image by logan.fulcher

This is the second half of Uli’s piece on the Economy of Consciousness. Read Part 1.

Throughout the centuries, our self-awareness has grown increasingly subtle—when we weren’t sipping lattes made by robots but drinking from streams, we most likely experienced ourselves simply as bodies. We were living in hordes, communicating with each other in grunts and gestures without the slightest inclination that one day we would be talking about our feelings, much less discussing psychedelic drugs, philosophy, economic theory, or spiritual experiences. As we have conquered our inner reality, down to the processes in our brains, as well as the planet and space around us, we have also discovered our growing ability to choose— a partner, a profession, a country and our own identity—who we want to be.

There will always be more, not less. Further out and deeper in. The more we keep that more in mind as we look towards the future, the likelier our chance to discover and direct our most desirable destiny. A future, an economy, an environment built on a philosophy of less will never be able to satisfy us. This is where consciousness enters into the equation.

Consciousness has not been the subject of much discussion as we think about not just our survival but about a way for humans to keep thriving in this world. Usually we focus on technology, social structures and moral questions. But as we have seen, all of these are directly related to our level of consciousness. So it only makes sense to pay attention to the many outstanding individuals like the Buddha, Jesus, Meister Eckhart, Ralph Waldo Emerson, J. Krishnamurti or John Dewey, who have outlined profound and higher human potentials in this realm. In their unique voices but with encouraging congruence they describe terrains of consciousness and being that few of us have so far traveled in, but many have grown curious about. Andrew Cohen, a contemporary spiritual teacher and visionary explains that to be aware of God has traditionally meant that ‘one has awakened to timeless Being—to that unchanging dimension of reality that transcends the creative process. But there is also a new and emerging face of God—one that appears not through awakening to Being but through awakening to Becoming, through discovering the very energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process and that is driving it at all levels in each and every moment. When we become conscious of this evolutionary impulse, we are awakening directly to the new face of God. And this new emergence expresses itself through an awakened heart and mind that is choicelessly compelled to create the future.’

These are some of the ways people try to put words to the discovery of this part of themselves, whose existence and relevance is easily left out of the picture when we think about building a new world:
“An unlimited pool of energy, a space so vast, it is infinite.”
“Eternal silence and goodness, happiness without an opposite.”
“A place that knows no limits or limitations and seems to be the source of everything.”
“I felt like I was exploding, so much energy arising from no-where, just to be given, forever.”
“Discovering who I really am, a depthless source of energy and creativity like the big bang iself.”

As the Hubble telescope sends us its pictures from galaxies too far away to be imagined, this seems to be the deepest place we have discovered within ourselves so far. But we cannot know which other potentials are awaiting us as we keep pushing further and deeper. What we can see though is that those who have truly awoken to their passion for life are finding a seemingly unending source of energy, a drive that compels them to keep moving, to keep giving and to keep finding out more. And we resonate with the conviction, the lack of cynicism, and the energy of an Anita Roddick, a Nelson Mandela, a Jeffrey Sachs, and a Vimala Thakar.

So what if you couldn’t help but leap out of bed? Maybe you wouldn’t even need coffee? Or maybe you would. But you might find yourself increasingly propelled by care, concern and excitement to help build a beautiful, better world, one that reflects what you deeply know our true nature and potential to be. You might even come to know the rush of an expanding universe in your very own veins and although you know you could never get everything done that needs doing you know you are right where you belong, here, alive and there could not be a better place than that.

Wouldn’t it change our relationships, your work, your outlook? It would change everything.

This is the economy of consciousness: The discovery of limitlessness in a world defined by boundaries. Consciousness, the awareness of it, and its growth, has an inherently positive direction and trajectory. It is not limited to one person or one location. We are not just one human population on one planet, we are also one field of consciousness that is expanding and developing into more subtle, more inclusive and compassionate frequencies.

Would this point to a new set of values and possible new solutions for the troubles besetting our times? If we discovered ourselves to be part of a well of unlimited energy would we still be thinking in terms of debt and lack? Would we design systems—social, economic, environmental—that have as their basis the assumption of human limitation? Or would we, much like a peach tree blossoming with thousands more flowers than could ever hope to become trees themselves, spread ourselves to the world in endless bursts of generosity and creativity, not accepting the law of scarcity, but living by the knowledge that life is an endless unfolding of ever more and more?

An economy of consciousness functions by entirely different rules from the one we have known so far. More consciousness means more and speedier development. Consciousness can take leaps in several places at once and once it has, it can affect people who have no connection or recognition of what has occurred. An economy of consciousness is rooted in the discovery of more than enough—not just in nature around us, but in all of us. Activists burnout and postmodern cynicism end here.

So what do you think you would do, getting up on that bright morning in the future?