It's not like we have never been confronted with such significant changes before. We humans, as a species, have experienced a number of what we would probably describe these days as "traumatic" shifts. It doesn't happen all that often, and what makes so much of a difference this time around is that we possess the wherewithal to obliterate ourselves and everything else on the planet. I'm sure that no one deep down truly wants that to happen, but the possibility exists because of choices we have made. A lot of things started out with good intentions, but it is so, so easy to show examples where good intentions have ended very, very badly.
Whether you know (or believe) it or not, in each and every great transition throughout our history (written or not) the change that allowed us to remain alive and vibrant on this planet was not a technological one, it wasn't a social one or a political one either. It was a change of mind, a deep, far-reaching change, not only in the way we think, but in the way we perceive and experience reality. I know that's a difficult idea to come to terms with, but that's what it's going to take this time, too. The question is how much time do we have to prepare? Or, perhaps better, are we even up to the challenge?
If the Swiss-German cultural philosopher Jean (Hans) Gebser is right (and I believe he's got as reasonable, and better documented, theory as any), then we're looking at the fourth such major shift (though Gebser himself calls them "mutations"). When humans appeared on earth is something of a hotly debated issue. Whether it was a million or two million years ago is, for our purposes, irrelevant. What life was like for these early ancestors of ours is hard to determine, but it could have very well been more unconscious and dreamlike than anything else, it would have been what Gebser called Archaic.We also know, from archaeological evidence that around 300,000 years ago, humankind started making tools and conquered fire and everything changed. Yes the world was not well understood, and we very erroneously look down on these folks as undeveloped and primitive, but they were sophisticated in their own ways, even though the core of their consciousness was Magical. Around 40,000 years ago, we started codifying what we experienced and thought in paintings and stories; that is, our consciousness became Mythical. Then, as we all learned in school, out of nowhere, practically, and for no apparent reason at all, about two-and-a-half millennia ago, the Ancient Greeks appeared on the scene and set the stage for how we've been viewing the world ever since (well, more or less, but I'll get into more detail here the next time), that is as an almost exclusive Mental construct.
In each and every case (thus far), when we've transitioned from one type of mentation (if you will) it was because we managed, for better or for worse, to bring the best of what we had/knew/conceived and had made part of ourselves into the next phase or stage, so to speak. It is obvious that things cannot continue as they are. Too much of what we thought we knew and thought to be true is simply dysfunctional, if not outright broken. I'm not saying that the next shift will be painless, for it won't be, but even though it's coming faster and with less run-up than those that came before, we have the advantage that we can already get an idea of what is happening and what might need to be done. In other words, we have a chance, as well, to integrate what is of value from what's come before and let the rest go. This is the challenge we are faced with now.
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