Charol Messenger
July 9, 2012 – THE FUTURIST, World Future Society – Rick Docksai, associate editor:
People today don’t just have more technology than their ancestors; they actually have more intelligence and a heightened sense of right and wrong. Just ask the neuroscientists who have documented an increase of more than 10 points in the average adult’s cognition since the 1980s; as well as the Flynn Effect, a rise in global IQ scores since the 1940s. They’re not entirely sure why these mental advancements are occurring, but they vouch that our brains are fundamentally higher-functioning than those of any generation that preceded us.
As for our ethics, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker and Tulane University political scientist Christopher Fettweis both authored books in which they note declines in warfare and violence worldwide over the last century, and reasons to believe that the world will become steadily more peaceful in decades ahead. You can see THE FUTURIST’s reviews of both books—Pinkers’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined; and Fettweis’ Dangerous Times?: The International Politics of Great Power Peace—here and here, respectively.
Recently, FUTURIST associate editor Rick Docksai spoke with another voice of hope for progress, the futurist and spiritual author Charol Messenger. In her latest book, Humanity 2.0: The Transcension, Messenger describes a new evolutionary stage for the human species that she says is now under way: Communication networks are flourishing, cultural barriers are breaking down, and individuals everywhere are attaining new levels of empathy, insight, and awareness. She shared her thoughts with Docksai in this interview.
THE FUTURIST: You speak of an “evolution” that the human race has always been undergoing. This evolution is making a major “leap forward” this century. As you describe, it’s a mental, spiritual, and physical evolution. How does the physical evolution manifest itself?
Charol Messenger: Humanity’s physical evolution is the awakening of existing genetic strands. This exhibits itself in an increased ability to perceive complexities, and a sharper aptitude for intuitive reasoning. These characteristics result in a faster ability of mental processing. Some indicators are higher creativity, more sensitive intuitively, and a clearer comprehension of subtleties.
Examples of this are the people whose grasp of the finer realities is heightened; as in scientists who extrapolate scenarios based on conjecture rather than known results, and scientists whose ability to conceptualize new eventualities far reaches beyond previous thinking.
THE FUTURIST: IQ scores have been rising worldwide over the last century, according to researchers, who call it the Flynn Effect. To what degree might this be a sign of human evolution?
Messenger: The universal effect of a physical evolution in the human being is most evident in the capacity of the “faster brain.” We are in flux. We are not who we were. And we will continue to accelerate by every new generation. The long-range effect of this is an increasing ability to see the whole. We gradually begin to understand how “all are one.”
THE FUTURIST: Some would say that the social media revolution is a human consciousness shift—people all over the world can interact, exchange ideas, and be connected like never before possible. What role might Facebook, Twitter, and the like play in our evolution?
Messenger: The new technologies are one means by which all humanity begins to reach across the great gulfs between people and join common causes. The greatest benefit of this is community. We begin to draw together, to really feel how all peoples are parts of some greater whole.
There are complications. Not everyone is thoughtful. But the true shift in global consciousness is like a tsunami, and it is rolling through societies like a flood wave. It will continue and cannot be stopped.
THE FUTURIST: On p. 167, you describe a cultural values shift taking place in the Middle East, and it includes growing affirmation of children’s welfare and respect for women. What examples can we see of this?
Messenger: The world is still filled with unconscionable acts toward women and children. What is new is an increasing demand for justice. Women and children themselves are speaking out and leading this new soft revolution globally. The new movement to safeguard children and women has breath now, and it will only grow—in much the same way as a wildfire rages across a land by only a small breath upon it.
THE FUTURIST: You describe an “energetic resonance,” an energy field of Earth that has been accelerating in recent decades and positively affecting human evolution. This makes me think of the Global Coherence Initiative, in which engineers created a Global Coherence Monitoring System to track fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field and ionosphere. The system found that not only do the magnetic fields change right before certain natural disasters, but that people’s moods, heart rates, and thought processes change along with them. And, according to the Web site: ‘There is also evidence of a global effect when large numbers of people create similar outgoing waves.’ Perhaps it’s charting the same energy field that you are writing about. To what extent is Earth’s energetic resonance measurable? And to what extent can we interact with it?
Messenger: Basically, all of the topics discussed here are interrelated, not distinguishable. Already you can see the incredible effects of a faster brain, the most tangible evidence of an evolving human being. Secondly, as the human mind is expanding in its cognitive abilities—evident in increasing empathy—the planet is dynamically altering in its magnetic frequency.
The rate of one’s vibratory resonance or frequency is the primary indicator of the level of intuition (there are levels, or degrees) and the level of dimensional existence. The more resonant you are to higher thought (fast mind), the more you are able to embody empathy and to exacerbate intelligent intervention in solving the world’s problems. Bottom line, the Resonance Factor affects all living things.
THE FUTURIST: You write that a new spiritual consciousness is unfolding across the Earth. What is the future of the world’s religious traditions and creeds?
Messenger: The human race takes millennia to evolve. This includes changes in cultural practices. Structure was needed for survival. One form this took was organizations in all forms. Most people turned their lives over to people who did seem to have a more substantial comprehension of the great puzzle called life.
However, now all of that is shifting. For this century, religions and dogma continue. Yet the number of people awakening to a personal connection to the inner divinity is the main observable event. The new spirituality is without structure. It is in the self.
Religions, dogmas, creeds will disintegrate, in time, for the greater whole. The new spirituality is personal. It may be sharing. There may be groups. But there is no dogma. No one dictates required behaviors. The awakened self learns that the grace of personal humility is all the guidance one needs.
The new spirituality is individuals discovering that the true value of our lives is in how we open our hearts, how we treat each other, and how we are without judgment. As we, as a people, learn these qualities, that is the degree of our spiritual evolution.
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Copyright 2012 by Charol Messenger and THE FUTURIST. www.charolmessenger.com
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