Talking about Owen Waters - The Shift: Part I
The Shift to the New Reality
The
Shift is the mass awakening of humanity’s heart. This transformation of
consciousness, the greatest one ever recorded, first became apparent in
the mid-1960s and has been building momentum ever since.
The
Shift is a collective transformation consisting of the sum of each
individual’s step forward into the New Reality. Each person, in their
own time, is moving forward into a new stage of consciousness, one
which brings a wider vista and an awareness that springs from the
heart.
In the early 1960s, just one in fifty adults had
reached this new awareness. Today, according to extensive surveys, more
than one in four adults in the United States and Europe have moved into
the heart space which forms the nucleus of The Shift.
The
New Reality is not something vague. It is as real as the notes on a
piano keyboard. It has a specific frequency, as this book will reveal.
Each stage of human consciousness resonates to a specific note within
the musical octave. This new stage of consciousness resonates to the
note F sharp. When a person’s consciousness reaches a frequency that
resonates with F sharp, then - and not before then - they discover
unconditional love and the ability to envision a future filled with
hope and peace.
The New Reality is about discovering
your true potential, about living your highest joy and serving others
in the way that best fulfils your highest purpose. It’s about
cooperation instead of competition. It’s about becoming a whole person
in mind, body and spirit.
The Shift to the New Reality brings to each individual a sense of greater freedom, greater joy and personal fulfillment.
The Shift to the New Reality is all about heart-powered consciousness.
Are You A Cultural Creative?
Over
fifty million Americans fit the definition of a newly emerging type of
humanity, a culture that hardly existed prior to the 1960s.
In
a 1990s study of more than 100,000 adults in the United States, Paul
Ray and Sherry Anderson reveal that a huge 26 percent of these adults
have made a comprehensive shift in their worldview, values and way of
life.
In Europe, the story is very much the same. A
1997 survey conducted in fifteen European countries shows figures that
are very similar to the United States.
In their book, The Cultural Creatives,
Ray and Anderson summarize the typical values of this new, leading-edge
group of people that they call Cultural Creatives. The Cultural
Creatives are people who love nature, respect the Earth and are deeply
concerned about the environment. They like to develop close
relationships with each other, and to help and encourage other people
to develop their abilities. They care about personal and spiritual
development, and want more equality for women and all cultural groups.
Cultural
Creatives would like to develop a new way of life. They are cynical of
media-fed information, and want to find a new political philosophy that
works in today’s reality. They are not materialistically driven, and
typically have their finances and spending under control. They like
traveling to other countries to get to know new cultures and they want
to develop a sense of community where they live. Authenticity is
important to Cultural Creatives - their actions have to be consistent
with their words and inner beliefs.
This means that if
you are searching for better quality of life, less stress, better
health, and a simpler lifestyle that includes more spirituality, then
you are one of a growing number of people who have already become a
part of the greatest social transformation of all time.
[Chapter continued in the book...]
The Dawning of the New Reality
The
Shift into the New Reality is a consciousness revolution. It dwarfs all
previous and current revolutions, including the Industrial Revolution,
which swept through Britain in the eighteenth century bringing massive
social and technological changes. Today’s information revolution, made
possible by computers and telecommunications, is transforming the face
of society at an even more dizzying rate.
However,
these changes pale in significance when compared with the consciousness
revolution, which is transforming our very perception of the nature of
the universe.
Identifying Trends In Thought
A
keenly insightful social scientist, Clare W. Graves (1914-86),
identified the historical phases of social progress within
civilization. He came to the realization that, today, mankind is
preparing for a momentous leap. This leap, he said, would be a
mega-change within society which would dwarf all previous changes.
[Chapter continued in the book...]
The Shift into the Second Tier of Consciousness
The
Shift is the mass migration of humanity into the second tier of
consciousness. Millions of trail blazers have already made The Shift.
More follow them every day. The second tier is the New Reality. When
you understand the nature of the second tier, you will understand
tomorrow’s world.
The first tier develops intellectual
skills and emotional contrast. The second tier changes the focus of
personal growth to a spiritual context, expanding the vision of what
can be achieved through reaching ever greater heights of human
potential.
In the second tier we become less personally
identified with the thought and emotions which pass through our
awareness. We see emotions more as things that hold our attention,
rather than as things that identify who we are. This opens up the
doorway to the enjoyment of an unconditionally accepting view of life
and of other people.
With the new, second tier of
consciousness comes freedom from all of the fears of the prior stages,
and, finally, the freedom for human cognition to focus upon its true
possibilities in the world.
Clare Graves identified and
cataloged two of six memes of the second tier. [Memes are the social
equivalent of genes, cultural units of information which self-replicate
from mind to mind on a vast scale, appearing within society as new
trends of thought.]
Meme 7. Responsible freedom.
This
meme is about flexible flow, about adapting to a world full of change.
With it come big-picture views and the discovery of self-accountable,
personal freedom.
[Chapter continued in the book...]
A Meme-Related
Definition of Spirituality
Basic
consciousness is associated with the first tier of six memes. Its
function is to provide learning from the diversity of experience in the
world and to gain definition as an individual. In particular, it
explores duality; the idea that opposites are separate from each other,
rather than facets of an underlying whole.
The duality
of good versus evil, for example, is made possible by a belief in the
existence of an opposite pole to goodness and wholeness. This belief,
or expectation, creates the possibility that evil can exist and
manifest in a world of duality. Evil cannot be conquered via conflict,
as the act of conflict only adds power to the illusion which generates
its existence. It can only be resolved by adopting a consciousness of
unity rather than separation. Then, lasting solutions to the illusion
of duality become possible.
Spiritual consciousness is
associated with the second tier of six memes. With it comes the
developing awareness of the oneness of all life.
Spiritual
consciousness starts with an appreciation that all people are facets of
the one underlying consciousness of the universe. Along with this comes
an understanding that we each have our own unique viewpoint of the
universe. It is through our individual diversity that the whole
consciousness of humanity gains an infinite range of experience of all
facets of life.
As a person becomes more at one with
all of existence, they do not lose any sense of individuality. In all
of Creation, diversity is the rule. Just as each snowflake is unique,
so is each person.
The Mystery Meme
The authors of Spiral Dynamics
have identified the existence of the next, new meme. This ninth meme,
which they call ‘coral,’ has not yet been observed in large quantities
of people, so they have been unable yet to summarize its
characteristics.
Before we examine how to successfully
operate within the New Reality, which begins primarily with meme number
seven, let’s look ahead and examine what discoveries await us within
the mysterious ninth meme.
Second tier memes are
reminiscent of their first tier cousins. The first tier of six memes is
a basic, or physically-oriented, set while the second tier is
creatively or spiritually-oriented. The second tier, being of a higher
frequency band of consciousness than the first tier, will exert
considerably more influence in the world as its activation becomes more
widespread. As the popular use of the second tier of memes only began
in earnest in the mid-1960s, we have yet to see much of its influence
manifest in the world.
Meme number seven (responsible
freedom) is related to its first tier equivalent, meme number one
(basic, personal survival). Meme number seven means having a viewpoint
from a much wider vista of consciousness than meme one. It deals with
flexible flow and with adapting to a world full of change. Meme number
seven is like learning to survive all over again, but this time through
a global viewpoint. It is the starting point, and the orientation
course, for the entire second tier of memes.
[Chapter continued in the book...]
The Nature of the Mystery Meme
The
new meme - number nine - will be like meme number three (courage,
survival of the fittest), only in a higher form of manifestation. Meme
number three’s courage brought about adventure, exploration and mastery
of the physical environment. As the second tier memes all have a
creative or spiritual orientation, this means that the new meme number
nine will bring about adventure, exploration and mastery of the
holistic environment of mind, body and spirit. It will do this while
encompassing a global scale of awareness.
The new, ninth
meme will bring exploration of the spiritually-inspired use of the
power of the mind to transform reality for the better. It will create a
strong demand for spiritual and creative freedom on a global basis.
This far-ranging, inspiring meme has the power, quite simply, to transform the entire world as we know it.
The keywords of the ninth meme will be ‘Powerful creativity.’
This
is not just the type of creativity that uses the imagination to create
new ideas, inventions and works of art. When this meme eventually
unfolds on planet Earth, its higher form of creativity will come
fully-primed with spiritual power - enough power to transform life on
this planet into a whole new level of joy and harmony.
[Chapter continued in the book...]
Maslow Predicted The Shift
Abraham
Maslow (1908-70) was a psychologist who became famous for his hierarchy
of human needs. When he developed his theory in the 1950s, he predicted
the transformation of humanity into a realm of spiritual transcendence,
but he had no idea just how soon this would develop into a major
movement. Little did he know that, in the mid-1960s, the shift towards
transcendence would suddenly take off and never look back.
Maslow’s
hierarchy of human needs shows that basic human needs have to be
fulfilled before people can attend to higher needs and values.
First, the basic physiological needs of food and shelter must be met in order to ensure survival.
Second, once food and shelter are obtained, safety and security must be achieved.
Third,
acceptance by others is sought, in both the social and romantic sense.
To fulfill this ‘belonging’ need, people become part of a group, a
tribe, an extended family or a community.
When these
outer-directed needs are satisfied, then the individual works to
acquire self-respect. Recognition by others produces self-esteem.
[Chapter continued in the book...]
The Cosmic Calendar
Why
should society be rushing headlong into a New Reality of awareness at
this particular point in history? The sudden awakening of holistic,
spiritual thought in the 1960s affected the younger generation of that
era. Those who were impressed and changed by, for example, the Summer
of Love in the year 1967 will be at the peak of their economic and
political influence by the year 2010. They will, by then, be the Elders
of society, the wise ones that younger generations look to for guidance
when things go wrong.
If society is ready to start
moving en masse into The Shift after the year 2010, you have to wonder
what cosmic events might be in synchronicity with such timing. Could
there be some grand, cosmic event about to occur? How about an imminent
event which occurs just once every 26,000 years? Would that pique your
curiosity?
The ancient Mayan civilization existed up
until 830 A.D., when they suddenly disappeared from their cities,
leaving no traces behind as to where they may have moved. Despite an
apparent lack of precision instruments, the astronomical knowledge of
the Mayan culture exceeded today’s level of knowledge in many ways.
They not only knew the precise orbits of the planets in our solar
system, but also the orbits of the stars in our galaxy. They had even
cataloged major cosmic events going back more than 400 million years.
The Mayan calendars are masterpieces which illustrate the repeating
time-spirals of cosmic cycles within cycles within cycles.
The
Mayans spoke of waves of influence which pass through the galaxy; waves
which are so influential that they are capable of triggering the
formation of suns from collections of gases. They also spoke of waves
of galactic influence which have a profound effect upon human history
on planet Earth.
One such critical point is a major
galactic synchronization which is due to occur in the very near future,
on December 21st, 2012. This date marks the end of a 26,000 year cycle
of a style of human experience, as well as the end of a 5,200 year
cycle within that, and also the end of many more sub-cycles, all in
synchronicity with each other.
On December 21st, 2012,
when the Mayan calendar again resets to zero, a new 26,000 year cycle
begins. Now, 26,000-year cycles don’t suddenly change from an old cycle
to a new cycle in the blink of an eye. Such a huge cycle influences a
period of overlap, both before and after the exact date of the change
to a new cycle. The overlap period before the year 2012 would have
included its early influence upon culture in the 1960s, when the
current transformation in consciousness began in earnest.
The
question is, when future generations look back on our current era, will
they see the year 2012 as the pivotal point within The Shift? Could the
year 2012 mark a turning point where the old type of humanity, Homo
sapiens (“knowing man”), shifts into wholeness as the second
tier of consciousness begins to reach popularity? Will the second tier
be seen, in retrospect, as a new phase of human evolution, a kind of
Homo holisticus?
One thing that is certain at this point
is that The Shift is a real phenomenon and, as the Cultural Creatives
and memes studies demonstrate, it is happening today. The Shift is not
a temporary by-product of the baby boom generation, or of any other
generation in modern society. It is not a passing fad and it is not
going away.
The Shift is the result of a cosmic cycle
which is unfolding and, slowly but steadily, increasing the frequency
of all consciousness upon the planet.
The Shift is, to
put it simply, the most wonderful transformation in recorded history.
This is where humanity gets to build, literally, Heaven on Earth.
Excerpts from The Shift
Part I - The Shift Unfolds
Part II - New Discoveries
Part III - What it Means to be Living in the New Reality
Tools 
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I make room in my heart for my whole being. I forgive myself for any 
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