from the Separate Self and continue on our transformation as a Holistic Human, jumping to the ascending side of our evolutionary wave.
To do this, we must build a quantum bridge. Princeton University physicist Hugh Everett III describes these opportunities in time as “choice points” and by changing our beliefs and focus of our awareness, we can create this pathway toward a higher level of consciousness. There is a sense of urgency about this shift that is happening around all of us, and it is imperative that we make the commitment in our transformation. In my research on the Mayan prophecies and various ancient civilizations, a very special awareness has surrounded the year 2012. This is a year that predicts a rebirth of the world, but not without many changes. Using this as our symbol for our own rebirth as an evolved species, I want to talk about how we can make our own shift toward becoming a Holistic Human and how an integral perspective is critical in achieving enlightenment.
Before we can set out on this amazing journey, however, we require something extremely important: a strong will to transform. Without a desire to truly change, this information is useless. Like overcoming any habit, there must be a commitment toward improvement. If one wants to lose weight or quit smoking, all the support groups, articles and medications won’t lead to success unless there is a will to change. This transformation is no different. There must be a dedication to becoming a Holistic Human, because this is not a simple, easy path in our evolution, but one that requires an integral perspective and open mind.
In visualizing our path toward enlightenment, we first must establish our methodology. This can be a number of things, but most likely this first step will begin in the individual, interior perspective. When we meditate or engage in prayer, this is an interior examination of Self. The mistake many of us make, though, is that we might reach an enlightened state within ourselves; experiencing a mind-blowing meditational session, only to fall back into our day-to-day habits of stressing about time or getting angry at the parking ticket found on our windshield. Our interior perspective is colored by our personal beliefs and limits our potential for evolution.
Philosopher Ken Wilbur explains that this journey toward enlightenment requires more than an interior analysis of Self. To make the shift, we must take on an integrated approach. Wilbur divides this process into four quadrants of individual and collective, interior and exterior perspectives. 
While we begin our methodology in the individual interior in practices such as meditation or prayer, we must continue on to the individual exterior to begin our transformation. In this quadrant we begin to examine our behavior, how we react and interact with the physical reality around us. All our enlightened states we achieved in the interior individual mean nothing if we can’t transfer that to our behavior in the exterior.
As our spiral-shaped journey continues through these quadrants we will reach the exterior, collective. Here we face the challenge of collective karma. For humanity to reach its potential in evolving to a new species, this quadrant poses particular obstacles in our transformation. It is this perspective that has labeled us according to our collective groups we were born into. Just because I was born a white, male, Midwestern citizen of the United States, does not mean that I am held by the karma that one might believe all these adjectives collect. Too many of us feel that this collective karma must be neutralized, but war and international conflict is never the answer. We create our own reality, and it’s time to shift our reality toward the idea that collective karma does not exist. Only the individual karma shapes who we are and are to become in our reincarnations. We are not bound to our institutions and their decisions for world destruction and conflict.
Our spiral finally brings us to the fourth quadrant, the interior, collective. This is our culture and beliefs. When I set out on my own path, I realized travel was the key in broadening my perspective of new cultural ideas and traditions, and in shaping society for the better. This is a daunting task, but we can take heart in the effectiveness of positive energy. A recent sociological study proves that our happiness plays an important role in how we effect our social networks. While it might not be a surprise that our good mood positively effects our closest friends and family, it doesn’t end there. Evidence shows that our positive energy not only influences our immediate social network, but also effects our friends’ friends and family as well.
As we move through these quadrants and continue to expand our perspective, we will find ourselves traveling to the outer limits of our consciousness. It is here at this point, we will burst through to our enlightened state, a new species, our own “Aha” moment in evolution. When we find our harmonic convergence, by resonating on this higher frequency, we will begin to understand ourselves as Holistic Humans.
