I was just looking over my notes on a book I read several months ago, and got excited enough to want to share them with you. The book, published in 2012, is Birth 2012 and Beyond: Humanity’s Great Shift to the Age of Conscious Evolution by Barbara Marx Hubbard. Full disclosure: when I take notes on a book, I edit the author’s words (without changing the meaning) for brevity and, I believe, better understanding. I don’t use quotes for the most part, so you won’t always know how and where I’ve edited. This is done in the spirit of open access to information, as well as co-creativity, a concept this author believes in. If you want to read the author’s words exactly as written, get ahold of the book!

What’s being required of us, if we wish to avoid extinction, Hubbard says, is learning how to “co-evolve with nature and co-create with Spirit.” If it takes place, this will involve the maturation of a significant portion (critical mass?) of humanity. This is all part of natural evolution, which involves “jumps in synergy and cooperation within and among species.”

We’re being called upon to shift from egocentrism to living from our Essential Selves, so that we can give our unique gift(s) to this shift. Hubbard saw 12-22-12, the Mayan solstice, as the first day, the birth day, of the next era of evolution, the beginning of our opportunity to shift.

In 1966 Hubbard realized that empathy – the pain of one being felt by all – was starting to spread throughout the planet. We were connecting with each other, feeling with each other as members of one body, she says. The Spirit within was rising up in each person like a great tide of love, inspiration, and oneness with the source of our being, activating us by the millions. Hubbard saw that when enough of us felt this connection, there would be a shared feeling of joy and “global coherence.” Our story, she believes, is the birth of humankind as one body, made possible as more and more people recognize that we’re one, we’re good (whole), and we’re being born/consciously evolving.

We’re now at a chaos point, Hubbard says, meaning that our present state is breaking down and can no longer be returned to prior, more stable states. In fact, efforts to restore or reform are intensifying the crisis.  We’ll either break down completely, Hubbard says, or break through to a new structure and mode of operation.

“Cultural creatives,” “universal humans,” are waking up and connecting and communicating, in person and digitally. What’s emerging is, and has to be, more than a new religion, political party, or enterprise – because these are never truly inclusive. And we’re all together on this ride.

We have the resources, technologies, and know-how to make the world work for everyone, but do we have the will and the courage to make it happen?

Coherence is a heartfelt connection with others, feeling them as part of oneself. What we need now is global coherence, an awakening of the global heart, the feeling of being one interconnected planetary body with a shared purpose of mutual growth for the sake of the whole earth community. Hubbard believes this is beginning to happen.

It happens on an individual basis when we no longer see each other as “other.” Our hearts are open, and we know we are, that everyone is, one with All That Is.

When you feel frustrated, discontented, or depressed, as if that your life lacks meaning, it doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you. It means that something more wants to be expressed through you. Recognizing this is the first step. The second is to reach out to others you’re attracted to in the spirit of creative synergy and co-creation.

What do you want to give others, the world?

Hubbard says that through daily meditation, she’s realized/remembered that her essence is Spirit/Love, that she, like all of us, is part of the divine. With the help of continued meditation, she’s integrating her local, separated, egoic self with that essence. The next step, she says, is to create a “resonant core group,” an evolutionary or Shift circle with a friend or two, in which you can share essence to essence. “Resonance” in this sense means reflecting or echoing back the Essential Self in one another.

Spirit, Hubbard reminds us, is our essence – it doesn’t need to be projected onto a god.

The question becomes “What is my unique way of expressing essence that’s both self-rewarding and of service to others?” Also, “How can I remain in essence while making my contribution?”

A New Myth for Our Times

The last great myth took root during the Renaissance: the myth of progress through knowledge, science, liberal democracy, and technology. This “big story” began to collapse after the two world wars, in which tens of millions of people were killed by the most sophisticated nations and technologies. Since then, things have only gotten worse – weapons of mass destruction, pollution, an increasing gap between haves and have-nots, etc. New technologies are actually dangerous in our current state of self-centered separation consciousness.

The only new myth that’s arisen to give us a sense of meaning, direction, and hope, Hubbard says, is the one she’s describing: being part of an evolving and expanding universe in which we have an intrinsic part to play, lovingly and creatively.

We learn from biologist Elisabet Sahtouris that when a species is young it tends to overpopulate, pollute, and compete with and eventually destroy its environment. It either learns to cooperate with itself, its environment, and other species, or it goes extinct. We can certainly see the meaning of these lessons for us!

The birth/crisis is happening either way. We can make it easier and give it more of a chance for a positive outcome, if we act consciously together with love. The suffering prevalent in the world today can activate the empathy, love, compassion, creativity, and courage needed for us to mature as a species.

The attractive and attracted energy that’s moved the evolutionary process all along became (self) conscious in us. It just needs to move to the next level.

Create times outside of time in which you can temper the compulsions, obsessions, and fears of your local egoic self, the manifestor, with the realization, the remembering, that your essence is divine, is Spirit, is one with All That Is – that you and all other beings are one, in this together, in love. In this inner sanctuary you can hear your inner wisdom, feel at peace, and experience limitless joy. Cultivate global coherence by engaging in any heart-based, essence-experiencing spiritual practice on a regular basis. When we do this on our own, we’re ready to experience love and engage in synergistic co-creation when we’re together, however we connect.

Sounds good to me. Want to start a group?