The Next Step in our Evolution: Becoming a Cell in the

Body of Humanity

 

Bruce Lipton explains why the current crises are a cause of hope instead of fear, and what each of us can do to help birth the new world.

Autumn 2011, cell biologist and celebrated author Bruce Lipton visited the Netherlands for a lecture and workshop organised by Bliz Events.  His lecture was titled "Spontaneous Evolution: Our Choice to Become a New Species" and dr. Lipton's message was as groundbreaking as it was hope-giving.

According to dr. Lipton, the individual human being is NOT the endpoint of our evolution. Just like a human being consists of 50 trillion cells, every human being is a cell in the body of humanity. The next step in the evolution of homo sapiens will be that we realize we are not individual, separated entities, but that we all form part of one giant community, the superorganism called Humanity. The previous evolution was 50 trillion cells coming together to form the human body; our current evolution is 7 billion humans coming together to form humankind!

All over the world organizations come into existence that have this awareness of our interconnectedness as their core philosophy. With this awareness as their starting point, they work with great diligence towards the goals of social and economic justice, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue.

What unites these organizations is not only a beautiful vision for a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable future, but also a sense of urgency. The people joining these organizations all have a gut feeling that civilization as we know it is about to come to an end.

And according to dr. Lipton, they are right.

The world as we know it is falling apart. Science is now recognizing that we are facing the 6th mass extinction on the planet! We are losing species faster than ever. In about 30 years we will have depleted our oceans of fish, the sea levels will rise to critical heights and toxic bacteria will grow exponentially, polluting our oceans even further.

But unlike the other mass extinction, that were caused by forces of Nature like asteroids and comets, the current mass extinction is caused by human behavior. When individual cells in our body fight each other, we develop an auto-immune disease. Applying this analogy to the body of Humanity, we have to conclude that Humanity is experiencing a very bad case of auto-immune disease!

Humans have been acting self-destructively for too long, and now Nature gives us a wake up-call. The good news however is that according to dr. Lipton, we're right on schedule for evolutionary change. The evolutionary changes that are happening now are leading to a breakdown of the borders between the cells of humanity, a breakdown of the old paradigm of separation.

One of the most striking changes of the last few decades is the emergence of the internet. Dr. Lipton sees the internet as a unifying force that allows all the cells of Humanity to be connected. Thanks to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter humans around the world form coalitions to work towards the goal of social and economic reform (as in the case of the Occupy-movement) and to raise the collective consciousness by means of globally coordinated meditations (as in the case of the Flashmob Meditation-movement).

These new movements are expressions of a new consciousness that is dawning. And none too soon. Because to survive the threats we are now facing, we need to take heed of Einstein's advice: "You cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it". We need a new way of thinking, a new paradigm, if we want to make it through the 21st century.

What kind of thinking created the dire situation we are in? What do the environmental, financial and humanitarian crises have in common? According to dr. Lipton it's our unsustainable way of living. Our way of living is based on a belief system of fear, on seeing ourselves (and our nations) as separated from the rest of the world, on perceiving the world as a dog-eat-dog place where only the most powerful can thrive. A world where you have to take from others before they take from you. But Nature does not support this atomized worldview and emphasis on the survival of the fittest. Recent studies, eloquently presented in Lynne McTaggarts latest book The Bond, reveal that our Darwinian worldview is incorrect: Nature actually rewards cooperation and community rather than war and egocentricity.

What we see in our world today is that the governmental, economic and religious institutions that are built with the building blocks of this unsustainable lifestyle are under attack and come tumbling down. This evokes a lot of fear, but according to dr. Lipton we should be rejoicing! The beliefs propagated by these institutions have brought us to the edge of extinction and in order to survive, we need to change our way of living. We cannot change our way of living if all the institutions that maintain our unsustainable lifestyle stay intact. So rather than living in fear, we should be living in excitement and optimism. And most importantly, we should take an active part in this evolution, because this new stage in the evolution of our species depends on us taking our rightful place and responsibility as cells in the body of Humanity.

To do so requires that we reconnect with our family and friends, create our own community (we will need the support of our communities in the times to come when the old structures will come falling down!) and invest in sustainable ways of living (biological food, sustainable energy and intercultural dialogue). We should let go of the old story of competition and invest in the new story of cooperation. But in order to create a world that honors our interconnectedness and celebrates our diversity, we first and foremost have to tear down the walls of separation and fear in our own minds and replace the weeds of fear with seeds of love. There is a wide array of methods to do so, ranging from positive affirmations to mindful action, but the old Cherokee legend dr. Lipton ended his lecture with, really says it all:

The Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."

Further reading: