Barbara Marx Hubbard: What is Self and Social Evolution

What is Self Evolution?

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Each of us is a unique part of the living planetary organism which is itself undergoing a shift from one phase of evolution to the next. As the crises on planet Earth deepen, each individual person is affected.

According to Carl Jung, we are undergoing the “continuing incarnation of the Self”. This Self is seen as the essential aspect of our being that is directly animated by Source, by Spirit. It is the localized, individualized aspect of the Process of Creation, the God-force, and the Impulse of Evolution. This Self has been in the past often projected onto gods and ascended beings.

Now, as the human species slowly matures, this Self is incarnating as our own essence, our own incarnation of spirit, our own individual expression of the divine. As this process continues, we integrate this higher or essential self within our body/minds until we become whole beings.

Self-evolution, then, is the process of becoming a cocreator with the impulse of creation itself. The maturation of our species finds its expression in each of us unfolding the divine within.

Eventually, as envisioned and expressed by Sri Aurobindo, we can expect to evolve from the mental phase of understanding to the supramental, which is a state of direct awareness from the consciousness force within us. When this happens, universal intelligence descends so fully into our body/minds that we become direct expressions of the Consciousness that is creating us.

Social Evolution

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We are in “Late Transition” on Planet Earth.

Our evolutionary transition began in 1945 when the United States dropped the first atom bombs on Japan. This was the signal that humans in self-centered consciousness with this degree of power would not long be viable. Of course, power to destroy and create has grown rapidly since them. We have powers we used to attribute to our gods, but we are not always “good” gods. We do not have many years to change our behavior if we wish to avoid a catastrophic collapse of our life support systems, our social systems, and indeed, life itself on Earth.

Social Evolution is a vast field designed to guide ourselves through this “crisis of the birth of a new humanity” such that we can cocreate a future equal to our spiritual, social and scientific potential.

We have a very short time frame. Linear, separate initiatives no matter how powerful will not suffice. Nor can we solve our problems in the same state of consciousness in which we created them, as Einstein told us.

What can we do that can make THE Difference?

It is to follow the guidelines of 14 billion years of transformation from sub atomic particles to us.

Here is what we learn by examining the principles of evolution. When nature hits limits and crises that cannot be resolved by doing more of the same, she innovates and transforms. The key method of transformation is to foster synergy and cooperation.

As evolution biologist Elisabet Sahtouris tells us, when young species are over populating, polluting, and competing, they either learn enlightened self-interest, negotiation, cooperation, and synergy or they become extinct. The same seems to apply to us. The only difference is that we are conscious of our situation, that we can destroy or evolve ourselves. This is a great step forward in evolution.

In order to get through this set of interrelated problems quickly enough, we need to cultivate SOCIAL SYNERGY, the coming together of separate groups, initiatives, and ideas to form a new whole system different from and greater than the sum of our parts.