By Suzanne Deakins, H.W., M.
The first-time universal consciousness really penetrated me was when I was sitting in the assembly hall at the Inner Space Center in Santa Monica. Thane was talking about Universal Consciousness. I remember thinking how limited my thinking had been. Like many I had been thinking in a narrow stream more centered on myself, family, and immediate friends. It was Thane’s use of the word global and universal that gave me such a jolt.
The thinking that other countries must be competitors and thus a threat as dominated the consciousness of USA these past 4 years, this is tribal thinking. One tribe against another. It is by-the-way the predominate thinking of those who are more conservative and tend to vote republican. Sociological studies show that those who think more globally tend to vote more democratic. In the studies of motivational reasoning simply says that we arrive to conclusions based on what we have previously believed. Beliefs are not easy to track, but it focusses on how your parents and immediate community identified. If you were taught that biological family was everything, came first, then your beliefs, and thinking would not include how your actions might affect others. Hence, no matter what the science says, your actions would not be centered on the greater good, but on the immediate affect on your life. Examples of wanting cheaper gas no matter how detrimental it is to the environment, refusal to wear a mask if you thought it was limiting your personal freedom and income. The facts or long-term strategy would have little validity in your reasoning as immediate causer would prevail in your thinking.
I have been trying to understand why, as a western country, we tend to be so conservative and lack the ability to see how our actions are impacting our world as a whole. We are only partially western. Thane often said that American tended to be psychotic; in that they did not pay attention to how our actions impacted the future of the country; that as a country we were delusionary and were not in touch with reality. Western thinking has been greatly influenced by 2 ideas. First by the Catholic Church who with their canons move us from small family groups and inbreeding by declaring marriage to kin sinful, forcing our social life to move to a wider view. Second, by the introduction of Martin Luther’s idea of Protestantism forced us to read if we were going to be able to understand the “law of God.” By society leaning to read we were no longer limited by the information we gathered via family and small group thinking. We could develop broader views of life. The brain of those that reads looks and acts different than those who cannot.
The more tribal and family center a group are for survival, the more conservative they are going to be voting only as they see it affects them. To understand how this works as a whole we have to understand consciousness and the nature of reality. First immigration and the infusion of populations of disenfranchised individuals is a necessary component of democracy and keeping it alive. Research staring before 1979 by the Pew Group showed the importance of immigration into a democratic society to keep it viable. By the 2nd and 3rd generation from immigration there is a moving away from tribal thinking and conservative thinking to a broader encompassing of beliefs and actions. This is not to say that any tribe, family, or country should not protect themselves and make sure they survive. It does mean that in the nature of reality, universal consciousness, one thought is everyone’s thought. The more one group, tribe, idea is portrayed as dangerous to another, the bigger the divide and the more likely, the facts, of overall disaster, mean little in the thinking of individuals.
Like the psychotic individual whose actions turn back on themselves and erase the ability to interact in meaningful relations with life as a whole; America has become infected with this disease. Similar to the physical disease known as lupus where the body’s immune system turns on itself, destroying the very idea that keeps it alive. We have turned on our self. We don’t need terrorist to destroy us. By taking a stance where we cannot see, hear, or communicate with each other we will destroy ourselves no matter what our political leaning.
When we self-observe our actions and thinking and see where we are denying universal consciousness, can we begin to midwife the emergence of new consciousness, where all life is embraced, all ideas heard, and all tongues saluted as a value to the wonderful array of humanity living on this planet.
© Suzanne Deakins
Emergence of Consciousness
Release date 2021