This is a wide-ranging inquiry into collective consciousness and cultural healing. These are among the core themes of this report:
• Collective crises and collective consciousness. The condition of the world reflects the condition of our collective consciousness. Collective or group consciousness (also sometimes called the empathic field or collective knowing) provides a common context from which we can collectively recognize—and begin to heal—the psychic wounds that divide humanity (such as racial and gender oppression and
injustice). Perhaps the most basic challenge that we face is to awaken our capacity for collective knowing and conscious action so that we can respond successfully to the immense social and ecological difficulties that confront us.
• Science and collective consciousness. The view of reality emerging from the frontiers of science seems congruent with the possibility of a functioning collective consciousness. The new cosmology in physics views our vast cosmos as an “unbroken wholeness in flowing movement.” Consciousness or an observing capacity seems a natural part of this new view of the universe.
• Collective consciousness in everyday life. A functioning collective consciousness is recognizable in many settings—in relationships, classrooms, groups and organizations, communities, nations, and, increasingly, in the overall human family. Although subtle and easy to overlook, collective consciousness is a pervasive and powerful force in our everyday lives.
• The evolutionary inflection and species awakening. Humanity is on a collision course withnature and will soon hit an evolutionary wall, probably within the next few decades. This does not have to be a crash. Instead, the human family could mobilize itself for an evolutionary bounce by releasing humanity’s collective energy for the common work of building a positive and nurturing future.
• Enabling qualities of consciousness. The evolution of consciousness is highly empowering for both individuals and civilizations. Perhaps the most important enabling quality of an empathic field is that it may allow people to recognize intuitively how to live in harmony with others and the world.
• The communications revolution. Within 10 to 20 years, the human family will have in place the communications infrastructure that could support a quantum increase in the collective intelligence—and the collective consciousness—of the species. The communications revolution is perhaps the most powerful force for enabling the awakening of collective consciousness at a planetary scale.
• The mass media and the madness of materialism. Civilizations can “go crazy.” Television’s flood